I believe this was 100% a toy based decision. Making a Razor Crest to scale with the current six inch figures would be impossible, hell they made one for the 4 inch figures and it cost 350 dollars back in 2020. A Naboo Starfighter though? that is manageable.
I kind of expected Baby Yoda to try to eat one of those Babu Friks.
I thought that was a flashback to Mando’s Beskar Mitzvah until he showed up.
Star Wars sure has a thing for brutally killing large animals that are just following their nature. It is almost torture porn.
I kept thinking of it as “Hi. Magistrate!”
Also, tied into this.
This initial episode was underwhelming, and short at only 38 minutes. I think they could have started out with more story development. We liked the first two seasons and hope it will pick up in weeks to come.
The Mrs. and I both began thinking how ridiculous the never-take-off-your-helmet thing is. My wife said, “What happens when the kid grows up and his head gets bigger?” And I said “And how do they wash their faces, brush their teeth, and shave? And what if they catch a cold? How do they blow their nose?” Are there circumstances for which they can take off their helmet?
And me, being claustrophobic, began getting panicky just thinking about being trapped in that helmet all the time.
Viewers should not be sidetracked by questions like that.
Mando has been seen to take off his helmet to eat when nobody was around. One time I remember was in the Seven Samurai episode, where he was watching Baby Yoda outside playing with the Adolescent Humans (and since he could look out the window, anyone outside could have looked in, but…) So the “never take off your helmet” thing has a limited concept of “never”.
He obviously has to take his helmet off in order to trim his mustache.
Didn’t dig the opening episode. It seemed short and pointless. We already know he has to go purify himself in the waters of Lake Minnetonka or whatever. I guess that’s news to anyone who didn’t see the Book of Boba Fett episode, but those people are probably quite confused by Grogu being back and the new starfighter, which they didn’t explain at all.
And the starfighter instead of the Razor Crest seems like a terrible downgrade. Sure, it might go fast and look cool and all, but he’s confined to a one seater for all his travels. How’s he gonna, I dunno, take a dump? And how did Grogu move from the droid port to Mando’s lap mid-flight? And what’s he going to do when he has a bounty? Strap them to the hood?
I guess the season’s arc is really going to be Din Djarin realizing that he doesn’t have to follow the creed of the Children of the Watch, but that it’s the friends he made along the way that make him a real Mandalorian (well, or something). Just having him get to the living waters, take a dip and be absolved seems too little of a character arc.
But I’m with those a bit underwhelmed by this episode. That IG-11 could just be patched up with the right parts seems to undermine his arc in the last season. Plus, he’s got a self-destruct mechanism to avoid capture, and you can just repair him afterwards? (Also, the people of Nevarro seemed to revere him enough to built a statue (out) of him, but didn’t think to try and fix him up?)
And then there’s the off-hand gag use of the force by Grogu to get his way. I mean, yeah, that’s just a piece of candy, but still, isn’t this sort of thing just a little dark side? He doesn’t have any inhibitions, so what happens if he figures out he can wave his hands to make people do what he want—or, well, choke them if they don’t? I mean, that could obviously lead to an interesting arc, but I hope it won’t just be played as a background gag…
This is a sign he has given up on bounty hunting for the foreseeable.
The entire reason he was a bounty hunter was to provide for his clan which no longer exists and would consider him an apostate if it did, and his contact with the guild has gone legit and is now selling real estate and building schools.
This made some good points, thank you. I particularly liked the parallel drawn between Din’s ‘fundamentalist’ Mandalorian group and their adherence to the helmet rule, and Bo Katan’s group that scoffs at this, but nevertheless will swear fealty and allegiance to whomever waves a magic sword around; I hadn’t picked up on that.
Look, strange wizards distributing swords is no basis for a system of government.
Not a toy collector, but they had all kinds of Millennium Falcon toys back in the day. Were any of those 1/12 scale? Do they even need figures for them? I imagine just having the vehicle is enough of a selling point.
Me too.
Nah, he’s trying to grow the universe’s largest handlebar moustache.
The rule can’t be never take your helmet off, can it? I was thinking more along the line of never take it off in front of other people. Bit tough to eat without taking it off as it seems to be a solid piece, no “chow-lock” that I can see.
I agree. Unless he has double secret FTL, he’s going to spend a lot of time crammed into that tiny cockpit.
Is too! It happens all the time!
I believe that’s correct. Back in the season 1 finale, IG-11 gets him to take off his helmet so it can medicate him, when he’s willing to die rather than doing so, on the logic that it isn’t a living being and thus he wouldn’t be breaking the rule. IIRC, we also briefly see him in silhouette earlier in season 1 lifting his helmet up so that he can eat. I’m guessing Thanksgiving dinner amongst the Children of the Watch is extremely awkward with everyone grabbing their plates and then ducking behind a curtain.
No, those were for the old 1/18th figures, and those figures were kinda small for that scale and the falcon was not even in the proper scale anyways. Obviously you can sell ships that do not scale to the figures, and some people go for that, but that is never going to sell as well as something properly scaled to the stuff you already have.
the helmet explanation has been sprinkled through out a few episodes.
he was asked by the lady who brought him the bowl of food, when was the last time he took off his helmet. he answered yesterday.
when he was injured on navarro the ig unit told him he could take off his helmet in front of him because he was not a living being.
one time grogu and mando were eating together and he just loosened his helmet enough to sip from the bowl, but not be seen.
you cannot take off your helmet in front of a living being. it is to preserve the anonymity of the covert. there was a mention that only a few of them leave the covert at one time to keep all guessing on the numbers of adherents.
This was the first Mandalorian episode that felt like the worst Book of Boba Fett episodes(the Vespa Bikers).
The Mandalorians at the initiation rite looked like cheap cosplay costumes, to me.
The best idea for a monster was just a giant alligator?
Alien Christmas elf robot repair. Did they recast Will Ferrell as Mando?
When Mando leaves to fetch the IG part, I said to my daughter this feels like a video game side quest.
The Pirate King looked like a rejected design for Davy Jones from Pirates of the Caribbean.
Hopefully, it can only get better from here.
It had a turtle shell too.
Did you mistakenly use “the covert” here? Or is that what they actually call their sect?
I thought that was intentional. As I mentioned, the green tinsel was not as good as tentacles.
For those complaining about the plot, it seems like it’s following the earlier seasons. He spends some time gathering up a team along the way to whatever he’s doing. I know I didn’t want to see a season with just him and Grogu flying around the galaxy facing off against a different powerful enemy every episode.