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

The one Padme had in AotC was destroyed by accident in a Jar Jar episode of TCW.

 

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OH MY GOD

 

This has been a good week for Star Wars...

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That was Zeb, right? I mean, not many Lasat out there...

 

So I'm pretty sure Paz Vizla was John Favreau in the suit this episode. Significantly different body shape to Tait Fletcher who played him earlier on in the show.

edit: Maybe just for the one scene, looked like it was back to the regular guy for the action scenes

 

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Credit had Steve Blum as Zeb. So yes!

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I like how The Armorer is like: Bo-Katan, go out and get the other tribes of Mandalore (including whoever helped claim Moff Gideon), I'll let you not have your helmet. The Armorer seems driven by the idea that the mythosaur showing itself to Bo-Katan means that she was worthy of her ways and respect should go both in Mandalorian culture. To reunite, you must respect the other and I think Armorer is going to do that because how else are they going to reunite.

Elia Kane is playing her own game clearly. Where is Colonel Tuttle from I wonder? And Zeb is totally there because we're going into Ahsoka. I wonder where Kallus is. And it seems clear that New Republic Command is operating out of Coruscant right now instead of the Senate's capital. Interesting way.

Hehe, things are getting interesting.

 

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The Rogue Squadron vibes early in the episode were absolutely sublime - all those alien pilots, the rec room/hangars on Delphi, the struggle against bureaucracy, bomber jackets over flightsuits, and Teva even had a green droid. I've not really thought of Zeb as a fighter pilot, but it was nice to see a Spectre other than Hera (and Chopper) in the NR.

It was good to see the Mandalorians take the initiative, too, and they didn't even destroy much (more) of the city. I was worried for a bit there that the Cumulus-class crashing would trigger a volcanic eruption, though. I guess Gorian Shard won't be showing up in Skeleton Crew after all, but Feyn still could. It did feet a little odd that they started talking about retaking Mandalore the minute after Greef Karga's speech about their new home.

It's interesting that the Armorer had Bo-Katan publicly unmask herself before going out recruiting. It didn't really seem necessary but I suppose they'll have to rip off that band-aid if they're gathering a more diverse group of Mandalorians, so starting with an outsider that the Covert has already learned to trust makes sense.

The Mandalorian plotline definitely took a positive turn this week, but the NR scenes were easily the highlight for me - even if they aren't getting their own show anymore, I really hope there are plans for more of this. I'm really glad that they've chosen Paul Sun-Hyung Lee as the focus character for this perspective, with all the other prior Mando/BoBF pilots as cameos (speaking of which, it looks like Dave Filoni's hat exists in-universe).

 

Spoilers for actor

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"Live from New York, it's Saturday Night!"

 

You know what? As middling and meandering as this season has been so far, this was actually a fun and pretty good episode. Some nice bits of continuity, like bringing back Paul Sun-Hyung Lee's investigation from Season 2, which at the time was something that seemed like it only existed in an effort to throw the viewer off when the lone X-wing arrived at Gideon's ship in the Season 2 finale. Tim Meadows in a minor role, continuing the show's history of stellar guest-casting. A lot of alien roles and a sizeable array of species (although the bad guys all being aliens while the helpless villagers were like 95% human was... dumb and lazy. Credit for the group of New Republic pilots being diverse, though, and the Snivvian bartender). A returning character from Episode 3's detour, demonstrating that it wasn't a random and pointless one-off! And...

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... the Mandos dropping in to save everyone felt like something out of The Unifying Force. And the scene with Paul Sun-Hyung Lee at the end was a neat one --- an Artoo unit launching its little eye thing into space as a probe? Heeeey, cool stuff.

A lot of credit to the ep. for finally giving the season a sense of direction, starting to tie a few disparate plot threads together while setting up what's to come later. I don't know if it's necessarily the most interesting direction ---

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Moff Gideon is the bad guy AGAIN! Ooooooh, scary. Kinda feels like The Golden Age of the Sith when Ludo Kressh kept coming back, only to have Naga Sadow just blow up his ship every time.

--- all while Baby Yoda, and to an extent even the Mandalorian himself, are relegated to being periphery players in a show that used to revolve around them completely.

Easily the best episode of the season yet, although it's not a very high bar to clear. And not too much to get excited about for the final three episodes, even if there is, surprisingly enough, a clear path ahead for them to tread. But at least Picard is knocking its third season out of the park after two earlier turds of seasons. Hey, it's the opposite of this show!

 

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More a case of the character himself rather than the actor. I feel I know Tuttle from somewhere in the Star Wars canon.

 

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So, a "Pirate Nation" was mentioned, wonder if it is indeed the Sovereign Latitudes of Maracavanya.

 

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I was wondering that myself, Cobb Vanth was from the same series after all.

 

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And this season in particular seems to lean into the Aftermath Trilogy with theme of NR's demilitarization. Hope for new info regarding the New Separatist Union.

 

I wonder if we'll ever get any names or background for the "extra" Mandalorians of the covert, it seems like the sort of thing a Visual Dictionary or Guide would have been all over. I haven't been keeping track, but I feel like there have been a few recurring armour designs that have stuck out.

 

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I was not prepared for the Zeb appearance, talk about bouncing up and down in my chair lol

 

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Indeed. I wouldn't mind seeing the corporate confederacy myself.

Given that Bo's old group are said to be doing mercenary work and I doubt the NR uses mercenaries, it would be cool if we caught up to them doing a job for one of them. Preferably against the other

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I am especially curious about the one who decided to take down a fighter by themselves.

 

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I wonder if the Mandos who rescued Gideon are leftover Imperial Super Commandos from Rebels.

 

This can be seen as a dual aspect episode:

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Aspect 1: The New Republic? **** the New Republic.

Aspect 2: Making Mandos cool again.

And it does both of those very well, plus Paz Visla gets to fire his big gun and a pirate has his arse royally handed to him.

A whole lot of fun.

 

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They missed out on adding Hot Kallus next to him in Live Action... Soooooon though!

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The Rogue Squadron vibes with a tropical base with a bar certainly were heavy! Now they just need to announce Rogue or Wraith Squadron as a D+ show please... not a movie.

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Definitely is and Vane's gonna come back reinforced hard one day! Makes me wonder how much Pirate Nation we will get to see when Mandos strike back. Or If aside Vane they adopted other Treasure Island names and characterisations as well.

Some more thoughts:

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Not only Mandos have or use beskar... so if beskar is in the Shuttle walls, it means someone with Beskar took Gideon, not that it was Mandos. Whoever had Mandalore last probably did, we knew Imperials were over Mandalore chasing Bo and Din away.

Best guess: It was Thrawn cosplaying as Jodo Kast in Mando Armor! Though if they boarded the shuttle by breaching it open to space... might be a Zero G Space Trooper or Dark Trooper reinforced with Beskar.

Fenn Shysa is still a surprise if they bring him back, come on, he was original classic Marvel, too!

Or life action Domina Tagge post ROTJ?

 

That was great fun, but man I wish the NR wasn't so kriffing inept.

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Carson needs to call up Wedge and ask for the Rogues help! That's literally the kind of thing they'd do to tell the the NR command to go kriff themselves for doing the wrong thing!

 

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Yeah, where are Mon Mothma, Admiral Ackbar, Princess Leia, Han Solo, General Madine and General Rieekan? The leaders of the rebellion?

Also

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I forgot about this until later but...
Did you see Dave Filoni and the other two S1 directors at the bar scene and Dave was wearing his hat? Cowboy Hat Tripper Wolf CANON!

 

I don't like how the New Republic is used as.

I have a hard time believing that this is what the OT heroes fought for

 

I mean they were fighting to restore the Old Republic, which was corrupt and inept in living memory. The galaxy is still riven with the crisis sowed by Palpatine over 30 years ago. It’s not surprising the New Republic is struggling and somewhat failing given they are trying to balance not leaning into militarism, but also trying to keep order.

But also if the New Republic was competent there’d be very little story. They’d sweep away all the pirates and there’d be peace. They’d be able to muster enough firepower to hunt down the Imperial remnants. The only threats they’d face would be from without - which undermines the social critique SW is always going for. “Our government is great, we’re just threatened from without” isn’t exactly the stuff the franchise is made out of.

 

In a galaxy of trillions a patrol jockey on the rim isn't going to have a direct line to lege dart heroes