Star Wars: The Mandalorian

hbi2k wrote:

I figured from the context of your last post. (-:

My knowledge of Fett's character and backstory is all pre-PT, was vague even at the time (probably because they wanted to keep their options open for stuff like making him that one guy's clone-son in the PT), and has probably been retconned since then, and my knowledge of what Mandalorians actually are all comes from this show.

I'm just giving you a hard time

Stormtrooper or not?

IMAGE(https://img.cinemablend.com/cb/a/0/f/5/0/d/a0f50dab019faeb44d097d68ecfd1ca8af6909d6e42558d161ff52b0e4b7c792.jpg)

MannishBoy wrote:

I'm just giving you a hard time :)

No worries, I took it in good fun.

Stormtrooper or not?

He looks about, what, 6'1"? That's about right for a stormtrooper. Now, 5'9", that would be a little short.

I don't think I realized that Stormtroopers wore Chelsea boots until just now looking at that shot. So stylish.

God I love how chintzy the OT could be. Like that one cantina alien that was clearly just a store-bought werewolf mask.

I'm sure one of the "Tales from..." books gave him a name and elaborate backstory.

That's something else I think Mandalorian does exceptionally well: evokes that charming dime-store aesthetic in a way that I'm sure isn't actually all that cheap, but at the same time, is clearly prestige-TV budget and not quite AAA-movie budget.

hbi2k wrote:

God I love how chintzy the OT could be. Like that one cantina alien that was clearly just a store-bought werewolf mask.

I'm sure one of the "Tales from..." books gave him a name and elaborate backstory.

That's something else I think Mandalorian does exceptionally well: evokes that charming dime-store aesthetic in a way that I'm sure isn't actually all that cheap, but at the same time, is clearly prestige-TV budget and not quite AAA-movie budget.

Speaking of stuff that goes back that most casual fans wouldn't notice, the ice cream maker appeared again this season I noticed.

hbi2k wrote:

God I love how chintzy the OT could be. Like that one cantina alien that was clearly just a store-bought werewolf mask.

I'm sure one of the "Tales from..." books gave him a name and elaborate backstory.

That's something else I think Mandalorian does exceptionally well: evokes that charming dime-store aesthetic in a way that I'm sure isn't actually all that cheap, but at the same time, is clearly prestige-TV budget and not quite AAA-movie budget.

Lak Sivrak

He was in Tales from Mos Eisley Cantina. The chapter was called "One Last Night in the Mos Eisley Cantina: The Tale of the Wolfman and the Lamproid"

Edit: There were two wolfman in that cantina scene.

Arleil Schous

Makeup artist[18] Rick Baker decided to use off-the-shelf masks to perform some reshoots of the booths in the cantina scenes. He used two different furry wolfman masks. The first one to appear onscreen would be identified as "Wolfman" during the shooting, and later as Arleil Schous, a Defel.[19] The other mask was called "Hyena-Man" during the production.[8][19] In 1989, the Expanded Universe gave "Hyena-Man" a more detailed identity as Lak Sivrak, the Shistavanen Wolfman.[19]
ClockworkHouse wrote:
ClockworkHouse wrote:

I'm becoming concerned that I won't be able to follow what's happening in this show because I didn't do my homework and watch all 121 episodes of Clone Wars.

I just meant that I wasn't jazzed about watching a show with homework. I am so sorry for... whatever all the rest of this has been.

As someone who has done the homework, let me assure you that so far none of it has been anything I'd consider required reading to prepare for this project. The in-class stuff has covered everything important so far.

Just saw this. Probably the best Bo-Katan backstory explainer I've seen:

I didn't realize Cobb Vanth (Oliphant's character) was a book character. Never read Aftermath.

Stengah wrote:
ClockworkHouse wrote:
ClockworkHouse wrote:

I'm becoming concerned that I won't be able to follow what's happening in this show because I didn't do my homework and watch all 121 episodes of Clone Wars.

I just meant that I wasn't jazzed about watching a show with homework. I am so sorry for... whatever all the rest of this has been.

As someone who has done the homework, let me assure you that so far none of it has been anything I'd consider required reading to prepare for this project. The in-class stuff has covered everything important so far.

I can second this. The stuff that is referencing other content only adds to someone's enjoyment. My wife who has only seen the movies is still having a good time watching the show. The stories are fun, the characters are interesting and baby Yoda is adorable. Many of the references are not even obvious references, a you don't know what you don't know kind of thing.

Wow, five new pages in this thread.

kazar wrote:

Not sure about canon, but in legends the Sarlacc would telepathically link with it's prey and put them in a stupor while they were being digested. Boba Fett had to break out of this stupor before he was able to detonate his way out.

Doesn't the helmet stop the telepathy? Or maybe that's just Magneto. Well, here's my assorted ramblings....

Star Wars has always had a ridiculous amount of background detail for every character if you'd dig for it. You can divide fans into those that know the names of all the bounty hunters lined up in Empire Strikes Back and those that don't, it doesn't mean they're not all fans. Up until a few weeks ago, I had some cursory knowledge of the characters from Clone Wars and Rebels, but it mostly came from the Galaxy of Heroes mobile game, believe it or not.

It seems to be small, but count me in the camp that's optimistic that the show will still be good even without having the full background of the two animated shows. When I heard that the characters would be in the Mandalorian, I started watching the animated series, but I'm still only in the first season (so freaking busy). I probably won't even get around to the relevant seasons until this season of Mandalorian is over, but I'm still going to keep watching it all, because I want that detail.

I used to be a lot more into Star Wars. Starting with the Zahn books, I was reading all of the novels that were coming out, right until I got to the ones by Kevin J. Anderson. I just thought his writing was terrible. It brought my Star Wars reading to a hard stop, and I kind of lost interest in all of it. The prequel movies didn't help either. I had heard good things about the animated series, but I think I was burned out. The past few years had some downs, but now they're looking up again (referring to my personal opinions as a fan). Episodes 7-9 fell short of my expectations. I loved Rogue One, despite a choppy story. I skipped Solo in the theater, but it turns out I really liked it too. I visited Galaxy's Edge and had fun. I'm enjoying the Mandalorian, and I'm enjoying Clone Wars.

Filoni and Favreau seem to really care about the franchise, unlike, say, J.J. Abrams. They do have a longer history with it, but they're also interested in a long future with it. Until I see otherwise, I don't think they'll intentionally alienate new viewers. There have been quite a few "spin-off" shows that were more successful than their originals, so I think they can manage.

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MannishBoy wrote:

I don't think I realized that Stormtroopers wore Chelsea boots until just now looking at that shot. So stylish.

I remember seeing something about that footwear in a documentary. There wasn't a lot of budget, so there was an awful lot of ingenious and resourceful British repurposing by the props and costume departments.

As well as shonkily painted Chelsea boots, Han Solo's blaster was a gussied up Mauser C96, a 19th century design. And the Stormtroopers' blaster were all British Army Sterling submachine guns from the 1960s/1970s.

My personal favourite was the interrogation droid in 'A New Hope'.

IMAGE(https://cnet2.cbsistatic.com/img/djp3g5wg7S7odYw-sVyLcO0yedY=/980x0/2013/10/15/5a073ba6-6788-11e3-846b-14feb5ca9861/Interrogator_droid_-_JM.jpg)

Even as a 6-year old I recognised it as a reused surveillance camera from a posh department store.
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I finally got a chance to watch The Heiress, and I really enjoyed it. I felt like I wanted a bit more about the history of Mandalore and the various factions there, but maybe that'll be expanded on in the future. After Mando refusing to remove his helmet was such a prominent plot point in the first season, it was a bit weird to have an off-hand conversation that's like, "nah, that's not a thing".

kazar wrote:
hbi2k wrote:

God I love how chintzy the OT could be. Like that one cantina alien that was clearly just a store-bought werewolf mask.

I'm sure one of the "Tales from..." books gave him a name and elaborate backstory.

That's something else I think Mandalorian does exceptionally well: evokes that charming dime-store aesthetic in a way that I'm sure isn't actually all that cheap, but at the same time, is clearly prestige-TV budget and not quite AAA-movie budget.

Lak Sivrak

He was in Tales from Mos Eisley Cantina. The chapter was called "One Last Night in the Mos Eisley Cantina: The Tale of the Wolfman and the Lamproid"

Edit: There were two wolfman in that cantina scene.

Arleil Schous

Makeup artist[18] Rick Baker decided to use off-the-shelf masks to perform some reshoots of the booths in the cantina scenes. He used two different furry wolfman masks. The first one to appear onscreen would be identified as "Wolfman" during the shooting, and later as Arleil Schous, a Defel.[19] The other mask was called "Hyena-Man" during the production.[8][19] In 1989, the Expanded Universe gave "Hyena-Man" a more detailed identity as Lak Sivrak, the Shistavanen Wolfman.[19]

I feel like this post encapsulates everything I loved about the original movies and everything I didn't like about the old expanded universe. Not every single thing that randomly passed over the screen needed some elaborate back story.

ClockworkHouse wrote:

I feel like this post encapsulates everything I loved about the original movies and everything I didn't like about the old expanded universe. Not every single thing that randomly passed over the screen needed some elaborate back story. :P

I am the opposite. For me I really enjoy learning about the lore of a series. Zombie and Vampire movies/shows are a dime a dozen and many people get burnt out on them, but I still watch every one I come across because I am interested in how they will define the monsters. Are the zombies slow moving, are they undead or just infected, how does the disease get transmitted.

For Star Wars, I really enjoyed reading Tales from Mos Eisley Cantina and Tales from Jabba's Palace because it tried to fill in the blanks and flesh out the lore of Star Wars. Is it "needed", no. Can it exist and be appreciated by some, yes.

Note that Lak Sivrak also has a canon story on Wookiepedia so it isn't only EU.

ClockworkHouse wrote:

Not every single thing that randomly passed over the screen needed some elaborate back story. :P

But how else are we going to use measures of distance as an indicator of ship speed?

I remember the "Tales of" books being some of my favorite part of the old EU, for being little bite-sized chunks of story that didn't need to try to support big, galaxy-sweeping events or involve Yet Another Planet-Busting Superweapon.

But what do I know; I revisited the Thrawn books around the time the first Force Awakens trailers were dropping and everyone was lamenting that the Sequel Trilogy would not be an adaptation of Zahn.

I remembered them from high school as being the cream of the crop, and maybe they were, but as an adult I found them just barely passable.

ClockworkHouse wrote:

I finally got a chance to watch The Heiress, and I really enjoyed it. I felt like I wanted a bit more about the history of Mandalore and the various factions there, but maybe that'll be expanded on in the future. After Mando refusing to remove his helmet was such a prominent plot point in the first season, it was a bit weird to have an off-hand conversation that's like, "nah, that's not a thing".

To those of us that watched Clone Wars and Rebels where Mandalorians both on Mandalor and from Mandalor had their helmets off the majority of the time, his helmet fetish last season was confusing. Bo-Katan's comment made more sense to me personally.

Depends on the angle you come in to the show with, but now we all know that Din/Mando's behaviour was the norm for his group, but is not the norm for all other Mandalorians. Assuming you believe Bo-Katan at all.

That line was all that was needed to clear that up for both sides.

I also wonder if this ties into the rumors that Pascal was not happy having to always act in the helmet. I kind of wonder if this was always the plan, or if it was a compromise to get him out of the helmet at times.

To me the plan has always been Mandalorians and Mandalore in this time frame since it is relatively untouched story wise. I think we will get deeper into the lore, the split and what Mandalore looks like in the upcoming seasons.

MannishBoy wrote:
ClockworkHouse wrote:

I finally got a chance to watch The Heiress, and I really enjoyed it. I felt like I wanted a bit more about the history of Mandalore and the various factions there, but maybe that'll be expanded on in the future. After Mando refusing to remove his helmet was such a prominent plot point in the first season, it was a bit weird to have an off-hand conversation that's like, "nah, that's not a thing".

To those of us that watched Clone Wars and Rebels where Mandalorians both on Mandalor and from Mandalor had their helmets off the majority of the time, his helmet fetish last season was confusing. Bo-Katan's comment made more sense to me personally.

Depends on the angle you come in to the show with, but now we all know that Din/Mando's behaviour was the norm for his group, but is not the norm for all other Mandalorians. Assuming you believe Bo-Katan at all.

That line was all that was needed to clear that up for both sides.

I also wonder if this ties into the rumors that Pascal was not happy having to always act in the helmet. I kind of wonder if this was always the plan, or if it was a compromise to get him out of the helmet at times.

Right? Right? She says like two sentences and my mind is instantly flooded with the implied backstory that had yet to be illuminated.

I'm believing that rumor less and less. His contract had to discuss it. He seems very happy with things as far as social media accounts I have seen screenshotted.

I agree with Mannish on the helmet thing. No more "Mando helmet plot hole" click bait articles.

No Sullustans or Ithorians, but we did get a bunch of Aqualish this episode!

Also,

Spoiler:

Were those Dark Troopers at the end? If so, holy sh*t. Where's Kyle Katarn when you need him?

muttonchop wrote:

No Sullustans or Ithorians, but we did get a bunch of Aqualish this episode!

Also,

Spoiler:

Were those Dark Troopers at the end? If so, holy sh*t. Where's Kyle Katarn when you need him?

Next series I bet

Moff Gideon must read Darths & Droids.

Wow, what a great episode.

muttonchop wrote:
Spoiler:

Were those Dark Troopers at the end? If so, holy sh*t. Where's Kyle Katarn when you need him?

Spoiler:

That was my first thought as well, but it was hard to get a good look at them. My second thought was Darth Vader clones/knockoff, thus the need for the child's blood to infuse them with the force.

Rat Boy wrote:

Moff Gideon must read Darths & Droids.

Now that's a webcomic I haven't read in a long time (a very long time). I had to google to see if you were referring to what I thought you were referring to.

Spoiler:

IMAGE(https://www.darthsanddroids.net/comics/darths0086.jpg)
https://www.darthsanddroids.net/episodes/0086.html

Moff Gideon: *wide evil grin*

It makes Moff Gideon Moff Giddyon.

So were those Snoke's in the tubes? Is Snoke built from Baby Yoda blood?

hbi2k wrote:

I remembered them from high school as being the cream of the crop, and maybe they were, but as an adult I found them just barely passable.

I think both those things are true. It is just that barely passable is cream of the crop when it comes to Star Wars books.

MannishBoy wrote:

So were those Snoke's in the tubes? Is Snoke built from Baby Yoda blood?

I just rewatched it, and the recording mentions “volunteers” so the tank people likely weren’t clones.

I have no idea who the people with Moff Gideon were though!

Urgh. ‘M-count’?!?! We’re really going back to midiclorians again?

Before anyone starts I think The Mandalorian is excellent TV but right now I’m starting to get a little worried they are trying to retcon parts of the prequels that Lucas got pasted for, that in all honestly would be better left buried. It’s just nothing I personally feel this show needs to go back to. It’s been doing so well being it’s own thing for a good season and bit but now? Stop dragging up stuff that just isn’t necessary........