Star Wars: The Mandalorian

[Mantis]

Just finished watching this with my Disney Plus trial and thought it was pretty enjoyable overall. I know it's not saying much, but it was leagues better than any of the recent Star Wars movies.

I feel like the quality noticeably picked up in the second half of the season though.

[Snowy]

I acquired the first half of the season and watched it a while back. I then picked up the other half over the recent bank holiday and watched them then - I agree with you.

But...

Spoiler

Why did they have to take his fucking hat off???

[Raid]

So I finally got around to finishing this, having watched the first 4 episodes back in December. It definitely improved in my eyes, though I think my initial thoughts I gave on the previous page were warranted. It relied a little too heavily on Western tropes, with the Magnificent Seven episode definitely being the worst example, and it didn't really feel like it got going until episodes 7 and 8. I'm certainly hoping the next season is longer, because the potential is definitely there for this to be fantastic, but for someone intimately familiar with the new Star Wars canon it hasn't done enough with the material yet.

Spoiler for the very last scene of the final episode:

Spoiler

That wasn't just any old lightsaber Moff Gideon cuts his way out of the crash with, that's the Darksaber. It's over a thousand years old by this point, and was frequently used by the leaders of Mandalore. It's been wielded by (formerly Darth) Maul, has been used against both Darth Sidious and Obi Wan Kenobi, and was last in the hands of the Mandalorian resistance leader who planned to use it to fight the Empire. Apparently she lost.

While I suspect that the producers of The Mandalorian aren't going to require adults to go and watch the two animated series that precede the original trilogy (although I'd say at least Rebels is worthwhile, The Clone Wars varied a little too wildly in quality and tone), I get the feeling that there'll be plot points that are more significant if you have. We already know one of the major animated characters has been cast for season 2 of The Mandalorian.

[Hatredsheart]

Season 2 coming on October 30th to Disney+ (and other sites *cough*).

[Sly Boots]

Whoop!

[Raid]

So the second series has debuted with a pretty good episode. One of my criticisms of the first season is that it didn't feel much like a Star Wars production for the most part, whereas this one did. I really enjoyed the post-title-card montage of the Razor Crest flying over a barren desert to the big swells of the main theme, fairly reminiscent of shots from classic Westerns - I have no problem with this show leaning into the Western stylings so long as it doesn't just play out as one but with blaster bolts instead of bullets.

There's still work to be done; I'm still not really sold on much of the acting. Timothy Olyphant's character looked far too clean (I think it's his impeccably styled hair and beard) to be believable, and I'm just not really finding Mando himself very interesting - he's too one-dimensional, he's honour in a suit of armour and little more. We really need some companion characters that are in each episode, not recurring ones that get a handful of lines per season.

[Wrathbone]

Yeah, really enjoyed that one.

Spoiler

And the ending! Not a huge surprise as I'd heard the rumours, but I still gawped like an idiot for a few seconds.

[Raid]

Spoiler

The ending completely passed me by when I watched it; the actor looked familiar but I couldn't place him. I didn't find out the significance until I read a comment on Reddit. I hadn't heard the rumours. It was obviously Fett's armour, and the comments about how the Krayt dragon had eaten a Sarlacc indicated how it had reappeared, but I just didn't recognise Temuera Morrison.

Given the era in which Mandalorian is set, and given the popularity of the character, I assumed Boba was going to reappear at some point, so it's not a massive revelation. I hope they do something interesting with the character; I never really understood his seemingly massive popularity (to the point of getting an underwhelming origin story) - the jetpack was fun I suppose, but otherwise he's just another dude in a cool hat.

[Sly Boots]

Is the whole series up or are they showing it weekly?

[Raid]

Weekly.

[Sly Boots]

Hm, think I'll wait until close to the end of the run before I dive in in that case.

[Snowy]

Indeed, much easier to torrent a whole season in one hit...

[Raid]

So the Star Wars nerd in me is almost giddy with episodes 3 and 4.

Spoiler

So Bo-Katan was a bit of a surprise (although it probably shouldn't have been), and she continues to be played by Katee Sackoff as in The Clone Wars which is nice continuity. I suppose they're bound to go further into the post-Empire Mandalore, which I'm looking forward to. It's just a shame that Maul is dead by this point, but I suppose he's going to pop up in the Obi Wan project.

And now we know that Moff Gideon is running some sort of force-infusion experiment. The scientist mentioned an "m-count", presumably referring to midichlorians, in relation to a blood transfusion. It wasn't clear whether the black-clad troops aboard his cruiser were test subjects or droids - they all seemed to be holding the same pose which suggests a deactivated droid to me. Perhaps it's some sort of new Dark Trooper project? I suppose it could be an early phase of the Palpatine cloning project that we don't see reach fruition until Rise of Skywalker, or maybe this is where Snoke comes from.

We also got the first "live-action" versions of popular Clone Wars / Rebels ships (I suppose they're CGI in both), the Arquitens class cruiser and Gozanti transport. I do like me a good space ship.

[Wrathbone]

Episode 5 is an absolute barnstormer! Season 1 was great but it really feels like they've kicked it up a notch in season 2.

[Raid]

Yup, an absolute corker of an episode. Probably my favourite so far.

Spoiler

The Child has a name!

They really brought Star Wars back to its roots; there were several shots in that that could have been form a Kurosawa film, and it was a great introduction to Ahsoka Tano for an audience that may not have met her before. I think Rosario Dawson was a good bit of casting, although I have to admit to being just a little disappointed in Tano's fight with the Magistrate given that one of the galaxy's strongest force users armed with lightsabers probably shouldn't have had much trouble against someone that wasn't obviously force sensitive using a spear.

They even teased the sole remaining plotline from the end of Rebels, the one that I was really hoping would become its own series. If Ahsoka knows that Thrawn is alive, then she's probably still on her quest to find Ezra Bridger, which likely brings Sabine Wren into the picture. Given that Sabine is a Mandalorian, I think there's a decent chance she'll turn up too. I don't think it's going to be a plot they do much with in The Mandalorian, as this is Din Djarin's story, not a sequel to Rebels, but maybe the fan reaction would go some way to convincing Disney it's a story worth finishing.

I'm so glad that Dave Filoni wrote and directed this one, even if it was an obvious choice given the material. He even managed to sneak Morai and what looked an awful lot like a Loth Cat in there.