Just noticed that no one has posted the Chapter 9 poster, so here it is (highest res. I could find);
Is it just the lighting/colour-correction or does this version have a different colour? She looks almost brown or sandy here instead of the more pinkish-purple from the last two episodes. I suppose they might have recoloured the costume/mask after they wrote this character as a female looking for her husband and decided to clarify it by making them blue and pink.
Either way, I think its a great little detail that they decided to flesh out this minor background character for two episodes.
Of course the irony here is that it’s really just us SW geeks that can be excited or annoyed at them bringing in EU characters. F.ex. I share my Disney+ account with my mother (who’s a very casual OT fan) and whenever I ask her about the latest episodes it never even occurred to her that some characters were from other series until I mention it. As far as she was concerned regarding chapter 11 it was just fun to see other Mandalorians that were allowed to take off their helmets and since it added to Din’s story she enjoyed the episode. The name Ahsoka means nothing to her so its just the name of a “new” character to her.
I personally think Favreau did a really good job at incorporating Bo-Katan into Din’s character development, while also referring to stuff that matters to CW/Rebels fans. We know what the darksaber is, but to others its just a setup for a future plot-thread.
Well, Bo-Katan should be roughly 45-50 and Din would be roughly 35-40, so it’s not too far off even though Pascal is technically older. Plus, Padme ruled a planet at age 14 and Luke/Leia were only 19 in ANH, so for all we know Bo-Katan could have been in her late teens during the Clone War. And people do age differently depending on their lifestyles, and Bo-Katan was of a noble house while Din seems to have been living pretty rough since he was a child. So I think it all ads up reasonably well.
At least we’re not dealing with Legends aging where Luke, Leia and Han didn’t seem to age at all for decades after ROTJ.
I think the child’s species is a Whill and Mando needs to find the Guardians of the Whills. Makes sense that a rare species that’s so helpless for decades would need a group of devoted attendants.
Now that’s an interesting idea.
I’m curious about what Lucas thinks of all this as he used to have a rule that the EU could never explore Yoda’s species. On one hand I’d like to learn more about them, but I also like having some unanswered mysteries, so I at least hope Favreau/Filo will consult Lucas if they go this direction.
I was looking through some old pulp magazine covers and came across these two images that gave me quite the Death Star vibe.
The first one is a reprint of H.G. Welles The First Men in the Moon and the orb is only a few meters across, however in this cover art it look gigantic, like its looming over the lunar surface. I wonder if Lucas might have seen either of these and been inspired.
Amazing Stories Volume 02 #11 (1928)
Amazing Stories Volume 07 #07 (1932)
I quite enjoyed Chapter 11 and thought they handled introducing the Filoni characters quite well. And, at least now we have an explanation of the whole never removing their helmets thing. I was really curious if they would address it in the show or just leave it for the EU to explain. I’m always a bit skeptical when they bring in familiar characters from other shows, even if I do like those characters, but I think they handled the reveal quite well for those who aren’t familiar with the animated shows and it seems like they’ll explain thing further down the line as well. Treating Din as a bit of an outsider gives them a good excuse to explain the lore to “newcomers”.
If they can keep a good balance as they’ve done so far (incl. season 1) and go back and forth between standalone adventures like the past two chapters and episodes like this with familiar characters and expanding the lore then I think this season will turn out quite good.
Also, as a side note; I thought it was really funny seeing Mon Calamari and Quarren dressed like old fashioned fishermen with knitted sweaters and everything. The whole planet had a really fun nautical vibe to it.
Frog-Lady poster.
Star Wars: A New Hope Bloopers & Outtakes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CNfIQVplY9U&t - from the Seracco YouTube channel (17 mins long).
As far as I can tell this video contains all the officially released bloopers & outtakes + some misc. BTS material with Stuart Freeborn and the costume/MU-effect designers and some camera tests of R2-D2, Treadwell and the C-3PO suit.
I completely agree with RogueLeader. One of the things that I really like about the OT, especially ANH is how it lets the environment sink in. It’s one of the reasons why the SW universe felt so alive and believable (despite its blatant abstractions). The Mandalorian has done a fantastic job with this so far and I think it’s one of the more elusive things about the show that has made it so popular and why so many people fans says that it just “feels right.”
I’ve probably mentioned this before in this thread, but I really feel that people have been spoiled a lot by modern TV series which tend to be 100-hour long movies chopped up in multiple smaller parts. F.ex. I tried watching Game of Thrones a while back but I got so bored as I never felt like there was an end in sight. All the subplots just kept piling up and each episode only gave me a few minutes of each with endless cliff-hangers and twists. One overarching story is fine of course, but I think shows need room to breathe. Individual stories should be concluded in one or a few episodes, while the throughline can continue in the “background” until its brought to the forefront every now and then. Plus, when you have the SW universe to play with, why not tell smaller side-stories? Chapter 10 actually reminded me a lot of Chapter 2 where they both relied more on visuals over story (though obviously there is a plot). It reminds me of 1970’s filmmaking and its a style that unfortunately has been mostly abandoned and replaced with more fast-paced and streamlined narratives. Which isn’t a bad thing, but I don’t think its necessary for all movies and TV shows. Mandalorian for me has been a pretty good balance between the old and new ways of storytelling, in that it’s episodic but also has a good throughline to keep it all together.
‘Star Wars Holiday Special Cartoon’ - 10 minutes long, from the ‘Musta Costa Fortune’ YouTube channel:
Been a big fan of this short ever since I saw it and it really bugs me that they never made a proper SW cartoon in the 70’s/80’s ore like this. Droids was reasonably fun (especially the first arc), but it really is a shame that they never spent their money on making a full series more like this instead, especially since I’ve heard stories about a Luke/Han/Leia cartoon being rejected in favour of Droids. I don’t know if that’s true though, so don’t quote me on that.
PS. Shouldn’t this technically be in the OT Random Videos thread? At least I think you could copy-paste it to that thread as well since it’s of that era.
Weird. Chapter 10 really seemed to be a cost cutting episode as far as aliens go. The cantina aliens and the droid from Chapter 5 were re-used (incl. the Frog Lady). And there’s Moroff from RO + the TFA alien shown above. I can’t imagine season 2 having anything but a bigger budget than season 1 though, so I wonder why this is the case. Maybe the episode was rewritten at a late stage or something like that? Or I guess they might just have really wanted to reuse costumes and MU effect elements and we’ll see even more familiar modern era aliens in future episodes. Not that I’m complaining, these are all great designs, I just find it fascinating.
Although it’s nice for background characters to have proper EU names, I do think there’s a certain charm to the old alien nicknames from the 70’s/80’s like yakface, hammerhead, etc. so I do think it’s funny how, for now at least, we have a frog-lady and Dr. Mandible. Though I guess the last one might be canon? At least its an in-universe nickname.
Am I the only person that gets a bit of a Al Williamson-vibe from the design of the “Frog-Lady”? The creature design reminds me of the Chubbits from the SW Newspaper comic.
I also think its a nice little detail that both the “Frog-Lady” and “Dr. Mandible” (as Peli called him) both appeared in the season 1 Tatooine episode, implying that there’s not much happening on Tatooine anymore. Moroff from Rogue One, or at least someone from the same species, also popped up in the new cantina scene.
There’s a mantis looking creature in the Original cantina scene. Is that supposed to be the same character or just the same species?
It’s definitely a reference to that, but they look quite different, so unless they’ve retconned/updated the design I think they’re meant to be separate species. The new one definitely looks more Star Wars-y.
I think Frog Lady looks a lot like another creature from the Special Edition of the cantina scene. That could be her husband before he went to Trask and made a place for them.
You mean this guy? https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Melas
Funnily enough, I think he actually look even more similar to the Chubbits.
Am I the only person that gets a bit of a Al Williamson-vibe from the design of the “Frog-Lady”? The creature design reminds me of the Chubbits from the SW Newspaper comic.
I also think its a nice little detail that both the “Frog-Lady” and “Dr. Mandible” (as Peli called him) both appeared in the season 1 Tatooine episode, implying that there’s not much happening on Tatooine anymore. Moroff from Rogue One, or at least someone from the same species, also popped up in the new cantina scene.
Chapter 10 was a pretty solid episode. Not what I had expected after the Fett reveal last episode, but I suppose they’re saving that for a later episode or season. I do, however, like how they seem to be connecting these smaller adventures. Season 1 did the more conventional thing of just having them arrive at a new place in each episode, implying that much/some time had passed in-between, but now it seems like they’ll all be connected in some small way. If so, then I think its a really good idea. It allows for an “adventure of the week” type of narrative while still making it all feel like one long story.
People seem to go back and forth on how (or if) Fett is alive and will be in the series. I’m not up on most EU or any Lucas SE whatever-the-fucks. Is there any real reason to assume he lived beyond ROTJ?
Not quite sure what you’re getting at? He was alive at the end of the newest episode and this is all set post ROTJ.
In case anyone was wondering, the Krayt dragon does apparently still have legs in canon just like it did in Legends, despite them never being shown in the episode. So basically Favreau got his Tremors/Dune-vibe while still managing to stick to continuity.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1ESPZsoUR8&list=PLYn2a0e2FVIJ66EP8vMU64l-kIhHU9zg7&index=71&t - from EckhartsLadder (8 mins long).
Cobb Vanth was likable and well-acted, and I liked how they covered his backstory in broad strokes. Is he the first canon EU character to make the jump to live action? Because it sets a good precedent for more to come.
Saw Garrera in Rogue One was originally introduced in the Clone Wars series. Though I suspect it was a rewrite (or simply a name change) as they’re fairly different characters apart from the broad strokes.
Cobb Vanth is apparently a bit different than his novel counterpart as well. But it’s fun regardless to see this interconnectivity between live-action and other media while they at the same time allow creative freedom by not following canon slavishly.
I also really liked how the Krayt dragon seemed to almost magically pop up from both the sand and even solid rock at some point. It’s the kind of fantasy monster logic I expect (or at least prefer) from SW, even though it would have been quite jarring in a ‘proper’ sci-fi series/movie.
Also, did the new version have legs or did they just straight up turn it into a worm? I know most EU versions, both new and old canon had legs, but the skeleton in ANH seemed to just be a spine and a head so I supposed making it a worm of sorts works as well.
Great first episode. This is how I want pre-established settings to be handled. Now, I didn’t mind the Tatooine episode in season 1, but like many people it feels to reliant on references and little nods to ANH. I’ve already seen Mos Eisley and I didn’t really need to see it again, though thankfully they didn’t spend too much time there. But the establishing shots taken straight from ANH seemed way too on the nose for me. Chapter 9, However, did exactly what I want EU material to do when they return to known places; show me what’s going on elsewhere on the same planet and explore things that we’ve only heard about before but never seen.
I’m also a fan of how the episode lengths tend to vary depending on the story. I’m generally quite annoyed at TV shows when they pad the story just to reach a 50 min. runtime, and I miss old TV shows that managed to keep things simple at 30 min. (Another thing that I like about the SW animated series). The Mandalorian so far has been a great example of just doing what’s needed, which I hope will become a future trend for streaming shows. I think this was the longest episode so far, and it almost felt like a little mini-movie. Which worked for this particular story.
*Ahsoka was born 36 BBY, so she would be 45 years old during The Mandalorian. (9 ABY)
Rebels Spoilers:
It just occurred to me that Ahsoka should technically be a year or two younger than her birth-date would suggest considering the whole world-between-worlds thing in Rebels where she essentially skips ahead in time. Not that this is particularly important, but I figured I’d mention it.
Although I’m personally not much of a stickler for continuity details like this (I don’t mind different shows doing things their own way), I am curious to see how they end up explaining the incongruities in how Mandalorians treat their helmets. It’d be interesting to see if they relegate the explanation to or book or comic or if they will actually address it in one of the following seasons. I suppose it all depends on which Mandalorians he ends up meeting, if they’re new characters or pre-exisiting characters.
I’ve never seen these clips before. Do you know what they are from?
New trailer coming this Monday
I see the blue fish guy from the first episode will return; https://youtu.be/ICuqzhViWAI?t=40 They’re in a troop transport, though in new canon its been used for prison transport as well, so I guess they have to break him out of jail for some reason?
With Cara Dune & Greef returning, plus rumors of Ahsoka, Rex/Fett, etc. I’m starting to wonder if this series is going to end up very similar to Rebels. I.e. simple but fun 1st season, cameos galore in season 2, then maybe a really connected plot (more or less) as they wrap things up in seasons 3 & 4. Of course we don’t know how long this series is going to last, but 4 seasons would make sense and that’s what Giancarlo Esposito claimed was the planned length in an interview recently.
Also, and this might be an odd thing to be excited about, but I love the old crackling radio sound from the x-Wing pilot from the first few seconds of the trailer. New SW has had a hard time emulating the sound effects of the OT and it seems they finally figured out how to do it. If I remember it correctly then Ben Burt recorded all the stormtrooper dialogue and radio transmission via old walkie-talkies. The recent movies seems to have tried to emulate this digitally and its not quite the same. Ditto on the holograms which until The Mandalorian looked to crisp and detailed (though it’s still not quite OT).
Due to the burnt corpses of Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru, i always thought a laser blast would slowly incinerate a dead body from inside.
Since blasters have stun settings much like phasers in Star Trek, something a notch below disintegrate must also be present. (Vader cautions the bounty hunters in ESB not to disintegrate their quarry.) Unless that was disintegration? I’ve had the unpleasant theory Owen and Beru were executed after refusing to divulge where the droids were, in order to protect Luke. Their bodies were posed, and then burned after death to complete the impression the Tuskens did it.
Yeah, I always assumed they simply burned them to blame it on the Tuskens as well. The burned farmhouse looks a lot like the scorched sandcrawler.
It’s also interesting to see that no one bothered to include disintegration in any SW live-action until recently in the Mandalorian. Even the stun setting was largely relegated to books and cartoons until it reappeared in TLJ. The only pre-Mandalorian disintegration I’m aware of were in the Jedi Knight games, which has somewhat of a Star Trek vibe to it.
New 30 sec trailer (though there’s barely any new footage).
