The Mandalorian (Season 1)

[shevek]

Surprised nobody started a thread yet on this series.
An incredible return-to-form for Star Wars which it has been missing for years.
Getting back to the basics of the form of space-opera action storytelling with a Western twist.
The imagery is Sergio Leone and Kurosawa, the character is Clint Eastwood's Man With No Name (especially since you never see his face).
and the music is Ennio Morricone. The action is classic Original Trilogy but a bit more brutal as befits the modern aesthetic.

Loving the first three episodes so far. And Baby Yoda is so cute. Definitely watch it anyway you can!

[Femina]

Well I mean... There hasn't been a single female character in the whole show as of yet... so it may just naturally have passed over the head of a website dedicated toward heroic women in peril. Like as not, many of our members are watching it... and simply talking about it in their circles more centered around the interests actually present within the show itself.

Me personally, I'm getting oldschool 'Kung Fu' vibes more than some other westerns... but now that the story is centering more toward a singular thread that is maybe falling off a bit.

[shevek]

Well I mean... There hasn't been a single female character in the whole show as of yet...

Femina, no disrespect meant, but that statement is incorrect.
And much of our talk around shows such as The Orville hasn't necessarily been just about the female characters.

The leader of the entire Mandalorian covert - the forger of the beskar armor - is female. Portrayed by Emily Swallow. She's already been in 2 episodes. There were also female bounty hunters in the cantina brawl scene and in the 'high noon' scene featuring Greef Karga's posse.

Soon we will get Gina Carano as Cara Dune. She finally gets an action heroine character that she deserves. A beautiful woman who looks strong
and powerful...whom could she possibly play next in the Disney pantheon...maybe....She-Hulk??

We will also be seeing the always incredible Ming-Na Wen as Fennec, another bounty hunter (hey, I was a year early with that name: Fenneca the Silver Fox). So don't worry...the fantastic females are coming! Or about as many as you can expect in a hardscrabble frontier environment.

For all we know, it could be one big troll courtesy of Jon Favreau. He probably knows full well that by not tipping his hand on the female characters immediately, he is courting Twitter outrage by fringe elements that will only gin up publicity for the show. Meanwhile, he rolled out big-eyed Baby Yoda right away - whom do you think that's for? Partly for the meme magicians, to be sure. But also for the millions of mainstream female viewers who will want that character for Christmas. Genius! (although by no means even remotely an original idea. remember Baby Groot? or Gizmo?)

[Abductorenmadrid]

I have just caught a sneaky viewing of Ep 1 now. I really liked the gritty worlds and the characters, there is high production value in this show for sure. Imagine Game of Throne effort to make a Star Wars show look like a Star Wars movie.

What is hard at the moment for me (only 1 ep in though, so be gentle) is to want to side with the titular character. I felt quite neutral towards him (maybe its by design I feel this way), a bit like watching a football match as a neutral - you're there for the spectacle but don't care who wins. For example ...

Spoiler

I mean, the climax to Ep 1 is capturing the prize with a price on their head. With two bounty hunters in the mix I didn't care one way or the other who got the target! In fact I had more attachment to the droid by the end of the battle!

AEM

[Femina]

Well I mean... There hasn't been a single female character in the whole show as of yet...

Femina, no disrespect meant, but that statement is incorrect.
And much of our talk around shows such as The Orville hasn't necessarily been just about the female characters.

The leader of the entire Mandalorian covert - the forger of the beskar armor - is female. Portrayed by Emily Swallow. She's already been in 2 episodes. There were also female bounty hunters in the cantina brawl scene and in the 'high noon' scene featuring Greef Karga's posse.

Soon we will get Gina Carano as Cara Dune. She finally gets an action heroine character that she deserves. A beautiful woman who looks strong
and powerful...whom could she possibly play next in the Disney pantheon...maybe....She-Hulk??

We will also be seeing the always incredible Ming-Na Wen as Fennec, another bounty hunter (hey, I was a year early with that name: Fenneca the Silver Fox). So don't worry...the fantastic females are coming! Or about as many as you can expect in a hardscrabble frontier environment.

For all we know, it could be one big troll courtesy of Jon Favreau. He probably knows full well that by not tipping his hand on the female characters immediately, he is courting Twitter outrage by fringe elements that will only gin up publicity for the show. Meanwhile, he rolled out big-eyed Baby Yoda right away - whom do you think that's for? Partly for the meme magicians, to be sure. But also for the millions of mainstream female viewers who will want that character for Christmas. Genius! (although by no means even remotely an original idea. remember Baby Groot? or Gizmo?)

So your retaliation to my saying 'there hasn't been a single female character in the whole show as of yet...

Is to tell me I'm wrong because there are GOING to be Female characters? You misunderstood my above though if you thought I was complaining or anything, I was simply putting up my own musings about why there's not much traffic for the show HERE particularly... the show is great.

I did forget about the Mandalorian blacksmith though, fair points for that... she's pretty badass to.................. but I wouldn't currently place her as of to much interest for our particular crowd still? I only meant, we probably wouldn't be seeing to much discussion about it here until something particularly relevant to our fetish was introduced.

[Abductorenmadrid]

I snuck in watching Ep2 today, slowly catching up. Now I am starting to feel some sympathy with the character. He had some setbacks in this part of the adventure and every step to sorting it out seemed to get harder and harder. We learned something new about his current ... well ... bounty ... too, which is why there's such a good reward waiting for our hero when he delivers. Or .. IF ... he delivers! I suspect the consequences for not handing over the prize may be as strongly negative as it would be positive if he did.

Also forgot - Kudos for the casting of Nick Nolte - great vision - and didn't he deliver!

[Maskripper]

Soon we will get Gina Carano as Cara Dune. She finally gets an action heroine character that she deserves.

What? Don't need to know more, now I'm 100% convinced that I have to watch the show....
So many TV shows to watch these days.

[helstar]

I did forget about the Mandalorian blacksmith though, fair points for that... she's pretty badass to.................. but I wouldn't currently place her as of to much interest for our particular crowd still?

Can we have a big banner with "EPIC FAIL" on it ?

[Femina]

I did forget about the Mandalorian blacksmith though, fair points for that... she's pretty badass to.................. but I wouldn't currently place her as of to much interest for our particular crowd still?

Can we have a big banner with "EPIC FAIL" on it ?

Did you write a SHiP fanfic starring the Mandalorian blacksmith then bring the conversation over to the forum? No? My overall observation still stands.

[helstar]

Ok let me get this straight, I have to write that fanfic so I can later safely say "epic fail" to you. Gotcha

[Femina]

Ok let me get this straight, I have to write that fanfic so I can later safely say "epic fail" to you. Gotcha

Only if you're going to continue to miss my point? Which was that, until this topic came up here four days ago a full three and a half weeks after the show premiered, no one saw fit to start up a thread for it here. While I forgot that there was a single solitary completely clothed to the point of wearing a helmet and being entirely clothed and sexless female in the show up to this point, that doesn't at all change the fact that as far as the current aired episode, the show has had very little of the sort of things that people are likely to want to discuss widely on this website.

That wasn't a complaint. I wasn't saying 'this show is bad cause it has no women bleah sexism!' I was just offering it up as a possible answer in response to Shevek's musing about why it wasn't being talked about on here.

[helstar]

Lots of shows are not being discussed here, what's your point again ? You have something-related-to-women explanation for each one of them ?

[Femina]

Lots of shows are not being discussed here, what's your point again ? You have something-related-to-women explanation for each one of them ?

O.o take your foot out of your mouth and relax. We'll go through it very slowly so you can understand that this isn't a 'sexism looking for reasons to find sexist things in the Mandalorian' thing like you seem to think it is. Okay, ready?

1 - You're on a website dedicated to heroine peril. Look around closely for the evidence, its there.
2 - Presumably to chat about heroine peril?
3 - So it stands to reason, when somebody specifically poses the question 'why aren't more people talking about this here?'

that

4 -it isn't far fetched to reason 'maybe because there hasn't been any heroine peril in it yet?' and it isn't impolite to make that reply to them. You can drop the latent hostility and relax now, nobodies bad mouthing the show over here. Nobodies crying sexism, we just wrote out the word 'woman' a few times, I know that can be triggering for some people.

But I suppose you were maybe actually hoping that I was crying that the show is sexist for not including women in it so you could really stick it to sexist feminist from that last comment so maybe you'd rather I WAS calling the show sexist in which case, sorry to disappoint.

[helstar]

And you changed the cards on the table again. I never said anything about the show, while you said there were no women in it ... and you were WRONG, that's it. The rest is you playing the victim as always (seen also in other threads).

[batgirl1969]

I would love to see an IG droid capture a female bounty and bind her tightly, flirting with her telling her if she behaves he may use his special weapons on....um...in her!! lol

[Femina]

And you changed the cards on the table again. I never said anything about the show, while you said there were no women in it ... and you were WRONG, that's it. The rest is you playing the victim as always (seen also in other threads).

Oh you've seen me in other threads xD, oh no! I've been profiled!

You're not talking about the show? What are you even doing here then?

See what actually happened was, you replied in to my response to SOMEONE ELSE. Which puts you into THAT conversation, not a brand new one. It doesn't matter that YOU never said anything about the show, SHEVEK did, and SHEVEK was who I was talking to about the show, not YOU. Once you spoke up, that put you into that conversation, talking about this show. Go back and read Shevek's opening post question, read the WORDS. Then read my response and you'll find that my 'no women in it yet' statement has nothing at all to do with 'the shows got no women in it, so its bad and people hate and wont talk about it cause we're victims!' and everything to do with analyzing why the show hasn't yet been talked about here probably because the show hasn't provided any SHiP material. That reasoning isn't really any different just because I forgot the Mandalorian gal, whose not provided anything remotely influential to the material the community here tends to want to see. I acknowledged the factual whoopsie, and then pointed out that it doesn't actually poke any holes in my baseline theory. As the post ABOVE me illustrates, people would like to see some Star Wars heroine peril stories, the reason they're finally talking about the show here, is because somebody finally thought to put a topic in, but I'd still argue that the reason it hasn't EXPLODED in activity on THIS forum is a simple matter of there not being the sort of material present in the show itself to pike our members interests in discussing it at THIS location. Many of us are probably members of other communities, like a Star Wars forum elsewhere, wherein they are perhaps putting their commenting efforts at, since the show would be naturally trending in those places.

So since the show not having any women in it wasn't ever my main point, latching onto that so that you can go 'wrong hahahahaha!' is a particularly useless thing to add to the discussion. Shevek pointed out I was wrong, and still supplied a respectful factual correction and then continued to discuss the actual topic.

[helstar]

Oh you've seen me in other threads xD, oh no! I've been profiled!

Yes i have happened to notice that you like to start arguments with basicly everybody here, but that must be a coincidence

You're not talking about the show? What are you even doing here then?

Forgive me if I check most of the new threads in this forum (concerning new tv series/releases and so on) and not spit poison everywhere like you (and couple others) do.

[Abductorenmadrid]

I would love to see an IG droid capture a female bounty and bind her tightly, flirting with her telling her if she behaves he may use his special weapons on....um...in her!! lol

Why are you not writing stories here? Seriously, you have these little wicked ideas but never expand on them!

I was semi-sure - not entirely though, that in EP01 of Mandalorian that one of the frozen bounties that the blue guy comes across was a woman - would have loved to know the story behind that encounter.

AEM

[shevek]

I was semi-sure - not entirely though, that in EP01 of Mandalorian that one of the frozen bounties that the blue guy comes across was a woman - would have loved to know the story behind that encounter.
AEM

Yes, you are correct - one of the bounties in carbonite was female.
So technically, that's yet another female character

Looking forward to the new episode tonight - I am hearing good things about Gina Carano's debut, and I expect to see photos of her posted in the next couple days!

---------------

And...I watched Episode 4. Anyone feel that it was a bit underwhelming? If anything, it reminded me of:

-a stock plot from some 1960s/1970s Western where some kind of frontiersman or adventurer rolls into town and helps the populace with its problem of barbarian raiders. I'm sure there are several things like that, I just can't think of what they are right now.

- an episode of Stargate SG-1.

- The Road Warrior.

Maybe in that sense, it worked, in that the 'space Western' territory was familiar. Anyway, the episode was OK, but it just didn't seem to have the urgency of the previous ones - it was more of a filler story that killed time in the series.

As far as Gina Carano? She fought well in the combat scenes, but her role could have easily been filled by a man - there was nothing feminine
in her demeanor whatsoever. I'm not sure if that's sexist to say, but it's definitely true nonetheless. I'm glad she was given a chance in this role, though, and I hope it isn't her only appearance in the series, and that maybe she gets to show a few emotions beyond stalwart stoicism.

Also on a side note: the woman who played the bartender, Ida Darvish, is the wife of Josh Gad.
Anyway, the Mandalorian is a hunted man, so he has to move on, Incredible Hulk-style, except he has a spaceship instead of just a knapsack.

[Maskripper]

Watched episode 1 and 2.
Damn....it's really good so far! An interesting sci-fi/western/adventure mix with some comedy elements (#creatures).
High Quality all around. Looks like they spend their fat budget pretty well!
Really odd for me as a german to see Werner Herzog as an actor in it
But the best part about this series so far for me? The SCORE by Ludwig Göransson! I love good scores and the end title is a masterpiece (parts of it are in other tracks as well)
It is extremely rare that a TV show delivered such an earworm for me. And the end credits with the graphic/concept art from the episode...really good.
And an interesting aspect to have a lead character whose face you don't see (so far).

Guess I will watch episodes 3 and 4 later this day. Can't wait to see where the story goes...and of course looking forward to Gina Carana kick some ass! (or blaster them)

[Femina]

Yeah Episode 4 was a little underwhelming... a basically stock example of the ol' 'warrior turns up and must be convinced to protect a mostly innocent populace from raiders' shtick. Probably could have benefited from another half an hour to tell this particular story... but it was entertaining enough. I particularly liked the red eyed AT-ST.

[Dogfish]

I liked episode four. I especially liked that they triggered a bunch of degens on Twitter by having the only villager who can shoot be a woman.

It was cool to see an AT-ST from the point of view of people who are actually scared of an AT-ST too, and to see one treated with a degree of respect by a couple of professional fighters. In most Star Wars media they end up being played for laughs because they're kind of daft looking. Also the "You can't live here any more" line was brilliant.

The show has done a good job of not embracing the sort of self-aware Whedonesque crapola that shows like Firefly (for obvious reasons) end up mired in, or that so many movies have. It's a daft little tale about a warrior with an hollow existence whose life is given meaning when he finds himself responsible for the life of another being. It's classic fantasy fluff but it owns the stupid completely and unapologetically. It's like an 80s TV show, and this episode, as well as being pure Seven Samurai, could have been written for The A-Team, or AirWolf or Knight Rider.

Mad respect for the Baby Yoda puppet too. So glad we're seeing a move away from CGI yodas and the disgraceful shit that happened in the prequels.

[Abductorenmadrid]

Ep 4 : The Magnificent Two - LOL

OK - so they got this obvious plot line in quite quickly but this iteration of a tried and tested formula was still entertaining nonetheless. I am giving my old ears kudos for picking out the "complication" during the opening attack on the village that the heroes would later discover for themselves. The potential love interest was good too, Mando almost letting the ol Skid Lid get taken off his head. Perhaps if he was thinking of settling down one day then maybe, but it's evident the Green Youngling still has an active bounty on his head and so that puts paid to any thoughts of a simpler and more peaceful life.

We also get Cara Dune who is an interesting character, her prior work she talks about could make for a series on its own. At any rate she can mix it up with Mando, the pair just about matching one another in a fair fight and we see she is brave too, taking the fight to .. well ... the aforementioned "complication". In a "Magnificent Seven" comparison she isn't playing Robert Vaughn's "Lee", that's for sure. So, in my book this was a good episode, not as strong as "The Sin" but close enough for me. Bring me more!!

[batgirl1969]

I would love to see an IG droid capture a female bounty and bind her tightly, flirting with her telling her if she behaves he may use his special weapons on....um...in her!! lol

Why are you not writing stories here? Seriously, you have these little wicked ideas but never expand on them!

I was semi-sure - not entirely though, that in EP01 of Mandalorian that one of the frozen bounties that the blue guy comes across was a woman - would have loved to know the story behind that encounter.

AEM

I have written or collaborated on quite a few...I didn't think anyone appreciated any longer my sick twisted lezdom goth view on the world!! I LOVE writing about this stuff

[Lurkndog]

I'm hoping Cara Dune gets to come back later in the season. She was suitably awesome, and Mando needs to have a companion who can actually talk.

OTOH, we're getting Ming-Na Wen next episode, so that's also good.

[shevek]

I'm seeing so many comparisons to other predictable sources for Episode 4: not just Seven Samurai but also Kung Fu, Hercules, Three Amigos.

Learned two interesting things, though:

- this episode was directed by Bryce Howard, Ron Howard's daughter - who played Gwen Stacy in Spiderman 3 and Claire in two recent Jurassic Park movies. It was apparently her first major directing job ever. Given the material she had to work with, I would say she did fine, given that the episode is ultimately optional and only exists to introduce Cara Dune.

- the bad guy raiders in the episode were Klatooinians, a species first introduced in Return of the Jedi. And, as far as I can tell, they really were just stealing the krill, burning a few dwellings to do it, and putting the krill in these glowing vats. Not actually enslaving or raping or killing anyone. Kind of weird. I think there would have been more urgency and fervor to the fight had Mando and Cara freed some villager captives who were in slaver cages waiting to be transported off-world, or something like that. Instead of just 'we've been living here for generations catching shrimp.'

Dogfish - at least the 'degens' waited 3 episodes longer than their Twitter counterparts from the opposite side of the political fence.

[Abductorenmadrid]

the bad guy raiders in the episode were Klatooinians, a species first introduced in Return of the Jedi. And, as far as I can tell, they really were just stealing the krill, burning a few dwellings to do it, and putting the krill in these glowing vats. Not actually enslaving or raping or killing anyone. Kind of weird. I think there would have been more urgency and fervor to the fight had Mando and Cara freed some villager captives who were in slaver cages waiting to be transported off-world, or something like that. Instead of just 'we've been living here for generations catching shrimp.'

Maybe there was an element of not biting too hard the hand that feeds you. Kill too many workers or make it too intolerable for them to stay (raping, enslaving etc) and adios free stuff! This was more like animal husbandry the locals were doing apparently, I dont think it was just a case of fishing. A comment made by one of the locals when it was suggested they move indicated that some ground work had to be done to set up their settlement first. But yeah the slight mix of aggression sans nasty stuff was weird.

[Dogfish]

the bad guy raiders in the episode were Klatooinians, a species first introduced in Return of the Jedi. And, as far as I can tell, they really were just stealing the krill, burning a few dwellings to do it, and putting the krill in these glowing vats. Not actually enslaving or raping or killing anyone. Kind of weird. I think there would have been more urgency and fervor to the fight had Mando and Cara freed some villager captives who were in slaver cages waiting to be transported off-world, or something like that. Instead of just 'we've been living here for generations catching shrimp.'

Maybe there was an element of not biting too hard the hand that feeds you. Kill too many workers or make it too intolerable for them to stay (raping, enslaving etc) and adios free stuff! This was more like animal husbandry the locals were doing apparently, I dont think it was just a case of fishing. A comment made by one of the locals when it was suggested they move indicated that some ground work had to be done to set up their settlement first. But yeah the slight mix of aggression sans nasty stuff was weird.

Yeah I think people forget that for raiders to function it needs to be sustainable. You take what you need, but you leave enough so there's still people alive to do the work next time. It's basically like being the 'legitimate' feudal ruler only without the posh accent.

[shevek]

Well, yes, it was definitely some kind of krill farm as they were cultivating the animals in pools and harvesting them.

But the fact that the Klatooinians practiced 'sustainable raiding' (ha, I can feel the soy rising) wouldn't preclude them from taking a couple slaves
or having a little recreation at the villagers' expense. Instead what they did amounted to basically aggressive shoplifting. Plus there are plenty of invaders who also do slash-and-burn like the Mongols (or the Imperials that wiped out Owen and Beru's farm). But these guys were a little less developed - basically it almost didn't matter what they did because they were just blank antagonists for the heroes to test their mettle against.

But let's move on to what's really important. Bringing you all the latest BOOM MIC NEWS first on the Forum!



At least there weren't any Starbucks cups or water bottles lying around.

[Dogfish]

Kind of a worry you don't know the basics of a raiding economy. How do you plan to survive the apocalypse? I thought all you alpha male feed the two wolves inside types would have a plan for all this stuff.

Kill a man who knows how to fish and you'll feed yourself for a day, if you're okay with eating people. But make a man who knows how to fish think you're capable of killing him and he'll feed you for a lifetime. It's worked for everybody from the Vikings to the federal government.

But anywho, they had to condense the Magnificent Seven story quite a lot to fit the episode and we all know it anyway so it's no biggie.


I do hope they bring back Cara Dune too. She's a fun character to have around and really knocks the action scenes out of the park.

[shevek]

Kind of a worry you don't know the basics of a raiding economy.
..... Vikings to the federal government.
condense the Magnificent Seven story

All kinds of "raiding economies" (from the Vikings to Native American tribes) involved taking captives and slaves.

But perhaps (and this is just a thought) they wanted to deliberately distinguish the Klatooinians from other raiding economies in the Star Wars Universe such as the Tusken Raiders, who captured Anakin's mother and tortured her for a month.

[Femina]

I've seen productions images of Cara (and an IG droid for that matter) in areas distinctly NOT from these episodes so I expect we'll see her at least one more time.

[Abductorenmadrid]

Kind of a worry you don't know the basics of a raiding economy.
..... Vikings to the federal government.
condense the Magnificent Seven story

All kinds of "raiding economies" (from the Vikings to Native American tribes) involved taking captives and slaves.

But perhaps (and this is just a thought) they wanted to deliberately distinguish the Klatooinians from other raiding economies in the Star Wars Universe such as the Tusken Raiders, who captured Anakin's mother and tortured her for a month.

Being aliens you could also throw in a whole load of other factors, biology for one. If the villagers had particularly long life spans compared to their Klatoonian adversaries they may also have very few and infrequent births. On our human timescale you might get to raid the village for slaves once, but there might not be any new blood coming for a long while. Any new children that do come along might not reach "working" age within your own lifetime. Best just leave them to raise those fish from hatchlings and steal a bit every now n then...

[shevek]

Nothing on Episode 5 yet, folks? Yes I know there are a lot of distractions with all of these excellent fan-pleasing movie trailers and the Crisis crossover.

But speaking of fan pleasing....what was your impression of a return to Mos Eisley? Did it still seem like enough of a wretched hive of scum & villainy?
(The Cantina didn't seem very lively, no band was playing in the corner, it was nearly empty).

And what did everyone think of Ming-Na Wen as Fennec? (not Fenneca, which is our own Black Cat/Silver Sable styled villainess...)

Spoiler

I didn't think she got enough of a chance to shine yet, as she was defeated too easily. But she'll be back for sure.

This was a very simple and straightforward story, almost deceptively so. The humorous inclusion of Amy Sedaris as the mechanic was just filler, as she is known primarily as a comedienne, I believe. If there wasn't a need to care for Baby Yoda, she wouldn't even be there.

But the episode made its point by introducing the new character.

[Femina]

Well it's just that Episode 5 was kind of... meh? Shows had a couple of poor ones in a row really IMO. The half hour length I thought was hurting it at first... now I'm not entirely sure where I stand since last week I thought 'if we had another half hour this could have been better' but this week I think an extra half hour would have only had me tapping my toes as to when the episode was finally going to end.

Outside of a few cute and sometimes exciting callbacks nothing happened here that forwarded the plot or made much impact, it was EXTREMELY predictable, and many of the supporting characters were actually chaffing at my suspension of disbelief.

I'm no stranger to filler episodes, I don't mind them in Cartoons and the like (Though Clone Wars would have enormous strings of Filler silliness in between the meat of the great episodes which makes me a little bit worried about this) but I prefer filler episodes to come one at a time. Right now we're on a string of two, and with only 8 half hour episodes this season... I don't know why we're getting filler episodes AT ALL. It shouldn't be THAT hard to fill out four hours of plot when there are dozens of tighter productions of hour long dramas with larger episode counts.

Next weeks episode had better not be more fluff. That's all I'm saying here.

[tallyho]

Thanks for using the Spoiler button chaps.
Many Bothans died to get us that spoiler button...

[Dogfish]

Well it's just that Episode 5 was kind of... meh? Shows had a couple of poor ones in a row really IMO. The half hour length I thought was hurting it at first... now I'm not entirely sure where I stand since last week I thought 'if we had another half hour this could have been better' but this week I think an extra half hour would have only had me tapping my toes as to when the episode was finally going to end.

Outside of a few cute and sometimes exciting callbacks nothing happened here that forwarded the plot or made much impact, it was EXTREMELY predictable, and many of the supporting characters were actually chaffing at my suspension of disbelief.

I'm no stranger to filler episodes, I don't mind them in Cartoons and the like (Though Clone Wars would have enormous strings of Filler silliness in between the meat of the great episodes which makes me a little bit worried about this) but I prefer filler episodes to come one at a time. Right now we're on a string of two, and with only 8 half hour episodes this season... I don't know why we're getting filler episodes AT ALL. It shouldn't be THAT hard to fill out four hours of plot when there are dozens of tighter productions of hour long dramas with larger episode counts.

Next weeks episode had better not be more fluff. That's all I'm saying here.

I'm kind of accepting that this show is probably all filler. It's got a bit of an old school Saturday evening TV vibe, where everything goes back to how it was by the end of each episode. Which is bad if you want a story, but at least it brings the focus back to every episode being able to stand on its own.

Spoiler

Which is why, le sigh, I didn't think too much to this one either. Fleshed out the world a bit, but the main story didn't feel like much. I'm not sure for example why Mando was suddenly too broke to fix his ship, or why somebody who is apparently quite wealthy (since he could pay for a pro to do his job for him) was trying to get into the bounty hunters guild in the first place given that the earlier episodes had established that the bounty hunters guild was a grubby corner of the gig economy and folks were barely eating. I don't like to overthink things but that's just how my brain goes. All that being said, we did get a space battle, so that's kind of cool.

[shevek]

If you're looking to satisfy your sci-fi "corridor fetish", you can't get much better than Episode 6 which takes place mostly on an automated prison ship. The Twi'lek brother and sister team are fun too, and a bit snarly.

Speaking of which, Mando seems to be leaving so many people behind in these episodes that I wouldn't be surprised if the finale leads up to a whole bunch of them ganging up on him. But that's just a guess. Episode 6 definitely fun - somewhat of a Ridley Scott feel.

[Dogfish]

Weirdest thing about the last episode, and this goes back to the whole 'wrap it up for the end of the episode' thing...

Spoiler

...is how the X-Wing squad arrived at the site of a distress beacon, saw that a fighter was being launched, and blew the entire base to pieces. Didn't hail it, didn't identify it, didn't scan it, just said, "Well this is where the distress signal is coming from" and shot it to hell. I mean I get if you need the episode done in thirty seconds it works but Holy Crap You're Meant To Be The Good Guys.

[shevek]

Weirdest thing about the last episode, and this goes back to the whole 'wrap it up for the end of the episode' thing...

Spoiler

...is how the X-Wing squad arrived at the site of a distress beacon, saw that a fighter was being launched, and blew the entire base to pieces. Didn't hail it, didn't identify it, didn't scan it, just said, "Well this is where the distress signal is coming from" and shot it to hell. I mean I get if you need the episode done in thirty seconds it works but Holy Crap You're Meant To Be The Good Guys.

Also weird was how, despite having a immense budget to easily afford three random actors who could say one line each, the three X-Wing pilots were actually played by directors Filoni, Famuyiwa and Chow. Now that's fanboying/fangirling to the extreme!

[Lurkndog]

Weirdest thing about the last episode, and this goes back to the whole 'wrap it up for the end of the episode' thing...

Spoiler

...is how the X-Wing squad arrived at the site of a distress beacon, saw that a fighter was being launched, and blew the entire base to pieces. Didn't hail it, didn't identify it, didn't scan it, just said, "Well this is where the distress signal is coming from" and shot it to hell. I mean I get if you need the episode done in thirty seconds it works but Holy Crap You're Meant To Be The Good Guys.

Spoiler

It wasn't a distress beacon, it was an "avenge my death" beacon that called in a strike on the beacon's position. The guard says this explicity. I first interpreted that as "Republic Commandos are going to come and shoot everyone who isn't in a cell," but it turns out it was an airstrike instead.

Whether or not this makes sense in the context of Star Wars technology is up to debate, but it wasn't a completely random act of violence.

[shevek]

Fantastic strong ending for Mando Season 1. Can't wait for more as more things Favreau develop out there in the universe.

Great supporting role from our girl Carasynthia Dune of Alderaan. I'm sure she'll be back.

Jason Sudeikis is now the biggest villain on the Internet, but you'll have to watch the episode to find out why.

The only thing I can't figure out is why Moff Gideon gave them til nightfall to surrender after setting up the E-Web gun. After all, if he can't be trusted, what's the purpose of any grace period?

[Artee]

Loved it.

@the e-web thing: I think they said something about the Moff realising his troopers failed to get the Foundling, so he decided to wait so they could decide. Don't know why he gave them so long though.

[Dogfish]

Yeah a lot of the plot of the last episode wasn't the tightest chronologically or whatever (the whole bit with the scout troopers waiting, and then the IG droid catching them up on foot etc) but it was a decent finish.

Something I really liked in particular was the scene with the scout troopers slapping baby yoda about, because since the new trilogy and Disney's frankly creepy Stormtroopers Are Fun angle with the theme park and whatnot I feel like the waters have been getting a little muddy about the Empire being the bad guys. And seeing a couple of grunts picking on a little green baby was an important reminder of why we loved seeing the Death Star get blown up all those years ago, because the Space Nazis Are All Jerks.