"Occasionally"!? His interrogation of Poggle in 'Brain Invaders'? Murdering Merrik in 'Voyage of temptation'? The entire Mortis arc? The Citadel arc? The Zygerrian arc? How he handled Kenobi's "death", and was tested by Dooku in the 'Deception' arc? How he struggled when Ahsoka was taken by Trando game hunters? Hell, how just barely stopped himself for forcing he way into seeing Ahsoka in prison? Literally everything involving Clovis? Murdering Trench on Anaxes? Those are just off the top of my head. But sure, it was an "occasional" struggle.
It didn't feel like a struggle. It was just Anakin being Anakin. It clearly means more to you but none of that every stood out to me besides the Mortis arc, and Kenobi's death. Sorry. Some things don't resonate with me. Anakin is one of them. Seeing him come back would not surprise me, but it doesn't interest me either. He's not an interesting character. He's a Greek tragic hero with no hope of escaping his fate.
The struggle is clear in that he wanted to do the right thing, that several times he managed to hold back his impulses, and sometimes he didn't. With the pattern being having gradually less restraint and more anger as the show progressed. This is what's know as a "character arc". Also keep in mind that everything here took place AFTER he murdered every last man woman and child in a village in a fit of rage. Anakin is a pot of water that's always on the verge of boiling over, even if he appears calm on the surface. That's not inconsistency, it's a character trait. The bottom line here is that it's not a failing of the show if you weren't paying attention to character beats and cues. They were there, whether they resonated with you personally or not.
Ray Stevenson has joined the cast in an unknown role. As the article points out, he played Gar Saxon on Clone Wars and Rebels. https://whatsondisneyplus.com/ray-stevenson-to-star-in-star-wars-ahsoka-disney-series/
The article about Ray Stevenson also confirmed that Thrawn will be the central villain of the series, and that Stevenson is playing an admiral, but not Thrawn. It's nice to finally get confirmation that Thrawn will be the big bad, it was always everyone's guess after The Mandolorian, but it's nice to finally know for sure.
I hadn't expect to see Gar Saxon again if that's true. Either way, more Ray Stevenson is always a plus.
I wonder if Fenn Rau will make an appearance. If so, I hope Stevenson's playing a new character, because I'd love to see him and Kevin McKidd on screen together again.
A Gar Saxon appearance isn't impossible as they could opt to do a flashback scene or two, maybe recreating part of the siege. If for no other reason than to give the people that haven't been following the animated shows some context as to who Ahsoka actually is (they still haven't even been explicitly told she was Anakin's apprentice.) And between Sabine's involvement and that Mandalore is one of the main common threads of these three shows (though I think 'Book of Boba Fett' aptly proved that these aren't individual shows, but an extended anthology series where sometimes the title and theme song is different.) I think it's well within the realms of possibility. Pie in the sky hope: a live action recreation of at least part of the siege of Mandalore, including at least a glimpse of the Maul fight. I mean they already have the choreography worked out, and they've even already used the same stunt performer that doubled Ahsoka on the mo-cap stage, so it's just matter of getting her and Park into make-up & consume this time! Hell, now the Stevenson is booked, the major character they don't have an actor on-hand for is Ursa Wren. (That we know of.) I mean seriously, they already have Ahsoka (though in this case I'd rather see a body double + Ashley's voice) Sackoff & Morrison are easy gets, plus even Ewan and Hayden are back so it's not impossible to deepfake/de-age them back to their 2003 selves for a scene or two. Hell, if we really want to be crazy, why not get the complete live action version of this scene? It's only a question on how much they want to spend getting Sam Jackson to come down and have dots painted on his face (bonus points as they already have the digital assets for mid 90's Sam from Captain Marvel to use as a base), and if Frank Oz is willing to record a few lines of Yoda dialogue. Alternatively I guess he could just be playing Saxon's son who he'd dumped at an Imperial Academy, and who would understandably have a grudge against Sabine (and be none too fond of Ahsoka, either.)
It says he's expected to be. They're just speculating. But it makes sense based off what we learned about her mission in Mando Season 2. What if he's playing Pellaeon? He was name dropped in Rebels and appeared in one of the new Thrawn novels.
Assuming that it's accurate, Pellaeon would be the obvious bet for an Imperial Admiral that isn't Thrawn. I mean we know he was at the Lothal blockade, so it stands to reason he ended up in the same place Thrawn & Ezra were dumped by the space whalesquids, and a field promotion to Admiral seems perfectly plausible, especially after close to a decade.
Who want to lay odds that Dave intentionally framed that shot knowing full well a certain section of the fandom will spend an inordinate amount of time and energy trying to decipher what's on those out of focus monitors? Honestly I'm still mostly just curious as to what the focus of the show will be. Despite the most pervasive assumptions, somehow I don't think the search for Ezra will be the main thrust of this. After all that only matters to people that have watched Rebels, and the purpose of this show can't just be tying up loose ends for another story. This is the first chance most people are going to get to actually get to know Ahsoka outside of her two enigmatic appearances thus far, so I feel like the focus is going to be her, specifically. That likely means giving the fresh audience members some context, so what about Ahsoka would we suppose is essential to understanding who she is at this time, and in this setting? The Clone Wars? Fulcrum? Malachor? Mortis? What's the best jumping off point? I guess it depends of the tone Dave is going for, but my gut says it'll probably open with a recreation of the shot/sketch of Plo discovering her as an infant, if not the whole Latrans story in it's entirety.
Pretty sure Ahsoka's episode in Season 2 was meant to be a set up for this series. They wouldn't just have her name drop Thrawn and not follow up on it.
I expect you're right about the search for Ezra not being the main thrust. That said, I'm willing to bet that if they have a long-term plan for the show, that they'll do a slow build-up towards who Ezra is/was and why it's so important to search for him. Something that would play out as a secondary or even tertiary storyline while maintaining the primary focus of the show on Ahsoka's story. On the other hand, you don't also feature Sabine in the series and not immediately address Ezra. As well as the name drop of Thrawn in her first appearance of The Mandalorian.
Yeah, I find it hard to believe that stuff won't be addressed, but I can see where there would have to be enough other stuff to hold the interest of people who haven't seen Rebels.