I'd probably like to get the man's name before handing over my surrogate child, but that's just me I guess.

 

My point wasn't that it was bad that it had that fanservice. My point was that it relied too much on it. Sure the fanservice pleased the fans, that's what it does, but the actual fundamentals of telling an engaging story were left lacking. I didn't expect my gf to lose her mind like omgwtfbbq over Boba, Ahsoka, or Luke, or any of that stuff, but that those things are the biggest wow factor in the show, even for hardcore fanboys trying to convince everyone else to watch it, speaks volumes.

Like Taure said, this is probably exactly what they were looking for. Don't rock the boat too much, make something competent, with a smattering of fanservice to win over the long term fans, and call it a day. They did that. Props to them. At the same time, though, I feel like it's a missed opportunity to really show deniers what can be done with Star Wars. As it stands, people who brush Star Wars off as nerd fantasy and nostalgia are pretty unlikely to be convinced.

I enjoyed it. My gf enjoyed it. My friends enjoyed it. And I guess that could be enough if all you really want is for Disney to stop kicking you repeatedly in the head.

On another topic. Really want to blow up the internet with that final Jedi scene? Mara Jade.

 

That probably would have gone over too many people's heads. Mara is basically a book character only. It had to be a character casual fans knew from the movies or shows I think. Mara would have also made way too many Legends stuff canon and opened a whole new can of worms for Disney.

I would have loved it, same as Kyle Katarn, but this was fine as well.

 

I disagree.

Also disagree. Disagree a lot.

 

Give me Kyle Katarn or give me death.

 

Gonna be honest, while I love Luke, think Cal Kestis or Ezra would have been better in terms of the universe.

That said, if they do a Luke series, I'd love to see them bring in Mara Jade, Katarn etc.

Honestly, I'd have all these little series be building towards a thrawn movie trilogy.

 

Or to put it another way: the Mandalorian establishes no new "awesome" of its own. It is using borrowed glory for all of its best moments.

Very much like The Force Awakens - warmly received for being (i) Star Wars and (ii) competently made, but it was just a rip off of A New Hope. Similarly, all the best moments in The Mandalorian rely on characters and events established by other Star Wars media. Worse, the Star Wars media that the Mandalorian is trading on is among some of the oldest content in the Star Wars universe - mostly the original trilogy.

As noted, this is fine, but it also means 2 things:

1. The Mandalorian does nothing to further the aim of liberating the Star Wars universe from the hold of the original trilogy. It remains the case that all good Star Wars content is essentially derivative of the OT.

2. Because the Mandalorian fails to stand on its own feet as a story, it means there is a limit to which it can be praised. The fanfiction analogy is entirely appropriate: the Mandalorian deserves high praise as a piece of high quality fanfiction, but it does not display the features you would expect from source material - the ability to establish its own characters, world, and plot which have their own appeal.

 

I don't agree with any of this. Aside from the Luke scene, the Mandalorian stands on its own established characters and their interactions, as well as top-notch action (mostly). Ashoka was not nearly as impactful as Luke, or as pivotal, and even then those are two scenes.

The Mandalorian stands separate from all other media of Star Wars for being essentially a space western, as well as telling a type of story never told before in SW movies; that of Din and Grogu, father-son, caretaker, etc. It has compelling original characters and shows aspects of the Star Wars universe we've never seen before, and uses a genre never used before by Star Wars.

It's not trying to be more than what it is, which is good, but I don't at all think it's not original in comparison to other Star Wars movies.

More extensively, of course all Star Wars stories will derive from the OT. I mean ... it has to. Otherwise it's not part of the universe.

I suppose I fundamentaly disagree with this sort of opinion.

 

Well, it was. Now Grogu has left with an unknown Jedi to go to an unknown location.

It was a found family show. It won't be in season 3. Which I think is a shame. They really rushed that story through to a conclusion.

 

That I'm not sure of. It'll probably start that way, but I fully expect Baby Yoda to make a reappearance halfway through the season for whatever reason.

If for no other reason than how infinitely marketable he is.

 

Season 3 is gonna be Game of Thrones: Star Wars version.

 

Halfway through the season?

I'm expecting the hook at the end of ep 1 to be "baby yoda's in trouble, Mando answers the call".

 

That would not shock me. I do think it's gonna build up to that though. I'm expecting the first couple episodes are gonna be vaguely Game of Thrones-y, with Din getting more and more fed with the bullshit around the darksaber and then something will happen with baby yoda that serves as a convenient excuse to get away from and back into the episodic stuff.

 

The actress that played Cara Dune has been fired. She had bad opinions or something, I didn’t really check. But social media made the demand and LucasFilm said yes.

https://variety.com/2021/tv/news/mandalorian-gina-carano-1234905589/amp/

 

She’s had bad opinions for awhile (bad covid takes, said the election was stolen, etc) but implying that being a Republican today is like being Jewish during the Holocaust is a pretty quick way to get fired.

Its incredible how easily these people ruin their lives with bad takes. All she had to do was not post that shit on social media and she’d be cruising into a starring role in her own Star Wars spin off show.

 

Either that article does a really bad job explaining it, or I'm just missing the point, but in today's toxic social media landscape, that didn't even seem to qualify as being mildly offensive.

 

Disney has a zero-tolerance policy on anti-semitism, largely in an effort to distance themselves from Walt's vague ties to anti-semitism through the Motion Picture Alliance.

Edit: Anyway, I'm not crying over the loss. I liked the idea of Cara Dune, but Carano was the least talented actor on the show. And I'm including the Baby Yoda puppet as part of the cast.

Also, the fragile snowflake blocked me on Twitter after I replied to one of her anti-mask posts politely saying her opinion was hot steamy bullshit. So haaahaaa eat a dick, lady.

 

Yeah I don’t get how all these people who have a lot to lose that don’t delete their social media. Just keep your opinions to yourself and collect those sweet sweet Mickey Mouse paychecks.

Apparently she said some stuff about trans people like “men can’t become women” and so on. Also, seems to be an anti-masker. I mean you’re in Hollywood you gotta know your industry and what kind of opinions would get you shit canned immediately. I guess she preferred those likes and retweets more than the big ass paychecks.

 

Pedro Pascal's sister is trans so that might have been enough even without the completely batshit post comparing being a conservative dipshit to being Jewish during the Holocaust.

Amazing how someone with absolutely no acting ability wasn't more thankful for her immense luck with landing a role like this.

 

I think it's dumb and cowardly and hypocritical to fire people for holding dumb beliefs and posting dumb stuff when the company is question (Disney) does way worse by actively working with China, which is doing terrible things to Uyghurs there. But it was also dumb of her to post those things...such a predictable thing to get cancelled for.