The Mandalorian (Spoilers)

I've decided to take a peak out of curiosity.

Let's just say that this looked more Star Wars than everything Disney has done so far with the franchise. It doesn't shy away from showing and using aliens (specifically classic aliens from the original saga), it takes advantage of what came before while showing new things.

This is not exactly a compliment but more of a criticism of Disney Wars. Still, it's a plus for a Disney property. On the other hand, this is a blatant Jango/Boba Fett rip-off. And while they were not Mandalorians, they were bounty hunters with that visual image. Now we have a Mandalorian who is a bounty hunter. And every other Mandalorian had his own paint job, making them look even more like Boba Fett wannabes... One could almost get the idea that that armor equals bounty hunter... A big minus.

Also, while we did go to new planets, they all basically look like Tatooine villages. I get that it's TV and budget is limited, but Lucas never shied away from his vision. And while he had limitations, he made an effort to get past them. Here, it seems they have resigned themselves to that limited Tatooine backdrop.

Now, while the episode itself was mostly harmless, it did brought up a lot of lore questions and other relatively "minor" issues:

- what's the deal with bounties being trackable by those silver devices? How does this even work? Are all people trackable? How can that be? This doesn't make any sense considering the original movies.
- what's that planet from the flashbacks? Doesn't look like Mandalore as established in The Clone Wars.
- why aren't they able to make Star Wars versions of stuff? Not only has this happened with the other Disney movies, but it happened here again. Regular blacksmith tools? Regular glasses? Come on. I know it's not only up to him, but Filoni should know better after all those years working with Lucas.
- how the heck does the Mandalorian have a carbon freezing chamber within his ship?
- why are they taking the exceptional case of Han in TESB and are treating carbon freezing as a common way to hold bounties?
- what have they done with the Trandoshans? They look like Star Trek rejects.
- speaking of Star Trek rejects, that blue guy didn't fit Star Wars at all. Specially his dialogue. Also, modern humor, borderline breaking the fourth wall.
- did we really need to see a Star Wars toilet?

A few good things:

- IG-11. Both in terms of action and interaction.
- The Ugnaught guy was interesting.
- The blurrg was well done (but we never got to see why it needed to be ridden).
- The riding lesson was a good break of tone.
- Again, plently of classic aliens being used.
- The action scenes were well shot.

I haven't seen "The Mandalorian", apart from some pre-release footage and a couple of trailers -- or one trailer? -- so I can't really comment on the show at present. It looks pretty well-made, and I wouldn't want to overly trash it in advance. That said, it probably won't be to my taste; and I did give it a bit of a pounding (at least, in passing) on Naboo News some months back. To be perfectly honest, little of Star Wars holds great appeal for me, outside of the saga films. Then again, this is an interesting and rather transitional (some might say phasic) time for Lucas' baby. All is open to change.




The Elvis song sprang immediately to mind -- it's one of my favourite recordings of his. And I like alternate takes.







"...and a sixpence in her shoe."



But anyway, I think Episode IV (and V) perfectly fits your idiomatic analogy. There is much, for example, that is old and borrowed in the original film:

www.moongadget.com/origins/index.html

On more than one occasion, Lucas has also spoken about how humanity hasn't moved on much in the past 30,000 years -- since the dawn of human civilisation. Outwardly, perhaps. But inwardly? We basically still have the same brains and the same genes.

Anthropology, as you know, is one of Lucas' prime fascinations. He studied it at college and it is clearly a lifelong interest; and it's of a piece with his curious/seeker nature in general. Why do people do what they do? This essential question frames and animates all of his film art.

The "new" and the "blue" of Star Wars also pervade the films. As Lucas argued with Charlie Rose in 2015, Star Wars itself is "something new" in the human emporium. Blue, well: aside from the starting text ("A long time ago..."), we know who best represents blue ("poor little Artoo"). But blue itself has many shades.







55:25
2005
My son is alive.

Not sure what else were they supposed to do? I actually give LFL/Disney credit for not doing the easy thing, which would have been doing a Boba Fett series, which may have ruined the character for a lot of people, as seen with Luke, Leia and Han. If they are to create new content, they have to start somewhere familiar, somewhere that will make people want to watch. Are people going to want to watch a Star Wars show about a Mon Calamari Bounty Hunter?

Let's not forget that this show is being over seen by Dave Filoni, who is responsible for a very large amount of the Mandalorian lore that is currently out there. Obviously he was instrumental in The Clone Wars (which had a large Manadalorian story line) as well as Rebels (again more Manadalorian story). So it's not like this show is just coming out of no where, and the main character here is just a rip off for the sake of a rip off.

Also, let is not forget, that the whole reason why we get all the Mandalorian lore, even under Lucas, was because of Boba Fett's popularity among the fandom. We aren't getting Rodian Lore, or Hutt lore, etc etc. So one thing feeds the other. Fett's popularity feeds the Mandalorian stories, even Lucas realized this.

So is the main character of this show a Mandalorian Bounty Hunter? Yes he is, but, obviously from the first show, there is more going on with him than just him cracking skulls, and collecting bounties. Where as the Fett's were just Bounty Hunters that wore Mandalorian armor, and that is all they were. Nothing else. And I tell ya, after the second chapter I watched today... man... I am all in! For me, it is very well written, and I was on the edge of my seat just waiting to see little baby "Yoda" make himself known.

So I honestly don't get why it's OK for Lucas to create whole story lines built off the Boba Fett phenomenon. After all, the Mandalorians of The Clone Wars can all be looked at like Boba Fett Wannabees, even equipped with Jet Packs. Should there never be another Star Wars story about a young Jedi learning the ways of the force because the story might look like a Luke Skywalker wannabee?

As critical as I have been of Disney Star Wars, I have to say, I am liking this show. Like I said in my first post, there are some eye rolling things that happen. Some plot devices of convenience, sure.. The Tracking FOBS, all the moisture vaporators etc etc. sure.. but if they keep the characters and story interesting, it's easy to look past those plot devices of convenience and similarities. After all, it's not like the Lucas era movies didn't have such things either (ahem, Anakin having a tracking beacon that told Obi Wan he wasn't on Naboo anymore).

There is something I don't understand. Is this part of the new cannon: I mean Jango/Boba not being Mandalorians? If so, then Disney cornered themself with this. I honestly always considered Jango as real Mandalorian who became bounty hunter later for I don't know what reasons. But I don't see how making Jango a non Mandalorian helps "making a good impression" about this planet. The Mandalorians are fierce warroirs that's why they become good bounty hunters altough this is ahem, complicated profession.

Many thanks for Mike for making this review. Disney + is too far away from my country now and I cannot watch the show.

Anyway, I think is Filoni's "fault" to make this character of the show as he is as Filoni is the great Madalorian fan regarding to today's Lucasfilm.

With that thinking, Jango should not have been a Bounty Hunter either, because all Jango is now is a rip off of Boba Fett's popularity. If you are going to complain about not being original enough, than that complaint should definitely file right down onto Jango. He could have been anything other than a Bounty Hunter. And again, as I have already said once, the entire reason we have Mandalorians at all is because of Fett's popularity in the fandom and Lucas decided that was enough to develop a pretty extensive story for them in The Clone Wars, the entire Mandalorian story is a rip off of Boba Fett.

By Lucas's own admission we can conclude that Yoda was a rip off of Obi Wan because Lucas killed off the mentor in ANH, and now needed for ESB. Thus enter the old Jedi Master, in seclusion, that is going to teach Luke the ways of the Force, only to have something happen that cuts Luke's training short...

I just think the complaint of the main character being too derivative is ignoring the fact that even Lucas saw fit to base an entire culture and planet on a character that had less than 5 minutes of screen time in 3 movies, solely because he had bad ass armor. It is not some stretch that there were Mandalorian Bounty Hunters out in the galaxy doing their own thing, while the events of the characters we know were doing their thing.

I much prefer to follow a character that already has a history that I know thru the exploration of his planet and culture in other aspects of Star Wars lore. As I said before, following a Mon Calamari Bounty Hunter is not really up to snuff, or following a Mandalorian Accountant is really not my cup of tea either.



How the Mandalorians came to be as a Lucas concept is very much in the air. I know some sources tie Boba Fett's conception to actually being a Mandalorian, however, the problem with that is there are also sources, even from Lucas himself, where Fett was conceptualized as a rogue Stormtrooper, or super commando stormtrooper, hence his initial concepts are with all white armor. This attachment to the Stormtroopers is talked about by Lucas in the AOTC DVD Commentary where he says something along the lines that he always felt that Fett was related to the stormtroopers, so that is why he made Jango the source material for the clone troopers, who eventually become the stormtroopers. Boba, by being his fathers genetic rip-off, is now related directly to the stormtroopers in Star Wars lore. 





I never said Boba and the Mandalorians were the same. However, it is clear, once again, that an entire story line of a TV show for a planet and culture, books, merchandising,etc etc have been built around Boba Fett's armor. So to me it is a bit, curious, that there would be a problem with a Mandalorian Bounty Hunter, when so much other stuff has been built around Boba Fett's popularity and ripped off from him, only for there to be a problem now.

We can argue the semantics of what came first, the chicken or the egg, but what should be clear is if Boba Fett does not get the cult following he did from ESB and ROTJ, than there is a good chance that Boba is not in AOTC, and the Mandalorian storyline of The Clone Wars does not get made.






I wouldn't call creating an entire show around a character, cheap publicity. However, if you are going down that road, than again, we have a large chunk of story that was over seen by Lucas in which is clearly built of the popularity of Boba Fett and nothing more. Was it cheap publicity for Lucas to do it was well?



And if you watched the show closely, at least so far, you will realize that the Mandalorian is not customizing his true Mandalorian armor. The cheap knock off armor is customized with colors. It's clear, in the first episode, the Mandalorian's helmet is the only piece of true mandalorian armor. The rest seems to be junk, made to look like Mandalorain armor. When he gets the new piece, the pauldron, he doesn't customize it. It goes straight on as the same in the same raw color scheme as his helmet, raw silver. Now, I believe he will eventually customize it. I feel this way because the armorsmith asks if his insignia has been revealed yet. I am willing to bet this means his clan, which if he finds out which clan he belonged too, he will eventually take that clans colors or insignia.

For Filonis quote, there was uniformity in the Mandalorians in the Clone Wars show, but there was also customization in the armor as well. Go back and look, helmets had different colors and designs on them. One group had different colors than another group. As Filoni says in your quote, they are "trying to regain" their history, that's because they've been scattered across the galaxy, that's why there is infighting among the Mandalorians in the show. One group wanted peace and prosperity, another wanted revenge and a return to the old warrior ways of Mandalore.

I'm pretty sure that's what we are seeing in the current show. It seems in this current show the Mandalorians are still not united. They are still in disarray across the galaxy, trying to find their "mythology". In fact the quote you provided sounds very similar to what we have seen in the first two episodes, except it is boiled down to 1 specific Mandalorian who is trying to figure out who he is.

And lastly, Here is Filoni's full quote... which the first sentence you curiously left off...



Were they mercenary people? Yes, absolutely they were!! Mercenaries... like you know, Bounty Hunters.... So the Mandalorian in the show is not really not far beyond what was portrayed under what Lucas said to Filoni. Filoni's quote is a rough history of the Mandalorians. Their history of being warriors, mercernaries, conquerers. All that war and fighting led them to fight the Jedi, which in turn caused the cataclysm.  Now, just as Filoni says, the Mandaloarins are trying to find their mythology. For this specific Mandalorian we are following in the show, he is a mercenary in the form of a Bounty Hunter, who is trying to connect to who he is through his peoples customary armor that he is slowly piecing together.

Is he Boba Fett? No. He is much more.

But you are getting stuck on a couple similar aspects of the characters, ignoring the actual show so far in what we have seen, and ignoring everything that even Lucas himself built off the popularity of Boba Fett.

Forget The Mandalorian, I want to watch The Midichlorians.

And in that vein, and to continue with Cryo's music posts (as he & I often do): I sometimes see people say TPM can be excluded from SW Saga viewings. Well, I think I found a good analogy to help illustrate why it's crucial. It would be similar to The Beatles leaving out the opening bars to If I Fell.



There's even a vital connection to all this with Elvis, Cryo.

I wasn't interested in this show because the main character seemed like such a bland copy of Boba/Jango, and I was never a big fan of the Mandalorian aspect of Star Wars lore. I decided to check out Book of Boba Fett because I'm at least a little invested in Boba's character, and I was surprised to like it quite a bit, enough to make me take a look at The Mandalorian. This show is the best thing to come out of Disney Star Wars. By far. I like that it feels like Rogue One and Solo, which in turn feel closer to Lucas' Star Wars, than the sequel trilogy. There is a difference, though. Lucas' Star Wars has a mythic quality and a theatricality, which feels like you're reading a fairy tale or indeed the Journal of the Whills. You're witnessing these epic, mythological events transpire over generations. The Mandalorian feels like an ordinary day in the galaxy far, far away. There's a heightened realism. One of the aspects that Lucas talks about in his films is that you're dropped straight into an environment that you don't fully understand and that isn't explained. The Mandalorian, on the other hand, explains every nook and cranny of the world. There is a lot of detail, a lot of which is added for fan service, which can be cool. But I like Lucas' approach, which leaves an air of mystery and magic about the world. The Mandalorian is very matter-of-fact about everything. So there is a little bit of demystification.

One of the feats this show achieved with me, one that I never thought would happen, is it got me to like Ahsoka Tano. I never liked her in the animated shows. I thought it was mostly the voice which I didn't like, and that was confirmed by The Mandalorian. Rosario Dawson is much better as Ahsoka than Ashley Eckstein. Her voice always sounded smug and grating to me. Seeing her in live action, I actually feel like she could have been the padawan of Anakin as played by Hayden Christensen. It would be cool to see a flashback of them together, perhaps in the upcoming Ahsoka show. Can't believe I'm looking forward to that one now.

The Mandalorian totally gets the Star Wars universe, and its major themes for the most part. What I think it shares a bit with the Disney movies, is its lack of more contemplative moments and wise characters, which are a staple of Lucas' Star Wars. I think the Disney movies totally lack these things. There's a lot of moving around and action and shouting in those movies (thankfully Mando is mostly silent so no "WHOOPING" in the show). Maz Kanata was meant to be the new Yoda, but turned out to be a joke. The Mandalorian had the Ugnaught character, and Ahsoka, which were great, yet there could have been more of them. Ahsoka's presence reminded me of that of Qui-Gon, my second favorite Star Wars character, which made me fall in love with her in this show. And then of course you had the brief yet impactful appearance of Luke, who just oozes cool and wisdom. I would like more of that sort of thing. I get that Mando is a space western, and shoot outs are to be expected, but the action scenes got a bit repetitive after a while. When you've once seen him take out stormtroopers with reckless abandon, you've seen them all.