Mandalorian Season 2 Thread [Open Spoilers]

Cafe Society
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This highlights a problem with reviewing a single episode of an arc. We won’t really know what the important bits are until we have the entire arc.

Edited to add: it’s also good to go back and watch the entire arc again, just to see it with foreknowledge.

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The Mandalorian is channeling Lone Wolf and Cub right now, but I believe it could turn into The Seven Samurai at some point.

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And that point was season 1, episode 4.

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That felt more like a Clint Eastwood Man With No Name western to me.

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Dude. A number of masterless warriors train a small village to defend themselves from a gang of outside raiders. It is very explicitly Seven Samurai.

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Stolen from Homage of the same source.

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So apparently the Tusken Raiders are Native Americans…

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Maybe they’ll establish it’s Boba Fett in the next episode, make us believe he’s going to be integral to the season, and immediately have him get gored by a passing bantha.

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Little late to this, but I have read some of the criticism, especially from @DarthVander and @What_Exit, and I have to ask…have you seen a Western? It’s been repeated over and over that this show is a Space Western, not so much cast from the die of Fistful of Dollars or Magnificent Seven, but more like the TV series Rawhide and The Lone Ranger. Those shows were…really repetitive. Of course that doesn’t mean you have to enjoy it, but it’s completely on brand for the show to have episodes that are highly reminiscent of earlier ones. This is what the show. The Mandalorian is the strong silent type. There’s going to be a lot of this along the way, enjoy the atmosphere, stretch out a bit and soak in the Star Wars galaxy because that’s what it’s for.

Also, I REALLY like that Mando doesn’t take off his helmet. I know this is subversive in an extreme way, almost too ballsy a move for a company like Disney, but damn it’s cool. And I find the characterization that Pedro Pascal gets out of just basic body language is terrific. It’s incredibly interesting to me to watch. I hope he gets over his little diva moment and keeps this up for a good long time, he’s doing something memorable here.

Also, I don’t think I’ve ever read about any of the old canon story about the Krayt Dragon killing the Sarlacc. Gonna have to dig that story up if there is one.

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Next episode is up! It’s a mixed bag of conclusions and steps forward, but is very much a singular adventure.

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It seemed to me that their portrayal in this episode was more like the Fremen of Dune than anything else, right down to the one complaining about the city people “stealing their water”.

Thoughts on today’s episode;

  • I thought we were going to see some character development from Baby Yoda after all the problems he caused, but at the end he goes right back to gulping down the frog-woman’s eggs. The fakeout of him seemingly feeling a kinship with her eggs, then turning out that he just wanted to eat them was well-played.
  • The visual of the spider queen trying to crack open the Razor Crest, just like Baby Yoda had cracked open the egg, was very well-done.
  • I can’t be the only person who was watching Baby Yoda walk up to a bunch of eggs sticking out of the ground and worrying that a Facehugger was about to pop out, right?
  • The encounter with the X-wing pilots played out a lot like a traffic stop gone awry. I guess cops can be jerks even in other galaxies.
  • I forget the name of Amy Sedaris’ character’s name, but I love the way she shamelessly BSes Din to his face and gets away with it, between getting him to put up Dr. Mandible’s stakes on a hand she knows she’s going to win, and vouching for the frog-woman with her life despite having just met her. Seeing her communicate fluently in the frog language was a nice touch too.
  • “We’re going to have to get cozy in the cockpit, it’s the only space I can pressurize. If you have to use the privy, do it now. It’s gonna be a long ride.”
  • One nitpick; shouldn’t the bandits who ambushed Din also have had a speeder that he could commandeer and take back to Mos Eisley instead of having to walk?

Overall, I enjoyed it, and it kept me in suspense for most of the episode.

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Here’s an unused piece of art by Ralph McQuarrie from the making of The Empire Strikes Back.

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Looks like the writers are digging pretty deep into the corners of Star Wars lore for material. I like it.

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I think that they were always supposed to be Arabs.

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Berbers, I think. Their original 1977 designers were probably influenced by the local population in Tunisia.

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According to Wikipedia, George Lucas said they were inspired by Bedouins. Which, given that they were also the inspiration for the Fremen, explains the similarities between them.

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These beasties showed up in Star Wars Rebels, and they’re called krykna.. First appearance in The Mystery of Chopper Base
Rebels, by the way, is a series I highly recommend, along with Clone Wars that preceded it.

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My complaints weren’t about repetition. It was the incredible stupidity of the plan and scene after scene of stupidity. The people in this show were too stupid too live and many didn’t.

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Gotta say, it’s really NOT cute when the child’s antics are literally genocide.