The Mandalorian - a general discussion thread - * SPOILERS * — Page 64

Yup! It’s commentary on United States politics. There’s clear parallels here to Operation Paperclip. Ever since the new canon started Leia formed her Resistance because the New Republic just wouldn’t properly condemn/go against the growing Imperial remnants. This is like when Lucas compared the Empire to the United States – even though they had gone against the biggest empire in the world and won, they are now too unfortunately similar to them. Of course the New Republic is better than the Empire but the upper class in Coruscant and the working class in the Outer Rim haven’t been made to notice. Nothing substantial has changed about their lives. The status quo is too strong. The New Republic hasn’t done enough to rid the galaxy of the Empire. Things aren’t improving enough.

It’s one of the great things from the books set in this era that I am so glad to see be properly adapted into the shows.

snooker said:

Of course the New Republic is better than the Empire but the upper class in Coruscant and the working class in the Outer Rim haven’t been made to notice. Nothing substantial has changed about their lives. The status quo is too strong. The New Republic hasn’t done enough to rid the galaxy of the Empire. Things aren’t improving enough.

In order to more rapidly rid the Galaxy of Imperial leftovers, it would help if the New Republic didn’t throw away all their military hardware for no reason. At this point in history, I would expect the New Republic to be very fragile, but in the new canon it seems like the Battle of Endor (or maybe the follow-up battle at Rey’s planet) was supposed to be this ultimate overnight decisive victory. (I forgot a lot of these details - but I remember also there was something about Palpatine being insane and having this automatic protocol that purposely sabotages the Empire in the event of his death.)

(I forgot a lot of these details - but I remember also there was something about Palpatine being insane and having this automatic protocol that purposely sabotages the Empire in the event of his death.)

Yeah, there was that whole “Operation Cinder” protocol that was basically an order for the Empire to self destruct upon the Emperor’s death. Basically him saying “If I can’t have it, no one can.” That’s the canon explanation for why the GCW ended so quickly after Endor.

Of course, it makes less sense when you know that Palpatine was still alive.

And yeah, the demilitarization would be fine in theory if there weren’t still factions of Imperials at large that are actively hostile to the New Republic. And the proto-First Order must already be kidnapping kids at this point in the timeline. Basically, don’t throw away your military yet until you’re absolutely certain that the Empire is gone and every Imperial remnant is accounted for.

Maybe it’s realistic to real-life politics that the Republic made that mistake, but I’ve never bought the idea that Star Wars was a realistic political allegory. Besides Andor.

Green lighting a rough first draft because they don’t need to try very hard feels like their entire MO since 2015.

Servii said:
Maybe it’s realistic to real-life politics that the Republic made that mistake, but I’ve never bought the idea that Star Wars was a realistic political allegory. Besides Andor.

Probably not so realistic in most cases. After the USSR collapsed, the US military just continued to expand indefinitely. (Although the number of stockpiled nukes decreased.) I actually don’t know of historical examples of intentional large-scale demilitarization (apart from cases where a country is forced to do so, e.g. Japan after WW2).

Although, real world comparisons perhaps don’t work so well because in Star Wars there’s usually just one single Galactic superpower that controls almost everything (except for some nebulous “unknown regions”), rather than multiple nation states.

Maybe someone else posted this before.

Din using the heavily modified Naboo N-1 Starfighter as his personal ship doesn’t make a lot of sense to me. If anything it would have worked better as a shuttle attached to his new freighter for reconaissance, as the N1 only has room for himself and a Yoda species at the back. Where would he fit anyone or anything else, be that cargo or a captured person for bounty? I also doubt the crammed cockpit of the N1 would make for a comfortable nap during long flights.

fmalover said:

Maybe someone else posted this before.

Din using the heavily modified Naboo N-1 Starfighter as his personal ship doesn’t make a lot of sense to me. If anything it would have worked better as a shuttle attached to his new freighter for reconaissance, as the N1 only has room for himself and a Yoda species at the back. Where would he fit anyone or anything else, be that cargo or a captured person for bounty? I also doubt the crammed cockpit of the N1 would make for a comfortable nap during long flights.

It seems like Din doesn’t really work anymore. Interestingly, there have now been TWO Star Wars live-action shows with a Bounty Hunter main character, yet surprisingly little bounty hunting ever occurs.

NFBisms said:

I actually liked The New Republic being conceived as its own brand of neoliberal horror, but I don’t know, the conceptualization of what The Empire as an institution even was, is disappointing here. While I get the surface level comparisons to ANDOR, it doesn’t have a grasp on any tangible theory to fill out the spaces it’s playing in. (And certainly not the writing, it’s very journeyman here.) For as much as it “explores” a postwar reconstruction, it still moves in a Good/Evil, malice-of-an-out-group kind of ideology.

It’s a pretty high school social studies understanding of historical play.

Maybe I’m just attached to the interpretations provided by the prequels and then ANDOR, but Imperialism as Establishment, as oppression evolved from power evolved from status-quo, works far better for me than “Imperial” conceived as a pseudo-nationality. The episode codifies the former Empire’s structure as one that went out of its way to be bleak and awful; Palpatine and his powerbase as one and the same.

It just rubs me the wrong way that it’s even being called Andor-lite. They’re not necessarily incongruous in the macro beats, but philosophically coming from entirely different places. Without any real poli-sci informing the premises, its storytelling ambitions are just cynical for the sake cynicism.

You don’t need to try to sound smart here, it’s really not that important

I always have fun reading your thoughts, NFB.

Everything that’s happened in these first 4 episodes could have easily been condensed to a 2 episode premiere. And even 2 episodes I feel is being slightly generous.

Yeesh…I just can’t get into this show anymore. Everything is so bland, cheap looking and boring plots. Favereu is getting nuts with cameos and mediocre dialogue and that scene with Grogu getting evacuated by Jedi Jar Jar didn’t tell us anything we already didn’t know. Except now we know a random Jedi did it. Huzzah.

Fan_edit_fan said:

Yeesh…I just can’t get into this show anymore. Everything is so bland, cheap looking and boring plots. Favereu is getting nuts with cameos and mediocre dialogue and that scene with Grogu getting evacuated by Jedi Jar Jar didn’t tell us anything we already didn’t know. Except now we know a random Jedi did it. Huzzah.

The writing on the show has never been its strong point but its failings have become more glaring this season because the series has shifted away from its original premise of a lone bounty hunter’s adventures. The VFX are also increasingly choppy. I don’t know whether that’s due to directors not being comfortable with the Volume or limitations of the Volume itself.

It’s really telling that most of the excitement expressed on Star Wars Reddit & other fandom sites about the episode is over Easter eggs & stunt casting. What happened to Ahmed Best was horrible but no one outside of the hardcore fan base cares that he’s playing a Jedi here. I’m not saying he shouldn’t, but that should not be your justification that the episode is great. It should be peripheral to your perception of the show’s quality.

& don’t get me started on the people excusing the poor effects of the flashback scenes because they’re consistent with the look of the Prequels. Some of the speeder shots had no depth to them.

More dinosaur action, I mean it’s fine? It’s not challenging but it’s fine. I don’t care about the baby rescue at all. But again I feel like parts of this could have been a continuation of the ending last time around. Or that the previous Coruscant plot would have been 30 mins and the rest of the Mando stuff last week could have been part of this chapter? And the cult STILL look like idiots training out in the open with the killer animals? Why aren’t they under ground?

Mocata said:

More dinosaur action, I mean it’s fine? It’s not challenging but it’s fine. I don’t care about the baby rescue at all. But again I feel like parts of this could have been a continuation of the ending last time around. Or that the previous Coruscant plot would have been 30 mins and the rest of the Mando stuff last week could have been part of this chapter? And the cult STILL look like idiots training out in the open with the killer animals? Whey aren’t they under ground?

The pterodactyl/dragon plotline made zero sense. It flies off with the boy but hasn’t attempted to feed him to its brood a day later?

& the Children of the Watch have a very lax approach to child protection given the purported importance of foundlings in their culture. Paz Vizsla‘s comment that the dinodragon “always” gets away when they try to pursue it suggests this is a) a regular occurrence & b) they’re a bunch of morons who never learn from their bad strategy. Are we meant to think no one other than Bo-Katan & Din have a ship to pursue the flying monster? The show is doing about as good a job as portraying the Mandalorians as a fearsome warrior culture as TBOBF did of portraying Boba as a credible mobster boss.

& the dinodragon getting eaten by the giant crocodile was a blatant rip off of Jurassic World.

Honestly I expected child endangerment to be mentioned as part of the warrior’s path or something, like if you don’t suffocate inside a monster’s gut you can rank up to initiate level. They clearly spent a lot of money on creatures too which is very weird when they’re not story relevant in a serious way. Did the spider episode and the Krayt Dragon episode get a lot of views or something?