An Early Review of The Mandalorian
December 13, 2019
The first episode of The Mandalorian came out on Disney+ on November 12th, 2019. The series is set in the Star Wars universe and takes place five years after the events of episode 6, Return of the Jedi. The episodes are about 30 minutes each and moved quickly, as they are pretty plot based and don’t dive into too much character development. As of today, December 10th 2019, there are 5 episodes out and more seem to be coming.
Even though the show takes place in the Star Wars universe it really does stand on its own, as in someone who has never seen a Star Wars movie could understand it with ease.
SPOILERS FROM HERE ON
The first and second episodes focus around establishing the main character, the Mandalorian, as a bounty hunter. The first scene he is seen in, he kills five men with ease and takes another captive. From what I have gathered Mando hates droids, is a man of few words, seems to be fine killing almost any life form, and yet still has a strong moral code. I realized that the show has a lot of action; almost every episode has at least 10 minutes of fighting and shootouts, giving the feeling of an old western movie. That feeling is added to by the music that plays at the beginning and end of each episode. It gives me space-i-er “The Good, The Bad and The Ugly” feelings.
The story line that I am most interested in at the moment is what happened to the Mandalorians? It is established that the empire wiped them out and that’s why they went into hiding, but why haven’t other races of the Empire’s wiped out had to do that? Why don’t they take their helmets off? It is established that the Mandalorians’ religion involves their weapons and armor, but I’m wondering how that plays into the Mandalorian as a character. We see flashbacks of what I can only assume is him as a boy during his planet’s raid by the Empire, but I hope this isn’t all we get as viewers and I hope that the writers don’t draw out the story line too far like how they did with Rey’s parents in my opinion.
The mystery is nice at the beginning, but if it goes on for the entire season it is going to get pretty annoying.
The series isn’t just leaving us with questions about the Mandalorians; it’s leaving us with more questions about Yoda after the introduction of what fans have been calling “Baby Yoda.” The origins of Yoda’s species have never been explored in any of the canonized Star Wars series. All viewers know is that she is of a race that ages very slowly and is very strong with the force. This is re-established as the child is 50 years old and can use the force with what I assume is no training. I really hope that they use baby Yoda as more than just a cute face, I hope his or her origin is explored and expanded and can really add to the depth of the character of Yoda.
Speaking of Yoda’s cute face, the Mandalorian and it’s breakout character dominated Twitter with users commenting about their love for him.
I will say he is very cute especially in the scene after the Mandalorian takes him back and they’re in the ship and baby Yoda can’t stop touching buttons and gets in trouble and just look so cute!
Baby Yoda is such a contrast to the rest of the show that is dark and brooding and filled with violence.
The same goes for the bond that he has with the other Mandalorians that have been in hiding. When he was locked in with baby Yoda being fired at from every angle, they come in to save them and when he says that they will have to move their hiding space, another Mandalorian says, “This is the way.” Which brings up another interesting point – what does that phrase mean? I think that it means that this is the way that we get back from the ruin the empire has created, but I also think I might be wrong. It is established that the Mandalorians are saving resources for their descendants.
The other interesting part of the show is consistent structure of him going to a new place, meeting new people, helping them, and then moving on. I wonder if these are just one off characters or if they will come back in some way at the end? I hope that this gives us some full circle moments from the beginning of the series at the end. I have very high hopes for this and so far they’ve been delivering even though it’s just the beginning.