The Mandalorian - Chapter Fourteen - The Tragedy

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The Mandalorian and the child travel to an ancient site

Note this is the shortest episode so far, clocking under 32 minutes in total.

 

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Oh man, oh man, oh man.

Let's start with this, we were all wrong. Reviewers, viewers, commentators, the lot. None of us guess about what was going to happen, and I read quite a few pieces. Thing is, I also read about Tython. It is one of the outer rim systems, with a strong connection to the beginnings of the Force lore.

I mean to the beginnings of it all, thousands of years earlier, in the time when there was no Galactic Republic. Just a dream of it. Back then, they didn't had light sabres or blasters. The FTL was a new thing, still in development, when the people found a way to engage their powers.

In the Star Wars Universe if you're Force Sensitive you're one of the rare breeds. You could almost call yourself a wizard, because you're essentially it, rare and powerful. I'm not sure how Midiclorians fit in all of it, but if you go beyond the temples, you start to encounter Force Creatures.

We could call them Gods or DemiGods, because they are essentially that powerful and Tython is supposed to be a place where some of them live. But just like it was with the Chopper Base, they don't show up easily, and they are certainly very reluctant on revealing anything. Especially when it comes to the Force related knowledge.

In the back of my mind I was expecting to see close resembles to other canon-related Jedi temples, with spires and rock arts. The only thing that we got is the crude megalithic stone circle, with a carved spherical in the middle.

Not much to show, eh?

Well, if the planet is one of the forgotten and abandoned places at outer rim, not much should be happening. There certainly shouldn't be any high technology or fancy things, because back in time, they had no such things. Not really. It was all crude things.

The sophistication bit comes to play when someone shows up. I personally was expecting the mystical Temple Guardians appearing from nowhere, not the Dark Troopers and certainly not Moff Gideon on a light cruiser. And the very last thing was Boba Fett.

I was right about one thing, they are robots in this setting, while in the games they could also be Force Sensitive people in a fancy exoskeleton. They are much tougher to take down than normal stormtroopers or even battle droids, just because the Emperor invested so much on them.

Maybe he saw that there was going to be situations where you couldn't trust on the core of the military to do their job, and they needed that little bit of extra to stay alive and being able to commit to their mission.

What surprised me was that Moff only sent down four and not twenty four. He could have easily overwhelmed the place and possibly take down Mando and his new found buddies. Maybe he was cost cutting, but if Mando had had his rocket pack, he could have done something.

Shooting certainly would have been the thing and possibly harming the Child.

You look at those Dark Troopers and you know that they can take a beating. Maybe more than what Mando was able to shell out, especially as his Disruptor Rifle had been atomised. You look at those droids and you might think that they are wearing a bit of Beskar, as certainly Vader or the Emperor would have made sure that it was all put in good use.

We don't know for sure, because they didn't get shot.

Out of all people, it was Boba who showed up first to demand back his armour. And he wasn't mad at Mando for having it. I think he made a fair deal, armour for protection, because that's more valuable in my and in his eyes than any money. It is after all what he does, being a hired gun. Not just being a notorious bounty hunter.

Vader certainly saw his value in all things and even in this episode he shows how good he is on handling the business. To be honest, the Imperial had no chance. You could even look at it in the light that they were suffering until the Dark Troopers showed up, and for letting them live, Moff Gideon made a mistake.

Frankly, he should have nuked them from the orbit. Now we get to see Mando unleashed, riding aboard the iconic Rebel I with the legendary Boba Fett on his side.

Would you guys be willing to bet that there's going to be a chaos?

 

[REBerg]

Rest in pieces, Razor Crest.
Maybe you were a flying junk heap, but you deserved better than to be turned into crater debris. You could have met your end in a prolonged dogfight, with Mando jetting to safety after setting your controls to ram an imperial cruiser and bring it down in flames.
Just sitting there, on the ground? Not cool.
That was the episode shocker for me. Oh yeah, that and Grogu falling in the evil hands of the Empire.
Well, at least the Force is with him.

 

[ctg]

Oh yeah, that and Grogu falling in the evil hands of the Empire.
Well, at least the Force is with him.

And plenty of stormtroopers to play with. Let's not forget about that.

 

[Dave]

I know the Stormtroopers are almost intentionally **** but they arrive on two ships with four huge guns on each side, set down neatly next to the other two ships, and then attack on foot, uphill, against an enemy hiding out in the rocks. Just fly over them and shoot them from above. Take out both their ships on the ground too. No, instead they just run away and then get taken out themselves.

You can see why Gideon is a Moff. He knew what to do. Take out the Razor Crest on the ground from above, come in from above and snatch Grogu; simple without any engagement or casualties. You would have to think that taking him on and trying to free Grogu is a suicide mission, even with the help of Boba Fett, but I can't help thinking that Grogu did something important in the mountaintop Jedi temple and that maybe some more help is coming too; help of the Jedi kind.

 

[REBerg]

You can see why Gideon is a Moff. He knew what to do. Take out the Razor Crest on the ground from above, come in from above and snatch Grogu; simple without any engagement or casualties.

And when to do it.
Was he monitoring that Force field protecting Grogu, knowing that it would end, then sending the Dark Troopers on their mission?
A exchange of fire would have at least demonstrated how their aim compares to that of their Stormtrooper colleagues. In their failure to take the hill, dozens of Stormtroopers (How did they all cram into two small transports?) didn't seem to hit anything, even with an automatic weapon, whereas their three opponents never seemed to miss.
The running gag continues.

 

[ctg]

I know the Stormtroopers are almost intentionally **** but they arrive on two ships with four huge guns on each side, set down neatly next to the other two ships, and then attack on foot, uphill, against an enemy hiding out in the rocks. Just fly over them and shoot them from above. Take out both their ships on the ground too. No, instead they just run away and then get taken out themselves.

I know and again they didn't had escorts. No Tie-Fighters and certainly not Tie-Bombers. It is as if they've just come out of school, instead of being a force that conquered the galaxy. And when they left, they didn't bother shooting back. Instead they zoomed off to the sky.

Was he monitoring that Force field protecting Grogu, knowing that it would end, then sending the Dark Troopers on their mission?

Most certainly. I think Stormies did good, they even bothered bringing a mortar. It's just Moff didn't bother giving them a support they needed. To be honest, they did put a good fight with what they got. Their officers were totally sh1te for not properly organising them.

but I can't help thinking that Grogu did something important in the mountaintop Jedi temple and that maybe some more help is coming too; help of the Jedi kind.

Maybe, but it's highly unlikely and what they can do. The light cruiser is in hyperspace and there is no way for them to track it. Mando doesn't even know about the ultimate reason for cloning things and his first port of call wasn't Ashoka.

 

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The new season of Star Wars: The Mandalorian has created a lot of speculation for fans of the popular Disney+ series, especially when it comes to the fate of the Jedi and Baby Yoda AKA Grogu, as well as the machinations of the Imperial warlord Moff Gideon. The former governor-turned-intergalactic-mob-boss has turned his attention toward learning more about Grogu and his connection with the Force, discovering details about midichlorians in hopes of harnessing those powers for his own nefarious gains. But what does this have to do with his newly-introduced squad of Dark Troopers?

The Mandalorian: Are Dark Troopers Droids or Stormtroopers?

The episode heightened the conflict between Din and Moff Gideon (Giancarlo Esposito), who has been hunting for Grogu in hopes of using his "M-count" (also known as midichlorians) to create new Force-sensitive clones for the Empire. After an epic standoff on Tython, during which Boba Fett (Temura Morrison) and Fennec Shand (Ming-Na Wen) came to Din and Grogu's aid, Gideon had employed his Dark Troopers to kidnap Grogu and bring him to his ship. In the episode's final sequence, Gideon visited Grogu in his cell in the empire -- and saw a surprising sight when he arrived. Grogu could be seen performing a double Force Choke on the two Stormtroopers in his cell, sending them both catapulting from one end of the room to another.

The double Force Choke feels noteworthy in and of itself, as no other Jedi has been canonically seen doing as much during the Star Wars franchise. Sure, Darth Vader has been shown doing a singular Force choke, but the notion of a Jedi being able to do both is definitely significant in some way -- and arguably raises the bar going into the final episodes of Season 2.

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I waited for someone to bring up Grogu's actions in the episode up on light. Thing is I was prepared to defend his transformation and balancing on the knives edge with his Force related powers. In the Rebels, Kanan really didn't know how to teach Ezra on how to be a Jedi, when they both were so green and Kanan had barely made to his knighthood.

Ezra were a wildcat and he too edge towards the darkness, towards anger, but he never allowed hatred to fill his heart. So, in regards of the Force Choke Grogu did only follow his emotions and he didn't actually kill his toys. The stormtroopers lived to be played on another day. But in regards of Double Choke's, well... first time for everything and we don't know if Vader ever tried it, but if he had, he could have succeeded. It is not a big feat.

 

[Parson]

This episode was filled with the "Oh, not again" --- Storm Troopers who are worse than useless. and the "Oh No!" Mando's ship is shot! And finally the "Where has that been?" Grogu returns from helpless, frustrating passenger to a potential Jedi as he was at the beginning.

I was most upset by the minutes spent on that useless Storm Trooper battle. And devastated by the destruction of the Razor Crest.

I predict a highly improbable rescue of Grogu in our future.

 

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I was most upset by the minutes spent on that useless Storm Trooper battle.

Am I correct to assume that the simple plots are now boring you? I'm afraid that the series cannot take a step forward towards the complex plots, because it is meant to bring in screen candies and provide a comical relief while everything is set in space fantasy settings. Note I didn't use science, because Star Wars still has to prove the science part, and so far it has not materialised.

 

[Dave]

Am I correct to assume that the simple plots are now boring you?

It isn't the "simple plots" he is complaining about though, it it? The Stormtrooper battle was like a slapstick comedy. In fact, it was very like a scene in the film Sleeper where Woody Allen is chased by futuristic police. All it would have needed extra was for Mando to slip on a giant oversized banana skin. I'm not so sure that it really is meant to be a running joke and not just poor writing. In any case, if the Empire's crack troops are a laughing stock then how can any of the rest the narrative be taken seriously?

 

[Parson]

Am I correct to assume that the simple plots are now boring you?

It's more what @Dave said, but of course he said it better than I. ---- I meant that having 20 people walk into a kill zone and keep walking without diving into cover is more unbelievable than that there will be FTL drive in the future. Added to that "Why would Mando and his cohorts run here and there, rather than stay under cover and pick off the brain dead Storm Troopers? I mean anyone should get lucky if they keep shooting enough! And why would Storm Troopers wear armor which is effectively useless? etc. etc. ---- Now I could tolerate this for maybe 30 seconds or so, but it was likely almost 10 percent of the entire episode!

 

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I mean anyone should get lucky if they keep shooting enough!

Exactly, but if you have watched carefully in last three episodes, Mando has been acting like a tank while Stormies has scored some hits. I don't blame them for not hitting the weak spots, but at least there has been some hits. And tactically they have been doing better, especially in corridor fights, but you're right they didn't use their supreme power and training that everyone they have received.

I bet there are a lot of veterans and people who have seen actual combat, who sigh in same way to all this wasted potential. During the Rebels they got serious about it, but as we've seen the first season started off with comedy and ever since it has been going. Nobody believes stormies can do any good, because frankly we have never seen them winning big.

All the destroyed planets, vehicles, lost troops. If these are under Grand Admiral Thrawn's command then they are doing poorly, even though they caught the kid. At the same time, we have to remember that they were facing three top professionals.

Also you can blame Robert Rodriques for directing this episode, because I'm sure he could have put down his foot and said to Disney that this is enough, stormies need to win too.

And why would Storm Troopers wear armor which is effectively useless?

Because it's what they were issued.

 

[Parson]

Exactly, but if you have watched carefully in last three episodes, Mando has been acting like a tank while Stormies has scored some hits.

True, I did notice that his armor was being hit. It's one of the reasons that the Storm Troopers supposed armor stood out in my mind. --- I know the Mandalorian armor is a thing of myth, but you'd expect at least some benefit from it.

 

[The Crawling Chaos]

It isn't the "simple plots" he is complaining about though, it it? The Stormtrooper battle was like a slapstick comedy. In fact, it was very like a scene in the film Sleeper where Woody Allen is chased by futuristic police. All it would have needed extra was for Mando to slip on a giant oversized banana skin. I'm not so sure that it really is meant to be a running joke and not just poor writing. In any case, if the Empire's crack troops are a laughing stock then how can any of the rest the narrative be taken seriously?

We can blame Favreau for this. According to a recent interview, Rodriguez was handed a 19-page script for this episode. 19 pages = 19 minutes (roughly). He then went to Favreau and mentioned that he tends to edit aggressively and was worried the episode would be even shorter than 19 minutes, at which point Favreau reportedly told him "That's what you're here for. Fill out the blanks." So Rodriguez, not knowing what else to do, decided to extend the battle scenes.

Now I'm not the biggest fan of Rodriguez. In fact, I dislike all of his movies and I have no love for his visual style either. He likes cheap-looking cinema, hence why he shot that episode under a glaring sun that wasn't really the best choice to sell the armors and costumes (kind of like when Nolan shot his Batman in broad daylight). Boba Fett's armor was almost a bad cosplay version of his usual armor, and good lighting wouldn't have given that impression. But in this case, he was hired to do what he does and he delivered it the way he always does, so I think the blame rests with Favreau only.

In my opinion, the show's main issue is that it still thinks it's a traditional TV series from the 70s or 90s, with enough episodes to both flesh out the characters on smaller character-driven pieces, deliver a compelling and tight narrative and squeeze in a few fun, monster-of-the-week episodes. The issue is that those older shows offered seasons of 20, 25 episodes of 45 minutes each, so there was plenty of material there to satisfy everyone. If you weren't interested in Mulder and Scully chasing a werewolf down the sewers and wanted them to go back to chasing little grey men, you knew you only had to wait for the following week's episode.

In the case of Mando, you get 8 episodes of 30 minutes on average. That is nothing. This should be the fastest-paced show ever. Grogu should have been captured in episode 1, Ahsoka and Bo-Katan should have showed up in episode 2, Boba should have spent a good 2-3 episodes tracking down his armor (as a side plot), and the rest of the show should all be about Din Djarin tracking down Moff Gideon making some new friends along the way. Instead we got the Krayt Dragon episode, the Spider on Ice planet episode, the "You-can't-use-hyperspace-because-the-plot-needs-more-filler" episode... I mean, come on. You're just wasting time here. How many times has the Razor Crest suffered plot-induced damage? Enough already.

I'm finally watching the seventh, final season of the Clone Wars cartoon and it has exactly the same problems: They got 12 episodes of 20 minutes to wrap everything up, and instead of giving us a grand finale full of excitement (just have the whole thing set in parallel to the Revenge of the Sith plot, with Vader starting to hunt down Jedi and Ahsoka trying to save as many of them as she can), they wasted 8 of those episodes (!!!) on secondary plots that went nowhere, introducing new characters that then disappear without a trace, and for what?

The Mandalorian is a good show, but it could be a great show if Favreau and Filoni stopped wasting time.

 

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I'm finally watching the seventh, final season of the Clone Wars cartoon and it has exactly the same problems: They got 12 episodes of 20 minutes to wrap everything up, and instead of giving us a grand finale full of excitement (just have the whole thing set in parallel to the Revenge of the Sith plot, with Vader starting to hunt down Jedi and Ahsoka trying to save as many of them as she can), they wasted 8 of those episodes (!!!) on secondary plots that went nowhere, introducing new characters that then disappear without a trace, and for what?

I know, but for the Rebels they got better. They actually focused on the plot and made sure there was so, while they put in some filler episodes to fill timeslot. In this one, I think the Disney is listening, but there hasn't been a lot of criticism.

Not super vocal anyway. I know that personally I've tried to voice things when they've bothered me, but for most of the time, I've been enjoying these episodes. What surprised me was the 19 page script.

Sure it's plot enough, but for the director to fill in the caps... it's not their job. Never was and for the director changing in almost every episode it's dangerous, because Disney's claim on the canon material. None of them are Lucas and Lucas doesn't direct any more.

If they could fill in as much stuff as for example Netflix's Narcos has it would be brilliant, because then it would just a question about the direction, but because the series is heavily in the Fantasy side, anything can happen. Even the bloody unicorns.

 

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As The Mandalorian approaches the season 2 finale, it seems that the show’s latest episode, “The Tragedy,” has lived up to its title—specifically for collectors of expensive toys.

Just this past September, the official Star Wars figures producers of Hasbro Toys—via its HasLab crowdfund project—unveiled and successfully funded its second too-pricey-for-retail mega-vehicle: Din Djarin’s signature ship, the Razor Crest. The funding of the toy, which followed last year’s success with the massive Jabba’s Sail Barge (The Khetanna), will bring to life the magnificent starship, presented in-scale for the 3.75” scale action figures, specifically for those willing to pay the $350 price tag. As it turns out, around 28,000 hardcore toy collectors were willing to pay, yielding the company $9.8 million in funding—not bad at all.

Did The Mandalorian Ruin Hasbro's Most Expensive Star Wars Toy?

Fans who crowdfunded Hasbro’s pricey Razor Crest toy might have been especially shocked by what happened in a recent episode of The Mandalorian.

www.denofgeek.com

For @Rodders this could be an investment, if only he didn't love the Millenium Falcon so much.

 

[Rodders]

I seriously considered it, ctg. In the end I thought it would be too much of a slippery slope to start collecting other stuff. Besides, I don't have the room.

 

[Brian G Turner]

This was a disappointing episode - yet again, there's little plot just a long fireworks display as useless Stormtroopers act useless, and it's all just a violence fest with little actual story.

Also disappointing was the return of Boba Fett. Tens of millions of filmgoers saw him die in Return of the Jedi, but tens of thousands of Star Wars novel readers know he's brought back to life. IMO it's an example of the tail wagging the dog by letting the novels read by a tiny minority dictate terms for the vaster viewing majority. It shouldn't be hard to keep continuity between the two without undermining the films (cf Darth Maul as well).

Also, this:

8 episodes of 30 minutes on average

I read something similar online before watching it, but DisneyPlus lists the run times and they all average over 40 minutes. That's the length of a Star Trek: The Next Generation episode, where they manage to have a main plot, secondary plot, character development, and usually a morale theme to address. The Mandalorian has 10-15 minutes of story and the result is action filler.

There's a lot to like about The Mandalorian, but it veers between okay and good TV, and never as great viewing. The fight sequences are becoming repetitive and dull and should be used as a climax to plot, not in lieu of it. Kathleen Kennedy really hasn't done a very good job at all in over-seeing the new Star Wars franchise releases.

 

[The Crawling Chaos]

I agree with your feelings regarding the series but...

Also disappointing was the return of Boba Fett. Tens of millions of filmgoers saw him die in Return of the Jedi, but tens of thousands of Star Wars novel readers know he's brought back to life. IMO it's an example of the tail wagging the dog by letting the novels read by a tiny minority dictate terms for the vaster viewing majority.

I may have misunderstood your point here but Boba Fett's survival was decanonized when Disney bought Lucasfilm and wiped the slate clean, so the showrunners had a blank canvas and no outside pressure to bring him back from the dead a second time. And if Disney only wanted to cater to Fett fans, nothing prevented them from releasing a string of new-EU novels/series/what have you set before Return of the Jedi, and keep him canonically dead for good. If he was indeed brought back from the dead in this fashion, we owe it to A/ The showrunners' own love for the character, which is well documented and B/ promises of considerable financial gains through an additional TV series centred around a character that is in high demand plus associated merchandise.

The minority of Boba Fett fans had nothing to do with this, and as one of them I find your statement that my enjoyment of a bunch of 20-to-30-year-old novels 'dictated' anything to a vaster majority that didn't want it (my understanding of your words, I could be wrong) unfair. I was fine with dead Boba, in fact I think bringing him back in this show was a mistake because his return overshadowed the character of Din Djarin for me, even though he was growing on me and he was a sufficient fix for my Mandalorian craving. When Boba turned up, I only had eyes for him anymore. Anyway, it's hard to blame Disney for identifying a profitable market and acting upon it.