that line about warlords wasn't an accident...nobody should have that many tie fighters...except the guy who left the core worlds in a star destroyer decades ago

the entire strategy of that scene was very thrawnlike, too

get them chasing you by bombing their castle, sacrifice one pawn while hiding an entire wing in the clouds that flies right into their path

Din’s ship was left unsupervised on bo’s landing pad, i bet they put a tracker on it and let them lead them to the rest of the mandolorians. Moff gideon and thrawn could be pooling together resources.

There's almost no shot that we get a "Hippie Commune Party" episode next week where Bo becomes one with the Covert, it feels like we might start off that direction, then be ripped back into action with some kind of attack on the Covert, or on Navarro and Mando being alerted to the issue. Maybe both, maybe the Imperial forces were able to put a tracker on Din's ship while they were away on Mandalore, and the attack was a ruse to get them to expose the Covert. Now Thrawn attacks the last bastion of mandalorians as foreshadowed earlier in the season by the Liopleurodon thingy attacking the Covert, symbolizing there is no place else in the world that they are safer, than back on Mandalore.

Then, perhaps in an effort to protect Grogu, Din seeks out Ahsoka to protect Grogu while the Mandalorians reclaim their home from the wastelanders. Ahsoka is visited by Ezra while babysitting Grogu, the three of them have a pizza party while Ezra explains where he's been and that Thrawn has returned, and needs Ahsoka to send a message to Sabine for him. Sabine, on or off screen, learns about Ezra's return, but also that the Mandalorians have returned to their home on Mandalore

I also wonder if perhaps that plotting earlier in the season about Navarro and the pirates was a red herring, and it is in fact Thrawn attacking the town in the trailers. Perhaps its both, perhaps Thrawn recruits the help of the Pirates to attack them, or perhaps its them who tip Thrawn off to their whereabouts.

Thrawn is probably going to end up being the Disney+ Star Wars version of Thanos where all the shows tie back to him or someone working for him and then we inevitably get the team up series to take him down.

Pershing was killed because his research of clones was going to lead him to something that Thrawn didn’t want to be discovered. The reason for this is that Thrawn has already discovered how to clone force sensitives as he has a successful clone of a Jedi turned evil working with him.

This leads me to believe that C’Baoth’s role will be fulfilled by a dark side Ezra later revealed to be a clone but not before having an emotional and violent encounter Ahsoka, Sabine, and Hera.

The Imperial Remnants want/are using Mandalore as a staging ground.

Through the show we hear everyone refer to Mandalore as a "wasteland" or "cursed" implying few, if any, people frequent the planet. In s2e2 we hear Din say immediately after entering the atmosphere that "the fusion bombs disrupted the magnetic field around the planet" and that they were essentially "cut off from the rest of the galaxy." And finally, in s2e3 dozens of Imp fighters seemingly appear out of nowhere, heavily implying either a local base or destroyer in the area.

All this sets Mandalore up as a perfect secret/concealed base for the Imps. Also, having the Imps on Mandalor would be an easy way to push the plot forward, and ensure a reason to bust out the Mythosaur....

From the Mandalorian season 2 we learned that Asoka is searching for Thrawn but we also learned that Thrawn was working with people who strip mined planets to build warships. Recent Star Wars shows like the Mandalorian and the bad batch have showcased a lot of plot threads with cloning lately.

When both points of information are taken together it could point to a future plot where Thrawn is amassing a massive fleet and staffing it with clones. If this is the case it points to something similar to dark force rising.