Star Wars: The Mandalorian

boba straight-up packing a big red dildo on his back

http://www.jedinews.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/20cback.jpg

Guess it’s fitting that the dude fell into a belching vagina dentata.

Let us not forget the Holiday Special and its animated feature, which this show borrows from heavily (!)

So Disney's got the first batch of baby Yoda merch (or "The Child" as they're calling it)... incredibly lazy. Like slap a screenshot on mugs and Cafe Press t-shirts lazy.

https://i.imgur.com/pkYAwhq_d.jpg?maxwidth=640&shape=thumb&fidelity=medium

http://i.imgur.com/7wxFBOo.png

well it's big universe out there and i guess they had to end up on a Stargate SG-1 type planet eventually

I was thinking more Seven Samurai meets ST: TNG first season, but hey. Still great though.

yeah it was still fun. and watching with the younger ones i'm very conscious that this isn't the 78th time they've seen that plot rehashed, and that it still works.

eyeball-on-a-stick security robot popping out of the front door at herzog's house was so deeply enjoyable; one of those tiny crumbs of nostalgia i had no idea remained to be mined

I like the idea it's the Nest of Star Wars. Or whatever those security setups are called.

of course it has a wiki page, why would i think it wouldn't have a wiki page

Anyone else remember when the Wookiepedia was available as a massive downloadable Access database file?

apparently still is? am i doing this right?
https://community.fandom.com/wiki/Help:Database_download
https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Special:Statistics

So now Ron Howard and Bryce Dallas Howard have both directed a Star War. I'm sure the episode directors are on a fairly short leash but nonetheless this one was well done considering it had a lot more personal interaction. I always love to see Gina Carano.

The action stuff was well-handled too. Treating the AT-ST as practically a living monster was a good choice.

There's definitely a weird effect going on now where I'm certainly looking forward to Rise of Skywalker but more heavily anticipate new Mandalorian episodes. I keep feeling like how this is this weird time for the franchise where it's almost like we're saying farewell to the movies (for three years at least) and more shifting to this approach, and the movies themselves almost become advertisements for the streaming service. (See also Marvel of course.)

My No-Prize attempt: that baby is a lazy asshole, and could totally be walking around and training like Yoda was at his age; it just likes being shuttled around.

I nailed it! LOL

well it's big universe out there and i guess they had to end up on a Stargate SG-1 type planet eventually

― umsworth (emsworth), Friday, November 29, 2019 2:06 PM

I was thinking more Seven Samurai meets ST: TNG first season, but hey. Still great though.

― Ned Raggett, Friday, November 29, 2019 2:26 PM

That’s funny, I got a strong Hercules / Xena vibe... whatever flavor you choose, this ep. totally had the look & feel of a syndicated ’90s action-fantasy show. Wish the production values were juuuuust a bit higher; but still enjoying it.

It cracks me up how they keep calling B-Yodes “the kid” (and when the “beautiful widow” says something like, “Won’t you stay here with your boy?”) — as if he’s Mando’s actual, human child.

Nice to see Pillboi from The Good Place see some action, too...

That’s funny, I got a strong Hercules / Xena vibe...

bingo

I hated this episode

Loved the baby in this one - how could you not ? - but totally felt like a '90s WB Television series with just a taaaad too much cutesy stuff. Waitress/restaurant owner was also a little too -- I dunno -- New Yawk and took me right out of that scene. Really weird jarring tonal stuff in the acting and dialogue these first few eps.
And some of the kid actors were "stop lookin' at the camera!" bad lol.

The waitress was totally “off” (like the blue guy in the first episode). I don’t know what it is that makes a performance feel “not Star Wars-y,” but some of these sure have it.

OTOH, “Cara Dune” is an excellent Star Wars Name.

One other detail I thought was funny was how the mother in the village spoke to her 6(?)-yr-old daughter like she was a toddler (“This good man will help save us from the bad ones!”).

Waitress/restaurant owner was also a little too -- I dunno -- New Yawk and took me right out of that scene. Really weird jarring tonal stuff in the acting and dialogue these first few eps.

I consider this kind of stuff part and parcel of what you sometimes get from Star Wars. Episode II has a waitress robot that says, in a straight Laverne Difazio Bronx accent, "You wanna cuppa Jawa Juice?"

https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/starwars/images/a/a4/Off_she_rolls.png/revision/latest?cb=20180204100457

This last episode was some next level cheese. Felt embarrassed for putting it on in front of people who haven’t seen any of the show yet. I mean this isn’t high level stuff in the first place, but OTM to the Xena/Hercules comparisons. Some minimum effort TV writing.

xpost Yeeesh. Don't remind me lol

This one felt like an A-Team episode

having a “teaching a peasant village how to defend themselves” episode seems really on theme for the show imo

trying real hard on the samurai/western vibes. felt the family/kid stuff was a little flat but it’s a fine line between pulling that off and complete pandering

at least there was no kid going “shucks, mister mandalorian. do you think we’re gonna make it? i’m scared!”

Came here to name check A Team!

are you kidding me pic.twitter.com/occtAetXqs

— Glitter 🦦 (@xoGlitterTV) December 1, 2019

i am looking forward to future Kurosawa inspired episodes of the Mandalorian, including Favreau's take on Ikiru

this was by far the weakest of the bunch but it was still a lot of fun

It was a weaker plot and the directing was super-sharp last episode

bebe Yoda is basically Gizmo hairless?

https://gremlins.fandom.com/wiki/Gizmo

this episode was rubbish, ugh. get on with it.

Otm with the comparisons to early '90s SFF TV shows, but it was still fun. Liked the shot of the red eyed AT-ST creeping through the forest at night.

The early 90s SF TV show vibe made me nostalgic a bit, but overall this one was the first that kind of disappointed me. I was expecting the AT-ST thing to lead to something bigger, but nope, this group of raiders somehow got their hands on a functioning AT-ST worth probably billions of imperial credits (or whatever currency is now used) without any kind of explanation. It was blown up and now we move on to the next planet.

I am totally digging the western/samurai vibes of this series though.

I would imagine a lot of Imperial outposts were quickly abandoned, and a lot of heavy machinery left behind

there's never been a black market or kleptocracy for weapons after a government collapse

;)

Liked the shot of the red eyed AT-ST creeping through the forest at night.

Thought it was funny that by not showing its occupants (if any) they seemed to imply the AT-ST was alive or maybe automated damn since the Empire fell how many people lost their job to this

I am totally digging the western/samurai vibes of this series though.

Is this like the movie nerd equivalent of "It's a magazine not a clip!" https://t.co/1HMybXLqP3

— Social-Democratic Party of Galar (@weedlewobble) December 2, 2019

i mean they literally did the seven samurai spear training sequence with the villagers

so did they not explain what was up with that one villager who clearly knew how to shoot

There are episodes, friend

http://https%3A//images.brickset.com/news/75267-LEGO-Mandalorian-Battle-Pack_4.jpg

Are you all aware of the little Lego Mando club that's coming to a shop near you just after Xmas?

Damn image link.

https://brickset.com/article/47311/mandalorian-battle-pack-revealed

I do wonder if the Netflixification of how we watch TV has knackered people's ability to watch stuff week-by-week - like, I'm pretty sure that some stuff will get tied up in the last few episodes. It can't be 100% episodic, there has to be at least some thread connecting things.

i more bring it up not to question the plotting of the showrunners but rather to suggest that this wasn't necessarily the disconnected limited one-shot storyline one might think aka there are still unexplained mysteries with these villagers.

village lady in a jetpack will save mando from a sarlacc in season 2, book your bets now

(my money is on "some of these are bottle eps and one of the tip offs is celebrity director at the helm")

Carano's already coming back next season so...who knows?

well i'm glad to hear that! she was fun.

So I realize that I have no one to blame but myself for this, but I had a carefully worked out theory in my mind that Yoda, whatever species he is, looked the way he did because he was 900 years old, i.e. he had once been considerably taller with shorter ears and was possibly less green as well. I assumed he had lived 900 years through his supreme mastery of The Force, not because he comes from a species that regularly lives 900 years old (and btw the 50 year "babyhood" or w/e makes no fucking sense even if his species lives 900 years - most animals don't spend 5+% of their lives as infants).