Tag: The Mandalorian

We all live in an increasingly fast-paced society where most things that take time are almost immediately rejected in favor of quicker paths. Sometimes we struggle just by trying to slow down, but it’s often by doing so that we find what’s really worthwhile. In the past few years TV, and more specifically streaming services, has massified the concept of binge-watching TV shows which, combined with the growing use of social media, have somehow forced us to consume these products promptly in fear of having the experience spoiled if we are just a couple of days late. Disney+, and a few others, have tried to go against this way of approaching their streaming media (for financial reasons, obviously), and not only does that work in The Mandalorian‘s favor, the show itself doubles-down on making itself take its time through their storytelling approach.

By focusing on Din Djarain and The Child (notice there are hardly any side-plots that take the focus away from where they are and what they are doing and experiencing) the pace of the show has always been more on the slow side. We often go from point A to point B in such a manner that we allow for character growth just by witnessing the small and apparently innocuous day-to-day interactions between characters that, over time, become meaningful traits. And the same can be said when considering the over-arching storyline: Delivering The Child to his own.

In Season One there were a few episodes that ended up making people feel a bit underwhelmed since they seemed to add little to the story, apparently not getting the characters any closer to where they were meant to be headed. Chapters 4 through 6 weren’t so much about The Child as they were about the world surrounding Mando, the people he met, the places he visited, the events that occurred. The importance behind all of these things wasn’t really apparent at the time, which lead to the complaints, but just two episodes into season two, and we now realize that the payoffs were there to be had. It just took them a bit longer than people might have expected, and dare I say that they were probably all the better for it. In hindsight, the appreciation for those episodes should increase, showing that sometimes people should just step back, and enjoy what they are given instead of complaining about that they didn’t get.

With season two underway, we are probably getting that same approach from Favreau and his team. Chapter 9 brought us Boba Fett, after being teased way back in Chapter 5, and now, even though Chapter 10 might seem like a bit of a filler episode since it did little to advance the overall plot, we got some interesting season one references that probably should grow into something more in the future. Along with a few concepts, locations, and creatures that may very well deliver in spades in upcoming episodes. This way of doing things is sure to make for much more fulfilling moments down the line, making the audience feel like the wait was worth it, and the payoffs were earned. For instance, there is no doubt in my mind that not addressing Boba Fett’s return right after confirming it is the right decision, and it will only make that moment that much sweeter when it does occur. The bottom line is we just need to be patient and, while doing so, pay more attention to what we do get with each episode. The Mandalorian wants us not only to reach the destination but to enjoy the ride. We’ll eventually get to where we’re supposed to be, and the little things along the way are what could make it all the more special.

Besides debuting all-new Star Wars characters, Lucasfilm’s The Mandalorian is also focusing on introducing a number of characters, coming from other media such as novels, comics, and cartoons, to live-action. We’ve already met one of those, Cobb Vanth, a character that we first read about in a novel, and it shouldn’t take long before we get to a few others such as Ahsoka Tano and Bo-Katan Kryze.

Going into season three it’s fair to think that Din Djarin will keep crossing paths with similar characters, especially ones whose life story in the period between Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens isn’t yet thoroughly explored. And now, according to a report by Skyler Shuler and an update by Production Weekly, we might just have gotten a small hint on who one of those characters might be, going into season three.

The working title for The Mandalorian season three apparently seems to be “Buccaneer”, and that brings one specific character to mind: Hondo Ohnaka. Hondo is a Weequay space pirate that was very active during The Clone Wars, having crossed paths with the likes of Anakin Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and Ahsoka Tano. After the war, with the rise of the Empire, his gang was dissolved and he ended up working closely with the rebellion. We last saw him at the end of Star Wars: Rebels, but we know he lived through the events of The Last Jedi since he was stationed at the Black Spire Outpost, in Batuu, when the Millenium Falcon landed there, sometimes after the Battle of Crait.

With The Mandalorian being set about five years after the events that lead to the destruction of the second Death Star, we know Hondo was alive at the time. With the power void created by the fall of the Empire, the circumstances might just be right for a pirate and smuggler to thrive, and eventually make his live-action debut in the third season of the hit Disney+ show.

In the case of Boba Fett’s death, had I known he was gonna turn into such a popular character, I probably would’ve made it a little bit more exciting. Boba Fett was just another one of the minions, another one of the bounty hunters and badguys. But, he became such a favorite of everybody’s that, for having such a small part, uh he had a very large presence. And now that his history has been told in the first trilogy, y’know, it makes it even more of a misstep that we wouldn’t make more out of the event of his defeat, because most people don’t believe he died anyway. I’d contemplated putting in that extra shot in where he climbs out of the hole, but y’know I figure that’s . . . it doesn’t quite fit, in the end.

When I was a kid, I was fortunate enough to be spoiled enough that my parents paid for me to be a part of the official Star Wars Fan Club Newsletter, Bantha Tracks. I couldn’t tell you how many of them I had before they stopped coming, but I can tell you that what I read in the issues I did have may well have been the genesis of what has apparently been my lifelong pursuit of “insider knowledge.” I read those newsletters front to back and back to front over and over again; I felt like I was in the cool club because I was exposed to a wealth of knowledge, straight from the brain of George Lucas; knowledge like the bit below:

Not much is known about Boba Fett.

At the time that issue 5 of Bantha Tracks was published in 1978, there was no way Lucas could have predicted how deeply rooted this minor character would become in pop culture. And while the mystery of just how and why Boba became such an integral part of such an otherwise richly develop mythology is a conversation worth having, it’s not the one we’re having here. The bounty hunter accumulated 392 seconds of screen time in the films but has taken up a lot more space in my brain and the brains of fans than that. Did he escape the Sarlaac pit? What are all those symbols on his armor and what is that braid? Mandalore? What’s a Mandalorian? And people who I always assumed were just as obsessed with all these things as I was thought about these things too and now, as it turns out, a couple of people just like that in Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni, have created an entire series that seems like it may have spun out of the mind of a kid who sat on his floor reading Bantha Tracks, watching the movies and trying to figure out just who this mysterious bounty hunter was. And now, with the first episode of Season 2, they’ve reached out to all of you who sat around and overthought every minute detail of every film and they’ve said this: “That time you spent wasn’t wasted. We spent time doing it too and have built an entire world around those thoughts.” It’s validation and as Boba turned and faced me on screen in the twilight of the twin suns of Tatooine, it felt amazing.

Boba is back but as excited as I am, he’s not truly at the heart of this piece either. Chapter 9 wasn’t enthralling just because we have a now-canonical expansion of the legend of Boba Fett that actually only adds to the mystery but also because, as they do, Favreau and Filoni made an entire episode out of in-universe things that only the truest of fans would love to see. If Seinfeld was a series about nothing, then The Mandalorian is a series about making nothing into something. The creative duo behind the series just gave us 54 minutes of glory by creating a story around a pile of bones that were seen onscreen for 2 seconds, a strange noise Obi-Wan made to scare off some Tuskens and a bounty hunter who “died” in his last chronological appearance. This is what they do and this is the heart of Star Wars. George Lucas created a world, a universe, that was already fruitful when we first saw it in A New Hope. If all we ever got was that film, it would have been enough. But Lucas didn’t just give us the fruit up front, he also planted seeds and, over the years, those seeds have come to bear fruit in the minds of creators like Favreau and Filoni. Creators who just like you and I, probably have spent hours reading character profiles on StarWars.com and know all about those shiny pearls inside a Krayt dragon.

And that’s what The Mandalorian has been since it debuted last year: a series of shiny pearls, the value of which might only be apparent to the staunchest of fans. That’s not to say that a new fan wouldn’t enjoy Chapter 9. But for fans who have invested countless hours talking, arguing, theorizing and speculating about how big a Krayt dragon would be and what happened to Boba in that Sarlaac pit, this episode felt like a non-contact hug from minds behind Mando. The hug that tells us that all that time spent fantasizing and building a Star Wars encyclopedia in your head was time well spent. In furthering the fantasy, Favreau and Filoni push all the right buttons and hit all the right notes because they’ve walked those same miles. Hell, I bet they read Bantha Tracks, too.

The title is both referring to The Mandalorian (the show) and the Mandalorian (Din Djarin, the character). Chapter 9 shows us what appears to be the natural evolution of both, in their own way.

When a successful tv show gets to its second season, or when a movie gets a chance for a sequel, there’s sure to be some debate on what path to follow next. Some argue that it should stick to what audiences reacted to so well, while others may claim that it should develop into something new, something fresh. This involves a lot of second-guessing, and it is bound to be hard to keep the creators’ vision untainted by outside feedback. Disney+’s The Mandalorian, like few other shows, managed to bypass most of that since Season 2 was already being written and shot before Season 1 even premiered. This being the case, the new season’s inception began as the first one did, with the creative minds behind the show not being influenced by anyone but themselves, and so far the end result seems to also mimic Season 1’s in its resounding success.

The plot is still keeping it pretty simple and straightforward. We’re not getting multiple storylines being focused on at the same time, with added locations and various active characters. We’re still focused on only following the story of Din Djarin and The Child. That’s how the show began and that’s how it thrives. What seems to be an obvious step forward in terms of scale isn’t the story itself, but the way it’s being shown to us. I greatly enjoyed the number of establishing shots we got throughout the episode. The way the world Din Djarin in moving through seems bigger than ever, with the episode taking its time in showing us not only the new locations but how one gets there, portraying Tatooine in a way that felt the most satisfying since.. well, ever? If the show manages to keep the storyline concise and the environment and locations at such a grand scale, it may probably continue to tap into that A New Hope gold. A simple story, relatable and easy to follow that is set in a wondrous universe filled with possibilities.

When it comes to the main character, one has to feel that it has experienced a natural growth of his own. When we first meet Din, he was but a solitary bounty hunter, looking for a payday any way he could. Even his fellow Mandalorians managed to get in his way, doubting his allegiance to the Mandalorian creed. Through season one he began to understand that to survive in such an inhospitable part of the galaxy he would need the help of others, as his own kind so emphatically showed him. It all began with Kuiil, that moved by a hint of self-interest helped him reach The Child so his valley could be free of mercenaries. And like this one relationship, all the other he developed throughout season one were also mostly devised out of a sense of common interest. A mutual enemy being the usual reason.

But then comes Season 2. Faced with a dispute that could probably be easily resolved with a laser blast, allowing him to be on his way and not get involved any further in the dealings of a small town in the middle of Tatooine’s desert, Din decides to go above and beyond and do the right thing with little self-interest to it. And in doing so, he not only helps to resolve the problem facing Mos Pelgo, but he serves as an intermediary in the resolution of a long-lasting feud between two hostile communities. This brings Din Djarin even further away from his violent beginnings, making him not just someone that looks to do the right thing, but one that looks to inspire that upon others. The makings of a hero.

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.

After the events of Attack of the Clones, and seeing that Anakin Skywalker could benefit from having to train his very own Padawan, Master Yoda assigned a young Jedi, Ahsoka Tano (a Togruta from the planet Shili) to the then Jedi Knight. And so began their friendship, one rooted in mutual respect. Through the years Ahsoka revealed herself to be an invaluable member of the Republic army, working beside Anakin, gaining the trust of the clones she served with, especially one Captain Rex. Later on, she was thought to be responsible for an explosion at the Jedi Temple on Coruscant, and even though Anakin fought to prove her innocence, she became so disillusioned by the Jedi’s behavior through the entire process that she decided to leave the Order.

During the events of Revenge of the Sith, and as she was about to bring Darth Maul in custody into Coruscant, Palpatine executes Order 66 making the clone army she was with, turn on her. She manages to flee with the help of Captain Rex, even if that meant that Maul had to be released to create a diversion that would allow for their successful escape.

After the rise of Emperor Palpatine, she came in contact with the crew of The Ghost, trying to guide them through their battles against the Empire all while trying to keep her identity a secret. After revealing herself, she becomes even more involved with Ezra, Kanan, Hera, Sabine, Zeb, and Chopper’s journey as they fight the increasingly powerful forces of the Empire.
After being saved by Ezra as she was about to die at the hands of her former Master, now Darth Vader, she vows to come for him at a time of need. So being, after Ezra disappears while fighting Grand Admiral Thrawn in the Rebels finale, Ahsoka joins Sabine sometime after the Battle of Endor, and both launch a search for their missing friend.

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.

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.

Cobb Vanth was a character introduced in the Aftermath trilogy, written by author Chuck Wendig. He has yet to make his official live-action debut, but that seems to be changing with the second season of The Mandalorian. He is a former slave that managed to free himself and rise to the rank of Sheriff in Tatooine’s Freetown (formerly known as Mos Pelgo), even if self-appointed, after the events of Return of the Jedi. He still bears a star-shaped scar on his back, meaning that at some point during his life he was someone else’s property. This makes it obvious that what he had to endure in the past is still very much a part of what drives him even after achieving his freedom.

During this time, he came in contact with a chest of Mandalorian armor said to have been retrieved from the wreckage of Jabba the Hutt’s sail barge. This heavily implies that this is the armor that once belonged to Boba Fett, since Jabba’s sail barge was destroyed while at the Sarlacc pit, the place we last saw the bounty hunter, with no other Mandalorians in sight. He then committed his life to keep the people of Freetown safe from all outside threats.

Cobb, unlike Boba, wears said armor not at the bidding of crime lords but on the side of justice, trying to maintain Freetown a lawful place, with crime syndicates at large, while maintaining a somewhat troubled relationship with the Tusken Raiders. In season one’s 5th episode he probably already made an uncredited cameo, when finding the dead body of Fennec Shand.

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.