The Mandalorian Discussion Thread (spoilers and such)

[PREDATOR490]

EP 5 - Average

With the amount of attention that Tat has had from the movies, I actually kind liked this episode. Tat is meant to be a nowhere so this epsiode kinda established that. Since Jabba is dead, the place has no significance at all.

That said, the story itself was pretty weak. Bringing in Ming Na was a bit curious and it feels a bit wasted bringing in someone like that for a one-shot.

5 episodes in, I will admit that the Mandalorian character has grown on me along with the slower pace and scale. My only annoyance is that this feels like an elongated pilot / short-series rather than a fully fledged series that will be running into a multi-year arc.
I would fully expect that this show will not last beyond a first season unless they alter the formula.

[LadyTevar]

That said, the story itself was pretty weak. Bringing in Ming Na was a bit curious and it feels a bit wasted bringing in someone like that for a one-shot.

Was it a one-shot? Someone found her.

[PREDATOR490]

That said, the story itself was pretty weak. Bringing in Ming Na was a bit curious and it feels a bit wasted bringing in someone like that for a one-shot.

Was it a one-shot? Someone found her.

She took a hit point blank and both Bounty Hunters left her for dead. It would be astronomically stupid for her to still be alive after that.
That said, I find it kinda stupid they both left the body.

Most of these Bounty Hunter contracts keep pushing the 'dead or alive' aspect. So bringing the corpse in seems like a no-brainer if you want to get paid.
Although, how they expected to get paid is another matter.

The planet had no guild contact so... how exactly are they going to hand in the bounty ?
If the Gunslinger was on the level, he reports he killed her and they magically wire him the funds so he can pull it out of an ATM on Tattooine to pay the Mando ?
Star Wars has not really established any kind of wireless fund and the Bounty Hunters using it. They seem to be hard cash types.

Visually the episode is awesome and is a nice nostalgic tour of Tatooine but the story is just awfully lacking even for a filler and it is a real shame they threw Ming-Na in for a really poor cameo.

[bilateralrope]

I doubt the guild would be willing to pay the Mandalorian after what he did.

As for the gunslinger, he doesn't seem that smart. He takes the word of his bounty that the Mandalorian fought a group of experienced bounty hunters and won. Then thinks that can take down the Mandalorian on his own.

[Nari]

The planet had no guild contact so... how exactly are they going to hand in the bounty ?
If the Gunslinger was on the level, he reports he killed her and they magically wire him the funds so he can pull it out of an ATM on Tattooine to pay the Mando ?
Star Wars has not really established any kind of wireless fund and the Bounty Hunters using it. They seem to be hard cash types.

This bothered me as well. It was far from clear how any bounty payment would be obtained while on Tatooine, making it problematic to be able to pay for the repairs to his ship.

I guess he could have been planning to take a ride with the Gunslinger to get paid (and presumably hide in the ship?) but that seems like a stretch. Or perhaps the Gunslinger would be stupid enough to pay Mando cash and then take his prisoner in?

As you said, it seems to be very much a cash based economy, at least for the Bounty Hunters.

[Nari]

Episode 6 - that was a mixed bag.

A heist crew that made the crew of Prometheus look like trained professionals.

Do those Twi’lek lekku (appendages) look really thick to anyone else? Literally my SOD was disrupted by thinking how sore a neck they must have.

Female Twi’lek - contender for Worst Star Wars character?

I did like the completely different episode that started when Mando was hunting his former ‘team’ down. A Faceless adversary that stalks you; deadly (although, groan inducingly, not actually deadly).

Now I’m really fascinated to learn more about this Republic distress beacon thingy. It appears to be a bit of a suicide by X-wing pill; why would you use it when the X-wings don’t appear to even try to raise anyone on the comms?
As for that; it seems a stretch to just waste a fighter that is launching exactly as you pop in, but to then just blast the station? I mean, they don’t appear to have a troop transport with them, so presumably that’s SOP. Which presumably doesn’t differentiate the New Republic from the Empire in a lot of people’s eyes. Weird.

[Edit]
And the properties of that armor. Ductile enough to deform and recover so as not to break the bones/skin of all the people who have punched him, but also both absorbs the impact and stops the penetration of projectiles that have sufficient kinetic energy (and presumably mass) to push him around when he gets shot. Truly that Beskar is a wondrous material.

[LadyTevar]

Now I’m really fascinated to learn more about this Republic distress beacon thingy. It appears to be a bit of a suicide by X-wing pill; why would you use it when the X-wings don’t appear to even try to raise anyone on the comms?

First, the X-wings knew where the tracer SHOULD have been, which is on the prison-ship. Thus, when the tracer left the coordinates of the prison-ship, the X-wings knew something was going down. Escaped prisoner, most likely.
They came in expecting trouble, and a unknown space station that I'm sure was not on the charts, in a system that might not have been registered, about to launch a gunship seemingly at them? Yeah, that's weapons-free time. Especially since the tracer was still on the station, not on the ship that was leaving.
SO, yeah, I can see the X-wings opening fire without reservation.

As for the lekku, I did a quick search on Google for images, and there's a lot of range between sizes. Cosplay seems to fall straight into "short/thick" and "long/skinny" categories. Since Twi'lek do have a wide range of skin tones (just like humans), so why not have variation in lekku? Again, this didn't break anything for me, even with the canines.
Really, tho', the female Twi'lek was no worse than Harley Quinn. Screamed "Jilted Girlfriend wanting payback". Oh, Bonus! If you wanted to see Anakin Skywalker killed, that was his voice actor she stabbed.

Clancy Brown got to play to type - Big hulking tough guy with attitude. Remove the horns, and it's The Kurgan. Totally expected the throw-down to go badly for Mando. Devaronians have hard heads, it seems.
Poor Mayfield. He might have been an Imperial sharpshooter (NOT A STORMTROOPER, ASSWIPE!), and he had a really sweet third gun setup (cybernetics? primitive AI/droid?), but he was in over his head with those guys. He was really the weakest link.

I also wondered why the X-wing pilots looked familiar, and why I recognized the names. That’s directors Dave Filoni, Rick Famuyiwa, and Deborah Chow self-inserting. They even have character names, so maybe we'll see those three again?

Anyway, the acting was great, with Mando saying SO DAMN MUCH with just that helmet. Loved the lines like the Stormtrooper dig, and the 'target practice'. Again, I know military guys who'd make that same quip, so it just reads true, even if Mando seemed a bit embarrassed about it and whatever happened at Axlon III.

We also go More BabyYoda! Yes, it was playing hide-n-seek with Zero, but even I thought for a split-second that he'd deflected/reflected the blaster shot. The look on his face as if to say "Did I do that?!" was adorkable. Of course Mando killed the DROID, he hates droids because it was droids that attacked his colony and killed his parents (and I am ashamed to admit I only just realized the connection).
BTW: wasn't Zero's type found on the DeathStar in ANH?

[Galvatron]

As a connoisseur of twi'lek females, I found the fangs and lack of eyebrows to be off-putting.

I have a feeling the season finale will reveal that Baby Yoda can speak. Perhaps even that he could speak all along and has only been pretending to be a 50-year old baby (like how Yoda pretended to be a crazy old hermit on Dagobah).

After all, Yoda was only 100 years old when he started training Jedi.

[LadyTevar]

As a connoisseur of twi'lek females, I found the fangs and lack of eyebrows to be off-putting.

I've seen some Twi'lek cosplay with the fangs, usually playing Sith-bitch.

I have a feeling the season finale will reveal that Baby Yoda can speak. Perhaps even that he could speak all along and has only been pretending to be a 50-year old baby (like how Yoda pretended to be a crazy old hermit on Dagobah).

After all, Yoda was only 100 years old when he started training Jedi.

Where did this information come from? I'd not heard that.

[Galvatron]

Yoda's own dialogue in TESB and ROTJ established that he had trained Jedi for 800 years and was 900 years old when he died.

[Abacus]

The latest episode (6) made me think of the "Edge of the Empire" RPG. Everything that went down is eerily similar to events that happened in one of my campaigns. Everyone betrayed everyone and only one of us got away with the cash. lol Amusing as hell.

But, again, they skimped on the character development. They're leaving breadcrumbs for Mando's personality and life, but nothing concrete. Makes me wish they'd devote an extra 5~10 minutes for character development and fleshing things out slightly more -- but too late for that.

[PREDATOR490]

Fairly decent episode.

Once again, the Mandalorian has the double issue of being too short for the direction the episodes are going. It seems like a lot of screen time is taken up by filler elements that relegate the actual exposition / character development to insanely short time that makes everything feel rushed when it happens.

I am also throwing out a 'wtf, really ?' to the overall intelligence being displayed by the Mandalorian trying to brute strength the 'Muscle' by strangling him. The Mano has a number of weapons, including blasters but decides to waste his surprise attack on using the grapple instead of just shooting the guy.
Apparantly, the 'stun' setting has been forgotten in Star Wars.

I am also going to say the entire resoultion to the entire episode feels extremely tacky and cheap. It is bad enough the Mando did not kill them but the cheap cop-out with the Dev was extremely bullshit.
Even if you somehow buy the idea the Dev was not decapitated / crushed by two sets of doors slamming on his head - Something which even a basic visual look would say is not possible. His head was directly in line for both sets of doors closing on his skull which would not end well for him.
The doors are closing on a one-way entry to the room which means the Mandalorian has effectively locked himself in with either a decapitated Dev or one that is stuck in the door.

Somehow during this fight, the Twi-bitch runs around as if she is trying to get to this room but somehow never gets there. Ultimately, it comes across as very lazy 'cool' scenes without any appreciation of how convoluted or stupid it requires things to be to get them.

The 'surprise ending' with the Mando leaving behind the beacon - Saw that coming a mile away and they did it in yet another shitty way. Rather than just throw it or apply some sense of skill in underhandedly leaving it.
The Mando has magic powers of being able to attach it to the guy even though it is beeping and hilariously unlikely to go unnoticed.

As for the X-Wings - Its a nice scene but the overall setup for it is lame and poorly executed.

3 X-Wings are not going to be able to secure a Prison Transport. Thus, this response team seems like a kill squad which does not really sit well as a depiction of the NR.
None of the pilots seemed to raise any concern about the lack of a Prison Transport in front of them and started shooting immediately. However, they completely ignore Mando's ship. That is some seriosuly dubious tunnel vision created by the plot.

Even if you assume they were only going for the beacon... why the fuck would the expect the beacon to be on the Prisoner ? - The Prison Transport pilot / warden is the one that has the beacon so... would it not be sensible to assume that HE has it and thus SHOOTING at it is going to be potentially killing a hostage ?

Frankly, the only way I see this making sense is with some extreme off-screen handwaving exposition that should really have been in the episode. Something which is repeatedly coming up in Mandalorian.

The 'response team' did go to the prison transport first - Which is kinda silly because the implication is they would go straight to the beacon rather than the ship and the timeframe being depicted in the show is within an hour at most with the response time being 20 miniutes.
The response team included the 3 X-Wings and maybe an actual boarding ship. They board the ship, figure out what happened and find the dead body of the warden. They figure out the beacon is still moving and send the X-Wings after it.

Since the X-Wing pilots know the Warden is dead, they have ample reason to go in guns blazing and it comes across a little bit better. That said, no justification exists for ignoring the Mandalorian.

Despite some 'cool' scenes and a bit of 'comedy' dialogue pieces. This episode is really poor in terms of the actual plot execution.

[Nari]

First, the X-wings knew where the tracer SHOULD have been, which is on the prison-ship. Thus, when the tracer left the coordinates of the prison-ship, the X-wings knew something was going down. Escaped prisoner, most likely.
They came in expecting trouble, and a unknown space station that I'm sure was not on the charts, in a system that might not have been registered, about to launch a gunship seemingly at them? Yeah, that's weapons-free time.
...
SO, yeah, I can see the X-wings opening fire without reservation.
<snip>

Within the context of the show, I think you're absolutely correct. Let me explain why I think this is completely wrong however.

The X-wings don't know anything other than that the tracker is not on the transport ship. They appear to have been dispatched without a landing party, meaning they were probably going to just vaporize the prison transport. Given the response of the 'crew' in the episode to the risk of the beacon being activated, it seems reasonable to infer that this is expected, which goes back to my 'death by X-wing' pill comment. Who in their right mind would use this? Press the button and Boom, you're dead in a bit.

There's a bunch of sentient beings on the prison transport ship; some might be horrific criminals, some might be getting transport after serving their time, some might be awaiting trial. Boom, they're all dead. Summary execution is now the rage?

And if the X-wings had a landing vessel with them on the way to the prison transport, why didn't it come with them to the station? It's a well known principle that you want infantry along with your tanks and helicopter gunships as the enemy generally don't surrender to gunships, and tank crews don't actually want people surrendering to them. The principle would be the same for the X-Wings; no pilot is going to land in a potentially hostile station and just pop out of the cockpit to look around.


As for frying the gunship; what if it was being launched for some reason completely unrelated to the X-Wings (which is what was happening). As the audience we know it was chasing Mando (who is hardly fault free here), but it could have been a regularly scheduled sweep. Doesn't matter, Boom, dead.


Once the gunship was dealt with, I'm not sure why summary execution of the entire station is acceptable. All they know is that the beacon is there. Perhaps the crew member is also there and being held hostage? Doesn't matter, Boom, he's dead (again, suicide by X-Wing).

Could be that someone took the beacon from the prison ship and planted on the station (which is actually what happened). The stations' culpability is otherwise completely unknown and might be zero. What if there are other hostages that are being held on the station whose families are negotiating or raising the money to release? People paying of a bad debt by providing a service at the station (like cleaning)? Completely innocent people that had to dock because they had a problem with their ship. No idea; Boom they're all dead now, only because the tracking beacon got there who knows how.


Doesn't this strike you as a little trigger happy? The New Republic doesn't appear to be much for due process; this is summary execution, which goes back to my question - how is this differentiated from the Empire? I mean, without engaging in histrionics, this would be a war crime with today's sensibilities in an war zone. Which the galaxy of the Mandalorian is not; it's under the control of the NR government.

Lets try a different analogy: Would you feel that it's an appropriate response (in a contemporary setting), after only RF-triangulating the location of a tracking device from a guard who is found deceased in a hijacked prison transport, to just send in bomber aircraft (which can't land or disgorge troops) and just level the the place up and everyone in it? That's about what happened here to me.

BTW: wasn't Zero's type found on the DeathStar in ANH?

He looked familiar to me too. Looking it up, I think 4-LOM (had to look that up!) looks similar in the Bounty Hunter pan in ESB; I don't recall seeing anything like Q9-0 in ANH?

[LadyTevar]

First, the X-wings knew where the tracer SHOULD have been, which is on the prison-ship. Thus, when the tracer left the coordinates of the prison-ship, the X-wings knew something was going down. Escaped prisoner, most likely.
They came in expecting trouble, and a unknown space station that I'm sure was not on the charts, in a system that might not have been registered, about to launch a gunship seemingly at them? Yeah, that's weapons-free time.
...
SO, yeah, I can see the X-wings opening fire without reservation.
<snip>

Within the context of the show, I think you're absolutely correct. Let me explain why I think this is completely wrong however.

I think Predator490 has the right idea.

Frankly, the only way I see this making sense is with some extreme off-screen hand-waving exposition that should really have been in the episode. Something which is repeatedly coming up in Mandalorian.

The 'response team' did go to the prison transport first - Which is kinda silly because the implication is they would go straight to the beacon rather than the ship and the time frame being depicted in the show is within an hour at most with the response time being 20 minutes.
The response team included the 3 X-Wings and maybe an actual boarding ship. They board the ship, figure out what happened and find the dead body of the warden. They figure out the beacon is still moving and send the X-Wings after it.

Since the X-Wing pilots know the Warden is dead, they have ample reason to go in guns blazing and it comes across a little bit better. That said, no justification exists for ignoring the Mandalorian.

THIS makes the most sense to me.

[LadyTevar]

BTW: wasn't Zero's type found on the DeathStar in ANH?

He looked familiar to me too. Looking it up, I think 4-LOM (had to look that up!) looks similar in the Bounty Hunter pan in ESB; I don't recall seeing anything like Q9-0 in ANH?

THIS is the droid I was looking for: RA-7 Protocol Droid Turns out it's in ANH twice!

"The RA-7 protocol droid was created for the 1977 film Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope. The costume built for the film was taken directly from an "elevator scene" production painting and other pencil quick sketches Ralph McQuarrie had done of the character. Two versions of the RA-7 were seen in the film: it first appeared in the Jawa sandcrawler with a reflective Steinart finish (3B6-RA-7) and a quick repaint allowed the same costume to be used later in the Death Star with a black finish (5D6-RA-7). Its torso as it appeared in the production painting would later inspire the design of the 2-1B surgical droid."
-- Star Wars Costumes: The Original Trilogy

[Abacus]

Looks like we have ourselves an unseen TIE Fighter configuration, or one that was always standard but never shown on screen. I quite like it, personally. Not sure how standard it would be across the Empire though.

[LadyTevar]

Looks like we have ourselves an unseen TIE Fighter configuration, or one that was always standard but never shown on screen. I quite like it, personally. Not sure how standard it would be across the Empire though.

I was about to come here and ask "Have they ALWAYS been able to do that?!"

Damn, that was a helluva episode. The 501st really represented! They looked great, but there was just a tiny blurb at the end of the credits to thank the 501st (with the emblem of the 501st). No names listed, pity.
And they SERIOUSLY looked good. Bright and shiny white, compared to the dust-stained and dented crew around Hertzog.
Oh! And another RA-7 or LOM serving the bar!

So... Moff Gideon. First of the New Order, you think?

[Galvatron]

Nice to see them reusing some of that unused concept art from TFA:

https://www.slashfilm.com/force-awakens-concept-art

But it's apparently not a standard TIE fighter:

https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Outland_TIE_fighter

[LadyTevar]

Great find, Galvatron!
And really impressive the Wiki updating that fast

[Abacus]

Bit early to call it a different variant of TIE line fighter though. Until we get an official say-so from the canon authorities this may be either a special craft for Moff Gideon himself, the standard way that TIE Fighters have *always* landed, or as that wiki seems to allege -- a new version of the fighter.

The New Order TIEs are not in fact seen in this same configuration, so even if the concept art was for TFA and not the OT, it matters little.

[LadyTevar]

Bit early to call it a different variant of TIE line fighter though. Until we get an official say-so from the canon authorities this may be either a special craft for Moff Gideon himself, the standard way that TIE Fighters have *always* landed, or as that wiki seems to allege -- a new version of the fighter.

The New Order TIEs are not in fact seen in this same configuration, so even if the concept art was for TFA and not the OT, it matters little.

Kylo Renn was flying a TIE for a short time in RoS. It landed on the wingtips (H), like every other TIE we'd seen up to that point. So, probably a special fighter for the Moff, maybe even one he commissioned. Rank hath Privilege

[Galvatron]

Maybe they're designed to be carried by smaller capital ships in an era when the big ISDs are a rarity.

[NecronLord]

We see them landed on their panels in Rebels too, this Outland TIE is indeed a variant. Could just be a scouting variant as in Rebels it's an absolute ball-ache to try and get back into one when it's landed.

[PREDATOR490]

I liked this episode.

- The Mando ship seems to be a bit of a clown car. They can fit all these people AND 3 of those mounts in. From the dimensions and interior of the ship, that seems highly unlikely. I would also debate the use in actually bringing the mounts in the first place.
If they were being used to carry supplies and the owner needs it - Fair enough.
The Mando and the Drop trooper - I do not see them benefiting much from the Mounts and that is proven effectively when their mounts are conviniently killed and leave one for the owner to take Baby Yoda back.

As for that... it would have been a lot more sensible to wait for Baby Yoda to make it back to the ship BEFORE continuing.
I find the cliffhanger build up feels a bit weak in practice.
The Mando keeps trying to reach the guy over comms but he gets no reply. Either that is meant to be out of sequence to the point the guy was already dead or he was basically ignoring the Mando for little gain.

The 'sleeping' excuse - This is eye-rolling stupid. Noone with any sense is going to buy that and it makes everyone look stupid from pulling that excuse out to the Imperial actually accepting it.

Baby Yoda - Can force choke people and decides to jack the ship. This comes across as Baby Yoda knowing that something is going to go wrong.
Choking the drop trooper - I am guessing she is a secret bad guy that is going to betray the Mando.
Baby Yoda pulls the force healing trick - I am curious if this entire scene was actually intended or backscene shenanigans occured to have it created as a way to backup this new power in the SW film.

It was a fairly decent character piece and it brought together most of the parts from the previous episodes. I was expecting the mechanic from Tat to show up as a Nanny but... I suppose that could come up later.

[LadyTevar]

The Mando keeps trying to reach the guy over comms but he gets no reply. Either that is meant to be out of sequence to the point the guy was already dead or he was basically ignoring the Mando for little gain.

Or, he was running for Baby Yoda's life and didn't have time to answer.
Do you pull out your cellphone when driving on the interstate?

Baby Yoda pulls the force healing trick - I am curious if this entire scene was actually intended or backscene shenanigans occured to have it created as a way to backup this new power in the SW film.

Actually, Baby Yoda tried to heal Mando in one of the first Episodes. Mando is stitching up a wound on his arm, and TWICE Baby Yoda left his crib to toddle over and reach for the wound. We wondered then if Baby Yoda could heal. Guess we were right.