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S02E62: Rapidly Rewatching Mando, S2E8
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Strap yourselves in, this one goes a little long. But when Ben, Phil, and Bob have some differing opinions, it's time to either hash it out or break out the Teras Kasi! Let's wrap up Mando Season 2!
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Transcript
Introduction and Episode Recap
00:00:04
Speaker
We're wrapping up Mando season two and we're doing it real quick. Aren't you a little short? Aren't you a little short? Aren't you a little short for a stormtrooper?
00:00:16
Speaker
Welcome back to The Mandalorian Season 2, Episode 8, Chapter 16, The Rescue Recap on Short for a Stormtrooper, a 15-minute Star Wars podcast, where I, Bob Gerard, and my friends Phil Salmo and Ben Dyer have been going through the entire series of The Mandalorian, getting you all ready for The Mandalorian and Grogu, which opens May 22nd.
00:00:45
Speaker
Wonderful. That's enough of an intro. Let's do the summary of this episode, chapter 16, written by Jon Favreau and directed by Peyton Reed, who directed what Marvel movie, Ben?
00:00:59
Speaker
Oh, I looked at Ant-Man. It was Ant-Man. Ant-Man. He took over for Edgar Wright when Edgar Wright... Yes. Yeah. Okay. Which, by the way, I would really have loved to have seen Edgar Wright's Ant-Man.
00:01:13
Speaker
Me too.
Rescue Mission and Dark Trooper Duel
00:01:15
Speaker
Yep. Okay. Chapter 16, The Rescue. Season 2 finale. Din and his assembled crew, Boba Fett, Fennec Shand, Cara Dune, Bo-Katan, and Cosco Reeves, storm off Gideon's Imperial Light Cruiser to rescue Grogu.
00:01:29
Speaker
Din defeats Gideon in a darksaber duel, inadvertently winning the blade and the right to the Mandalorian throne, creating an awkward standoff with Bo-Katan. When the dark troopers return, a lone X-wing arrives and a hooded Jedi cuts through the entire platoon. It's Luke Skywalker.
00:01:47
Speaker
Din removes his helmet to say goodbye to Grogu, who leaves with Luke and R2-D2.
Luke Skywalker's Appearance: Disappointment or Satisfaction?
00:01:53
Speaker
In a post-credits scene, Boba Fett and Fennec Shand seize Jabba's palace.
00:02:01
Speaker
There we go. That's the recap. Phil, I'm going to start with you. I'm going to ask you, did you stick around through the credits to watch that end scene? I did. yeah Good. I think I gave you the heads up on that, didn't i I think yes, you did. yeah and yeah you know i like I'll just say quickly since you brought it up. I liked it. you know it was It did the job. You got to tease the expanding universe, you know Book of Boba Fett coming December 2021. Sure, why not? yeah um But it was good overall.
00:02:28
Speaker
I'll say you know my takeaway for this episode is it's a great ending episode with one big caveat. And I'm sorry. I looked i looked after I watched it, and I know that Skywalker, this this you know this appearance of him was really acclaimed and highlighted by the fans. I...
00:02:47
Speaker
did not like it. i thought it was I thought it was super corny, and I thought the de-aging CGI looked absolutely terrible, and totally took me out of the story. I loved the, you know, when we didn't know who it was, I loved the Jedi cutting through the dark troopers. I thought that that was great. i felt like there was some Rogue One references maybe there, like when they did the reimagining of Darth Vader. I feel like that was there for sure, and It was that was a great action sequence when there was the reveal and just the face. And he like didn't even look like he was talking when he was talking. His mouth was barely moving. And I just I didn't like that at all. But in terms of everything else, a great closing episode, great action, ah really, I feel like emotional moment. between Mando and Grogu. And it it really, you know, it it it's a really, you know, it's sort of like the pinnacle in some ways. We kind of like reach that pinnacle of their relationship and then they have to say goodbye to each other. And, you know, where are we going to see them go in season three? So overall, i really liked it. It's just that one, you know, appearance of Luke that I'm sorry, took it away from me.
00:03:54
Speaker
Yeah, fair point. Ben Dyer, I think you're going have an opposite opinion about something. I, about something, probably. Yeah. Yeah. No, look, I, ah it may be that I'm looking back on this with, you know, nostalgic glasses on or whatever, but I think,
00:04:12
Speaker
you know, when you look at the forces, especially the dozens of dark troopers that are stacked against our heroes in that end scene. And the fact that like at this period in galactic history, it's not like there are a bunch of Jedi out there, right? Like you see the X-Wing come in you see the green lightsaber, you see the gloved hand, you see the black hooded, every, you know, all the little pieces and parts are kind of lining up and you're going, could it be, is this really him? Is it possible? And then, yeah, when it is Luke Skywalker, you go,
00:04:42
Speaker
oh my gosh, this is great. and And that little thrill that you had always wanted to see, it it sort of shows up. Now, I think especially here, it really mattered because a lot of people were disappointed by Luke's handling in the Rian Johnson movie, in the second sequel series.
00:05:00
Speaker
um So I think people liked the idea of a return to form here. I think they liked the idea of Luke as a kind of a wise Jedi who had kind of been established at this point. And when you think about like, who exactly was it that could have possibly like heard whatever that broadcast was two episodes back from that Jedi artifact, right? Who is it that Grogu is telepathically reaching out to?
00:05:23
Speaker
um Well, it's probably not Ahsoka at this point. We've already seen her. And who's left? I don't know. It's not Yoda. So I think Luke was probably the only choice you could have had. And he was probably the most satisfying choice for the guy that was going to carve through these dark troopers that we've only seen one example of.
00:05:40
Speaker
And so I think all of that stuff together was a really neat payoff to a really high tense, high high suspense, I should say, moment. Had a great time.
Special Effects and Fan Influence
00:05:51
Speaker
Loved it. Phil's wrong.
00:05:52
Speaker
ha Well, this is interesting because first off, I did love this episode. Phil, you are the first person I've ever heard who wasn't super thrilled with Luke Skywalker's appearance in this. So that's making me think about a couple of things that that did bug me about it was, number one, I agree with you completely that the special effects were subpar. and somebody can go out and research this. I didn't look this up beforehand, but what I recall,
00:06:26
Speaker
is that a fan afterwards who did deep fakes as opposed to the technology that they were using for this, went and basically did a fan edit it where he did a deep fake of Mark Hamill and it looked so much better.
00:06:43
Speaker
than what they actually published, that Lucasfilm then hired that guy. And he, I believe, was in charge of the de-aging of Harrison Ford in Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, in the prologue to Indiana Jones, which I thought was spectacular.
00:07:00
Speaker
Like, That was amazing. When I first saw that, and I thought they had found footage and repurposed it because I thought it was spectacular. So, you know, interesting that I think a failure actually led to some success for ILM, but that's all behind the scenes.
00:07:15
Speaker
I... I did like it overall. I mean, I was very enthusiastic about it and very excited, but I did for the reason that Ben just brought up, I felt like it kind of cheapened what winds up happening in the Last Jedi of, well, I felt it was kind of a fan service moment.
00:07:35
Speaker
That, you know, maybe Favreau didn't like how Rian Johnson had handled it, or maybe he was just kowtowing it to the fans who were like, they wanted to see Luke kick some epic butt as a Jedi. And they got to see it and like, okay, that was, you know, there you go. There's your moment. Yeah.
00:07:55
Speaker
And sometime Luke is going to become a pacifist between now and what, about 30 years later? And you know we'll we'll worry about that as time goes on. But um my last major thought about this episode is i felt it ended the story.
00:08:13
Speaker
i felt like had this been the end of the series and then they did the handoff to Book of Boba Fett, I would have been very satisfied. I would have longed for more.
00:08:25
Speaker
And I think that that's the way you should leave every series is that you're longing for more. Um, I'm not going into the Mandalorian and Grogu movie with quite that sense of longing after seeing season three, even though I liked season three. Okay.
00:08:42
Speaker
But this was just such a classic end a point. It was a perfect ending to the story. And I just felt like they didn't have to reopen it again. And that just felt like a money grab to me.
00:08:54
Speaker
I'm going say you're wrong twice.
Darksaber Plot Discussion
00:08:55
Speaker
So Bob, you're wrong. Okay. ah um I agree with all that stuff you said in terms of the story of Mandalorian and Grogu with Luke Skywalker leaving and all that kind of stuff. And I think that was all great.
00:09:07
Speaker
But let's not forget the Darksaber. Let's not forget that that little plot thread means you've got a whole nother season ahead with Bo-Katan. Well, that's true.
00:09:18
Speaker
yeah With Moff Gideon and all of the things that needed to happen to kind of tie that up. And we're just, you know... Yeah, we're just now starting to get our view into what the dynamics of the Mandalorian politics are and stuff like that. And um happily in a way that doesn't seem overly boring, right? It's like if you if you win the sword in battle, congratulations, you get to wear the big hat. So I think that's really kind of fun. And I i loved Giancarlo Esposito kind of playing the Mandalorian off of Bo-Katan in this way, right?
00:09:49
Speaker
He was like, well, in that case, if he walks in with it, then... he's going to be in a real mess. He's going to be unable to how to, like, we can't resolve that easily, right? That's a problem they've got to fix.
00:10:02
Speaker
That was a really tense moment. And I really enjoyed that moment uh it really uh it was something i wasn't expecting you know i i thought we might see some battle between bo-ca-tan and mando i thought that could have been really i'm sure we'll get it in season three obviously haven't watched it yet whereas you guys have but it i uh i thought that you know i'm excited to see kind of is there going to be a rivalry like uh is it going to be a back and forth i'm curious where they take that plot there because that was a real Interesting surprise for
Symbolism of Bib Fortuna's Weight
00:10:31
Speaker
me. I wasn't expecting that dynamic to, you know, come about in those last minutes of the episode.
00:10:36
Speaker
A couple of fun, ah fun tidbits. I'll just throw this in here. Um, then we can get back into the, the depth of the whole thing. Um,
00:10:47
Speaker
the Bib Fortuna scene at the end. So, you know, Jabba the Hutt's Major Domo. ah He was played by Matthew Wood, who was the sound editor at Lucasfilm.
00:10:58
Speaker
ah He also, so he did the voice of, no, he actually he played Bib Fortuna in The Phantom Menace. So when they brought Bib Fortuna into episode one, he was actually in the costume.
00:11:10
Speaker
But he famously did the voice of General Grievous. And the story with that was he inserted his own audition cassette in with a stack of cassettes with all the, act you know, like the big name actors that they were recording. And George Lucas liked his the best, which was good because they didn't have to pay him as much.
00:11:31
Speaker
um Also, Matthew Wood, really nice guy. I've met him a couple of times. If you ever get the chance to meet him in a con or something, he is really good. The the second thing I've just got to say this is Giancarlo Esposito is fantastic in anything that he does.
00:11:46
Speaker
But every time it showed his profile, I kept waiting for him to turn his head and for half of his skull to be blown off. Oh, no.
00:11:58
Speaker
So a little Breaking Bad deep cut there. Yeah. Breaking Bad is really etched into our memories for that. You know, one thing that's kind of interesting, and I wondered about this, maybe Bob, you have a point of view on this, but I thought I remembered reading somewhere in Star Wars lore that the whole reason why the Hutts get big and fat is because that's essentially a way that they show that they're dominant and they're powerful and all that kind of stuff that they're that they're prosperous. And when we meet Bib in this post-credits sequence,
00:12:26
Speaker
he's a little... He's going all the way. it's Yeah. And so I kind of wondered if that was... Do you think that's him sort of taking his um ah calories of office, I guess?
00:12:40
Speaker
I'm not sure, but I like that idea. i do like that idea a lot. I think that... they wound up making Jabba really fat to make him feel, close to Marlon Brando.
00:12:53
Speaker
<unk>s That was always, my I don't know that for a fact, right. But like to make that connection with Brando from the Godfather, the invitation you know, when they, when they first shot episode four back in 76, they had that scene with Jabba the hut, uh,
00:13:13
Speaker
confronting Han in the docking bay but Jabba the Hutt was just a humanoid he was just a man he was just a guy and then when they did the special edition and they replaced that guy with the CGI Jabba which by the way looked terrible back then awful ah they did that and so yeah that's an interesting thought though I like that Ben I think that's good was is It was interesting. When you said Brando, I thought you were going to go for Apocalypse Now. So so did I, yeah.
00:13:44
Speaker
Oh, but i was yeah. Interesting. yeah cause there is That is kind of like famous famous story of him you know showing up um overweight in comparison to what Coppola wanted. And then they had to frame him and light him in such a way so as to kind of hide him and make him sort of this haunting, towering figure. And he was bald, obviously, during the you know during the shoot. So that you know obviously harkens back to the image of Jabba in some ways as well. So, yeah, I'm wondering if there's some reference in there as well. I like that.
00:14:13
Speaker
Well, that's a factor of me only seeing Apocalypse Now once when I was like 14. So ah you got to see it again, Bob. It's my favorite movie. You got to see it. Is it really? Yeah, it is. Oh, I will. I totally will.
00:14:24
Speaker
You got to see it in theaters. You got to see it in theaters And they show it, sure, especially like in major cities like LA, Chicago, New York, they show it in those big theaters and it's such a cool experience. Yeah.
00:14:35
Speaker
I love that. That's great. Um, One thing for me, notably, was i you know I thought the end of this whole episode was was very emotional.
Emotional Impact of R2-D2's Appearance
00:14:47
Speaker
I was just a big pile of goo.
00:14:50
Speaker
The thing that really hit me was R2-D2's appearance. When R2 came out, that hit me really, really hard. um And I love the fact that you got the sense that R2 recognized Grogu, which yeah he would have if you kind of put the two and two together is we already knew that Grogu had been in the Jedi temple and that would have been about the time of the Clone Wars. And we knew that R2 was all over the Jedi council in the Clone Wars. So he would have known him. And it makes me wonder what their relationship was like. And I do feel like Grogu seeing R2 made him feel a lot more comfortable about going with Luke.
00:15:35
Speaker
Yeah. That makes a lot of sense. I hadn't thought about the Jedi Temple connection, but that yeah yeah actually tracks. there There is that moment for sure. You see it in Grogu's eyes that he like have you know has a moment of recognition with R2-D2. That's really interesting. I totally agree with you, Bob.
00:15:49
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah, it's not just a member barrier, as you say. It's not just fan service. right Right.
Pedro Pascal's Physical Performance
00:15:55
Speaker
I thought that Pedro Pascal's performance there, again, even though he's only got his helmet off for a couple of minutes, was just rock solid.
00:16:03
Speaker
Yeah, and i do I do wonder, Bob, just because something you said last episode about you know his ah performance and how much is it really in person. you know I would hope that he's in the suit a lot because I feel like even though – and I've heard other actors like Tom Holland and Spider-Man talk about this. When you have a mask, you have to do so much more with your physical body and your head movements. Yes.
00:16:26
Speaker
i Pedro Pascal is a great actor, obviously. I hope that he was in the suit for some of it because those body language moments throughout the first two seasons of him, you know even just a a turn of the head or just ah a glare at somebody, you can feel it ah even with the mask on.
00:16:43
Speaker
So I do wonder how much – I'll have to take a look at it afterward, how much he was really in the suit versus not. That's a really good point. It is also interesting how, if you think about the Spider-Man movies that Sony has done over the years, how easy it is for them to blow off half of of Spider-Man's mask.
00:17:03
Speaker
Have you ever noticed that? like In almost every movie, you know he winds up getting at least like you know from his nose down yeah blown off at some point. Yeah. All
Closing Remarks and Season 3 Preview
00:17:15
Speaker
right, boys, we are coming up to the end of our time. any last words that we would like to bestow?
00:17:22
Speaker
This is the way. This is the way. All right. looking forward season three. And this is a new way with season three because, yes, because of various reasons, we've kind of fallen behind. We're going to kind of motor through season three. So on the next episode, we will cover the introduction, the first episode of season three, and then we're going to start going through about two at a time.
00:17:43
Speaker
So that'll fun. And we'll all wrapped up before the movie starts. Alright guys, thank you for being here. Listeners, thank you for listening as always. May the force be with you. See you next time. Bye bye.
00:17:55
Speaker
Who's that mindless choice to do? Podcasts, hope you see them through. Star Wars is your favorite in it. Let's chat for 15 minutes. Aren't you a little short? Aren't you a little short?
00:18:07
Speaker
Aren't you a little short for a sporn trooper? Aren't you a little short for a slur?