Tag: The Mandalorian

Chapter 11 of The Mandalorian will be a hard one to follow up. From what it might set up for Din Djarin’s arc to what it could mean for the franchise as a whole, it’s bound to be referenced as one of the most meaningful chapters of the series when it’s all said and done.

Besides the live-action debut of Bo-Katan, one of the most significant moments we got was the mention of former Jedi Ahsoka Tano, and how Din Djarin is now on his way to meet her so she could assist in dealing with The Child. But even though everybody wants this encounter to happen as soon as possible, the series will most likely take its time and make us wait just a little bit longer. There are some details that hint at it, both in the footage we’ve already seen and the production information on who’s directing which episodes, something that entails that Ahsoka will have her own episode to shine in a couple of weeks.

This next episode, Chapter 12, is set to be directed by Carl Weathers, who also plays Greef Karga, one of Mando’s returning allies. Since Weathers has been quoted in saying that this episode will allow him to go a bit deeper into his own character, it’s fair to assume that this could be the episode where most (if not all) of the trailer footage he was featured in came from. That would mean that Mando would be back in Nevarro, perhaps looking for parts to repair the Razor Crest to give himself a better chance of reaching the forest planet of Corvus in one piece, and could end up getting caught in an already developing conflict on the planet. An interesting possibility will be for him to cross paths with the Mythrol (portrayed by comedian Horatio Sanz) he captured in the first chapter of the series. All we know about him is that he was dropped off in Nevarro and that he had quite a few credits to his name. Since he also featured in the trailer footage there it is probable that Mando, alongside Karga and Cara Dune, may end up breaking him out, turning him into an ally in the fight against the remaining forces of the Empire.

Another reason why Chapter 13 is all but assured to be the Ahsoka-centric one is that that will be the only episode this season that Dave Filoni will be both writing and directing. Filoni, who played X-Wing fighter pilot Trapper Wolf in chapters 6 and 10, is, amongst other things, the “father” of the Ahsoka character. He developed her during his tenure in The Clone Wars and later in Star Wars Rebels, and it makes sense for him to be the main voice behind her live-action debut. Having Filoni completely devoted to an entire episode at a time Ahsoka is due to make her first appearance makes it pretty obvious what that episode will be about.

There is obviously the possibility of her showing up at the end of Chapter 12, making for an incredible cliffhanger as we wait for Chapter 13. But the way that the series didn’t play coy when mentioning her name as the Jedi Djarin should be go looking for, shows that the cat is already out of the bag, so there shouldn’t be any need for a surprise of that kind. We already know she is coming, and so her first appearance should come when it can be thoroughly developed and appreciated. The opposite point can obviously be made since that, for Filoni to truly have an entire episode to properly introduce Ahsoka to general audiences, she should be there from the start so as not to waste a single minute with the focus on something else. For that to happen, an appearance on the final seconds of Chapter 12 would be in order.

Another interesting aspect of this next chapter of The Mandalorian is that it could probably show us the rest of the trailer footage that hasn’t yet been featured on any episode so far, thus making us go into the final half of the season with little to no visual references of what could be coming our way. If this does happen we’re sure to get some stormtrooper action, something that could bring Moff Gideon back into the frame (as we saw on the last episode), perhaps even making him follow Mando as he searches for Ahsoka. Gideon’s interest in Baby Yoda is certain to be related to him being force-sensitive, and having him meet up with a full-fledged former Jedi could make matters all the more interesting.

Ahead of The Mandalorian’s season 2, we give quick introductions to characters that have yet to debut on a live-action Star Wars project, but that most likely will show up on the Disney+ hit series in the coming weeks.

During the Clone Wars, Mandalore, the homeworld of the Mandalorians, was ruled by Duchess Sarine Kryze, Bo-Katan’s sister. Not happy with her sister’s pacifist beliefs, she decides to join Pre Vizsla, the governor of Mandalore’s moon Concordia, and his Death Watch, that sought control of their planet to restore Mandalore’s warrior heritage. By doing so, and since Pre Vizsla had also made a pact with Darth Maul, she ended up helping to set in motion the events that lead to her sister’s demise.

After Vizsla managed to successfully assume control of Mandalore, he turned on Maul, which leads to a death duel between the two. With Maul emerging victorious, killing Vizla, he would now be wielding the Madalore symbol of power: The Darksaber. Refusing to accept an outsider ruling over Mandalore, she escaped, but her sister, a close friend of Obi-Wan Kenobi, was murdered by Maul as he tried to lure his nemesis to deal with him once and for all. Bo-Katan manages to help Kenobi escape and then turned to both him and Ahsoka Tano for help in defeating Maul, their common enemy, and the Mandalorians that were still loyal to him. They eventually get behind her and support Bo-Katan’s Mandalorian forces as they regain control of Mandalore’s capital city, Sundari. The Republic took control over Mandalore to ensure a peaceful transition of power, but with the rise of Emperor Palpatine and by refusing to follow the Galactic Empire, Bo-Katan lost her position as Regent of Mandalore.

A couple of decades later, while wielding the Darksaber once again, alongside rebel and fellow Mandalorian Sabine Wren she was able to destroy an Arc Pulse Generator, an Imperial weapon that managed to incinerate whoever was wearing an armor made out of beskar. She regained the trust of several of Mandalore’s clans, uniting them under a single banner. After the Great Purge, that saw the Empire coming into conflict with the Mandalorians, stripping them of their beskar, Moff Gideon managed to take possession of the Darksaber, and Bo-Katan’s fate remains unclear.

For more details regarding The Mandalorian season two aswell as other Star Wars projects, check out the dedicated feature focused on the future of the Star Wars Universe.

Before I watched a minute of Chapter 10 of The Mandalorian, I had already read a couple of messages and seen enough Twitter comments to know presume that the episode was going to move a bit slowly. Then, less than 10 minutes into the episode, the characters themselves made it clear. To me the conversation between Peli Motto and Din Djarin about how to best transport those eggs was more than instructions on how to move those eggs; to me it was a message from the show’s creatives that this show is going to move slowly and that they believe that slow-moving pace is the best way to develop their baby. And those eggs…they’re not just eggs.

Traveling sub-light is a bit dicey these days…

As our own, talented Joao Pinto wrote here, The Mandalorian goes against the grain by refusing its viewers the instant gratification that we’ve become used to. Creators Dave Filoni and Jon Favreau have a story to tell in this world but they have repeatedly proven that they are in no hurry to tell it. Their deliberate and restrained pace has caused some frustrations for fans, but they don’t seem too rattled by it, as this episode seems to prove. Favreau is playing with ideas that are in the same sandbox that George Lucas built in 1976. We’ve spent a lot of time on Tatooine exploring and expanding that “rock” that Luke Skywalker himself couldn’t wait to escape and I think that’s telling. Favreau’s growth as a story teller over his career has been nothing short of remarkable and now he’s doing something that many mature story tellers have done over the years: finding value in things that others have overlooked.

As for Filoni, we already know he’s probably the world’s biggest Star Wars fan and that pretty much nobody alive loves their job as much as he does but there’s more to the story there, too. Filoni has LIVED Star Wars not just as a fan but as one of its most prolific creators. Dating back to his work on Clone Wars, Filoni has spent thousands of hours developing and curating the universe that Lucas built and, in that time, has developed a love affair with the most minute of details. The pair of them working together on this show was never going to go any other way.

Their partnership dates back to The Clone Wars where Favreau voiced Pre Vizsla and first wielded the Darksaber, an artifact we saw reemerge in Season 1 of The Mandalorian, and as someone who is currently watching The Clone Wars as a companion to The Mandalorian, it seems evident to me that Filoni and Favreau are still exploring themes and ideas they first tinkered with over a decade ago. If you think they’re going slow now, stop and think about that: in some cases they’re still telling a story that began in 2008 and they are in no rush to get to the last chapter.

Moving fast is the only thing keeping me safe…

Once the realization above sinks in, it’s much easier to sit back and enjoy The Mandalorian for what it is: the live-action Star Wars version of Kung Fu with Din Djarin out fighting for justice, protecting the underdog but, most of all, walking the Earth (ok, the galaxy) all while avoiding all those other bounty hunters out to get him. While Kung Fu was a martial arts Western, The Mandalorian is a sci-fi Western. Westerns are a lot of things: they’re nostalgic, exist on the border of civilization and wilderness and, most of all, typically move at an almost glacial pace. For this reason, their popularity has waned over the last 30-40 years despite a handful of very well-made Western films. Filoni and Favreau know this. They know that modern fans have the “I wanna go fast” mindset of Ricky Bobby, but if you paid attention to this episode, they told us all loud and clear that they’re going to continue telling this story their way and continue the homage to Akira Kurosawa that Lucas began in 1976. They believe in the long game, a game they’ve not only been setting up episode by episode but before that and they are going to continue narrating this tale in that way because just like those frog eggs, story telling like this is becoming more rare by the minute but, by taking proper care of the story, by avoiding the urge to jump into hyperspace, they believe they’ll save what’s almost a lost art of storytelling.

One of the hallmarks of The Mandalorian so far has been the fact that it has managed to keep, for the most part, its disputes with somewhat lower stakes than your usual live-action Star Wars project. Unlike the movies, here we don’t have any planet-killing weapons or galaxy-wide conflicts. This is partially due to the fact that we are now dealing with a TV show, which doesn’t have the budget to compete with the likings of a theatrical blockbuster. At the same time, it also feels like a conscious decision to keep the storyline a bit more compact, with a scope that’s easier to grasp for newcomers. But with one season already behind us, we’ve now gotten a few hints that season 2 seems to be taking steps towards what could be perceived as the natural progression in the show’s narrative, upgrading its storytelling (and military) resources.

Season 1 has already hinted at this, even if at a sluggish pace which helped to make it a bit less obvious. Not only did we see Mando facing increasingly powerful foes, from criminals to stormtroopers, from mercenaries to an AT-ST, from Death Troopers to a TIE fighter, we also got Din himself constantly upgrading his own armor. Firstly getting his hands on some beskar pauldrons, then a full cuirass, eventually getting equipped with a jetpack. Season 2 should continue with this constant escalation, and there are a few indications that help to figure out what the path could be for that to happen if you focus on how the overarching story is being told.

We’re only two episodes into Season 2 but one thing that’s becoming increasingly clear is that even the most overlooked plot points from some season 1 episodes are due to be paying off, at some level, in future installments. We already got the confirmation that Boba Fett was the mysterious figure at the end of Chapter 5 (possibly making the events of that episode matter a bit more down the line) and also Chapter 6’s events (an episode that seemed the be pretty much a self-contained story) were essential to the way Din Djarin managed to, not so much escape the New Republic patrol they came across, but begin to establish a good rapport with said patrol members in this last episode. So being, it’s fair to say that taking all of this into consideration (the way that enemies leveling-up are met by Mando’s own upgrades, and that small details tend to payoff a few episodes down the line) we are due for some incredible showdowns that’ll feature a few of the characters and factions we’ve already met.

We’ve already established that the New Republic isn’t exactly treating Mando as a genuine criminal, having proof that he risked his life to try and save a New Republic officer in Chapter 6. We also know that Moff Gideon (with Mandalore’s Darksaber in his possession) has access to aircraft that belonged to the Empire, and is actively looking for The Child. If the show indeed continues on this path of not repeating its fights/battles, raising the stakes as we go along, what we should now be expecting to happen is that Moff Gideon keeps aggressively approaching the capture of Baby Yoda with his personal army and Din Djarin, being no match for such forces, will succeed in getting the New Republic to help level the odds with their military might, making for some great X-Wing vs Tie-Fighter action. Mando could either bring the fight to a sector under New Republic jurisdiction, so they can’t help but be involved, or manage to get them to full-on attack Gideon’s forces wherever they may be. This way, and while still essentially focusing on the more personal side of the fight (this is still a show focused on Din and The Child), we can get something new out of the show, and yet another connection to the greater galactic conflict that has been present throughout Star Wars history.

Also, since the show is probably getting an appearance by a former Jedi Rebel Alliance spymaster, the chance she could be helping Mando navigate through all of this, connecting the dots and devising a strategy to ultimately keep Baby Yoda safe, is probably not off the table. It probably won’t take long until we find out.