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Thoughts on ‘The Jedi’

Welcome back to my commentary series on Season 2 of The Mandalorian; for this installment we’re breaking down Chapter 13 ‘The Jedi’, and I gotta say, while everybody was losing their minds this time around, I really wasn’t feeling it. Call it jumping the shark, but something just felt…off about this chapter, which is profoundly disappointing to me because there was such potential.

A few folks’ comments I saw praised Dave Filoni’s directing in this episode, saying ‘it was just like an episode of The Clone Wars come to life!’ But to be honest, several times this episode I almost found myself nodding off…too many long, lingering shots with nothing happening made it feel very poorly paced.

Right off the bat—literally, just 40 seconds in—we have our first view of live-action Ahsoka…and boy, was I underwhelmed.
I feel like the cold open where Ahsoka picks off mooks in the darkness had the potential to be a really visually-dynamic sequence, but what we get just struck me as humdrum instead of artistic. Considering the murky setting and the lightsabers involved, I think this chapter’s opening could’ve been a great exercise in chiaroscuro as a Lucas-style “tone poem”: make the scene darker, use the lightsabers sparingly, with some mook POV shots as you hear (but can’t see) her getting closer, a snap-hiss and a scream in the distance, then see a dark shape zipping from place to place…in my mind’s eye the scene is way better than what Filoni gave us. The best parts of the sequence are early on, when Ahsoka is obscured or seen in silhouette (in a hood she has a great silhouette), and given the reputation of the character you’d think she would merit a better reveal than what we got: I wish she had been teased early and then been properly revealed later in the episode, but…nope.

Thoughts on ‘The Siege’

Welcome back to my breakdown series on The Mandalorian Season Two. While I’m a bit behind schedule, this time we’re looking at Chapter 12 ‘The Siege’.

Right off the top I feel the need to point out that nothing in this episode resembled a siege. Once the plot kicked in, I actually started getting some serious Rebel Assault II vibes…but levels in that game were either ‘sneak around Imperial base, hide around corners, and point-and-click to shoot Stormies’ or vehicle-based ‘shooting gallery on rails’…so not exactly the most dynamic, compelling, or realistic tone for a TV show to take.

Thoughts on ‘The Heiress’

Welcome back to my breakdown of The Mandalorian Season 2 episodes, this time Chapter 11 ‘The Heiress’. I guess I should start disclaiming at the top:
YAR, HERE THERE BE SPOILERS. READERS, YE BE WARNED.
When I watched the episode the first time, I was definitely subconsciously picking up on the Apollo 13 reentry sequence vibes…that film is too imprinted on my brain for me to not notice, but I didn’t make the connection for the reason behind it – this chapter was directed by Ron Howard’s daughter. Well then, of course it makes sense she would pay homage to her father’s masterpiece! Some of my friends have also picked up on the Firefly/Serenity vibe of a falling-apart spaceship slowly shedding parts. Seeing as we’ll never get more Firefly, having Firefly stuff in other properties works fine for me.
As the ship is trying to set down on the landing pad, I noticed the sound of the Razor Crest’s engines ‘coughing’ and trying to turn over is the same as Anakin’s podracer in Episode I doing the same thing, which is some nice continuity.

In general, I really like the nautical feeling of this whole chapter. The synopsis was something like “Mando braves danger on the high seas” so I wasn’t sure what to expect, but when he arrived at what was essentially a seaport town, it started to make sense, and the latter half of the episode is essentially ‘Mando turns pirate!’ I love all the Mon Calamari and Quarren dock workers, with their waders and knit fisherman’s sweaters! It’s so refreshing to include a location so geared towards the ‘common’, especially as it creates a great opportunity for a ‘GFFA living historian’ to interpret some seaside skills (rope splicing? lobster pot baiting?) in an authentic manner.

Thoughts on ‘The Passenger’

Welcome back to my breakdown of The Mandalorian Season 2 episodes, this time Chapter 10 ‘The Passenger’. Overall, this was by far my least favorite episode of the series, and after a single rewatch to collect some more notes for this post, I can pretty confidently say that I won’t be casually watching it again. (My favorite episode, I think, has so far been S01E04 ‘Sanctuary’, which seems to be many folks’ least favorite.)
The episode opens with Titular Mando trucking along on a swoop toting Fett’s armor, when he is ambushed by some frontier trash/space pirates/bounty hunter types. I really liked that they use ye olde cable trap to knock him off the bike (see this old post where I apply some real-world maths and see just how much time you’d need to get such a trap set properly).

Among the ambushers is a guy whose face we never see, wearing a Rebel-pattern arm patch. This style first appeared on Hoth in Episode V, although it has since shown up on troops in ‘Rouge One’. I find it hard to believe that this guy was in the uniformed Alliance military, so it’s likely a case of double-dipping by the costume department I mentioned last episode. Similarly, the bald pirate wears a puffy R1 trooper vest.

Thoughts on ‘The Marshal’

Since The Mandalorian is the hottest thing in the galaxy right now, and with my queue of current projects winding down and no opportunities for public interpretive events in the foreseeable future, I want to share my thoughts on each episode shortly after each airs. Because…I have thoughts! These won’t be general reviews, but I’m going to try and focus on applying the topics of this blog (character design, material culture, issues of in-universe consistency, etc). Additionally, my research tends to uncover random details which enhance our knowledge of the galactic setting, but which aren’t always meaty enough to merit their own essays; I think Mandalorian episode writeups will be the perfect place to sprinkle these in.
I’ll be discussing topics in the order they appear, so let’s get started!

Since S01E06(‘The Prisoner’), the show seems to have a problem with its male Twi’leks. The size, shape, and angle of the head-tails is all wrong—they’re female-style(ish)—and I think it’s a side effect of the show’s relatively small budget. Since the usual male Twi’lek doesn’t wear a headband to hide the transition between actor and prosthetic, the look requires much more time in the makeup chair; the show’s makeup team have apparently decided it’s simply easier to pop a pair of female-style lekku and a headband on and call it good…but it looks hella weird:

This post from DIY the Galaxy gives a good overview of previous lekku depictions.

My worry for The Mandalorian Season 2

(Don’t worry folks, your regularly-scheduled Saturday post is still coming, but since everyone and their mother is watching DisneyPlus today, I had to get this out there and off my chest)

After first approaching it with caution, by the end of its first season, I was 90% on-board with The Mandalorian…all the way up until the last shot with that stupid ‘darksaber’ (Pete the Retailer agrees). Then earlier this year, I started seeing second season rumour-mill headlines that Lucasfilm was bringing in Temuera Morrison to play Boba Fett, while all signs were pointing towards Rosario Dawson (of all people) playing a live-action Ahsoka Tano. A few weeks later, a rumour that they were also looking for a live-action ‘Ezra Bridger’ (whose SWarsy naming-game I’ve always thought was amazingly weak) from Rebels. WHY?

Marking a milestone

It’s hard to believe, but this week marks this blog’s second anniversary, which means I’ve somehow been rolling out research, how-tos, analyses, and projects for the last two full years – all part of my continuing efforts to make the Galaxy Far, Far Away a legitimate setting for ‘historic’ reenacting.
Many thanks to those of you who have stopped by, liked posts, made great comments, subscribed to the blog, and even joined the conversations over on the SWLH facebook group!

If you’re just joining us, please check out the FIRST STEPS page to see just what Star Wars living history is all about, then leave a comment and introduce yourself below. Here’s to many more years of galactic ‘historic interpretation’ and ‘reenacting’ to come! May the Force be with you!

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Event Debrief: 2 Feb 2019

It’s that time of year again, when events start popping up that are in serious need of a Rebel presence. And so we return again to another season of Event Debriefs!
2-2-19 This was actually my second such event in the last week, but the first one (of 26 January) was much less about the Star Wars side of things and more about the activism-propaganda distribution/social disruption side, and so was far less productive/successful.
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Event debrief: May the Fourth 2018

Location: local indoor Astroturf park

: This gives a pretty good sense of the event.

Event type: ‘Star Wars Day’: kids activities, Chewbacca contest, costume contests, dodgeball, lightsaber ‘academy’; etc.
Although the event wasn’t really a good fit, if I had thought ahead of time, I could have reserved a table and laid out a display of survival gear. Ah, hindsight!
A few local organizations that did have tables:
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Event Debrief: 17 March 2018

As a borderline hermit, meeting and conversing with celebrities isn’t something I have a lot of experience with. So when I learned that the prodigal Dr. David West Reynolds was going to be returning to his hometown library for a screening of his film-archeology documentary “Journey to Tatouine’ and that the event was being advertised as ‘Star Wars Day’, I knew I was going to have to make an appearance.
31718 This would be my second ‘Stars Wars at the library’ event, and since the first, I’ve had several other events with the public to help me focus and refine my approach. This time, I knew what to expect and was somewhat prepared with a rudimentary engagement hook—a thick stack of facsimiles of the Declaration of Rebellion to distribute.
Continue reading “Event Debrief: 17 March 2018”