A/V The Mandalorian (Jon Favreau SW Live Action show) - Now featuring former Man in DeLorean

Being fair, a whole lot of people don't know the term strandcast, it's pretty low profile.

 

Not to mention the dark side theme this episode that only showed in ROTS opera scene and when Snoke is around or hinted at.

 

I wasn't a huge fan of this episode. It had some interesting bits. It was nice getting to see Coruscant and actually see the New Republic in action. I am curious to see where the events of this episode lead to.

The comparisons with Andor are appropriate, but I think this harms this Mando episode in contrast. The setting and tone of the episode are similar. There are clear parallels in what this episode is trying to do in comparison with what Andor did. But the writing and directing for the two shows are on completely different levels. Mando's cool factor keeps it in play in my mind, but its weaknesses really stand out in an episode like this. Maybe if Andor didn't exist I'd be able to better appreciate what this episode was trying to do, but being not that far removed from Andor the contrast damages it.

This isn't to say I hate the episode. But I do like the idea of it more than the execution.

 

If Andor is going to heavily influence other live-action shows I'm all for it.

 

In a recent interview Filoni was asked about a "big post ROTJ event" Mando and other shows work towards and may continue beyond even. This is old news, but while still true according to Filoni, I have some new ideas about it.

A while ago I speculated what everybod by now believes, that the big event will be post ROTJ Thrawns return to the galaxy, canon version. Bad Batch with Mount Tantiss, Ahsoka show, etc. all are hinting heavily at it. But what if it is not that? I mean yes Thrawn is going to return, or at least show his fate somehow be it in flashbacks or live action post ROTJ. But what if they are not rehashing the Thrawn Trilogy with new characters instead of Big Three. What if Thrawn is inevitable but not the big event, and thus a misdirection?

What if the big event is bigger than the expected Thrawn would be. I mean, Thrawn is epic, but Thrawn uniting the warlords under him to threaten the NR is already done in Legends. Thrawn joining the First Order only to loose it to Snoke or else would be anticlimatic and they can not top Thrawn's Noghri end from Legends anyway. Thrawn switching sides, redeemed by Ezra and joining heroes or the NR to help them against some UR threats? Would be nice, but.. I can't see that happen either. It'd be "monster of the month" with some UR threat like Grysk or else not giving me the feels that they will be seen beyond the books. Life action needs another threat for that scenario and there is only one that outclassed Thrawn.

This big event will have to not only unite storylines, but also build towards the ST without overshadowing it and without being something that would force the NR to re-arm itself.

What if the big event will be something else from Legends, redone, reinterpreted and expanded. What if they bring back the Emperor from the dead before Rise of Skywalker? DARK EMPIRE recanonised kinda in a new way through the tv verse.

Crazy I know, but it would make sense on several fronts because:
... NR Coruscant is still vivid, yet as per Duel of the Fates a dark place that never recovered from something unknown. By now we have seen it did not suffer much so far from the relocation of the capital away from it. A joint Imperial Warlord Blitz may trash it enough to never recover if the NR does not rebuilt it because it is not the capital anymore.
... Ahsoka and Ezra are both guardians of the World between Worlds and the only threat to that would be Palpatine who tried to access it before and digs for another portal on Exegol as per Visual Dictionary for TROS
... Beaumont Kin in TROS cited dark science and cloning as possibility for the Emperor to come back to life then. Is he talking from experience and an earlier event where that happened through those, after which the Emperor was thought to be dead for good. But as we saw in TROS.. not entirely. Kinda the fear of Anakin Solo of Palpatine being still alive post Dark Empire or returning through whoever carries him, actually done for canon.
... We know in Shadow of the Sith that Luke senses a darkness rising and is looking for it but not finding it so far but getting close to Exegol even. What if, to deflect these investigations, Palpatine needs to show himself or a clone of himself and "die" so they will stop looking for his true self hidden further away?
... Strandcasting and Snoking already in Mando, what if Dr. Pershing will be the one to achieve the Emperors cloning somehow in future seasons? Grogu's blood may be tied to this even.
... What if the heroes knew Snoke, before seeing his darker side, as per Visdictionary, because he helped them against Palpatine but fought fire with fire, darkness with darkness? So far we only saw Snoke already opposed to the big three heroes, not their good times they got along before that. Maybe Palpatine used Snoke to fake his "final" Dark Empire death... maybe Snoke played Empatayos Brand style and took the Emperors spirit in claiming he decomposed into the Force or somesuch? But without dying himself but that was responsible for his scars long before his duel with Luke?
... with Sith Princess Rey Palpatine unfindeable and Vader's heir Ben Solo not yet ready to pick up the glove of Darth Vader... both's stories may be preceded by another Palpatine family tale... Dark Empire. And how Luke's dark stint to infiltrate the Dark Side had Ben loose trust in his later Jedi Master. It'd explain what Ben felt and saw in the flashback and Hut when Luke seemed dark and to strike him down. It explains Luke's fear when searching Ben's mind, to see if the Emperor hijacked his body, like in Legends he tried with Anakin Solos!
... Luke's reluctance, exile etc. all would make more sense if it is not just what we were told so far that lead to it but overshadowed by a Dark Empire, his own failings and shortcomings and fears to repeat that for his students and Ben especially.


Thus a Canon DARK EMPIRE would serve the DU on many fronts as a big event and as leadup to the ST, maybe improve it in the eyes of those it was not enough for, and add or change the perception of some scenes and backstory for it.


Calling it now, Thrawn is peanuts.. we are getting DE back! If they really want to keep Thrawn alive.. we may even see Thrawn working against Palpatine with some heroes.

PS: @Sinrebirth you'd need to either incorporate a "second" Dark Empire into your OneCanon... or somehow make both the same. Hope you love challenges!

 

Spoiler

I've been thinking a little bit about Dr. Pershing in this episode of the Mandalorian. And I've developed what might be considered a controversial opinion. Pershing largely has only himself to blame for the position he finds himself in.

Please understand that I'm not trying to victim blame anyone here. If anyone is truly at fault here it's Elia Kane. But I can't see Pershing as entirely blameless for how things turned out.

A lot of people have been pointing to the questionable aspects of the amnesty program.

Lets leave behind the mind flayer/mitigator for a moment.

First, I'll concede that it's probably not a good idea to use a droid as a therapist. A human, or an alien for that matter, would probably be more aware of the signs that Pershing was clearly dissatisfied with his lot in life and wanted to do more. But there's no indication that Pershing could have been penalized or sent for reconditioning or anything bad if he actually said, "Now that you mention it, I do feel rather put off by my current work environment. I'd like to speak with someone about it."

I've never been in therapy, but I imagine therapy only really works if you are truthful with the therapist about your problems. And Pershing isn't. He asks a question about doing his research recreationally and is told not to. But there is clearly some interest in his work if the reaction from the audience at the opera house is any indication. I get that some of them are probably just saying platitudes, but I can't imagine that no one in that audience wasn't at least a little interested in making organ cloning cheaper and more available.

So put a proposal together. Try to give another lecture, and then, when people are talking to you after the lecture, speak up and say "hey, Mr. fancy robes, thanks for attending the event. Oh, you know Senator so and so? Do me a favor and let her know I've got some ideas that could revolutionize the medical field. It'll be a real vote winner."

Pershing claims his work could make clone organs more readily available to less well off worlds, but he never shows the New Republic authorities that his assistance would make the critical difference in this research.

It might not go anywhere, but who knows unless you try?

And then there's Pershing at his job. The guy pushing the cart around who Pershing interacts with sort of discourages him from doing what he wants to do, but mentions that he could fill out a form to get what he wants. He's subtly discouraging Pershing from filling out the form because he claims he's never heard of someone in the program getting a positive response. And Pershing just says to forget about it.

Hey man, leave no stone unturned! Just because it's unlikely you'll get something doesn't mean you shouldn't exhaust your options.

I know it can be very hard for people to assert themselves. Believe me, I get that. But Pershing just meekly goes along with it and then tries to get the lab equipment behind the collective backs of the officers at the amnesty program. Is it any wonder they think he's relapsed? He lied to them. Why should they believe someone who relapsed who also worked for Moff Gideon, (a man who is apparently evil even by Imperial standards if the reaction of the other patients in the program is anything to go by)?

If he'd given some firmer signs that his work could be used for uncontroversial medical advancements, I'm sure the information would have been passed up to someone in authority. Who knows, after a couple more months in the program he might have been recruited by the New Republic to continue his research. But we'll never know. Because he didn't exhaust all of his options before he jumped off the deep end.

Even then, the New Republic is under no real obligation to give Pershing what he wants. We might sympathize with Pershing. He seems like a morally conflicted guy. But he still participated in the experiments on Grogu. Who knows what other ethically questionable stuff he got up to? I know he said he was forced to and was clearly not a sadist, but he was still a participant in unethical practices.

In real life the US is still getting criticized for recruiting German scientists with very dubious backgrounds as part of Operation Paperclip to help them win the Space Race. Can you imagine the heat the New Republic would get from its member worlds and citizenry if word got out that they had an ex-Imperial scientist working on genetic engineering for them? There'd be an uproar.

So yeah, I feel some sympathy for Pershing. But he wasn't screwed over by the New Republic exclusively, and Kane didn't put a gun to his head. He dug his own grave, and Kane buried him.

 

I think we are headed to some variation of the Thrawn trilogy, with the First Order in the wings it might even be a bit more akin to Hand of Thrawn. Now, that said, if Thrawn is sort of the founder of the First Order or is predecessor and Snoke comes in with a coup of sorts: I think that makes sense as Snoke being more of an overt C'Baoth. But a successful C'Baoth. Would be interesting if we see a Snoke that is not so deformed initially, but becomes some due to a conflict with Luke. Didn't the source books say that was something that happened? Which is still hinted at in The Rise of Kylo Ren.

Anyway, very excited to see where this leads in this season let alone presumably in Ahsoka.

 

Having Pershing literally in the centre of that same opera house, talking about strandcast research seems like a very deliberate choice.

 

from what I understand from the TROS novel Palpatine awoke in his clone body immediately after being tossed by Anakin but I don't know if it's confirmed that time actually passed in between that, and Pershing could be making Palpatines and Snokes and eventually it hits the jackpot but it could have taken years that Palpatine didn't notice.

 

From what I recall, wasn't that idea that the clone body we see in TROS is a flawed clone that they were still trying to perfect up until Rey came along, then Palpatine wanted to use her either for continued refining of the clone process or straight up possession of her?

 

They failed repeatedly to produce a perfect clone or suitable strandcast host. Dathan was perfectly healthy, but he didn’t inherit the force sensitivity required.

Though, there could be a conintuity issue here. This episode kind of suggests that Pershing was the one to actively come up with the strandcast concept of using multiple DNA sources to create an original being though genetic engineering, whereas Shadow of the Sith suggests that they had already done it on Exegol during the height of the Empire with the birth of Dathan.

 

I think he's just been in a broken clone body since he "woke up" although I am postulating it wasn't instantaneous and they may need Pershing to make a Palpatine or Snoke or two to get Palpatine to the coathanger Emperor Palpatine Clone we see in TROS.

 

I didn't think it was the same place? Looked very different.

 

The stage was a bit different, but the exterior was the same.

 

Spoiler

Pershing got straight up abandoned in that machine.

 

Random thought, but isn't it a bit odd that

Spoiler

Pershing was presenting strandcasting as a revolutionary breakthrough, but even someone as kind of ignorant as Din was familiar with the concept and asked if Grogu was one, and Kuil had apparently worked in "gene farms" that made for three human lifetimes.

 

I kind of want Bo Katan

Spoiler

to pop of her helmet, give them the middle finger and buzz off.

Okay so now do the Children of the Watch Mandos eat in rooms by themselves? Or do they keep pulling up their masks a little bit to drink soup when in the cafeteria?

 

Spoiler

My guess is that it will be shown in the next episode, when Bo will try to adjust to new life.

Now I want the Armorer to be Rook Kast even more, since her faith will be strong enough to accept even an old enemy.

 

Unsuccessfully, he had no Force ability.

 

The way Pershing was talking made it sound like he proposing a revolutionary new science that was building off what the Kaminoans established with cloning. Which makes it seem like the concept of strandcasting was something he originated.

But as has been brought up by @MercenaryAce, Kuil spoke of having experience with it too....I’m going to chalk this up to Jon Favreau being a bit slapdash with his scripting.

 

Spoiler

I'm guessing it's more about Pershing's work develope more affordable organ cloning than more generalized cloning.

 

Weird to me he went from that to data entry. Surely some of the rich people there could sponsor his work.

 

Not a problem to corrupt elite, that can pull the right strings.