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 LordofHats wrote:
It's funny how the best episodes of Bad Batch season 2 are the episodes that don't feature 5/6ths of the Bad Batch :/

Kind of like how the best episode of The Book of Boba Fett was the episode that didn't have Boba Fett in it!

Mando S3 E3




Automatically Appended Next Post:
Sadly Bad Batch was back to being flaccid. I know it’s a kid’s show. But man, can we move past “Hunter am dedly, Tech are smort, omega is the annoying, and Wrecker is am strong”.

We get it. Im sure kids get it too. No need to remind us.

Mandolorian:



Bad Batch:

Mayor, “Old Pabu was built above the giant wall, and we later expanded into New Pabu below it.”
Me, “Gee, I sure hope we don’t get a sudden, unfortunate reminder why Old Pabu built that giant wall in the first place now that our protagonists happen to be here.”

Oi! Rest of the regulars!

Where are your thoughts!

Mando:

Hm. She hasn’t taken her helmet off yet. She hardly ever wears that thing.

The Tie’s leveled up! They still suck.

I do not remember this chick at all. Did the doctor wrong her in particular in some way or is this some kind of revenge for Gideon thing? The moment we saw the setting gauge I knew what was going to happen.

She still has her helmet on! And it paid off!

I really wanna know what the big dude is thinking as he stares at Mando. Stupid helmet policy preventing me from seeing his facial expressions at least.

Bad Batch:

Huh. I’d assumed Sid would eventually sell them out. I didn’t expect them to Ghost her first. At least turn in a two week notice before you quit ya bums! She’s totally got some kind of tracking device on them and will turn over their happy new home location to the Empire.

Also, that island is located in a very shallow Ocean apparently.

In response on Mando?

Bad Batch was fine because it wasn't a "Go to a place to get a thing, Omega does something stupid, immediately lose the thing, go home empty-handed" episode.

As for Mando... I just don't really know what this show is about or what story they're trying to tell. We spend two laboriously slow episodes resolving the plot line set up at the end of a different show and rather than continuing with that we - after a super rad TIE Interceptor battle - spend an inordinately long time dealing with a character who has had maybe 5 lines in the three seasons of Mando so far... and his story goes no where.

This episode length is what ALL D+ shows should be, but they should also be about the show, not side characters.

"But this'll be important later!"

How much later? I'm not waiting another 6 episodes of side-missions and 45m scripts split into 25m episodes (+7m of credits!) with endless fething padding for a pathetic tiny payoff.


It took 3 full seasons for the scales to fall from my eyes and for me to finally 'get' what people were ragging on Star Trek Discovery over. Maybe after the Crime Lord of No Crime and Reva I'm realising that not even TV SW is that good...

I have to say that when I said the Bad Batch had the Giligan's Island problem, I didn't think the writers were going to be so on the nose about it.

But wow.

Really?

I mean... Really?

And they compounded the on the nose metaphor part with the preposterously contrived coincidence that crisis befalls paradise as soon as the main cast shows up.

At this point if Hunter and crew aren't actively questioning if they are their own cosmic force of ill-fate who cause things to go wrong through their mere presence, they're not paying attention.

That or someone in the writer's room is screaming for help and just being cheeky about what they know the problem is XD

Bad Batch are the Lamenters?

Mando - will this provoke endless debate as to whether or not jumping into a body of water to rescue someone counts as ‘ritual bathing’ ?

I loved the Bo-do opening scenes then we went all Aside Quest before coming back to what may be some interesting character development.

Catching up on Mandalorian. First two episodes were solid. 3rd wasn't bad, but why do I get this annoying feeling that it was a pilot episode for another show? It be really nice if they'd stop that. It was bizarre enough when the last three episodes of Boba Fett were basically Mandalorian episodes. Are we now going to have random pilot episodes in Mandalorian too?

Why can't things just be their own things? This is the bloody problem >.<

And the sad thing is it wasn't a bad pilot episode. Ex-Imperial seeks redemption, breaks the rules, gets stabbed in the back? feth I'm down for it. Except now I'm kind of annoyed. They put together a nice appetizer and spoiled it by tossing it onto the main course I wanted. It's still nice but my enjoyment of both things is being spoiled.

I have to assume she’s somehow connected to that mysterious squadron of Ties.

 AduroT wrote:

I really wanna know what the big dude is thinking as he stares at Mando. Stupid helmet policy preventing me from seeing his facial expressions at least.

I got the impression of seething rage and that he's looking at Bo-Katarn...
Mando just had his hierloom which acquired fairly through Mandolore creed, and he hates him..
Bo-katarns clan had what should of been his clans planet and acquired it through *shudders* democracy not creed...
Now she's a member of his new clan and probably going to be on equal footing to him from the go.
Yeah, he's going to be a problem later, unless he can work past his family issues and grow as a person (haha)

It's Katan, not katarn. Just saying.

No relation from that weeb from a computer game.


As for Chonks McMando, his face is easy. That's Jon Favreau. Happy Hogan from Iron Man(do). It's his show.

For those wondering about Choncc Mando?

His name is Paz Vizsla, a descendent of the formerly (?) noble house of Vizsla. Which spawned Tarre Vizsla, Jedi and Manda’lor, creator of the Dark Saber.

Clone Wars and Rebels contains a bunch of episodes involving that Clan and are well worth a watch.

https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Clan_Vizsla

Feels like I'm more patient with Bad Batch than most, but even for me the tangent of the latest episode is a little too far removed from my best guess at this season's point.

Plus, as has already been duly mentioned, the sheer coincidence of it...

 AduroT wrote:
I do not remember this chick at all. Did the doctor wrong her in particular in some way or is this some kind of revenge for Gideon thing? The moment we saw the setting gauge I knew what was going to happen.

You really need to learn to pay attention to hot girls in Imperial uniforms. She's Gideon's comms officer in the previous season.

Gideon has his important cloning project in the works and the doc proved that he's willing to work for the New Republic, even if its current policy is not to allow cloning research. If whatever Gideon is planning comes to light and the Republic figures they need to do something about it, Doc Pershing is their go to expert. Gideon can't take that risk, so his undercover agent lobotomizes him. It's not personal. She's just doing her job.

 AduroT wrote:
I really wanna know what the big dude is thinking as he stares at Mando. Stupid helmet policy preventing me from seeing his facial expressions at least.

In addition to what's been said about him and Bo-Katan, he wasn't happy that Din worked for Imperials. He wasn't happy to lose the duel for the Darksaber to Din. He wasn't happy to find he got beat by an apostate of all things.

There's a lot of lingering resentment, even if by creed everything is sunshine and lollipops again.

 LordofHats wrote:
Catching up on Mandalorian. First two episodes were solid. 3rd wasn't bad, but why do I get this annoying feeling that it was a pilot episode for another show? It be really nice if they'd stop that. It was bizarre enough when the last three episodes of Boba Fett were basically Mandalorian episodes. Are we now going to have random pilot episodes in Mandalorian too?

Why can't things just be their own things? This is the bloody problem >.<

And the sad thing is it wasn't a bad pilot episode. Ex-Imperial seeks redemption, breaks the rules, gets stabbed in the back? feth I'm down for it. Except now I'm kind of annoyed. They put together a nice appetizer and spoiled it by tossing it onto the main course I wanted. It's still nice but my enjoyment of both things is being spoiled.

I'm inclined to agree it feels jarring. I say that as someone who's been waiting for a good look at thee New Republic, so I can't even complain about what was actually there. It just doesn't feel particularly well integrated.

I don't think it's a pilot, though. Gideon was the main antagonist in the previous seasons. This episode is about one of Gideon's top scientists and one of his agents, and we get to hear the rumor that Gideon didn't make it to his tribunal for one reason or another. Plus the unexpected TIE attack. I'm fairly confident that this sets up more Imperial Remnant shenanigans with Gideon at the helm as season three's main plot.

Not impressed with episode 3 of Mando. It's not that it wasn't decent, just that it seems completely out of place. The slow pacing of the first 2 episodes, to resolve Din's redemption quest in the way we knew it would be resolved, was annoying, and this just adds to that. It didn't help that it involved two returning characters who had very small parts in the show up to now, leaving me wondering if I'd missed something important about their relevance.

I'm sure the purpose of this weird time-out will become clear later in the season as the various plots come together, but I'm not convinced the decision to place it where they did in the running order was a good one.

For the Mandalorian, I am very pleased with how the season is going so far. I expected the quest to the mines of Mandalor to basically take the entire season, but was suprised that it happened very early on to set out the stage for the more interesting, in my opinion, story of the re-unification of Mandalorians which started with Bo-Katan's conversion. It also sets up nicely the return of Gideon and Thrawn as the main opposition for the season finaly.

As for the Bad Batch, I must say this show is at its best when it follows Crossair. This episode almost felt like an end of story episode. Seriously, a "and they lived happily ever after" mention at the end of the episode would have been on point. I suppose there will be a last large conflict with Sid and the Empire before they can retire on Pagu.

Well, the dogfight was cool - but the rest of the show was a complete waste of time. I suppose that The Mandalorian was due a stinker episode.

New Republic scenes are clearly a primer, for something. Maybe a follow on show, maybe a future plot line.

The Interceptors were noted to be more than you might expect for an Imperial Remnant Warlord. And I’m far from convinced Dr Pershing’s “friend” is on the side of good. Rather I suspect she’s zapped Pershing’s brain to preserve something, some intelligence as to what’s going on out there a secret. Maybe even the plan to resurrect Palpatine.

I wouldn't look at Bo Katan getting into the Children of the Watch as her accepting the "old ways" but more as her ruthless political side possibly coming out again. With the Watch, she has a chance to reclaim the throne of Mandalore with a core of devout and hardy warriors at her back, if she can attain status in some way.

Honestly, all I hope for is 1) no more resurrections of Palpatine can we place get that corpse out of this franchise and 2) how many times does Moff Gideon have to be beaten before the story moves the feth on?

Not casting judgment now cause I guess it could be a bunch of things we'll find out, but Palpatine coming back from the dead is the most annoying dead horse in the Star Wars franchise and you'd think after Rise of Skywalker's lambasting for it the people behind these projects know it was a cliche 20 years ago.

With Gideon it's kind of the same problem. Mando beat him in season 1 and utterly defeated him in season 2 (with help) and I feel like the like of a direction is a big part of why Season 3 (and Bad Batch for that matter) feel aimless and dull at times.

I'd like to hope the Gideon stuff is a red herring and it's not him at all. With the comms officer, is she loyal to Gideon or the Empire? With the other Imperial remnant officers we've seen, it's all been about the wider cause with Gideon just being the current CO. What if the bit about Gideon being put in a mind flayer is the truth?
One can hope.

The best twist with the comm officer would be that she's rising through the ranks of the New Republic the same way she did with the empire (manipulation and backstabbing) IMO XD

That would be a twist, but I also feel like they're driving the knife in again on making the New Republic such a pile of gak you wonder why anyone bothered fighting the Empire in the first place or bothers fighting the remnant.

That was a problem in the sequel trilogy and I can't say it's an angle I'm eager to see more of.

 LordofHats wrote:
The best twist with the comm officer would be that she's rising through the ranks of the New Republic the same way she did with the empire (manipulation and backstabbing) IMO XD

That would be a twist, but I also feel like they're driving the knife in again on making the New Republic such a pile of gak you wonder why anyone bothered fighting the Empire in the first place or bothers fighting the remnant.

That was a problem in the sequel trilogy and I can't say it's an angle I'm eager to see more of.

I kind of see The New Republic as the only way forward. Nobody is required to be a member, sort of settling scars left by the last two civil wars. You want in, you follow the rules. You don’t, that’s cool and we’ll respect your choice.

I’ll need to go re-read Bloodlines too, as that involved similar shenanigans Building toward the First Order.

I had a different interpretation of the Dr and Comms officer relationship.

 LordofHats wrote:
The best twist with the comm officer would be that she's rising through the ranks of the New Republic the same way she did with the empire (manipulation and backstabbing) IMO XD

That would be a twist, but I also feel like they're driving the knife in again on making the New Republic such a pile of gak you wonder why anyone bothered fighting the Empire in the first place or bothers fighting the remnant.

That was a problem in the sequel trilogy and I can't say it's an angle I'm eager to see more of.

Same. The whole set up is pretty weird, but having the nobles yak about how its all the same regardless of who rules is a bit... daft. (especially when the same nobles are admitting they barely had enough power to avoid military draft)

Course I have several questions about the whole set up and re-entry program.
He gives Ted Talks to the rich and famous about cloning research (which... the segue from 'life-saving spare organs' to 'hybridized life forms' was a bit of a jump)
But he lives in basic apartments, does basic data entry/data analysis, and everyone in the program lives together without overt supervision and are referred to by a completely alienating 3 digit alphanumeric designation. This does not seem useful for 're-entry.' This seems like asking for trouble.

Also, also. The designations are 1 letter followed by 2 numbers? uh... That's a trivial amount of people even if we're talking modern countries, about 2600 or so. On a galactic scale, that's nothing. Insufficient thought went into this worldbuilding.


From a narrative perspective, the episode also starts exciting and almost frantic bridge to the next development, and then just plows into the ground. The pacing is shot to hell.

Yeah. It comes off heavily as lawful stupid, if not lawful stupid evil once the brainwashing gets involved.

 endlesswaltz123 wrote:
I had a different interpretation of the Dr and Comms officer relationship.

Spoiler:

Gideon is not trying to stop the Republic having a means of intelligence on cloning, he is using means that won't draw absolute suspicion (such as assassinating the doctor) to reduce the amount of people in the galaxy that actually know about the cloning project, and thus the main reason for it... I'd be surprised at this point if it is not linked to Palpatine.

Simple case of silencing all of the known witnesses/people who know the truth. Clean up crew.

Or that, potentially, whomever he’s working for/with has plans for their own Clone army,

I'd find that way more interesting.

Someone decides Palpatine getting rid of the Clones like he did never made sense so they want their own.