Star Wars Megathread

[viper37]

The Mandalorian" is fairly ambiguous as a title - is it Din? Grogu? Bo-Katan? The title of Mandalore itself?

Regarding the spooky scene, I think someone is framing the Mandalorians, and that's the (partial) work of that ISB agent on Coruscant.  Remember that look when the Rebel officer made the connection between the pirates, Moff Gideon disapearance and the Imperials presence in the outer rim?

N
Now, regarding the Mandalorian, it maybe a hint, or not, but I checked IMDB, because I wanted to know who was playing the big Mandalorian with the heavy gun, the one who had a fight with Din Djarin before, and most Mandos are referenced as "The Mandalorian" there for their characters.  So... Make of that what you will.

[celedhring]

The Mandalorian" is fairly ambiguous as a title - is it Din? Grogu? Bo-Katan? The title of Mandalore itself?

Regarding the spooky scene, I think someone is framing the Mandalorians, and that's the (partial) work of that ISB agent on Coruscant.  Remember that look when the Rebel officer made the connection between the pirates, Moff Gideon disapearance and the Imperials presence in the outer rim?

N
Now, regarding the Mandalore, it maybe a hint, or not, but I checked IMDB, because I wanted to know who was playing the big Mandalorian with the heavy gun, the one who had a fight with Din Djarin before, and most Mandos are referenced as "The Mandalorian" there for their characters.  So... Make of that what you will.

Paz Vizsla is voiced by Jon Favreau himself, although played onscreen by somebody else. I wonder if - when he inevitably takes his helmet off at some point - he will be played by Favreau or the stunt double. Or just an entirely new guy like Darth Vader in ROTJ 

[Syt]

Favreau also voiced Pre Vizsla in Clone Wars. There's recently been an action figure of Paz, I think Star Wars Explained showed an image of it - you can remove the helmet, and it's Favreau's face underneath.

I don't mind Star Wars characters being an "ensemble effort" - Even OG Boba Fett was played on screen by Jeremy Bullock (loved the "Bullock Canyon" homage in latest Mando ), but his voice was provided by someone else. And as you say, Vader was portrayed by David Prowse (who was pissed they didn't use his voice), a stunt guy in most fight scenes in ESB and ROTJ IIRC, voiced by James Earl Jones, and Sebastian Shaw in the ROTJ unmasking. So while I can understand when people whine about Pedro Pascal often not being in the Mando suit I'm not too bothered by it if the performance is consistent.

[Syt]

Well ... that was an episode.

During the opening I thought, "Ok, totally not what I expected, but cool." Then continued into "WTF am I watching?  "

I like when Star Wars goes a bit weird/pulp/silly at times, and this was a weird mix of the whimsical (Jack Black, Christopher Lloyd, Lizzo, the Ugnaughts, the B1 Battle Droid ), plus some noir. Felt at times very 70s sci-fi (Logan's Run, maybe), but also reminded me of the existentialist anime Ergo:Proxy (domed city with people reliant on (an)droids that start to malfunction, though the anime has a different backstory).

The ending made me think, "Ok, how many times have we seen this Mandalorian dueling stuff over the course of this show, Clone Wars and Rebels ... ?" And while the saber handover made sense, from a "legal" standpoint - why does Din only NOW think of that? We know he's a bit slow at times ("Does this look Jedi to you?" "Is that a bench?" ), but come on.

Of course it raises even more the question: what's Din's role on the show going forward? I liked how both he and Bo-Katan worked together this week, and both got their chance to shine, but where does he go now, besides raising Sir Grogu? 

[Syt]

Oh, two more things: a droid morgue?

And, more interestingly (I guess this is not a spoiler) - we see that chain codes (basically personal ID) were introduced by the Empire when they took over after the Clone Wars. It's years after the fall of the Empire, and chain codes are still in use (heck, we saw Boba Fett show his in Season 2).

[Jacob]

... not sure how the whole Bo-Katan, Darksaber and Mandalore stuff comes across if you haven't watched Clone Wars and Rebels where both played major roles in the plot ... I get that they hope to draw people towards watching those shows (or at least the relevant episodes - they do have play lists for those on Disney+, I think), but stuff like that should enhance your experience, not be fundamental in understanding a character's history and motivation. Andor worked much better in that regard - I thought you could probably enjoy those with no or only very basic knowledge of Star Wars lore.

I haven't seen either of those shows and the Mandalore and dark saber stuff functions just fine in my eyes.

Mandalore = destroyed planet they're all from and want to go back to. The Empire did it, the jerks.

Dark Saber = cool weapon that also an plot device for leadership of the Mandalorian people.

There may be other subtleties and implications that I'm unaware of, but fundamentally it's fine plot- and lore-wise from my POV.

[Syt]

Thanks for the feedback, Jake.

[celedhring]

God, this was a no-good episode 

I mean, I'm all for them making a pulpy procedural, and the idea of a society that has become completely overreliant on droids is a decent scifi trope, but it was poorly written and the tone was all over the place. The procedural bits felt more a parody of CSI than anything else.

The bit with the darksaber was anticlimatic. I really dislike how they have unceremoniously walked back so many of the twists of season 2 finale - Grogu returned within a couple of episodes, Gideon escapes offscreen, and now the Darksaber gets passed over to Bo-Katan without conflict of any kind.

[viper37]

I'm with Celed on this.  And the actress playing the Queen was horrific.
Droid bar, droid morgue, wtf?

[Syt]

Trailer for Ahsoka:

[Grey Fox]

Now, that's exciting.

[HVC]

The empire wasn't as good at getting rid of force sensitive people as the original trilogy implied. Seems they're still everywhere.

[celedhring]

Trailer for Ahsoka:

If this ends up becoming a backdoor adaptation of the Zahn books I won't need anything else in life.

I need to find the youtube savants that break down every single frame.

[Syt]

The empire wasn't as good at getting rid of force sensitive people as the original trilogy implied. Seems they're still everywhere.

Well, if there's 10k Jedi in the galaxy at the start and the war + Order 66 kill 99%, then there's still 100 or so of them running around. Not counting other force sensitives - I don't feel the guys with the orange blades are Jedi, per se? And one of the fights kinda looked like it might take place in the World Between Worlds which would explain Ahsoka going to what looks like an ancient temple. The writing on the collapsed arch looks similar to what we see in Rebels:



Which is also repeated in the show's logo:



We still don't know how Ahsoka got off of Malachor after Ezra saved her from the Duel with Vader via the World Between Worlds, so this might be a flashback? And who knows where (and when ) the two orange blade wielders come from.

(Though Titus Pollo has grown old )

[Syt]

Just some quick notes: Sabine! Hera! Chopper! Huyang! The Ghost! Loth Cat! Lothal!

Oh, and Thrawn, I guess.