The Mandalorian: Sanctuary

November 29, 2019 7:09 AM - Season 1, Episode 4

The Mandalorian teams up with an ex-soldier (Gina Carano) to protect a village from raiders.
posted by DirtyOldTown (82 comments total)

First off: GINA CARANO.

Second: the show is totally settling into an old school gunfighter who roams from town to town helping those who need it vibe and I am here for it. That's an old trope because it's a satisfying one. I hope we get plenty more Gina Carano, too.

And finally, has anyone else checked the directorial scoreboard here? This episode was directed by Bryce Dallas Howard. That makes two of four episodes directed by women. Two of the four have been directed by people of color.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 7:12 AM on November 29, 2019 [25 favorites]

I spent far too much of this episode trying to figure out where I know Stoke from. I blame staying up to watch new episodes when they become available but my memory for actors is pretty awful in general. Oh dip! Of course it's Eugene Cordero / Pillboi.
posted by Gary at 10:10 AM on November 29, 2019 [28 favorites]

So last week John Ford western, this week Akira Kurosawa samurai film (most especially The Seven Samurai). I'm loving it.

I'm also really enjoying exploring the reality of the power vacuum left after the destruction of the Empire in Return of the Jedi. Lucas was very good at creating a visual lived-in reality for the original three films - the Empire was all shiny, sterile and clean, while anything outside its ordered ranks was dusty, messy, scratched and dinged - and it's great to see that turned up to 11 here. It's clear that post-Empire outer worlds are a mess: former stormtroopers in dirty armour acting as ronin, selling their blasters to the highest bidder; shock troops of the Rebellion growing bored with the relative peace of the New Republic and lighting out; military hardware like the AT-ST left lying about, abandoned, ready to be picked up by anyone with an interest in becoming a provincial warlord.

At some point I totally expect Mando to encounter characters who look back on the Empire with warmth and nostalgia: "yes, the Emperor might have been genocidal, but at least he kept order".
posted by Bora Horza Gobuchul at 10:14 AM on November 29, 2019 [16 favorites]

Oh dip! Of course it's Eugene Cordero / Pillboi.
He played a krill farmer, so... KRILLBOI.
posted by D.Billy at 10:52 AM on November 29, 2019 [46 favorites]

This was the first episode I genuinely enjoyed. I mean sure baby yoda is cute and all but like, story-wise. Looking forward to the next ones.
posted by KTamas at 11:01 AM on November 29, 2019 [2 favorites]

Why The Mandalorian Star Gina Carano Thought She Was Playing a Wookiee (Joanna Robinson, Vanity Fair)

The former MMA fighter describes working closely with director Bryce Dallas Howard to create the kind of multi-layered female action star we rarely get to see on screen.

posted by ZeusHumms at 12:30 PM on November 29, 2019 [6 favorites]

The opening of this episode was the most Xena/Hercules shit, in the best way.
posted by jason_steakums at 4:07 PM on November 29, 2019 [18 favorites]

Hard to take the threat of the AT-AS seriously when we've already seen a bunch of teddy bears take them down.
posted by kokaku at 5:16 PM on November 29, 2019 [17 favorites]

But the tactics were good of having it cover for the bandits, though i'm not sure why it didn't just blast away at their defensive position.
posted by kokaku at 5:18 PM on November 29, 2019 [1 favorite]

Hard to take the threat of the AT-AS seriously when we've already seen a bunch of teddy bears take them down.

When they said "nothing on this planet can take one of these down," I thought, "how about a couple of logs?"
posted by codacorolla at 6:13 PM on November 29, 2019 [25 favorites]

Loth cat!
posted by synecdoche at 7:23 PM on November 29, 2019 [16 favorites]

I loved the AT-ST footprint, the 80s kid in me said “I know that because I had that toy!” Overall I thought it was great and there was genuine emotional tension about whether he would or would be able to leave the kid in the village. Maybe because of Rogue One, I feel real uncertainty about whether they’re going to let anyone live, so the stakes seem high enough without being too dark and overall preserving the feel of a slightly-more-grownup Clone Wars episode (based on my viewing of two seasons of that show). I’m glad I’m watching and it’s worth the Disney+ subscription!
posted by rustcellar at 7:53 PM on November 29, 2019 [5 favorites]

FIND HUNGRY MANDALORIANS
posted by The Nutmeg of Consolation at 8:18 PM on November 29, 2019 [1 favorite]

I added the recap from Vanity Fair, which chooses to compare the story to the A-Team, instead of Seven Samurai.
posted by ZeusHumms at 8:45 PM on November 29, 2019 [1 favorite]

The way the show set the expectation at both "Boba Fett with the serial number filed off" and The Man With No Name really made me appreciate that the Mando shows humanity and humor and makes genuine attachments with people. What a pleasant little curveball.

Also, Gina Carano will full on punch you in the beskar helmet and not even flinch, goddamn
posted by jason_steakums at 9:03 PM on November 29, 2019 [9 favorites]

So in the first episode we had the Nikto, and in this one the Klatooinians, so now I'm looking for some sort of Barada reference.
posted by jquinby at 7:21 AM on November 30, 2019 [13 favorites]

I think I’m finally dialing in my expectations for and understanding of this show. It’s a little ST:TNG (visiting new worlds and saving people), and a little old school Incredible Hulk (saving people and then leaving town). It’s a kids show, but the hero explodes people with his gun.
posted by schoolgirl report at 8:49 AM on November 30, 2019 [8 favorites]

Just when I didn't think it was possible for me to love this show more, freaking Gina Carano shows up all out of bubblegum. As my husband says, we'd watch a whole series that was just Gina Carano kicking ass and wisecracking and giving eyebrow. Is there a movie or TV show that wouldn't be improved by Gina Carano? No. No there is not. Charisma, she has it.

Also baby Yoda is killing me. I am normally immune to cute but holy crap. So much character and personality in that stupid green puppet that doesn't even speak. Baby Yoda gives me Kristen Bell sloth face.

So much of this episode could have gone badly wrong and it just...didn't. It just worked. Character development, story development, Mando making it clear he really does want Yoda to have a good life and a proper childhood, and all the things he has foresworn because "this is the way". Also ACTION and humor and....I love this show. I even like the music now. I was grinning all the way through this episode. This show is really making me feel like the kid I was, watching Star Wars in the theater all those years ago. I am just enjoying it so damn much.
posted by biscotti at 9:27 AM on November 30, 2019 [15 favorites]

> Second: the show is totally settling into an old school gunfighter who roams from town to town helping those who need it vibe and I am here for it. That's an old trope because it's a satisfying one. I hope we get plenty more Gina Carano, too.

I love those shows, and Adventures of Hercules / Xena is just the right tone as others described for this episode.

I do hope we got a better rotation of "self contained story" vs "series plot advancement" that some of those shows lacked. Like an entire season of wandering from town to town, with the season premier, mid season break and season finale being the only ones that actually tied the show into the overall series story is what eventually exhausted my patience for the Raimi universe.

> And finally, has anyone else checked the directorial scoreboard here? This episode was directed by Bryce Dallas Howard. That makes two of four episodes directed by women. Two of the four have been directed by people of color.

The episodes are listed here. We get another one by Deborah Chow, and the season finale is directed by Taika Waititi, so I'm assuming more IG-11s.

In total there's 2 each for Dave Filoni, Rick Famuyiwa, and Deborah Chow. Leaving one each for Bryce and Taika. Which makes Dave the only white male director of the entire series (which is something I wasn't expecting given big corporate production).

(Chow is directing the upcoming Obi-Wan Kenobi series for Disney+)
posted by mrzarquon at 9:45 AM on November 30, 2019 [5 favorites]

I was a little surprised to see "Bounty Hunters pulling a Seven Samurai" given that was already an episode of Clone Wars but even though they didn't do anything revolutionary with it they handled it nicely and used it for some nice character growth/development, plus introducing a new character. I'm sure we'll see Cara Dune again but I wouldn't mind getting to know more about the widow in the village, either - how come she's the only one in the village who knows how to handle a gun? (And she's a crack shot, too!) Is she another former Rebel or does she have a seedier backstory? Was this entire planet settled by people on the run/in hiding or their descendants?

Also: the longer these tracking fob things continue to be an ongoing issue the more I need an explanation of how they work. What is it about Baby Yoda that they're tracking, exactly, and how? If he's chipped or something you'd think the first obvious step would be to remove it. If it's not something removable then it kind of seems like there's some kind of crazy-elaborate surveillance-state apparatus being used here?
posted by mstokes650 at 10:05 AM on November 30, 2019 [6 favorites]

At this point I'm hoping that the tracking fobs are simply pointing at likely locations and somebody somewhere is cross referencing like last known headings and transponder pings and known settlements and eyewitness statements and surveillance and such all detective-like, because if it's tracking people directly why do you need bounty hunters? But I don't remember if we've seen them directly tracking someone in a way that would contradict that.
posted by jason_steakums at 10:45 AM on November 30, 2019 [5 favorites]

I think the tracking fobs need something to track, it's not going based off of last known coordinates since it pinpointed baby yoda's flying crib. They're only good for short distances (so in Star Wars terms, a single planet), but may require something being implanted on the target. Previous uses all include folks who may have had a reason to been tagged at one point (bail jumping, etc) and it assumes removal of the tag is itself difficult to the point of impractical.

Existence of "dial up a life force signature and hone in on it" technology would make the entire point of the Mandalorians hiding in secret kind of pointless, since one could dialup the universal omnipresent lifeforce scan and realize there's a lot more than one Mandalorian living underground. Or finding secret rebel locations.
posted by mrzarquon at 11:04 AM on November 30, 2019 [1 favorite]

Why couldn't the super important yodababy have been tagged at birth?
posted by sammyo at 12:14 PM on November 30, 2019

Getting Baby Yoda's tag off of him would be a good arc / goal for the end of the season. I would personally like a more Farscape oriented structure, where the mains are running from a baddy, and there's a continuing arc to their escape, but they spend most of their time interacting with oddball planets at the fringe of Galactic society. With only eight episodes in the season, though, I feel like the main plot is probably going to get a lot more focus. Hopefully the writing team is able to bridge the overall story and the one-off stuff (they do seem mostly successful thus far).
posted by codacorolla at 12:16 PM on November 30, 2019 [1 favorite]

I think the tracking fobs need something to track, it's not going based off of last known coordinates since it pinpointed baby yoda's flying crib. They're only good for short distances (so in Star Wars terms, a single planet), but may require something being implanted on the target.

Midichlorians?
posted by ZeusHumms at 5:27 PM on November 30, 2019 [4 favorites]

I'm happy that all of you liked this. I almost fell asleep.
posted by Ivan Fyodorovich at 6:01 PM on November 30, 2019 [2 favorites]

The helmet thing reveal was satisfying, "Yesterday."

But it still sounds like Mandalorians are forbidden from showing their faces, even to other Mandalorians? The sex must be awkward.
posted by porpoise at 6:30 PM on November 30, 2019 [6 favorites]

I was kind of wondering why they ran away from the imperial walker. Seems it would be smarter to run toward it, stick a thermal detonator on even just the leg, and it would have been put out of commission well before the much riskier plan of luring it to the settlement. Whatever.

I do like the closing credit illustrations for this show, reminiscent of the Ralph McQuarrie concept art used in Star Wars pre-production back in the 70s.
posted by 2N2222 at 6:31 PM on November 30, 2019 [2 favorites]

If there isn't more Gina Carano, I will be very sad.

Loved this episode.

Wouldn't mind a whole episode of baby Yoda playing with other kids.
posted by medusa at 7:28 PM on November 30, 2019 [4 favorites]

Why couldn't the super important yodababy have been tagged at birth?

So you're saying they stamp them when they're small?
posted by GCU Sweet and Full of Grace at 7:31 PM on November 30, 2019 [5 favorites]

but sometimes you gotta exfoliate and whatnot.

Or, you know...eat.
posted by Naberius at 8:26 PM on November 30, 2019 [1 favorite]

It's pretty, but the storytelling is weak sauce. doing half-hour glosses of famous westerns (and samurai films) but without any depth to the stakes, the emotions, the relationships that made those stories timeless doesn't give me much hope that this show is going to have any substance.

I guess Star Wars stuff isn't supposed to make sense, but so far it doesn't seem to have any coherence beyond "we are aware of every trope of every western ever and we're prepared to bundle as many of them into a half an hour as our massive budget will allow."

Make me care if you want me to pay for this. I have spoken.
posted by OHenryPacey at 11:38 PM on November 30, 2019 [22 favorites]

But it still sounds like Mandalorians are forbidden from showing their faces, even to other Mandalorians? The sex must be awkward.

I would guess there is probably an allowance for one’s significant other/ close family / important people, and it will probably be a major event in the story at some point.
posted by Fleebnork at 5:16 AM on December 1, 2019 [2 favorites]

I'm hoping the trackers work like Tiles and my phone. So not only can the bounty hunters find Baby Yoda with them, but Baby Yoda can find bounty hunters.

I love a good training montage. It was amusingly close to the Archer "Danger Island" setup.
posted by The corpse in the library at 10:40 AM on December 1, 2019 [6 favorites]

I liked the way the AT-ST was played like it was alive, with glowing red eyes (speaking of which, re: splash-damage, canonically one of the side-mounted weapons is a grenade launcher but I assume they didn't have access to Imperial-spec ammunition).

The fist fight where Cara Dune decked the Mandalorian bare-handed was A+.

If there isn't more Gina Carano, I will be very sad.

IIRC there's a couple of shots of her from the trailers that weren't in this episode.
posted by EndsOfInvention at 3:12 PM on December 1, 2019 [2 favorites]

The training sequence actually reminded me of Mulan more than anything.

And now my husband is introducing to the old David Carradine Kung Fu series which he believes this is directly related to.
posted by purenitrous at 7:51 PM on December 1, 2019 [4 favorites]

So you're saying they stamp them when they're small?

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN THEY MOLT!?
posted by rp at 8:45 PM on December 1, 2019 [1 favorite]

And now my husband is introducing to the old David Carradine Kung Fu series which he believes this is directly related to.

I had the same thought, though I am less familiar with the 70s show than its 90s sequel (reboot?). All of which owes to previous wandering samurai-type stories, of course.
posted by axiom at 9:50 PM on December 1, 2019

The first 4 tracking fobs we saw were for adults the Mandalorian had bagged. They're a useful way to skip a lot of tracking and detective work.
posted by ZeusHumms at 6:56 AM on December 2, 2019 [1 favorite]

It's possible the doctor implanted some sort of tracker in Babyoda while he was scanning him and whatnot, whereas previously the tracker was just in the bassinet thingy.

Frankly, I think the whole "fob" thing is just a convenient shorthand for "this person is hunting Babyoda" and probably won't get explained in any real technical sense, and I'm OK with that.
posted by Rock Steady at 8:46 AM on December 2, 2019 [9 favorites]

John Wick movies?
posted by ZeusHumms at 8:59 AM on December 2, 2019 [5 favorites]

Busy times at Panera?
posted by The corpse in the library at 9:03 AM on December 2, 2019 [14 favorites]

reminiscent of something I’d seen before where pagers or phones were blowing up in a similar developing tense situation

My brain made the same connection. I'm thinking it's from John Wick (right before Wick sticks his face through a window just in time to get covered with a paint roller).

Very Seven Samurai, indeed. The training montage seemed to be lifted completely from SS (the spear work) and the Magnificent 7 (firing blasters at the hanging pots and pans).

When the kids came running up to the cart to meet Mando, Cara, and Baby Yoda, my gf and I both said "oh, yay! Will the kids be performing a play?".

I loved this a lot. More Gina, please!
posted by hanov3r at 9:04 AM on December 2, 2019 [2 favorites]

Yeah the spreading fobs/alert trope was 100% in the last John Wick movies (end of #2, start of #3). I've seen it in other movies, though - big crowd at a conference or presser, then one by one pagers and cell phones start going off as the news of Some Really Big Doom begins to spread. It's creepy and foreboding stuff to me, sort of like hearing the digital rasp of the EAS whenever there's bad weather or somesuch on the way.
posted by jquinby at 10:20 AM on December 2, 2019 [3 favorites]

I wonder what the first movie to use that trope was. The one that comes to mind for me is The Siege, when they're meeting about stopping the next attack and the call comes in about another attack.
posted by kokaku at 11:53 AM on December 2, 2019 [1 favorite]

There's a scene in the Buffy episode "The I in Team" (2000) where Buffy and all the Initiative guys have their pagers go off in the Bronze. That's a couple of years after The Siege, though.

I suspect earlier examples might be found in medical shows where the doctors have pagers. I'm seem to recall such a scene in one of Grey's Anatomy's "local disaster" episodes.
posted by The Tensor at 12:11 PM on December 2, 2019

When Baby Yoda reaches the verbal stage, will they speak in the manner that Yoda does (Like this, they will), or will they adopt the common tongue (e.g. English) accent that most species in Star Wars use?
posted by codacorolla at 4:48 PM on December 2, 2019 [2 favorites]

This ep didn't do much for me. Plenty of Xena / Hercules / ST:TNG comparisons up thread. Those aren't what I'm looking for in a Star Wars thing made in 2019. Those appalling costumes (tie dye! random squiggles! headbands! the same colour for everybody!), the "let's just rehash Seven Samurai / Magnificent Seven / Three Amigos and not even try to hide it" thing, the AT-ST that was once beatable with a couple of logs but is now a terrifying proposition for not one, but two death-dealing bounty hunters who could've just snuck up behind it while it was parked and dropped a nuke inside - just no. (Does his gunship really not have any guns? Can AT-STs even look up? Could he not have just strafed the space orcs from above?)

If it keeps going down the "Stargate on VHS" route (this week we're in quarry world!) I'm out.
posted by some little punk in a rocket at 8:16 PM on December 2, 2019 [8 favorites]

I wonder when we'll find out that BabyYoda is actually just a really cute creature that pretends to be a baby for self defense.

(I mean, I know it's been mentioned before, but have any of you seen The Empire Strikes Back?)
posted by Grangousier at 1:06 AM on December 3, 2019 [3 favorites]

the AT-ST that was once beatable with a couple of logs but is now a terrifying proposition for not one, but two death-dealing bounty hunters who could've just snuck up behind it while it was parked and dropped a nuke inside

I see the AT-ST as like a tank - terrifyingly lethal to an unprepared infantry squad but beatable if you can lure it into a trap, immobilise it, and destroy it with a shaped-charge IED. On Endor the Imperials were clearly completely unprepared for the guerilla-warfare traps after they over-confidently and completely unnecessarily pursued the Rebels/Ewoks into the forest (they should have just sat by the bunker to guard it).
posted by EndsOfInvention at 5:00 AM on December 3, 2019

Does his gunship really not have any guns? Can AT-STs even look up? Could he not have just strafed the space orcs from above?

Sure, but I think it's worth considering that one good shot, and (if he lived) he would be stranded on this backwater planet with Baby Yoda to protect.
posted by Fleebnork at 6:10 AM on December 3, 2019 [1 favorite]

How 'Mandalorian' Director Bryce Dallas Howard Got Her Kids to Keep Baby Yoda a Secret (Brian Davids, Hollywood Reporter)

Her kids were on set a lot. At least one of them was an extra.

The actor-turned-filmmaker's young children played with the puppet on set — and had to be put through a daily routine: "I would just consistently remind them that there’s no circumstance that could ever arise where they’re allowed to talk about Baby."

She had to do this for a year.
posted by ZeusHumms at 8:12 AM on December 3, 2019 [17 favorites]

I wonder when we'll find out that BabyYoda is actually just a really cute creature that pretends to be a baby for self defense.

One would have thought that BabyYoda would have stopped pretending in episode 3 after being turned over to Werner Herzog.
posted by ZeusHumms at 11:02 AM on December 3, 2019 [2 favorites]

‘The Mandalorian’: Inside the Baby Yoda Cup Meme With Bryce Dallas Howard (Will Thorne, Variety)

Neat comment from Bryce Dallas Howard:

There was one take in the raider camp with all the vats, and let me preface this by saying that Gina is very, very adept at doing stunt choreography and not hurting anyone she’s working with. But that one take she kicked someone, it was totally planned, but there was more contact than usual and from where I was standing looking at the monitor, I thought there was a wire on the guy. He went flying back, I thought it was a gag. I asked, “Who put a wire on that guy?” And people said that wasn’t a wire, that was the force of Gina’s kick.

posted by ZeusHumms at 11:04 AM on December 3, 2019 [14 favorites]

As for vibes, I got an Asterix vibe from the village. Kept expecting an off-key bard or fishmongers' fisticuffs.
posted by chavenet at 2:09 PM on December 3, 2019 [5 favorites]

> I wonder when we'll find out that BabyYoda is actually just a really cute creature that pretends to be a baby for self defense.

It's all conjecture, but Yoda was apparently 100 years old when he became a Jedi Master. So I'm guessing Baby Yoda is gonna have one hell of a puberty?
posted by mrzarquon at 3:44 PM on December 3, 2019 [1 favorite]

Teen Yoda (not canon)
posted by EndsOfInvention at 1:17 AM on December 4, 2019

I appreciated the thoughtful negative comments here. I groused on Twitter last night that this show seemed kind of dumb, thus proving I hate fun. But reading here I see that it's not so much a dumb show as it is just middlebrow. I think the comparison to Hercules or Xena is spot on. For me that show would be Arrow, particularly the first few seasons. These are good shows.

There's nothing wrong with fun straightforward storytelling. Famously that was the whole appeal of the very first film, back when "Space Western" seemed novel (again).

I'm with OHrenyPacey in feeling the attempts to hit emotional beats are a bit unearned. So far we're playing more with the archetypes of characters more than actual characters the show has brought to life. Also I was annoyed at them straight-up doing the village defense set piece from Seven Samurai with no spin on it other than a smaller cast. I hope they do some original writing too.

Still it's fun, and well produced, and drawing off the Star Wars Universe gives them plenty of backed story to mine. I'm hopeful.
posted by Nelson at 7:38 AM on December 4, 2019 [5 favorites]

It strikes me as an evocation of classic Western TV series - the first thing I thought of when I read the title was The Virginian, and there's some of Bonanza or Alias Smith and Jones, not so much in the detail as the feeling and the pacing of the thing. It's very self-consciously classic in that way.

One would have thought that BabyYoda would have stopped pretending in episode 3 after being turned over to Werner Herzog.

How do we know he didn't? While he was with Werner, I mean.

Also, Pedro Pascal's voice makes me think of Joe Frank for some reason.
posted by Grangousier at 9:19 AM on December 4, 2019 [1 favorite]

Kung Fu and Alias Smith and Jones were two of my favorite TV shows when I was a kid, and I was twelve when Star Wars first hit the screens and I'd already been reading about it in Starlog, to which I had a subscription. I also bought the soundtrack on LP, which I still have. I've seen Seven Samurai once and The Magnificent Seven countless times and saw all the Sergio Leone films at the drive-in with my parents.

The fun Cinemax series Jett, starring Carla Gugino, is basically an homage to stylish 90s crime films and IMO usually (but not always) avoids feeling stale. The production style and story are very familiar, yet not predictable.

Similarly, The Mandalorian is playing with its tropes -- and rightly so, because they're appropriate to the material. But, for me, it doesn't really do so in an interesting manner and it's too predictable.

I've often felt that the Star Wars nostalgia is much more powerful for the later generations than it was to those of us who were right there because it took some time to really grow into its lasting cultural influence. It seems to me that this show is getting much benefit from this nostalgia -- it's the first live-action Star Wars TV series and that's a pretty big deal. I certainly don't think the show is bad. I'm just kinda meh about. But I don't begrudge those who are really digging it; I can sort of see why.
posted by Ivan Fyodorovich at 11:49 AM on December 4, 2019 [3 favorites]

Yeah, I can see people who want more from the show not liking it, but for me it hits the spot.

I just want to watch the Mando/Baby Yoda show.
posted by Pendragon at 12:28 PM on December 4, 2019 [4 favorites]

'The Mandalorian' Star Gina Carano on Cara Dune's Secret Backstory (Brian Davids, Hollywood Reporter)
posted by ZeusHumms at 2:18 PM on December 5, 2019

I think I wouldn't mind an episode like this if I knew we had more episodes. It felt very much like a filler episode in another series. I think you can get away with these on a full, 20+ episode series, but not in something that I would expect to be as tightly plotted as an 8-episode arc. And yes, it did feel all too familiar. This show played really well with some of the Western / Samurai tropes in other spots, but didn't do much with them here but echo them again.

A couple of great moments--the lights on the walker, and of course Baby Yoda--but overall, this episode left me pretty lukewarm.
posted by synecdoche at 2:25 PM on December 5, 2019 [1 favorite]

this episode left me pretty lukewarm

Do you want tauntaun jokes? Because this is how we get tauntaun jokes.
posted by hanov3r at 2:28 PM on December 5, 2019 [27 favorites]

Do you want tauntaun jokes? Because this is how we get tauntaun jokes.

... I'm not averse...
posted by synecdoche at 2:29 PM on December 5, 2019

I can't believe the plan was "Lure the AT-ST into a trap near the village" and not "sneak into the enemy camp and disable/sabotage the AT-ST" especially if the plan included "sneak into the camp and blow up the fuel/libation supply"
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 6:35 AM on December 9, 2019 [6 favorites]

Any plan that involves getting shot at is a bad plan, but that's my gripe against most heist/crime shows, so I can't really hold it against this one specifically.
posted by ODiV at 7:38 AM on December 9, 2019 [1 favorite]

All it needed really was an extra line about how they can't sneak into the raider camp a second time, as after the first incursion they'll have posted a lot more guards.
posted by EndsOfInvention at 8:38 AM on December 9, 2019 [2 favorites]

Yabbut, sneak into the camp the first time to disable the AT-ST, haul ass back to the village with the Klatoonians in pursuit after the AT-ST goeth "boom". I mean if it's just a thermal detonator in the open eye windows and Gina has a lot of points in stealth, why bother dragging it back to the village in the first place? Why dig a trench _by hand_? Etc etc etc.

Still, I'm enjoying the show in general.
posted by Kyol at 1:21 PM on December 9, 2019 [2 favorites]

Can AT-STs even look up?

Sure they can, they're not dogs.
posted by axiom at 10:42 AM on December 10, 2019 [2 favorites]

This is a pretty silly show (why not bomb the AT-ST when they were in the camp; why would he think BY wouldn't be tracked; etc, etc). On the one hand, at least this episode hit the basic narrative marks for an actual story. On the other hand, it was basically at the level of any mid-season episode of every generic western made since 1950.

I mean, even the aforementioned Incredible Hulk tv show would have wrung more pathos out of this -- eg, he actually yearns to stay with the woman/town but is tragically forced to leave in order to protect them all from endless hordes of bounty hunters, and right after that the other soldier abandons him in what looks like a betrayal, but in later episodes we discover there were Reasons. At the minimum, just cut two seconds: she reaches up to begin to lift off his helmet -- is he going to let her, it seems like he is? -- then ZAP the gunshot rings out, making it clear that can never be an option. A cliche, yes, but if they have no pretensions for great literature, why not at least just tug on the heartstrings when they're so available?
posted by chortly at 9:03 PM on December 10, 2019 [1 favorite]

I'm tired enough of will they, won't they that a nice firm "no they won't" was pretty welcome for me, to be honest.
posted by ODiV at 10:09 AM on December 12, 2019 [6 favorites]

Let's just take it all the way down and figure out a way to compare it to Acapulco H.E.A.T.
posted by Brocktoon at 2:13 AM on December 13, 2019

Sure, but I think it's worth considering that one good shot, and (if he lived) he would be stranded on this backwater planet with Baby Yoda to protect.

That's true for Mando every single day, ship or no ship. He was far less safe running away from the walker on the ground than he would have been in the air. We also saw in the next ep that his ship can take multiple blasts from a pursuing fighter and end up with not much more than a fuel leak, and has cannons able to take out said fighter with a single shot. That walker and everybody in that camp should have been dead in a heartbeat while he swooped overhead with a drink in one hand.
posted by some little punk in a rocket at 3:20 PM on December 16, 2019

I'm tired enough of will they, won't they that a nice firm "no they won't" was pretty welcome for me, to be honest.

It's certainly true that emotionlessness neatly avoids all emotion-based cliches. I don't care whether he's tempted by her, the rural life, bringing up baby, or what, just something rather than nothing. It's like we've rolled back from Unforgiven to John Wayne, Man of Wood.
posted by chortly at 8:57 PM on December 17, 2019 [1 favorite]

Eh, I don't think that's really fair. He's in this whole mess because of emotion.

Hard to show much feeling under that helmet though, I'll grant you that.
posted by ODiV at 9:13 PM on December 17, 2019

On rewatch, when we first see the village attacked: “Run, KrillBoi, Run!”
posted by ZeusHumms at 6:13 PM on December 26, 2019 [1 favorite]

I was already liking this show, but it really endeared itself to me after a.) deepening my dark and unholy love of Gina Carano, and b.) successfully making IG droids and AT-STs fucking terrifying.
posted by Mr. Bad Example at 1:59 PM on January 2, 2020 [3 favorites]

I can't believe the plan was "Lure the AT-ST into a trap near the village" and not "sneak into the enemy camp and disable/sabotage the AT-ST" especially if the plan included "sneak into the camp and blow up the fuel/libation supply"

Or, considering how many of the village people got trained to shoot, just surround the enemy camp and shoot everyone.
posted by kirkaracha at 1:04 AM on January 11, 2020

I'm just glad the peasant army got to train with polearms. Can't have a proper peasant army without some pole arms.

My end of episode head canon: "Theme, Mando, for helping us learn to defend ourselves. We're going to take our newfound skills and start raiding neighboring villages so we don't have to ever work in these mud pits again!"
posted by kaibutsu at 12:52 AM on August 11, 2020 [5 favorites]

I'm finally getting around to watching this show more than a year late. I'm reading these comments and all I can think is, "Oh, my poor dears... wait until you learn about Gina Carano."
posted by Ben Trismegistus at 10:41 AM on October 1, 2021 [2 favorites]

Ben Trismegistus: I came here to say something very similar :)
posted by Saxon Kane at 1:06 PM on March 20, 2023