That… was not where anyone assumed those Purge flashbacks were heading, I’ll wager. Huh.
Recap
Grogu is marveling over some hermit crab creatures when Din comes over and asks him to train with the Foundlings. The kid is set up opposite Ragnar Vizsla (Wesley Kimmel), who chooses darts at their weapon for the match. Ragnar gets off two shots before Grogu (with some extra encouragement from Din and Bo-Katan) defeats the kid handily. Immediately after, a raptor appears and snatches Ragnar away. Several jet-packed adults follow, but run out of fuel before they can get to the nest. Bo-Katan follows in her ship, and comes back with sensor information of the raptor’s nest and the surrounding area.
It’s decided that Bo-Katan will lead the party, and that they will land a distance from the nest and approach on foot, with a long climb up a cliff face so that they won’t warn the raptor with loud sounds. The group makes camp at the foot of the mountain and Bo-Katan learns that when the Watch has to eat, they retreat to separate areas where they can’t be seen by each other; she has the honor of staying by the fire to eat as head of the hunting party.
Grogu spends time with the Armorer back at camp, where she shows him the forge and tells him that it is a place to discover weaknesses. Grogu flashes back to his escape from the Jedi Temple during the Purge, being defending by a group of Jedi who then send him to Jedi Master Kelleran Beq (Ahmed Best). The duo leave via a speeder bike while being pursued by clones. They eventually make it through to a landing platform holding a Naboo starship and guard contingent; the crew keep fighting off clones as Grogu and Beq board the ship, take off, and enter hyperspace. In the present, the Armorer forges a roundel chest plate to protect Grogu as he grows.
The hunting party scale the cliff face and make it to the nest. Din detects heat signatures, leading Paz Vizsla (Jon Favreau) to clamber into the nest to rescue his son before they’ve properly scanned the area. The nest has three raptor babies in it; their mother returns and coughs up Ragnar to be their meal, and a fight ensues where the party works to free the foundling. Din eventually pries Ragnar from her grip, and the mother raptor is eaten by a dinosaur turtle below. The group returns with the raptor babies as new foundlings. The Armorer offers to repair Bo-Katan’s armor, making her a new pauldron. Bo-Katan asks if this one can have the mythosaur on it, and is obliged, as the symbol belongs to all Mandalorians. Bo-Katan suggests that she’s seen the living mythosaur, but the Armorer is skeptical of this.
Commentary
There’s every chance it didn’t register in the midst of your watch, so just in case: The Jedi who saves Grogu from certain death during the Purge flashbacks was played by Ahmed Best.
Which means I’m going to have to create a sidebar straight off the bat because this is a wildly complicated arc to bring into this show, and while I think the intention in creating it was a good one, I’m not sure it makes up for the things it’s attempting to make up for. I’m not sure anything could.
Best is the actor who played Jar Jar Binks in the prequel trilogy, back when he was a very young actor fresh off his ensemble work in Stomp. Jar Jar was pretty universally derided on landing, and the film’s audience and fans tended to claim that their problems with the character were down to Binks being a varietal of extremely aggravating comic relief. But there were certainly much larger problems at play here, and those lie entirely at the feet of George Lucas, who, in the best case reading of this, somehow failed to realize that he was building Jar Jar and his entire species off of racist caricatures and minstrelsy archetypes. (A less kind reading of this would assume that was intentional on his part, and that he saw no issue with this.) Best himself did not believe that he was enacting those caricatures in Jar Jar, a character that he had a heavy hand in creating by all accounts.
The backlash to Jar Jar was cruel, severe, and aimed directly at Ahmed Best. It was so bad that he admitted in recent years to feelings of depression and suicide ideation in its wake. It certainly left a mark on his career for the past two decades, where the majority of the work he found was only in enacting parodies of Binks. Then, in 2020, it was announced that Best would be playing Jedi Master Kelleran Beq on a game show called Star Wars: Jedi Temple Challenge, where he encouraged child “Padawans” through a series of obstacle courses to help them become Jedi Knights. And now, we’ve seen the first canonical appearance of Master Beq, as the Jedi who was apparently in charge of getting Grogu to safety when the Purge occurred. He executes this mission with panache for his very first live-action outing. Grogu stays glued to his side, feels safe in his care, and from the way this entire section is shot (often from the child’s vantage point, gazing up at Beq with no small measure of awe), it’s clear we’re meant to feel the same as Grogu.
Best is wonderful in this role, and I truly hope he enjoyed the experience and any other appearances that materialize from it. I also hope that he got an exorbitant paycheck for his trouble. But can we really call this a decent mea maxima culpa on the part of Lucasfilm and Disney given the effect Jar Jar had on his life? Let’s just say, it’s a particularly interesting flex on their part to take their most beleaguered actor and thrust him into the role of saving their most beloved IP… er, I mean, cargo. Sorry, character.
Which is to say that I have nothing but cynicism for the role the studios are playing here, and nothing but love for Best in this and any other role he plays. I hope he shows up in a flashback for every episode of The Mandalorian unto the end of time, I hope he gets his own spin-off series and toy residuals, I hope they erect a statue to Kelleran Beq in every Disney theme park and—look, the point is that this is a start, but it’s not nearly enough.
And I have further plot-relevant questions here, namely being why was Grogu so carefully protected to the point where Beq had a ship explicitly waiting for them… which is Nabooian? The other Jedi know to explicitly send Grogu to him, and he has this escape route figured ahead of time? Those are Naboo security forces, and they clearly know Beq and were waiting for them—and were willing to die to protect them—so that seems important. (Watch this all lead to a popular fan theory that Beq is from Naboo because he is actually Jar Jar in disguise… I’m serious, that is bound to pop up sooner rather than later.)
As to the other side of this episode, being the rescue of Ragnar and the murder of a mother raptor—which, again, I get that she was ultimately eaten and we’re supposed to be okay with it because the Watch adopts her kids, but also no, and how are you going to feed those giant baby dinosaurs, and why did you give them such a boring species name—there are a lot of very basic logic holes in this plot that we couldn’t possibly gather enough cotton wool to plug.
For example, the raptor snatches Ragnar up in her claws, but later coughs him up to her kids? That’s… not how birds grab food to store, friends. If she was planning on saving them for the kiddies, she likely would’ve plucked him off the ground with her beak, but more to the point, if she’s barfing him up, then she was storing him in her crop, which should have been bulging a ton because that kid is not small. Also, was he unconscious? Did he not even attempt escape when he was about to be eaten? Now I wish the episode had been from Rangar’s perspective inside the raptor?? Like I get that you wanna make the goofy joke, but you’ve gotta earn it all the way through and think about it from every angle.
And yes, this bothered me that much.
Also, the Watch seems to know a ton about these animals and their behavioral patterns (how long the kid will stay alive, how well they can hear, how to approach their nests), but still have no idea how to avoid being eaten by them? It’s all just super convenient in that for-the-drama way that’s getting tiresome. Not to mention the fact that we yet again had a half-hour episode that easily could have stretched longer if people had one or two conversations? Just interacted like people instead of soundbites for a change?
Still, maybe now that Din helped save his kid, Paz will stop being such a pain in the butt to him. So that’s something.
Bits and Beskar
- Okay, but I did like the joke where it seems like Grogu is using the Force to move the rocks and it turned out to be hermit crabs. In fact, if the entire series was just a sequence of running jokes where you thought Grogu was using the Force and it turned out he wasn’t, that would be brilliant. It’s already too weird watching him bounce around like a Gummi Bear.
- Yet again, the people causing all the trouble in Din’s cult are the Vizslas—no surprise there at all. Also, Paz’s heavy infantry armor set is so weirdly constructed that it makes his head/helmet look tiny and it bugs me every time I look at him. This is not important, I’ve just needed to say it for years now.
- In Jedi Temple Challenge, Kelleran Beq sported a purple lightsaber to honor Mace Windu, but it looks like they’ve gone with green here. (He also picks up the blue of his fallen comrade because he’s known to be adept at double-saber wielding.)
- So the crocodile beast from the opening is called a dinosaur turtle? …No. No thank you. Between this and “raptor,” I’m forced to assume the placeholder script names for the animals are being written into canon. You can do better than this.
- I love Bo-Katan casually floating the idea of seeing the mythosaur to the Armorer and her being like “babe, you were high af, I don’t know what to tell you, we’re not getting enough oxygen in these helmets.” It’s okay, Bo, we know you’re the Mandalore.
That was the halfway point of the season, so next week one can assume… who knows! See you then.
I haven’t been watching The Mandalorian as don’t have DisneyPlus but I am struck by George Lucas’s awkward name choices as reported in your article.
I apologize if the Vizslas have any connection to the Hungarian dog breed. If not why did he use this?
Wasn’t Ragnar attacked by a giant beast earlier? Is this some kind of giant beast conspiracy? Or is the plotting as pathetic as the beasts’ names?
Some impressive location work for a show that relies so much on the LED-projection “Volume.” The advantage of having everyone in helmets is that it’s easy to sub in stunt doubles.
So part of “The Way” is that people can’t share a meal together? That’s sad and lonely.
Also, apparently this creed that demands facing hardship so warriors can be forged like steel is the reason they camp out on this planet filled with predatory monsters and don’t have any kind of perimeter defenses set up to protect the camp. No, they just let the kids get taken by the giant raptors and then try to prove their toughness by chasing them down. Pre Viszla’s lines made it clear that this has happened before, and there was a helmet in the raptor’s nest. Yet they still do nothing to guard against the ongoing danger, because of their stupid code.
“He executes this mission with panache for his very first live-action outing.”
Apparently Jedi Temple Challenge was a live-action game show, so I guess you mean his first canonical outing?
“why was Grogu so carefully protected to the point where Beq had a ship explicitly waiting for them… which is Nabooian? The other Jedi know to explicitly send Grogu to him, and he has this escape route figured ahead of time?”
The first thought that comes to me is that Grogu is Yoda’s son. Though it could just be that their species is so rare, and so powerful in the Force, that the Jedi consider it especially important to protect them.
Correction, I meant Paz Vizsla, not Pre.
He’s not Jar-Jar in disguise, Darth Jar-Jar is manipulating Darth Sidious into giving Order 66… ;)
(heh)
@5/wlewisiii: I’ve seen it compellingly argued that Jar-Jar Binks was intended to turn out to secretly be a villain, that his apparent clumsiness and dumb luck in TPM correspond to Drunken Kung Fu moves and were probably meant to be an act he put on to conceal his true persona. Presumably the character went over so badly that Lucas backpedaled on his plans and reduced JJB to a minor character in Episodes 2-3.
@6 You’re kinder than I am Christopher- I think that Jar Jar was supposed to be a pandering idiot character that kids were going to love and that George Lucas chose to make him just annoying. He wasn’t an idiot savant, wasn’t a dark jedi, was just a plain idiot.
Random unanswerable question: Is Ragnar his actual son, or another foundling who was adopted. If it’s his actual son it means that Mandalorians cultists have sex but with their helmets on, which is not very romantic.
We’re halfway through the season and I have no idea where exactly the season is going. This was an interesting “day in the life” type episode after last weeks episode where the New Republic is the Empire is the Old Republic just with different stationary, the national geographic trip to the old mine on Mandalore in week 2, and there’s this pirate dude back in week 1. So is this just a series of episodes to establish what life as a mandalore is like? Or are we going somewhere with this?
Well, I don’t know who created this argument that Jar-Jar was intended to be a secret villain, but it does smack of the kind of grand revisionism George Lucas likes to engage in from time to time. “Oh, but you see I had this saga all planned out. Six to nine films. But I picked the most interesting one…”
George, take some inspiration from Indiana Jones and just say you were making it up as you went along.
@7/MikeKelm: “You’re kinder than I am Christopher”
It’s not my opinion, I’m just reporting the case someone else made. I don’t know where to find the video, but it showed pretty compellingly that Jar-Jar’s antics in TPM matched up with Drunken Fist moves. I do not assert an opinion on whether that is actually true; I merely report that the theory has been posited and argued for somewhat credibly. My own opinion is that, if this was the case, then it was executed poorly.
@8/Dingo: “Well, I don’t know who created this argument that Jar-Jar was intended to be a secret villain, but it does smack of the kind of grand revisionism George Lucas likes to engage in from time to time.”
The argument comes from within fandom, and the proposition is that Lucas’s revisionism went in the opposite direction from what you suggest here: That Lucas intended Jar-Jar to be a secret villain, but it turned out so awfully that he abandoned the plan and denied that he ever intended it. And that is possibly the part of the theory that I find the most credible.
I loved the flashback featuring Best. I have never shared the hatred people have for his slapstick prequel character and have always wished him the best (no pun intended). As for the escape ship, I assumed, since the guard was plainly expecting more passengers than Grogu, that it was intended for younglings in general, and Grogu was the only one that Kelleran actually managed to get out. I have no idea why it was there in the first place, or why it was from Naboo. Maybe Beq is from Naboo and the ship was already waiting for him when the attack on the temple happened, so he called ahead and said he needed a quick escape for himself and any younglings he could rescue. We’ll probably never find out, since we are seeing all this from the perspective of a toddler.
As for the rest of the episode, I thought it was pretty silly. Why are the cultists on this planet where everything wants to eat them? Why, if the raptor or whatever it’s called has attacked before, do they let their kids hang out where it could swoop down and catch them? Why, if it is feeding people to its young, are they not in more of a hurry to get to the nest? If my son were about to be bird food, I would not stop to camp for the night. Oh well, at least everyone seems to accept Grogu as one of them.
#10. The answer to all those questions might be that they like it that way. Probably something to do with a warrior culture. I did see someone describe them as a boring version of Klingons, and that’s not far off the mark.
When I saw the run time for the episode, I thought I wasn’t going to be satisfied, but they sure packed a lot of good stuff into a short show. I loved the rocklike crab scuttling, foundling sparring, giant raptor swooping, cliff scaling, jedi flashbacking, speeder bike chasing, and new armor building for Grogu and Bo. It was all the fun stuff I like in Star Wars. Everyone seems to want something deep out of this show, but I just want to have fun watching the green baby and his shiny dad. I am sure there is a lot of scene-setting going on for whatever big events they have in store for the future, but they sure packed in a lot of adventure as well.
I wasn’t expecting Mr. Best to be Grogu’s Order 66 savior, but I found the sequence very satisfying, and as far as doing something nice for an actor who got a raw deal, I say better late than never. There are still lots of mysteries left to reveal regarding Grogu, but there is a benefit to leaving the audience wanting more.
@7 I am currently assuming that married Mandalorians of the cult are allowed to be helmetless in each other’s privacy.
The fact that Beq narroly avoids hitting the plaza with the mountain during the chase scene stuck out to me as there was no real reason to assume that one very famous plaza is in a direct line from the Jedi Temple to a radnom landing platform besides the creators wanting to get their moneys worth out of the set they built for last episode.
To the question of how they knew to have a ship specifically for Grogu, the ship’s captain aske Beq “Where are the others,” to which he responded “there are no others.” (my memory of the words might be slightly off) This rescue mission wasn’t targeted specifically at Grogu.
Earlier today I saw some apparent spoilers in news headlines ( yup, didn’t need to open the articles ). I was a little disappointed because I was expecting to see Jar Jar rescuing Grogu and kicking some clone butt. ( phrases like “Mandalorian redeems Jar Jar” and “Mandalorian reveals How Grogu survived Order 66” )
Why didn’t the raptor feed his chicks right away the night before? Why did leave his nest again with Ragnar in his gullet then come back? It doesn’t make sense.
@9 I’m of the opinion that Jar-Jar is Force Sensitive. His first conversation with Padme, the ruler of the planet, indicates that she’d never met a gungan before due to their isolationism. Pre Phantom Menace I strongly suspect the Jedi weren’t harvesting the younglings among them.
Rishi Loo from the Clone Wars being a practitioner of Gungan mysticism and able to mind trick is an argument in that direction.
That’s why his character is central to the Dagoyan arc, light side using pacifists that call out the Jedi as child-thieves. The Force itself is bucking against Jedi orthodoxy.
One of the Bad Batch episodes this season sells it for me. Spoilers for Season 2 Episode 6 (roll over to read):
[The youngling Gungi returns to Kashyyk, the home he only remembers from dreams, and has no idea how to perform the spiritual rituals of his people. In a galaxy where the Force is real, the Jedi have permitted other faiths to exist within the Republic, but tried to secure a monopoly on actual priests.]
So I actually thought one the lightsabers Beq was using was purple, but that could just my eyes playing tricks on me. Also, it was clear that the Nabooian ship was waiting for “all” the survivors Beq was supposed to save. They asked him where the rest were, after all. It just so happened that Grogu was the only one to make it.
I admit to not liking Jar Jar at all, but never could figure out people going after the actor. I will second the hope that this is just the start of the powers that be correcting that situation.
It isn’t a bird.
Whew. Ragnar OK.
Given that Baby Yoda is a BABY YODA (or possibly a BABY YADDLE, though Grogu lacks that magnificent mane of hair), I tend to agree that’s all the necessary explanation for why he’s a priority asset for extraction (It also doesn’t hurt that he’s conveniently package-sized).
Also, after all the nonsense poor old Jar-Jar gave him, Mr Best definitely deserves a character who is the Actual Best: Giid Luck to him and this new Jedi Master Dad, whatsoever his fate.
…
Also, is no-one else going to make the Obvious Joke that the Jedi Temple has a Naboo-type starship because Padme Amidala needed to bribe a late-night security guard?
I gotta say that the training sessions with the foundlings were EXACTLY like what it’s like in my dojo when I’m teaching kids how to spar or how to wrestle……….
—Keith R.A. DeCandido
@14/Ecthelion: “The fact that Beq narroly avoids hitting the plaza with the mountain during the chase scene stuck out to me as there was no real reason to assume that one very famous plaza is in a direct line from the Jedi Temple to a radnom landing platform besides the creators wanting to get their moneys worth out of the set they built for last episode.”
I had the same thought. For a city that covers the entire surface of the planet, Coruscant seems really small sometimes.
I was also wondering if any of the Coruscant sets, costumes, etc. in the past couple of episodes were repurposed from Andor. Some bits do look kind of familiar. Maybe that’s a factor in why they’ve been Coruscant-focused lately — they’re writing to take advantage of the assets they have.
For example, the raptor snatches Ragnar up in her claws, but later coughs him up to her kids? That’s… not how birds grab food to store, friends. If she was planning on saving them for the kiddies, she likely would’ve plucked him off the ground with her beak
a) it’s not a bird, friend.
b) yes, it is exactly how birds grab food. Birds (birds of prey, anyway) grab food with their claws. Then they transfer it to the beak to eat. Think about an owl catching a mouse. It doesn’t fly along the ground with its chin brushing the dirt and try to grab it with its beak, does it? It swoops in and grabs it with a claw.
The thing that they did get wrong by bird standards is that predatory birds bringing prey home for their young tend not to carry it in the crop. An owl bringing back a mouse or an osprey bringing back a fish will carry it in one claw, whole, and then tear it to bits once it reaches the nest and feed the bits to the young, or just let them go at it whole if they’re big enough. The crop’s used by birds that eat things too small to carry – seeds, insects etc.
Are we as the audience meant to see the Watch in a sympathetic light? They do not seem to have strategic goals and while creed is spoken of with reverence it’s not actually described. The information we are provided is that they live in isolation from society and are hung up on helmet wearing. It’s become a bit absurd for me to hear “this is the way” time and again in different contexts. It’s not a statement of purpose, it’s a mantra, and I mean that in the original sense of magical incantation and not in the sense of words to live by. Children are raised to believe not only that their way is correct, but that there are no alternative paths. Recall that Din was shocked that someone could be both a Mandalorian and follow a different creed.
In the absence of other context that appears to me to be a cult, and that’s not something I see in a positive light.
In earlier seasons I saw Din on the path to distinguishing between the good and the misguided in how he’d been indoctrinated as a child. But it seems like we’ve come back to the Watch as the true path—Din certainly sees it in that light, which is a disappointing regression but not completely unrealistic for the character.
What is the path the writers have set for Bo Katan? I think she’s mostly been portrayed as a pragmatist not an idealist. I could easily see her manipulating the Watch to help serve her perception of the greater good. I could also see her using this time to do some soul searching and roll back some of the cynicism. But I’d be disappointed for her to come to a realization that the Watch represents some righteous path forward for Mandalore.
If there is value in restoring Mandalore as a culture on a galactic scale it would seem to me that moving the Watch towards the center would do more than trying to move the whole towards the extreme the Watch represents. And within the context of the show we have two levers to move things in either direction and that’s Din and Bo Katan. The former seems to be back drinking the Kool Aid and the latter seems to be looking at it thirstily.
And there’s the troubling aspect of bringing Grogu into that environment. I know there aren’t a lot of options for Mandalorian School, and I do support the idea of him being adopted into Din’s culture. It’s just Din is choosing the version of that culture that he should have recognized as problematic. It’s not just a matter of Din regressing, he’s making that decision for Grogu.
On a general note, I did like the kaiju vibes in an episode that otherwise did not land for me. Rodan is an underrated classic.
I’m going to miss having the Bad Batch as follow up to the Mandalorian this season. I believe there’s just an episode or two left. Except for an unfortunate bit of pod racing early on this season has been consistently good.
The Watch is TOTALLY a cult……
—Keith R.A. DeCandido
One thing no one else has mentioned was the obvious difference in age for Grogu. Lisamarie wrote 2 weeks ago: they need to eventually age this kid up. They made a few references to it, like to Peli swearing he was talking
They didn’t age him up for this episode, they aged him back, though. The little green face they showed us for the flashback scenes had much less “character,” fewer lines and wrinkles. I’d have to watch again to examine the ears, but the face at least was obviously much younger.
I actually thought the Armorer was being more or less ambiguous…I don’t think she was flat out rejecting Bo’s claim (although she may still be a little understandably skeptical), but she doesn’t tend to be the type to give straight answers either, so I think she was basically telling Bo she had to work out her journey for herself.
I thought some of the raptor related plot points were a little stretching belief (such as them waiting a night, and Ragnar apparently surviving a night in the raptor’s gullet?) but overall I am still willing to give it a pass and I enjoyed the aerial sequence.
I got a kick out of the actor playing Jar Jar rescuing him; I actually didn’t catch it at first although my husband did. I’ve seen theories that the Naboo ship might indicate the ‘real’ Jar Jar’s involvement somehow but I agree there are still a lot of questions – who arranged the rescue (we know Padme was basically crying in her apartment at this point, but is it meant to be implied she had sent a ship for help before she realized what was going on?) and of course how did Grogu eventually end up on Arvala IV? We know that both the Client (working for Gideon) eventually tracked him down, as well as somebody who hired IG-88 to kill him. Who were the people protecting him, and why?
I really hate what happened to Best (and Jake Lloyd if we really want to talk about people the franchise needs to do better by) but I also feel that’s a lot to lay on to Lucas specifically and I’m honestly not sure what they COULD do to make up for it, or if that means this move should then be viewed with cynicism or futility. I am really glad that in general Best seems to have found a lot more peace as well as found people who have embraced the character. I was fine with Jar Jar back in the day, I didn’t love him, but my sister was right in the targeted age bracket and she loved him so I have some fond association with that. I’m glad in general culture has revisited how they treated some of those prequel characters/actors (although unfortunately fandom has not learned its lesson when it came to the sequels) although sadly I don’t know anything can ever be done for Lloyd at this point.
I got the impression the covert was more or less in hiding, hence why they picked a more remote location, although I’m sure ‘warrior culture’ is a part of picking a place that is still untamed. It’s possible they know in general they shouldn’t get too close to the shore alone, but he was perhaps in a sulky mood after his defeat.
Regarding ritual/tradition – I suppose I’m more inclined to view the Watch in a neutral fashion. While the face covering is strange to me (and it is a little interesting that the prohibition applies even amongst themselves and not just outsiders) I don’t find it totally out of the question. I do wonder if they have a relaxation of it around family or intimate partners/children, similar to other cultures that may practice head coverings.
I am interested to see where and how they will take Mandalore as a whole with this (although we know that in the sequels they don’t really factor into it, so who knows what ends up happening to them in the First Order). I suppose I would have more issue with them if they were bent on conquering, but as it stands, I don’t really begrudge anybody choosing to adopt those rituals/culture or view it as an objectively harmful thing. But time will tell, especially if some of the Maul-related theories about the Armorer are correct!
I agree with LisaMarie about the Armorer’s reaction to Bo. I get the idea that though her Creed is quite rigid, her mind is open to things that might be possible, like a living Mythosaur. She’s being very gracious to Bo and treating her like family.
in that vein, the training session was cool. Yes, in a practical sense, the children were learning to fire darts with speed and accuracy. But no one questioned Din’s right to teach the other child. That’s community discipleship done correctly. I do love the Watch’s passion for their younglings. There was no hesitation in the adults that launched to recover the one that was taken, and no fear of leaving Grogu in the care of others, and no shaming our favorite little Jedi for his journey. “You are too small” wasn’t mean, simply practical.
As I took it, the Armorer is just too invested in her view of the mythosaur as a spiritual entity experienced in divine visions to be able to consider the more objective question of whether there could be a physically real, living one. She just doesn’t think in those terms. She already considers the mythosaur real in the religious sense that matters to her, so the question of its concrete reality as a living animal just doesn’t register. She and Bo-Katan are talking past each other because their worldviews are so different.
@14
If there is only one piece of nature amerging above the planetwide cityscape, it’s the ideal location for the Jedi Temple.
The Senate chamber and the Jedi Temple should be close together.
There was no reason for the integration program to be so close to the seat of government, or for the shipyards to be within an evening’s excursion by train – those are just unnecessary security risks when you can take a quick suborbital flight to get anywhere on the planet.
@30 I don’t know if I would say that she can’t even consider it, but I think you’re right in the sense that the question of if it is ‘real’ just doesn’t really *matter* as much to her. What is important, in her mind, is that Bo saw a Mythosaur, regardless of if it was real or in a vision.
But I saw a kind of funny comment on a video that was basically like it was going up to a priest and saying you saw Jesus. They are likely to give a similar answer about ‘seeing Jesus’ in all the metaphorical senses that are still meaningful, and if a person continues to insist they really saw Jesus…well, they might not shut out the possibility entirely (due to a belief in miracles/apparitions) but might also give a similarly noncommittal answer, haha. At any rate, I can’t entirely blame her for having some skepticism but I think she’s still being relatively fair about it.
Also my last comment has a typo, I meant IG-11, not IG-88!
@32/Lisamarie: I’m not saying the Armorer can’t consider it as real, just that it doesn’t occur to her. She assumes mythosaurs only exist spiritually, that they no longer live in reality. She’s probably had dozens or hundreds of acolytes tell her their visions of mythosaurs. So she just assumes that’s what Bo-Katan is talking about. Like most people, she takes what she hears and filters it through her assumptions and expectations, so she doesn’t realize that the question is being posed within a totally different paradigm.
I got a big laugh out of how they reacted to the kid getting grabbed.
“Don’t shoot. You might hit the kid.”
“Let’s fly after it!”
“OK!”
“Dang it! We ran out of fuel.”
“This always happens.”
Since Jar Jar was only one of several characters with racist stereotypes (Watto and Nute) in The Phantom Menace, I’m inclined to the less kind reading.
@35/BeeGee: One could argue that Yoda is a racial stereotype too. Yoda is an actual Japanese surname, and Yoda is a wise, elderly sensei who speaks in broken English approximating Japanese word order. Also, Westerners tend to stereotype Asians as short of stature, and Yoda takes that to an extreme. Now, presumably Lucas meant it as complimentary, given that he originally wanted Toshiro Mifune to play Obi-Wan Kenobi, but it still has elements of stereotype.
Well, I think there are two separate questions here (and maybe we are crossing wires) which are:
1)Does the Armorer understand that Bo-Katan thinks she saw a real Mythosaur, and that they are talking about physical realities?
2)Does the Armorer herself think there is a possibility the Mythosaur was actually real/does that even occur to her?
It sounds to me like you are saying she can’t even comprehend the first thing being true, and that feels needlessly condescending. Even when people have their own default filters/assumptions, they are still capable of stepping outside of that and evaluating the context, and I think Bo-Katan gave enough conversational context clues that indicate she at least does not think it was a vision.
As for the second, I think that is left purposefully ambiguous, but for all we know she may have her own passed down oral histories and stories of the Mythosaur still being alive, or prophecies of the Mythosaur coming back (which she mentions in BobF). She (the Armorer) may also be re-evaluating her view of those prophecies in light of this new information. Obviously still in light of her Creed, but even if she is still leaning towards the idea of it being a hallucination or spiritual vision, it doesn’t mean she didn’t at least consider or open herself to the possibility.
I’m also not convinced she doesn’t believe her, as opposed to just being cryptic and basically refusing to tell Bo-Katan what it “means”, because she wants her to figure that out for herself. But I also wasn’t convinced she was knowingly sending Din on a fool’s errand; I think it’s possible she had a feeling at least that there was still something there and knew it was an important quest for him, but is of the opinion that people have to ‘prove’ their worthiness so she just provides a few hints and it’s up to them to find the way. It’s not like she was particularly shocked when she got the Living Water, and one of my thoughts last week was how they have been forging armor if the water is part of that process? Did they have a back up supply? How long was it going to last? But on the other hand, her character keeps a lot to the chest…so…we just don’t know. She might know a LOT more than we realize, or she might be just as in the dark.
FWIW – it’s interesting to watch this scene on a few of the react channels I follow and see how many different interpretations of that scene there are :)
(Interesting side theory, but I stumbled on one that is basically that the Living Waters themselves have some hallucinogetic property which is why the forge causes flashbacks and maybe could mean Bo really was just having a vision, but I still lean towards the Mythosaur scene being shot from a more objective third person view and so showing us reality, not a vision.)
@7 I’m pretty sure that they referred to Ragnar as “the foundling” after he was grabbed, so presumably he’s an adopted son. And I can entirely believe that that’s the only way that the Watch gets new members due to their unbending requirements to conceal their features, though I don’t know if that’s actually the case. Force knows there’s no shortage of orphans in the Star Wars universe, especially over the last generation or so.
@28. I mean we saw Kenobi kill Maul in Rebels and even saw the body so I’m pretty sure that is it for him. But who knows.
@37/Lisamarie: “It sounds to me like you are saying she can’t even comprehend the first thing being true, and that feels needlessly condescending.”
I didn’t say “can’t.” I said that, within the brief conversation she and Bo had, it hasn’t yet registered with her that Bo is talking about a physically real mythosaur, because that’s outside of the Armorer’s expectations and so she isn’t hearing what Bo is saying. She’s just assuming that Bo is the same as all the previous foundlings and recruits who’ve had spiritual experiences.
But do I think she may not be able to think in secular enough terms to accept the physical reality of a mythosaur? Hell yeah. Is that condescending? To her, hell yeah. She’s a fanatical cult leader. The whole cult is dangerous, so obsessed with proving their toughness that they willingly refuse to erect perimeter defenses against the giant predators preying on their children, because they’d rather “test themselves” by fighting to save their children. They’re basically using their own kids as bait so they can attract monsters to fight and prove how macho they are. This cult is reprehensible. My hope is that the season arc is about Din and Bo realizing that and coming to their senses before it’s too late.
The escape starship greatly resembled Senator Amidala’s ship from Episode II, which makes me think that it belongs to somebody else from Naboo’s Senate delegation: Jar Jar Binks.
My take on the baby bird monsters is that Grogu will use the Force to help tame them, like he did Boba’s rancor. Bo-Katan will see this and get Grogu to help her tame the Mythosaur.
@39 We also saw Kenobi kill Maul in The Phantom Menace…
@41 I like the idea of Mandolorians riding giant reptilian raptors into battle, and I think you are right, Grogu is the key to doing that. And I hadn’t connected his powers with the mythosaur, but I think you are right about that as well.
Some folks are complaining that four episodes in, we still don’t see where Season 3 is going. Combined with the news that Season 4 has already been mapped out, I believe that whatever arc is being spun out, it will not tie up neatly at the end of this season. The writers have a longer game in mind.
Watching this latest one, my mind kept going back to the Ewok movies from the 1980s. Thinking about it, it reminds me that George Lucas not only designed Star Wars as a modern-day myth – something to spark the imaginations of younger generations – but also had clear intentions of making these fairytale stories with an educational bent.
With Filoni’s name on the script, it’s not hard to notice the hand of GL throughout an episode like this. I wouldn’t call it ‘afterschool special’ or anything derogatory like that (or the equivalent of the lesson of the week epilogues in Masters of the Universe). On the contrary, this episode perfectly captures that same feeling of being thrown into an adventure with moral values specifically designed for young audiences. I loved it. A kid gets captured, they go on the rescue. The other kid gets to deal with his past demons.
At the same time, it’s clear that Favreau and Filoni are throwing enough details that imply we’re going to be challenging the Mandalorian way. For all intents and purposes, Mando has fulfilled his life goals. So it only makes sense to start shaking up the foundations on which Mandalorian society stand upon (very shaky foundations, as we know from Clone Wars and Rebels). Which is why it makes sense to put more focus on Bo-Katan. I’d say the whole eating alone in order to preserve your faceless self from others is a clear warning sign things are bound to go haywire sooner than later (looking back, it’s more and more clear that putting foundlings in a planet ripe with dangerous creatures is not a design flaw, but rather a clear choice).
Loved, absolutely loved the whole escape sequence in Coruscant. Beautifully shot from Grogu’s POV, showing us a brave dedicated Jedi played by Ahmed Best – in the flesh, finally getting the respect he’s always deserved.
It seems Bo-katan is key to changing the cult into something more moderate. I’m guessing they all end up going back to see and bathe in the waters.
@40/CLB – Maybe. I’m not actually married to one interpretation or the other. I somewhat prefer the idea she’s being purposefully cryptic even if she believes Bo (for either benevolent or sinister reasons) because to me that is a more interesting character choice, but I think it’s also possible that she either doesn’t believe her or assumes it’s just part of some vision she had even if Bo sincerely thinks it was real. The point is, in her mind, Bo started following the Way, and now she saw a Mythosaur. Maybe it was real, maybe it wasn’t, but that’s immaterial.
But I guess I am least inclined to believe she isn’t intelligent or savvy enough to recognize that, given the contextual and conversational clues, Bo is NOT speaking about visions. I’ve spent my life around religious people of varying levels of devoutness (and have been varying levels of devout) and…there are plenty who recognize their own filters and when they are in use, and when they don’t apply, that other people aren’t operating under those same assumptions, and recognizing context. If something is rejected, it doesn’t mean it wasn’t considered or didn’t even occur to them. But who knows, the next episode she might say, “I was talking to Bo about this vision she had…”!
At any rate, the Armorer seems portrayed as a kind of shrewd individual who probably has a lot more going on interiorly than she lets on. I don’t see her as having a (to cross shows for a second) Alicent Hightower vibe, in which there is a scene in which she interprets something somebody is telling her completely in light of her own desires/biases, totally misinterprets what (or who) the person is even talking about, and this has predictably disastrous consequences.
All of that said, I personally am not super into militaristic/honor bound cultures/societies bent on conquering/warring so I’m not necessarily going to stick up for their particular philosophies ;) I do agree they are there not just because it is remote and they are in hiding, but because their culture values prowess and tougness (along with some measure of self-suficciency) and so a more rugged environment is part of cultivating those virtues, and they believe the wildlife on the planet poses an acceptable risk (perhaps arrogantly so) and learning experience. So in some ways, it’s a feature, not a bug.
That said, the training involves non-lethal weapons, and they clearly don’t do the ‘well, he got taken, he’s weak, so he deserves to get culled’ mindset; it’s never a question that they will save the child, nor do they seem to show any indication that he is to be shamed. It’s not a ‘sink or swim’ type of culture in that they do seem invested in growing the virtues they seem as important, even if the foundling doesn’t get it right away. So I think it’s also possible they are just underestimating how much of a ‘guard’ is needed, or they just let their guard down in this instant. We do know the raptor has come before; maybe they feel this is still the safest place for them even with those risks, there’s probably some stubborn pride involved, but I have a feeling they will be training those baby raptors as a defense mechanism. I think it’s a leap to assume they actively desire the monsters to attack and are completely indifferent to the threat that represents, to the point they are actively rationalizing not having a stronger defense specifically so they can have more chances to test themselves. (Passively, maybe…but perhaps it will click now that they should prioritize the defense better.)
@41 I’ve just read a comment elsewhere that the Naboo starship matches the appearance of the ship used by one Senator Binks in the Clone Wars series.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/paultassi/2023/03/23/you-may-have-caught-the-mandalorians-first-jar-jar-reference-but-you-missed-the-second/