42 minutes ago, Donovan Morningfire said:

The ice worm helped further establish that the Mandalorian is a cool under stress type of character, who doesn't mindlessly panic in tense situations. Even when we see him later get flustered at various points (attacked by that weird creature that tried to bite his arm off, the introduction of that heavy blaster cannon to the firefight), he doesn't completely panic and figures out some sort of solution.

Yeah, I didn't really see him as a panicker either, more of a complainer even if cool under pressure.

Just someone whose life is a never-ending series of "Oh, come on!"

Like you could tell he's just perpetually rolling his eyes underneath that helmet.

Hmm...

I have to say, though... The reason stated by Filoni as the reason why Lucas decided that Boba (and Jango) were not Mandalorians was something along the lines of "He didn't want Mandalorians to look like a rag-tag biker gang. They should have uniform looks and look like a proper army"... and that argument kinda gets wrecked by this first episode.

The Mandalorians in "the mandalorian's" clan definitely didn't look very uniform... they looked like a "rag-tag" group.

Does this mean that there's "redemption" in the case of Boba Fett in the future of Disney canon?

My head-canon on Boda/Jango is that they are Mandalorians. It makes sense and is cooler.

I've always liked the "biker-gang" aesthetic. It was one of the things that appealed to me originally.

30 minutes ago, P-47 Thunderbolt said:

My head-canon on Boda/Jango is that they are Mandalorians. It makes sense and is cooler.

I've always liked the "biker-gang" aesthetic. It was one of the things that appealed to me originally.

Same here... but in the "just before disney" canon, Lucas had decided that they were not actually Mandalorians.

Now, his official reasoning was what I mentioned above.

Personally, though... I think his reasoning was petty spite because it pissed him off that people liked Boba and Jango...

17 minutes ago, OddballE8 said:

Same here... but in the "just before disney" canon, Lucas had decided that they were not actually Mandalorians.

Now, his official reasoning was what I mentioned above.

Personally, though... I think his reasoning was petty spite because it pissed him off that people liked Boba and Jango...

They might just... not address it? It's usually safer plan, in cases like this with big franchise IPs.

And I could see them saying that the version of Mandalorian clans we see in this show is more in line with what tried-and-true traditionalist Mandalorians are, and make more of an emphasis of the "Mandalorian diaspora" with the traditionalist clans who left after the pacifist movements during the Clone Wars.

Like, the never taking off helmets thing (I even saw the little kids running around with their helmets on!!), the first canon mention of the ancient Mandos riding mythosaurs, ect.

Plus, what are "Foundlings" and they made reference to a 'signet' - I wonder if this is some sort of personal clan icon each Mando has or something they come to earn by a great deed?

I NEED MORE.

13 minutes ago, OddballE8 said:

Personally, though... I think his reasoning was petty spite because it pissed him off that people liked Boba and Jango...

Less petty spite and more being pissed off that a vocal subset of the fandom was hero-worshipping the villains, and the Traviss section of the EU going out of its way to portray those guys and the entire villainous faction they belong to as the coolest, sanest, most badass people in the galaxy.

His 'official' reason is a bold lie, because the new Mandos in the Clone Wars show were the same mismatched bunch, and of all the Mandos, Jango was the one that looked most like a proper soldier.

1 hour ago, OddballE8 said:

Hmm...

I have to say, though... The reason stated by Filoni as the reason why Lucas decided that Boba (and Jango) were not Mandalorians was something along the lines of "He didn't want Mandalorians to look like a rag-tag biker gang. They should have uniform looks and look like a proper army"... and that argument kinda gets wrecked by this first episode.

The Mandalorians in "the mandalorian's" clan definitely didn't look very uniform... they looked like a "rag-tag" group.

Well, it's also been a couple decades since the Mandos had their hey-day back during the time of the Clone Wars. And after Bo Katan started uniting the various clans against the Empire in the first part of Rebel's final season, it's entirely possible that the Empire didn't take that lying down. Lothal may have gotten a reprieve (it's generally remote, as well as lost it's primary value once both the TIE factory and the Jedi Temple were destroyed), but a group of highly-skilled soldiers with a long history of warfare taking up arms against them isn't the sort of thing that the Empire is going to just ignore.

So it may well be that the Mandalorians as a culture by the time of this show have become outcasts and refugees as a result of the Empire deciding that the Mandos needed to be taken down for having the nerve to oppose them. And unlike the Rebels, the Mandos had a known central hub that the Empire could target with conventional naval forces.

4 minutes ago, StarkJunior said:

Plus, what are "Foundlings"?

I figured that was their term for orphaned children, much like the prequels used younglings to refer to children (though more specifically those taken in by the Jedi Order). So perhaps Foundling is the Mando term for an orphaned child that's been taken in by one of the clans?

7 minutes ago, StarkJunior said:

Plus, what are "Foundlings" and they made reference to a 'signet' - I wonder if this is some sort of personal clan icon each Mando has or something they come to earn by a great deed?

2 minutes ago, Donovan Morningfire said:

I figured that was their term for orphaned children, much like the prequels used younglings to refer to children (though more specifically those taken in by the Jedi Order). So perhaps Foundling is the Mando term for an orphaned child that's been taken in by one of the clans?

I figured it was the same as well... Foundlings were orphan children/individuals Found on battlefields , ect..

2 minutes ago, Donovan Morningfire said:

I figured that was their term for orphaned children, much like the prequels used younglings to refer to children (though more specifically those taken in by the Jedi Order). So perhaps Foundling is the Mando term for an orphaned child that's been taken in by one of the clans?

Maybe, yeah. I'm curious to see if they reveal all of his backstory in the first season, or save some of it for Season 2. Perhaps we'll get more in the episode where we're introduced to Julia Jones's character. She seems connected to his past somehow.

I think that they'll probably reveal most of his backstory in Season 1, and then resolve some of the more important parts of his backstory in Season 2.

i.e. So-And-So did X to me, and that's why I do Y. Then, in season 2, I've found a lead on So-And-So and must now seek my revenge! (just a general format, not a translation of the series)

1 hour ago, Donovan Morningfire said:

figured that was their term for orphaned children

I did too but with the added fact that they were raised to be warriors.

Omigosh, this was so good. When the YOU ARE WATCHING A SPACE WESTERN music started playing I cheered. The dedicated use of Nikto. That last shot. Omigosh. Is it Friday already?

Overall I liked it. They nailed the look, it really pulled off the OT aesthetic. Pedro Pascal spoke little enough to sell the loner personality, but just enough to keep it interesting and not wandering into silent protagonist territory. Carl Weathers and Werner Herzog were good and I hope to see them more. Because I'm far more of a Legends guy than nu-canon, I'm interested how they're going to weave all the real Mandalorian lore into what they're making here. Very happy to see mythosaurs mentioned but still not sure how that is going to gel with the state of Mandalore as shown in TCW.

Wasn't too happy with the constant callbacks to the OT however ("Hey remember this from A New Hope? And this from Jedi?") but I assume that will die down as the season proceeds. I don't like the look Sequel trilogy aliens at all so if the rest of the show can go without seeing another Abednedo that'll be cool. I also wish they were a little more open with the gore etc, the opening scene set a great tone but it was too clean especially considering he used a door to bisect a Quarren. Not sure how I feel about the armor forging scene, although I imagine that will be happening a lot more as he gets payed in beskar and slowly upgrades his armor. Pacing was a bit awkward in the middle section. Not sure how I feel about the infant (?) Yoda-species reveal, I really hope they consulted George Lucas on that point because of how notoriously tight-lipped G.L. has been on that front of literal decades and I really don't want Disney doing their own thing with it against Lucas vision. Music was too generic and loud compared to the character voices.

I'll rate 6.5/10 for the first episode. Not the greatest pilot episode I've ever seen but when the 15th comes around and we have a little more to view I'll pass judgement on the series as a whole. Still better than The Last Jedi.

I liked it. Felt a bit basic, but I suspect it will grow more interesting and elaborate as it proceeds. If it doesn't, it will be a significant disappointment.

Liked the ending twist quite a bit.

The thing that didn't do it for me was the score. Boring and un-Star Warsy.

5 hours ago, StarkJunior said:

I NEED MORE.

If so, the writer's succeeded.

I am also trying to figure out how these tracking fobs work, because they seem to have the potential to be canon breaking or at the very least so terribly overpowered that it makes no sense for them to have not been used for tracking down others.

Yeah, my mind was racing on that the whole time.

Why did he leave his rifle behind with the Blurrg?

Why did he “need the Blurgg to get there”?

Overall enjoyed it a lot. But I have to say, I feel accidentally prescient.

A short campaign I ran for my son a couple years ago, set 8 or 900 years before Imperial days, had his Jedi character eventually coming into possession of a mysterious "egg". When the egg finally hatched, out popped baby Yoda. (I think I've told this a couple times on these boards.)

So I'm watching the end of the show, and there's the round "egg-like" pod, and I'm thinking "haha, wouldn't that be funny", and then "50 years?", "Species age differently" and I'm thinking "um, haha, no way" and then...boom!

One of the more surreal moments I've had...like 2 or 3 years ago I unwittingly tapped into some collective unconscious vibe...

31 minutes ago, DanteRotterdam said:

Why did he “need the Blurgg to get there”?

Because the ground was dried up into large cracks you couldn't just walk over from what it looked like.

It seems I'm on the minority here but I was a bit underwhelmed.

The opening scene was great. Boom. Great music, action-filled scene, liked the OT-like setpieces but they were distinct enough to not think it's the same.

Then came the space port.

The cantina and city landscape was like watching another re-edited Ep4, the resemblence turned from nostalgic to shameless copy. I enjoyed the grilled kowakian monkey lizard cameo, after the camera sitting there for far too many shots I felt like ,,Come on, I get it, move already!"

I liked how it looked and sounded and I appreciate they went for the OT setting (the only reason I gave it a chance) but I felt the pacing of the episode was way off. God I never get back that 10 minutes of my life watching the "Luke, you can lift out your X-Wing if you concentrate hard enough on your heritage" scene reskinned for riding beasts. It felt utterly useless and boring filler.

The mandos were interestingly introduced and kudos for bringing in the armorforging as a centerpiece of the mando identity and culture as the seemingly leading mando is not a general but an armorsmith.

The last fight felt a bit dragged out (probabl I was already worn down by the Blurrgs.), but looked cool even though the droids humour felt a bit much.

I think the first episode was ace, for the following (world-building) reasons:

• Establishing the premiss of the series, frontier post-Empire society as distinct from the underworld, the guild, and the issues related to a collapsed economy after the fall of the Empire.
• Showing (yet) another aspect of the Mandalorian culture, distinct from the Nu-mandos and death watch of TCW (and the protectors from Rebels), their organisation in tribes:
  • Hereunder the background as "foundling," the liminal transitions, and hints at rituals of the tribal Mando culture.
  • Their relationship and hideout with the surrounding community: the stares and clear reactions at seeing someone in Mandalorian armour.
  • And of course the melting and working of beskar was different and cool enough to pull me in and make me giddy.
  • What is the goal of the mandalorians? What is the role of the smith-lady? What planet was it? Where are they? This is all, unless I missed key information (which is more than likely), unknown currently...
• The alien species and similarities with the animated shows in how they present and use gangsters
  • The non-graphic violence is part of this, it is in line with Star Wars storytelling. I like it.
  • The "unending" stream of gangsters coming from the doors firing. Great stuff.
• Herzog's character - and that sciencey guy that wanted the yodaling (yodelling? ) alive, for as of yet unknown reasons. That whole plot-thing seems really interesting.
  • That Hezog's character preferred the target alive, whereas whoever gave the mission to the IG-droid preferred the target dead. So, more interested parties.
  • Why was the yodelling there, guarded by a bunch of thugs? Who put it there? Who wants it? Why? ARGHZ!
• The fact that as a TV-show it can actually focus on and tell the stories that the films can only hint at - or cover as part of exposition. This gives it a slightly different feel, but it is definitely Star Wars, it is known, yet it is new too.
• "I have spoken"-guy was cool. While one may question the need for the Blurrgs to get where they were going, there were two sides here: the mythosaur and mando heritage element, which was enough to me, but secondly, the route they took with those mounts was probably a lot more a straight line than our Mandalorian protagonist could've done on foot. Also, "I have spoken"-guy was cool.
  • I mean, I guess he could just have landed his ship where he was going too, and blasted them from the air. But that's not fun nor good storytelling.
• The ice-planet with its massive angry monster walrus-monster, dingy speeder, and droid/meatbag driver options, was just fun and good as establishing yet another version of the monoclimate planet thing that is central to Star Wars. I was just sucking it all in, like a sponge-monster.
• IG-jokes: I do not understand negative reactions to this - I mean, I do, but I find it petty. It's Star Wars, it's dorky, it's cool, it's funny, it's not classy or elegant, nor is it particularly clever. I think IG wasn't joking enough, and his voice was not enough Taika, but it was enough to give an impression of how the guild may employ droids when and where they can, how they want them to operate and how little the droids care about their own existence.
• The excitement of not knowing or having much of a clue of where this is going!

I may be childish and naive, and/or not jaded and cynical enough, but I do not get the hesitant and pessimistic perspective of some.

I'm already looking forward to a FFG sourcebook for this post-RotJ pre-TFA era, with a good helping from this show.

And I'll say this for "criticism": The inclusion of the yodelling breaks my hope of non-forcey malarkey for this show - sure, we probably won't see lots of force usage or jedi crap, but the mysticism has already been implied, now the question is if or how its presence will affect the show, and the storylines.

EDIT: Oh, and it makes me want to go back to my unfinished Mandalorian War Machine supplement that I made and never finished ... years ago. Which is in a horrible state, considering it was made during the beta-days I believe...

7 hours ago, DanteRotterdam said:

I am also trying to figure out how these tracking fobs work, because they seem to have the potential to be canon breaking or at the very least so terribly overpowered that it makes no sense for them to have not been used for tracking down others.

This! I've been racking my brain over it too. Perhaps these are mostly for bond-skippers, implying they were once incarcerated and had a tracker implanted during incarceration. That's the best I got so far. They also implied that this might be a guild-specific thing? Since others not wanting to pay guild rates don't have access to the "pucks" (?) and don't mind things getting messy...

Still, lots of questions that I am looking forward to seeing answered!