The Mandalorian Spoiler Thread

[Demesnedenoir]

I agree with a lot of that... and I could pile on. Eventually I shut off my brain and enjoyed the “cool” factor. The story was... I don’t even know what to call it. There was a lot of head-slappers in there. The Mandalorian is a major badass only when he needs to be, the rest of the time he spends life getting the crap kicked out of him.

Just binged the whole thing off a free week from Disney and am baffled by the great reviews. I thought the characters were limp stereotypes, with inconsistencies trotted out whenever the plot needed it. And hoo boy did the plot need it. Holes big enough to ride a bantha through. Stuff the writers don't even bother to pretend to justify, like a gigantic walker that just hangs around a bunch of small-time crooks. Who the heck was driving that thing? Why did it pause short of the trap? Who knows? Who cares? Bam! Bam! The river of lava was silly enough, but then our heroes are surprised when the boat keeps moving. Hey guys, it's a river; it moves; gravity; you may have heard of it. And who connects a sewage system big enough to serve all Paris to *lava*?

Most of the acting was wooden and the writing was ... well, to quote a certain someone, you can type this stuff but you can't say it. Pacing was weird, the orchestration in the earlier episodes sounded like it was from a 50s pirate movie and it was mixed low. I just, I can't figure it. Highlight of all eight episodes was those two speeder storm troopers. The dialog was snappy, delivery was good, and for once it didn't sound like someone was writing something out of the Scarlet Pimpernel (all proper props to the baroness).

Anyway, I'm glad other folks enjoyed it. The sets were good.

Me, I'm glad I didn't pay retail.

 

[Demesnedenoir]

The better Walker question is... why would it even get close to that simplistic, stupid trap in the first place? heh heh. As my wife might say... because it’s in the script.

Just binged the whole thing off a free week from Disney and am baffled by the great reviews. I thought the characters were limp stereotypes, with inconsistencies trotted out whenever the plot needed it. And hoo boy did the plot need it. Holes big enough to ride a bantha through. Stuff the writers don't even bother to pretend to justify, like a gigantic walker that just hangs around a bunch of small-time crooks. Who the heck was driving that thing? Why did it pause short of the trap? Who knows? Who cares? Bam! Bam! The river of lava was silly enough, but then our heroes are surprised when the boat keeps moving. Hey guys, it's a river; it moves; gravity; you may have heard of it. And who connects a sewage system big enough to serve all Paris to *lava*?

Most of the acting was wooden and the writing was ... well, to quote a certain someone, you can type this stuff but you can't say it. Pacing was weird, the orchestration in the earlier episodes sounded like it was from a 50s pirate movie and it was mixed low. I just, I can't figure it. Highlight of all eight episodes was those two speeder storm troopers. The dialog was snappy, delivery was good, and for once it didn't sound like someone was writing something out of the Scarlet Pimpernel (all proper props to the baroness).

Anyway, I'm glad other folks enjoyed it. The sets were good.

Me, I'm glad I didn't pay retail.

 

[skip.knox]

Do you like Star Wars?

The first three, sure. After that, not so much. I think that's because Star Wars really was revolutionary, unlike anything that had come before, so even though the plot and writing weren't all that brilliant, the overall effect was. By the time of the later movies, they were more like also-rans because other brilliant SF movies had come along.

But staying strictly within the framework of the Star Wars movies, The Mandalorian struck me as a significant step down. Which is why I'm puzzled why the reviews are so strong. Heck, I thought the writing and acting on Clone Wars was better.

 

[skip.knox]

>because it’s in the script.
Exactly this. If the sets had been cheap, this could have been one of those groaner SF television shows from the 70s.

 

[Demesnedenoir]

Rogue One is the only one of the newer movies I put up there with the originals... and it’s the one most closely related to the originals... go figure. And I think you’re right, in part, but what New Hope in particular was is FUN. It was really the characters you came to love in IV that carried V and VI for me, not story. A point to make is that in the 70’s movies trended “heavier” and more serious, so this sort of sci-fantasy hit a market primed for it.

The first three, sure. After that, not so much. I think that's because Star Wars really was revolutionary, unlike anything that had come before, so even though the plot and writing weren't all that brilliant, the overall effect was. By the time of the later movies, they were more like also-rans because other brilliant SF movies had come along.

But staying strictly within the framework of the Star Wars movies, The Mandalorian struck me as a significant step down. Which is why I'm puzzled why the reviews are so strong. Heck, I thought the writing and acting on Clone Wars was better.

 

[Gray-Hand]

I like that they cast a solid, muscular woman in the Cara Dune role rather than the usual waif from central casting. Hope it catches on.

 

[Zander Willmore]

I kind of liked this show. But a few things in the last episode bothered me. Number one Mandy had been kicking stormtrooper butt for most of the time. He was just one man and they couldnt stop him. So how did a squad of troopers take down a whole colony of Mandos? And the metal that the Mados use is much saught after yet the troopers leave a whole freaken pile of it behind. Wouldnt they want that? Then when they were on the river of lava (how did the boat not melt) and they saw the troopers waiting for them they panicked. They have been destroying this guys at every encounter so why worry so much about just a few waiting for them?

Zander who is bothered by the little things.

 

[Demesnedenoir]

So how did a squad of troopers take down a whole colony of Mandos?

THIS is easy to explain... it was the ONE squad of Stormtroopers capable of hitting the broadside of a bantha. My theory is that the rest of the crack stormtroopers were trained to fire warning shots and never hit anybody.

 

[FifthView]

The fact that the region of the Empire/Rebellion is soooo huge and not one single person in its long history ever figured out how to invent auto targeting for laser weapons—and also, that clunkers can be cobbled together and flown in space without a care in the world—.... Well, I could go on.

 

[Garren Jacobsen]

IT'S BACK!!!!! AND IT'S DONE AND IT WAS GREAT!!

Holy poop, what a great season finale! Also, Boba vs Bo for the Mandalorian throne?

 

[Devor]

It was really cool.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I was personally.... disappointed? Or maybe just saddened? And yet still excited? by the choice of Jedi who responded because of the ending that followed. I was hoping for a different choice. There are Jedi candidates who I thought could have trained Grogu in the force and explored his dark side tendencies while staying with Mando. But the Jedi who came did what he was always going to do, and I'm nervous about whether Season 3 will have the same impact because of it.

 

[Garren Jacobsen]

It was really cool.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I was personally.... disappointed? Or maybe just saddened? And yet still excited? by the choice of Jedi who responded because of the ending that followed. I was hoping for a different choice. There are Jedi candidates who I thought could have trained Grogu in the force and explored his dark side tendencies while staying with Mando. But the Jedi who came did what he was always going to do, and I'm nervous about whether Season 3 will have the same impact because of it.

Perhaps, but there is gonna be a lot more pew-pew. The fight for Mandalore will be cuh-razy!

 

[Devor]

Perhaps, but there is gonna be a lot more pew-pew. The fight for Mandalore will be cuh-razy!

Ahh, that's another thing, I haven't seen the Clone Wars series, so Bo-Catan, the Darksaber, the fight for Mandalore.... I'm not invested in any of that stuff as of yet.

It was cool to see the post-credits scene. A good fit for the Fett.

 

[Garren Jacobsen]

Ahh, that's another thing, I haven't seen the Clone Wars series, so Bo-Catan, the Darksaber, the fight for Mandalore.... I'm not invested in any of that stuff as of yet.

It was cool to see the post-credits scene. A good fit for the Fett.

Man, the last season of the Clone Wars has some of the best Star Wars stuff you will ever see. The ending scene. *chef's kiss*

 

[Devor]

Man, the last season of the Clone Wars has some of the best Star Wars stuff you will ever see. The ending scene. *chef's kiss*

I tried putting it on for the kids but they just weren't interested. And my wife doesn't have that much time. It's hard for me to spend that much time on a show that long if none of the other people in my home will watch it with me.

 

[Garren Jacobsen]

I tried putting it on for the kids but they just weren't interested. And my wife doesn't have that much time. It's hard for me to spend that much time on a show that long if none of the other people in my home will watch it with me.

My kids were much the same, but once they got a few episodes in, they were in!

 

[Garren Jacobsen]

Also, why is Star Wars short form media (clone wars rebels and now Mandalorian) so much better than the recent long form shows

 

[Gray-Hand]

The shows have either one mind directing the overall narrative or at least a shared vision between the storytellers collaborating on the movie. They all know where they are going with the story. You can see how John Favreau works to build that environment with the directors (who are all individually really good storytellers) if you watch the ‘gallery’ episodes from season 1.

That just did not happen between JJ Abrams and Rian Johnson. JJ probably didn’t have enough time to put together a story for an entire trilogy before making the first one and then handing it over to someone else - exactly like what he did with Lost. But Rian Johnson pulled a real dick move by writing a script which ditched a lot of what had been set up in the first movie and generally shitting on the source material. He is not a team player and just should not have been given the job. If you set out to make a trilogy, you need to plan a story that is told over three movies - don’t just make it up as you go along.

When the audience realises that the storytellers are just making it up on the fly, they stop caring. The third movie never stood a chance for that reason.

 

[Devor]

Yeah, we've talked about that elsewhere.... the LOTR movies were all filmed together before the first one released, so were Infinity Wars and Endgame. But with the Star Wars trilogy, they didn't even decide on Palpatine's return until after episode 8 was released. That's just shoddy planning. It's disappointing that Lucasfilm would botch something so important to them so badly.

It's really great to see Favreau working well with a lot of different directors for the Mandalorian. I'd like to hope he's training them to run the future of Star Wars.