Gamer Nation Con … 8 is it now?
That’s the one. And yes…8.
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I wanted to come, but I had to prioritise… I haven’t been since 6. Hopefully next year, the Norwegian Delegation can return.
I’m just attending tomorrow.
I love Star Wars, but if I’m in London over easter, I’m going to do stuff that’s not Star Wars-related too. 
Besides, saw plenty of blasters at the IWM. 
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Ah, 6 was my first! Hope to see you again next year! I’m running my first game for GNC this year, so…fingers crossed.
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So, it’s out today. I can spoil my semi-digested and half-forgotten impressions!
So, no surprise really, but Thrawn being the power behind Gideon (and the other remnant warlords) makes sense and is cool with the tie in to Ahsoka.
That Gideon is hiding out on Mandalore makes sense, and his armour … I’m not a big fan, but it looked cool, and the callback to Rebels with stormtroopers (this time around) in beskar is pretty neat.
Those three Praetorian … what a nice thing to add … as was (daddy) Hux, and capt. Pellaeon. The meaningful glances they shared.
I am very much looking forward to next week’s episode. I foresee some torturing of Din, and perhaps his rescue … I wonder what will happen with the Mandalorians though, and whether will take the fall for freeing Gideon…
This is all very exciting! Going to re-watch it tonight I think.
This episode was fantastic start to finish, full marks from me.
There are literally three things I can point out, and two are tiny and utterly irrelevant:
- Crazy lady’s report to Gideon was a bit stilted in delivery at a couple points, like an actor/character/line mismatch, not just “this person is being formal.”
- The Anzellan just sort of bounce-floated along the table, the movement wasn’t synced up to the walking.
- The mythosaur will almost certainly come up in the finale (Chekov’s gun being a concept the writers are quite familiar with [*cough* IG-12 *cough*]), but the impact is lessened by the aforementioned “Star Wars has a problem with gigantism.” The exception to this would be if interactions with the massive creatures elsewhere has some relevance to how they interact with the mythosaur.
One question: How will Axe Woves get to the fleet? No comms, and no other transport. Is he just going to fly there on his jetpack?
From top to bottom:
Cinematography was excellent throughout, starting on Coruscant and ending with the light directly on the Kar’ta Beskar of Gideon’s armor when he’s monologuing about taking the best of Mandalorians.
The scene with the Imperials was excellent, and I like the idea of Thrawn as a kind of rumored bogeyman even the Imperial officers aren’t sure exists (anymore, that is). I hope we don’t have any deus ex machina with Thrawn deposing Gideon or cutting off his reinforcements, but my guess is that they’re setting it up for Thrawn to step into the vacuum left by Gideon’s (presumed) imminent defeat.
The scenes on Nevarro were excellent, from the “Imperial” ship appearing over the city (cleverly situated immediately after the officers’ conversation) to the meeting in the flats (SO MANY MANDALORIANS!!! :))))))))) )
I really liked how they handled “IG-12.” It was appropriately humorous, while also being functional and serving a practical use in the show. Grogu will become quite a handful now that he has his own mech suit AND a soundboard. It’s an interesting way to end-around a non-vocal character.
Everything on Mandalore was great, but I don’t have a lot specifically to say about it until…
Finally, a heroic sacrifice! There were so many in Clone Wars, and then I think one in all of Rebels, Resistance, Mando 1-2, Clone Wars season 7, BoBF, and Bad Batch season 1, with the jury still being out on season 2 since we never saw Tech’s body. I love a good heroic last stand, and this one fit the bill nicely. It also served a purpose, and one of the pitfalls in “heroic last stand”-type things is when it was easily avoidable or non-contributive and it ends up looking like the last-standee had a death wish, or else that the authors had a death wish for him.
The Imperial pseudo-Mandos were quite interesting, and apparently the ones who rescued Moff Gideon, so not quite the Dark Troopers I had guessed, but pretty close. Combat was fun, I loved the glowing barrels, the praetorians stabbing him seemingly through beskar didn’t make sense to me, but maybe it would have if there wasn’t glare on the screen and I could see it better.
While I’m on the subject, here’s how I define a heroic sacrifice/last stand:
- The character must be named and characterized.
- The character must ACTUALLY DIE.
- The objective the character was attempting to accomplish must be fulfilled (wiggle room).
- The character must be actively fighting an enemy force.
Here’s a list just off the top of my head from Clone Wars, in attempted chronological order:
- Hevy
- Ima-Gun Di
- Keeli
- Echo
- Hardcase
- Thorn (debatable on 3)
- Fives (debatable on 3 and 4)
I think the other Chekov’s gun is the Forgemistress is gonna forge some Beskar spears and other sharp pointy weapons and things are gonna get stabby. The Imps might have some decent equipment but they are not masters of Beskar, but yes Bo-Katan is 100% gonna ride in on a Mythosaur.
I dunno. Seems like Paz could have just stepped inside the blast door before closing it, or since he managed to take down all the stormtroopers by his lonesome, all of them would have had a decent chance.
Of course, escaping to warn the fleet probably has priority, and Paz Vizsla has been shown to be exactly the kind of character who would make a heroic last stand, even if perhaps it’s not strictly necessary. To me it seemed it had a smidge more to do with personal honor (refusing to retreat from Mandalore and/or hoping to go after Gideon) than tactical concerns.
I give it a pass, even though it seemed somewhat avoidable and seemed somewhat death-wishy. Because that is the way.
I’m trying to recall i Rebels had any besides Kanan. How sacrificy was Gregor’s death? I don’t recall the exact circumstances.
If he stepped inside the blast door before closing it, they could just open the blast door. By staying outside, he held them back from getting to the controls, opening the door, and pursuing the other Mandalorians.
Of course, what if he could shoot the controls to seal the blast door? That’s essentially just Star Wars plot armor and doesn’t always work, so it can’t really be counted on as the argument essentially then becomes “what if he had plot armor” and that’s beside the point.
The only one I can remember was Kanan.
Gregor just sort of … died. They were doing the mission and he got shot and died. So in my four-point analysis, he hits points 1 and 2 and sort of 3, but the underlying premise I did not cite was that it’s someone attempting something he knows will result in his death. In Gregor’s case, it didn’t meet that essential premise.
Examples from Rogue One:
Bodhi Rook: Not a “heroic last stand.” He died heroically, but he simply died in the commission of his duties, he didn’t specifically sacrifice himself.
K2-SO: Heroic last stand/sacrifice, in much the same way as Paz, actually. He chose to set himself up for death in order to accomplish an objective, he actually died, he succeeded, and he was actively fighting an enemy force.
Chirrut Imwe
Melshi fails on 3, unless you count the mission overall
Possibly Baze Malbus
Arguably all of the Rogue One diversion force. They pretty much went in there to buy Jyn and Cassian a chance with their lives. Same goes for Blue Squadron and Blue leader in particular. While they’re all named in supplementary materials, they’re not exactly characterized.
Bonus points for the poor unnamed sods in rebel squad holding off Vader. He went through them like a lightsaber through melted butter, but they slowed him down just enough, and they didn’t try to run except for the guy with the plans. Probably shat themselves to a man, but still held their ground to the very end (which admittedly was very briefly ).
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Oh yes, I agree, I wasn’t saying that was the entirety, I was just comparing two examples from the same media.
Finally got to see Paelleon in live action, we only heard his voice in Rebels and never saw his face, He was Thrawns second in the Rebels finale. So I am happy about that.
I honestly never expected to find Mandalorian Survivors on the planet itself. though I AM glad that the armorer took those who were too wounded to relative safety.
All in all, a good episode, Grogus antis with IG-12 were great. I love how he got between Axe and Paz
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That would definitely be a case of the Armorer changing the rules (again), since she melted down the spear to make Grogu’s shirt saying that beskar can’t be used for weapons (conveniently ignoring her using it to make the Whistling Birds).
But then, I still don’t trust the Armorer any more than I can throw her, and her change of heart regarding the removal of helmets for Bo-Katan’s group is just too easy. There’s almost certainly a reason the episode was titled “The Spies” when we only saw one obvious spy (Elia Kane).
I bet you ten to one that the writers just didn’t think about the whistling birds, but if you want an in-universe explanation it can be as simple as the difference between a melee weapon and a ranged weapon. The concern is a “weapon capable of piercing Mandalorian armor,” as in going through beskar plate. The whistling birds aren’t designed to do that, nor would be ranged weapons firing other sorts of projectiles.
(And that’s if the missiles are actually beskar, which they probably are.)
Out of universe, yeah, pretty sure they just didn’t think of it, and it’s quite unimportant when it’s as easily explained as I just did.
I don’t think they’ll do any forging because they don’t have the time or probably even the equipment for it. It would be quite strange if the show took a break for some (not-so-)quick forging.
Oh, it’s almoste certainly an oversight (although it wouldn’t be the first time an apparent head-scratcher was thought out), but easy enough to hand-wave away in a variety of ways. (Ex: The beskar was just used to make the launcher, and that’s a loophole, like the rocket launcher in the jet pack.) At the same time, it’s also consistent with the vibe that the Armorer is just making poodoo up as she goes along, in whatever way best suits her control as the cult leader.
It’s not about loophole, it’s about the point (pardon the pun).
The point of what she said about weapons is that the beskar spear can pierce Mandalorian armor, and is thus a danger to Mandalorians in that way. They don’t want a weapon with that capability floating around, as it’s like an eagle killed by an arrow fletched with its own feather.
The whistling birds, jetpack, even a blaster, none of those meet what she was actually discussing.
As for whether they’d make a blaster or whatever else out of beskar, Mandalorians would see that as a waste. Beskar is a limited resource and is most valuable in armor, not in weapons.
The “rule” is practical with a hint of culture rather than being a magisterial announcement.
I think you’re being far too cynical.
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(Well, that’s really my only response, but apparently replies have to be 20 characters minimum.)
I had a thought.
Is the armorer someone we know or someone important? Ie if the armorer’s name/identity is revealed, will it be someone of note?
My first thought was “She’s not that tall, maybe it’s Padme in disguise?”
On a slightly more serious note, it might be Enfys Nest, but that’s so tangentially connected it would seem like a pointless easter egg.
Omega? 
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I hadnt thought of that A-Wing pondering noises