Full Series Grade the Episodes 4.01-4.02: "Heroes of Mandalore" (Spoilers Allowed)

I would agree with 8 Good but room to improve...

 

Loved it. Sabine continues to be amazing and seeing Bo Katan again made me so happy.

 

I give it an 8. Far from the best one they have done, but certainly an above average episode in my POV.
Certainly could have been better without the literal plot armor at the beginning of episode two.
I will grant that nostalgia for TCW might have driven up my score a bit.

 

8 - Needs more Kanera
But seriously, pretty solid but they haven't touched TotA or a few others. Can't wait to see how it all comes together.

 

Second half was pretty good, first half automatically loses two points for Ezra cringiness. Extra two points taken off for Ursa and Tristan's ridiculous survival.

 

Solid. Hated the Jedi jumping on people and tanks.

Loved the bo katan handoff in the end.

Didn’t like how simple
Sabine’s switch of the engine was.


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6/10 from me. It could have been so much better... very average season premiere but with a few highlights: Kanan and Hera, Bo-Katan and Thrawn. Ezra dragged it down from 7/10

 

7/10. Good action, more Mando-lore. Too many jokes, cop out survival of Sabine's mother and brother.

 

it's hard to beat siege of lothal, but i thought this was still a pretty amazing season opener. my only complaint would have to be ezra. did we really need him to play the jar-jar role for half the time he was onscreen?

 

6/10: These landed in the middle, mostly because it felt a bit repetitive and the Ezra comic relief was more annoying than humorous.

 

+ Kanan/Hera discussion
+ Nice animation, they really improved since season 1 even if budget clearly limit them to create more complex environments.
+ Satine references! Siege of Mandalore reference!
+ I loved how Sabine and her father bonded over their love of art. And he's named Alrich Wren.
+ Sabine's armor is 500 year old, jeez.
+ Bo-Katan becoming the leader of Mandalore (spoiled by the trailer).
+ Chopper being Chopper.
+ Sabine facing her past and what she did.
-/+ Ezra's shenanigans. Not terrible but still very much in-character.
-/+ Soundtrack was ok but not my favorite.
-/+ Sabine's dilemma to choose between fear or hope.
- Sabine's mother and brother conveniently being the only survivors, which kinda nullified the emotion of the end of the first episode.

Overall a very enjoyable episode but not my favorite premiere.
7/10

 

Been looking forward to watching this all day.

It may very well be the Mandalorian fan in me that influenced my viewing, but I loved this premier. I liked it even more than Siege Of Lothal. I was just glued to this episode. However, like others, I did have some quarrels.

+Sabine's past has finally been told in good detail. To think but a year ago we knew so little, but in such short time we've been hammered with history. It's gotten to the point where I think she has an adequate background as a character, something which she lacked for so long. I honestly think that she's the most developed character alongside Kanan now, which is surprising because she was the least developed not too long ago. How can anyone call her a perfect Mary Sue after this premier is beyond me.
+I didn't like the Wren family that much by the end of Season 3, but with some more time I've warmed up to them. I like Papa Wren's clear enthusiasm for art, and it's obvious why Sabine is such an enthusiast for art too, something we hadn't seen in Mandalorians till her existance. Mama Wren is actually pretty badass, and is the clear influence for the warrior side of Sabine. She's a perfect mesh of her parents. Tristan is still meh, his little bicker with Ezra was amusing though.
+Kanera is as official as it's probably ever gonna get
+Bo-Katan felt appropriate in this arc, and it's certainly nice to see her again. I think it was fitting that she ultimately be given the Darksaber, she's a fan favourite and no one can question her loyalty to the Mandalorian people.
+BESKAR IS CANON AGAIN!!

-Ezra's comedic moments were not appreciated in a scenario so serious.
-Missed opportunity to have some real impactful consequences with having Sabine's mother and brother die to her weapon. It would've increased the stakes and her personal commitment. Though I doubt she'd have spared Saxon if they did die. But I liked the scenes with Ursa afterwards, so I'm a little conflicted. Overall it's a negative point for me. It lessens the impact of the first part ending.

Overall, it's a 9/10 for me. I wanted Mandalorians and Sabine development, I got plenty of both.

 

Looking back at the premiere, one thing I noticed is the growing bond between Ezra and Sabine. They seem to get closer as time goes by, and I really liked the smile they gave each other at the end of the special.

It seems more and more a possibility that whatever is going to happen, the paths of Ezra and Sabine will somehow be connected in the future.

 

I gave it a 3. After seeing the 1st 2 Episodes of this 4th and final season, I must say that I am TOTALLY underwhelmed. I really, really want to love this series. I like Season 1. I love the episoides with the inquisitors, Tarkin, Maul, and Vader. Great stuff. The other seasons have had OK moments. But, something feels off. I adore the Clone Wars series. I feel that George Lucas's absence on this series is hurting in a number of ways - when I compare why I loved the Clone Wars and not Rebels. These 1st 2 Episodes for me felt basically like this...

* Yay! Mandalorians.
* Look --- MORE Mandalorians.
* Lots of jet packing around with people shooting and missing each other.
* Oh, look. There's Kanan & Ezra.
* More Mandaloreans standing around and talking.
* Oh, wait! There's a cool weapon. Wow! Sabine created the weapon that was used to kill her mother and brother. Now, THAT is clever! Here we go. It's about to get better...
* Oh, wait... the mother and brother survived. (Cue game show failure music: "Wah----wah---wah---waaaaaahhhhhhhh....")
* More mandalorians fighting stormtroopers.
* Good guys all escape. ...AGAIN.
* Roll credits.



So, 2 of the final 16 (is it 16...?) --- no, I should say the season PREMIER Episodes of this series were wasted on this story - for WHAT reason? This is the LAST season. Every episode should have impact. There should be more Vader. There should be Palpatine showing up. Members of the ghost crew need to start getting killed off. Let them die honorably. But, start moving on. Lead us into the events of Rogue One. I feel like Filoni spins his wheels too much on this series with stuff that most people don't really want or need to see.

.

 

I entirely forgot to grade the episode. 7/10.

Overall I enjoyed it, but it had some things that bothered me. The whole thing about needing Sabine to work on the weapon, as if no one else within the Empire was capable of completing her work, seemed very unbelievable.

Then we have the scene with Ursa and Tristan. Not that I want to see them die, but why even bother if you going to resolve it like that? How could you even escape from a weapon like that?

Her mother and her brother killed by the weapon Sabine herself created. The impact would have been very deep.

Also, can the Empire actually hit something for once?

 

6/10 for me.

I really wanted to love this opener. Parts of it were so cinematic, and the characters had some really great moment. I love Sabine lamenting her weapon, the reveal that her father is an artist, and Thrawn's cameo. Not to mention Bo Katan being great and all the fun Mandalorian lore.

But it just felt so cheap. All I could think of when we saw Mandalore was how much money they saved on the flat featureless terrain. When they flew by the camera at the end of the second episode, it felt like I was watching a bunch of 3d models in Blender. Not to mention how lifeless some of the fights were, especially the first one of the episode which featured like 8 stormtroopers total.

And its a shame, because I KNOW this show can be great. The effects in the Dutchess test aftermath looked superb, and the scene was excellent. But then we have people in jetpacks, supposedly amazing warriors, winning fights by dodging slightly and kicking dudes, and everything just goes back to feeling cheap.

 

To be fair, it's already been established that Mandalore is a barren wasteland. I doubt this was just due an effort to save money.

 

Except they could have gone into Sundari and actually shown the same type of civil war er saw during the Clone Wars, and instead just hung out on the outskirts for an hour in small fights with less than 15 total people. The conflict was only at its largest in the Star Destroyer hanger, and even then it felt underwhelming.

 

To be fair once again, TCW had an enormous budget with no desire to make a profit.

 

That's not an excuse for something not being enjoyable.

 

I enjoyed it very much.