[Star Wars Thread] Let's talk some Star Wars! [Possible spoilers]

Thanks for sharing your thoughts daybreaker. I agreed with pretty much every point you made. I think this was the best episode in the series, for sure, but there were some weird aspects. Things they probably should've thought about a little more. As for what you said about the dark troopers going in to start with, the producers probably just wanted some cool boba and stormtrooper footage... oh well.

But the more you think about it... it was pretty cool...

I’ve just finished catching up on The Mandalorian and all I have to say is... with the budget this show clearly has, why can they not afford decent actors? Everyone besides Mando, Moff Gideon, the robots, Boba Fett, and some of the big name actors who pop up deliver their lines like they’re reading off a teleprompter, have blank facial expressions, and the dialogue feels so unnatural at least once per episode.

I’m not expecting anything Oscar-worthy from a show that is essentially a live action Saturday morning cartoon (it’s basically a spin-off of Clone Wars lol), and has like 80% of its episodes be action sequences, but come on... surely Disney can find people who don’t deliver their lines like it’s a chore.

I 100% agree with this. Most of the actors have been super cringe-worthy, especially Cara Dune and whatever the other guy's name is...

Quick reply to the capable actors things: I agree that some of the side actors aren't the greatest, but I think most of the time it falls on the screen time. Carl Weathers is a talented actor, but some of the lines he has to read are just laughable. On the other hand, I genuinely don't think Gina Carano is a good actress. She's getting better with experience, but you can tell she's an MMA fighter - not an actor. Otherwise, I think the show does a good job with casting. I mean, they even got Michael Biehn for Chapter 13 which was awesome.

The episode opens on a fascinating scrapyard location. I know tie fighters are just the Star Wars equivalent of... bad guy cars... so they're not uncommon to see in the universe, but I did think it was cool seeing them broken down in that scrapyard. This opening scene does a great job setting the pacing for the rest of the episode, all while reintroducing Mayfield quite well and setting the characters on their journey. Boba Fett's got a nice new paintjob as well.

One of my favourite parts about the episode is Mayfield. I wasn't sure how I'd feel about him returning at first. To me, it seemed like he would be a one-and-done cameo character in the first season. Thankfully, that wasn't the case. Mayfield adds a nice comedic touch to the episode that lifts what would otherwise be a depressing post-Grogu-capture mission, and it's done without feeling out of place. Mayfield and Din have a conversation in the transport when they pass through the town about how, to the people living on the planet, the New Republic and the Empire are invaders all the same. Star Wars, and all other sci-fi titles, are at their strongest when they can offer powerful parallels to the real world. Given, this was just one conversation, it really fits onto the show's focus on the outer rim territories and how they feel about the post-Empire galaxy.

Mayfield also asks Din whether his code means that he can't take off his helmet, or he can't show his face. For it has to be one of the two. It was in this moment I thought back to the title, "The Believer," and realized that referred to Din. A subtle character arc for Din through this season has been his self-exploration. He's learning more about the world and how it works, and more about himself. He's grown to care about Grogu, and it's no longer just a mission to bring him back to his people. He's no longer isolated by the Children of the Watch. He's met other Mandalorian (i.e. Bo-Katan). He's seen everyday people living through the troubles the galaxy offers (i.e. The Marshal, the frog lady, the people of Corvus, the people of Morak). While this episode is the first of the series to feature no screen time for Grogu, it dives deep into the character progression of Din.

Then, of course, the big moment happens. Din takes off his helmet. He overcomes the restraints he believes were put on him. It reminded me of other strong character moments in Star Wars, such as (spoiler alert for The Clone Wars) when Ahsoka refuses to rejoin the Jedi Order at the end of Season 5, or when Vader throws Palpatine down the space pipe, or even when Kylo Ren kills Snoke. It's a big thing for Din, and will impact his character for the rest of the show. Surely, he won't suddenly show his face all the time, but he's put Grogu over the ideology he was raised into.

Now, it raises a question: does Din have affiliation with the Empire? The facial recognition scan let him pass, which has implications. Now, of course, it might just be that it needs any face scan to keep records or cross-reference with New Republic databases. However, he got the location of Gideon's ship. That seems like something the Imperial remnants would want to keep under a facial recognition lock. Also, if it didn't need Imperial facial recognition, why would they need to bring Mayfield? Perhaps Din was conscripted into the Empire during the Great Purge of Mandalore? After all, we don't know what he was doing between his rescue during The Clone Wars and his time with The Children of the Watch post-Empire.

As cool as it was, I found Din's message to Gideon quite silly. Yes, it shows just how bad*** Mando is. Although, Mando's team of four or five people have to take on an entire Imperial cruiser... and they just gave up the element of surprise. Sure, Gideon doesn't know when they're coming or what they're coming with, but he knows they're coming. If nothing else, he can just move Grogu to another location. It just doesn't seem very strategical.

Otherwise, I really liked the episode. Glad the show is back on track and offering us that rich storytelling that Star Wars is best known for. I can't wait to see what will go down in the finale!

Mando’s message was so incredibly cringey hahahaha. Badly written, very clunky piece of dialogue that just made no sense to exist, and delivered with the softness of a man engaging in some sweet pillow talk. I don’t get why it angered Gideon that much.

Boba Fett looks like he’s dressed up in someone’s green wheelie bin’s broken scraps. Way too clean. Blegh.

Would’ve been fun for them to have to stealthily escape or something rather than having generic gun battle #67748485 of this season tbh.

Thought the episode was really well-paced though. Really nice slow burn that did its job of showing Mando getting thrown out of his comfort zone well.

Way better than the last episode for me.

As for the season overall, I’m worried it’ll end as a rehash of Season 1. It doesn’t feel like we’ve moved all that much plot-wise (character-wise, yes for sure) and it’s looking like it’s building towards a redo of Season 1’s ending. ALSO SOMEONE PLEASE GET THE DIALOGUE WRITER SOME REAL WORLD SOCIAL INTERACTION I DON’T THINK THEY’VE EVER HAD IT BEFORE

Really not invested in this at all tbh. Having grown up on Clone Wars, I’d really like to see a lot more of the other Mandalorians but I don’t think that’ll happen until Season 3, which is a shame. But oh well.

OKAY NOW THAT WAS A COOL EPISODE

I LOVED EVERY SECOND OF THAT

Tearjerker at the end, holy crap

Wow... what a finale!

As much as I liked the finale, I must first begin with a criticism (dun dun dun). I think it was really awesome to see Bo-Katan return for this episode, and it really fit with the journey she was on. However, how did they find her so easily?! This season started with Din searching for other Mandalorians. It took him three episodes to find Bo-Katan, and really in the end, she found him. Had they stayed on Trask it would've made sense, but they were on an entirely different planet, and Din parked right beside her ship. Literally the same parking lot. Perhaps there's some off-screen stuff that happened (which has to be the case), but it's just kind of a "what?!" moment.

Anyway, then the rescue begins. You could tell the moment the shuttle arrived that Gideon knew what was up. If I had to guess, he deployed the TIE fighters to test if the Slave I pilot would hit them (since Boba was deliberately missing the shuttle). Of course, we didn't see that happen, but Gideon definitely knew. Poor Din missed out on the element of surprise by transmitting that Taken threat. Of course, Gideon kind of messed up by staying on the cruiser with Grogu. That's a real "Tarkin staying on the Death Star because no way the Rebels succeed" moment if I've ever seen it.

The scenes following contain an epic shootout and a cool encounter with the dark troopers. As unstoppable as the dark troopers were, they did kind of seem a bit stubborn. Of course, I think that's intention (as Pershing mentioned the human element, an element of Prequel politics were the efficiencies and downsides of a droid trooper vs a human (but also alien) trooper). When Din dumped the dark troopers into space though I was like, "yeah this was directed by Peyton Reed." I don't mean that in a bad way, it was just the comical thing you'd come to expect from a director like him. Seriously though, after all these years you'd think ship designers would learn not to put easily opened space doors in rooms with important stuff. I swear everyone wants to play the Alien card nowadays to cop out of unstoppable forces. And yes, they fly back, but it still felt like a disappointing moment. I would've much rather just seen Din close the door and the troopers have a more difficult process opening it (only to succeed and pour out into the ship at the same moment they return from space in the actual episode).

One thing I really liked was Gideon's character. For two seasons we've seen him stand around and be cool, but he's never actually done anything (aside from flying a TIE fighter) up until this point. It felt like a lot of build up (maybe too much build up) finally paid off. Gideon really played his psychological card well throughout the episode. While he really should have left the cruiser when he got the threat, I can see why he thought he was going to win. Realistically, he did kind of win in the end. I just hope this isn't the last we'll see of him. Although, I think it'll be an easy call by Favreau to bring him back somewhere down the line in late S3 or S4.

Then it happened. Our characters are trapped on the bridge as a fleet of relentless droids are breaking in. They have no escape. To make it worse, one of them really really wants to get a snazzy lightsaber from the other. ENTER LUKE SKYWALKER. When their rescue began, I wondered by Boba Fett just flew off. I realize now that Boba and Luke would've recognized each other, and that would've interrupted the flow of the scene. Either way, Luke just owns every dark trooper. People have compared it to the Rogue One scene with Darth Vader and... yeah... it's that awesome. Just when you think everything is great though... attack of the terrible CGI.

Like, I'm not sure what it is with Disney and their super flawed CGI attempts. Star Wars is the biggest franchise in pop culture, and Disney is one of the largest media companies in the world. Somehow, with all these resources and money, that's the best they could do!? Do yourself a favour and look up the de-aging effects used in The Irishman (Netflix). Disney couldn't even do half as good. I know that's a Scorsese film, but this is a Star Wars show. I don't even think this is that big of a deal either to be honest. It's just such an awesome moment, and now whenever we want to go look back on it we'll have to deal with super aged CGI. I heard from someone that it might not have been de-aging, which would make me assume they used a different actor and CGI'd Hamill's face on it to keep the element of surprise (because, for example, we knew Hayden Christensen went into the studio long before they officially announced him for Kenobi). Still though...

As tired as I am with Star Wars constantly having to include a Skywalker in all of their properties, I did like the Luke scene a lot. The thing I liked the most about it was that it wasn't made grandios or overblown. Luke Skywalker could have never existed before this episode of The Mandalorian and the scene would've felt exactly the same. I'll compare it to Chapter 14: The Tragedy, where Boba got a super epic moment of "hey look that iconic armour is back on!" Had Boba never existed before The Mandalorian, that scene would've just felt overblown. Luke's appearance doesn't have that. Despite having one of, if not, the biggest character in Star Wars show up, the scene still fundamentally focused on Din and Grogu. I never felt like Luke's presence overtook the emotional moment Din got. Thank god for that, because the moment Din and Grogu said goodbye was so beautiful and so sad. I love Din's character so much, and I love the journey he's been on. I can't wait to see where they take him in the next season.

Also, Bo-Katan has to beat Din in combat for that dark saber and he just took his beskar helmet off exposing his head to an easy blaster shot. I think now is her best opportunity.

I'll give my thoughts on season 2 as a whole sometime soon

Been busy with my finals and family, but just Wow for the last episode and also announcements. Will share my detailed thoughts later hopefully. =D Happy holidays everyone and stay safe!

Also PSA, StarWarsTheory released the cinematic trailer for Episode 2 Vader Shards of the Past!

Its cinematic since the live-action production got halted cause of money and covid19 reasons... anyways, ENJOY!



If you haven't seen the first one, here is the link

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ey68aMOV9gc

Han shot first

err am I gonna have to take this down now ? lol

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away...

CARA DUNE CRASHED HER X-WING AND BURNED TO DEATH LOL

Reviving this thread to say The Bad Batch season one is a generous 5/10

To say I'm disappointed is an understatement. I can only expect so much from a show geared towards children, but even Rebels had more to offer than this. The Bad Batch is bookended by a solid opening and finale, yet everything between is bland filler. A show that could have focused on the galaxy post-Clone Wars spends most of its time sending the crew of clones on bounty hunter side quests. We very rarely hear what the clones feel about Order 66, the Empire, or the end of the war. Seriously, these people were bred to be expendable soldiers, which is an ethical nightmare, and now the war they were created to fight is over.

It doesn't help that the titular team contributes to the show's flaws. I found myself more emotionally connected with a water city than I did any of the Bad Batch, because NONE of them get any character development (aside from Hunter). They're still the same caricatures we met in The Clone Wars season 7. Not to mention Echo, who was our introduction to The Bad Batch, is completely useless. They resurrected him and gave him a show, only to give him a handful of lines. To make all of this worse, the crew forgets about Crosshair the second the first episode ends. They barely talk about him at all, let alone have any intent on saving him. Ironic that Crosshair brings this up in the finale.

This show seems confused on whether it wants to be episodic or driven by a single narrative, and what results is a bunch of dull episodes that follow the same formula. That formula includes an action sequence with little-to-no stakes. The Clone Wars didn't work because of the action sequences (there are only one or two impressive examples throughout the seven seasons), it worked because of the circumstances surrounding those sequences. Maul and Opress vs Palpatine was cool because it was Darth Maul and Savage Opress fighting Palpatine. The Clone Wars especially worked because it had an ensemble of different characters visiting an array of locations. It was an exceptional example of episodic storytelling. Hell, even the weaker earlier seasons of The Clone Wars presented a more fascinating look at the Star Wars universe than any moment from The Bad Batch.

It worries me to say, but Dave Filoni's tricks seem to be growing stale. At any moment possible, Filoni pushes a character from his previous work into the show, from Kanan to Cad Bane. In a singular episode, Hera becomes the protagonist of the show. This would be totally fine had the show established a ensemble of protagonists from the start, but only having one episode out of 16 that has a different protagonist sticks out like a sore thumb. Between the second season of The Mandalorian and the first season of The Bad Batch, it seems that the go to method for pleasing Star Wars fans has become "hire Filoni and throw in every recognizable character we can."

Season 2/3 character predictions: Ahsoka, Darth Maul, Kenobi, Thrawn, The Inquisitor, Zeb, Hondo

Also I wrote this review while talking to someone in call so if it's incoherent and makes no sense that's why, but at least it'll fit the show that way

Savage.
I found it quite easy to read, actually!