The Mandalorian and Discovery: many feels
I must process some Mandalorian feelings.
It's getting harder to stay unspoiled for shows these days, but I'm glad I managed on this one. I had Suspicions, shall we say, that the Jedi who came to retrieve Baby Not Yoda would be Luke. It made sense. In this time period (putting aside Ahsoka Tano and whomever else is running around out there that's left over from the animated series, which I know nothing about), Luke is really the only option, if we're talking about a super-powerful Jedi who is capable of teaching and protecting the kid. But I guess I never really thought they'd do it!
I had such a terrible reaction to the way Luke was handled in Eps XIII and IX. Honestly, I just pretend those movies don't exist, except for the Finn and Poe bits. So it felt goooooood to have Favreau and Filoni hand us this beautiful treat, of Luke being the badass we always knew he was going to be (but honestly, never quite got to see), along with a ton of gorgeous parallels to action sequences featuring Darth Vader/Anakin. And to frame it in such a way that every classic Star Wars fan would figure it out, moment by moment, with each clue they dropped. 1) Arrived in an X-Wing 2) lights up that green saber and we all go oooooh 3) ...is that...is that a GLOVE 4) THAT COSTUME 5) aaaaaaaaah
It was brilliant. I've watched that sequence of him just decimating those scary-ass dark troopers now like 20 times. It's amazing. Mando got the shit beaten out of him so that Luke could soar - that entire sequence was to show us just exactly how badass Luke Skywalker actually is. (Note that Mando won his fight, so fuck that robot, anyway.)
So much was amazing about that, in fact. In rolls Artoo, and as he started to wiggle with excitement, my brain rolled out its rusty canon recall and screamed at me ARTOO KNOWS THE KID HE KNOWS HIM which actually makes sense because Artoo would have been at the Temple with Anakin when the kid was THERE GETTING HIS INSTRUCTION. We were told he was there for 50 years, learning. Or something like that. I mean. Artoo continues to be a wise, grumpy little old man, who is Extremely Tired of Everything and yet has to go questing around the galaxy with his master's kid all the time, slaying robots and collecting wayward padawans. Never has there been a non-verbal droid with so much distinct personality. (No, not even BB8.)
Also can you imagine what Luke is feeling, looking at that child. He gets to pay forward to one of Yoda's kind, what Yoda gave to him. It's even possible that Yoda knew that child.
The CGI on Mark Hamill was actually really, really good. Not perfect, but better than Carrie Fisher's in Rogue One. I accept it, because that scene was so perfect. HIS LITTLE SMILE AT ARTOO, and his knowing looks at Din! I CANNOT.
Okay, moving on from that to all the people who are like, HDU TAKE THE BABY! Listen, Mando can't keep the baby safe, and he can't train him. The baby has to go with Luke. Yes, we know Luke's efforts are doomed to fail, but that's years from now. The kid will be trained and likely gone by then. Also Luke's efforts only fail because it was written to be thus in the absolutely shitty sequels, so I'm just going to pretend it's fine. And Luke didn't "take" him. If the baby said no, and Din said I'll keep and protect him...guess what? Luke would have changed tactics.
HOW MUCH DO I LOVE THAT MANDO AND BO AND GIDEON JUST MET THE MOST POWERFUL JEDI IN THE GALAXY AND DIDN'T GET HIS NAME?! omg.
Also it's good that Boba Fett fucked out of there before Luke arrived because hoo boy Boba Fett wouldn't be sitting on any throne on Tatooine had that come to pass. But now he is and we get a WHOLE ASS SERIES of warlord!Boba and his badass sidekick Fennec, GIVE IT TO ME.
Meanwhile, Mando is accidentally the ruler of Mandalore and Bo Kattan (whom I know nothing about except that she too is a badass, she and her crew) is extremely pissy about it because homeboy has her little darksaber or whatever. (I really need to go watch all those cartoons, don't I.) Tumblr informs me there are some canon continuity issues and retconning going on there. Don't know don't care, I'm here for dumbass Din becoming an accidental dad and then an accidental king.
Also Mando choosing to take off his helmet and that goodbye scene with the baby...it ended me. So many tears. LORD. And the parallels with Luke and Anakin in their last scene. (Tumblr was pretty quick with the gifsets on this one.)
In conclusion, this episode, and the earlier episode this season where Boba Fett kicked 17 kinds of ass and showed us WHY he was a badass bounty hunter, were two of the best episodes of TV I've seen in YEARS, and they did a service to Star Wars fans everywhere who actually cared about the characters from the original movies. WE ARE FED.
And since I'm here, a very tiny bit about Star Trek Discovery, with spoiler.
I AM THE GUARDIAN OF FOREVER I fucking lost it, friends, I absolutely lost my shit completely. The Guardian is so powerful! SO POWERFUL! And it has a personality, which is part wiseass and part kindly uncle. OH MY GOD the Guardian is one of my favorite things EVER from TOS. Anyway, I'm also 100% here for Emperor Georgiou and her relationship with Burnham, but THE GUARDIAN OF FOREVER! What a moment that was.
It makes me think about how the Guardian chose to show itself to the crew of the Enterprise when McCoy Spock Kirk et al found it. Mistakes Were Made and the Guardian chose to conceal how much power and capability it had, by forcing Kirk and Spock to use the technology they had available to them to find McCoy. I love that the thread of the Guardian refusing now to let itself be used as a weapon, or an instrument of war, ties back to that...it could be argued it appeared as a passive portal back then for this very reason. It didn't want to be badly used. Now it has taken control of its own destiny.
Kind of wondering where Georgiou is going to land, in time, and what that all means for her. Back to a moment where the universes were more closely aligned means to before TOS, probably. Hmmm.
It's getting harder to stay unspoiled for shows these days, but I'm glad I managed on this one. I had Suspicions, shall we say, that the Jedi who came to retrieve Baby Not Yoda would be Luke. It made sense. In this time period (putting aside Ahsoka Tano and whomever else is running around out there that's left over from the animated series, which I know nothing about), Luke is really the only option, if we're talking about a super-powerful Jedi who is capable of teaching and protecting the kid. But I guess I never really thought they'd do it!
I had such a terrible reaction to the way Luke was handled in Eps XIII and IX. Honestly, I just pretend those movies don't exist, except for the Finn and Poe bits. So it felt goooooood to have Favreau and Filoni hand us this beautiful treat, of Luke being the badass we always knew he was going to be (but honestly, never quite got to see), along with a ton of gorgeous parallels to action sequences featuring Darth Vader/Anakin. And to frame it in such a way that every classic Star Wars fan would figure it out, moment by moment, with each clue they dropped. 1) Arrived in an X-Wing 2) lights up that green saber and we all go oooooh 3) ...is that...is that a GLOVE 4) THAT COSTUME 5) aaaaaaaaah
It was brilliant. I've watched that sequence of him just decimating those scary-ass dark troopers now like 20 times. It's amazing. Mando got the shit beaten out of him so that Luke could soar - that entire sequence was to show us just exactly how badass Luke Skywalker actually is. (Note that Mando won his fight, so fuck that robot, anyway.)
So much was amazing about that, in fact. In rolls Artoo, and as he started to wiggle with excitement, my brain rolled out its rusty canon recall and screamed at me ARTOO KNOWS THE KID HE KNOWS HIM which actually makes sense because Artoo would have been at the Temple with Anakin when the kid was THERE GETTING HIS INSTRUCTION. We were told he was there for 50 years, learning. Or something like that. I mean. Artoo continues to be a wise, grumpy little old man, who is Extremely Tired of Everything and yet has to go questing around the galaxy with his master's kid all the time, slaying robots and collecting wayward padawans. Never has there been a non-verbal droid with so much distinct personality. (No, not even BB8.)
Also can you imagine what Luke is feeling, looking at that child. He gets to pay forward to one of Yoda's kind, what Yoda gave to him. It's even possible that Yoda knew that child.
The CGI on Mark Hamill was actually really, really good. Not perfect, but better than Carrie Fisher's in Rogue One. I accept it, because that scene was so perfect. HIS LITTLE SMILE AT ARTOO, and his knowing looks at Din! I CANNOT.
Okay, moving on from that to all the people who are like, HDU TAKE THE BABY! Listen, Mando can't keep the baby safe, and he can't train him. The baby has to go with Luke. Yes, we know Luke's efforts are doomed to fail, but that's years from now. The kid will be trained and likely gone by then. Also Luke's efforts only fail because it was written to be thus in the absolutely shitty sequels, so I'm just going to pretend it's fine. And Luke didn't "take" him. If the baby said no, and Din said I'll keep and protect him...guess what? Luke would have changed tactics.
HOW MUCH DO I LOVE THAT MANDO AND BO AND GIDEON JUST MET THE MOST POWERFUL JEDI IN THE GALAXY AND DIDN'T GET HIS NAME?! omg.
Also it's good that Boba Fett fucked out of there before Luke arrived because hoo boy Boba Fett wouldn't be sitting on any throne on Tatooine had that come to pass. But now he is and we get a WHOLE ASS SERIES of warlord!Boba and his badass sidekick Fennec, GIVE IT TO ME.
Meanwhile, Mando is accidentally the ruler of Mandalore and Bo Kattan (whom I know nothing about except that she too is a badass, she and her crew) is extremely pissy about it because homeboy has her little darksaber or whatever. (I really need to go watch all those cartoons, don't I.) Tumblr informs me there are some canon continuity issues and retconning going on there. Don't know don't care, I'm here for dumbass Din becoming an accidental dad and then an accidental king.
Also Mando choosing to take off his helmet and that goodbye scene with the baby...it ended me. So many tears. LORD. And the parallels with Luke and Anakin in their last scene. (Tumblr was pretty quick with the gifsets on this one.)
In conclusion, this episode, and the earlier episode this season where Boba Fett kicked 17 kinds of ass and showed us WHY he was a badass bounty hunter, were two of the best episodes of TV I've seen in YEARS, and they did a service to Star Wars fans everywhere who actually cared about the characters from the original movies. WE ARE FED.
And since I'm here, a very tiny bit about Star Trek Discovery, with spoiler.
I AM THE GUARDIAN OF FOREVER I fucking lost it, friends, I absolutely lost my shit completely. The Guardian is so powerful! SO POWERFUL! And it has a personality, which is part wiseass and part kindly uncle. OH MY GOD the Guardian is one of my favorite things EVER from TOS. Anyway, I'm also 100% here for Emperor Georgiou and her relationship with Burnham, but THE GUARDIAN OF FOREVER! What a moment that was.
It makes me think about how the Guardian chose to show itself to the crew of the Enterprise when McCoy Spock Kirk et al found it. Mistakes Were Made and the Guardian chose to conceal how much power and capability it had, by forcing Kirk and Spock to use the technology they had available to them to find McCoy. I love that the thread of the Guardian refusing now to let itself be used as a weapon, or an instrument of war, ties back to that...it could be argued it appeared as a passive portal back then for this very reason. It didn't want to be badly used. Now it has taken control of its own destiny.
Kind of wondering where Georgiou is going to land, in time, and what that all means for her. Back to a moment where the universes were more closely aligned means to before TOS, probably. Hmmm.