The Mandalorian (s1ep1) (a review post)

--"I can bring you in warm, or I can bring you in cold."

Well, I didn't really intend to do a review for this show. I mean, I figure they're going to be everywhere and that anything I say will be more than redundant. But we, the kids and I, just finished watching the first episode, and... well, all I can say is

😲

Should I feel this way? I don't know. Maybe if I kept up more with fan stuff leading up the releases of things, I would have known some of this stuff, but I actively avoid reading about the production of all sorts of things these days because I want to experience what I'm watching without knowing all the stuff ahead of time. For this show, that meant lots of 😲 moments.

No, I'm not going to tell you. Maybe once the series is over, we can all sit down and have a chat. For the moment, though, I can talk about the production value: amazing! The show looks incredible. And it feels, well, incredible, too. A little bit of western, a lot of sci-fi. In some respects it followed formula, so there's a lot of familiarity to it. But, then, it does things that push it to the edge of the familiar space and you're not quite sure what's going on. AND MAN I WANT TO SAY THE THINGS THAT 😲 but I'm not going to do that.

Which doesn't leave me much to talk about, but I do have two things I can say: one a "dislike" and one a "like."

At the beginning of the episode, during a very familiar-feeling scene (both Star Wars familiar and western familiar), a "guy" gets caught in one of those metal doors that close to the center and it cuts him in half. This door was the entrance to a bar, by the way, not that that matters. All I'm saying is that we have elevator doors that reopen if you get caught by them, so I find it a little difficult to buy into the idea that a bar -- you know, where you have drunk people stumbling around all the time -- would have an entryway that would cut you in half if you happen to get caught in the doorway. Seems bad for business to me.

Then there's the scene with the assassin droid. I need to go watch that again. It was amazing. So far beyond IG-88 standing on the bridge of a Star Destroyer. Yeah, I'm definitely going to have to do a re-watch.

Honestly, I don't really have a good idea of how I feel about the show or what I think about it. What I know is 

 😲 

and that I'm ready to watch the next episode right now. All of us were.

And, well, what more is a show supposed to do than have you slavering for the next one everytime you finish an episode?

Rebels: "Iron Squadron" (Ep. 3.08)

-- "The Iron Squadron doesn't run."

Ever want to see the Dunning-Kruger effect in operation? Well, in fictional operation, at any rate. This is a good episode for that.

What we have is a group of rebels evacuating from a planet that the Empire is coming to... cleanse...? of its rebelliousness. Most of the rebels do the smart thing and leave before the Empire's task force arrives. However, one group, Iron Squadron, refuses to leave. According to their leader, Martin, Iron Squadron doesn't run.

Of course, Iron Squadron doesn't really know what they're dealing with. When they manage to take out an Imperial transport ship -- a transport! -- Martin believes they've taken out a Star Destroyer and won't listen to anything that says otherwise. Not that he doesn't believe that it wasn't a Star Destroyer, he just doesn't believe there's any conceivable difference between the Star Destroyer and what he just destroyed. Until he runs up against a light cruiser and... loses. Only then does he begin to understand.

It's an interesting exploration into ignorance and touches on why some people don't flee from natural disasters. Or, well, vote for things that do they harm, like Republicans. They're so uneducated as to think that the transport ship they're facing is a Star Destroyer.

Anyway...
Good episode.

"Good luck with Iron Squadron..."

"Sounds like a ship full of Ezras!"

Clone Wars -- "Destroy Malevolence" (Ep. 1.4)

 -- A plan is only as good as those who see it through.

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This episode hearkens back to A New Hope and the Death Star rescue. See, the Malevolence is a huge ship. Massive. It's three times bigger than the standard Imperial Star Destroyer (though still dwarfed by the Super Star Destroyer). Grievous, through the machinations of Darth Sidious, is able to take Padme (almost) hostage while trying to escape from Republic forces. Anakin, of course, goes to rescue her. There are also overtones of the droid factory from Attack of the Clones.

This episode also has what I think is the first physical confrontation between Obi-Wan and Grievous. Without looking up and cataloging all of their meetings, this seems to me to be an ongoing theme in Clone Wars which, of course, culminates in their final duel in Revenge of the Sith.

Probably, the most interesting part of the episode has to do with transportation inside these huge ships. Imperial Star Destroyers are pretty close to a mile long. Haven't you ever wondered how people get around inside of them without it taking forever? Especially on something like a Super Star Destroyer, which is close to four miles long. Imagine: You have a meeting with Vader in half an hour, but you're on the wrong end of the ship. How do you get there?

Of course, the Space Balls answer was interior teleporters. But Star Wars doesn't actually use teleportation, so maybe being force choked for being late is your only option.

Or is it? The answer "Destroy Malevolence" provides is a kind of high speed tram system. Considering that the Clone Wars series is canon, I have to assume that this is the official answer as to how people (or droids) get around on these huge ships. We don't get to see much beyond the bridge area of the Star Destroyers in the movies, but I would love to see how these would look. Not that I expect that we'll get any better look at the interiors of Star Destroyers in episode VII.

At any rate, it's a fun episode. It's fun to see Anakin on the rescuing side of the whole rescue-the-princess thing.