The funny thing is, I’m now usually much more excited by the presence of Filoni’s toys than Lucas’s. When Mando said he was going to visit Grogu, I was like okay, I guess we’re seeing Luke again. I was not expecting Ahsoka, or Cad Bane!
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The Western scene between Cobb Vanth and Cad Bane is where I knew for sure that
- this was a Dave Filoni joint
- he’s gone absolutely mad with power as creative lead of Star Wars and
- despite my better judgment I’m extremely here for it
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There’s a different version of this episode where an either more or less mature Luke Skywalker ditches all those lofty Jedi beliefs for a sec to go gaga over Mando’s Naboo hot-rod.
Also, color me humored by the juxtaposition of using construction droids to build essentially Newgrange.
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Yeah, making Grogu choose is such a bone headed typical Jedi move, I could hear the More Civilized Age crew yelling in my head.
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If Cad Bane showing up didn’t convince me to give AMCA $5 for their forthcoming BoBF episode, that part certainly did
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I highly recommend the AMCA Patreon, the Q&A discussions have been worth it, and the bonus episodes seem to be growing in number.
As for that Jedi training… I at first thought Ahsoka preventing Mando from seeing Grogu felt out of character. From my perspective, she’s rejected the Jedi and their preaching on attachment. But her handing over the armour (and excuse me, how cute is that tiny chainmail shirt?) sets Luke up for that boneheaded ‘choice’ he offers Grogu. Like she’s not quite undermining Luke and his attempt to rebuild the Jedi as he imagines them - but she is making sure there is an alternative available.
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My whole thinking in not subscribing to the Patreon was that 1. it was initially only the Q&A episodes and 2. I didn’t really have the time or budget for another Patreon but I guess I’m getting on the train, if only briefly,
And as per that Jedi training, I think Ahsoka’s probably thinking “Okay look if I just let you go talk to Grogu, we all know what he’s going to do, but if you present Grogu with options, he’ll make the choice for himself” which feels very Ahsoka.
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Book of who? I’m just not sure about this episode… whilst last week felt like a catchup with an old friend, this one felt like more fan service propping up a show which barely has a plot. Felt more like a setup for myriad other shows. Honestly thought we were done with Mando and Grogu at the end of season 2.
But hey there’s still Star Warsing fun to be had.
- Has all the budget for this show gone into deaging Mark Hamill? He looked a little ropey at the end of Mando season 2 but gotta say does look way more impressive here. Though it is quite funny how little they dwell on his face as possible. I did enjoy Luke training Grogu and how it mirrored him being taught by Yoda but I dunno, after Return of the Jedi, I was hoping to see Luke be different as a mentor to a young jedi.The Jedi wanted him to destroy Vader, but Luke chose not to. Which is what makes him a great hero, to see him so dogmatically go back to the jedi ways feels wrong. I suppose he is giving Grogu a choice in what he wants to do.
- If Grogu did choose Mando armour, he could get the dark saber and have the best of both worlds. Win win. I think Grogu is going to become the Mando king.
- All those build bots mean we will be getting a Star Wars Satisfactory game
- I was getting vibes with Luke and Ahsoka - “will I see you again?” This Luke fucks.
- I’m not really caught up on the Clone Wars, but Cad Bane sure was menacing. Going from jedi training amongst the trees in Yavin to a full on Western standoff is why Star Wars rules.
- Half expecting them to bring back Luke for the battle of Tatooine, accompanied by Han and Chewie in the Falcon at this point. I don’t think Boba Fett riding a Rancor is going to cut it, in terms of fan service. Anticipating a Thrawn Thanos styled reveal as well, as the fallen Empire are allied with the Syndicate. Hey maybe we’ll get some explanation of where the first order comes from!?
- I’m calling it. Fuly expect another Grogu flashback and Luke will see Hayden Christensen approach Grogu as newly minted Vader but he WON’T kill Grogu because he is adorable unlike those pesky younglings.
- All in all, this episode just feels like setup for their post OT TV verse. Where Mando, Boba Fett, Ahsoka, Grogu and I guess Luke will be mainstays along with the expanded cast of these three shows. More scum and villainy please.
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I can’t deny that this is a) fan service heavy and b) feels peculiar for what is ostensibly “the Boba Fett show”, but I’m slightly withholding judgement until I see how it comes together in the season finale. While it’s clear Mando will be involved, if some of these other characters/plot threads also feature then in hindsight it might not feel as strange.
My last thought contains a light Clone Wars spoiler because this is apparently something I forgot, but saw mentioned: Cad Bane has history with a younger Boba Fett, so his sudden appearance is certainly fan service, but ties into the lore for the series lead. Combined with Mando’s encounter with Boba Fett in The Mandalorian Season 2, and Cobb Vanth previously wearing Fett’s armour, there are things that tie a lot of this together… though unless Luke, Ahsoka, or Grogu show up in the finale then that whole interlude maybe feels like it should have been saved for The Mandalorian Season 3.
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My understanding is that that’s not actually Mark Hamill’s corporeal form. They have a set double who can do the stunts and whatnot, they deepfake in Young Mark Hamill (there was a guy on YouTube who was way better at it than they are so they hired him lol), and then Hamill himself dubs in the lines.
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yeah, my flatmate is very into visual effects and stuff and was saying that the YouTube guy they hired did it as a direct response to the S2 finale of Mando to show them how good they could do it and they hired him off the back of that so I can’t imagine it cost too much???
re today’s episode is this confirmation then that Filoni at least is going to help flesh out Rian Johnson’s (completely justified) characterisation of Luke Skywalker? Game recognises game.
ETA: system removed my quote of @DarthTythus’s post which this was also in response to.
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Well this is all complete Voodoo. I forsee a future where actors never die, in which you the viewer can literally swap out actors prior to watching a movie based on preferences.
Don’t want to watch Chris Pratt in this movie? Switch him for Chris Pine.
This holocaust movie is a classic, but if you really want a treat swap out Ralph Fiennes for Adam Sandler.
I subscribed to the Keanu Reeves actor pack a while back and kind of cast the whole movie as Keanu Reeves to get my money’s worth.
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I am looking forward to the great Pratt/Pine swap.
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Seinfeldvision is going to be a reality.
Chris Pine would have been a phenomenal Starlord, see: Into The Woods.
My comments on this episode are roughly the same as last week: they’re good, but I don’t care. I want the show to be about this really cool interpretation of Boba Fett they’ve gone with, and any other Star Wars character being here (except Cad Bane, actually, he gets a pass because it’s cool) can go sit in the corner and wait for Mandalorian Season 3 to do their stuff.
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I didn’t really mind the choice Luke gave Grogu. It’s a choice Luke and Anakin didn’t really get to make. Anakin because how how young he was recruited (and even then they were saying Anakin was too old i.e. has attachments to stuff other than the Jedi - think of how young they “recruit”, and Luke because Vader was actively fucking with his friends knowing Luke would perceive it to lure him in. Here Grogu’s being given the full long term breakdown, not being told what he can or can’t do. Plus we all know Grogu will choose both or hopefully he’ll choose neither and just Mass Effect 1 physics bounce people into the twin suns instead of even using a weapon or anything..
They should re-cast him with no fanfare like when they went from Dick York to Dick Sargent in Bewitched like we weren’t supposed to notice.
Regarding Boba Fett’s prominence in the show that bears his name, IIRC wasn’t there some interview where he mentioned changing up the dialogue a lot? Maybe they cut a lot of scenes out or something, it would explain how much his character seems to jump around and how weirdly passive he is. A lot of that would make sense if he knew more than he let on about the Pykes/etc. and was playing some kind of long behind the scenes game but we haven’t really seen anything to support that and there’s just one episode left now.
Luke embodies abilities knowledge from Obi-Wan, Yoda, and Vader, and from ESB through RotJ he was training to be a Jedi, so even with the incredibly personal level of shit that went down between him and Vader, I get that at least when starting out with someone he’s going to sort of go with a similar routine to what Yoda did with him. The only thing bad about it to me was how they hand waved Asohka having no issue with this at all. But I also get her stopping by because of Luke being Anakin’s kid, realizing hey this guy shares some qualities with his dad, and then just peacing out lol
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Yes, it’s definitely better than similar situations before, but: Grogu is clearly still an infant in terms of his intellectual development - he behaves like he’s younger than Anakin in The Phantom Menace - and so it’s equally unfair to make him make a choice which he can’t properly conceptualise, especially since it’s really a false dichotomy (as Luke should know, given both his own experience - how many weeks, total, did Luke spend “training to be a Jedi”, as a grown, if young, man, under either of his teachers?).
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Apologies up front for this being a spoiler heavy message.
I don’t really have a big issue with Luke offering Grogu a choice at the end. Luke has shown himself in basically all other Star Wars stories considered canon to be not that good of a teacher (even in the Rashomon-ization of the Kylo Ren scene in Last Jedi, Luke still was heavily considering murdering his padawan). But as mentioned above, it really does not seem like a choice that should be being offered to an individual who has yet to show the ability to directly communicate their thoughts and feelings beyond like I’m hungry. I’m just imagining Yoda or like Mace offering a human infant/toddler the same kind of option in the waning days of the Republic.
Once again, it’s probably for the best that the Jedi stopped existing. Or did they? Given the incredibly muddled messaging of the Last Jedi and Rise of the Skywalker.
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I thought Grogu could communicate fine with Jedi the same way we just hear droids beeping but a lot of the humanoid characters understand that and have conversations.
The more I think about it though, the more I realize a big part of Luke’s writing is so generic because they dare not have Luke be “not the Luke I remember” like in The Last Jedi. So of course it’s just boiler plate zen-lite stuff.
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Sure, Jedi can apparently read Grogu’s mind, or intent. But we don’t know if this would also work with other infants - even when Ahsoka “talks” to him, she spends quite a long time communing with the Force to do so, and all the sparse information she gets out could just be the equivalent of “seeing what’s in Grogu’s mind’s eye” rather than actual structured thoughts that an adult or older child might produce.
Outside of this particular phenomenon, Grogu acts consistently like a toddler - he has no impulse control, poor control of his limbs (except when using the Force), can’t talk at all (which isn’t simply a species thing - Yoda talked fine, with his word ordering probably dialetical or a result of Galactic Standard not being his first language), easily misinterprets social situations (trying to “defend” Dinn when he and Cara Dune are arm wrestling) and so on. If his species’ development is anything like that of a human’s, he’s effectively intellectually only a few years old - albeit with many more years of actual experiences than a human infant at that developmental stage.
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