S01.E01: Chapter One - The Mandalorian

[festivus]

I may be a month late watching this but all the memes I've already seen still couldn't prepare me for Baby Yoda. I squealed.  I also loved the bounty hunter droid. So cool.

[roamyn]

On 12/14/2019 at 11:26 PM, festivus said:

I may be a month late watching this but all the memes I've already seen still couldn't prepare me for Baby Yoda. I squealed.  I also loved the bounty hunter droid. So cool.

Don’t worry.  We waited until there were 5 episodes, b4 we watched.

[Singleton28]

On 11/12/2019 at 5:03 PM, Lisin said:

Yeah, so "baby" is generous but Yoda was 900 something when he died so I guess that species ages reallllly slowly.

As there's only one other "Yoda" we've ever seen and apparently she's female I wonder if this is their baby? Or... I wonder how they reproduce... I have so many questions! My main one being "They're definitely making baby Yodas for Christmas right? I NEED A BABY YODA"

Yes, Disney admitted that they dropped the ball on this. The only officially licensed merchandise are sweatshirts and puzzles. Beware of “baby Yoda” toys as it has been discovered that a lot of unscrupulous companies are trying to repackage Yoda merchandise as the child. 

Disney stated that the true merchandise should be available around March of 2020. 

I absolutely love the feel of this show. High plains drifter meets Kung foo in a Star Wars setting. Really love John Favreaus influences. Great show!!

[Kel Varnsen]

On 12/24/2019 at 11:23 PM, Singleton28 said:

Really love John Favreaus influences. Great show!!

What is kind of funny is that the guy that created this show is the same guy who directed the first MCU movie (Iron Man). The guy who directed the 5th MCU movie (Joe Johnston, Captain America: The First Avenger), is the guy who designed Boba Fett and in turn Mando's helmet and look.

[TVFan17]

On 12/14/2019 at 8:26 PM, festivus said:

I may be a month late watching this but all the memes I've already seen still couldn't prepare me for Baby Yoda. I squealed.  I also loved the bounty hunter droid. So cool.

I probably wouldn't have watched this show until next year sometime if it hadn't been for Baby Yoda memes and pictures splashed across my Twitter feed. 

I knew the show was coming, and I knew who was in it and had a vague idea of what it was supposed to be about.  But since Baby Yoda was kept a secret in all of the press and promotion for this show, I wasn't really planning to sign up for Disney+ until next year at some point.  As soon as I started seeing his precious little face all over Twitter, I was instantly intrigued.  I thought there was no way he could be as cute on the actual show as he was in photos.  It turned out that he was even cuter on the show, in every episode!  He is so lovable.

[wanderingstar]

I am rewatching the show from the beginning, and it's fascinating to see how much of what we see in the finale is set up in this episode.

And watching Mando see Baby Yoda for the first time gets me every time.

 

[TVFan17]

7 minutes ago, Gillian Rosh said:

I am rewatching the show from the beginning, and it's fascinating to see how much of what we see in the finale is set up in this episode.

And watching Mando see Baby Yoda for the first time gets me every time.

 

I think that Mando was smitten with the Baby when he first saw him (join the club, Mando!).

I was also re-watching the whole series from the beginning, and I realized that the icy planet Mando is on at the start of this episode is never named, is it?  I would like to see that planet again.  I like the idea of the creatures under the ice, and I like that it's a different environment than the typical sandy, dusty, dry planets, or planets full of jungles and foliage.

That Mythrol guy that Mando captured at the beginning was so chatty that I wondered what Mando was thinking when he was rambling on.  Anyone that chatty is going to be annoying to the surly bounty hunter who just caught him, but he sealed his fate when he started poking around and being nosy on the ship. 

And when Mando caught him snooping around, that was a very interesting scene because it was meant to show us how cold and unfeeling Mando could be.  The whole episode, really -- up until finding Baby Yoda -- was very indicative of the kind of person Mando was at that point.

In reading some comments from people online, I get the feeling that they wanted and expected the whole series to keep that tone -- with the cold, jaded, emotionless bounty hunter mercilessly capturing and killing people left and right.  I saw one comment on Twitter to the effect of "I [expected] a show about a bounty hunter, not a babysitter."  (Something similar to that.)

For me, though -- and I don't know if this was the actual intent of the series when it was created, but it's what I took away from Season 1 -- I think that one big element of this show is how a little green baby softens this hardened guy, and even changes him a tiny bit.

[Babalooie]

On 12/26/2019 at 4:19 PM, Kel Varnsen said:

On 12/24/2019 at 11:23 PM, Singleton28 said:

Really love John Favreaus influences. Great show!!

What is kind of funny is that the guy that created this show is the same guy who directed the first MCU movie (Iron Man). The guy who directed the 5th MCU movie (Joe Johnston, Captain America: The First Avenger), is the guy who designed Boba Fett and in turn Mando's helmet and look.

He's also the guy who was in "Swingers", lol.

[anna0852]

Just watched this. As a long-time MCU fan I was very pleased to see the inclusion of their talent from that side of the Disney house. Particularly having Sarah Halley Finn for casting. 

[WatchrTina]

I watched the whole series yesterday but I'm doing a re-watch today and this time I'm watching on my iMac, which has better definition than my TV (in particular it handles night-time and dark indoor scenes better) AND I'm wearing Bose headphones.

It's like a whole new show.  I'm seeing and hearing things I totally missed before.

BTW, if you've already seen the series be sure to also watch the "making of" documentaries available on Disney+.  I just did that and now I'm looking forward to spotting all the things they talked about in the doc.

[Ottis]

Is this show aimed at kids? Just watched the first two eps. There is no reason for the Mandalorian to feel connected to the yoda bounty target. Such a weird ending after we saw a bounty hunter who seemed to have little remorse. More in next thread.

[Llywela]

1 hour ago, Ottis said:

Is this show aimed at kids? Just watched the first two eps. There is no reason for the Mandalorian to feel connected to the yoda bounty target. Such a weird ending after we saw a bounty hunter who seemed to have little remorse. More in next thread.

Does a person have to have a reason to take pity on a cute, helpless infant? Even a person who makes a living as a bounty hunter can have a heart -  even just in this first episode, we've already seen that the majority of Mando's targets seem to have it coming in some way, whereas a baby is innocent. There's a big difference there. His reaction to the baby shows that there is a line in the sand he is reluctant to cross, despite being so jaded in general - shows that there is more to him than immediately meets the eye, which establishes a strong character note for the remainder of the season to start to explore.

Edited November 2, 2020 by Llywela

[FnkyChkn34]

1 hour ago, Ottis said:

Is this show aimed at kids? Just watched the first two eps. There is no reason for the Mandalorian to feel connected to the yoda bounty target. Such a weird ending after we saw a bounty hunter who seemed to have little remorse. More in next thread.

I don't think the show is aimed at kids, but so many kids still love it.  It has violence, but kitschy kind of violence, so I guess it's ok for kids.

And keep watching - you'll see why Mando has a soft spot for kids.

[magdalene]

1 hour ago, Ottis said:

Is this show aimed at kids? Just watched the first two eps. There is no reason for the Mandalorian to feel connected to the yoda bounty target. Such a weird ending after we saw a bounty hunter who seemed to have little remorse. More in next thread.

It is a family show on Disney+ which means its target audience will be kids and adults.  To put it bluntly - if you don't feel any empathy for and connection with the baby this may not be the show for you.

[Ottis]

13 minutes ago, Llywela said:

Does a person have to have a reason to take pity on a cute, helpless infant? Even a person who makes a living as a bounty hunter can have a heart -  we've seen that the majority of Mando's targets seem to have it coming in some way, whereas a baby is innocent. There's a big difference there. I'd say his reaction to the baby shows that there is a line in the sand he is reluctant to cross, despite being so jaded in general - shows that there is more to him than immediately meets the eye, which establishes up a character note for the remainder of the season to start to explore.

I get the theme posed by that. What I don't like is how amateurish it is, which is why I asked if this show was for kids. In a more nuanced show, that note would take a few eps to get to, and would establish a motivation by the bounty hunter or something represented by the baby.

This is a bounty hunter who *disintegrated* random Jawas simply for being part of a Jawa group that took his ship apart (did the Jawas he shot actually take anything? We don't know). Then wasn't happy with just letting a random attacker in a bar run away, and instead pulled him back and *shot the door so it cut him in half.* And of course he didn't hesitate to "freeze" his bounties.

But one look at a yoda baby, and it's an ET moment. Clunky and broad. I had heard random comments that this was true Star Wars (in contrast with movies), but it seems pretty much like the movies.

Edited November 2, 2020 by Ottis

[FnkyChkn34]

1 minute ago, Ottis said:

I get the theme posed by that. What I don't like is how amateurish it is, which is why I asked if this show was for kids. In a more nuanced show, that note would take a few eps to get to, and would establish a motivation by the bounty hunter or something represented by the baby.

This is a bounty hunter who *disintegrated* random Jawas simply for being part of a Jawa group that took his ship apart (did the Jawas he shot actually take anything? We don't know). Then wasn't happy with just letting a random attacker in a bar run away, and instead pulled him back and *shot the door so it cut him in half.* And of course he didn't hesitate to "freeze" his bounties.

But one look at a yoda baby, and it's an ET moment. Klunky and broad.

It's only got 8 30-minute episodes to tell a story.  IMO, it can't be that nuanced, or it would lose 99% of its audience waiting for something to happen.

The baby does represent something though.  Keep watching. 🙂 

[Ottis]

5 minutes ago, magdalene said:

It is a family show on Disney+ which means its target audience will be kids and adults.  To put it bluntly - if you don't feel any empathy for and connection with the baby this may not be the show for you.

I think it is the juxtaposition of various elements that is puzzling. Saving a cute baby vs. disintegrating Jawas. It's almost like someone who isn't very good at it is trying to create depth.

Edited November 2, 2020 by Ottis

[John Potts]

Damn Rebellion, they never think of the effect of overthrowing tyrannical regimes has on the small businessmen. A guy just wants to get on with his trade of shooting people and they have to go disrupting his business. It's like they don't even want cold hearted killers to make a living!

Clearly, Dave Filoni is a big Sergio Leone/Clint Eastwood fan, even if we are to believe our remorseless hunter's heart grew three sizes that day at the end (probably). Of course, he might have just saved Baby Yoda because he got more credits for bringing him in alive and by killing IG-11 he doesn't need to split the reward, so maybe it was just the appeal of cold hard cash.

I thought Carbon Freezing your Bounties seemed like a reasonable idea. It's a lot less hassle shifting five slabs than it is five prisoners. Sure, that gizmo was a lot smaller than Lando's on Cloud City, but it seemed plausible somebody might find a way to miniaturise them.

On 11/12/2019 at 10:03 PM, Lisin said:

As there's only one other "Yoda" we've ever seen and apparently she's female I wonder if this is their baby?

Yaddle (yes, it's sad that I knew that without having to look it up)! But “Desire – a Jedi craves not these things” so probably not the offspring of two Jedi Masters.

[Camera One]

I'm not usually too interested in extended action sequences, but there was something about the story that was sort of intriguing.  I liked the old man who was helping him and the droid who fought with him for awhile was fun (too bad it wanted to kill the baby/child).  It will be nice to see the gruff Mandalorian bond with the baby, which I'm guessing will happen.

[Quickbeam]

Just got Disney plus as a part of a package and realized this was the only thing I was interested in. I’m not a SW person, only ever saw movies 4-6. I liked this episode, wasn’t hard to follow. Is that actually Pedro Pascal? I know the voice is but the suit could be anybody. Seems like a waste.

[chitowngirl]

17 hours ago, Quickbeam said:

Just got Disney plus as a part of a package and realized this was the only thing I was interested in. I’m not a SW person, only ever saw movies 4-6. I liked this episode, wasn’t hard to follow. Is that actually Pedro Pascal? I know the voice is but the suit could be anybody. Seems like a waste.

The quick answer is yes and no-sometimes it is and sometimes it isn’t 🤷‍♀️

[FnkyChkn34]

On 3/25/2023 at 8:12 PM, Quickbeam said:

Just got Disney plus as a part of a package and realized this was the only thing I was interested in. I’m not a SW person, only ever saw movies 4-6. I liked this episode, wasn’t hard to follow. Is that actually Pedro Pascal? I know the voice is but the suit could be anybody. Seems like a waste.

I got Disney+ awhile ago just to see what all the fuss was about over this show, and I ended up watching a lot of other stuff... Who knew that I would like Marvel movies!  Or other Star Wars stuff.  And re-living my childhood with some old Disney classics has been nice too.  Scroll around, you might be surprised what you find!

By season 3, Pedro's two stunt doubles get credit as co-stars rather than just as stunt doubles.  He's been very gracious all along to point out that the show would never work without all three of them.