Can anyone spoil me on this Grand Admiral Thrawn bloke and why he is a big deal? I never did get far watching The Clone Wars show because it went on for longer than I expected.
So quick history lesson: in the early to mid 90's Lucasfilm authorised the first few Star Wars novels and about 3 came out in about a year, Peace at Bactra about an invasion from outside the Galazy, one about Han and Leia and Heir To The Empire. This was the first novel in what has become known as the Thrawn trilogy. The trilogy is brilliant the setting is so plausible it's written before the prequels were made so Luke and any other Jedi (not many) are more original trilogy power levels not the ubermen we now have. Luke is really well dealt with actually.
Thrawn is a Grand Admiral who survived the collapse and took over the Empire he is a super rational leader barely any emotion if something is going badly he cuts his losses. He has a strategy that runs from book 1 to book 3 as well as mini campaigns that support it. He has no powers only intellect, apart from maybe an uncanny ability to study a species art and understand their psychlogy. He is without a doubt the most compelling villain in Star Wars after Vader and the Emperor. His Empire doesn't comically lose every week like in the Clone Wars TV show.
He was brought into canon in the Rebels TV show (set about 5 years before A New Hope) and is a not bad version of Zahn's character.
If you have the time buy some secondhand copies of Zahn's trilogy as paperbacks and read them. Then watch everything produced after the original trilogy and try not cry. The story is probably too long to make a trilogy of films but the quality of storytelling and the World that is built is the one we deserved not the one we got. The Disney trilogy villains are joke and Thrawn sets a standard that they fall laughably far beneath.