The Mandalorian

Thought we had a thread for this, but couldn't find it.

Anyway, the first episode of The Mandalorian came out on Disney+ on Tuesday, and damn is it good. I was originally mildly annoyed that this was about some random Mandalorian rather than Boba, but this is better. One of Boba's problems as a character is that he has basically no connection to actual Mandalorian culture, so he's basically just some bounty hunter with cool armor. Nice look at Mandalorian culture, with Show, Don't Tell references to both their all-important armor and their habit of adopting outsiders.

And that cliffhanger... I thought that was the one thing that no one was ever allowed to touch. I mean, I know George isn't in charge any more, but hot damn, I still didn't think we'd get something about it.

I liked it a lot! I've seen a lot of people mention issues with pacing, or not really feeling like much happened. Which is fair. But I've enjoyed what we got so far. Some looks at actual Mandalorian culture. An actually competent bounty hunter. An intriguing central plot. And my new favorite Star Wars Character. I too, react to every minor inconvenience by initiating self-destruct sequences.

As for that ending... So much for Last of Their Kind I guess. Although there's no guarantee they're surviving the series. I'm really curious who hired the IG-11 though, since it seemed to have a very explicit Kill Contract, as opposed to the Mandalorian's Alive if possible, dead if necessary. And what do the empire remnants want with it? Raise it into a new sith? It would take decades for it to be of an appropriate age, if the current age of fifty is any indicator.

Personally I'm thinking it has something to do with Episode 9, though since it's unlikely the series will be finished before the movie comes out, who knows.

Either way, saw Episode 2. Jawas are significantly more dickish now, I see, and what the heck is everyone else's interest in the baby? Those bandits tried to kill it on sight, the Jawas wanted to trade for it...

But, seeing it use the Force to stop that reek (or whatever it was) was awesome.

It's a extremely rare race (before this series, we'd only ever seen one of them) and just revealed it can use the force.

My guess is it has something to do with that.

Are you guys just being coy or is the baby not actually Yoda? I haven't watched the show for myself yet since I'm waiting for a few things to finish airing before doing the free trial but I'm curious.

Edited by Chariot on Nov 15th 2019 at 1:04:21 PM

The Mandalorian is set five years before Return of the Jedi, don't forget.

The baby ain't Yoda, but a member of Yoda's species. The existence of other members of Yoda's species isn't a bombshell. Take a close look at the Jedi council in the Phantom Menace and you'll see something interesting. But the twist is that maybe we'll actually find out literally anything about the species.

Edited by Zendervai on Nov 15th 2019 at 1:20:58 PM

After Return of the Jedi.

But yeah, the baby is just one of Yoda's species.

Edited by theLibrarian on Nov 15th 2019 at 12:40:43 PM

Seven years after Return of the Jedi, to be precise.

Yes, there have been precisely two members of Yoda's species ever (Yoda and Yaddle, a background Muppet with a thick head of brunette hair on the Jedi Council in The Phantom Menace), and now there's a third. And the only things we know of them are that they are long-lived, have exaggerated Proportional Aging (if 900-year-old Yoda is elderly, I'd expect a 50-year-old to be a toddler at least), and all three that we've seen are strong in the Force.

Edited by HeraldAlberich on Nov 15th 2019 at 4:01:20 AM

Well, the baby is capable of walking around on its own. So I'd call that a toddler. The Mandalorian is just keeping it in the hover-crib because it's easier than waiting for it to waddle after him.

And those weren't random bandits, they were more competing bounty hunters—they even had a bounty fob. The question is just who exactly is sending them.

What's the release schedule for this? I was assuming it was weekly, and then episode 2 came out just three days after the first.

IG-11 did say he was on a guild contract. Which....this level of right hand versus left hand is not uncommon of the Bounty Hunters' Guild (at least before Boba aced it in the old EU). Then again, our Mandalorian friend's contract is specifically not a guild bounty.

As far as what the Jawas wanted with it, probably eat it or trade it for something else down the line.

I wouldn't say the Jawas are anymore dickish than usual. Theyve just been shown to be slightly dangerous here as well as their usual opportunistic thieving selves.

Ah, ok. I haven’t actually gotten to watch the second episode yet.

Episodes release on Fridays, except for the first and the seventh—because The Rise of Skywalker comes out December 20th, that week’s episode will drop on Wednesday the 18th instead.

Saw the first two episodes and general impression is being quite underwhelmed, but not in a particularly bad way. As a whole the series has some value, most notably feature quality special effects and costume design, but the locales are so sparsely populated, it runs down a checklist of generic western cliches (quiet-type bounty hunter, Bad Guy Bar, Mexican Standoff with I Like Those Odds) and the main character is such a cipher it's hard to get engaged with what is going on. In these two episodes it runs into an issue with having about 10 minutes of story and padding it out to 35-40 minutes. That wouldn't necessarily be an issue, but if you have a lack of story progression you need to fill it with world building, characterization and general atmosphere, which was sorely lacking due to limitations in setting and alien variety, we spend most of the episodes with the main character walking in a featureless rocky terrain. The glacial pacing actually reminds me of the first season of The Clone Wars, particularly episodes like the Malevolence Arc that spent an entire episode searching a debris field for escape pods.

There is room for improvement and the money obviously being put into it gives it potential. A few moments I liked included the employer having stormtrooper bodyguards with very dingy armor, the vapor farmer was a pretty good character and the Myth Arc surrounding the infant Yoda-species child doesn't offer answers as of yet but does incite some interesting questions.

When the Jawas wanted the egg, I assumed they wanted to either raise or sell one of those alien woolly rhinos.

Then when they instead opted to crack it open and eat it instead, my reaction was "They are totally getting high off that egg aren't they?"

Overall I'm interested. I think it benefits a lot from just being a show about a Mandalorian doing Mandalorian things, and it's relevance to the wider universe is slowly introduced as the show moves on. Like the ST it doesn't really explain the general state of the galaxy beyond what's immediately relevant being depicted onscreen, but unlike the ST I don't feel like it has to.

You take your protein where you can get it on Notooine.

Savages, couldn’t even get a skillet.

So yeah, the show looks beautiful, and has a very intriguing mystery. Even if the core of the story is Space Lone Wolf and Cub, well, Episode IV was Space The Hidden Fortress, so this is getting in tune with its roots.

Edited by Beatman1 on Nov 16th 2019 at 9:25:36 AM

....

Why doesn't this dude have a jet pack?

Bobba had a jet pack. Jango had a jet pack. Freaking Death Watch had jet packs.

This dude is clearly lazy.

Both Jango and Boba were prone to dangerous if hilarious jet pack failure, so maybe this guy’s just smart.

....ok, but the other ones I mentioned were ok.

Hell, Sabine did all right.

Also, if he'd had his jet pack like a proper Mandalorian, he'd have not only caught the Jawa's quicker, but also probably avoided getting shocked by their guns after all the effort to climb to the top.

But I loved that scene! He's epically climbing up the side of the Sandcrawler, avoiding all of the trash they are throwing at him, finally gets on top and...gets tasered by dozens of Jawas. It really shows how ingenious the Jawas are.

I mean, I loved it too, though I mostly saw it coming.

I saw mostly cause I thought he'd get knocked off much sooner and almost thought he'd catch based on how long it went.

That's on me. I admit that.

I also think the reason he doesn't have a jet pack is because he doesn't have a lot of things that Mandalorians have. Most of his armor is piecemeal, with him only getting the beskar for the shoulder armor recently.

That scene is the first time I really wished we could see Los Mandos’ facial expression.

That’s a “well, fuck” moment if I ever saw one.

Edited by KnownUnknown on Nov 16th 2019 at 9:58:43 AM

I get the impression he doesn't have a Jet Pack partly to avert Forgot About His Powers given it's still a TV show where pulling it off convincingly would be more difficult (note the examples given where they're used more often are both _animated_ series). All told I'm glad they went with emulating Boba Fett's Scarf of Asskicking by giving him a full Badass Cape. The cloth element really ties the whole ramshackle warrior aesthetic together.

That said, I agree the show is gorgeous as hell. Lovely cinematography throughout and some surprisingly big setpieces.

I wonder how that situation might have gone if he had beskar. Is it nonconductive?