The Mandalorian goes spelunking in a surprisingly productive episode
Din Djarin manages to get things done despite being knocked unconscious multiple times
TV Reviews Mandalorian
So much for those epic quests, huh? Last week’s premiere set up what I thought would be the two main storylines this season—finding a new memory unit for IG-11 and then getting Din Djarin to Mandalore so he could bathe in the Living Waters beneath the Civic Center—and this week’s episode just… kinda checked off both of those boxes. I guess that’s what sets the Mandalorian from The Mandalorian apart from certain book-based colleagues: He gets shit done.
First, Din paid a visit to his best friend Peli Motto (could you imagine just a few years ago saying that Amy Sedaris would be a fixture of a Star Wars TV show?), who was in the middle of scamming some poor Rodian in the midst of Boonta Eve celebrations. Boonta Eve, of course, is the day Tatooinians celebrate the time a Hutt named Boonta Hestilic Shad’ruu became a god, but obviously everyone knows that. (It’s also a traditional podracing holiday, which is probably how most people are aware of it.)
Din asks Peli if she has a memory unit for an IG unit, which in Star Wars is like asking for one of those old iPod cables with the wide plug, so she offers to give him R5-D4 instead. He initially refuses, saying he wanted IG-11 so he could send him spelunking into the depths of Mandalore and figure out whether or not the planet is really “cursed” (and here we thought Din wanted to rebuild IG-11 so they could be friends, or maybe so he could ask if a second season of Our Flag Means Death will ever happen), but Peli convinces him to take the astromech droid because of his experience working with the Rebellion. (I’ll have more to say about that below.)
And that’s apparently that for IG-11, who will now just rot in the hands of those Babu Friks from last week, because Din Djarin, Grogu, and R5 wasted no time in hopping over to Mandalore to finish up that quest. TV seasons are usually longer than two episodes, but like I said, Din Djarin gets shit done. Or he would, if he weren’t occasionally a bit of a dummy—and I mean that as a compliment. One of the nice things about this show is that Din Djarin can be overly naïve and optimistic, because his faith in his fringe Mandalorian cult is so strong that he constantly assumes it will protect him.
But before Din gets in trouble, he lands on the surface of Mandalore—which is bombed to hell and looks like shit but does not seem to be ravaged by a magical curse, hmmm—and sends R5 out to do some recon. I loved this sequence, which kept the camera either in Din’s cockpit or pointing at him from outside, meaning we get these big wide shots of the planet’s surface as R5 rolls away further and further from the ship, which steadily increases the tension. Throw in Din and Grogu watching R5’s position on a little motion sensor screen, and it’s a nice bit of Jaws/Alien drama.
R5 gets scared by some troll monsters (we later learn they’re called Alamites), and Din hops out to go help…even though they really do a number on him at first, and he just barely survives by poking at them with the Darksaber. But it turns out that the air on the planet is breathable, so Din and Grogu drop down into the Civic Center (I maintain that it’s weird that they called it that) to look for the mines that contain the Living Waters. This is where Din’s naiveté gets him in trouble: He finds an old, discarded Mandalorian helmet, and rather than being suspicious, he picks it up and falls into a trap where a big crab robot snatches him up and carries him away.
Grogu tries to go help, but it turns out that the crab robot actually houses a smaller cyborg-like creature with spindly limbs and tubes who has a big collection of old Mandalorian junk, and he spots Grogu and chases him off. We never do find out what this guy’s deal is, but he’s definitely a creep. He tries to steal Din’s blood for some reason! That’s gross!
Din sends Grogu off to ask Bo-Katan for help, which requires Grogu to use the Mandalorian navigation skills that Din keep telling him to learn. Actually, he just points at a map and R5 does all of the work, but Grogu’s a 50-year-old baby. We can give this to him. They show up at Bo-Katan’s castle, and she’s doing the exact same thing she was doing last week: sitting on a big chair and having a bad attitude. But when she realizes it’s just Grogu who came to see her, she agrees to go help.
Once back on Mandalore, Bo-Katan effortlessly wrecks the troll guys that gave Din a hard time earlier, even spotting them waiting for her to pass by at one point, and then she quickly executes the spiny mecha creep with the Darksaber before he can drink all of Din’s blood—proving, again, that she’s probably better suited to rule Mandalore and wield the Darksaber than Din is.
Bo-Katan helps Din back to the surface and heals him with some kind of special soup, and even though she doesn’t believe in the stuff about magic water that the Armorer instilled in Din, she agrees to take him to the Living Waters and smirk condescendingly while he goes through the ritual to atone for removing his helmet in front of Bill Burr. There’s a potentially interesting moment where Din insists that they, as a people, are nothing without the Mandalorian creed, so perhaps Bo-Katan’s arc here will involve becoming a religious fanatic like he is? Katee Sackhoff could leave the helmet on permanently instead of wearing that big headband.
Together, they reach the Living Waters, and she seems to get a perverse little thrill out of how anticlimactic the whole thing is, going so far as to sarcastically read an old plaque commemorating the important cultural site and how it was once the fabled lair of the Mythosaur, which legendary hero Mandalore The Great supposedly slayed—which is why an image of the great horned beast can be seen on a lot of Mandalorian stuff (like Boba Fett’s armor).
Obviously that’s just a bunch of hooey, though. There’s no Mythosaur. But…then again, what pulled Din under the water when he tried to do his ritual, knocking him unconscious for the second time this episode? And what’s that big monster that Bo-Katan spots when she goes down to rescue him? Some kinda freakin’ Mythosaur?!
Stray observations
- I think this stuff about the Mythosaur and the Living Waters Beneath The Civic Center are pretty dumb, and they stink of the kind high-fantasy nonsense that Dave Filoni’s Star Wars stories are riddled with (something tells me Jon Favreau didn’t write “the Mythosaur” on a whiteboard at any point), but I am…intrigued by this. If they’re immediately dropping the quests laid out in the premiere in favor of something weirder, I’m hesitantly onboard. Just as long as we don’t see any ancient Jedi temples with magic powers that extend far beyond anything ever seen in regular Star Wars stories (Filoni’s most frustrating trope), I’ll be okay.
- Peli insisting that Grogu said actual words to her was adorable. His babbles were more word-like this episode than usual.
- When the alligator creatures in the tunnels below the Civic Center sprout wings and start chasing Grogu, I wrote “they fly now” in my notes. Funny, right? They fly now! Ha ha ha.
- Bo-Katan talking about her father was interesting. Her family was important in the Clone Wars cartoon, but I think this is the first time a Star Wars has mentioned him specifically. Also, when she tries to make small talk with Grogu and mentions meeting a few Jedi in the past, we the viewer know that one of them was Ahsoka Tano. Grogu knows her!
- Alright, let’s talk R5-D4. He’s the droid that Uncle Owen tried to buy before settling on R2-D2, thus setting the events of Star Wars in motion (and dooming Owen), but both the old Star Wars canon and the current Disney Star Wars canon established that he purposefully blew himself up to help R2-D2 get the Death Star plans to Obi-Wan. Then, as explained in the weird, canonical fan-fiction-y book From A Certain Point Of View (in which famous Star Wars fans contributed short stories about side characters), R5 was so touched by R2’s commitment to his mission that he escaped the Jawas and went off in search of a way to help the Rebel Alliance. That’s what Peli is referring to when she hands the droid off to Din. And Disney thought it was making things easier when it gutted the old EU canon.
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“How much does the Mandalorian get done this week?” is apparently the new “when do they get to the fireworks factory?”
They had literal fireworks in the first two minutes. That’s how much Din gets done.
Just as long as we don’t see any ancient Jedi temples with magic powers that extend far beyond anything ever seen in regular Star Wars stories (Filoni’s most frustrating trope), I’ll be okay.I don’t have any inside information, but maybe consider having someone else review Ahsoka. As a precaution.
The Jedi are the best part of Star Wars. With the coolest weapon ever.
Which is funny because 1) the lightsabers/laserswords were originally designed to be sidearms for the stormtroopers to wield as random mooks, not special weapons of reverence and prestige and 2) the entire plot of the Original Trilogy is how much lightsabers suck, Jedi shouldn’t use them, and to be a True Jedi you need to throw your lightsaber off a bridge into a bottomless pit (like Luke Skywalker does in Return of the Jedi).
You seemed to have watched a different original trilogy than I did.
And the plot of the prequels amounts to the Jedi destroying themselves by becoming soldiers fighting to preserve order rather than guardians trying to preserve peace.
Except that’s not what happens – Luke threw it to the floor and evidently picked it up on his way out – you see him with it on his belt in the final scene in the Ewok village.
Luke had to defend himself from Darth first. A “True Jedi” who disarmed himself at the start of that fight would simply die to Vader in two seconds. Also if he hadn’t tossed it away, he could have also defended himself from the Emperor (Obi-Wan literally taught him to defend himself, it was his FIRST lesson).
Such a weird complaint anyway. The World Between Worlds was at least something novel with the Force. If we’re constraining other Star Wars media to what’s already been seen in ”regular Star Wars” stories, well why the hell bother even making them?
I was genuinely worried, despite loving Andor, that it was going to turn reviewers into this. Just like “If it’s sci-fi or fantastical I hate it, all good Star Wars is depressed dirty spies murdering each other in alleys from now on.” Like Star Wars is cool, Sam, that’s why you watch it.
Watch in a few years it’ll have gone the way of Batman, every Star Wars property promising that this time they’re gonna do gritty, edgy, and dark.
I still have a bit of faith in my left field theory that Grogu will time travel through the World Between Worlds and end up becoming Yoda.
Somewhat novel, though pretty close in concept to the Wood Between the Worlds from the 1955 CS Lewis novel, The Magician’s Nephew. It was pretty darn cool the way they did it in Rebels, though.
…and I doubt anything Filoni does with it could be as weird as Lucas’s suggestions for the sequel trilogy using microscopic Whills as the embodiment of the Force…
I’m not super interested in all the Manda-lore so I’m glad to see we’re making quick progress on it
Give me the Amy Sedaris spin-off show Disney+
So much this
Ooh! Like a Star Wars parody of those car restoration/hot rodder shows?
I continue to be impressed by how characters like Bo-Katan are written in this show to give enough of a nod to stuff like Clone Wars that people who have seen them get a bit of a rush, but those who haven’t still don’t feel like they’re missing anything. Although in this case, I imagine a lot of non-Clone Wars people got the impression that Bo herself had been the ruler, so I’m curious if the season will clarify that later.
Bo, herself, says she ruled Mandalore very briefly in this episode.
I guess she led Mandalore-in-Exile following her arc in Rebels!
Bo was in charge of Mandalore, it was just after when we last saw her at the beginning of the last season of Rebels, when Sabine gave her the Darksaber, and she lost power when or before the Empire bombed Mandalore some time during the OT and she lost the Darksaber. At least, that’s what the Armorer said in BoBW. Bo’s reign was apparently short and inauspicious.
Except she was the leader for a small amount of time.
What are you talking about? Bo-Katan was the ruler of Mandalore at the end of Clone Wars before the Empire purge. It was short-lived, sure, but is was the case.
‘High fantasy nonsense’ is the entire basis of Star Wars though. It’s a farmboy finding out he’s the chosen one and being given a magic sword by his wise mentor to fight a dark villain.
Yes, they’ve started to move away from it somewhat with things like Andor but the majority of the time you’re not going to escape it being part of the tapestry.
1000% this – All the High Fantasy stuff in Clone Wars was straight from George.Star Wars is a family soap opera about wizards and cowboys and fighter pilots and prophecies.
It just happens to be set in space.
To the point that he has argued with film critics they should label the film “Science Fiction”.
Yep!“Star Wars really isn’t a science fiction film. It’s a fantasy film and a space opera.”- George Lucas, 2015This isn’t to knock stuff like Andor, to be clear!But the Andors and the Rogue Ones are the real deviation from Star Wars’ “True North,” in terms of genre.
“Look, I can accept fifty-year old babies, robots with New Zealander accents, and literal magic binding the universe together (complete with ghosts!), but a creature named ‘a Mythosaur’? Please. That’s just ridiculous.”
I mean I consider Star Wars fantasy and like it that way and am not all about gritty Andor stuff (although it was a good show and all), while still feeling that Filoni’s shows generally take it too far. Or not too far exactly, but in a direction that doesn’t work for me. There are many ways one could do space fantasy and Star Wars has a particular way and feel, and I don’t feel like Time Travel Temples and such fit into it. This is of course subjective, but I prefer my Star Wars magic to be sort of vaguely defined meditative monastic nonsense about everything being connected, and the effects to be relatively subtle. I mean yes, telekinesis and force lightning are pretty magic, but going very far beyond that is too over the top for me. Not because it’s too fantasy, but because it’s the wrong kind of fantasy. Anyway, your mileage may vary.
“Mythosaur” just might one-up “unobtainium”.
Ha, that’s exactly what I thought. I mean come on, you can come up with a better name than that!
you can come up with a better name than that!With Star Wars, Mythosaur doesn’t even crack a top ten list of the franchise’s worst names. Lucas named a fat fighter pilot Porkins FFS.
Nothing is more ludicrous than unobtanium. Even bolognium has it’s charm.
What about cummingtonite? Oh, wait. That’s real.
“Even bolognium has it’s charm.” – but does it have a first name?
Oscarium
Stop being a nonsensi-ite.
It’s a real fucking word though!!!
Laypeople: “Unobtanium? Psh, that’s ridiculous!”Science nerds and sci-fi geeks: “Do you even science, bro?”
Real “Arrested Development” energy with that word.
“We gotta be able to come up with a better name”
Narrator: “They never did”
To be fair to Filoni, Mythosaur was it’s name in Pre-Disney SW. Though honestly, I’m surprised that of everything from the old EU that was changed, they decided to keep that one.
To also be fair, real dinosaur names are mostly equally stupid, they just sound cool in Latin.
That eyeball dude rules
I either want to learn everything about him or nothing about it.
Check out Phil Tippett’s MAD GOD for more rusty steampunk eyeball goodness. The family resemblance is not accidental.
So what was the dude who attacked Din? He sort of looked like a cyborged- or mecha-Geonosian which… would be a choice.But yeah, that episode crackled — very little wasted, doing the thing, exactly what I predicted last week after people were complaining about “wheel spinning” which the front of S2 did before doing exactly this.
Honestly I kind of hope that little guy goes unexplained. When Bo-Katan was rescuing Din I honestly was thinking “please don’t say what it was.” I just sort of like Star Wars having these bizarre life forms that just sort of leave it to your imagination to guess where they came from, or what they were doing.
I just figured he was a Grievous-style cyborg and that needed no elaboration. He needed blood for his organic parts.
Four-armed cyborg monster with a hunched posture makes me think it was at least supposed to invoke Grievous.
Remember that Minion that floated off into space…
A much better episode than week 1! And everything looked pretty great too, especially the flight down to the Mandalore surface and the cyborg eyeball creature. Are you telling me that Bo-Katan just sits there in full armor on an uncomfortable looking throne in a big, empty, cold castle all day every day? It’s a good thing she was already all geared up and and even better thing that that creature took it’s time beginning to prepare Mando for dinner. Was it implied that something pulled Mando under the water? Did it just let him go? He was very deep very quickly and was unconscious apparently.
It’s possible that the beastie we saw at the end of the episode (which may nor may not be the Mythosaur, we’ll see) grabbed Din. Between the surprise of that preventing him from pressurizing his helmet in time and already being weak from his encounter with the scavenger, I think it tracks that he came up the worse for wear.
The Mythosaur pulling him under was my first thought too, but it seemed like it wasn’t paying any attention to him on the way back up. And that Mythosaur was huge, seems like it wouldn’t have been able to get that close to shore without breaching the surface. I’m sure we’ll find out next week…
I think it could be like … you know how your dog or cat will just be flailing a tail around and sometimes it touches your leg and sometimes you accidentally step on it and feel like crap for the rest of the day because they freaked out? Sort of like that only Din’s too small for it to care, lucky for him.
“Are you telling me that Bo-Katan just sits there in full armor on an uncomfortable looking throne in a big, empty, cold castle all day every day?”
I mean I’ve definitely had that depressive episode. Well, minus the armor….
Get the armor for next time!
Was it implied that something pulled Mando under the water? Did it just let him go? He was very deep very quickly and was unconscious apparently.I just figured beskar is particularly dense, so it’s like he stepped off the ledge with lead weights strapped to his body. And since we’d seen him drinking soup or whatever in the previous scene, I take that to mean his helmet isn’t airtight anymore, like whatever it was he did when he first got out of his fighter, and maybe just lost conscious from the lack of oxygen. It definitely wasn’t clearly communicated, though…
So like, I had the thought too last episode, “Who sits around all day in full armor just sulking on a throne?” And immediately felt silly because to me that feels entirely in line with her characterization so far (in a Star Wars/fiction way, not realistic, obviously).
I just assumed Mando sank because he’s wearing a freakin’ suit of armor
Spelunking? You can’t depict that on a family show!
HTF is this a review!? Not a major SW fan, but a fan of measured, critical writing. The bulk of the piece was a basic recap, with analysis crammed into “Stray Observations”. I’m confused🤔*Then again, I am Irish…*
Been a while since I read it, but those creatures were basically Morlocks from The Time Machine, right? I think the wider point of this episode is that Din hates the working class, which wasn’t a turn I was expecting.
Thats what I thought too!!
My mind jumped immediately to Muppets (probably not what the practical effects people were going for though!).
Psh. “The Religious Right” amirite?
I said the same about the Morlocks, but just now.
i immediately was calling them Morlocks, too. just seems like a nod.
or maybe so he could ask if a second season of Our Flag Means Death will ever happenYou mean the one that was greenlit last June and wrapped up filming last December? so perhaps Bo-Katan’s arc here will involve becoming a religious fanatic like he is?I’m hoping the show will do something more nuanced than that (maybe that’s a lot to ask for—this isn’t Andor). Seeing Din start the ritual of the living waters was enough to cut through her jadedness, and the mythosaur will definitely build on that. But I’m hoping it will be more of a middle ground, mutual respect kind of thing. Din has learned to accept and respect the Mandalorians who are not a part of his extremist sect. Perhaps Bo-Katan will start to see the value of those hard-liners without necessarily joining them. (Ugh, I realize as I type that out that it makes me sound like one of those “both sides” people.)
well hey, with hbomax just because it’s greenlit and shot doesn’t mean anything.
Definitely don’t think she’ll be joining the religion any time soon…but I do think her status as a former member of the Watch AND the last living member of the royal family makes her uniquely suited to unite a New Mandalore.
Any chance that saving Mando’s life, twice, earns Bo-Katan some “the Darksaber could be rightfully mine” credit?She wields it like a pro.
Mando didn’t get pulled down. He sank because of his armor.
“she quickly executes the spiny mecha creep with the Darksaber before he can drink all of Din’s blood—proving, again, that she’s probably better suited to rule Mandalore and wield the Darksaber than Din is.”Look! Strange women moping in castles proficient at arms is no basis for a system of government!
That last sentence. Nice.
On second thought, let’s not go to Tatooine. ‘Tis a silly place.
Was there a reason Baby Yoda didn’t use the force on the bug dude? The fact he did it coming up out of the mine just emphasized it even more.
And they call it a mine. A MINE!
Let me guess, the Mandalorian misinterpreted the word “tame” as slaying. And whomever literally tame this beast ended up the new Mandalore. It’s gonna be Grogu isn’t it? Both Din and Bo Katan just a red herring and mentor for the new Mandalore. Prepare for Grogu riding the Mythosaur montage. Feloni must be jacking off so hard during this sequence.
>it was once the fabled lair of the Mythosaur, which legendary hero Mandalore The Great supposedly slayed
Slew, dammit. Slay —> Slew —> Slain.This is like writing “I goed to the library and readed the first book on the shelf I seed.” Trying to make all verbs regular sounds idiotic.
Filoni and Favreau are the best things to happen to the modern franchise, and if you’re going to be That Guy about everything they do, maybe go review something else.
I think she was a little too polite to bring it up, what with the blood draining and the near drowning and such… but by my reckoning, Bo-Katan is now the rightful holder of the Darksaber.Grievous Lite Dude —> defeated Din in combat and took it from him.Bo —> Defeated Grievous Lite in combat and took it from him.
I have a feeling this MIGHT come up at some point….
I feel like they’re setting up some kind of romance between Din and Bo and that explicitly showed them technically emerging from the Waters of Life at the same time so they can handwave it as, “They’re both qualified to be leaders of the Mandalorian people.”
Or she just becomes “Aunty Bo” for Grogu.
I sense this is working out to a Bo Katan getting her mojo (Bojo?) back and getting the Darksaber, and vowing to restore Mandalore to it’s former glory or something like that.
I made a new post asking about this before reading yours (sorry). I really liked the episode, but it really bothered me that this did not come up when they were looking for the living water. Because: I really do think the Saber is by right hers now.
If it works for the Elder Wand…
The whole narrative problem is that, none of this matters. It doesn’t matter who is the rightful leader of the Mandalorians, because we already know they don’t do a damn thing between now and the twenty year gap between the new trilogy. The Mandalorians aren’t even mentioned.
The story wasn’t about Mandalorians, it does not matter that they were not mentioned. They could have been keeping to themselves (or they could all be dead) who knows?
The whole fandom problem is people valuing a story based on how much it “matters” to “The Lore” rather how well it’s told and what it makes you feel.
You’re right – Bo-Katan is now the rightful owner of the Elder Wand.Er, I meant the Darksaber.
While I do indeed get the attraction, I usually like to go in to a new episode with just what I see on the screen. Details and speculation can wait until I decide “Would a youngtser stumbling upon this one episode be remotely intrigued?”A hold over from my years in education. And being a dad, but they don’t really count in this instance.In short, it was great. And, yes, I believe they would.
The weird cyborg that attacked Mando really gave me Matrix vibes, with the whole insectoid machines and underground city aesthetics.
That was a good episode. I’m loving getting more into Mandolore and expanding on what we got previously from Filoni’s other projects.But I also want to take this time to shout out Bad Batch. It’s not being covered here (or basically anywhere), but they’ve had some really good episodes this season. Plus the animation is drop dead gorgeous. If you’re not watching, do yourself a favor and check it out
Funny, I just watched this week’s episodes of both shows and was going to leave a comment that I‘ve been enjoying The Bad Batch more than the Mandalorian, which comes as a big surprise to me, given how underwhelmed I was by the premise when I watched the original spin-off Bad Batch episode from The Clone Wars.I have to admit that outside of Andor, which is great, I haven’t been big fan of the live action Star Wars series, including the Mandalorian, but I really like the way The Bad Batch is evolving to be much more than the original episodic mission-based show it started out as. It just feels much more consequential than the stuff that’s happening in the live action shows (other than Andor, of course).
I watch all the Star Wars animated shows with my sons. We were all pretty underwhelmed by the Bad Batch/Clone Wars Episode and the first part of season 1. But the last few episodes of season 1 and this season has us hooked. It has turned into something really great.
Man…the last episode was something else!
Seconded. Bad Batch has been really building to something great this season. i’m wondering if/when we’ll get to see them as live-action characters.
I love this show, but I’m going to complain about one thing: Din talking to Grogu is being used too heavily for narration. Daddy-son dialogue is fine, but don’t use it to explain to the audience what’s happening in the story all the time.
Honestly, that was my biggest pet peeve with both these episodes. They’ve narrated literally everything. Like, in Ghostbusters, when Ray asks where these stairs go, Venkman answering “They go up” is supposed to be a joke. Here, Din Djarin and Grogu look at a tunnel that clearly goes down into the earth, which, considering they’re looking for mines, is probably the right direction for things. But Djarin has to say “This tunnel goes down, guess we should follow it”. And we’re supposed to pretend that’s how an actual person talks to someone. Or even themselves. And both these episodes are absolutely peppered with these sorts of lines. It honestly feels like bad dubbing from 60s. That, or a complete lack of faith in the audience’s intelligence.
Like, why the f*** would Bo-Katan not call the Mines of Mandalore just “The Mines”? Especially when she’s standing right in front of them. She’s FROM there, ffs! It’d be like, I dunno, calling Mount Rushmore “Mount Rushmore of the United States”. Or even weirder and more apt, “Mount Rushmore of Earth”. Like, I get there’s a poetic thing going on for Djarin. He can get lost in the assonance. But she’s supposed to be jaded, and it’s supposed to be something old hat for her. Indeed, she sees it as just a tourist destination for the rubes. It’d actually be a cool character thing for her to talk like a person about them while Din’s cult kid talks in Bible verses. But nope, she talks like we’re all morons that don’t know what is going on, too.
And it goes on and on, often repetitively, like this isn’t a show people are going to binge. I bet “the living waters of the Mines of Mandalore” were repeated something like 15 times between both these episodes.
And it’s depressing, because the first season wasn’t like this. And while the second season and Mando’s part in Boba Fett had some clunky bits, there was nothing that insulted our intelligence on such a basic writing level like this. I’m gonna keep watching for now, but, seriously, if they don’t cut out this constant telling-while-showing-then-telling-again, what a waste of talent and potential.
My 13 yr old son and I both made the Ghostbusters’ stair joke when they mentioned the tunnel.We kid because we love.
“The Mines of Mandalore” are a specific set of mines on the planet, with major religious significance.It’s like saying “The Great Mosque of Mecca,” etc.
Sure. And Mount Rushmore has historical significance. But again, no-one IN Mecca, or in the Mosque itself, calls it that. It’s just not how folk talk. As well, neither the show nor even the films previously did this. Is it “The Jedi Temple”, or “The Jedi Temple of Coruscant”?Brevity is the soul of wit, not mediocre narration. Nor, to be fair, pedantic rants on the internet, but at least I’m not writing for televised drama. And at least my prolix nature is consistent, instead of a disappointing shift.
The analogy may have been imperfect, but the “Mandalore” referred to in the name “Mines of Mandalore” is their leader/messiah, not the planet.“Of Mandalore” is an appellation distinguishing the Mines of Mandalore from the planet’s other beskar mines.So, to borrow the “Mount Rushmore” example, it’s them saying “Mount Rushmore” instead of “Mountain.”Or “Plymouth Rock” instead of “Rock.”
Now, that’s fair. But the repetitive nature of things still is grating and somewhat unnatural, again, in a way that even previous seasons of this show didn’t have.
Very reasonable!I’m alright with it, because it comes within the context of a deep dive into the Mandalorian/CotW religion in a way that the show hasn’t before.
‘why the f*** would Bo-Katan not call the Mines of Mandalore just “The Mines”? Especially when she’s standing right in front of them. She’s FROM there, ffs! It’d be like, I dunno, calling Mount Rushmore “Mount Rushmore of the United States”. Or even weirder and more apt, “Mount Rushmore of Earth”.’The Mines of Mandalore are not named after the planet. Rather they are both names after the dude Mandalore the Great. Calling them by their full name distinguishes them from other mines down. It would be kind of embarassing if Din Djarrin went to the Mines of Jeff down the road instead.
Yeah, my overall assessment when credits rolled was this was the exposition episode.
Seriously. There was always a bit of that in this series in regards to Grogu, but these first two episodes amounted to live action voice overs. Even Bo-Katan was guilty of it. It’s just exposition dumps and horrible writing, that has no confidence in what your presenting to the audience. We already knew why Din was going there. It’s like they were afraid that you clicked to skip the recap of the prior episode, so they have the characters recap it within the episode.
Agreed. It reminded me of the narration on “Blues Clues”. An actor talking to no one in front of a green screen.
Sorry, but it’s just more powerful Parent Energy from Din.
My wife and I both constantly narrated goings-on to our children when they
were infants and pre-verbal. It’s a key way to teach them language and how the world works. To a comment below complaining that “This tunnel goes down, guess we should follow it.” not being “how an actual person talks to someone.” Well, it’s how you talk to a baby or young child. Not because they’re stupid or less-than. But because they’re learning how language and the world works. It’s the right instinct for Din and it happens to serve the show if you’re not too uptight about it.
I think the doctrine of show don’t tell has become like the youtuber review hot buzzwords in that the original meaning is so far from what it suggested. You show emotions and actions because it’s a visual medium and you dont want your watcher bored, expect they will pick up on it (aka as you said, her changing her face and manner of acting once she saw the baby and went into baby speak aka explaining everything like the baby understands, regardless.) When you just wanna get info across, its fine to just tell the audience. Running around the name of the place just to be coy just waste time in a plot you intend to be more complex. Simple stories can do alot of show no tell. Samuria jack has an entire episode nearly silent…all actions…it works but you can explain the entire episode note for a director on a napkin. Motivation, survive, how, cool moves, desperation alot…When say you wanna discuss the gray areas of two opposing ideologies and have fractions and scheming and then are setting up a twist in a hypothetical show…well you do a bit of telling…or the show will be 3 hours to get past what could be shown in 1. With tiktok generation, no one can pay attention that long before screaming plot hole, bad writing, lazy writing, contrived and the other buzz words.
They get me with big giant creatures every time.
“There’s always a bigger fish.”
So much happens in this episode!! this could have been stretched to 2 episodes. Grogu escaping going to Bo-Katan and back on Mandalore, while Din is in that cage, was a bit too quick! LOL
A thing I struggle to understand is weather(s) or not Din Djarin and by extension the Mandalorians are supposed to be a bit shit? I find the show highly entertaining from the perspective of Din being all overconfident in shiny armour and getting into trouble. But are the Mandalorians all supposed to be terrible as seen in the big fight in episode one?
It’s his crazy cult that are shit. We’ve seen Bo-Katan’s crew get things done.The lesson is don’t be a crazy cult.
I thought this was a really fun episode-especially for those of us that watched Clone Wars!Here is my question: Did Bo Katan give the Dark Saber back to Din, or did she keep it? Did I miss that? Because it was in the possession of that thing that captured our hero, and she defeated it in combat. So……the Dark Saber now belongs to her, right? Problem solved? I just didn’t see anything further about it in the episode………
He picked it up when he was gathering his things post soup
Thanks! I guess I missed it.That just struck me as something that should have been discussed, given how bog a deal it has been to Bo Katan.
I thought this was a very dull outing. We essentially got the same episode repeated twice – once with Mando, and then again with another, more competent, masked person.
Bo-Katan speedrunning a trek that took Din a load of effort (and that he failed to finish) was AWESOME, haha!The show spent 10 minutes showing, rather than telling, folks that haven’t seen the Clone Wars how much more badass Bo-Katan is than Din.
True, though she did have the benefit of a lot more knowledge of the area than Din did.
For sure…but she was also *massively* more proficient with the Darksaber.For my blood, the second half of the episode was a thesis statement on what a “real” Mandalorian looks like, in explicit contrast to Din.
Yeah – I’ve already forgotten the lore behind why when Din uses the Darksaber, it’s like swinging a telephone pole.
There isn’t any!He just has no idea how to fight with a lightsaber, because no one has ever taught him!
As someone who *does* like to be up on “The Lore,” even when I don’t watch/read the story in question…this show is *great* about making The Lore a nice to have that provides context, without being a spoiler.“The Purge” and the transformation of Death Watch in The Children are stories that haven’t been told, yet.
For someone who claims they are up on “The Lore” you have no idea about the “The Lore.” The Darksaber is explained in Clone Wars and Rebels and it’s nothing like a normal lightsaber, which feel like air. The Darksaber has a crystal in it that responds to the emotions and intensions of who is holding it. If they are not in sync with it, it feels heavier and heavier.
Ya got me! Haven’t seen all of Rebels!And, somehow, Bo-Katan being way better with the Darksaber than Din still fucking worked for me, based on what we’re provided within the show!Thank you for providing such a clear example of how great The Mandalorian is at making The Lore a nice to have that provides context, without being a spoiler!
It has to ‘bond’ with it’s owner, it’s even mentioned in the Rebels show when Sabine trains with it:
One of my favorite Sabine moments
I’m speculating that the Armorer sent Din to the Living Waters knowing that there was a beast there waiting for him. “Fuck this guy,” basically.Not too impressed by these two first episodes. The show seems all over the place (quite literally), and the script as sharp as it been in the past. Could easily be called The Book of the Din Djarin, especially since the main protagonist keeps getting his ass kicked.
The trolls that attacked Din reminded me very strongly of the Morlochs from the Time Machine, early ‘60’s version.
I can’t wait until later this season when we get an episode where Boba Fett shows up and the episode is all about him with no Mando appearance.
The appearance of Peli Motto makes the loss of “At Home With Amy Sedaris” a bit easier to take. I will be truly happy the moment she sings (or whistles) the ‘It’s Friday Night, I’m Gonna Get Drunk’ song as she exits a scene.
Why was it assumed that bathing in the waters would take him all season? This if far more interesting than that.