Star Wars: The Mandalorian [ Spoilers ] [Disney+] (US Pace)

Loafing Oaf · 19-03-2023 6:55pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120356023#Comment_120356023

And the next one will apparently only about half an hour

https://www.inverse.com/entertainment/mandalorian-episode-4-runtime-standalone

Well they're certainly keeping us guessing. Maybe this one will see a brief, dramatic re-entry to the story by Moff Gideon?

pixelburp · 19-03-2023 8:37pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120376566#Comment_120376566

I do kinda miss the days when TV shows were 42 minutes thanks to network TV. You knew how long you had to work with, made evenings easier to schedule. Feel like you got tighter scripts too, because of the hard ceiling </first-world-problems>

Tony EH · 20-03-2023 2:20pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120374977#Comment_120374977

I've no idea whether the New Republic still going or dead in the water. The sequels weren't very clear about that. They weren't clear about anything, and in that respect they could probably just continue on post 'The Rise of Skywalker' as if nothing happened. Actually, if Disney do have any plans for any stories taking place after their sequel trash, then that's the best way to go really. Just sort of quietly not mention them or the events therein and hope nobody asks any questions. 😄

As far as Coruscant is concerned, it makes sense that when Imperial personnel and apparatuses were removed from institutions there, that they would be replaced by New Republic functionaries, even if Hosnian Prime was the capital (AFAIK, I'm not knowledgeable on this rubbish at all). Also I think Leia was having some difficulties with New Republic politics, politicians and whatnot, and her familial connection with Vader was revealed in an attempt to discredit her, which is why her "resistance" faction exists in the first place. So it appears that all was not well in the new era from the offset.

It was nice to see in the last episode of 'The Mandalorian' that there's are certain discomfort involved with everything post Empire and it isn't all the hunky dory future that they galaxy was promised.

With regards to Star Trek, I've absolutely no idea what the craic is there. Was never that big a fan and my trek viewing is limited to the original series, movies and bits and pieces of TNG. But by all reports from people I know that do watch everything Trek, they abhor the direction that its gone in. Too much Speis pew pew's and not enough Star Trek seems to be the general consensus.

flazio · 20-03-2023 6:13pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120379207#Comment_120379207

The perceived Trek problem is that it's less military procedural / war games and more emotional and social justice aware. The four letter W word is bandied a lot.

However, the two animated series, the new pre TOS series and the last Picard series are getting well received.

Loafing Oaf · 21-03-2023 11:32am

Carl Weathers has revealed the title of next episode, The Foundling

https://www.inverse.com/entertainment/the-mandalorian-episode-4-the-foundling

Could we be getting some serious backstory for Grogu or Mando, or both?

thegreengoblin · 21-03-2023 2:03pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120374447#Comment_120374447

I know that inter-connection of eras and storylines is a big thing in Star Wars but sometimes it can be a pain. A show needs to be able to stand on its own two feet and if you're not that familiar with what came before or after then it's no big deal. Andor achieved this perfectly.

I will definitely watch these other upcoming shows but I want to watch them on their own terms, and not find myself thinking 'well, they can't really do this because they did that in Mando' or whatever.

thegreengoblin · 21-03-2023 2:07pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120368618#Comment_120368618

That's a bizarre take. I've invested enough in this show (which I find to be mostly enjoyable btw) to be justified in calling out any weaknesses. I've done so after past episodes and I'm sure I will do so again but I am absolutely not going to stop watching it!

AMKC · 22-03-2023 10:49am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120382479#Comment_120382479

Nope none of that. Its on OK episode but we find out nothing new that we did not know already.

The boys father is very impulsive do and what are they going to do with three chick's.? Train to fly them maybe.

Oh and yes the episode is only 30mins.

CastorTroy · 22-03-2023 1:34pm

I'd say they're training them, yeah.

So are we to believe the kid lived inside the creature for all that time?

And Jar Jar became a jedi!

Loafing Oaf · 22-03-2023 2:36pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120386639#Comment_120386639

Well we do get a lengthy flashback to Order 66, no additional info about it though IIRC...

I wonder was Grogu a particularly special padawan that he merited rescue over the others

Maybe Bo-katan is a Game of Thrones fan and fancies herself as mother of dragons...

BruteStock · 22-03-2023 8:45pm

I liked the last episode about the guy in the Roy Batty costume better than this one.

This season feels disjointed. Different plot lines should overlap in each episode to provide a better viewing experience

Slydice · 22-03-2023 11:15pm

3.4: This is the way!

I was wondering why yer man was making it up the cliff so much better than the others with his bigger rocket pack and gun. Being the father of the kid was a big Aha! moment!

Bo-Katan definitely shaping up to be a leader here. Part believer in the way again maybe too.

Like that bit of art at the end that made Grogu look a bit like Godzilla for those rock/crab things 🙂

Relikk · 23-03-2023 12:06am

Delighted to see Ahmed Best getting some time to shine. Fair play to him.

johnny_ultimate · 23-03-2023 12:44am

It’s oddly impressive how this season simultaneously has the most traditional, season-long story of the three and yet also feels like the most incoherent, dull and disjointed of the three.

A show that increasingly has few - if any - interesting ideas about where it’s going or what to do with its characters.

pixelburp · 23-03-2023 6:41pm

First the positive. Ahmed Best getting to play hero was really nice; not in your face but for anyone who knew who it was? Fair play to whoever made it happen.

Also Carl Weathers getting to direct? Good to know that experience shooting Scandal Makers fadó paid off 🤭🤣

The rest? Dear god this show has bottomed out into a total chore; tedious beyond belief. I'm not even sure how to parse something this slapdash, meandering, genuinely boring and singularly uninteresting as the arc around the band of what are literally religious zealots. Really stupid zealots at that; the whole pointless (so very pointless) segue about the kid made no sense whatsoever, not even internal logic in places. And such is these nutjobs' lack of basic relatable humanity, the episode could barely make them seem to care the kid was about to be eaten!! Treated like, suprise, a video game fetch quest.

Look, the idea of a main character who doesn't take his helmet off can work - but you gotta take the helmet off eventually, and when you do? Give it a good impact. One of Season 2s abiding moments was that small but tense scene when Din had to take a helmet off while infiltrating an Empire base. You could see Pedro Pascal's face writhing with discomfort as he sat there, visible to all. It was great stuff, and was one of the show's best episodes to date.

Now ... ... what? They're pulling the reverse where Bo Katan learns to ... ... Uh, keep the helmet on? Am I truly supposed to give two shíts about this humourless band of bucket heads as they .. lol spar with flamethrowers? JFC, genuinely: lol. I am getting so very tired of being asked to care about this Boba Fett cosplay convention.

I have no qualms voicing my disinterest and broad dislike for the Jedi in Star Wars - but fair play Dave Filoni, you've found a grouping somehow even more tedious and emotionally inert than those space wizards. If I hear "this is the way", one more time... ...?

God Andor spoiled us rotten.

murpho999 · 23-03-2023 11:03pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120389802#Comment_120389802

Are spoilers really needed in a thread with Spoilers in title.? Makes it awkward to read.

johnny_ultimate · 24-03-2023 12:22am

I’m not one to nitpick logic holes, especially in something as fundamentally silly as Star Wars, but - personally - if my social club / training area was routinely attacked by giant monsters, I would simply find somewhere else to socialise / train.

CastorTroy · 24-03-2023 2:31am

Especially when they pointed out he wasn't the first or even the second one to be taken by that creature.

robinph · 24-03-2023 5:26am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120394297#Comment_120394297

But don't shoot at the creature because then it will kill the kid, let's chase after it instead, down a canyon that a gliding thing with wingspan as wide as the canyon would definitely be getting thermals in and not need to flap it's wings frantically to stay aloft, oh look we've run out of rocket fuel exactly the same as every other time and the creature has got away to it's lair which we don't know where it is... But at least we didn't shoot at it when we had the chance right at the beginning of the attack so the creature survives, and even better so does the kid get to live through whatever unknown terror it's about to endure.

pixelburp · 24-03-2023 7:22am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120394347#Comment_120394347

And Katan flies back to tell them where the nest is, event though it probably wasted time they wouldn't have had. Don't they have radios in their deathtrap they call home? Suppose you gotta have the mission briefing cut scene.

And then when we do arrive at the nest? Oh let's wait til morning and eat some food instead. Time to chill; oh but we can't eat together so let's all split up into the dark, alone in this hostile place, all so we can take off our helmets.

Plus we learn later the child is Beefy Fett's son? A point just thrown in like it was some huge twist or reveal? You'd think Screenwrititng 101 would at least have him be all rush rush rush, then it'd have given him some weight or emotional impetus. Yet he was as chill about going after the kid as the rest.

It's no wonder these dinwits' planet was glassed. They're morons.

NIMAN · 24-03-2023 8:44am

When we first were introduced to Mandalorians via Boba Fett in the original Star Wars films, they seemed such a cool and mean race.

The last few years of TV has shown them to be absolute idiots and very boring people.

The mystique has been absolutely shattered.

Relikk · 24-03-2023 9:43am

They were handled fine in games in the past. They were a society built on conquering and proving themselves in war against any opponents, win or lose. Granted, their planet was glassed by the Empire, but this little cult with their nonsense helmet rules (that shite needs to die ASAP) makes that seem like an ancient memory.

TheIrishGrover · 24-03-2023 10:59am

Uuuuufffff.....

When you saw the dozens of CGI Mandalorians doing their training (I'm assuming they have about 5 suits) for some reason that scene in Wayne's World where he opened a random door and there was a bunch of special forces training popped into my head. Just all in little groups fighting eachother.

Then you have that excruciating bit with Grogu and the other kid. As said before, Werner HERTZOG was in the first episode. There were bloody stormtrooper helmets on spikes. A guy got cut in half with a door. STILL pretty family friendly in that there was nothing TOO overt. But now?

The flashback scene was pretty good. Even if it was just to give Ahmed Best another shot. In fairness to the showrunners, they did make it look very like the Prequels (For all the good and bad involved). And then "Oh look, they crashed at that bit from the last episode. They must be making the most out of their expensive single physical set prop"

The the pterodactyl flies in (As has been said, not for the first time) and they immediately fly off (KNOWING it was going to out-distance them) instead of, y'know, maybe taking a couple into a ship and flying after. As Starbuck's ship flies past you could almost imagine them thinking: "Oooooooooohhhhhhh. Yeah... Yeah, we have SPACESHIPS!!! Right"

Then they brought out the chicks... Good God. Are they gonna give THEM helmets too? And did the compositing of the early effects seem pretty off? The backgrounds looked very good in the flying sequence with the pterodactyl but the characters looked crap over them Much better (Flawless) in the actual fight later on)

It's just... It's SO silly but unnecessarily so

flazio · 24-03-2023 11:13am

I was told by my trainer that I needed to get more protein into my diet. I asked them how do I do that. They gave me a pot of protein powder and said "This is The Whey"

pixelburp · 24-03-2023 11:17am

The helmet stuff is the worst kind of canon over-cranked into proper nonsense. It wouldn't even be so bad were these Mandos not all so pompous and self-serious all of the time. Why does this franchise love its institutions so inert? Would it kill Filoni and Favreau to show an occasional meal, games or just a sense of community? (though it would beg the question: how does ~100 people eat "alone" every day in those caves?)

Bad enough we can't see these people's faces - at least let us see they're not always training and being so sullen. I get they're warriors - but even frickin' Klingons have opera, they drink like crazy people and feast! Sure they're Space Vikings, but that at least's something vaguely relatable - alluring even. The idea of living constantly by one's Id has a certain enticement.

No, let's just stand around these virtual sets saying "this is the way". Why would anyone want to be part of these zealots? 'Cos ... ... uhhh...

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120394850#Comment_120394850

You'd have thought the one lesson taken from Episode II and III was the "Yoda" specious shouldn't be seen fighting. Cos it invariably, inevitably, looks goofy and just stupid.

On the tone issue: coming back to the house the other day, I saw a school kid - aged maybe 6, 7, 8? - wearing a Grogu backpack. Really underlined that Mando might have started as one thing, but you definitely feel marketing and merchandise has dragged it in another. Just wish the writing was better 'cos just the tone might have gone more children-focused, it doesn't excuse the lazy structure.

TheIrishGrover · 24-03-2023 11:33am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120394934#Comment_120394934

Would it kill Filoni and Favreau to show an occasional meal, games or just a sense of community? Bad enough we can't see these people's faces - at least let us see they're not always training and being so sullen. I get they're warriors - but even frickin' Klingons have opera,

Indeed. The closest we got was "Son" "Dad"... Clink clink as their helmets clash (Oooo-errrrrr). Well, they didn't really clash but yeah, it was like you say. Klingons are one-note-We-are-warriors: Today is a good day to die. But, as you say, at least they give them their singin' n' fightin' n' drinkin'...... Wait a minute...

I mean it hit idiotic proportions: "How do we eat?" "We walk off individually into the hostile desert. In the middle of the night. Intentionally out of sight from eachother to eat a sandwich....... As would be good battle tactics of course" "That's insane. Impractical. Dangerous and tactically unsound. How are you such revered and feared warriors when you can't even have a sandwich together"....... Wait for it..... You know it's coming..... "This is the way"

"Do you have a culture? Do you ALL live in the one cave but have... y'know... JETPACKS? Are their any Mandalorian jokes? (Has a Mandalorian ever laughed?). Do you leave the helmets on when having sex? Is taking off your helmet in front of your partner OK as a sign of a close bond? What happens if your visor breaks like y'know in Robocop? Are you left to fend for yourself?"........ "This is the wa"...... "Oh p*ss off!"

ohnonotgmail · 24-03-2023 11:38am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120394347#Comment_120394347

and why did the creature wait until the next day to bring the kid to it's chicks? where was it in the meantime?

pixelburp · 24-03-2023 11:46am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120395012#Comment_120395012

And the simple fix to all of this?

They keep their helmets on all the time when around anyone else other than each other in their cult. There, boom. Logistics problem solved; it's just a space-burqa, and we can have proper scenes of humanity and community outside the ~~levels~~ action set-pieces. (though I don't know the canon - is that how the other Mandalorians operate?). Then at the fireside, all the helmets could have come off, Beefy Fett would have had a simple emotional moment where - gosh - that's his son up there (notwithstanding all the other logic gaps within that whole set-piece). Instead these feared warriors wandered off into the desert to be eaten by night wolves.

Thing is, shít like this doesn't usually bother me, lol. I generally miss plot holes and shítty writing 'cos I'm usually the type to be caught up in the charisma, the energy or superficial excitement of a given show/film. But this feels so thrown together I'm just getting bored all the time, and in my idle brain starts noticing the things I might have otherwise missed were this show still vaguely fun.

Oh and because you mentioned it: The Mandalorian, fadó:

https://youtu.be/9HgRXwMozEY?t=110

McDermotX · 24-03-2023 12:33pm

It's all over the shop.

Really, really bad season so far which honestly doesn't look like it has many places to go anymore. Have said before it's always been hit and cold, but this is just bad writing, bad storytelling, bad production and just plain bad television. Could be time to jettison soon.

Penn · 24-03-2023 12:49pm

It's hard to know how the season is going to go. So far there are elements that are intriguing, but I'm not sure it's working as a whole. Unfortunately it's partially a victim of its own success, where the smart thing to do would have been for Grogu to fully leave at the end of Season 2, and maybe to have gone off with Ashoka instead of Luke to explain how he survived the events of the sequal trilogy if needed (though still have Luke show up, because that was awesome).

I think Grogu still being in the show now is a burden. They have to shoehorn in the cute moments, and the Jedi moments, and the "it's a real puppet, not CGI, so look how awkwardly it moves" moments (they held on Grogu walking to follow the armourer for far longer than was needed). Also why didn't the mandalorian kid just shoot Grogu 3 times quickly?

The whole thing with Bo Katan is confusing now as well. She was fully against "The Way", but then accidentally gets accepted into it and is now adhering to it? Maybe it's part of a plan of hers to come to fruition, but there's so much history to her character from the animated shows that most of us, myself included, are unaware of so it's hard to judge her character with so much missing information.

Most of this episode was just a waste. Action for the sake of action. I liked they gave Ahmed Best a nice Jedi role, maybe we'll see a bit more of him. But it hasn't really added anything either.

Star Wars: The Mandalorian [** Spoilers **] [Disney+] (US Pace)

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Star Wars: The Mandalorian [ Spoilers ] [Disney+] (US Pace)