At least Filoni is no longer the worst director of the bunch.
This was the worst episode so far, by a country mile.

I think it was a great episode. Seen it twice now.

It's a nice and simple way of telling a story, step by step. I like it.

I like the small things, like how the New Republic appears to - and treats - someone on the edge. How the everyday opportunism is an undercurrent, now too, "after" the Empire. The situation people on the edge finds themselves in now after collapse of so much infrastructure, administration, logistics, and organisation. How little has changed in so many ways, the substans remains even if the symbol of the structure is gone.

The creatures. The child doing and being whatever it is - something cute and rather ruthless. There's a story there. And we're watching it. I have so many ideas, and so little clue, about where this is going.

Honestly, I just feel sorry for all the arachnophobes who watched it. Everything's going well until all of a sudden a swarm of spiders (including giant spiders!) start chasing our heroes.

Yeesh.

I know someone who, while not arachnophobic, would always call someone else to deal with spiders. As I predicted, she was less than pleased by this episode. Like, very less than pleased.

I quite enjoyed the part while they were on Tatooine, and Mando launching a Jawa (halfway) into space was hilarious. I also enjoyed the interactions with the New Republic.

But the rest of it was really pretty bad.

Could have certainly done without the spiders, of all sizes, myself.

My only criticism of the show is that the overall plot moves sooooo slowly. I almost always completely enjoy each episode, but, given the limited number of episodes, I'd like to see more plot development.

13 hours ago, P-47 Thunderbolt said:

And sublight between STAR SYSTEMS? That seems a bit much.

Headcanon and perfect save in my opinion? The fact that Tatooine is a binary star system .

19 minutes ago, Voltron64 said:

Headcanon and perfect save in my opinion? The fact that Tatooine is a binary star system .

But they actually show the Mandalorian charting a course from system to system.

And if it's in the same system, they'd just say it. They wouldn't say "it's just one sector over."

Thoroughly enjoyed it, and like grandma even more now. The pacing of the spiders (and their abilities) was well handled, each story beat introduced a new thing. Love the giant one at the end peering through the windows, like a shark eyeing a diver in a cage, creepy as ****! Some nice touches too, like the frog-lady's pulsing temples/ears.

Not a fan of the sub-light thing, it's completely unnecessary. I mean, I get SW is not hard sci-fi, but it's easier to world-build on something solid. If you toss out the need for hyperspace to get between the stars, then you're world-building on a house of cards, because anything goes.

It could still sort of work if stars were at least Pluto*2-distance apart, but then you'd have to assume the engines could get very close to light-speed very quickly.

In the end ... whatever. I just roll my eyes and enjoy the story.

6 hours ago, Voltron64 said:

Headcanon and perfect save in my opinion? The fact that Tatooine is a binary star system .

How do you headcanon the sublight trip from Hoth to Bespin the Millennium Falcon made in Empire?

And don't say backup hyperdrive, because The Empire Strikes Back just falls apart if the Falcon has a second hyperdrive that works they could have use.

Yes I hated the sublight travel. I thought it was lazy writing without considering what it does to the big picture.

But, as everything in Star Wars, it can be fixed and may actually benefit our RPG. The name obviously previously meant "less then light speed". This writer just changed that. So, perhaps the term is a holdover from days when thrusters were only capable of sublight speeds? The term never changed even when thrusters became much more capable? Now thrusters easily can travel well beyond light speed without reaching the efficiency of hyperspace drives. They are still often called "sublight" drives kinda like how modern engines still used archaic terms such as, "horsepower".

For RPG's this can be fun. You can still travel slowly to nearby star systems. For example, referees who end up with players in a non-hyperspace capable ship stranded in a system, have a solution that doesn't require a savior in a jump ship. There's another solution that can lead to side adventures such as pirates.

....and it just fixed the Hoth to "Lando System" debate.

But yes, lazy writing. There were more ways to get them to crash on the ice planet mid-trip then to twist Star Wars canon.

So, the "spiders" on the Ice Planet looked like those on Bendu's planet ( Atollon ) from Rebels.

Same planet, or just same species, or just very similar?

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

1 hour ago, Darzil said:

So, the "spiders" on the Ice Planet looked like those on Bendu's planet ( Atollon ) from Rebels.

Same planet, or just same species, or just very similar?

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

Either same species or just very similar. Completely different planet.

Just finished it. I actually really liked it. Wasn't my all time fav, but good fun. My kids were pretty freaked so that was fun.

There was a bit of blood spraying out when Mando fought one of those ambushers and used his own knife against him. Didn't bother me, just surprised they were allowed to show that.

LOVED seeing the gigoran. Nice. One of my top 3 species and one I want to see more of.

Was one of the X wing pilots Filoni again? Maybe didn't see that right. Kind of ominous when they switch to channel two and then open up the wings into attack position or whatever. Interesting seeing them now as glorified highway patrolmen. This is what the Rebellion has become. Kind of depressing.

I was really expecting some Fett. Sort of felt like a filler episode because that part of the story was on hold.

Fun hearing Ayoade's voice again. Gotta watch me some IT Crowd again soon!

I liked the Krykna. When I first saw all those egg things I thought "Aliens"! Even looked kind of like one when the Kid dug one out and ate it. Pretty weird feeling. I thought "have they just put xenomorphs in a galaxy far, far away?!

The grandma wasn't as annoying.

The krayt dragon bbq reminded me of our EotE games. My kids always want to bbq up whatever creature they've just killed, whether wampa, or rancor or whatever!

1 minute ago, Mandalore of the Rings said:

There was a bit of blood spraying out when Mando fought one of those ambushers and used his own knife against him. Didn't bother me, just surprised they were allowed to show that.

Was one of the X wing pilots Filoni again? Maybe didn't see that right. Kind of ominous when they switch to channel two and then open up the wings into attack position or whatever. Interesting seeing them now as glorified highway patrolmen. This is what the Rebellion has become. Kind of depressing.

Yep, it was Filoni.

I didn't see any blood spray, or even Mando use one of their knives against them. My memory is that he was just brawling aside from shooting the Jawa. Can anyone else verify this? Am I just blind?

Well, there is something spraying... maybe spit? I thought it was blood. Right at the 3:01 mark. He takes the bald mad max looking guy's sword from him while the Teedo looking guy is unwrapping his rifle.

2 minutes ago, Mandalore of the Rings said:

Well, there is something spraying... maybe spit? I thought it was blood. Right at the 3:01 mark. He takes the bald mad max looking guy's sword from him while the Teedo looking guy is unwrapping his rifle.

Oh sure enough. I just missed that. Twice. *shrug*

The sublight thing gave me nerd whiplash but I just let it go. It brought me back to Empire in the day: Bespin would've taken forever but few knew better and fewer cared. Returned a bit of that mystique.

Yes. Apparently a galaxy far, far away is very tiny.

But I think ESB is why the backup hyperdrive was invented...

But the sublight issue always makes me think of Star Trek TOS and the episode "Balance of Terror". The Federation and Romulans fought a war before the Romulans had warp drive, and the Neutral Zone between them was 100 LY across...

46 minutes ago, salamar_dree said:

But I think ESB is why the backup hyperdrive was invented...

It was, but it doesn't work as an explanation when you think five seconds about it.

I never said it did.

Just like a sublight speed war across a distance of 100+ LY doesn't make any sense, either. 😉

On the note of ESB, according to Leland Chee - they didn't do the whole trip from Hoth to Bespin on sublight, they did a lot of it while they fixed the hyperdrive and it took them months. Likewise, Luke was on Dagobah for a lot longer than the movie would imply.

4 hours ago, BipolarJuice said:

they didn't do the whole trip from Hoth to Bespin on sublight, they did a lot of it while they fixed the hyperdrive and it took them months.

Yeah, I was under the impression Luke's training, while minimal, did take up a fair chunk of time (months I thought). I wonder what Boba Fett was up to during that time. Did he follow the M Falcon for the whole time? Maybe he spent the whole time knocking off Bossk, Dengar, 4-LOM and Zuckuss, so he could get the bounty.

On another note, I liked how this episode handled languages. Din's Huttesse sounded pretty bad. He already knows some Tusken and Jawa. The Kermit Lady had to use that droids bod'y to translate what she wanted to communicate. I'm glad this kind of thing happens and everyone doesn't just speak English or Galactic basic or whatever it's called. Felt more realistic. The grandma was able to approximate that frog lady's language. And she understood "dr Mandble."

Anyway, fun.

7 hours ago, BipolarJuice said:

On the note of ESB, according to Leland Chee - they didn't do the whole trip from Hoth to Bespin on sublight, they did a lot of it while they fixed the hyperdrive and it took them months. Likewise, Luke was on Dagobah for a lot longer than the movie would imply.

And yet when they arrive on Cloud City, the hyperdrive still is as busted as when they left Hoth.

If The Empire Strikes Back imply or intended to show significant passage of time, it is less well made than I thought.

22 hours ago, Mandalore of the Rings said:

Was one of the X wing pilots Filoni again?

If you are at all curious, his character's name is Trapper Wolf https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Trapper_Wolf

I both utterly hate and like the name at the same time.

I think I only utterly hate it. Stupid name. Still, fun cameo. I wish you hadn't told me his dumb name though! Thanks a lot. I'll never forget that nonsense. But it ends with me. I will not tell this interesting factoid to my children. I won't let on to any of my friends. Trapper Wolf's story will die with me (and when the internet dies, I guess).

37 minutes ago, Mandalore of the Rings said:

I think I only utterly hate it. Stupid name. Still, fun cameo. I wish you hadn't told me his dumb name though! Thanks a lot. I'll never forget that nonsense. But it ends with me. I will not tell this interesting factoid to my children. I won't let on to any of my friends. Trapper Wolf's story will die with me (and when the internet dies, I guess).

What’s wrong with it? It fits perfectly within the naming conventions of Star Wars and many other classic Sci fi serials that SW was partly based upon, many of which are also plays on words. It’s also a perfect reflection of Faloni’s love of wolves.