The Mandalorian

[ZeroBG82]

Stormtroopers seem to operate by Law of Conservation of Ninjutsu rules, in that the more of them there are, the worse they are, as the amount of accuracy and competence is divided amongst all the Stormtroopers present.

Maybe the electromagnetic fields generated by their blasters energy bolts repel each other, so that when a half dozen troopers are aiming at the same target their blasts are subtly pushing each other away and making each other miss. (Meanwhile, Imperial QA testing is firing them one at a time, when they are perfectly accurate, and passing the blame on to the Stormtroopers, since they are engineers, and Imperial engineers always blame the user for product deficits.)

I know this was tongue in cheek, but there actually is a potentially viable in universe explanation for why otherwise competent, and possibly even effective Stormtroopers suddenly and spectacularly fail when they are pitted against the characters we tend to follow in Star Wars. The Force itself. Remember, while it doesn't appear to have any kind of consciousness as we understand it, the Force does have a will, and a way of bending events towards outcomes. The Force is most definitely not with most stormtroopers (Finn excluded, obviously). So, we could take it quite literally, that the Force is subtly influencing stormtrooper aim and effectiveness in order to ensure that these agents of the Dark Side are unable to hit targets who matter.

It's an odd thing to think about, but George Lucas basically baked plot armor into the nature of his universe.

[K. Jones]

One interesting thing about how the lore behind Mandalorians has developed is that, as each spinoff develops its own take on Mandalorian culture and society, the cumulative result of all these revisions actually much better resembles a real world civilization than the one-note caricatures that most fictional cultures end up as. Just like the history of a real people, the history of the Mandalorians is marked by differing periods of development that don't make for a particularly coherent narrative, and each iteration introduces a new group that claims to be the "true" Mandalorians that have preserved authentic Mandalorian culture even as the rest of society has lost its way. But just as in real life, true Mandalorian culture isn't represented by any of these groups, and you can't just freeze a snapshot of a society in time and declare that to be the only valid way to live, you need to take in the sum total of all history and the experience of all different kinds of people that gives you the complete picture. And of course, this would have NEVER happened if there were just one writer whose word was God when it came to what was authentically Mandalorian or not, it could only have come about this way with a bunch of different writers who all had their own visions of what they wanted Mandalorians to be and trying to fit all the pieces together somehow.

You write this, and I nod quietly in geeky agreement with this.

But then I shift gears and start thinking about Klingons and I'm like "how come in my brain this applies to one thing but not the other?"

(The answer is: Execution.)

[LordMikel]

I'm caught up now.

Did the local star mart have a sale on Mandolorian armor, is that why everyone seems to have it?

When did "Return Baby Yoda to his people" mean "Return Baby Yoda to the Jedi?" Or was that mean never understanding the context?

[K. Jones]

Yeah, Clone Troopers killed Jedi.

Storm Troopers replaced them shortly after the Galactic Empire rose to power. Most Clones died fairly soon afterwards as they were the front line soldiers and had accelerated aging.

Storm Troopers are regular recruited people from across the Empire.

Quite a big difference.

Moreover a lot of Stormtroopers seem to have been press-ganged into service, coerced, extorted, or came from run-down circumstances that meant they didn't have many other options. Han Solo is a fine example. Quite a difference compared to "born into a lively brotherhood of battle-hardened warriors" ... or even the latter day "yes, yes, kidnapped and enslaved basically, but "RAISED" into a battle-hardened group."

I think the First Order's problem (beyond you know, everyone knowing deep down they're basically just a slave army) was more in management. In principle child-soldiers raised into a hardened battalion could be pretty fierce, but all the petty bickering and conniving from the First Order brass means that almost constantly they're being led by cowards and schemers and scammers, and even Kylo Ren didn't get that much respect. A wide berth, but not that much respect. But that's the nature of the FO. I won't break too much down in the both "this kind of makes sense" but also the conundrum of complications that is the fact that they're just the public vanguard of a deeper, nastier, Cult Loyalist sect of Final Order Sith Eternal Redtroopers because the fact that they're just like ... completely surprised that they're just the First Wave is one of those titanic plot holes TROS decided to serve up. And while it can be explained satisfactorily "in canon", it was NOT satisfactorily worked into the trilogy narrative.

That said I do dig the notion of the First Order's danger but also kind of pettiness and ineptness being part of the plan and exactly who you'd send out there into the galaxy to soften it up. Where was I? Stormtroopers.

Yeah Empire Era Stormtroopers ... the Empire is so big. We see some proud loyal gung-ho guys like Commander Kreel and the like, but for most people in the galaxy it's just a job. So Empire-Era because of that seems to have "Sheer Numbers of Stormtroopers" comparatively. Just far, far, far more bodies to throw at problems than the Clone Army or the First Order. 20 years worth of conscripts, press-gangs, hires, goons, mooks, would-bes, career men, downtrodden, poor, spoiled, rich, you name it ... all the options.

[K. Jones]

Anyhoo ...

Mando # 11.

Funny how 9. introduces the concept of Inheritance and 10. introduces the concept of Lineage and 11. Immediately makes it relevant. Looking forward to seeing Din's unique foundling perspective on all of this, moreover think they're not unlinked, the Legacy involved in The Marshal, the relevance of Offspring, and the notion of formal Family Lines. No, I don't think they're thematically disparate in the slightest. In all regards we're looking at Heirs. Some are Heirs Apparent, some are unlikely Arthurian "Man With No Name Who Would Be King" concepts, and some (in this case, I think possibly Boba) might represent the notion of Squandered Legacy. OR might represent the notion of Legacy Redemption. Hard to say which way that pendulum will swing but I do think it'll factor.

No theories though. I have a primary theory that has a secondary lead-in factor that'll be a gut-punch and a real narrative "OH DUH FRICK NO THEY DIDN'T" kind of hit that I think would make sense but I'm enjoying going in the way we all are with very, very little idea where the journey takes us. Critique predictable moves and laud shockers we all can, but I'll be doing it "in the moment", not before any given viewing. It's glorious to have nothing but clues and no real idea. It's the closest I've been to 7 Year Old Me in 1992 when I first saw recorded pieces of Jedi, realized at the library they were a thing, and bore witness in the first place.

My only bold prediction? Might not be that bold ... I think Cad Bane does show up in this show at some point. Totally irrelevant to the current plot, I just think he will come out of retirement for a truly bad-ass one-shot episode at some point.

[BeastieRunner]

I'm caught up now.

Did the local star mart have a sale on Mandolorian armor, is that why everyone seems to have it?

When did "Return Baby Yoda to his people" mean "Return Baby Yoda to the Jedi?" Or was that mean never understanding the context?

I need to do a rewatch to confirm but I think it was couched as find his kind but first you'll have to find a Jedi.

[Frontier]

I'm pretty sure Mando is assuming his "people" mean the Jedi, but that's probably because of how little we know about Yoda's race.

[BeastieRunner]

I'm pretty sure Mando is assuming his "people" mean the Jedi, but that's probably because of how little we know about Yoda's race.

I have a hunch the whole Star Wars Universe knows as little as we know, too.

[ChrisIII]

I'm caught up now.

Did the local star mart have a sale on Mandolorian armor, is that why everyone seems to have it?

When did "Return Baby Yoda to his people" mean "Return Baby Yoda to the Jedi?" Or was that mean never understanding the context?

Cabb Vanth's armor is pretty much the recovered armor of Boba Fett, and Katan and co. are from Mandalore itself. She's also had that particular armor, or some variation of it since the Clone Wars.

[Derek Metaltron]

Episode 12 is really fun and does some interesting teases for Moff Gideon’s plans. The Mandalorian does kind of only guest star by the latter half but I think it’s likely to do with setting up a future Cara Dune series (which I am totally down with) hopefully with Carl Weathers’ Greef along for the ride. Did a good job with directing this one incidentally.

Was ‘you will be remembered in the new era’ ever said before? I assume it’s an illusion to the First Order. Seem to recall that phase being in the Bloodline novel.

[ChrisIII]

Not to mention Gideon's experiments. Maybe Gideon's getting his orders from the top man himself, and this might have some connection with Snoke's still kind of weird origins.

I mean forget the Luke and Chewie rumors, showing a hologram with Ian Mcdiarmid's Emperor talking to Gideon might be a good cliffhanger for season 3, although it might make a lot of people who didn't like ROS groan. Then again it would definitely tie in things to the larger saga, although it would also be another case of the "small universe" trope that's been a major criticism of the franchise over the years.

[ChrisIII]

I think we've also seen all the trailer footage at this point. So Disney definitely didn't want to give away too much of the second half of the season.

[Derek Metaltron]

I think having some kind of holographic messager of the Emperor ala the Aftermath books and Battlefront 2’s story campaign would be awesome, revealing that Project Cinder was part of a far larger plan, maybe even something to do with Darth Plagueis (who I think created the Child, not Palpatine).

[j9ac9k]

When did "Return Baby Yoda to his people" mean "Return Baby Yoda to the Jedi?" Or was that mean never understanding the context?

It makes sense to me since Mando was quested by the Armorer, another Mandalorian and as we've been told many times, Mandalorian is a creed, not a race. If they value creed, then that's likely what she meant by "his people" and Mando just assumed so as well. We (the audience) are the ones who assume "race."

[Hiromi]

So for all the talk about Storm Trooper accuracy they sure don't have any problem hitting Mando, they even manage to hit his shiny blaster proof beskar plates every single time. Just shows that for all the in jokes at the end of the day it all amounts to plot armor , namely they can only hit the guy wearing it this time.

Also it's neat seeing an Arquitens/Imperial class Cruiser in live action, I don't remember if there were any in Revenge of the Sith(quick rewatch of the opening and I don't see any) but if not I'd think this is another live action first