Alright, I have like 10 pages to catch up on and I haven't read it all, but wanted to give me reaction before the night got away from me.
Quick hits on things I'm sure have been talked about.
- Obviously, that was epic and awesome.
- Obviously, the episode lacked some of the... I don't know, ELEVATION of those more like The Believer. It was our badass heroes doing badass hero things and they never felt like they were in real peril, but that's okay.
- Gutsy, man. Gutsy. Packing up and sending off Grogu was gutsy.
- The CG on Luke was not good. I get that it doesn't REALLY matter. But it's fair to point out. To this point, I actually would like studies done. I think the way CG like this is done might literally be viewed differently by different people. My wife, for example, said "Wow they got someone that looked just like Mark" and I said "That's obviously just CGI." Rogue One was the same way that leads me to believe that people might not be seeing the same things.
- I'm pretty sure Sabine just gave Bo the Darksaber last time. But I'm sure there are narrative things that could work that out.
So, on to what I really want to say.
First, I realize I'm in the minority on this, but I wish they would just recast actors in these scenarios. It's impossible there's not an actor out there that looks EXACTLY like Mark Hamill, or at least close enough to get there with makeup and some digital tweaks. Same was true of Tarkin. Same was true of Leia in TROS. The role is bigger than the actor. Though I fully get that this was obviously recompense to fans and Mark in some ways.
Second and more importantly, I think including Luke was EXTREMELY important and I'm glad they had the balls to do it. It's important because it legitimizes this show and all of the other Disney+ series.
Remember having discussions about whether Agents of SHIELD or the Netflix Marvel series were canon or not? Sure they mentioned The Incident or the "green guy" or name dropped characters or places. Sif showed up, and Nick Fury had an extended cameo. But you always knew in those series that Tony Stark was never going to walk through the door.
In Mando's storyline for the last two seasons, the ONLY ending that made any sense was for Luke to show up for Grogu. If this is THE Star Wars of the films, and Luke is out there (which we knew he was), to have Cal Kestis or Ezra Bridger show up, or even have "the" Jedi be Ahsoka, would have been a huge dodge.
That was my biggest takeaway. We love this show, and I think many of us consider it to be on the Star Wars Mount Rushmore, but now it's crystal clear that this is just as fully Star Wars as watching one of the films.
Really, really great. I can't wait to see what happens when this creative team gets handed a feature film budget, which obviously is going to happen down the road. The sky's (star's?) the limit.
