I thought the implication was that we weren’t seeing a drug deal in process, we were seeing the set-up/aftermath. The Pykes were using an out-of-the-way moisture farm as a rendezvous point for the local distributors. They’ve already done at least one deal (the canister of credits) with distributors who are now off-screen, and awaiting more distributors with the rest of their cask of spice. Marshal Raygun Givens arrives in-between deals, and tells the Pykes not to use his territory for their drug deals. I thought the implication was also that he deliberately timed his arrival between deals to minimize the number of enemies he would need to deal with.
Otherwise, if the four Pykes are actually two different sets of Pykes, distributors with credits and suppliers with spice, yeah, the set-up doesn’t make much sense, and it seems like there’s a missing speeder.
I think what will happen is that he’ll choose the armor, go back to Mando, and then master the Darksaber. Although he can’t be Manda’lor unless he defeats Mando in combat.
So everyone that is confused as to the change in tone and why we’re seeing Mando and not much Boba the last two episodes, are you forgetting that this show was pitched as Mandalorian season 2.5 back from the start? I remember. I don’t think anything changed in production, I think this was the plan all along.
Whether you agree with the plan or the execution, I do not think this was some last minute decision to change the show. Here’s an article from last summer about it:
It’s true that you’re not supposed to overthink Star Wars. But while the plots have always been a bit simplistic they at least made sense. In the original trilogy, the characters behaved in a fairly consistent manner and overall story progression from A New Hope through Return of the Jedi makes sense. It wasn’t a surprise that the emperor put in an appearance in RotJ but in we don’t find out about Palpatine until the opening scroll of Rise of Skywalker. And then they introduce a new villain who kills off Hux? I watch the new trilogy and I just don’t see a cohesive story like I did with the prequel or the OT. It’s just so crummy which is too bad because I thought the actors were great.
The only trilogy with a pre planned cohesive story was the prequels, and we know how much that helped. Bringing back Palpatine is no worse than bringing back the Death Star for the third movie, or accidental incest.
I’m not so concerned with pre-planning so much as I am about cohesion. The prequels and the OT each form a cohesive story. The new trilogy does not and it is a hot mess. The Last Jedi is the only Star Wars movie I hate. It’s just a bad movie. I didn’t think the Rise of Skywalker was all that great, but it was fun seeing Ian McDiarmid chewing the scenery as Palpatine at least. If you like the new trilogy movies, fine, that’s cool but I thought they were terrible.
Yeah, I remember that when the prequels came out people hated those too. Star Wars is hard because it was so formative for so many of us in our childhood. I can’t tell you how many times I watched the original trilogy growing up. I used to put one of the three OT vhs tapes on to fall asleep to in my bunk bed.
I’m not saying the prequel or sequel trilogies are either perfect works or trash, but it’s very hard to recreate how someone felt about something that meant a lot to them as children now when they are adults. There was zero chance that there wouldn’t be negative backlash. People are very protective of the things they love from childhood.
Again, this is not to say that nobody’s opinions are valid, just that it is a complicated situation.
Well my main wanting to reboot/retcon away the ST is its preferable to me to have a possibility for a happy ending for some of these characters as opposed to the ST writers just taking the toys and breaking them for fun.
I don’t care Han and Leia got divorced, it happens. I don’t care that Luke was tempted to kill Ben, I believe he was influenced by Snoke. I would just like to see things more open-ended.
And frankly, more then any of that…I want to eventually see Adam Driver make an appearance without the burden of knowing what will happen. I love me some Adam Driver
I’m sure all of this is a pipe-dream though…we still have…25 (?) years until the ST?
I’m fan of Star Wars specifically for the over thinking. It was my first exposure to large-scale world building and the concept of sequential story telling. It was the first thing I ever experienced that encouraged and rewarded thinking about the universe beyond the confines of the central plot. And I think that shows like The Mandalorian and The Clone Wars show that the franchise can still support that kind of storytelling. If you’re content with the big spectacle, that’s fine, but they could do “big spectacle” and also “coherent plotting and believable characterization” at the same time, and satisfy both audiences. Instead, they decided that the central Star Wars movies don’t need any more depth or thought to them than a Roland Emmerich disaster porn.
Which is a shame, because it could (and has been) so much more than that.
Yeah, this is what kills me about the sequel trilogy, and made watching this episode a little hard. I love seeing Jedi Master Luke Skywalker. It’s something I’ve been wanting since I was a little kid, and this hit all those buttons perfectly - but it’s all underscored by knowing that literally everything Luke is doing here will fail, and he’ll die having accomplished nothing of note.
Same with the Han and Leia romance in the OT. We now know that the entire galaxy would have been better off if they never hooked up. Also, they restore the Republic, and its instantly as corrupt and useless as it was before the Empire, and goes down like a chump in the first sequel film. So, I guess that was also a big waste of time.
Plus, yes, more Adam Driver. He did great with his role, and was also ultimately wasted.
One of the things I like about not following entertainment news is that I get to be surprised. I had no idea this episode would have Luke but Cad Bane was a complete surprise. One of my favorite villains from the cartoon.
I found Luke very off putting in this episode. Like mentioned above, there’s an uncanny valley with him, he doesn’t quite sound like he’s present with his voice, and his face is weirdly unreactive in scenes. It also seem a little odd that he’s wearing the same outfit that he wore in Return of the Jedi, even while training Grogu. Do we have a Luke Skywalker problem?
It’s interesting that there seems to be a lot going on at Freetown when it looks like just a couple of shacks out in the middle of the desert. Seeing Cad Bane show up was very cool, though his face looked kind of odd too. Kind of rubbery and the teeth stuck out. The old west duel was neat though and really fit the direction they’re going here.
I imagine that there will be a “Magnificent Seven” type of showdown next week. Clearly Fett, Shand, Mando, and Krrsantan will be in it. You can add in Cobb Vanth into now as well – maybe he will get his own Mandalorian armor along the way. Clearly they’re setting it up for Grogu to be there as well. The Mods will be involved as well, I imagine. Garas Fwip as well – It didn’t seem like she was doing anything against the Pykes but her cantina got blowed up anyway. I’d like to see her recruited and I want to see her handling a blaster or two.
Right, but my impression was that they had basically set up a mobile distro hub in that location. At least one set of local distributors had already come through and bought a supply of spice, and they were waiting for the next group of local distributors when the Marshal intervened. They had the cash from the deal they had just completed, and more spice for the next deal they were waiting to do.
(Honestly, I don’t that quite meshes up with what we see on screen, either, but it makes more sense to me than the Marshal interrupting a deal between the Pykes and…the Pykes, with one set of Pykes apparently having walked to a remote location in the middle of nowhere.)
Ultimately, I don’t think the details really matter. Either way, I think the scene works as intended - the honest Marshal Raygun Givens breaks up a drug deal, has a cool gunslinger scene, and is established as an opponent of the spice trade and a (somewhat reluctant) enemy of the Pyke Syndicate.
Except that they seem to managed to do it with Rogue One and the Mandalorian, not to mention things like the Clone Wars series. So this isn’t a sufficient explanation.
