Mondays on Mandalore:

Welcome to the final installment for the first season of The Mandaloiran. There are spoilers. Like, lots.

I don't even know where to start with this. The last two episodes were so, so good. Despite our ostensible goal here on ye olde blog(e), I don't really want to review The Mandaloiran. It's good, boom, there's your review. I'm more interested in discussion about what makes it good and what the themes are. Maybe that is what a review is, anyway, shut up, read the thing:

I Have Questions: Which is a good thing! Disney is in a sort of weird place with Star Wars right now - It has a trilogy of movies that, well, I love. Others don't, some for better reasons than others, but there is a massively divided fanbase right now. There have been two good animated series (and one just, horrid one), but never a live action series. There were a couple one-off movies that were... there. In addition, The Mandalorian is sort of the flagship for D+, and it has a lot to do.

I would not have faulted Disney if they just used this as another "Star Wars Story", made one season to see how it went, and wrapped it up with a nice bow at the end of season one. That way, if it sucked, everyone could just move on from it without a bunch of open in-universe questions.

So ending it the way they did was a bit of a risk. So let's leave this with what mysteries are in the offing for season two and beyond:

Why Do the Imperials Actually Want Baby Yoda? I am pretty sure they won't go with my hunch, which is that Baby Yoda is, in fact, delicious. It seems unlikely that the Imps we see were familiar with the Jedi, since it's pretty established most people never even believed they existed, even in the higher levels of the Empire. So why?

How did Gideon get the Darksaber? This question we essentially know the answer to, since Gideon was intermetal in Mandalore's downfall. I am very curious about the last days of Mandalore; the Darksaber ties both Rebels and the Clone Wars to The Mandalorian. Will we see some characters from either of them in the show? GIVE ME SABINE AND ASHOKA NOW.

Will Mandalore Rise Again? Things look not good for our armored heroes, The Way all but abandoned or wiped out. Mandalore, as a planet and as a creed, have ever been at odds with... pretty much everyone. After all those centuries of conflict, is this the end?

Do They Die? I mean... we know what happens. Rise of Skywalker is out, and that's the end of the Skywalker Saga, and Mando and Baby Yoda ain't in it. Like the characters from Rebels, this sort of puts a limit on how this story can end.

Those are my big questions - we'll see how season two answers them when it drops in fall 2020.

-DESR

Dean is the author of the 3024AD series of science fiction stories. When not holed up in his office tweeting obnoxiously writing, he can be found watching or playing sports, or in his natural habitat of a bookstore. 

Mondays on Mandalore: Star Wars is not the Problem

Welcome back to Mondays on Mandalore, where we usually discuss The Mandalorian. This week is a little different, since another small, live-action Star Wars production was released, called The Rise of Skywalker. You may have heard of it.

THIS IS YOUR OFFICIAL SPOILER WARNING FOR THE LAST JEDI AND THE MANDALORIAN.

J.J. Abrams has spoken several times of the Mystery Box he got when he was a kid. Basically, a prize from an arcade or toy store or something, it was one of those blind bags where you get a random toy. Unlike most kids, though, he never opened it. Because what was actually inside could never live up to what he imagined it being.

I wonder if he wishes he had left Star Wars in the box. Because the fandom tore that box open like a kid on Christmas morning, wrapping paper everywhere, hungry to see the perfect gift waiting inside. And instead of the LEGO UCS Millennium Falcon they were really sure Santa had packed in to a much smaller box, they got a stupid PlayStation (topical analogy, I am nailing this). But if two months ago, they were just given the PlayStation, they would have been over the moon.

That's where we're at with Star Wars. The Rise of Skywalker is a rally good movie. The writing is solid, the pacing is good, especially considering they had a lot to cram in. There is none of the long, side-quest elements of The Last Jedi. There is so much action. There is amazing payoff, from things I honestly didn't expect.

And yet. This spoiled fanbase, which if you are of my age, spent your entire life waiting for these movies, not only has those, you have all this other content and it's great*. Shows. Books. Comics. Video games**. But no, because it's not the fanfic in their head, it's not good enough. Because Disney saved bought Star Wars, somehow that has sullied the brilliant vision that Lucas had and made a movie about space wizards in the future-past.

Wait.

Did no one watch the prequels? Is that what you want? Two hours of exposition about trade contracts and pedigreed actors sleepwalking through their performances***? Was the Expanded Universe so great? Cuz... it super wasn't.

But people talked themselves into what it was going to and should be, and they ripped the box open, and even though what they got is objectively pretty good, it wasn't good enough.

That's not Johnson's fault, not Abrams, not Disney. I'm not saying that you have to like the sequel trilogy, but I am saying if you don't, you should probably look at why.

Also, the Mandalorian was awesome. Best episode yet. Give Deborah Chow her own trilogy. More on that next week.

*The show Resistance… tries.
**I really wish we had gotten the 1313 game we were promised.
***Except Ewan McGregor.

-DESR

 Dean is the author of the 3024AD series of science fiction stories. When not holed up in his office tweeting obnoxiously writing, he can be found watching or playing sports, or in his natural habitat of a bookstore. 

Mondays on Mandalore: Life Day

Welcome to Mondays on Mandalore. Unlike Mandalorians, this will not be a quiet, stoic affair. It will, however, discuss The Mandalorian, and in doing so, assume you have seen same. So there are spoilers.

Contrary to last week, I have a lot to say about this week. Let's dig in.

There's no shortage of commentary on the Western themes of the Mandalorian, and that was obvious from the get-go, but my goodness:  Making a quasi-horror, heist episode is not what I saw coming, and I am here for it. There's a ton I love about this episode, which are things I love about the show overall, so let's get meta with it.

I adore two of the three animated shows (Resistance is hot garbage), and at several points, both Clone Wars and Rebels address big issues, and big ideas. They deal with galactic conflict, and do an amazing job of bringing those to a human level.

The Mandalorian isn't concerned with any of that; it starts with the human and works up. It deals with people trying to survive and scrape by, the people who we meet at the beginning of A New Hope and The Force Awakens, Luke and Rey, who go on to play monumental roles despite being nobodies on the galactic scale. Here, the nobodies stay nobodies. Sometimes because they lose - see the Chapter 6 - sometimes, because they just want to be left alone, like Kuiil early on.

A super early comment on Star Wars (that I am far too lazy to look up who said it) was that it was the first scifi universe that "felt lived in". So many other universes are dirtier, grittier, more violent, etc. But Star Wars isn't Game of Thrones or the like, so how does it adapt to the modern age? Even more relevant, what happens when the thing that made Star Wars, Star Wars, namely, the Skywalker Saga, wraps up?

I think The Mandalorian gives us a glimpse into what the post-Skywalker universe can and will look like - diverse, drawing from sources that inspire and elevate it to new heights, just like the influences of Lucas and company way back when it first started.

We find out next week how the Skywalker Saga wraps up - after that, who knows? There's been a lot of static about what fans do and don't like, but for this one... I like the direction things are going.

-DESR

 Dean is the author of the 3024AD series of science fiction stories. When not holed up in his office tweeting obnoxiously writing, he can be found watching or playing sports, or in his natural habitat of a bookstore. 

Mondays on Mandalore: Off Target

Welcome to Mondays on Mandalore. Unlike Mandalorians, this will not be a quiet, stoic affair. It will, however, discuss The Mandalorian, and in doing so, assume you have seen same. So there are spoilers.

"Mando"

"what"

"Poop, I must"

"I'm busy"

"In here, I went"

I don't have a grand takeaway from the latest episode, but I do have several random thoughts, so you get these quick-hitters. Enjoy:

• Every time there is a large group of largely solitary, morally-dubious people, there is always a guild. The Pirate's Guild in Pirates of the Caribbean, things like that. Here we have the Bounty Hunters Guild. Now, in the American West, it was licensed and regulated, so there is a real-life connection, but I want to know what the meetings were like where a bunch of paid killers sat down and decided to make rules about it. Also, what are the benefits? Do you get a pension?
• The best they can do for tracking targets is a red blinky thing? That somehow always leads hunters to exactly where the target is? It seems like there should be a better system, that involves... you know... hunting. I love this show, but man, the fob thing is dumb.
• One of the largest accomplishments of the original trilogy is having two main characters that didn't speak English, and two characters who were masked/a droid, and were still able to communicate exactly what they were thinking and feeling. The Mandalorian does the same. The Yodaling squeaks. We never see Mando's face, but he emotes so, so well. It's really what makes this show, and makes it very, very Star Wars.
• Does Mando have to change diapers? Is the Yodaling potty trained? How does he reach? Or does Mando follow him around with a broom?

-DESR

 Dean is the author of the 3024AD series of science fiction stories. When not holed up in his office tweeting obnoxiously writing, he can be found watching or playing sports, or in his natural habitat of a bookstore. 

Mondays on Mandalore: Do the Evolution

Welcome to Mondays on Mandalore. Unlike Mandalorians, this will not be a quiet, stoic affair. It will, however, discuss The Mandalorian, and in doing so, assume you have seen same. So there are spoilers.

The least surprising theme of the Mandalorian is that he is largely alone. Secondary characters shuffle in and out, appearing in an episode or two before our hero moves on, Yodaling in tow. Once again, Mando embodies the Western hero who is always on the move, caught between worlds, and doesn't fit in or put down roots.

He is contrasted in 'Sanctuary' by a former Rebel shock trooper, who is burned out and disillusioned. I love that The Mandalorian is following in the footsteps of Rogue One here and showing us some of the diritier parts of the Rebellion. But she provides an excellent compliment to Mando, equally skilled and determined. But while she is clearly lost faith in the Rebellion/New Republic, she doesn't lack ideals. She still leaps at the chance to help the farmers out - ostensibly for money, but in short order, much more willingly.

Mando is there so him and the Yodaling have a place to hide. But, of course, it turns out he can't, and not just because of the steady stream of bounty hunters that are sure to come. He can't because he... can't. To most, taking off the helmet seems like the refreshing way to go. Like it's a burden to wear, and settling down with the pretty (deadly) widow and a bundle of cuteness is the right, easy choice.

But the helmet to him is not a prison to him, even if aspects of the settled life appeal to him. It's what protects him, not just physically, but from being too close to anyone, even his present ward. He has no definite plan for it beyond survive. But there has to be an endgame for his charge, at some point, and where will that leave Mando?

If the Westerns which so heavily influence this show are any guide, standing outside a doorway, watching the kid safely delivered to its new family.

Please let this be the closing shot

-DESR

 Dean is the author of the 3024AD series of science fiction stories. When not holed up in his office tweeting obnoxiously writing, he can be found watching or playing sports, or in his natural habitat of a bookstore.