The Mandalorian

[Ascended]

I had a lot of fun with the episode.

Things with Bo are getting intriguing. So Din didn't see the mythosaur, nor was he pulled into the Waters by it....but Bo saw it.....and is keeping her mouth shut. Hm. Wonder why? Is it just too fantastical to talk about? Is she just trying to process what she saw before she says anything? Is she scheming already?

I get the feeling she's becoming a true believer, and with her, Pre Viszla, and Din all in the same Covert with the darksaber I expect things are gonna go south in a bad way before the season ends. And I gotta hand it to Fav, I have no idea which way Bo is gonna jump or how things will play out. That's what makes Bo such a fun character; she's not very likeable but she's compelling and she's good at mixing the plot.

And I enjoyed the stuff with Pershing. Love political thrillers and the actor is fantastic and really sold every scene. I expected Kane to drag Pershing to some remote location where Gideon would be waiting and Pershing would be pulled back into the Empire's service, but I was pleasantly surprised that her treachery was more layered than that. But I wonder what the goal was here? We're assuming Pershing was killed, or at least had his brain boiled into uselessness, but what benefit does that offer anybody? I thought maybe cranking the machine up would just make him really easy to control, but he was pretty spineless anyway. All I can figure is that Kane is tying up loose ends and getting rid of anyone who might be able to tell the Republic what Gideon is/was planning....but Pershing has been with the Republic for a while it seems and hasn't made a secret of his research, so he likely would've spilled any information he had already.

So that makes me think Gideon either gave up on his cloning ambitions, which seems unlikely....or someone else is giving Kane orders. And we all know who that could turn out to be.

But I also don't see the show getting rid of Gideon.

[ChrisIII]

Kind of wonder if Palpatine has Gideon as his proxy until Snoke was fully cooked.

[godisawesome]

Kind of wonder if Palpatine has Gideon as his proxy until Snoke was fully cooked.

My hope is that we get opposing schemes and proxies here - that Gideon was Palpatine’s proxie, but that Thrawn has a proxie on Mandalore, and that a clash between the two heralds Thrawn being the independent villain of this era, while also still giving the audience a peak at Palpatine’s behind the scenes.

This is one part a reference to the old Legends idea that Palpatine was irritated that Thrawn launched his own counterattack and sabotaged him (shockingly somewhat ineffectually), one part me just liking the idea of making the Galaxy seem more dangerous, and one part me not wanting Palpatine to keep wasting proxies or limiting Thrawn to a henchman.

Palpatine doesn’t need to be that wasteful, and Thrawn shouldn’t be insulted by pretending that he and Ben Solo wound up being peers of a sort. Because Ben Solo is an insult to everyone.

[Ascended]

Kind of wonder if Palpatine has Gideon as his proxy until Snoke was fully cooked.

That's my assumption. At this point, even though they haven't said it outright, I feel like there's nothing else Gideon could be doing. And I dunno how long Gideon served with the Empire but looking at Bad Batch, it seems Palpatine had put these plans in motion before the Republic even fell, so Gideon is likely just one link in a longer chain that goes as far back as Kamino and as far forward as Exogul.

I wonder how Gideon felt, knowing that his job was to grow his own new boss?

I don't like the idea that Palpatine's spirit was literally haunting the galaxy, giving orders to Imperial remnants like some kind of Dixon ghost from hell, but I absolutely believe he had orders in place in the event of his death that would kick off the cloning program and bring him back. So I don't want to think that Gideon, Thrawn, or anyone else was communicating with the dead emperor, but instead just following long-standing orders.

[ChrisIII]

Funny thing is Dark Empire implied that the Palpatine we see in ROTJ was itself a clone, and that Palpatine used up his bodies by using the dark side so often that he was constantly doing it.

One fan theory that circulated during the prequel days was that either Palpatine or Sidious were clones of the other, and that Sidious would actually replace Palpatine who it turns out was well-meaning all along!

[godisawesome]

The next episode is supposed to be a) short, b) Carl Weathers directing, and c) co-written by Dave Filoni. Most speculation figures this is likely the Mandos vs pirates battle we saw in the trailers, and Weathers did an excellent job with his episode doing that type of action last year. Filoni writing part of it, though, seems likely to herald the arrival of some TCW or Rebels character.

My money isn’t *yet* on Sabine; I think she’s more likely a guest star in the penultimate episode Filoni is writing, since we don’t know anything about that episode, and having Din’d predecessor as the person who had to be trained in the Darksaber show up then might correlate to Din having that lesson, and the drama therein, later in the season.

So, in accordance with some rumors elsewhere… I’m thinking it might be Kevin McKidd as Fenn Rau, Mandalorian Protector, and we might even see his Fang Fighter take on some of those pirate ships.

[Tofali]

The pirates are rumoured to be the main villains for Jude Law's Skeleton Crew

[Ascended]

Funny thing is Dark Empire implied that the Palpatine we see in ROTJ was itself a clone, and that Palpatine used up his bodies by using the dark side so often that he was constantly doing it.

One fan theory that circulated during the prequel days was that either Palpatine or Sidious were clones of the other, and that Sidious would actually replace Palpatine who it turns out was well-meaning all along!

I remember those rumors and implications!

And in the first Thrawn trilogy, I think it was, Luke met a dark side clone of himself grown from the hand he lost on Bespin.

Cloning doesn't seem to be as easy or as common in the Disney canon though. Have we even seen a Force sensitive clone post-Disney? Presumably that's the thing Gideon is trying to do with Grogu, and it's a problem that doesn't seem to be fixed until Snoke.

As for the Sabine rumors, that all sounds entirely plausible. I expect her to pop up at some point, given all the Mando cultural drama going on. Wonder what she's been up to since Rebels. Did they ever explain where she and Ashoka, etc., were during the original trilogy?

[godisawesome]

As for the Sabine rumors, that all sounds entirely plausible. I expect her to pop up at some point, given all the Mando cultural drama going on. Wonder what she's been up to since Rebels. Did they ever explain where she and Ashoka, etc., were during the original trilogy?

Rebels vaguely stated that Sabine was on Lothal, the main planet of Rebels, watching out for it and defending it throughout the OT, while Ahsoka was vaguely defending the World Between Worlds from Palpatine finding it, while Hera was just off screen in the OT as a General for the Rebellion, with Zeb and Kallus as soldiers and Rex likely actually making an appearance as the old, Santa-Claus looking member of the ROTJ strike Team on Endor.

Sabine’s time on Lothal is maybe the most interesting from The Mandalorian’s perspective since, the Mandalroian Purge and Night of a Thousand Tears likely has to occur sometime around RO after the Battle of Yavin in ANH, so we don’t know if she provided Rebel support to Bo Katan’s revolt against the Empire, advised against a more public revolt likely to provoke a disproportionate response from an insecure Empire, or occupied on Lothal while everything was going down.

I’ve speculated she and Bo could have had a falling out over the Purge - maybe Bo either neglected following Rebel chain of command or afterwards felt she had to keep her faction apart to address Mandalorian insularity - but she also could have just been Bo’s friendly liaison with the Rebels the entire time.

I think it’s more interesting if the COTW are somewhat hostile or extremely and specifically disapproving of Sabine, since that would likely help a more complex and conflicted storyline for Din confronting his people’s different subcultures and the politics of the Darksaber.. and Sabine herself is supposed to be safeguarding her friend Ezra’s lighstaber, and could totally also give Din his own Trials of the Darksaber…

[Jackalope89]

I enjoyed the episode.

My kids didn't like the middle part.

I wonder what Bo is playing at in not saying anything about the mythosaur? I don't trust her.

Other than being a warrior, she hasn't exactly been a fan of the Mandalore mythos, let alone a believer. Probably questioning herself over if she actually saw it or not. Since Din didn't see it, I can see her being unsure if she truly saw something not seen in millennia.

[thwhtGuardian]

Other than being a warrior, she hasn't exactly been a fan of the Mandalore mythos, let alone a believer. Probably questioning herself over if she actually saw it or not. Since Din didn't see it, I can see her being unsure if she truly saw something not seen in millennia.

I don't think she's unsure of what she saw, I think it's a situation of her not knowing how seeing it can be used for her benefit.

[godisawesome]

I think Bo *and* the show are playing their cards close to their vest on what her reaction means.

It could be anything from some mix of pride and anxiousness slowing down a genuine “Paul on the road to Damascus” moment, to a cold calculation that the Mythosaur is an asset for herself and that she might benefit from joining the covert if she can to have ready recruits of/when she challenges Din, to even possibly her having more real idea of what she should do, but now feeling confident that Din should be stuck close to if possible because there’s more possibilities there than not.

That last part I think likely contains some truth regardless of whether she’s though beyond it - her demeanor towards Din changed entirely, and she clearly chose to start following the helmet rule around others before he woke up to at least keep her options open. I even think her joke about wanting to host a feats with him was a sort of nervous check and inquiry to see if he noticed and could reinforce her hope for it.

She also doesn’t seem surprised at the Armorer declaring her “redeemed” while also not manipulating Din towards that need specifically; I think regardless of what her end goal is, she’s playing it by ear right now.

[ChrisIII]

The next episode is supposed to be a) short, b) Carl Weathers directing, and c) co-written by Dave Filoni. Most speculation figures this is likely the Mandos vs pirates battle we saw in the trailers, and Weathers did an excellent job with his episode doing that type of action last year. Filoni writing part of it, though, seems likely to herald the arrival of some TCW or Rebels character.

My money isn’t *yet* on Sabine; I think she’s more likely a guest star in the penultimate episode Filoni is writing, since we don’t know anything about that episode, and having Din’d predecessor as the person who had to be trained in the Darksaber show up then might correlate to Din having that lesson, and the drama therein, later in the season.

So, in accordance with some rumors elsewhere… I’m thinking it might be Kevin McKidd as Fenn Rau, Mandalorian Protector, and we might even see his Fang Fighter take on some of those pirate ships.

That'd be nice. ROME is one of my favorite series that didn't really get a chance to shine (It probably would've done better these days, it just kind of came out too early for the whole prestige TV/streaming bandwagon). Nice to see some of the stars show up in other projects.

[godisawesome]

That'd be nice. ROME is one of my favorite series that didn't really get a chance to shine (It probably would've done better these days, it just kind of came out too early for the whole prestige TV/streaming bandwagon). Nice to see some of the stars show up in other projects.

He, Ray Stevenson and Tobias Menzies are all guys I’d love to see get some flashback scene in Star Wars just so we can see the “Rome Reunion” they had in Rebels; Stevenson could totally play the Rebels-era Gar Saxon.

Of course, we’re likely seeing Stevenson play someone else in Ahsoka, and he might go ahead and have scenes with McKidd anyways.

[Ascended]

Rebels vaguely stated that Sabine was on Lothal, the main planet of Rebels, watching out for it and defending it throughout the OT, while Ahsoka was vaguely defending the World Between Worlds from Palpatine finding it, while Hera was just off screen in the OT as a General for the Rebellion, with Zeb and Kallus as soldiers and Rex likely actually making an appearance as the old, Santa-Claus looking member of the ROTJ strike Team on Endor.

I think we saw the Ghost in Rise of Skywalker as well, during the battle on Exogol.

...how old would Hera's kid be in the Mando era? Somewhere between ten and fifteen maybe? I feel like that's a kid with a story to tell, I wonder if we'll ever see him? Any rumors of Ashoka picking that plot point/character up?

After posters here pointed out the "Rex" thing from Endor I watched the film and yeah, that guy could be Rex. But I thought clones aged and died quickly? Would Rex still be alive 20+ years after the Clone Wars?

Sabine’s time on Lothal is maybe the most interesting from The Mandalorian’s perspective

I very much look forward to seeing what the CotW think of Sabine. Not only is she tied up with the darksaber, Bo's fall from grace, and thus the Night of a Thousand Tears, but she developed weapons for the Empire designed to bypass beskar, as I recall? Hard to tell how the CotW will respond to her, but I very much doubt they're fans.