Star Wars Talk *EXPECT MANDALORIAN SPOILERS*

[kamikazekeeg]

While I enjoyed the new Mando episode, it's starting to feel a little "Monster of the Week", which would be otherwise fine in a longer running show, but for a season that is only going to have 8 episodes, two of them haven't really involved much of the main plot.

We had this discussion last season I think (I definitely had it last season, just maybe not with you), but I'm all for the standalone stuff.  Give me "Tales of the Mando" all day erryday.  Though, honestly, and this is a shock even to me, because I adore Amy Sedaris, but I don't like Peli Motto that much - I think it's mostly just the character design, though.

I certainly don't mind the standalone stories, I've enjoyed them every time, but these feel more like things that should've happened in the middle of the story, not at the beginning, especially in such a short season.  Not that you wrong, give me "Tales of the Mando", I'd be all over it.  Like I would take a CG cartoon of that which I wouldn't be surprised if they do if it's just like what Mando was doing before the tv show.

And every time I see Peli Motto, I just get Rhea Perlman from her lol Like if Rhea was younger, she would be doing this role.  I think it's the hair lol

[kamikazekeeg]

Loved the new episode, but then again, I'm easy to please when it comes to giving me more Mandalorians lol I didn't know Katie Sachoff was going to be in this.  I guess she plays a character established in the cartoon that I didn't get to watching yet, but her design and that of Sasha Banks character are great.  Apparently Katie Sachoff even voiced Bo-Katan in the original cartoon, so this is a cool way to bring her in, which doesn't normally get to happen (Kevin Conroy getting to be Bruce Wayne recently in the CW series was another notable one).  More figures I'm likely to buy lol

Good episode in general going to a cool water world, filled with Mon Calamari and others, giving us a fishing village/sea vibe you don't usually see in Star Wars and hits home for me.  On track for the main story as we'll be getting some Jedi in the next episode hopefully with Ahsoka making her live action appearance.  Also cool to have Titus Welliver show up as an Imperial officer, I mostly know him from watching his show Bosch which I ended up binging last year I believe, though I know he's been in other shows to, that's just the most immediate one I remember.

[Cartagia]

I'm finishing it right now.  I knew that Sackhoff was going to be in the show - likely as Bo Katan - but my jaw still hit the floor when the other Mandalorians showed up.

And we got an Ahoska name drop!  Looks like she'll be showing up sooner rather than later.  I'm glad it looks like all these existing characters are organically flitting in and out of Mando's story and are not sticking around.

[98dgreen]

Loved the new episode, but then again, I'm easy to please when it comes to giving me more Mandalorians lol I didn't know Katie Sachoff was going to be in this.  I guess she plays a character established in the cartoon that I didn't get to watching yet, but her design and that of Sasha Banks character are great.  Apparently Katie Sachoff even voiced Bo-Katan in the original cartoon, so this is a cool way to bring her in, which doesn't normally get to happen (Kevin Conroy getting to be Bruce Wayne recently in the CW series was another notable one).  More figures I'm likely to buy lol

Good episode in general going to a cool water world, filled with Mon Calamari and others, giving us a fishing village/sea vibe you don't usually see in Star Wars and hits home for me.  On track for the main story as we'll be getting some Jedi in the next episode hopefully with Ahsoka making her live action appearance.  Also cool to have Titus Welliver show up as an Imperial officer, I mostly know him from watching his show Bosch which I ended up binging last year I believe, though I know he's been in other shows to, that's just the most immediate one I remember.

Bo Katan is in the Clone Wars and Rebels cartoon. It was also nice to see a water planet with Mon Calimari and Quarren, though they should have been catching alien fish instead of Salmon lol.  I recognized the Imperial officer from Sons of Anarchy I think.
It

[kamikazekeeg]

There's that juicy story episode I've been wanting!  I didn't post anything on the last one as it was just the usual fair with a little bit of interesting story material towards the ends, but this episode, big info here.  We get to see Ahsoka in her live action debut and I liked her, Rosario definitely looks the part, seems fine for the role, though I'm not comparing the character to her cartoon version as I don't really know here well, never really watched Clone Wars and only half of Rebels.  The only thing I didn't love was that she felt kinda weak at the end in her fight against the magistrate.  Ahsoka being a Jedi shouldn't have had that much of an issue with a non-force user (I don't know if she was using a fighting style like Teras Kasi or something), but it's not the the best Jedi fight.

Other big news, Grogu! I'm probably never gonna stop calling him Baby Yoda, but it's nice getting more information on his backstory and while I knew he was "old", it never registered to me that he was around during the times of like the Clone Wars, even trained as a young Jedi, but much like what we saw in Jedi Fallen Order, he was forced to hide his powers and because he cut himself off, lost much of his abilities.  Still the most adorable little Yoda ever.

Also, was not expecting that we would be getting Thrawn stuff.  Don't know if that'll show up in Mando or one of the other shows that'll happen.  I don't really know the character, just his importance and that SW fans like him, I just never read that era of Star Wars books and as I said, I didn't watch the cartoons.  Cool to see where this leads though and his involvement with Ahsoka.

Curious where things go now.  We know Mando will probably be meeting Moff Gideon next episode due to the tracker placed on his ship, I assume when he gets to the temple, maybe on the way, and I'm curious if a new Jedi shows up at the end with the temple stuff.  Don't know who it would be as I don't know who would be around at this point.  Luke of course is around, but I don't feel like they bring in Hamill and de-age him for this.  If they are doing other characters that I know are around...going off my minimal knowledge of the cartoons, being that I haven't finished Rebels...maybe Ezra if he made it through that series fine?  I don't know what Jedi are still around and are considered canon at this point.

[Cartagia]

Yeah, those were some great lore bombs in this episode - especially that Thrawn is still alive and a threat in the universe again (I don't know what happened to him in Rebels).

My big question about Grogu is, and I hope that we might get an answer one day, who saved him from the temple?

[kamikazekeeg]

Yeah, those were some great lore bombs in this episode - especially that Thrawn is still alive and a threat in the universe again (I don't know what happened to him in Rebels).

My big question about Grogu is, and I hope that we might get an answer one day, who saved him from the temple?

It would be cool to find that out, which maybe that'll happen when they get to the Jedi Temple and Grogu connects with the force and clears the repressed memories he has of that time.  I could then see the Jedi that connects with him being the same one if they survived and we just get a tease at the end of the season about who that could be.

[kamikazekeeg]

Finally getting Boba Fett to do cool shit in live action Star Wars, it only took nearly 20 years lol I know Boba Fett was always style over substance, but as a kid, that style always wanted me to see him doing something cool since we never got that outside of games or the books.  He's definitely a badass here and I'm very happy he's teaming up with Mando, The Calvary (I forget her Star Wars name, but she's May from Agents of Shield lol), and Cara Dune to put together a strike force to get back Grogu.  The new Dark Troopers are pretty awesome looking and I'm definitely seeing a new toy I want lol

Interesting to see Grogu using his powers like he was, acting out in anger, it makes me wonder if him connecting with the force unlocked his memories and in turn more of his powers and of course we are seeing the thing that Asohka was worried about when it came to training him, worrying about another Anakin happening.  I wonder what Jedi will show up to maybe help Grogu also.

[Cartagia]

Yeah, I really enjoyed this episode, even it was, like Boba himself, style over substance.  I immediately started freaking out when the Slave One showed up  A lot happened, and the action was great, but there wasn't a ton of depth to it (hey look, directed by Robert Rodriguez, so the surprise is at zero).

Interesting to see Grogu using his powers like he was, acting out in anger, it makes me wonder if him connecting with the force unlocked his memories and in turn more of his powers

This is pretty much exactly what happened to Cal Kestus in Fallen Order, so I'd imagine it is somewhat intentional.

I wonder what Jedi will show up to maybe help Grogu also.

Speaking of Cal Kestus...

I also think there is a not insignificant chance that it might be Mace Windu, having survived the fall in RotS.  I would not be surprised if the rumored Nick Fury Disney+ series was a cover for this.  That said, I'm not a fan of the idea.  Having Obi-Wan, Yoda, and Mace survive the purge and never doing anything about the Empire rings very hollow to me.

[kamikazekeeg]

Speaking of Cal Kestus...

I also think there is a not insignificant chance that it might be Mace Windu, having survived the fall in RotS.  I would not be surprised if the rumored Nick Fury Disney+ series was a cover for this.  That said, I'm not a fan of the idea.  Having Obi-Wan, Yoda, and Mace survive the purge and never doing anything about the Empire rings very hollow to me.

As cool as it might be to see Mace return, I do agree that it would be weird to have him show up now after not doing anything over all the years.  I think it might be a little soon to have Cal Kestus show up being that his game just came out last year, but that would be great since he is based on an actual actor, same for Cere Junda where we could have Cameron Monaghan and Debra Wilson reprise the roles as themselves like Katee Sackhoff was able to.  It fits with the story too that their goal is to go and find force sensitive individuals, so Grogu actually calling out to the force would likely be a beacon.

[bikingjahuty]

If Cal Kestus makes an appearance I am going to flip complete shit! I LOVED Jedi Fallen Order and for him to make an appearance in the best live action thing to happen to Star Wars since the Disney acquisition would blow my mind. Although, they'd have to age him by like 20-years, but that wouldn't be too hard to pull off.

[98dgreen]

It will most likely be Ezra Bridger considering Ahsoka was looking for Thrawn in the previous episode.

[kamikazekeeg]

Okay, I was not expecting a young Mark Hamill/Luke Skywalker to be the Jedi to show up at all.  It mostly worked, a little better than Leia was in Rogue One, but it's also not the quite nailing it like the de-aged Michael Douglas and Robert Downey Jr. from the MCU movies.  That being said, pretty badass if they are gonna make him a regular next season training Grogu alongside us assumingly seeing Mando go and help Bo-Katan with Mandalorian business.  I really wish they would add more episodes or extend the episodes, especially the finale, because my one complaint with this episode is that it felt abit rushed.  We should've had proper fight between the whole team against some Dark Troopers and then had Skywalker come in to save them when they were getting overwhelmed, like a good extra 5 to 10 minutes of climax to finish it off and I needed Mando to whip out the Dark Saber to slash up some Dark Troopers! Really I just wanted more, which I'm always gonna want with this series lol

Also getting a Boba Fett series mini-series (That's what I assume a lot of these Star Wars shows are going to be, maybe getting extended if they are popular enough), with him being a crime boss is cool.  You kinda forget it with his appearance in this season, teaming up with Mando, that he is not a good guy at all, so getting to see him explored more is great as its what I always wanted to see with Boba.  He was 100% style, no substance, so it's nice to get some substance and it was cool seeing that after Jabba's death that his advisor took over his crime syndicate lol

[Cartagia]

Okay, I was not expecting a young Mark Hamill/Luke Skywalker to be the Jedi to show up at all.  It mostly worked, a little better than Leia was in Rogue One, but it's also not the quite nailing it like the de-aged Michael Douglas and Robert Downey Jr. from the MCU movies.  That being said, pretty badass if they are gonna make him a regular next season training Grogu alongside us assumingly seeing Mando go and help Bo-Katan with Mandalorian business.

I honestly wouldn't mind if this was the end of the Grogu storyline for the most part.  The appeal of the Mandalorian for me has always been the more "lo-fi" story.  I'm totally ok never seeing a Jedi in it again.  Especially if they can't make Luke look any better.  I had my fingers crossed for a Sebastian Stan recast, personally.

Also getting a Boba Fett series mini-series (That's what I assume a lot of these Star Wars shows are going to be, maybe getting extended if they are popular enough), with him being a crime boss is cool.  You kinda forget it with his appearance in this season, teaming up with Mando, that he is not a good guy at all, so getting to see him explored more is great as its what I always wanted to see with Boba.  He was 100% style, no substance, so it's nice to get some substance and it was cool seeing that after Jabba's death that his advisor took over his crime syndicate lol

That end credits teaser could also have been the last thing that Boba showed up in and it would be be perfect.  I was actually disappointed to see that announcement.  But speaking of, it does make me wonder is that "Book of Fett" is just the story name for Mando season 3, because I beleive that was also previously announced to also be coming in December 2021.

All that said, I did really enjoy the finale, and the season, even thought I felt S1 was stronger overall.  My biggest complaint about the finale is actually about the previous episode.  I feel like they actually undercut the emotion of Din removing his helmet in this episode by having him do the same thing last week.  Especially after how week the need for him to remove it was - why could Bill Burr have just put his helmet back on to use the terminal and walk past the imperial officer?  A sloppy set of writing decisions that undercut what should have been the emotional high point of the entire show.

[kamikazekeeg]

I was wondering why people kept bringing up Sebastian Stan for this, but yeah, looking at pictures of him, he definitely could pull off looking like Luke from that era for sure.  I'd like that if they were to do more with him and Grogu, because the full CG face won't work for large amount of scene time I feel.  It's good for these small one offs and that is about it.