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Delving into THE MANDALORIAN Chapters 3 and 4 with Bronwen | 012
0 Playsin 3 days
Join Branwen and Seah as they deep dive into all things Star Wars. Follow along as we fly off exploring all the wonders and geekery of a Galaxy Far, Far Away, chatting nostalgia, worlds, lore, sound, music, story, behind the scenes, and much more with each other and some very special guests.
It's Season 2! This season, we're on a rewatch of The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett in the run-up to the release of The "Mandalorian and Grogu" in cinemas in May.
In our twelfth episode we're joined by our fabulous friend, dance and movement expert, and Star Wars lover Bronwen, as we jump into Season 1 of The Mandalorian Chapter 3 "The Sin" and Chapter 4 "Sanctuary". We talk about themes, performances, story details, Klatooinians, spotchka, and much more. Watch out too for a brand new segment we're currently calling "West End Geek Girls"!
Sisters of the Force is a weekly, UK-based, Star Wars podcast, produced with joy and love by Seah and Branwen.
Follow us on instagram @sistersoftheforcepod, bluesky @sistersoftheforce.bsky.social, https://www.youtube.com/@SistersoftheForce, and at www.facebook.com/sistersoftheforcepod.
Merch now available: https://www.redbubble.com/shop/ap/174934721
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Transcript
Favorite Lines & The Mandalorian Humor
00:00:15
Speaker
Hi, Branwen. Hi. What is your favourite line from Mandalorian Season 1, Episode 3 and or 4? Want some soup?
00:00:28
Speaker
I had all sorts of like very detailed um client lines, Werner Herzog. like But then last I did that last week, so we can't have him again. I'd win with the complete opposite. Sia.
00:00:40
Speaker
Hi. What's your favourite line from The Mandalorian Season 1, Episodes 3 and 4? So you can slip off the helmet, settle down with that beautiful young widow, raise your kid sitting here sipping Spotchka.
00:00:52
Speaker
It was an extra moment. Bless him.
00:00:57
Speaker
It's that kind of like... Oh yeah, why am I not doing that? Wait. Also, anyone's drinking Spotska. Yeah. We've got a lot to say about Spotska.
Podcast Introduction & Host Mix-up
00:01:07
Speaker
You are listening to Sisters of the Force with me, Bramwen.
00:01:12
Speaker
And me, Sia. Sorry, I forgot my name temporarily. That's okay. I don't normally do that, sir. Please do. And this week we are talking about The Mandalorian Season 1, Episode 3, The Sin, and Episode 4, Sanctuary. But not only that, we have another amazing guest, which we're super excited about.
00:01:31
Speaker
Let me introduce the wonderful Bronwen. Hello, Bronwen. Hello, Bronwen. It's nice to see you both. Welcome along. We're so happy that you're here. I feel very honoured and excited and slightly nervous.
Introducing Bronwen: Dance & Movement
00:01:45
Speaker
No, no, no, no. Sisters of the Force is the best, safest podcast you can imagine. Which the way. This is the way.
00:01:54
Speaker
Do you want to tell us a bit about you Bronwyn? i I actually, I've known you for quite a few years now, but I don't know much about you other than that you are deep into dance and movement and all that kind of thing, but I don't know much else. So tell us a little bit more about.
00:02:09
Speaker
Yes. Well, I like to cultivate an air of mystery generally. um I'm confused. yeah I am a dance artist. So I do work with people. i'm particularly work with people who don't necessarily dance very often or think of themselves as being dancers and like to kind of help people explore that and use their bodies in different ways. And, uh, but I have had lots and lots of different jobs and careers and lives. It feels like, amazing and yeah, and didn't grow up in this country as well. So kind of moved around quite a lot as a kid. Oh, wow. Yeah. I feel like the going to different planets and settling in different ah zones is very right somehow. Absolutely. Yeah, that does. A kind of galactic nomad. Yes, that's right. That's what I like to think of myself as. I love it. We'll take it. So tell us about your like connection to Star Wars.
Bronwen's Star Wars Origins & Fandom Journey
00:03:08
Speaker
like Where did it all begin? do you love like all of Star Wars? are you quite selective about the different corners that you dip into? I mean, that is like a lot. that So I am the youngest. i'm the I'm the only daughter and the youngest. And I've got four older brothers. And I'm 46. So they were all of the age when Star Wars first came out. So they were like all massive fans. And I have a very specific and like really clear memory of the first time I watched the first three films that got released.
00:03:41
Speaker
And we were camping and just up the road from Astragunlis in South Wales near my, where my family are from. And it was a really, really, really rainy camp. And I think my mum was just desperate with these kind of like,
00:03:54
Speaker
Five kids to get rid of us. So she found out that at the local cinema, which must have been, don't know whether it can't have been in Australia, it must have been somewhere down the valley. Anyway, she found out that they were showing all three of the Star Wars films. They were showing the whole trilogy together because they'd finally released the last one. Oh my gosh. And I think in the year afterwards, they kind of did that occasionally. Yeah, remember that. Anyway, whatever the context, I must have only been about like five, maybe five or six.
00:04:20
Speaker
So my dad took it all. And don't remember much about the beginning. But then at the end of The Empire Strikes Back, there was this woman who clearly had basically been drinking the entire time. know what I'm saying? And in the scene with Darth Vader and Luke when they're fighting at the end of that second movie, yeah she got up onto the stage in front of the screen started going, I love you, Darth Vader!
00:04:51
Speaker
fucking love you!
00:04:53
Speaker
Basically started trying to get Darth Vader and like was in the lightsaber scene herself. And then she got taken place by the ushers. And then there was like, literally kind of like people running around the cinema, chasing each other. They were trying to rugby tackle her. we were all cheering. incredible It was incredible. And like, and also obviously, and then we watched the final film. I mean, and you know, by the time that E-Rox appeared, we were all just like, this has been the best day of our entire lives.
00:05:22
Speaker
How anything ever going to top this ever again? And it's funny because I was thinking one of the reasons why I was nervous about coming on the podcast is that I have had someone say to me in the past, they're like, oh, you're not a real fan?
00:05:33
Speaker
Because I don't know, I didn't know the name of a spaceship. Oh, yeah, But for me, Star Wars has like always been in my life. Princess Leia was like the first kind of female...
00:05:47
Speaker
icon that I actually looked up to and you know really kind of identified with. I'm still very angry at Jabba the Hutt in general. I'm really cross about him. and um But then my kind of, I suppose my fandom has gone through different movements like I didn't watch episodes one, two or three when they came out they didn't really kind of yeah I felt like they were going to mess with my picture of those first three movies that really, really loved.
00:06:17
Speaker
Yeah, fair.
Family Traditions & Star Wars Engagement
00:06:19
Speaker
Then the kind of the final episodes came out and they were filmed in the Forest of Dean, which is where I live now, like a lot of scenes. I think there's one scene with Rey and Kylo Ren.
00:06:28
Speaker
Yeah. They're in Puzzlewood. Yeah, and that's all like just down the road in Puzzlewood. and um Yeah. And I had kids by then and we watched it and they started getting into Star Wars. And then they were the ones who actually started watching all the Clone Wars animation, the animated series.
00:06:47
Speaker
And my daughter got obsessed with Ahsoka. Yeah. And just like was, you know, and it was like that thing of like, I remember what Princess Leia had meant to me and then seeing her and like, you know, she's literally, you know, when she was about, I can't remember when she was about seven, probably she had like the t-shirt, the kind of the figure. not here yeah Yeah. So they actually started watching the Mandalorian without me, which are' very cross about with their dad. Yeah.
00:07:13
Speaker
And then I came into it kind of actually after these two episodes that we're going to talk about tonight and then got completely hooked. So it's really nice to be able to kind of go back and revisit the early episodes that they didn't watch with me. So, yeah. yeah yeah I don't yeah hold it against them or anything. No, no, that's that's fast.
00:07:34
Speaker
But yeah, interesting. And, but you know, my kids have gone through different stages with it as well. Like Ariane says now that she's, they kind of got overloaded. I think when, I think when Ahsoka and Boba Fett got released, she was like, no, I've had, I've had enough. And I'm kind of waiting for her to forget that she's had enough to then make her watch Andor. around again. Yeah. It'll happen. it's like, you know, it's funny, it kind goes in waves, but it's definitely a big part of our general family.
00:08:01
Speaker
wow I love that. I love that sort of like generational attachment to it. As somebody without children, like i like I've not experienced that. I've really never had like my own thing. My parents used to foster, yeah and so I kind of always grew up with younger people around me, but none of them were particularly into Star Wars. I mean, they watched it and they enjoyed it, but they weren't like you know they didn't kind of hang on to it in the same way as... No, our whole family is like completely obsessed. I mean... When The Last Lot came out with them with Ray and Kylo Ren, it was kind of a tradition, because they came out at Christmas normally, didn't they? Yeah, they did, yeah. And basically, we'd take me and my brothers would take my dad to the cinema.
00:08:40
Speaker
And like bearing in mind that we're now sort of a bunch of 40 and 50-year-olds with a 85 year old dad and we'd come out of cinema having lightsaber battles with each other like you know and then the final one that we went to watch we went with my dad all my brothers and all of our kids like incredible yeah it was amazing we got very cross with my youngest nephew because he fell asleep yeah i started taking my mum so it was like a bit of a christmas tradition for me and my mum to go and see them yeah we all went like me mum stacy erin yeah you know and then i would also join your family and come again Yeah, yeah, yeah we did that was numerous times. We did, yeah.
00:09:19
Speaker
I missed that. We need some more Star Wars on the big screen. I know. I missed the Christmas releases. It was nice having that. Although i suppose Stranger Things is trying to it this Christmas, right? Yeah. It's having a go. It's having
00:09:34
Speaker
a go. Right.
Analyzing The Mandalorian: E.T. Influences & Symbolism
00:09:35
Speaker
I suppose we better get into this episode. Probably talk about this episode. Yes. There's no drunk South Whalian women trying to fight anyone. Yeah. Too much vodka. Yeah.
00:09:46
Speaker
So last week was the first week we had done this TV episode thing, because before that we'd been doing one film per per episode. So we were taught trialling this two episodes per episode vibe, and it seemed to work okay. I think we probably talked a lot more about the first episode. got carried We did, but there was a lot more build-up in that one, wasn't there?
00:10:05
Speaker
Yeah, a lot more. Even in these two, I felt like... Episode four is a little bit meatier. Yeah, yeah. 3D felt lighter in terms of light detail. Oh, I don't know. i think I would say the opposite, but maybe that's... Oh, interesting.
00:10:20
Speaker
Now, there's a lot there's a lot in both of them if you're looking for it. yeah I think my my like watch through on Saturday, I kind of made my usual notes, but it didn't feel as though I was making as many notes. yeah But since then, it's been percolating my brain and I've added to come back. It's like, oh there's way way more stuff than is probably necessary. yeah So last week I was coming in kind of cold. i was watching them for the first time. Oh, cool. And then I was like, I can't do this. So i binge watched all of it last week. Also, I wasn't very well in my defence, so I sat and just watched the whole of season one. Pretty much in one go. yeah And then I went back and did these two episodes this morning. so it was my second watch, technically. Very fresh. of yeah watch I finished watching them last night and it's been however long it is since they were first released, since I last saw them. So it's quite interesting going back, actually. Yeah, yeah.
00:11:20
Speaker
So this first one, episode three, The Sin. Deborah Chow, I didn't know anything about Deborah Chow. She's the director. I didn't hadn't heard of her, but she apparently had done quite a lot of sort of indie work. Okay. And then she's since gone on and she directed all of the Obi-Wan Kenobi series. Ah, that's why I recognise the name. Yeah, that was kind of her baby. So it sort took her out of the Mandoverse because she was so busy with that, i think. Sure. Sure.
00:11:43
Speaker
My first note on this was right from the off, we've kind of got this whole going back into the town thing. He's coming back with the child. And right at the beginning, we're getting all of like, this is a scary place from music and from Grogu's expressions. Yeah. A lot it is Grogu's point of view. Like it's low angle. Yeah. It reminded me of, in fact, there's two things in this episode that I think come from E.T. One of them I know is Stephanie. an E.T. influence. But this one, I haven't read this, but I feel it's an E.T. reference. You know when they're taking E.T. out on Halloween and he's got the ghost sheet over his head? Yeah, the costume. And there's somebody in a Yoda costume. It's like a Star Wars thing because Spielberg and Lucas are always doing that. But we're seeing E.T.' 's perspective with the little eye holes in the ghost thing. And it felt similar in that we're getting like, looking around at all these scary looking people. Yeah. Also, I think he'd be picking up on the fact that Mando's not really convinced by what he's doing, even whilst he's doing it, right?
00:12:46
Speaker
Yeah. I feel that's very true. And like I think we see that in in Grogu's face throughout the whole, ah the while once he gets to the client and he's being taken away into the lab. And Grogu's just got that look of like, what? What you doing? Yeah, I thought you were an okay person. Yeah.
00:13:06
Speaker
Dad. I mean, I guess this is the turning point episode, isn't Obviously, like we get that little framing device of Grogu wanting the little unscrew wall thing from and the cockpit. And then at the end, he gives it to him and it's like now he's his dad, yeah officially.
00:13:25
Speaker
It's like his adoption certificate. Yeah. I mean, I don't know whether this is skipping around too much, but when the arm for me, what really stuck out watching this time is when the armourer said, is asking Amanda questions about this person because they don't know it's Grogu. And then saying, yeah you know, why were they fighting alongside you if they were yeah an enemy, right?
00:13:43
Speaker
I feel like that's the moral turning point. in a way because yeah obviously he's so much part of that cult, isn't he? Like that actually it had to almost be someone within the cult to challenge him. Like this isn't, this is not the way. This isn't your enemy. Yeah. like I hadn't even thought that because I'd written down about this line where he says about the enemy, like my enemy helped or whatever, can't remember what it is.
00:14:05
Speaker
And I hadn't twigged that. Yeah, that is a really like, how does he view Grogu at this point? Yeah. It changes in that moment. It also cements that relationship of the armorers, like kind of the priest or the confessional or the, you know, like those, that sort of wall within that kind structure or whatever it is.
00:14:24
Speaker
Yeah. We love the armorer so much. The armorer is amazing. My second note was, um I think I made it when they've just finished that walk through the town and yeah ah the stormtroopers come out to have a look at Grogu and we're kind of seeing these shots of Grogu being like, well, not sure about this. And my note was like, Grogu is essentially a baby, right?
00:14:46
Speaker
And... Babies rely so heavily on like facial expressions to gauge things, and then this small creature's being shown all these helmets all the time. yeah Even with Mando, he can't entirely work out what Mando's thinking or feeling. That's interesting. I mean, Stormtroopers have like an intentionally scary expression on their masks. Yeah. Terrible. Mando is a bit more, yeah. His is a bit more neutral, I guess, but like, yeah. Well, get to like be a movement geek for one second. Yeah, do it. Okay. Yeah, let's get into some movement. Please. Mask wearing is like a whole thing in lots of different cultures. And there's something really interesting that happens when you put something on someone's face. And actually, when you have got a mask, you can read people's body language much more clearly. Yeah.
00:15:33
Speaker
Yeah. That's why I think said that thing about Grogu maybe picking up on Mando's sort of ambivalence about what he was actually doing. Because yeah his embodiment is so clear because we're not looking at his face.
00:15:46
Speaker
Yeah. yeah Does that make sense? Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. also, there are several people inside that suit. Yes. Yes, yeah, yeah. Which I think is really interesting. It is really interesting. And like some of the time we can know who that is. But I mean, they've clearly collaborated and spent a lot amount of time, I'm sure, working that between them.
00:16:12
Speaker
Yeah, that is super interesting from like just a production acting point of view. Yeah. yeah I mean, the Stormtroopers, I was thinking like the way that they're used in those episodes is so good because the fact that they're tatty,
00:16:23
Speaker
Yeah. Kind of disheveled. I think they're described somewhere I read that they're decommissioned. Decommissioned. Which I think that word says so much about them. Yeah, those things felt bad. Yeah. Well, I can't wait until we watch Ahsoka Season 1 because there's a whole other layer of Stormtrooper decommissioning in that. gosh. we get in, before we get in, before we get we didn't talk about it last week, but I want to talk about the little eye droid, the gatekeeper droid, which is technically called a TT-8L-Y7 gatekeeper, apparently. Also called a Tattletail droid, which I like. Tattletail droid's great name for it. And I had to get my galactic phrase book by Ben Burt out to find out what but you are blin means.
00:17:14
Speaker
Play it again. Go on. I took a pinky. Nice. ah That's his first line every time. And it was also, it wasn't the first line in Return of the Jedi at Jammus Palace, like which is obviously a different droid, presumably. yeah Maybe it's recycled secondhand.
00:17:30
Speaker
But we've also heard other creatures say that, i think, along the way. It actually means, who are you? Okay. Like, who are you? Yeah. It's very close to Hutties for hello, which is Hachuapinki, which is nearly the same. way i think it's a Hachuapinki. Apenki?
00:17:49
Speaker
Apenki. I just love it. I love Hutties. Incredible. I've been reading like all of the Hutties phrases and stuff in the book. And it's so funny. I mean, it's a kind of comedy book. Yeah. There's things like... ah Twos parita bafluta, which means may your juices stay fresh. That is disgusting, quite frankly.
00:18:11
Speaker
It's got this kind of like bounciness about the words. like When you look at on the page, it looks really ugly. But when you say it, it's like, oh yeah. Yeah, that sounds great. It's really fun. And I love how like everywhere you go, like a lot of the different places that Mando visits across the series, they all speak Hattis. I mean, Hattis is definitely the language of the Outer Rim. Yeah. And like where all the kind of crime stuff goes on. I was actually watching with the subtitles on today and that's quite interesting as well. yeah I watch with subtitles quite a lot because ah my attention span is not great. and and And yeah, it helps me not miss things basically. yeah yeah But I saw so much more like because it comes up with what languages they're speaking, which is yeah really cool.
00:18:59
Speaker
That's a cool way of watching this actually. I wish I'd known that. Yeah. Yeah, you can sometimes find out um like character names and stuff that aren't mentioned. yes Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because when I was watching the first two episodes, just to get up to date, was like, oh, what's the name of the lovely little guy on the... Oh, yeah, yeah. i have spoken Yeah.
00:19:19
Speaker
quill we have him So the client is still in the same seat as he was when Mando last
Character Intrigue & Mandalorian Culture
00:19:25
Speaker
visited to him. Yes. yes you know He's just chilling it's just for days on end. I'm just going to wait right here. I love how animated Werner Herzog, like from the first time we see him in episode one where he's just very detached and yeah threatening. He just jumps up almost and is like, oh, the child is here, the winner. But to the winner go the spoils. I made a little note about intrigue. What are they doing? Yes. What are they gonna do? So Pershing, the doctor, right? Yes. He is, like, costume design-wise, he's based on the scientists that we see in Rogue One. Yeah, I did wonder that. They're very similar outfits. Yeah.
00:20:07
Speaker
It's like the Imperial Science Division, I guess. Yeah. Okay. And the original designs were based on like Nazi scientists. Yeah. So it's that kind of very plain white, gray thing. Yeah. However, he has got like a little logo on, I think it's on it's on his shoulder and it's on his front pocket somewhere. I'm not sure. He's got this little round logo with some so lines on it, which we see in the Attack of the Clones as well in Kamino, the cloners. Okay. Okay.
00:20:35
Speaker
they wear them and we saw them in the Clone Wars as well. i just did a little head twitch. Is that you researching or you just know that? I researched the Nazi costume. But I did like the little thing. You recognised it. yeah Yeah. And I think I kind of, like at this point, I probably didn't recognise it straight away. Yeah. As we get through this season and you begin to figure out, oh, particularly after the episode, and I think that's in season three,
00:21:00
Speaker
Yeah, season two, and they take out an Imperial remnant-like base that's still on Navarro. Yeah. And we get some big clues about what's going on and what Pershing doing and why they've got Grogu. And it feeds into this massive storyline, which we still haven't got to the bottom What really love about my memory is that I can't remember what their intention is for Grogu. And so I'm getting to watch the world again for the first time.
00:21:27
Speaker
Excellent. What are they doing? I can't remember what they're going to do. know what's called Breaking Bad's got bad intentions, but... Yeah, yeah, yeah. This guy. I mean, i love how Pershing is, he's almost protective. Like, we see him a couple times with Grogu and he's like, it's this ambiguity of, is he really a bad person? Is he being manipulated to do this science? Yeah.
00:21:55
Speaker
Because he says, what he' trying to keep him alive. Yeah, I protected him. Yeah, Mando's not having any of it, which I wouldn't either if I was Mando, but... Yeah. That kind of fits though, doesn't it? Because in like the imperial services, there's always people who are just there because they haven't been. Yeah. Yeah. Like, well, the Nazi regime would have had people who like, they maybe were kind of brought in, in a kind of fake propaganda, brainwashing kind of way. I mean, radicalisation and all that kind of thing. Yeah. And then once you're in you're kind of in potentially. Yeah. But we get a lot more about him future seasons. There's a whole episode about him. Yeah. Okay. But do you think scientists in general, in like science fiction and whatever, are always presented as slightly kind of like, oh, I'm just neutral. I'm just a scientist doing my thing. It's just for the science. My dad was a scientist. He didn't do any horrible experiments on him. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, you're really.
00:22:56
Speaker
My next note, we might already be up to like my favourite piece of music. Okay. Quite quickly. It's the mystery guitar music as Mando's going down into the hideout. Same.
00:23:09
Speaker
Yeah. And that whole like same thing. Same thing. The chords. Yes! You get these huge chords that are like minor, major, combination chords. Completely nuts. Have either of you heard the Jeff Wayne's War of the Worlds album? Yes. yes Like there are some bits of that where they use similar chords. Yeah. And it gave me that vibe, which I'm sure is intentional. Like yeah yeah we'll know all of that seventy s show stuff. It was just so cool.
00:23:39
Speaker
It's really mystical. yeah And then my next note was the armourer is just cool. saying We just the armourer. We love the armourer. But it's that episode where you start learning more about that particular branch of Mandalorian, though, right? Yeah. Because if you are someone who has watched like the cartoons and the animated series, then obviously you know yeah about kind of like the you know about that side of it. And that these guys are different. And I think it starts yeah explaining that, which is kind of important, really.
00:24:10
Speaker
yeah I like with this show how they they obviously like Filoni is a big part of this show and he created loads. Well, he created Rebels and was a big part of Clone Wars.
00:24:21
Speaker
like They could have quite easily just immediately continued with the Mandalorians that we know, you know yeah up with Rokatan and Death Watch and all that stuff and just carried on with that story. But he intentionally, or Favreau and Filoni together, intentionally brought us this new little sect And we still don't really know. I mean, by the end of season three, we a bit more of an idea of what's going on, but we still don't quite know when they fractured off. No, or how that happened and kind of how they've sustained themselves outside of that system. But it does make it much more exciting when Boquitain comes back in. Yeah. Do you know what mean? Because if you started off with it, you wouldn't... Whereas actually... And also it gives the Mandalorian that dilemma, which he otherwise wouldn't have had. Yeah, who are loyalty. Yeah, so these two episodes, I think, really introduce that and the whole concept of the helmet and how significant it is. Yeah.
00:25:11
Speaker
I did say... I did have a note about... Is this all Mandalorians that they just leave one at a time? What is going on What do you mean? What do you mean only one of you goes out at time? They all hide and then one of them is allowed out to play but then and the rest of them have to stay behind and look after the foundlings. it's just so confused. I think it's just they are hiding. They are hiding, okay. They're a persecuted people, aren't they, basically? Right, okay.
00:25:38
Speaker
Yeah. And again, we don't really know this at this point, but there was a big event that meant Mandalorians had to leave Mandalore, their own planet, or most of them died. Yeah. And quite few survived the Great Purge. Yeah. And so those that have survived have kind of gone off in their different factions and have become like these little culty cells. Culty things. Yeah. Yeah, Pockets, that's a good... Pockets is a good to say it. You definitely like, you know, that episode where he... I can't remember the name, it lovely man who said that he was his guest. You know, and he referenced, like, you're a Mandalorian, you've ridden...
00:26:15
Speaker
yeah this is my problem i can't remember the name oh yeah quill quill yeah yes well yeah we're starting to build this idea of like who the mandalorians are as a race and even in the sanctuary like they say you know we've read stories about you like that it's almost these early episodes of building that mythology of like why they're special in some ways or maybe special i love how we've got like trouble at mill as well with pas vizsler the big huge mandalorian um this voiced by john favreau himself because a step next And he's just, he's obviously got some contempt.
00:26:50
Speaker
Yes. When, yes yeah, like he's kind of eyeing him as he comes in. Yeah, yeah. And starts picking fights. Yeah. and And he's complaining about the Beskar, he says about it being cut or cast in an imperial imperial smelter. Yeah, yeah.
00:27:06
Speaker
He's a real fundamentalist, isn't he? Yeah, he's pretty hardcore. Is this where we get the first This Is The Way? Or did we have that in episode one? We've had a a less intense This Is The Way, but we've now got like way more intense because there's loads of them. And it was giving, for the greater good, hot fuzz vibes to me. yeah I feel like it was the first time it really lands. like yeah yeah she's She's so good at the armour though, isn't she? Yeah. Yeah.
00:27:33
Speaker
She gives him more flashbacks as well. we get a little bit more of the battle droids. More forging, more flashbacks. but but I'm impressed with her skill because, I mean, okay, this is going to sound really stupid, but like the amount of the material that they're given and then what she's able to make from it, I'm like, wow, that that goes far. Yeah. Yeah. Seems to go really far. How have you made that into a whole breastplate? Yeah. I think I heard somebody talk about this on a podcast and I think there's like ah an assumption that she kind of cuts it with something. Like, and if you do, you're kind of slightly going to weaken it, obviously.
00:28:04
Speaker
So there's like yeah different parts of the armor might have more concentrated Beskar, possibly. But I think that was only a theory. I think it's because the prop department didn't give them enough. Yeah. Yeah. What it is is they wanted humble best they wanted they wanted the client to serve up the best car in that, can what's it called, Camtono, which is a famous prop from Empire Strikes Back. There's one shot on Cloud City when Lando's told everybody to get out and everyone's running to get out of Cloud City. There's a guy who's now got a name, Wilro Hood, his name is, ok to look for it on him. And he's carrying what is actually an ice cream maker.
00:28:47
Speaker
been It's not been edited or anything. like it's not been changed into a starboard. It's just straight out of the box ice cream maker that loads of people in America had at the time. But it's been called a Camtono. And it's now this, like people cosplay. It's the thing.
00:29:02
Speaker
And it's Camtono. I love it. It's this whole thing. I love it. John Favreau's like, we've got to have the client serve up the best car in this thing. In an ice cream maker. Which then leads people to have all sorts of really daft theories about people cutting Vescar, which I'm sorry, but I don't think Amra would do that. I think she would make it from pure materials. I think they're just that silly. very good with
Star Wars Drinks & Cultural Traditions
00:29:24
Speaker
it. She's very efficient. She loses nothing.
00:29:27
Speaker
yeah Maybe has some weird property that we don't understand because we're not from that you know universe, right? Planet. Yeah, exactly. Science and Star Wars. Different physics. Different physics. yeah I agree i really really like the armourer. I think it's a really cool character.
00:29:43
Speaker
She makes him some amazing whistling birds. Yeah. Which is like the biggest sort of set up. Ever. like he Have this new weapon that we can see you using in 15 minutes I did have a question about the whistling birds. so I've got so many questions about the whistling birds. but My question was, was that all of them?
00:30:04
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. he used them now. I think he ah he does use them again. i know that. Okay. but Whether he has to go back and have some more forged or whether he has spare...
00:30:16
Speaker
Doesn't she say use them sparingly? She use them sparingly and then almost instantly he uses the one for the stormtroopers at once. I thought you could have just kicked over. I know and I'm like, that's the first go, this is one of the most valuable materials in the world and you've just like spunked it in the first five seconds of it being in your arm. He was just getting carried away. I'm like, do you have to go back and collect it of the stormtroopers? Yeah, yeah. Put it back in your arm. Put it back in. Saw it out. It's so funny. I mean, he basically uses his entire arsenal.
00:30:47
Speaker
Yeah, yeah no enough. do think the turning point is for him in terms of going back for Grogu? Because obviously he's having those thoughts, but then he goes to the bar and then it's somewhere in there, isn't it?
00:31:00
Speaker
There's something about that conversation. he asks Grief about what's going to happen to him as well. So he's obviously concerned already. He's concerned already. Yeah, yeah. He's having a bit of a having a bit of a moment. And then I've got note about, is Grief then pushing drugs on him? Because he says something about going go take a load of spice and forget about it. was like, hang on a minute. In two episodes, there are a lot of people being like, come on, Mandalorian, chill. Chill.
00:31:25
Speaker
Chill, take your helmet off, drink some Spodka and do loads of spice. Don't be so uptight. I mean, that's his entire point is being uptight. He is, yeah. He's like the most uptight. yeah I also had a note that ah Grief asks him, says that he could take him to a Twi'lek healing bath. I'm like, I would like to go to a Twi'lek healing bath, please. Sounds amazing. That sounds great. Yeah.
00:31:46
Speaker
Yeah, I'm there. I don't think we've had that yet in Star Wars, but i I'm here for it. I think in Skeleton Crew we had something similar that could have been. We've had something around it in the burlesque parody that me and Mary went to see.
00:32:04
Speaker
i've forgotten about We went to see the Empire Strips back, me and my friend, which was incredible. And that there was some very, very interesting Twi'leks in there.
00:32:17
Speaker
Twi'leks have sort of become slightly typecast as like the great erotic dancers of yeah the Star Wars galaxy. It's a limited palette though, isn't it? if that's all that there's...
00:32:30
Speaker
I mean, we have learned an awful a lot more about Twi'leks in the intervening years and just the oppression of Ryloth and the whole thing. We'll get there. We'll get there.
00:32:42
Speaker
Another thing we'll get there, tiny little, tiny little, tiny little interesting, which I've not heard anybody else mention in all my like perusing of Star Wars material. I think there's a little throw forward okay to season three Mandalorian.
00:32:56
Speaker
Grief mentions one of the pucks that he's going to give to Mando. Yeah. One of them is a noble Mon Calamari Mon Calamari, yeah. um yeah Yeah. And I think we see that in season three.
00:33:10
Speaker
Spoilers. Like Quarren and Mon Calamari are two species which live on the same planet. They both share Mon Calamari. and But they hate each other. It's like they're... opposing races but this couple is like a kind of star-crossed yeah um mon calicoran couple anyway well that solves a little brain itch that i had branwin because i when i saw the clip i was like i'm sure that's in this program but it's not like you know it's not for another like 15 episodes it's not like iss on the planet where they've got like the lobster pot type or you know it's fishy yeah and no uh no interestingly i think that's it's another water planet isn't it yeah with um quarren where frog lady it yeah and and i think that is inhabited a lot by quarren yeah and moncala because i think a moncala fixes mando's ship in that episode he's he's got that fisherman's jumper on
00:34:08
Speaker
no I cannot wait. This sounds amazing. It's a really good episode. yeah i was I was just thinking about Mando deciding to save Grogu and I feel like it's quite on like the spur of the moment and sort of not thought out. And then I think when he sees the cradle in the dustbin, I think that's it.
00:34:32
Speaker
I think that's it. That's vengeance is going to be. Yeah. And, you know, all the whistling birds are going to go. There's also kind of a really lovely piece of score that's kind of hinting towards that all of all of that.
00:34:46
Speaker
When he's gone back to his ship and he's and he finds the little the little twizzly thing that Grogu likes to play with, and that's what makes him power down his ship, the score at that point is going, yeah, we're going back for the kid. Yeah. Yeah. I think it's like one thing. There's like different steps. And I think the smashed crib is the penultimate. Yeah. Because I think the ball is the one. the ask Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
00:35:10
Speaker
He's definitely the decider. Because he's there. He switched on all the engines. and Yeah. He's ready to go. He just finds that. And it's yeah not going to happen. Yeah. What a decision. Yeah. So then we have to go back and have this amazing heart like infiltration. There's a lot happening. Yeah. Yeah, I was trying to write notes, but like the action is so fast. yeah And we do get to see, like the theory is that the Mandalorian armor and weaponry is designed to combat Jedi.
Action Scenes & Movement Direction
00:35:41
Speaker
right That was the whole purpose of its original design. like All the grapple hooks and the flamethrower. Each of the different weapons is to stop a different Jedi attack. Yeah. Because Mando's and Jedi are like arch enemies. Okay. But obviously against a pack of Stormtroopers. It's like you make pretty short work. Although I do like the fact that he starts quite subtly with his brutal violence and then it just becomes like all out. All out brutal violence. To begin with, it's like, I'm just going to quietly stab this person or knock them out. And you know yeah then suddenly it's like oh yeah, well, whatever. Actually, no. I'm just going to.
00:36:19
Speaker
That's when the flamethrower comes. It's just like, oh yeah, whatever. Sure, sure, sure. It's all over. And then I wrote that it turns into like an all out hunt because obviously as soon as he's picked up Grogu, all of the tracking devices go off. Yeah.
00:36:33
Speaker
And they're all after it. But Grief's got that amazing line before all of this happens, where he's like, they all hate you, Mando, yeah because you're a legend. Yeah. which is delivered incredibly. And then suddenly it's like, oh yeah, they do all hate you and now they're all after at you.
00:36:50
Speaker
Can I ask a question about the trackers? Because how do we think they're working? Yeah, good question. That a very good question. He's like, is there something on Grogu? I don't think there is. Have they like sequenced his genetic material somehow to be able to track him? Yeah, yeah.
00:37:09
Speaker
I've heard people talk about DNA in many, many podcasts that i listen to. And people have had this exact conversation and nobody's come up with anything that you can consistently apply to every time we see them. Okay. Except really DNA, I think, yeah is the only thing.
00:37:25
Speaker
I did have a note. of My note was, what do the baddies know about Grogu? Because, you know, we're back to baddies. Yeah. You mean the client and the doctor? i think they know why they need him.
00:37:38
Speaker
Yeah. I don't think they necessarily know much about the race. Well, no one knows much about the race, does it? No. Including us. Including everyone.
00:37:51
Speaker
But they definitely know what they're after as we discover in future. Right. Okay. Cool. They know what they're trying. There is a very particular reason they want Grogu, which we already can kind of guess because we've Grogu's got some skills yeah that not many people have. Yeah. He's also super cute. So why would you not want to? He's super cute.
00:38:10
Speaker
He gets cuter. That was the one of my notes somewhere down the line is he just seems to get cuter the entire time. Yeah. He's heartbreaking when he's in the lab. Oh, this is the other E.T. reference that is an actual. I read in the Art of the Mandalorian book that one of the concept artists used the bit at the end of E.T. when E.T. is dying and he's in that like chamber thing. it goes And and like he's got that kind of really pale, warnic kind of colouring. And I think they wanted Grogu to look like that.
00:38:45
Speaker
Or torture droid. It's like the torture droid has now become a ah kind of medical assistant. That kind of makes sense. Yeah. In a kind of quite gross kind of way.
00:38:58
Speaker
So we've got this whole hunt going on. um And my note was, I don't really understand the other the other Mandalorian's motives.
00:39:08
Speaker
because they all come to help. Yeah. Yeah, I was like, is it just that they're protecting one of their own? Because they've been so, like... I think so. I think because that particular section of the Mandalorians, that particular, like, sect, is so disenfranchised, I suppose, and, like, you know, has had such a hard time surviving that actually they have to... Like, that is part of the way, is protecting each of their own, yeah. And also, I guess it, you know, in my brain, and I don't know whether this is actually...
00:39:37
Speaker
kind of deliberate, but like what the armourer is saying about, you know, is it your enemy if you were fighting alongside each other? Like, yeah they're going to go along with Mando's decision to save Grogu because this creature saved him.
00:39:51
Speaker
yeah Yeah. It's almost like they've got a duty to protect both of them now. Yeah. I like that. Yeah. That's kind of how I read it. yeah Yeah. I did come to that conclusion, or the conclusion that they were doing it to protect him, but it was a through a bit like they didn't really seem to like him that much. but you know, community, you know, if you're going to be in community, you have to deal with annoying people.
00:40:13
Speaker
Yeah, that's true. but I love that. Yeah, and I guess you can have infighting, but when it comes to it's like brothers and sisters. I mean, I see it with my kids. Like, they're absolutely horrible to each other, but if anyone tries to attack any of them, they're like...
00:40:25
Speaker
yeah and that' We've got the added thing now of ah my stepbrother has a child and so our normal sibling thing is now interrupted by small thing going, don't hurt my papa! And i'm like, yeah, but he's my brother. yeah Yeah, you're like, I've got rights.
00:40:44
Speaker
I think they are very, very tight. Tight knit. I think there's this thing about foundlings as well, that because Mandalore was lost, their their kind of growth in numbers is from foundlings. yeah Because Mandalore isn't a race, it's a creed. So any species can be a Mandalorian.
00:41:05
Speaker
So anytime they take in a foundling, they've got to be protective. They're trying to keep their numbers. They've got to keep their community together, even if, like we're saying. So they're kind of seeing Grogu as a foundling already.
00:41:16
Speaker
I think so. Yeah. And also, if you think about the time and investment that's gone into our hero, Din. And he did just deliver a whole load of Eskar, which he donated lots to. Yeah.
00:41:28
Speaker
He said, make my whatever and any spare give to the foundlings. I mean, if they don't do stuff like that, then they would just get wiped out. I think that's the point, isn't it? Yeah. And also, it got us to see all the different Mandalorian, you know, like techniques and styles of combat, which I always enjoy. My last note was, no, not the jetpack.
00:41:52
Speaker
Jetpacks are normally bad news. We picked up on Children of the Watch, which is another podcast that I listen to a lot. And they've got this theory about jetpacks, that they're fatal. Like as soon as Mandalorian gets a jetpack, they're days numbered. Starts with Boba Fett in Return the Jedi. And yeah, there's many instances of it in the Clone Wars and Rebels. Yeah. where they're just way too risky an accessory and the last line in that I want one of those yeah and we're like no you can't have one they are cool though I mean maybe it's worth it you know like it's just for the vibes yeah yeah nice that's cool I think that's a nice way to wrap that up yeah episode three unless anybody had any other any thoughts yeah
00:42:40
Speaker
Oh, there's a sound sound design thing that I forgot to mention along the way. tell His weapon, this is really geeky, his big like disintegrating pulse phase. Yeah, his rifle face pulse thing. The forky thing. Yeah. When it fires, the sound effect of it is a kind of a typical blaster type shot, but with a phaser on it. And it's called a phase pulse rifle. So yes somebody somewhere Somebody somewhere has gone. Do you know what? Yeah. We're going to put phaser on that phase, Poulton. As a sound designer, i would
00:43:16
Speaker
hundred percent of made that decision yeah they All that is going through... What sound effects? mean, it sounds great. It's got that kind of... It's got a phaser on it. It needs a cool sound, but it's a very cool-looking weapon. It is pretty cool. Yeah. yeah It's one of my favorites.
00:43:35
Speaker
It's one of the reasons I'm like a warrior rather than just, you know, a soldier. Yeah. Yeah. It's a place of everything. os Episode four. We're on to Sanctuary. Bryce Dallas Howard. Yeah. I love Bryce Dallas Howard so much. She, as we mentioned last week, she's Ron Howard's daughter.
00:43:53
Speaker
And Ron Howard grew up as a director working a lot with Lucasfilm. He directed Willow, which was a big Lucasfilm production in the eighty s So Bryce Dallas, when she was a kid, was hanging around with George Lucas often.
00:44:07
Speaker
yeah so she's got that full immersion got it in star wars and ron howard as a dad which is amazing and i just like she is by far my favorite star wars tv director and seems to be among the fans like the most popular i loved this episode yeah good it was a good ah she's also ginger but yeah excellent sorry i'm just having to put that in I'm here for ginger representation, even though I'm not ginger. There's a lot of ah Nepo babies involved in oh but You know, um one of the body doubles in the suit is John Wayne's grandson. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Brendan Wayne. Yeah, yeah, Brendan Wayne. But, like, he actually had quite a big impact on the suit and the design of the costume because so he, like, advised about where the holster should be and, like, how to carry it like a cowboy.
00:45:04
Speaker
essentially So good. He's just the perfect man for the job. Excellent. I did go on a little bit of a rabbit hole trying to find out who did the kind of movement direction stuff. or like you know like Because it would take quite a lot for three people, because there are three people who wear that suit to kind of move in a similar way. yeah yeah And there is no movement director credit on it.
00:45:24
Speaker
Really? Which, and I'm going to make a little political point now. Yeah. So box, yeah. Do it. IMDb's Only Jazz, like in the last month, started to list stunt coordinators and movement directors for films. What? what Yeah.
00:45:40
Speaker
Yeah. And there's obviously no Oscar for either of those roles. And if you think about, and particularly going into this episode and with lovely Cara Dune and the amazing fights that occur, the fact that those roles are not acknowledged in ah any kind of award ceremony and not even sometimes actually even credited at all. as well That is wild. And like you think about the majority of these programs and they're built on movement and fights and, you know, whatever. yeah Action, yeah. So I couldn't find a movement director, but there is the overall stunt coordinator. Now I've forgotten his name. Insert name here. He's done a lot of really cool stuff.
00:46:23
Speaker
But yeah, so I don't know whether it was just Pedro and ah Brendan and i think it's Lateef who was the other person in the seat, whether they just like had a chat about it. But I mean, I don't know. I have heard talk of that, that they were collaborative.
00:46:38
Speaker
yeah I don't know how much Pedro is even in it. Yeah, I don't know either. I don't think he is in season three because I think he was busy with The Last of Us.
00:46:49
Speaker
But yeah, I've heard Brendan on being interviewed on Katie Sackhoff's podcast, Who Plays Bo-Katan, and they talked a lot about it. I can't remember what they talked about in terms of movement direction, though.
00:47:02
Speaker
i need to go and revisit that episode because, yeah, that is really interesting. He just had to keep signing contracts for each episode, didn't he? Yeah, yeah, yeah. He wasn't like contracted for the baseball. Absolutely ridiculous because of course they're going to keep using him because yeah yeah he's... It's his body.
00:47:16
Speaker
yeah his body, yeah. you Like the way that he moves it. I mean, like it's so, especially with the helmet, like this is yeah how we know the Mandalorian is the way that he moves. yeah I do have massive issues with crediting of performers in these situations. Like, Pedro is brilliant. And we all love Pedro. Like, who's not going to love Pedro? But he is always the one who's getting all of the credit. And like, he's a third at the most of the credit, really, should be. At the most, at the most, yeah I think like watching that kind of, and the the whole idea of like a sci-fi Western when you've got the grandson of, you know, John Wayne. I mean, John Wayne's problematic, but like he is undeniably the Hollywood cowboy. Yeah, yeah. 100%.
00:48:02
Speaker
but And you're borrowing that physicality to make it who it is. And you've got a character who doesn't speak much. We talked about this a lot last week. He's quite stoic, really, isn't he? He only speaks when necessary. He's very minimal. It's either you're getting loads of his character from the way he walks and the way he stands or the way he fights. And yeah all of those things are to other people. Not Pedro. No. Or in this episode, maybe has some sort of love interest. Yeah. Potentially, maybe. We don't know.
00:48:33
Speaker
I wonder, yeah. i wonder if Bryce was like, okay, Pedro, we need you to do this scene, you know, talking to yeah you't know the widow. ah kind Interesting.
00:48:46
Speaker
I'm shocked about that crediting of movement directing. Yeah, that seems weird. Well, I mean, think of like, you know, La La Land, you know Wicked, you all the massive hits that they've all got a dance.
00:49:02
Speaker
You know, like that's the central part of their work. and you know Is choreography and movement direction different? Are they... I mean, yeah, movement direction tends to be more about, like, helping actors to get into the body of the character they're playing. Yeah. So Polly Bennett's probably one of the most well-known movement directors, and she's worked on un loads of the biopics, like the Freddie Mercury one and the Elvis one. and yeah In fact, what's-his-name who played Elvis took her to the Oscars because he was like, you know, the only reason I look like Elvis is You deserve this. Yeah. Yeah. But most movement directors are dance people, so they probably also do choreography as well. choreography is more set moves and steps, if that makes sense. So yeah, movement direction is more about how people move and embody their character. And choreography is more like...
00:49:53
Speaker
this is pop, you know, do twirl and a jump. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But suppose in the same way that with stunt coordination, you know, like you get a stunt coordinator will look like at the whole process of coordinating a stunt. So like the special effects and like how that with physical bodies and space all the rest of it. And then you get the actual working out of the physicality of someone throwing a punch or there's like you know there's there's bits within it and lots of people do lots of those roles yeah like vengaram type thing yeah yeah yeah and you get lots of movement directors who are also intimacy coordinators because obviously they're body people and is essentially choreography again
00:50:31
Speaker
But yeah, and then there's a big campaign at the moment, like SAG-AFRA the Equity in the UK are kind of campaigning to try and get more credits for these roles. It just blows my mind that, you know, from the dawn of Hollywood, when you think about like all the musicals and everything, and then now with Action particularly, not getting yeah any kind of award in any way.
Star Wars Aesthetics & Design Inspiration
00:50:53
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Very weird. Bonkers. Bonkers. Yeah. Sorry, that was my little rant for the evening. There you go. I'm so interested in hearing that because it's sort of been niggling at me a little bit, I think. Yeah.
00:51:07
Speaker
Because there's various characters in in the Star Wars realm, for instance, but also in other fandoms as well that have similar situations where you have like a masked character. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Or prosthetics and all the monster kind of work that gets done. Yeah.
00:51:20
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I guess there must be a bit of an interconnection between costume and movement as well. Like you were talking earlier on about the holster on Mando's outfit. Yeah. I mean, there's particular performers who've, that's become their speciality is monster work. And obviously there's a of people a who are famous for it, but then the majority of people doing it, you wouldn't know who they are.
00:51:44
Speaker
But like, I know quite a lot of dancers who do that and do all the um motion capture things. Yeah. Because obviously you need people who know how to move. Yeah. I guess Andy Serkis is like kind of one of the main physical actors that we've got to know. We knew of him before he became famous as an actor, but that's, I've never heard that. Main stunt and fight coordinator for The Mandalorian is Ryan Watson. He's also worked on other projects like Wonder Woman and Batman versus Superman.
00:52:17
Speaker
you did go And he's won Emmys because obviously Emmy TV have the stunt category. That's so wild.
00:52:27
Speaker
Yeah. Anyway, there you go. That's my side quest for this evening. That's cool. This was a good time for that because this episode definitely has some of this going on. Oh, it's got a lot.
00:52:39
Speaker
This is like the Seven Samurai trope, which again is a Kurosawa film that is George Lucas obviously loves, where the villagers enlist a couple of mercenaries yeah and then overcome the oppressors, which love.
00:52:59
Speaker
I love the contrast of this to the last episode. The last episode is very dark. Everywhere is like grey and dingy looking. yeah Yeah. Yeah. And then here we've got this lush, like we hear the Mando theme or the second of the Mando theme on like a classical guitar. Yeah. When we see this sort of like idyllic fishing village. Yeah. although it's only this watch through I think that I've really put it all together to realise that the krill that they're fishing is the ingredient of Spotska and that's why the bandits are like coming to take the krill because they want to make their own moonshine kind of homebrew Spotska causes a lot of problems yeah I hadn't worked that out but no I hadn't
00:53:41
Speaker
I think because I've watched lots of other Star Wars since and Spotska has now become this thing. I've even got, think the action figure I've got of Fennec Shand, who is like Boba Fett's right hand woman. I think action figure has got a bottle of Spotska. as an accessory. So it's like, it's clearly a galaxy-wide tipple. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Or at least in the outer rim. And yeah, I just think having known that now from seeing it in different episodes further on Down Colour as the drink. Ah. Which is cool.
00:54:12
Speaker
I wrote very different vibes here. We're on a new planet, obviously. Very different vibes. I love this about Star Wars. So cool. Every time we get a new planet in Star Wars and it, like they'd made it a bit like Endor, but not.
00:54:25
Speaker
Nice. Yeah, yeah. It was more kind of folksy, wasn't it? It was like everything was sort of natural materials and like the architecture of the kind of huts. and the yeah They mentioned um like Montana as a sort of inspiration where you've got like trees and mountains, but they're not like massive redwoods yeah like Endor. But there is also the water, you know, there are corgals and marshland and swamp and stuff like that. Yeah, yeah.
00:54:51
Speaker
This episode gave me lots of Lord of the Rings vibes for lots of different reasons. Oh, One of the first things was like, oh, it's orcs. Yeah, when I watched it last night, I was like, oh, they're just orcs.
00:55:05
Speaker
Is this a good time to talk about what they actually are? Yes. Go on, tell me. massive Easter egg of what they are. Go on, Bronwyn. um Have you ever seen the nineteen fifty s movie The Day the Earth Stood Still? No. No.
00:55:17
Speaker
It's been remade recently with, I think it might be Keanu, maybe. Anyway, yeah it's a 50s sci-fi where a big UFO lands on Earth. And I can't remember what happens. I think it's like ecological disasters about to happen or something like that. And there's a big droid that comes out, a big robot. It would have been called then because Star Wars hadn't been invented. And he comes out and he doesn't say much. But one of the things he does say in his language is Klaatu Barada Nikto, which is this three word statement. I can't remember what it means in the film. But since then, lots of people have been influenced by If you watch Evil Dead, Sam Raimi's like 80s horror indie, that phrase Klaatu Barada Nikto gets used in that is the Book of the Dead.
00:56:00
Speaker
It's in lots of different things. It's like pops up all over the place. In Return the Jedi, Lucas did the same thing and he named two species. after it. Klaatu is one of the skiff guards is a Klaatu.
00:56:13
Speaker
Klaatuinian. And he's called Barada, which is the second word. And then Nikto is another species that we also see in Jabba's Palace as one of the guards. So we get all three in that. So these are the Klaatuinians, these yeah dog-like looking aliens.
00:56:27
Speaker
So they go back to 1950s sci-fi, which is definitely George Lucas story. thing. This is one of his loves. Or 1940s orcs, you know. Yeah, definitely. They are very orcish. They're very orc. They're amazing. like I don't know if it's CGI or animating or just an incredible latex. Yeah.
00:56:49
Speaker
They look impressive. They probably did a few people, actual prosthetics, I reckon, and then the rest of it would have been like CGI'd a bit. Yeah. Because it's a couple that you get better close-ups on, don't you, where you actually can see their faces. You can see them a bit more, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:57:04
Speaker
They're really horrible. i I got really cross. I was like, as soon as that, because I was really enjoying village. Enjoying how nice it Yeah, it's a beautiful village. know.
00:57:15
Speaker
Why? Why? like, this is the only place in the universe at the moment where everyone's like chill and having a lovely time. Yeah, chill and happy. You maybe having a normal childhood. There aren't that many normal childhoods in Star Wars. No! No!
00:57:30
Speaker
Before he lands, Mando calls it a real backwater skug hole. Yes. ah In a good way. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, I mean, that is how people refer to where I live sometimes, don't you? Yeah, yeah. That's not long before he calls Grogu a little womp Womp rat, yeah. love that. It's like, oh, my little womp rat. Yeah.
00:57:53
Speaker
I had a note about ah how much does Grogu understand Mando? and He seems to. He just ignores him. Yeah, yeah he does ignore him. yeah He's just a brat. He feels like all of my children when they were toddlers.
00:58:08
Speaker
Okay. but They kind of look at you and you look at them and you're like, I'm sure you know what I mean. Yeah. And then they're just, you know, they're just completely awful. So he feels, for me, he feels very realistic as a small child.
00:58:28
Speaker
Yeah, definitely. He had quite a few years in the Jedi Temple, I think, before Order 66, so he will have had some interaction with basic speaking people. Yeah, that makes sense. And then my X-note was, I'm not sure about the weird cat thing as soon as we move. The cat. tell me about the cat. Oh no!
00:58:50
Speaker
Sadly, this is an audio-only podcast, but I'm now holding up my Build-A-Bear Lothcat. So Lothcats are from Rebels initially. So Rebels, a lot of it is based on Lothal, which is this sort of like grassland planet. yeah And we see Lothcats a lot. They're very cute. Obviously, they were designed for animation.
00:59:09
Speaker
yeah And in in Rebels, they've just got like black dots for their eyes. They're quite kind of anime looking. And so they had this challenge of, well, Filoni wants one in in the live action stuff somehow. Yeah, yeah.
00:59:23
Speaker
We get one in Ahsoka, the TV series, and it's a lot better. Sabine's got a pet and it's much better animation than this one. They are very, yeah, they're very cartoony.
00:59:34
Speaker
Okay. But they're very sweet and rebels. They're they're helping. They're helpful creatures. They're helpful. I totally did the, you know, the point of the TV meme. I was like, oh my God, it's a lot guys. I put Facebook that wanted one of these and my friend bought me one, which was great. didn't know was coming, it just arrived in the mail and I was like, oh, this is the best day. That's very cute. I just feel so cute how everyone might react when someone like Manzo walks into that bar, right? Yeah. I know, in his shiny new armour. There was a bit of head turning, wasn't there, I think? Yeah. yeah
01:00:10
Speaker
I think it's supposed to feel quite welcoming there. Yeah. Like the bar lady's so nice. I know, she's really sweet. Yeah. So do you want to know the recipe for Spotska? Yes, obviously. 12 parts krill. 12 parts 12 parts krill, one part spob, one half part akaba spice, one quarter part kiliduka. Okay. And you combine it into a base, ferment it for eight to 10 cycles, which I think is years possibly.
01:00:38
Speaker
Strain the mixture, distill, filter, dilute and bottle. Gross. What's a spob?
01:00:45
Speaker
Spob. Yeah. i don't know. Spob sounds quite nasty. The second you said 12 parts krill, I was like, no I'm out. I drink it.
01:00:56
Speaker
Cara Dune thinks it's great. I'll drink anything she says. People rave about Spotchka and Star Wars. It's the drink. Look, if it's all right for Cara Dune and for Fennec, then I am definitely drinking it. You're all right. Those two women bosses. Yeah, I'll do whatever they say. I'm quite happy to follow any orders that I'm given. Yeah.
01:01:15
Speaker
Cara Dune, I've got to talk about Cara Dune. I don't want to get into politics, but yeah she is a tricky person because Gina Carano, yeah, she did some iffy stuff online um for people like me in the early But yeah, it's apparently been settled because she took Disney to court for unfair dismissal, I think. And they settled with her...
01:01:42
Speaker
So i think it's kind of water under the bridge, but it just it's slightly sad because Kara is such an awesome character. know. That's the thing. It's like I absolutely love this character. I was pleased that when I watched it this time, because I haven't watched this for ages, I kind of could detach from that. I mean, I don't think Gina Grano is like a bad person But she did keep doubling down a bit with some of the that she was posting. And it's like, oh, this really doesn't align with Star Wars. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Apart from anything else. No, she does come from MMA world, right? Yeah. I mean, one of the reasons why Cara Deane's so as a character is because he is so good at selling punches.
01:02:23
Speaker
My God, like you know from watching that that that person knows how to actually fight. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. yeah And it's so lush that you've got two people because whoever, is it Latif who's in Orlando? So he is a brilliant fighter and he's got a mask on so we don't need to worry about him being a body double and that you can only do distant shots. so Yeah.
01:02:42
Speaker
We can go right in because both the actors are playing those characters in the fight. Yeah. So good. so Yeah. right yeah That first fight scene is so good. like It's just amazing. Up there with some of my favourite kind of kung fu movie. you know like it's just The gun face-off at the end when they're like lying and their guns are pointing at each other. it' So funny. And Grogu in the background is just slipping his teeth.
01:03:07
Speaker
And also the fact that both of them can come back from it really quickly once they've sorted it out. They're like, yeah, we're just fighters. This is what we do. It's not like, you know hu I don't hate you or anything. I could just kill you. LAUGHTER I think that's why I went with want some soup as was my favourite line. It's just like, icebreaker. Yeah, we've had our fun.
01:03:23
Speaker
We've had a fight. Let's go and reason out over some bone broth. They completely dropped the score out at that point as well. So you've just got oh just them fighting and just them hitting each other and grunting. That's all you've got going on sound-wise. mean, it's good hitting and grunting, to be fair. It But it establishes that character so quickly, doesn't it? Yeah, yeah. yeah yeah I don't know if you've been um you've got this far in in your listen to the podcast, Bronwen, but we've been tracking where there are two names for things because it kind of gives the the galaxy like a real feel, like a realistic feel. And she's referred to as a shock trooper and a drop soldier, I think, are two.
01:04:02
Speaker
Things which are probably the same thing. Yeah. But like, I love that there are different terminologies to describe what her job was yeah in in the New Republic. And I love that she's just bailed. Like she doesn't like what's going on. Yeah. so Sows the seeds of this kind of, here we are again. Yeah. And also establishes her character as someone who, because it was, she talks about how it's when they transitioned to just basically being kind of like glorified.
01:04:29
Speaker
guards almost and that's why I'm interested in doing that because it would be a waste of her skill yeah so she's now going to be like a gun for hire kind of thing they get roped into this wild mission well Amanda gets roped in first of all because you know there's this sort of like this could still be a quiet place where I can settle down where I hang out and then he drags Kara into it as well yeah When those two people from the village came through the forest last night when I was watching it, I actually was, I had a brief moment where was like, they're on a magic carpet. It's like they're on a boat to me. They had a lovely lamp in there.
01:05:11
Speaker
It's very cute. It's very horse and cart. It raises the question of why didn't they just walk? Because it's not very fast. They spent the whole day getting there. It's a labour-saving device rather than a speed device. Yeah, yes yeah. Definitely. i love I had a note here about um when they they get to this farm and it feels very like medieval fantasy setting, but you've still got the droids and you've got yeah you've got blasters, they've got droids, but it is still really like medieval-y fantasy realm. I've enjoyed that about Star Wars though, is that, you know, the different aesthetics being put together, like the fact that Jawas look like they, you know, have their lovely kind of medieval monk cloaks and then they're like technologists, you know, the fact that that droid culture is so embedded across yeah every character. it's a yeah
01:06:03
Speaker
The Mandoverse has given us a whole load of different types of droids because we had a lot of astromechs and protocol droids, you know, like obviously we've seen a lot of Star Wars through the eyes of C-3PO and R2-D2.
01:06:14
Speaker
And it's gradually rippled out and we've had more, but we've had many more like unusual droids in The Mandalorian, I think, just even in season one. Yeah. yeah I thought these looked like wading birds, like the way they've got these kind of gangly legs. Yeah, yeah. But they've got lot the astromatic head still, haven't they? and then Yeah, they've still got the same sort top part, but just with these kind of... And I read in the Art of Mandalorian today that they were based on stalks. Oh, wow. Which are like a wading bird. That's cool.
01:06:42
Speaker
I think they've got those backward leg Yeah, they do. yeah Like backwards knees. Is there a reason why we see such a sort of more of a diversity of droids in the kind of Mandoverse? Like... I don't think there's an in-universe reason.
01:06:55
Speaker
I think it's just cool designs. Cool designs. and the The animation has come a long way. CGI. Yeah, that's true. Although I get the feeling and knowing Bryce Stiles Howard, I bet they were puppets. Yeah, yeah. i need to watch it again to see if they look like they could be puppets. Check if they're puppets. was thinking that about Greggy as well, like how much of that is... He's very puppet-y. Yeah, he's... think most of the time, yeah. Yeah. Maybe when we see him walking, like... Yeah, I think he's probably CGI then.
01:07:28
Speaker
And his interactions with the kids in the village and like that was... cute it's just so realistic isn't it the way the kids react to him just like yeah excitement and intrigue and disgust when he tries to do this vlog mean like you know i first start laughing watching that section i mean those kids are probably just genuine like if you could see that actual puppet yeah that would just be it they'd just be having that would be me yeah a great time yeah did anyone notice that she served up space raiders on a plate what
01:08:00
Speaker
this Is it Space Raiders? The little round like chips, like spokes. the food i play Next time you watch it, there's a couple of Space Raiders on there.
Character Development & Tactical Drama
01:08:10
Speaker
Also, when he gets the food and they've had that whole conversation about the helmet, I was like, you're now eating in front of the open window and you've taken your helmet off. front of children.
01:08:18
Speaker
i was so nervous at that point. I was like, come on, what are you doing? yeah You're not meant to take your helmet off. If any one of those kids turned around at any instant. know. What's he going to do? Like, just hide? It'd be Mandalorian no more. Brendan or Pedro. It's anyone's guess.
01:08:37
Speaker
And then we've got this whole, like... Is this a training montage? Training. out Yeah, I wrote down montage, baby. That's another montage. Jon Favreau loves his montage. I love it.
01:08:47
Speaker
It's great. And it's never explained why she is such a good shot. No. We're never going to find out why the hot widow is a good shot. She is such a good shot. I mean, she's the only one that puts her hand up, isn't it? Yeah, yeah, yeah. When he asks if you've anybody used gun before. I love the fact it's not explained. It's just like, yeah, yeah Hot Widow's just a really good shot.
01:09:11
Speaker
We're not going to talk about it anymore. We're not going to talk about it, that's it. Don't ask her about the past. Vermando and Kara go and discover the shocking secret of the Klatooinians. They've got a walker. They've got a walker. Yeah. And what's it doing there?
01:09:29
Speaker
I wrote, oh, the drama. The drama. but very dramatic there what is it doing there i think it's just been like abandon and another day nick kit it yeah they've made it their own i think they've done a bit of a paint job and they've put a red light bulb in the cockpit yeah to make it bit more scary this was the point last night where i got a lecture from my 13 year old son about the difference between atsts and I still do. It's funny you should say that. Last week i knew this is going about tab one last week on Mandalorian episodes one and two, I introduced a new feature to the podcast, which we haven't got name yet for. and Was it Geek? West End Geek Girls. West End Geek Girls, and which is because I used to play back in the day the West End Games role-playing game of Star Wars. And i so I've decided that every episode of the podcast from now on until I run out of things, I'm going to find a little snippet from those books because I feel that the directors and the writers do draw on the role playing game. It's a niche role playing game. Not many people play it nowadays. It was quite popular back in the late eighties, early nineties. But anyway, I looked up about ATSDs and it didn't tell us much that we didn't know already. they are
01:10:44
Speaker
Scout walkers designed for reconnaissance and support for frontline forces. So they sort of go out with the troopers who are on foot and they like help me protect them, which is exactly what the Klaatu Indians are using it for. Yeah. And it's what we see them being used for in Endor, don't we? Yeah. Yeah. They're like yeah helping the stormtroopers by, you know, taking out Ewoks and rebels.
01:11:04
Speaker
They get it closer. They've got metal feet, which are equipped with steel claws that can cut through trip wires and stuff. Although they obviously can't cut through Ewok rope. It went higher on their knees, didn't it? Yeah. It's only the claws. Does it happen so fast? Yeah. They're faster and more manoeuvrable than the AT-ATs, but less heavily armoured and armed. However, scout walkers are susceptible to fixed defences such as tripwires, downfalls, pits and explosive charges.
01:11:36
Speaker
um Balance is a serious problem for these bipedal vehicles. yeah After several unsuccessful actions in which unsupported ATSDs were easily foiled, imperial tacticians dictated that scout actions would be preceded by infantry to detect, clear or mark such traps. That's so much out of the rule book. That a lot. But it it pretty much describes where the Clatorinians went wrong. Because the Clatorinians didn't go ahead and check that it was going to be okay for the walker to plough in. They sent the walker in ahead of them almost. yeah
01:12:07
Speaker
And that was their mistake. That was their mistake. That was their downfall. Although they did have to really draw the walker in, though. Yeah, they did. They didn't want to go it in the water, did they? No. I love Kara's just like on a mission to tempt it. Yeah. It's so infuriating. and It's like they keep showing the feet a little bit further over the edge. I had a little note here.
01:12:30
Speaker
So they basically go and provoke the raiders to come and get them. yeah They go and blow something up. why not blow up Just blow them Why not blow that up?
01:12:43
Speaker
And then it wouldn't have come to the village. I mean, it's a very good question. And maybe we'll find the answer with the whistling birds. It can be. I have a feeling maybe they were like, well, now we've taught this village to defend themselves. We need to get into it. We need to put them in danger. Yeah, great. Finish finish the training with an actual... and Empower them, you know, so that they're are not going to be walked over again, right? Yeah, that's true. I was wondering if it was because they couldn't find it, but I don't know. It was kind of hidden.
01:13:16
Speaker
Yeah, I guess. Yeah. Yeah, they blow something up and then the and then they're kind of the eyes light up, don't they? so if Somebody was there on on duty in the cockpit ready in case it was needed. yeah Yeah, yeah. As soon as the explosions happened.
01:13:30
Speaker
With the little charges, the same as Chewie and Han and Finn are using in Starkiller Base. There's a sound design when they turn them on and they go blip, blip, blip, like up a scale.
01:13:43
Speaker
yeah And I'm sure that's the same sound as the Awakens. Okay, we're getting into like it I do have some notes about sound design now. Yes. to us So,
01:13:56
Speaker
um Amazing synth stuff happens on the whole raid bit. There's lots of really, really cool synth sounds going on. That's more score than sound design. But then we get like, when the AT-ST gets to the farm, it's sound designed part like as a creature and part as yeah yeah as a piece of tech. So it's like, it's kind of making some droid noises, but it's making a lot of like...
01:14:24
Speaker
It's making a lot of creature sound as well. as sad so it's like It's much more creature-fied than any other walker we've ever seen. bet BDH, because she was in like all of the Jurassic relaunch movies, so I bet her like curious director brain would have been hanging around when they were doing sound design for the dinos. It'd be like making more dinosaur-y.
01:14:47
Speaker
is very dinosaur-y. Maybe that feels like they've, it's all part of the custom, you know, like with the red light and the paint job. It's like they've done something like cutting off the exhaust. Yeah, they've done something to it to make it sound organic. More scary, yeah. yeah This is the ah rustic rural planet version. yes Yeah. It's very menacing. I remember the first time I watched this, I was like screaming in joy at seeing a walker, but actually also quite terrified scared in a way that I hadn't been in the Battle of Endor where they're just, you know, they're just machines. Yeah.
01:15:21
Speaker
Whereas this, it definitely felt more menacing. I think a lot of this episode is about being from the perspective of a child though. yeah And like, you know, from that opening bit where they're first attacked and the kid's kind of like yeah the one that's sort of most vulnerable. And but you see a lot of the reactions of the children actually being absolutely petrified and making the walker more like a monster makes sense. but that's how you it If you were like from that kind of... If you were a child, that's what... But also from like a farming, you know, fishing community that's kind of very sort of basic, it then...
01:15:55
Speaker
it would be a monster, right? So actually that makes total sense that the sound design plays into that. Yeah. Definitely. yeah There's a shot of the kids with Grogu during the fight.
01:16:06
Speaker
They specifically show them yeah hunkered up. And I suppose that that's also reflected in like the whole thing about Mando himself being taken, you know, like the flashbacks we keep getting. Yeah. yeah A lot of it's about that thing of like being a kid in this world, right? Yeah, there's a lot of it. And being found like a lost yeah an orphan or a foundling, because Grogu is, Mando is...
01:16:26
Speaker
Yeah. We do get a lot of cheering after this battle. We do. It's very celebratory. Grogu's eats the frog. Are you saying more cheering than actually there are people to make that much cheering? No, no I think there's ah there's the the right amount of people, but it's all like, i don't know, I feel like there'd be a bit more PTSD or shell shock around us.
01:16:51
Speaker
i I don't know if I can say that quickly. That doesn't come into the Seven Samurai Trope. No. You have to have the big celebratory party. going Where's the safeguarding? Come on. but You immediately have like a carnival and a party that night.
01:17:07
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, totally. We get quite a jump in time then, though, as well. I they've been there a while. They've been there a while. feel like they're settling in. He says we've raised hell a few weeks back. Yeah. Is his line.
01:17:19
Speaker
I did think that with a training montage, like how long a time period was meant to. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Long enough for someone with the um the tracker to turn up. Dot, dot, dot. Yeah, we've got this nasty-looking Kubaz guy.
01:17:31
Speaker
This is the second Kubaz? Second one. yeah Yeah, the first one was the recorder player in episode one. The magic flute. Oh, no. Yeah, this guy looks a bit meaner. He's got like, is it armor over his... Over his legs, yeah. Weird helmet thing. quite freaky looking. Really terrifying. Yeah.
01:17:49
Speaker
I love this ending. I know it's people have complained that it's the same trick as when Mando kills IG-11 and you hear the blaster bolt and think that Grogu's been shot. And then it cuts and you see, oh no, it was Mando shooting...
01:18:03
Speaker
I do love it. And in this case, Kara shooting the cabals through the head. But I'm here for it. I love it. I love a little twisty trope thing. Also, it's very believable that she'd be patrolling the village. like yeah you know Yeah, she wouldn't relax, would she? No, she'd get bored.
01:18:23
Speaker
She seems quite keen to, well, she's more keen for Mando to relax than. Yeah, she's she's trying to sort of set him up, really, I think.
Mando's Dilemma & Baby Yoda's Charm
01:18:31
Speaker
Do we think he's actually tempted, like, realistically?
01:18:34
Speaker
Yeah. mean, I know he's tempted to leave Grogu, but, like, whether he's tempted... he's He's really emotional. I think it's the most emotional we've heard. And when he's talking to her and she offers him sanctuary with Grogu in the first place, his voice gets choked, like Pedro doing an amazing... pedro doing what This is why we need Pedro. Yeah. yeah This is Pedro's job. I feel like he really is. like We're given all those seeds of him watching the children playing. and like He's so polite to Amara and she's really polite to him. and it's just It all just feels so
01:19:08
Speaker
so I think yeah he genuinely would have stayed there but for the tracking fobs yeah and also his culty religion and his culty religion that he can never get away from he's trapped in I mean he was going to leave you will not take my helmet I love how simple the reason I chose that line was because Cara makes it seem so simple just take it off just take the helmet off stay here don't worry about it It would have been lot shorter series if done that though, wouldn't it?
01:19:41
Speaker
I guess the fob thing, this fob twist at the end it's sort of setting up like the, oh you've got to keep moving on. It's reminding us because we did we did see that last episode with all the fobs lighting up and beeping. yeah It's just going to follow them. Yeah. yeah yeah They've got to do something drastic to resolve this. Yeah.
01:20:01
Speaker
Which we'll find out over the coming weeks. Later. Later. Oh, it's so lovely re-watching it, though. It's just, you know, I think Grogu, they get it on the right side of cute because Star Wars has sometimes got it slightly on the wrong so yeah Agreed.
01:20:20
Speaker
I think a lot of research went into Grogu just to get him just right. yeah I occasionally catch my partner with my Grogu just sat on his lap watching things and I'm just like, you love him. You love him so much. I'm holding my, well, it's not my Grogu.
01:20:38
Speaker
My family's Grogu. just started playing with his ears. He's so lovely. So cute. Also, we didn't know his name at this point. No, I keep calling him Grogu. Technically, we should be calling him the child. He's the child. Or it. And obviously, everyone at the time was just saying Baby Yoda. Yeah, they were. Even Jon Favreau is still saying that now, I think.
01:21:06
Speaker
I think it was obviously a kind of strategic marketing thing. People don't understand that it's so it's like anybody's his own big. It's not helpful because people don't get where the story is at this point. It's like, oh we need to explain the timeline to you. yeah Blush. Bronwyn, thank you so much for coming on this journey through these two episodes with us. I have loved hearing your perspective of it all. Yeah. Thank you for inviting me. Turns out I know I'm quite passionate about it. Evidently, yeah. I mean, you were very determined once I suggested the idea were just like, yeah, I'm in. Yes, I'm in.
01:21:48
Speaker
um It was great having you here. Listeners, thank you for coming on this journey with us as well. And don't forget, you can find us on Instagram and Facebook at Sisters of the Force Pod, on Blue Sky at Sisters of the Force, and YouTube at Sisters of the Force. And anywhere you get your podcasts, tell your friends, spread the word. Word of mouth is the best. And we have merch. We have merch on our Redbubble. If you go to our bio on any of our pages, you'll find a link to our merch.
01:22:20
Speaker
So you get t-shirts. Somebody bought pin badge the other day. so excited. I've seen some pin badges in the wild. Yeah. this In the wild, I mean... my friends in the world but yeah in the wild if you feel like giving us a a review on spotify or apple that always helps with the old podcast algorithm make sure it's a good one because five starts we will be you reading And Sia and I will be back next week on our lonesome, think. On our lonesome. To dig into episodes five and six of Mound of Orients. Oh, they're good episodes. They are. We've got a little jailbreak. We've got a Toro Calican, Fennec Shand.
01:23:05
Speaker
I'm here for all of it. Yes. So until then, we'll see you soon. Bye now. Bye.