So, it looks like being around Grogu didn’t make Mando actually, you know, a good guy. Given that he started the episode by murdering a guy and the people trying to protect him because the guy owned money to a gangster.
I think it was meant to be a Base Delta Zero - massive orbital bombardment by heavy guns intended to melt an entire planet’s surface into slag, and the Empire’s preferred way of devastating their enemies before the Death Star was functional.
I feel like they’re trying to set Boba Fett up as the old Western trope of the badass who tries to settle down and do the right thing and be a better, more spiritual person…but fate blows all that up and he goes back to being a badass merc. But I don’t feel like there’s enough time left to really tie that all up in a bow for us (especially with this ep stopping all the momentum.)
Yeah, but they also clearly depicted sub-orbital (atmospheric, perhaps, the way the shots were framed) bombardment with swarms of TIE/sa bombers.
Yes. He’s still a bounty hunter, “bring you in warm or bring you in cold” and all.
FWIW, I assume bringing in a bounty is sanctioned and not actually murder.
That’s what “bounty hunter” means in the US in the real world, but I can’t see anything “sanctioned” about being the hired enforcers for crime lords.
You have zero concept of the Star Wars legendarium, do you?
I’m not sure which direction you are trying to go with this. If you are asking me if I am aware that bounty hunters do bad things in SW, then yes, I am. I was simply pointing out that Mando was still murdering people for money from organized crime. If you are implying that the New Republic would sanction this behavior, then I disagree.
On a different note, this episode was an excellent example of why lightsabers aren’t a good weapon for the non-Force sensitive.
Not only are bounty hunters sanctioned by the Republic, they’re unionizedI. You’ll recall that Carl Weathers was Din Djarin’s contact within the Hunter’s Guild - his shop steward, if you will.
New Republic Council: “well the Empire was obviously very anti-Union…so if we oppose the reformation of the Hunters Guild, we will appear to be supporting Empire policy…”
“But Vader supported bounty hunters…”
“Shut-up”
I thought the same thing. The Razor Crest had proper living quarters downstairs. It had a portable carbonite freezing pod, IIRC. It presumably had a toilet. From a sheer practicality point of view, the starfighter is a Ferrari when Mando needs an RV.
Given how the episode went out of its way to show Mando being nice to a droid - after his previous hatred of them - I expected him to ask that the droid housing be put back in. He needs a new buddy.
More generally, I thought this was a great episode of the Mandalorian. Like others in the thread, I was surprised that they took a whole episode away from the main BOBF characters, but I’m not complaining. I loved Fargo, and that was a show that wasn’t afraid to branch off from the main story for an odd episode.
Question: how did Mando get to the Ringworld without surrendering his weapons? He seemed surprised when he had to do it on the way out. Maybe he got a lift with someone.
It’s not really clear how much time, if any, has passed between the S2 finale and this episode. Maybe Bo-Katan dropped him off while she was on the way to turn in Gideon to the Republic authorities.
It took me awhile to understand what the Armorer meant when she was saying that Mando was “fighting the blade”. He was trying to deflect her strikes the same way he would if he were wielding a typical melee weapon - but the blade of the Darksaber has no mass, so he can’t push her back with physical force and he can’t cut through her beskar tools. In the long run, he’s wearing himself out by putting all his force into the hilt of the saber and not getting anything out of it.
I can see why the Republic would have a use for bounty hunters. Keep in mind that the Republic doesn’t have a standing army, and as far as we’ve seen there’s no such thing as a galactic FBI. Most of the actual political/military power of the Republic is wielded by the various planetary kingdoms and domains that comprise it, and their ability to directly project force beyond their systems is limited and can result in all kinds of diplomatic crises (I.e. the entire plot of Episode I.)
Suppose you’re the Grand Duke of Aquilae, and you’ve got a Chiss war criminal in your prison who’s been sentenced to disintegration, but he’s managed to escape and flee to Alderaan. Luckily, the Prince of Alderaan is an old friend you played pazaak with all the time when you were in the academy on Coruscant, so your people talk to his people, your fugitive is arrested, and he’s extradited back to Aquilae. But suppose that instead he manages to escape to Dantooine, and it’s well known that the Count of Dantooine is an absolute bounder who’s in deep with the Ascendancy and has no motivation to turn over one of their subjects to you.
What do you do? You hire someone who is allowed under galactic law to operate outside the rules of the local authorities to capture your fugitive and bring them back to you.
Remember that the Old Republic had plenty of bounty hunters in its final days - people like Boba’s dad, Jango Fett, and Cad Bane.
And then we see scenes of Terminators Imperial battle droids and probe droids scouring the ruins. So that didn’t seem like melting the surface into slag…
I think there was a lot more to it than that. The opposite of that, in fact. As the fight goes on, Mando clearly seemed to me to be struggling to even lift the Darksaber. He drags it along the floor, and just kind of heaves it around, like a massive, unwieldy bludgeon.
This episode seemed to put to rest the question of whether “Razor Crest” was the name of his specific ship, or a generic name for a type of ship. Definitely the latter.
I agree that this was the best episode of Boba Fett so far. Pedro Pascal does such a better job of showing the physicality and displaying the emotions of a masked character then Temuera Morrison. Everything up until Tattooine was really great. Unfortunately, I thought things went downhill from there. I love Amy Sedaris but there was just a little too much goofiness with her character this time around, they could have kept it to an 8 instead of going all the way to 11.
I’m not a fan of those Naboo starfighters either. They’re fine as a Star Wars vehicle but they really look like they were made to be this flashy sportscar that the Naboo people had to press into service when they went to war. Compare that to an X-Wing, which looks rugged and even though it’s a one-person vehicle, still has room some room to it (even storage space). Besides speed and guns, that fighter lacks everything else that a bounty hunter needs.
Dude, it’s from Naboo, AKA Planet Extra. Have you seen how their elected officials dress? By their standards, the starfighters are practically utilitarian. Be thankful they didn’t come with solar sails.
But there is a difference between “not stopped” and “officially sanctioned”. See also: slavery.