The Mandalorian (Star Wars Live Action Series)

[ZE_501]

I think what set me off worse than anything in TLJ was not Leia, but Laura Dern in that giraffe necked evening gown playing General on a Star Destroyer or whatever it was. A general. In an evening gown. On the bridge of a Destroyer.

Get off my screen.

That character's only redeeming feature is that it's dead. At least I hope so.

I half expect her to come riding back on a Space Whale.

 

[ZE_501]

Am willing to give Favreau especially the benefit of the doubt. He's the man who actually made an entire sequence of someone testing their armor (IM1) fascinating.

But did he?

I'm beginning to have my doubts. Maybe he greenlit the idea. Someone else's idea.

And I give Filoni a lot of credit

Nope.

 

[Khev]

Dialogue has never been SW strong suit, I’m excluding Andor from this of course. But writing also involves skill in structure, plotting, character and Mando has none of this that I can see. Not anymore anyway.

So true. Yes George struggled with dialogue but he was usually pretty good at having even mundane characters like Uncle Owen make sensible decisions like immediately erasing the memory of a droid you just purchased. Fast forward to ROTS and Bail wasn't taking any chances in the aftermath of the Jedi Purge either, at least with 3PO.

But a top secret conclave of Mandos that will abandon their homes the millisecond someone else learns of their whereabouts? Yeah just let a Rebellion era droid stroll into your camp no questions asked.

 

[Sassafras]

Nope.

Yes. I've Photoshopped enough coming up with a new design for stuff isn't easy. Fight me.

OK, so Filoni isn't the world's greatest director, or writer (probably) and there's the Ahsoka fetish but the man has enthusiasm so.....

 

[davejames]

Where the 100 survivors casually walk about 50 yards out of town (in full view of the pirate commandship) where they immediately find a convenient overhang of rock perfectly sized to shelter 100 survivors so that they can "make camp" (ie stand around enjoying the view) for a whopping 7 minutes until they casually walk back to town (again in full view of the pirates) so that they can "save" the overwhelmed (??) force of Mandos that is allegedly the most feared death squad in the galaxy.

They should have named this episode "Revenge of the one-handed Tatooine Karens" lol.

I'm just baffled that Karga didn't seem to have any town defenses at all, despite years of living among bounty hunters and the criminal underworld, and knowing there would surely be threats to his new city.

 

[Khev]

I'm just baffled that Karga didn't seem to have any town defenses at all, despite years of living among bounty hunters and the criminal underworld, and knowing there would surely be threats to his new city.

I know right! "Nah we don't need the protection of the New Republic we have a tree full of Salacious Crumbs," lol.

 

[Sassafras]

I'm just baffled that Karga didn't seem to have any town defenses at all, despite years of living among bounty hunters and the criminal underworld, and knowing there would surely be threats to his new city.

Yeah, IMO that was just an absolute fail.
There's sloppiness showing up that surprised me. Either that, or the Disney cost cutting is showing up in shows as well.

 

[Khev]

Also you just know that the Swamp Thing captain magically ejected at the last second. Can't have someone actually die in any of these armed conflicts.

 

[Khev]

Armorer: "Take off your helmet."

Bo-Katan: "....."

Armorer: "Sigh...Simon says take off your helmet."

Bo-Katan: *removes helmet*

 

[ZE_501]

Yes. I've Photoshopped enough coming up with a new design for stuff isn't easy. Fight me.

LOLOLOL ... very well, let's fight ... I'm a professional designer with 30 years of cross-disciplinary experience across multiple industries with additional professional experience as a writer.

At this point in my artistic career I have a solid grasp of the creative process across different fields and media.

Ideas are a dime a dozen. Contextualizing them, refining and executing them is what makes them good, great or poor. I've had my share of all three. Everyone makes mistakes on the way and god knows I did. That said:

The writing on display for the majority of Disney Star Wars is truly perplexing for just how poor it is. I can only speculate that:

• They're under-paying green or second-tier writers
• They practice concept-and-script-by-committee
• The writers aren't given time to develop their work
• Disney simply does not respect the fanbase enough to serve them quality

I really think Andor is an anomaly. Not that everything needs to be Andor but you see what I'm getting at.

As for Filoni's designs, I'm not buying him as some kind of auteur; a well-educated curator in a massively collaborative medium, yes. Not everything he does is trash, I thought the Mcquarrie-inspired art and vistas in Rebels was very beautiful; but the man doesn't know when to pump the brakes. In the name of "expanding the lore" he gives us ever more convoluted mystical complications that belong in Harry Potter -- giving us Space Whales, Force Family and magic birds with a straight face.

If you could dial him down about 50%, I wouldn't always be taking shots at him. But the man's beloved by a lot of fans and anointed by Lucas, so whatever.

OK, so Filoni isn't the world's greatest director, or writer (probably) and there's the Ahsoka fetish but the man has enthusiasm so.....

I think he's ... enthusiastic for J.K. Rowling.

 

[ZE_501]

Armorer: "Take off your helmet."

Bo-Katan: "....."

This could have been a different kind of show.

 

[Khev]

This could have been a different kind of show.

"Remove your helmet. No. Slower..."

Two minutes later Bo-Katan is all:

 

[guyver1]

"Remove your helmet. No. Slower..."

Two minutes later Bo-Katan is all:

T

And it took her to become looking like a granny in her career to finally win her Oscar

 

[Sassafras]

LOLOLOL ... very well, let's fight ... I'm a professional designer with 30 years of cross-disciplinary experience across multiple industries with additional professional experience as a writer.

At this point in my artistic career I have a solid grasp of the creative process across different fields and media.

Ideas are a dime a dozen. Contextualizing them, refining and executing them is what makes them good, great or poor. I've had my share of all three. Everyone makes mistakes on the way and god knows I did. That said:

The writing on display for the majority of Disney Star Wars is truly perplexing for just how poor it is. I can only speculate that:

• They're under-paying green or second-tier writers
• They practice concept-and-script-by-committee
• The writers aren't given time to develop their work
• Disney simply does not respect the fanbase enough to serve them quality

I really think Andor is an anomaly. Not that everything needs to be Andor but you see what I'm getting at.

As for Filoni's designs, I'm not buying him as some kind of auteur; a well-educated curator in a massively collaborative medium, yes. Not everything he does is trash, I thought the Mcquarrie-inspired art and vistas in Rebels was very beautiful; but the man doesn't know when to pump the brakes. In the name of "expanding the lore" he gives us ever more convoluted mystical complications that belong in Harry Potter -- giving us Space Whales, Force Family and magic birds with a straight face.

If you could dial him down about 50%, I wouldn't always be taking shots at him. But the man's beloved by a lot of fans and anointed by Lucas, so whatever.


I think he's ... enthusiastic for J.K. Rowling.

LOL I'm NOT a professional tho I'd still argue that coming up with original design is the hardest (or maybe I just suck which is why I'm not a professional. Besides the fact I'd have to, yah know, deal with clients).

Specifically whether it is Filoni or other coming up with an IMO astounding number of environments and character designs. The other thing that impressed me - especially about Rebels which didn't begin with already known characters like Anakin - was that while a bit light-cartoony, all the characters are fully fleshed out. You get who they are, and the team dynamics immediately. Some like Zeb are pretty funny, or striking like the Grand Inquisitor, or have a whole growth arc like Ezra (like his slide into some sketchy behavior).

But yeah, gotta agree Filoni doesn't know how to take his foot off the gas, and a story can delvove into eye-watering cringe. I suppose I'm able to roll with it because I started paying more attention to SW late, and didn't have particular expectations. Not until the Mandalorian. (Also with the animated series to some degree I figure those are geared toward kids, so that's a different expectation and a reason I avoided the animated stuff for a long while).

 

[jaztermareal]

LOLOLOL ... very well, let's fight ... I'm a professional designer with 30 years of cross-disciplinary experience across multiple industries with additional professional experience as a writer.

At this point in my artistic career I have a solid grasp of the creative process across different fields and media.

Ideas are a dime a dozen. Contextualizing them, refining and executing them is what makes them good, great or poor. I've had my share of all three. Everyone makes mistakes on the way and god knows I did. That said:

The writing on display for the majority of Disney Star Wars is truly perplexing for just how poor it is. I can only speculate that:

• They're under-paying green or second-tier writers
• They practice concept-and-script-by-committee
• The writers aren't given time to develop their work
• Disney simply does not respect the fanbase enough to serve them quality

I really think Andor is an anomaly. Not that everything needs to be Andor but you see what I'm getting at.

As for Filoni's designs, I'm not buying him as some kind of auteur; a well-educated curator in a massively collaborative medium, yes. Not everything he does is trash, I thought the Mcquarrie-inspired art and vistas in Rebels was very beautiful; but the man doesn't know when to pump the brakes. In the name of "expanding the lore" he gives us ever more convoluted mystical complications that belong in Harry Potter -- giving us Space Whales, Force Family and magic birds with a straight face.

If you could dial him down about 50%, I wouldn't always be taking shots at him. But the man's beloved by a lot of fans and anointed by Lucas, so whatever.


I think he's ... enthusiastic for J.K. Rowling.

FACTS

 

[Ramatuelle]

This some Sid & Marty Kroft s...... Stuff we got goin' on up in here.

I dont want to hear one more thing about BoBF when we got this.... Stuff going on in Disney's flagship show. No I dont. At least Boba gave you some hot Twi'leks and Fennec Shand garotting people. We got some interesting Tuskens.

And Mando gets this.

You know what, maybe I really WILL go watch Andor, now that TBB is over. it might outrage my sensibilities less.

 

[jedibear]

This some Sid & Marty Kroft s...... Stuff we got goin' on up in here.

View attachment 631290

I dont want to hear one more thing about BoBF when we got this.... Stuff going on in Disney's flagship show. No I dont. At least Boba gave you some hot Twi'leks and Fennec Shand garotting people. We got some interesting Tuskens.

And Mando gets this.

You know what, maybe I really WILL go watch Andor, now that TBB is over. it might outrage my sensibilities less.

I finally forced myself to watch this week's episode. Stopping for a moment. How f'n SAD is it that I feel like I have to force myself to get through this show? It's crossed over the line and entered the realm of addiction. I used to really like this show - the first year was great. Good balance of offering something new that had simple story beats, a basic "quest" and it was filled with enough visual touchstones from other SW media without veering into just abject fan service. 2nd year...still okay, but the creeping need to drag in cameos and names and to create a "bigger" story started to fray the edges of what was an interesting idea. At least the quest got completed...

Now here we are more than halfway through this third season and it's become sadly apparent that quality-wise, Andor was a glorious fluke and that BOBF & Kenobi weren't the low-quality exceptions, they were the new rule!

That image above just makes me wince with sadness. Yeah, it's pure Sid & Marty all the way and if had been meant as some sort of quirky, campy satire well, it would still be cringe but at least there would be a kind of strange effort behind it. Instead, like the horrid Vespa gang, the twerpy rabbit robot kitchen droid, the insanely idiotic Babu Frickies and so much more, it's just another half-baked effort that combines a vague idea with really bad execution.

It's like they are trying to have this "big story" but instead it comes across like the cliff notes of something more we'll never see. It generates no emotion or engagement. Line readings are just that. Every character we've seen in past seasons has been reduced to a walking plot point...verbal instructions to get to the next scene. I think ZE_501 is on to something...it comes across very committee or first draft or just plain amateurish.

I'm waiting for "Galleria's Edge" to change from Battu (or whatever it's called) to Navarro. Heck, the architecture already looks similar. The little pirate/Mando shootout could easily be staged as a "stunt spectacular" show. Hand the kiddies some nerf guns and let 'em go at it... The Falcon ride could be re-themed for Bo Katan's ship chasing pirates around...

Seems distracting and silly bringing all that up but - that's exactly where my head ends up watching this show now. No engagement with the characters or story, just more tuned into what the committee putting this together is thinking about what to exploit when they spew this garbage.

And someone needs to tell Filoni that his animated characters (and stories) do not all translate to live-action effectively. It makes everything gimmicky and distracting. That cameo he had sitting at that bar was INSANE. He looked like he was just sitting there in his street clothes and just didn't get off the set when the cameras started rolling. Truly one of the biggest WTF moments this show has seen. And no more SNL veterans please. Again, distracting.

Okay...I've been ranting long enough. Three more episodes of this thing left. I'm teetering on the edge...should I stop watching now before it completely destroys any interest I have in this character or should I just Charlie-Brown it one more time while these clowns Lucy the football?

Said it before, I'll say it again. It's just a little crazy when the spin-off cartoon has a great season wrap that just blows this so-called "flagship" show out of the sky....just crazy.

 

[Ramatuelle]

The writing on display for the majority of Disney Star Wars is truly perplexing for just how poor it is. I can only speculate that:

• They're under-paying green or second-tier writers
• They practice concept-and-script-by-committee
• The writers aren't given time to develop their work
• Disney simply does not respect the fanbase enough to serve them quality

Wait'll we see "The Acolyte." A show written by a committee specifically chosen for thier lack of SW canon knowledge. You just KNOW that is going to be some legendary teevee right there.

Cant wait.

 

[wormlander]

I know right! "Nah we don't need the protection of the New Republic we have a tree full of Salacious Crumbs," lol.

Yeah, those guys were useless, just pointing at ****. Whatever happened to ripping eyes out of their sockets while laughing with joy? I say fire up the BBQ

 

[wormlander]

My thoughts when I saw Leia in TLJ was "Now that is Anakin's daughter". I was surprised and continue to be surprised at the hyperbolic hysteria that this scene created. Just my opinion.

If those are the only two options, I'll sign myself up for some hyperbolic hysteria please