Mornin’ fans!

Tonight, last night, couple hours ago we watchered Chapter 8, the season finale of The Mandalorian … and it was GREAT! This is what we expect from Star Wars. Well, for the most part. The storywriting was a bit light but that’s what it was all through the season already. And it’s perfectly befitting our lone gunslinger. We wouldn’t even wanna watch huge big deep drama and galaxy-saving scenarios in a series about a morally inflicted bountyhunter.

As we already know, our Mando only talks when absolutely necessary and never takes his helmet off, so Pedro Pascal would’ve had problems turning in some award winning dramatic scenes in the first place, right? We accept that and rather enjoy this series for what it is. A nitty gritty, rich in atmosphere, oldfashioned wildwest show, playing out mostly on desert planets, in small rundown towns and shops and bars.

Perfect.

And in that regard was Chapter 8 a perfect end for the, kinda wonky, first season of The Mandalorian. With 46 minutes it was a rather long chapter, particularly since it was the second part of a two-parts chapter, which’s first part ended in a cliffhanger. Super set-up. That’s how you do television, Disney! And it was resolved in a very satisfactory manner: With a lot of boom and bang and shootouts and explosions and lots of dead redshirts stormtroopers.

Also very nice was that the cast was reunited. Same as in Chapter 7 we got to see a who’s who of the Mandalorian’s world. Bountyhunter’s Guild exec Greef Karga (Carl Weathers), Mando’s newish crew member Cara Dune (a better than expected Gina Carano), the pretty important droid IG-11 (Taika Waititi), and the openly creepy Emperial Moff Gideon (Giancarlo Esposito). He’s in best Breaking Bad mood here, talking sensible and reasonable when in reality he’s the personified evil.

Anyhoo, this chapter, like its first part, delivered in the action and coolness department. We see, and hopefully Jon Favreau noticed it too, that The Mandalorian gets better if our Mando can act and operate as part of a crew. Yes, yes, we know he’s doing well for himself when he’s alone, but we, the fanboy and -girls audience, have more fun when he’s surrounded by friends and frenemies. Definately!

Soooo, Season 1 … it was a mixed bowl, consisting of a strong start followed by some weaker episodes around the middle, and we reducing and adjusting our expectations. But then towards the end, with Chapters 7 and 8 it became great again.

Don’t get me wrong;  even the weaker episodes were far above the Skywalker Saga Episodes 7, 8 and 9 but Chapters 7 and 8 of the dirty little Mandalorian really stood out! It was total fun, almost a guilty pleasure to see so many stormtroopers staying true to the meme and missing so many targets, and IG-11 gloriously and happily self-destructing with a big explosion that killed a whole platoon of useless Stormtroopers.

As a lady and a peacenik normally I should shriek and shy away from all the violence on the screen. But firstly we’re talking about Disney violence here, very ungory and totally bloodless, and secondary I’m not a lady but just a Star Wars fangirl. So there. And for Star Wars fans, like, the real fans, the fans since 1977, The Mandalorian was the best that could happen to us, the best we could hope for.

Oh, did I tell you about the great revelations coming to the light of day in this chapter? Mando had to take his helmet off and it was revealed, yes, it is indeed  Westerosi Pedro Pascal underneath that helmet.

And he’s got his own jetpack and can fly now. Also he’s got a name: Din Djarin. And Cara Dune’s full name is Carasynthia Dune, of Alderaan. Not that we are any wiser now that we know this pretty insignificant info but its nice to know that our team members once had parents and are, like, kinda real people. Contrary to Orca Flotta who, although she had and still has parents, was mostly left to her own devices … and you can see how that punk girl’s turned out. 😐

Oh, and Moff Gideon, in one scene is seen with a black glowing light saber. As old SW fans we immediately know what’s up. He seems to be a shitlord. 😮 It’s obviously a thing among high-ranking Imperial personnel.

The name and pedigree of Baby Yoda is still a riddle tho, and with Mando’s new task, instilled on him for Season 2 – to protect that little green critter and deliver him to his people – I’m quite sure we’re gonna learn more facts about him. So what George Lucas never wanted to reveal about the real Yoda, maybe the Mando will find out throughout Season 2.

He learned already in Chapter 7 a bit about the Jedi and the Force and that the Force is strong within Baby Yoda. But good to know that not the order of the Jedi, neither the Sith Lords are a big deal among the outer rim planets and their populations. All the people know are some rumours.

But for now Season 1’s over. Shit, it was much too short, we’ve been entertained but still not fully engaged in the show. Maybe now that we’ve finally seen Mando’s Din Djarin’s face and know that he’s not an alien, not some monster but just a normal human Latino male, we can identify better. Well, for me he could’ve been a strong woman type, like surprise mofos! But we have with Cara Dune already a strong – and very enjoyable – woman in the cast, so let’s give them boys their Pedro. 😉