The Mandalorian Season 2 [SPOILERS]

[Bob_McMillan]

So the first episode of the new season dropped, and while I know many fans are going to be annoyed that they brought back Boba and his armor, I enjoyed it. Cobb Vanth's reveal I think most people saw coming, but teasing Boba right before the end credits was diabolical (I mean it has to be him, wouldn't make sense for it be Rex). A little disappointing to be mucking around in Tatooine again, but the krayt dragon hunt was fun. Listening to tusken raider language is painful though, hope we don't ever need to do that again.

It wasn't a wildly amazing episode story wise, or even action wise. But it's just nice to be back in the Star Wars universe. The soundtrack was as brilliant as ever, and still my favorite thing about the show.

As a sidenote, interesting that Boba's armor is genuine Mandalorian steel. In the EU for the longest time it was imitation armor made of durasteel. Makes me wonder they're planning to re-retcon the Fetts as actual Mandalorians again.

 

[Hawki]

So the first episode of the new season dropped, and while I know many fans are going to be annoyed that they brought back Boba and his armor,

Wait, what?

Checks Wookiepedia...

God fucking damn it, what is your* obsession with Boba Fett?!

*"Your" being the fanbase in general.

 

[Bob_McMillan]

Wait, what?

Checks Wookiepedia...

God fucking damn it, what is your* obsession with Boba Fett?!

*"Your" being the fanbase in general.

Honestly, I don't know. Cool armor be cool! That was all it took for me. I wasn't around for when people were hyping him up before Empire, too busy not existing yet. Why his character remained relevant even after the embarrassment of what happened to him in RoTS is beyond me.

 

[deleted20220709]

DELETED

 

[Bob_McMillan]

Boba's armor might be fun, I found it much more hilarious that the sheriff's speeder was a jury rig of one of Anakin's old podracer engines. That and the fact that he wore a scavenged armor said so much about the character.

Best part of the episode? When the Child sees Mando activate the songbirds, panicking and quickly closing the lid on the cradle. I laughed out loud.

Ah yeah, I forgot about the podracer engine lol. It would actually be cool to see podracers come back in some form in Star Wars.

And man, Baby Yoda was a genius move on all counts. He's interesting story wise, brings in much needed comedy, and most importantly, his cute lil ass was enough to convince my girlfriend to keep watching with me.

 

[Gordon_4]

Wait, what?

Checks Wookiepedia...

God fucking damn it, what is your* obsession with Boba Fett?!

*"Your" being the fanbase in general.

Dunno, but this could be an opportunity to make him, you know - interesting.

 

[Bob_McMillan]

So the second episode came out yesterday, which was surprising. I thought it was every Saturday.

Anyway, another fine episode, if a bit filler. A little bit horror, lots of comedy, pretty cheesy. Still amazed by the tech they use to make this show.

 

[Dalisclock]

So the second episode came out yesterday, which was surprising. I thought it was every Saturday.

Anyway, another fine episode, if a bit filler. A little bit horror, lots of comedy, pretty cheesy. Still amazed by the tech they use to make this show.

Rather enjoyed the 2nd episode, perhaps a little more then the first. Trying to bluff his way past the New Republic Patrol was nice and tense, and reminds you why Mando likes to stick to the backwater planets.

Also, whoever wrote episode 10 apparently really, really hates arachnophobes. WAY TOO MANY SPIDERS.

 

[Chimpzy]

Rather enjoyed the 2nd episode, perhaps a little more then the first. Trying to bluff his way past the New Republic Patrol was nice and tense, and reminds you why Mando likes to stick to the backwater planets.

In any other Star Wars those pilots would be sacrificial lambs to be easily picked off by Vader or whoever to show off how awesome they are. But here they're a huge threat since Mando flies an actual piece of junk that has little chance of outrunning even a rank and file x-wing, let alone fight it. A nice reminder of the difference in scale and stakes compared to the movies or the clone wars show.

 

[Bob_McMillan]

Rather enjoyed the 2nd episode, perhaps a little more then the first. Trying to bluff his way past the New Republic Patrol was nice and tense, and reminds you why Mando likes to stick to the backwater planets.

I was laughing my ass off when he was pulled over. I HATE the feeling when I get ticketed. So far its never been for anything my fault (thank you shitty signage), so I get terrified every time.

In any other Star Wars those pilots would be sacrificial lambs to be easily picked off by Vader or whoever to show off how awesome they are. But here they're a huge threat since Mando flies an actual piece of junk that has little chance of outrunning even a rank and file x-wing, let alone fight it. A nice reminder of the difference in scale and stakes compared to the movies or the clone wars show.

I do enjoy how the show humanizes the grunts of the of the Star Wars universe. Maybe next episode we'll have an in-depth look at the lives of Gammorean guards.

 

[Dalisclock]

In any other Star Wars those pilots would be sacrificial lambs to be easily picked off by Vader or whoever to show off how awesome they are. But here they're a huge threat since Mando flies an actual piece of junk that has little chance of outrunning even a rank and file x-wing, let alone fight it. A nice reminder of the difference in scale and stakes compared to the movies or the clone wars show.

Aren't the X-Wings considered a pretty good space fighter? Like heads and tails above most of what the Empire routinely fielded(not counting OP shit like the TIE Defender). Maybe I'm just thinking of the X-Wing games where the X-Wings was overall a better performer all around then most competing ships, though other ships were more specialized.

Granted, the point still stands. The Razer Crest wouldn't stand a chance in a straight out fight and it's obvious he was in trouble with the New Republic for that stunt on the prison transport so he pulled the least shitty option.

 

[Chimpzy]

Aren't the X-Wings considered a pretty good space fighter? Like heads and tails above most of what the Empire routinely fielded(not counting OP shit like the TIE Defender). Maybe I'm just thinking of the X-Wing games where the X-Wings was overall a better performer all around then most competing ships, though other ships were more specialized.

Granted, the point still stands. The Razer Crest wouldn't stand a chance in a straight out fight and it's obvious he was in trouble with the New Republic for that stunt on the prison transport so he pulled the least shitty option.

It's not so much what was flown as who was flying. Not Luke, Wedge or Poe. Not Rogue Squadron. But regular patrolmen. I think they weren't even named. Nobodies. Mooks. But if they'd opened fire, the show made it clear Mando would've been toast. That's one of the things I like most of about it. He is badass and certainly has plot armor (kind of literally), but he's not that badass.

I also kind of like he's depicted as poor. Not in absolute terms, since there are obviously people shows who are worse off, but someone who has to choose between keeping his ship going and eating, because he does make those kind of choices in the show.

 

[SupahEwok]

Aren't the X-Wings considered a pretty good space fighter? Like heads and tails above most of what the Empire routinely fielded(not counting OP shit like the TIE Defender). Maybe I'm just thinking of the X-Wing games where the X-Wings was overall a better performer all around then most competing ships, though other ships were more specialized.

Yeah, in the old EU, X-Wings were an innovative craft with excellent (although not best-in-class) all-around flight characteristics and payload, whereas Tie Fighters were meant to be mass produced cheaply. They were also military-grade spacecraft, which by itself should put them above many options available to craft available to citizens or small business owners (which the Mando is, in comparison).

I dunno whatever's going on in the new EU, the new trilogy broke from Lucas' WW2 fighter-bomber style of space ship combat in favor of having the ships do whatever the plot calls for to look awesome. And they made nu-EU Wedge lame and wrote out Rogue Squadron, so fuck it.

 

[Bob_McMillan]

New ep release today. Much shorter than the last two, but quite a lot of action and plot developments.

Seeing Bo-Katan again was great. Thought she'd be older though.

4 Mandalorians fighting side by side is truly a sight to see. Also we finally get the answer to why only Mando refuses to take off his helmet. Them being a fringe cult is something I expected, but also confused me. If Mando is a child of the Watch, and was indeed saved by the Death Watch during the clone wars, how did he end up in with the THIS IS DA WAE people. It seems that Bo-Katan's little revolution set up in Rebels failed, so it'll be interesting to see how that happened.

And finally Ahsoka! Crazy to think that 12 years ago I was pissed she existed, and now she is up there as one of my favorite Star Wars characters of all time.

 

[deleted20220709]

DELETED

 

[Bob_McMillan]

That's a weird criticism to make of a trilogy that has scenes of both an actual WW2-style bombing run (however that works in space) and later an actual rocket strafe approach by fighters. Both TFA and TLJ stick to it, I honestly can't remember much about the last fight in RoS but that movie was terrible all around. Star Wars space combat is recognizable all throughout the films with its dogfighting, the worst of the lot for me would be RotS since most of the supposed space battle is Anakin's ship being eaten by droids and no real up close combat going on.

I'm pretty sure Ewok is talking about Poe. I like him enough, although he's barely a character, but his scenes in his X-wing are just bizarre. I didn't mind it so much in TFA, but his little stunt at the beginning of TLJ was uber cringey. I'm sure there are literally days worth of videos on YouTube ranting about how unrealistic TLJ's space combat is, but that scene alone shows what was wrong with the sequels' approach to action scenes in space.

 

[deleted20220709]

DELETED

 

[Bob_McMillan]

Fair enough. Personally, I find Poe's antics a bit over the top compared to the weighty feel of the X-wing in previous movies (but not much above Anakin's ship wizardry in TPM or RotS or Obi-Wan's asteroid slalom in AotC) but it is what it is. It is especially weird to single it out for being unrealistic in a movie series in which lasers are slow moving bolts of energy and space ships manuver as if they were stuck in atmosphere and not operating in total weightlessness with all the massive agility that would allow for. In that context I find Poe's 8 destroyed TIE in one single aerial maneuver in TFA much worse then his slalom trick in TLJ. TLJ's opening has other problems (like why Hux humors Poe) but it isn't worse then TFA in re-defining how fluid space combat in Star Wars could be/is.

Realism is indeed a weird grievance to have with Star Wars. That's hardly my problem. For me, it's just really how its presented. The scene in TFA was just nice to look at, being a cool one take shot of both Fin and Poe wrecking shit up. That moment wasn't about conflict, it was about the Resistance arriving in the nick of time to keep hope alive. In TLJ, it was supposed to be a last ditch attempt by Poe to buy some time. But there was absolutely no tension because he was prancing around the dreadnought with no difficulty at all. It's all flashy with no substance. And frankly, it also looks terrible. The dreadnought was literally designed to be as flat as possible so Poe could do all his zig zagging. Anakin's destruction of the droid control ship is hard to watch yeah, but at least flying in and around that thing was interesting to watch.

 

[Mister Mumbler]

So I finally go around to catching up.

Ep1: I like how hard they leaned back into the whole "western in space" thing here, from the look and visuals and score to the story. The Raiders were cool to learn more about and that did seem like Boboboboboboba Fett at the end.

Ep2: The effects for this show are great. A good episode, even if Mando acted too much like a man who didn't have flamethrowers and rocket launchers on his wrists. I loved the bits with the X-Wing pilots, someone should let Jon Favreau make a Rouge Squadron sho-

And they made nu-EU Wedge lame and wrote out Rogue Squadron, so fuck it.

*sigh*

Ep3: As much as I love the whole "Man with no name and a baby" vibe, it's always cool to see Mando team up with other Mandalorians. And now we're getting the Clone Wars characters showing up too (wasn't much of a fan of the show, but I did like it's later seasons when they remembered the whole "Wars" part of the title more), and we are going to get the first character to interact with Baby Yoda who also knew Yoda.

 

[Bob_McMillan]

Ep3: As much as I love the whole "Man with no name and a baby" vibe, it's always cool to see Mando team up with other Mandalorians. And now we're getting the Clone Wars characters showing up too (wasn't much of a fan of the show, but I did like it's later seasons when they remembered the whole "Wars" part of the title more), and we are going to get the first character to interact with Baby Yoda who also knew Yoda.

Apparently they want to "break the internet" with that character's reveal next episode. We can only hope that will entail Rosario Dawson pouring blue milk into a glass perched on her shapely behind.