Star Wars Megathread

[Admiral Yi]

Mandalorian is a culture. So not necessarily from mandalore. A warrior culture. So like think Spartans I guess. They used to be a race long ago, but not anymore. ,

Why the curt sentences?  So short and abrupt. Maybe very busy with work? Or possibly mind is controlled by alien invaders.

[HVC]

Mandalorian is a culture. So not necessarily from mandalore. A warrior culture. So like think Spartans I guess. They used to be a race long ago, but not anymore. ,

Why the curt sentences?  So short and abrupt. Maybe very busy with work? Or possibly mind is controlled by alien invaders.

 

[Sheilbh]

Mandalorian is a culture. So not necessarily from mandalore. A warrior culture. So like think Spartans I guess. They used to be a race long ago, but not anymore. ,

So....like the Sith?

When they like an idea they really do run with it

[Sheilbh]

Mandalorian is a culture. So not necessarily from mandalore. A warrior culture. So like think Spartans I guess. They used to be a race long ago, but not anymore. ,

Why the curt sentences?  So short and abrupt. Maybe very busy with work? Or possibly mind is controlled by alien invaders.

His captors are treating him well.

[Valmy]

The Mandalorians feature heavily in the two Knights of the Old Republic. I am not surprised a rare not-shitty Star Wars thing uses that material.

Still probably not bothering to see it though...we'll see.

[celedhring]

Mandalorian finale was quite awesome. Loved all the callbacks to shit ranging from E-Web repeater guns to [spoiler]the Darksaber[/spoiler]. At least there's still good, fun, Star Wars being made.

I'm not very familiar with the state of Star Wars canon, but I hope the reference about Mandalorians battling Jedi in the past means that the Mandalorian Wars from KOTOR are canon-ish. I recall Darth Revan being cut from an episode of Clone Wars.

[FunkMonk]

So Rise of Skywalker was not as bad as I thought it would be, but I didn't really feel anything watching it. Was very by-the-numbers, written by committee.

[Admiral Yi]

I'm looking forward to hearing what my mega fanboi bartender at the Reagle Beagle is has to say.

[Barrister]

Haven't seen Episode 9.  Soon.

Watched Mandalorian Episode 8 with my boys tonight.  Afterwards they said "that was awesome!".

I agree.

I have spoken.

[Syt]

Very good season finale for Mandalorian.

Top moments:

[spoiler]Hearing the E-Web being called an E-Web. It's one thing to know that e.g. the Falcon is a YT-1300, or that Han Solo uses a modified DL-44 blaster; it's something else to have them referenced as such in dialogue which rarely happens outside of novels, games, or comics.

The fricking Darksaber. Makes a lot of sense, but didn't expect to see it in the show at this point. Background: the Darksaber was a blade by the first Mandalorian Jedi over 1000 years ago. It was in the Jedi Temple for safekeeping but "liberated" by Mandalorians and was handed down as a relic. It was later used by Pre Vizsla, the leader of Death Watch, then Darth Maul who used it in his and his brother's fight with Darth Sidious. During SW Rebels it was picked up from Maul's hideout on Dathomir by Ezra and handed to Sabine who gave it to Bo-Katan Kryze who became the leader of the Mandalorian Uprising (which, presumably led to The Purge - I guess in that aftermath Moff Gideon acquired it, either taking it directly from her, or otherwise). Holding it was sure a sign of leadership among Mandalorians.

Speaking of Death Watch: Din Djarin aka the Mando was rescued by them. In the Clone Wars era they were basically a terrorist group who didn't hold with the new pacifist ideals of Mandalore and Duchess Satine and wanted to return to how Mandalorians used to be. They became more morally grey later. Would make sense if their survivors became a central group in trying to restore the Mandalorians.[/spoiler]

Anyways.

[spoiler]Loved the two Scout Troopers at the start of the episode (except their punching The Baby  ) It reminded me a lot of the oooold Troops fan film. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5HO70-Rk3jE

I guess Gideon is going to be Moff Exposition?

IG's sacrifice was kinda telegraphed from Ep. 1, but still very good, and I thought the face reveal was also handled very well.

I was surprised that the Mandalorian Covert was raided like this. I thought after Ep. 3 and revealing themselves they would have just moved. The pile of helmets was sad. But the armorer kicks serious ass. I thought she would be killed, but I like the brutal beatdown better. [/spoiler]

I like that Mando is not a flawless action hero. Yes, he's a badass, but he also takes his licks. Pedro Pascal gets a lot of acting and emoting done without showing his face. Props for that. And we now have a meaningful quest excuse to roam random planets with a big bad on the heels. Good setup. I kinda hope we get more episodes next season, though.

[Syt]

I'm not very familiar with the state of Star Wars canon, but I hope the reference about Mandalorians battling Jedi in the past means that the Mandalorian Wars from KOTOR are canon-ish.

In Rebels there's a reference to an unspecified old (like millennia ago) conflict between Jedi and Mandalorians.

Revan has kinda, sorta been backdoored into canon. The visual dictionaries are considered canon. E.g. in the Rogue One or Ep. VII one, don't recall which, they had a star chart that showed "Rakata Prime". These dictionaries are written by Pablo Hidalgo who oversees the overall canon of the franchise. Apparently, in the Ep. IX visual dictionary he names legions of Sith Troopers, mostly calling on Sith Lord names from the old EU: Andeddu, Tanis, Tenebrous, Phobos, Desolous, ... and Revan. The planet Exegol also appears to have a "Sadow Escarpment" (likely referencing Naga Sadow).

[spoiler]Regarding Exegol, I wonder how Palpatine escaped there. He did show interest in the Unknown Regions, sensing a strong Dark Side presence there (as per novels, etc. which were written before the plot for Ep. IX was planned), so the idea makes sense. The question is how. On the one hand, large pieces of the Death Star II are surprisingly intact, so maybe he just climbed out of the wreckage using the Dark Side (btw, why are there no scavengers on Endor like on Jakku? I know the novels say that pieces of the wreckage are used for shipbuilding, but that's closer to the Battle of Endor than the sequel trilogy. A bit weird, that. "Let's just leave this pile of resources rot on the teddybear planet." Personally, I like the idea that Palpatine used the World between Worlds (in which he was interested in SW Rebels) as an escape. Maybe the cultists of Exegol pulled him through? I kinda pity the writers who will have to retcon all this stuff in books and comics. [/spoiler]

[Syt]

P.S.: loved someone's comment on Twitter: "Gus Fring has a new box cutter."

[celedhring]

Very good season finale for Mandalorian.

Top moments:

[spoiler]Hearing the E-Web being called an E-Web. It's one thing to know that e.g. the Falcon is a YT-1300, or that Han Solo uses a modified DL-44 blaster; it's something else to have them referenced as such in dialogue which rarely happens outside of novels, games, or comics.

The fricking Darksaber. Makes a lot of sense, but didn't expect to see it in the show at this point. Background: the Darksaber was a blade by the first Mandalorian Jedi over 1000 years ago. It was in the Jedi Temple for safekeeping but "liberated" by Mandalorians and was handed down as a relic. It was later used by Pre Vizsla, the leader of Death Watch, then Darth Maul who used it in his and his brother's fight with Darth Sidious. During SW Rebels it was picked up from Maul's hideout on Dathomir by Ezra and handed to Sabine who gave it to Bo-Katan Kryze who became the leader of the Mandalorian Uprising (which, presumably led to The Purge - I guess in that aftermath Moff Gideon acquired it, either taking it directly from her, or otherwise). Holding it was sure a sign of leadership among Mandalorians.

Speaking of Death Watch: Din Djarin aka the Mando was rescued by them. In the Clone Wars era they were basically a terrorist group who didn't hold with the new pacifist ideals of Mandalore and Duchess Satine and wanted to return to how Mandalorians used to be. They became more morally grey later. Would make sense if their survivors became a central group in trying to restore the Mandalorians.[/spoiler]

Anyways.

[spoiler]Loved the two Scout Troopers at the start of the episode (except their punching The Baby  ) It reminded me a lot of the oooold Troops fan film. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5HO70-Rk3jE

I guess Gideon is going to be Moff Exposition?

IG's sacrifice was kinda telegraphed from Ep. 1, but still very good, and I thought the face reveal was also handled very well.

I was surprised that the Mandalorian Covert was raided like this. I thought after Ep. 3 and revealing themselves they would have just moved. The pile of helmets was sad. But the armorer kicks serious ass. I thought she would be killed, but I like the brutal beatdown better. [/spoiler]

I like that Mando is not a flawless action hero. Yes, he's a badass, but he also takes his licks. Pedro Pascal gets a lot of acting and emoting done without showing his face. Props for that. And we now have a meaningful quest excuse to roam random planets with a big bad on the heels. Good setup. I kinda hope we get more episodes next season, though.

Yeah, hearing "E-Web repeating blaster" made my 12 year old geek reading Star Wars RPG sourcebooks immediately awake from slumber. 

This show has managed to be super-fun with the right doses of callbacks and nostalgia. Props to them. Give Filoni a movie or three, I say.

My only "but" is that there have been a bit too many instances of the baddies acting really stupid for plot reasons, which I know is common in Star Wars, but it always irks me a little.
For example... [spoiler]how they don't just shoot at IG as soon as he pops out of the cave, giving him ample time to arm the bomb. [/spoiler]

[Sheilbh]

Two other thoughts on the film.

I think the reason I found it tonally weird was that it basically tried to do things you'd do in the second film while having the third film. So there's bickering between Finn and Poe about Poe's background, which felt like something you'd do in a second film before resolving in the third. Instead it was just kind of dropped in with no background and didn't really go anywhere. Similarly I think the Knights of Ren were treated as if they should be this terrifying thing, which is maybe something you'd set up in the second film - instead they were just dropped in and treated as scary but there's no context or reason why they are threatening. They just look a bit weird.

Also I'm adding Hux and Rose to my criminally under-used list, along with Richard E Grant's character.

[Syt]

Yeah, was disappointed by the lack of Hux and Rose.

It feels overall like two movies. There's the hectic action roller coaster in the first half till they get to Endor. Then there's the second half which is better paced and gives the characters some more room. There's some good ideas in there, but the execution is lacking. They should have cut a planet or two at the start IMHO, or the detour to the Star Destroyer, and have some quieter moments in between.

That said, I really liked the design of Exegol (except the "submerged" fleet - WTF?), and would like to learn more about the place.