The Mandalorian Season 2

[KatsOfLoathing]

First trailer just dropped, and the thread for the previous season is too old to revive, so here we go.



As always, the visual and sound design are on point, if not particularly telling about what we can expect from this new season. It also seems like Season 2 will have a more focused plot, rather than the mostly-episodic Season 1, as the Mandalorian and the Child search for the latter's "people". Considering both the Jedi and the Sith are at record-low populations during this point in the saga, I do wonder what's going to happen if/when they do find the Jedi, or some such thereof.

Cara Dune and Greef Carga will still be around in some capacity. I'm excited to see more from the former, not so much for the latter. Moff Gideon is nowhere to be seen in the trailer, but he's way too big of a dangling plot thread to just not make another appearance. Aside from that, the only new characters I could spot is some kind of cyclops alien (couldn't identify the species off-hand) and a hooded woman who's heavily implied to be some kind of Force-user.

We have a month and a half to speculate. Go nuts! And always remember: This is the way.

[Mechalich]

Aside from that, the only new characters I could spot is some kind of cyclops alien (couldn't identify the species off-hand)

I believe that alien is intended to be an Abyssin. The species is not new, one briefly appears in the Cantina scene in ANH. The species is notable as being long-lived, 300 years or more, with the natural ability to regenerate. A good candidate to serve as an information source.

[Palanan]

Looks like we might get some competent biker scouts this season. And another extended cameo for some T-65s.

It really is thin on details, but I do love the mood and the visuals. As for plot, I have a feeling they'll alternate between standalone episodes and Jedi-searching episodes. And I'm hoping we'll get more background on previous Mando-Jedi conflicts, since we've already seen one or two major hints in that direction, e.g. darksaber.

The Armorer's voiceover reminded me of what seemed like an odd discrepancy: she's talking about ancient legends of Mandalorians fighting Jedi, but if we're only a few years after Endor, there should still be Mandalorians who remember Deathwatch going up against Kenobi, at the very least. It seems odd that she'd be describing Jedi in hazy mythical terms, when the Jedi should still be fresh in the minds of any Mandos over the age of 30-40 or so.

[Fyraltari]

Pretty sure these were Yavin IV, Tatooine and Hoth in the beginning of the trailer. Makes sense, if Mando is looking for Jedi then he'll likely end up on Luke skywalker's trail.

The Armorer's voiceover reminded me of what seemed like an odd discrepancy: she's talking about ancient legends of Mandalorians fighting Jedi, but if we're only a few years after Endor, there should still be Mandalorians who remember Deathwatch going up against Kenobi, at the very least. It seems odd that she'd be describing Jedi in hazy mythical terms, when the Jedi should still be fresh in the minds of any Mandos over the age of 30-40 or so.

The Tribe's behaviour is at odd with the rest of the known Mandalorian culture, maybe they're an offshoot that hasn't been in contact with Mandalore proper since long before the Clone War?

[Sapphire Guard]

Armourer wears a

Spoiler: Clone Wars

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Maul helmet

, seems likely she knows but is staying quiet on purpose.

Still very odd, though.

I finally got around to watching Season 1... felt like it had a lot of problems, to be honest. So I'm vaguely interested but not super enthused at the moment.

[Palanan]

For my part, I'm extremely enthused.

Partly because I'm expecting the second season to be better than the first, and I really liked the first; and partly because I really need something positive at this point in the year.

[Peelee]

Armourer wears a

Spoiler: Clone Wars

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Maul helmet

, seems likely she knows but is staying quiet on purpose.

Spoiler: A what now?

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Do you mean the Mandalorian helmet she has, which has horns in it? Even if those horns aren't purely decorative and they are hollow to allow for natural horns, that just means the Armorer is a Zabrak, which a Maul helmet in the same way that a helmet for humans is a Vader helmet.

If you mean something else (like that she wears an actual helmet that is made in Maul's likeness, for example), please let me know; I'm trying to stay away from most websites regarding seasom 2, since they all just want to guess what is going to happen and I just want to enjoy the damn show in peace, so I may be out of the loop on that.

[Dire_Flumph]

Spoiler: A what now?

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Do you mean the Mandalorian helmet she has, which has horns in it? Even if those horns aren't purely decorative and they are hollow to allow for natural horns, that just means the Armorer is a Zabrak, which a Maul helmet in the same way that a helmet for humans is a Vader helmet.

If you mean something else (like that she wears an actual helmet that is made in Maul's likeness, for example), please let me know; I'm trying to stay away from most websites regarding seasom 2, since they all just want to guess what is going to happen and I just want to enjoy the damn show in peace, so I may be out of the loop on that.

Spoiler: Theorycrafting

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So I think OP was referring to a theory I've seen floating around that the Armorer may have been in the Death Watch/Maul Faction during the Clone Wars due to the horns on her helmet and nothing more specific than that. During the final season of the Clone Wars, some of the Maul faction Mandalorians had helmet horns in the style of Maul's. *But*, they actually did look similar to a crown of horns like Maul had, whereas the Armorers really don't, they're stubby and in more of a line formation than a crown formation. It's a possible Clone Wars nod, but if so, it's a pretty weak one IMO.

[Mechalich]

The Tribe's behaviour is at odd with the rest of the known Mandalorian culture, maybe they're an offshoot that hasn't been in contact with Mandalore proper since long before the Clone War?

Titular Mandalorian Dyn Djarin references having been on Mandalore during or immediately after the Clone Wars, when he apparently was a preteen or young teenager. The Tribe seems to have escaped from Mandalore during the so-called 'Great Purge' which appears to have happened early in the Imperial period. The most likely explanation for their strange customs is that they adopted them in their place of refuge, possibly by deliberately reaching back to an earlier 'purer' version of Mandalorian culture rather than their contemporaries. After all, Sabine Wren, who takes her helmet off all the time, was active in the galaxy post-Endor, as were other Mandalorians, including characters rumored to appear in this series such as Bo Katan.

It's also possible that the Tribe lacks any elders - the Armorer herself is unlikely to be more than 40-ish given the age of the actress that plays her - and that knowledge was deliberately kept from this generation. At the very least they clear don't have active contact with nay contemporary Mandalorians in the various Clans. In fact, they don't appear to have a clan structure at all, which may have been one of the things they deliberately discarded, since it was not part of the original Mandalorian creed.

[Peelee]

I've been assuming the tribe is an offshoot of Death Watch, since the Mandos who saved Din wore the DW insignia.

[Dire_Flumph]

I've been assuming the tribe is an offshoot of Death Watch, since the Mandos who saved Din wore the DW insignia.

Honestly, I'm having trouble lining up the Mandalorians seen in Clone Wars, Rebels and now this, so I'm just taking the Mandalorian series on its own. (They're pacifists! Except those guys! No, they're warrior-clan based! They never take their helmets off! Except all the times they literally did in Clone Wars and Rebels! They've never heard of the Jedi! Despite all the evidence to the contrary! And that Mandalorian Jedi who is apparently so well known that his lightsaber is a right to rule artifact!)

[Peelee]

Honestly, I'm having trouble lining up the Mandalorians seen in Clone Wars, Rebels and now this, so I'm just taking the Mandalorian series on its own. (They're pacifists! Except those guys! No, they're warrior-clan based! They never take their helmets off! Except all the times they literally did in Clone Wars and Rebels! They've never heard of the Jedi! Despite all the evidence to the contrary! And that Mandalorian Jedi who is apparently so well known that his lightsaber is a right to rule artifact!)

I blame most of that on Clone Wars. It was pretty good at times, but also really bad at times, and I've never understood the enormous amount of praise it tends to get. Among the many weird/not so good parts of it were just messing entirely with canon by making Mandalorians suddenly and largely pacifistic.

[Dire_Flumph]

I blame most of that on Clone Wars. It was pretty good at times, but also really bad at times, and I've never understood the enormous amount of praise it tends to get. Among the many weird/not so good parts of it were just messing entirely with canon by making Mandalorians suddenly and largely pacifistic.

I won't get into the merits of Karen Traviss' writing (although the Mandalorian series seems to take some inspiration from it), but I always thought it was an enormous slap in the face for Clone Wars to take all the work she did fleshing out Mandalorian culture from earlier sources and just say "nah, they're pacifists now" while she was still releasing officially licensed books.

I count myself as a Clone Wars fan (though my favorite by a long shot is Rebels), but I think that's because the anthology nature of the show makes it really easy to ignore the story arcs I don't like.

[Palanan]

Originally Posted by Dire_Flumph
I won't get into the merits of Karen Traviss' writing (although the Mandalorian series seems to take some inspiration from it), but I always thought it was an enormous slap in the face for Clone Wars to take all the work she did fleshing out Mandalorian culture from earlier sources and just say "nah, they're pacifists now" while she was still releasing officially licensed books.

This in spades. I enjoyed her Clone Commando novels for the degree of military realism she brought to the topic, even though the later novels become soap operas.

But overall I liked her take on Mandalorian culture, and it was a huge jolt for that to be discarded in favor of a completely opposing and rather insipid view of Mandalore. It was evidently quite a shock for her as well, although she moved on to other projects.

Not sure why they made the next about-face in Rebels, although that version of Mandalore ended up being a little closer to what Traviss had done. If nothing else, keeping The Mandalorian focused on this one group helps avoid the need to reconcile all the other versions.

[Sapphire Guard]

Dire_Flumph (nice name by the way) has my reasoning correct, it wasn't a thoroughly researched conclusion or anything.

I think the helmet policy could just be a new rule for the purposes of hiding the enclave's identities from the Empire after the purge, but cultures vary, it's nor surprising that different clans would have different rules.

'Never having heard of the Jedi' I can't explain, though.

[Palanan]

The Mandalorian is supposedly set in 9 ABY, which is thirty years after the near-extinction of the Jedi.

That's a full generation, and it seems there's a deliberate policy of not sharing stories about the Jedi--perhaps because they're thought to be gone, and why bring up such a complicated topic?

It certainly doesn't mesh with the mythology that Karen Traviss created, but since it was a Mandalorian who served as the template for the original clone army, who helped the Empire rise to power, perhaps some Mandalorians are trying to put that entire messy time behind them?

Even as I write it, that doesn't seem convincing. But they've teased us with the darksaber--an unmistakable relic that ties together Jedi, Sith and Mandalorians--so I'm going to hope there's a glimmer of a plan somewhere.

[Peelee]

Dire_Flumph (nice name by the way) has my reasoning correct, it wasn't a thoroughly researched conclusion or anything.

I understand now. I do disagree that it's related, but I've been wrong before.

This second part is less directed specifically to you and more to everyone who puts forth this question; you just happened to have a convenient post for me to add it in to in my quote.

'Never having heard of the Jedi' I can't explain, though.

Only Din is unaware of the Jedi; we have no idea whether or not that was common among the other Mandalorians in his tribe share his ignorance. I would wager not. And the Armorer gace a fairly diplomatic answer, all things considered.

[Mechalich]

In-universe, the term 'Mandalorian' means different things to different people. And, because it is a term associated with great historical prestige, there's a lot of impetus for different people with variant ideologies to grab hold of it and say 'We're Mandalorians' even if they have very little in common with the original thousands of years old ideology of conquest. This is not unique to Mandalorians, something very similar occurs with regard to the term 'Sith.'

This gets particularly complex during the Clone Wars period, when there are something like 4-5 different groups of people claiming to be the one true version of the Mandalorians at the same time:
1. There's the urban population, the New Mandalorians, who have embraced pacifism as a reaction to the ecological devastation of the planet Mandalore (and probably out of some sort of blatantly political pandering to squeeze aid money out of the Republic).
2. There's the traditional Mandalorian warrior clans, such as Clan Wren, living other worlds in the Mandalore Sector (yes the Mandalorian imprint extends to thousands of worlds in an entire sector, that's part of why things get so confused), including Krownest, home of Clan Wren.
3. There's the Death Watch, the creation of Clan Vizsla from survivors of the Mandalorian Civil War that devastated Mandalore and left Satine and the New Mandalorians in power, which did not maintain the traditional clan structure.
4. There's the Mandalorian Protectors, an elite military unit nominally serving Duchess Satine and the New Mandalorians but also working with the Republic to train Clones and after the New Mandalorian government falls, going independent.
5. And finally there's freelancers like Jango Fett who call themselves Mandalorians and utilize traditional Mandalorian equipment and techniques, but who lack any official connection to any Mandalorian government structure.

The Tribe, the Mandalorians of the show, appear to be descended from Death Watch, based on insignia glimpsed in flashbacks and the fact that one of their members is named Paz Vizsla. The Tribe are survivors of something called the 'Great Purge' of Mandalore which has not yet been explained. It seems almost certain that the Great Purge happened between the events of Rebels and the OT, most notably because Moff Gideon has the Darksaber, which Sabine gave to Bo-Katan Kryze at the conclusion of that plotline in Rebels. The Tribe seems to have been made up primarily of children when they escaped, and to have adopted a very strict view of Mandalorian life in a deliberate effort to prevent any sort of Purge from ever afflicting them again.

Only Din is unaware of the Jedi; we have no idea whether or not that was common among the other Mandalorians in his tribe share his ignorance. I would wager not. And the Armorer gace a fairly diplomatic answer, all things considered.

Assuming the Tribe was established around 1 ABY or so, it's not unreasonable for their leadership, at the time, to have simply left the Jedi out of youngling education then. After all, at that point in history the Jedi were essentially extinct, with even those Jedi who fought with the Mandalorians in Rebels gone and Luke Skywalker not yet known to the galaxy (Luke doesn't start calling himself a Jedi publicly until RotJ, in 4 ABY).

I wouldn't be surprised if whoever established the Tribe also fed the Armorer and others deliberate disinformation regarding recent history to try and elide the significant role played by Jedi and Sith in the fate of the Mandalorians. Should Ahsoka Tano show up at some point, she is uniquely positioned to rectify the record.

[Palanan]

Originally Posted by Mechalich
5. And finally there's freelancers like Jango Fett who call themselves Mandalorians and utilize traditional Mandalorian equipment and techniques, but who lack any official connection to any Mandalorian government structure.

Which would make Boba Fett, the original Mandalorian, not actually Mandalorian?

I’m not arguing, just wondering.

Originally Posted by Mechalich
I wouldn't be surprised if whoever established the Tribe also fed the Armorer and others deliberate disinformation regarding recent history to try and elide the significant role played by Jedi and Sith in the fate of the Mandalorians.

The Armorer seems to know more than anyone else, and she may be carefully releasing what she knows to protect Mando in some fashion, or maybe just keep him from going off in the wrong direction too soon.

Also, the more he knows about the Jedi, the more conflicted he may be about his new mission with the Kid.

Originally Posted by Mechalich
…one of their members is named Paz Vizsla.

I recognized Jon Favreau’s voice instantly with this character, and I love the continuity with Pre Vizsla. Clearly there’s a DW connection there, although so far it seems pretty cosmetic.

Also, if anyone is hiding secret information about the Jedi and the Sith, it’s someone named Vizsla.

[Mechalich]

Which would make Boba Fett, the original Mandalorian, not actually Mandalorian?

I’m not arguing, just wondering.

Well, it depends on how you define Mandalorian doesn't it?

Boba Fett obviously wasn't born on Mandalore and his father's association with other Mandalorians is complicated (and varies considerably between the two versions of canon). If Boba Fett wears Mandalorian armor, but it's not clear whether or not he considers himself a Mandalorian or if he even cares. Even in Legends he spend most of his extensive literary career not caring one whit about any other Mandalorians until Traviss shoehorned him in with them in his golden years (seriously, Fett doesn't really go back to Mandalore until the LotF books, when he's almost 70 years old). Fett's Disney canon career is much shorter (his non TCW appearances are limited to a few comics) and its unclear whether or not he really considers himself a Mandalorian in it.

The reality is that if Fett, or frankly anyone else, chooses to call themselves a Mandalorian the only real way to delegitimize that is to find them and beat them down so hard they agree to stop doing so. In the case of Boba Fett, well, good luck with that.

The Armorer seems to know more than anyone else, and she may be carefully releasing what she knows to protect Mando in some fashion, or maybe just keep him from going off in the wrong direction too soon.

Also, the more he knows about the Jedi, the more conflicted he may be about his new mission with the Kid.

It's entirely possible that, in the Disney canon timeline, the only active Jedi in the galaxy in 9-10 ABY is Luke Skywalker. Officially Ben Solo is born in 5 ABY, so he's a kindergartner when the show takes place. It's entirely likely that Luke has yet to start training any new Jedi, and certainly none of them have completed training yet. Ezra may be alive, somewhere in the galaxy, but it seems unlikely that his existence is common knowledge. Ahsoka is probably around somewhere as well, but she is very officially not a Jedi.

It is possible that the Armorer is deliberately trying to steer Din away from tracking down any random person with a lightsaber, since such a path would be likely to lead him to former Imperial Inquisitors and not any Jedi still in hiding.

[Dire_Flumph]

Kind of surprised to see no responses. Low key episode, pretty typical plot, nothing to blow me away, but a very enjoyable hour spent nonetheless. Still able to thread that needle between gratuitous deep-lore Star Wars references and not needing to get any of them to just sit back and enjoy the show. Only know Timothy Olyphant from Deadwood and I liked him a lot better here. Really liked the music in this episode, stood out more than it usually does for the series. Nice work, hard to believe this is the first time Favreau has actually directed an episode.

Spoiler: That ending

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Yup, it was rumored and we got our Boba Fett cameo out the way early. I'd be just as happy if this is all we see of him unless they can find something interesting to do with the character. Not many have managed it and I think he's better left a mystery.

Minor nitpick. One thing the old EU did really well was keep the Tuskens as a very alien culture that was pretty inscrutable. Here they just seemed like every random wild savage type. Nothing to drag the episode down, but I was a bit disappointed nonetheless.

[Peelee]

Minor nitpick. One thing the old EU did really well was keep the Tuskens as a very alien culture that was pretty inscrutable. Here they just seemed like every random wild savage type. Nothing to drag the episode down, but I was a bit disappointed nonetheless.

... Really? The movies made them seem wild savage type, and then KOTOR have them characterization and backstory. Other EU stories more or less left the Sandpeople alone (unless you want to get into the comics with A'Sharad Hett, but then again, we have more characterization for sand people and not inscrutability).

Spoiler

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And given this episode was basically that KOTOR Tatooine trip, it shouldn't have been surprising in any event.

[Palanan]

Originally Posted by Dire_Flumph
Kind of surprised to see no responses. Low key episode, pretty typical plot, nothing to blow me away, but a very enjoyable hour spent nonetheless.

Just finished it, and agreed, the plot was fairly basic but the episode was great fun. I loved the fine detail they put into it, such as the very low idling of the speederbike engine as Mando slowly rolled into town.

Spoiler

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For my part, I liked the fact that Mando was able to communicate with the Sandpeople and to broker the deal that made the final victory possible. It made for a nice point about looking past prejudice and blood feud, without hammering the point home.

Also, did anyone notice....

Spoiler

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Around 40:24, as the Krayt dragon comes out of its lair straight at the camera, the aspect ratio smoothly opens up from panorama to full-screen, and stays full-screen for the rest of the battle until the dragon is vanquished. I haven't seen that trick before, and I wonder if that was Favreau's idea.

I didn't even notice it the first time until I suddenly realized we were full-screen, and then I wondered if there was some settings issue going on. A little distracting at first, but now that I see it was deliberate I can enjoy it. A clever way of transcending the format to heighten the intensity of the moment.

[Dire_Flumph]

... Really? The movies made them seem wild savage type, and then KOTOR have them characterization and backstory. Other EU stories more or less left the Sandpeople alone (unless you want to get into the comics with A'Sharad Hett, but then again, we have more characterization for sand people and not inscrutability).

Wasn't thinking of the movies, but some of the EU sources. KotOR would be the biggest source I was thinking of, and I would characterize how they were handled that way. Instead of say, Darksaber or something where they just got standard native stereotypes dumped onto them, there was a feeling of something bigger in their history that you could only see the edges of, and how they tied into the history of Tatooine as a whole. I'm always interested in worldbuilding and I like that light touch that hints at more than we are being explicitly told. Also, there was the fact as well that communication was portrayed as a problem in ways that went beyond language. It left them feeling like a more interesting group than most, and I feel that was for the most part carried through in the other places we saw them in the EU, including Hett's history, some background stuff in TOR, up through that Darth Vader Wicker Man they built in the Kieron Guillen comic series. Never read the YJK novels, so I can't talk to Tahiri's backstory.

They aren't a focus of the episode really, so I don't hold it against it, but I was a bit disappointed, especially since it would have been a nice addition to the flavor of the setting, and it was pretty obvious that the writers were familiar with the EU at large and KotOR in particular

Also, did anyone notice....

Spoiler

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Around 40:24, as the Krayt dragon comes out of its lair straight at the camera, the aspect ratio smoothly opens up from panorama to full-screen, and stays full-screen for the rest of the battle until the dragon is vanquished. I haven't seen that trick before, and I wonder if that was Favreau's idea.

I didn't even notice it the first time until I suddenly realized we were full-screen, and then I wondered if there was some settings issue going on. A little distracting at first, but now that I see it was deliberate I can enjoy it. A clever way of transcending the format to heighten the intensity of the moment.

Spoiler

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I didn't I'm sorry to say, but my son did. It was a nice trick, but one used a few times before. Christopher Nolan likes to use it (I'm thinking Interstellar and the Dark Knight in particular). And I loved the use in Galaxy Quest from the 4:3 TV opening, moving to a more standard 1.85:1 when the movie starts in earnest, then going to the Cinemascope 2.35:1 when they reach the Thermian's homeworld.

[Peelee]

Galaxy Quest is one of the best Star Trek movies, though.

[Kitten Champion]

My only thought after seeing the episode was I'd rather have these people doing the Monster Hunter movie than Paul W. S. Anderson and company.

[Berserk Mecha]

Not a bad episode but I was hoping for more development out of a series premiere. The season one finale hinted at a grander scope and more moving parts to the story but what we get here is a fairly stand-alone episode. Seems more like something that I'd expect from the middle of the season.

And is anyone else tired of Tatooine? Millions of planets and moons in the galaxy far far away and yet we keep coming back to this dump? Is this another effort to appeal to the fanboys who take comfort in the familiar? And if we're going to go back to the same setting then can we at least see something new out of it? Giant burrowing worms have been done to death in sci-fi desert settings.

Here's hoping that they figure out how to properly use the child other than just as a cute mascot. The little tyke barely got to do anything in this episode. Unless the plot revolves around someone trying to kill or kidnap the child then it's fairly superfluous.

[Mechalich]

And is anyone else tired of Tatooine? Millions of planets and moons in the galaxy far far away and yet we keep coming back to this dump? Is this another effort to appeal to the fanboys who take comfort in the familiar? And if we're going to go back to the same setting then can we at least see something new out of it? Giant burrowing worms have been done to death in sci-fi desert settings.

I actually though that this episode at least made Tatooine look good. They pulled back to do a number of wide shots and showed interesting desert terrain, they did a bunch of shots with banthas and Sand People that were good, and just generally made it look like more than nothing but sand. Featuring the Sand People as a culture was also at least a less used approach that the typical scum & villainy city setup. And krayt dragons are an established thing in the Star Wars lore, going back to ANH. In fact I actually think this episode was a nice boost there, because now, when you watch the scene in ANH where Obi-Wan uses an imitated Krayt Dragon call to scare the Sand People and you think of this beast, it makes a whole lot more sense why they'd run. Besides, Boba Fett's armor and Boba Fett himself being a functionally inevitable part of this series means at least some time on Tatooine.

I mean, yes, it's nice to see other places, but one desert planet looks much like another, and this series is trying to go for an audience that's both wide - meaning people who are at best modest Star Wars fans - and all ages - meaning it needs to be simplistic enough to be followed by ten-year-olds. Actually, I think the latter reason drives a lot of things. If you compare TCW and Rebels, Rebels spends a lot more time with familiar material because it's aimed at a younger audience. Favreau and Filoni both definitely know how to ride the age range edge. This episode featured a number of shots of the Krayt devouring and/or disintegrating people (the acid breath effect was nice too) where they carefully cut away at just the right moment to keep the gore off-screen.

[Wraith]

I am a big fan of the Mandalorian; while I've never been a fanatic, I've always enjoyed Star Wars but the last few years has been a bit rough. I *liked* the new trilogy, but I spent most of it wishing that it could be better.

The Mandalorian has made me fall in love with Star Wars all over again, and series 02 is off to a great start. I love the characters introduced (human and Tuskans alike), the music, the pacing.... The only complaint I have is that I only have one episode and not more to binge.

And is anyone else tired of Tatooine?

Early days in the series so I may change my tune if the next 5 episodes take is to Hoth, Endor, Coruscant, Hoth Again and Mustafar, but for now I quite liked it. Like the rest of the episode it seemed like a call-out or reference, but not so far as it came across as pandering to the fanboys.
Honestly, I'm betting that the armour comes up again later in the series and this was the earliest way for Mando to get hold of it - just like him meeting his team throughout the first series - rather than him find it in one episode and then use it right away in the next.

[KatsOfLoathing]

Hey, nice to see this thread getting a little traffic since I started it.

Spoiler: First Episode Impressions

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Like others have mentioned, the plot here is relatively simple but well-executed nonetheless. Space Cowboy Timothy Olyphant The Marshal was fun to hang out with for an episode, and I like how the series continues to add depth to the Tusken Raiders. The special effects budget has definitely jumped up some notches, too: The Krayt Dragon looks like something straight out of the movies, and many of the other aliens (both humanoid and not) look great as well. The Child doesn't really have anything to do except look cute and offer some reaction shots, but hopefully that'll change soon.

I appreciate how the series continues to sprinkle in plenty of references to previous SW properties without the in-your-face, pandering-to-nostalgia vibe I've gotten from a fair share of post-Disney output. Podracers! Vibroblades! Gamorreans! Boba Fett's armor! There were a few I didn't even get until the Internet filled me in, like the R5 droid.

And speaking of that last cameo/reference...

Maybe strike down my Star Wars cred, but I definitely didn't recognize the figure at the end to be Jango Fett's actor from the prequel trilogy. Some writers on the 'net were quick to identify him as Boba Fett, which is probably true, but I'm not trying to jump to conclusions. I'm guessing he'll be our recurring antagonist for the season, but I'm not really sure what gripe he has with the Mando at this point. Wanting his armor back seems like a weak motivation at best. Time will tell.

This was a fun episode, though I didn't feel like it advanced the story much from where we left off at the previous season finale. Hopefully the series won't be spinning its wheels for long, though as long as the high-quality sci-fi action continues I guess I can't mind too much.