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

Spoiler

No Nevarro battle today, color me quite surprised, or follow up on the Pershing plot. We know these are coming, and likely plotlines about Gideon and reuniting Mando groups, and there are only four more episodes to go.
Makes me a little nervous they can get everything for a satisfying finale. Admittedly, I worried about that in season 2 and that worked great. Course, I was also worried about that in Book of Boba Fett and that finale was kind of disappointing to me.

Man, I have seen so many jedi speculated to be the one that saved Grogu, but I don't think I saw anyone suggest this character. What fun.

So now the question is how he ended up in that camp of mercenaries in the first episode. Probably sad, though part of me wonders if maybe he set up some sort of payment system to have those mercs keep them safe while he did heroic jedi stuff.

Shoutout to those Naboo soldiers that gave their lives to save Grogu and Kelleran.
---Though their uniforms seemed a bit different than what I remember. Maybe they aren't Naboo, but then the ship...or I suppose the uniform just got updated over the years, certainly looks similar to the naboo palace guard.
---Kind of reminds me of Battlefront 2, where the jedi temple was also defended by "temple security forces" that looked identical to what Naboo troops wore in that game.

Lots of lose lasers in a crowded city. At least one person probably got lasered through their window.

I know star wars has a lot of dangerous creatures but I think this planet kind of takes the cake, at least in how frequently they are willing to attack groups of heavily armed humans.
---If they ever make another star wars mmo, I hope they have this planet as a high end zone.

I remember people saying that about season 2 as well. And the middle episodes of season 1 - after the intro, people were worried that the show had run out of ideas and was just going to be Din wandering around being attacked by bounty hunters. I look forward to people saying the same about season 4.

edit: Looking again that might have come out as dismissive. I just think a lot of times the plot relevance of certain bits doesn't really become clear until later on when the plot has actually unfurled. Like, the Prisoner was one of the ones most lambasted as filler when it came out, but in hindsight it is one of the most plot important episodes.

 

Fun episode. Well paced, neat interweaving of the past and present.

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Interesting too that it was a Naboo ship that got Grogu out.

Is it wrong that I wanted Paz Viszla to break out his massive tri-cannon on the hatchlings? No way is Ragnar not messed up by being eaten and vomited out. Really liked what happened to the bird - "There's always a bigger fish."

Are Mando ships part-TARDIS, as how did they fit those three hatchlings into it?

This was a lot of fun.

 

Spoiler

Watch Ahmed Best Jedi take Grogu to actual Jar-Jar then Jar-Jar screws up and sells him for magic beans or something

anyway I thought Jedi Temple Challenge was set during the High Republic but I guess not and all the contestants died

 

So in light of this episode the shape of the rest of the season is presumably...

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Episode 5- The Mandos going back to Navarro to save it from the pirates, huge action scene from the trailers.

Episode 6- New Republic stuff again? Finally a reintroduction to Gideon?

Episode 7/8- Return to Mandalore/Taming the Mythosaur/uniting the Mandalorians/defeating Gideon once and for all?

 

Spoiler

Well, Kelleran Beq is just about the very last character I would have expected to be Grogu's rescuer!

We can assume Kelleran is Canon, but not Jedi Temple Challenge necessarily. We hear the ghostly voice of Yoda on that show! Pretty sure we have zero examples of Yoda doing anything like that prior to the Rebellion era. I would imagine Kelleran has accompanied youngling on the Gathering, and perhaps missions similar to JTC but the precise content of that game show isn't what we should be thinking of.

Anyway, great episode. Can't help but think the Armorer chose that planet because it's such a difficult crucible for survival. Ragnarr has the worst damn luck though. Like he attracts giant beasts or something.

 

They packed a lot into 27 minutes, and the pacing was good IMO. I still hope to learn more about the CotW customs and rituals, but I'd rather have short episodes than longer ones that don't do justice to the subject matter.

 

I think they packed a lot more fx budget into this episode than they did the previous one!

 

Spoiler

I am shocked at how much more into this reveal as to who saved Grogu I am than literally every other fan theory, which I was kind of dreading. A cool new (yeah not technically but mostly) Jedi with mysterious connections to the Naboo? Giving Ahmed Best a serious role? Sick!

The present day episode is goofy as hell with the implication that Mandalorians have just been letting themselves get picked off by birds for months, and I can't stop laughing at the shot where Paz does a little hop and shouts "He's alive!" then flies directly into a giant bird's mouth. Also a lot of the CGI in the opening shot is pretty dodgy with some obvious digital Mandalorians moving like animatronics at Disneyland.

However! All of the stuff that isn't good is incredibly charming in a way that some of the best goofy Star Wars is, so I'm fully satisfied!

 

Was a fun ep.

I liked almost all of it.

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That naboo ship though, just felt so fan ficy.

Maybe this will tie into the OG battlefront 2 story.

 

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And I honest hope they retcon it.

 

Not just implications. We know even democratric Naboo just appointed their Senator. And we know it was a similar case with many others. One of the biggest reforms of the NR, which we learned in the Episode 7 visual dictionary, was that it required all Senators to actually be elected (but still didn't require the planetary governments themselves to be elected, and we know from Bloodline that titles of nobility still existed).


As for this episode, I honestly didn't even realize it was shorter until I came here. I liked all of it. Character development for Din, Grogu, and Bo, more names and character to the side characters of this Mandalorian group, some nice action, etc.

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And if they use the Mandalorian to actually redeem Jar Jar in this way... that would be damn impressive.

 

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Jar Jar doesn't need redeemed but I do wanna see him again

 

His whole look was High Republic-y.

Give this this character some Clone Wars stories! He needs a novel or a comic series or both.

I fully expect to see him on the show more.

 

Has anyone been getting this "Error code 41" on Disney+ for the Mandalorian, which says "the content is unavailable" amd then prevents you from viewing the episode list? I can still watch the episodes when I select it from the "continue watching" list, but I can't go back and watch a previous episode. And it's only happening for the Mandalorian...all other shows and movies are working normally.

 

That's a very cool way of looking at things. I actually imagine the Jedi much the same way myself (as far as being constantly communing the Force versus just accessing it for superhuman abilities). Neat to see an actor think so deeply about the in universe machinations of the Force. Now I'm hoping even harder we get some more Kelleran stories down the road (outside just the Mandalorian as I don't think there are many ways the character gets a happy conclusion to his story here)

 

That is truly a great description of the Force, and how it should be depicted.

 

If you mean the Force should be something the Jedi are constantly aware of and moving with, I agree. If you mean the specific analogy of it being akin to being submerged in water, I don't. Only because I think it is more interesting to have every Jedi, every Force-sensitive, perceive that immersion in different ways.

Kelleran experiences it like being immersed in water. Avar Kriss experiences a song. Burryaga perceives it as a great tree of life. Bell Zettifar, the fire of life. Cal Kestis like a immense void.

I'm curious as to how Luke might experience it, or Rey. I can't recall a book going into that just yet.

 

Who else thinks that

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That Naboo yacht and security guards belongs to Jar Jar Binks

?

 

I want to.

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it's the same model Anakin and Padme were flying in AOTC. I prefer to assume it's property of the Naboo government and it was assigned to representative Binks after that.