Duncan Idaho said:

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PatAg said:

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In what world is that a highlight? It's a ****ing throwaway line

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No kidding I figured the highlight to the not muckraker level of watcher would have been the speeder bikes

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I like the analogy someone made about this being Star Wars A team. That's all I want and I am not expecting breaking bad plot development.

Those saying the show needs to move things along are nuts. If anything, it needs to slow down a bit. They only have 8 episodes a season so are blitzing through a lot.

They're doing a great The Fugitive thing here with their "mission of the week" while advancing a LOT of different storylines.

1. Baby Yoda, and getting him home and discovering his origins
2. Moff Gideon, which is related to #1 but has a LOT going on (darksaber, dark troopers, cloning and harnessing Force abilities)
3. Mando's origins and what's going on with his people (enclaves, foundlings, and now the realization that they are a splinter group)
4. Bo Katan and her bid to retake Mandalore, new this season
5. The NR and specifically its increasing interest in Mando, new this season
6. Boba Fett, new this season

This season is pacing similarly to last season and I expect we'll see more change in Mando as he gets exposed more to the other Mandalorians and the history of Deathwatch. If they want to jump into that, it's something Ahsoka could fill in next week.

Yeah, I have no issues with the pace.

KCup17 said:

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Great episode.

I hope after a certain point in this series they move away from the big bad guy being the Empire. I feel like that dynamic has been so played out from the OT, to the Rebels series, to even the First Order in the ST. Other than that I really love the show.

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The Empire and it's successors are the embodiment of the Sith. The Sith is really the only true villain in the Star Wars Universe. At the Battle of Jakku which ended the Galactic Civil War, a peace treaty was signed and essentially the remnants of the Empire were forced into the outer realms of the galaxy. There won't really be another villain to fight against outside of crime syndicates but that would also get old as the main big bad. What's interesting here is the idea of potentially having a new weapon, something different than a Death Star. It seems to be leading to some sort of "super soldier" type weapon. Like the Dark Troopers from the old EU canon of the 90's which has been mentioned. I'm excited to see where this leads.

Ol_Ag_02 said:

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Not a Star Wars fan boy. But I like good writing / acting, and science fiction in general. But starting to feel like this season is just focusing on Easter eggs and references to stuff that the non fan boys just aren't picking up and leaving the important stuff behind (quality writing and acting).

Blue guy is a train wreck. Carl Weathers acting seemed on par with his Billy Madison efforts this last episode.

Need to move the story along. It's hard to star interested in the monster of the week episodes if you don't care about Easter eggs and call backs to animated Star Wars characters.

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I have to disagree here. I think part of the fun is learning more about the Star Wars Universe that I didn't know about previously. I had a huge "fan boy" roommate at A&M and he would fill me in on the old canon EU stuff. Now I'm putting things I remember together with the new canon and it's exciting. Also I think the writing and acting has been fine, but I'm no expert on that front. I'm taking it on it's surface as a Star Wars story. So far it's been fun and exciting. My 9 year old self is loving this.

Ol_Ag_02 said:

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PatAg said:

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To address the "fanboy shoutouts", if you weren't reading this thread you wouldn't know they were happening.

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It's starting to feel like they're sacrificing plot and character development to shoehorn in Easter eggs. Hell. I don't even know what the big deal is about the railing.

Get back to what made most of season one fantastic. Or just start putting a disclaimer on the title page that says, "If you've never waited in line for a Star Wars movie or dressed up in character, the Mandalorian may not be your thing."

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Been thinking about why this comment bugged me a little and think I've hit on it. What you're describing aren't Easter eggs. To have a show about a Mandalorian, digging into the lore is part of it. You can't explore that character in this era and not get into Mandalore's complex history. It's half the point.

There's been some fanservice for sure. Chapter 9 in particular had a lot. But mostly they've been content to leave the Easter eggs in the background for people to enjoy or not depending how steeped they are in the lore.

I think what makes Mandalorian great for me is watching it with my kids.
They are about the same age I was when I saw Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi.

The kids really like it and love Baby Yoda.

Duncan Idaho said:

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it was meant with respect.

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I took it as such. I didn't expect someone named Duncan Idaho to be leveling some sort of nerd comment at me

People wanting the pace to pick up seem to want all of the answers in the Star Wars universe as fast as possible.

It's freaking Disney guys. For every answer there will be 3 more questions, 5 more loopholes, and 10 more cartoons to hash it out. They are going to be making insane money off this franchise forever. You're going to be lucky if you're ever more than halfway fulfilled because they are always going to leave you thinking what if or what happens next or what happened before it or what else was going on at the same time.

For me, at least, that's not at all it. It has nothing to do with wanting "answers," or need to know where Baby Yoda is from, or whatever. Is that stuff interesting? Absolutely. But it's not what I'm here for. I would be totally fine with four filler/monster-of-the-week episodes in a row as long as they included one thing...

CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT

But they hardly ever do. In other words, Mando seems to have no other wants/desires beyond delivering Baby Yoda to a person/location. That's basically all he is: a manifestation of a pursuit of a singular, video game-like goal. He has no blatant flaws in need of changing. Nor does he have an ideal he's championing to try and change the world around him. To the former, the show seemingly has no interest in challenging who he is as a person. It puts physical, external obstacles in his way, sure, but any film or series worth its salt needs to also challenge its main character internally. And if not, to the latter, it needs to be using its main character to challenge the ideals of the world he inhabits. Either way, the main character - or the world he's in - needs to be in a state of metamorphosis. Every great, effective story centers around one of the two. Every. Single. One. And to either end, character and plot should be weaved together effortlessly. In fact, with the best movies or shows, plot is nothing more than the external manifestation of the primary character's internal arc.

But here, when it's ALL plot and no character, and the plot isn't advancing more rapidly than it is now, the filler REALLY stands out. In other words, when they're not using the filler episodes to challenge Mando's internal character in various ways, it can feel like molasses to some of us. And before the rest of you say, "Lol, why are you expecting Shakespeare? This is DISNEY!," Pixar is the MASTER at what I'm describing above, with the scripts for Toy Story, Finding Nemo, and others used as prime examples as some of the best in the business at executing character arcs to perfection. This isn't a lot to ask. It's literally screenwriting 101.

That's why, like I said earlier, episode 11 had me so excited when Bo-Katan challenged Mando's extremism, called his sect of Mandalorians "zealots," etc. Yes, that episode felt like Star Wars more than any other so far, but it was *also* the first to truly examine Mando's character - and hint at an actual character arc - and THAT'S what excited me more than anything. Now I'm just hoping they follow up on that in satisfying fashion. A lone wolf bounty hunter who goes from never-takes-his-helmet-off zealot to, say, a no-mask-wearing hero/father figure, who finally has a creed of his own, born out of experience rather than ancient teachings, is a GREAT character arc. And I want to see that poked, prodded, and developed every which way they can. Especially when, for instance, we're on on some random ice planet that advances the plot maybe two percent over a 40-minute runtime. I mean, that episode specifically featured a character in Frog Lady willing to do whatever it took to save her spawn. The opportunity was *right there* to essentially hold a mirror up to Mando and challenge HIS willingness to do whatever it took to save HIS "baby." Or better yet, question himself and the fact that he's risking his life to save this thing that isn't even his own flesh and blood. But then, of course, by episode's end, he comes out of it with more resolve than ever to do the right thing. Just ANYTHING that would chip away at and examine his personal, internal struggle, rather than physical obstacle after physical obstacle that ultimately *only* serve to prove, time after time after time, how "badass" Mondo is and nothing more.

Overall, I'm not saying they haven't hinted at some of the more internal character stuff from time to time, I just wish it was all more prominent and interweaved into the filler episodes, especially, along with the overarching plot.

Maybe some of us hope he stays true to his upbringing and keeps the helmet on. Though the fact that he is a foundling might away him either way.

I think you have to factor Mandos background here though. You are starting with a "zealot" who has lived for a singular purpose. Thus, the character development journey may be a little more slow going than with a normal character.

There is no way they don't move down the path you are advocating though. When we get to the end of this, Mando is not going to willingly give BY away unless he knows for certain it's in BYs best interest.

I also wonder if we are ignoring the physical cues with Mando because we can't see his face. There are a lot of little things he does that shows his personality and progression from a lethal bounty hunter/mercenary to basically a surrogate dad. Ex: he's reaching behind him cleaning up BY vomit while trying to fly RazorCrest.

They also showed him drinking something in last episode. That is the first time in the series we've seen him consume food/drink. Minor scene but it shows progression of Mando towards humanity and away from his robotic, singular purpose existence.

Good post, I think his attitude towards the Child is definitely the biggest indicator of how his character is evolving.

I get some of the other complaints, but at its heart this show is an episodic Western and it's staying pretty true to that format. And while some of the events do seem a bit coincidental in how we arrive at the right place or discover just the right bit of info, welcome to Star Wars

her voice. Filoni tweeted this

Did you have to turn this in for a grade???

TCTTS vs post editing is the best rivalry on this website.

The voice of Sabine makes a pretty fine Sabine.

gougler08 said:

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Are we sure Sabine is in the show yet? I thought the actress rumored to play her was one of the other Mandalorians in chapter 11?

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Nobody has the faintest idea.

What's super exciting to me is that we do know that Michael Biehn was cast as a bounty hunter in this season and we haven't seen one second of him yet.

Holy ****, are you serious?

After watching Tombstone a few weeks ago I had a long text thread with a friend about the tragic lack of quality Michael Biehn related roles. The guy had a great run of Terminator, Tombstone, Navy Seals, Abyss, Aliens? And then basically disappeared.

He was team leader of the SEAL team that got whacked in The Rock?

"Stand fast!"