The Mandalorian and General Thoughts About Star Wars

I like the The Mandalorian, its not a perfect show, but so far its the best Star Wars we've gotten from Disney. I fear though, that might not last.

I also like Rogue One. It took great pains to not stomp on A New Hope, or the Original Trilogy, even going as far as to kill off its new characters to preserve canon. I can only assume at the time, Disney's Star Wars Social Justice Writers Room had not yet become brave enough to jump off that cliff when this movie was made.

The Mandalorian, would do itself a BIG favor if it avoids referencing anything from the Sequel Trilogy, AT ALL.

The problem is. This is still Disney Star Wars, and there remains a certain sort of politically charged mindset in Hollywood in general and at Lucasfilms in particular. Its only a matter of time before this all comes crashing down around us.

That is sad a prospect given the looming implosion that is going to be the The Rise of Skywalker. JJ Abrams might not have liked what Rian Johnson did in The Last Jedi, how it stomped all over The Force Awakens. Stomping on the Original Trilogy and making Luke Skywalker and Anakin;s sacrifices meaningless, does not help even it hinders. Even if you think you are doing a course correction.

Making Emperor Palpatine's granddaughter the Apex hero of the Skywalker Saga undercuts any of those supposed corrections to Rian Johnson's mess of a film.

Sure JJ Abrams, Rian Johnson stomped on your plot points and you just undid everything Lucas built in one fell swoop by crowning Rey Best Jedi EVER!

"I am all the Jedi!"

Its hard to even describe what a narrative mess this is, given it rips apart a great deal of "settled", supposedly according to Disney, untouchable Star Wars lore.

To reiterate, The Mandalorian needs to stay FAR away from this mess at all costs, or Star Wars is truly DONE as long as Disney owns it.

Star Wars: The Child aka Baby Yoda Talking Plush

Seriously I can't believe we have to wait until May for him to come out!

Yes! I want this Baby Yoda plush. Look he's totally adorable and there's no arguing that he is part of the appeal of The Manalorian.


The Hasbro photographer actually manages to capture Baby Yoda's cuteness and wide-eyed wonder. Typically their photography is dull and boring. Just look at any official Transformers product images - Takara does way better there.

These photos look like they are right off the set of The Mandalorian, of the "The Child" animatronic puppet used for filming.

Wait!

Are they? Is this the actual product?

I hope so, cause it looks awesome.

From the Amazon listing:

From Hasbro’s Star Wars Collection: The Child Talking Plush Toy with character sounds and accessories! 

Nothing in the galaxy is as cute, has taken as many naps, sipped more soup, or learned to control the Force as The Child from the hit streaming series The Mandalorian on Disney Plus! 

He may look like “Baby Yoda,” but this lovable little creature is called the Child—and now you can become his protector with this cuddly plush toy from Star Wars, dressed in the cutest little robe ever seen this side of Mos Eisley. Posable arms let kids pretend the Force is within their reach, while a squeeze of the toy’s soft plush body activates character sounds! 

Our hearts are melting like Beskar steel in a Mandalorian forge. 

The Mandalorian - Pilot

I don't want to overstate this, as I think its too soon to fully judge a series based on a single episode in which not very much happened, but Disney's The Mandalorian is actually not bad. For what we've seen so far it was actually pretty good.

Before I go on. There will be SPOILERS!




The Mandalorian, himself is actually an enjoyable character, keeping in mind he's a mysterious figure we don't know all that much about at this point. This is helpful. Having a likable central character goes a long way in letting viewers get into a series.


Like I said. Not that much happened.


We learn it takes place post-Empire. There are seemingly Imperial remnants, out there as Werner Herzog's "The Client" appears to be a former Imperial of some ranking. He was after all, wearing the emblem of the Empire and being guarded by Stormtroopers.

So there's a lot of laser fire and a few gruesome moments. All of which lead to our Mandalorian buddy becoming employed by "The Client" to seek out a package. The Client pays the bounty hunter with a pressed piece of steel emblazoned with the Imperial Emblem, which seems to be of high cultural value to the Mandalor.

Our protagonist takes the job, and leaves. Returns to his tribe, where his leader, a female Mandalor forges for him from the steel an shoulder pauldron, and then the Mandalorian is off to seek out his prey.


Sidebar: Star Wars typically makes it very clear what planet we are on at any given time. This show however, does not do so, and its a hindrance to the story. Please, if you are not going to incorporate it into dialogue, at least use a chyron to inform us what the planet is named. At one point it looked like one of the planets might have been intended to be Batuu (Galaxies Edge) but its hard to be sure.


Back to the mission. Along the way, our Mandalorian meets some people, fires some more lasers and almost becomes friends with a Droid. Almost... He hates Droids.


After killing a bunch of people he discovers what, who he has been looking for. The Asset...

Adorable! A baby member of Master Yoda's species. I hope this plays into a larger aspect of Star Wars lore and we learn about Yoda's species. I get the impression they are rare, otherwise there would not be a fuss to acquire a specimen. 

What did I think of all this?

I enjoyed it. But I remain skeptical. There's still time for this to go off the rails. Thus far The Mandalorian, is enjoyable and feels more like Star Wars than most of what we have gotten out of Disney. In some ways this actually reminds me of Rogue One - A Disney Star Wars movie, that I do in fact like.

I'd say be cautiously optimistic.

One episode in, its too early to come to a real solid conclusion. I will say this is probably the Star Wars Disney should have been giving us from the beginning.

Jon Favreau, should probably be put in charge of any new Star Wars Trilogy whenever that might come about. I don't want to jump too far ahead, but it does look like he has a handle on the universe.

The Mandalorian, could end up being the Saga's only remaining hope.