Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
Delving into THE MANDALORIAN Chapter 20 | 026
20 Plays8 days ago
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.
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 twenty-sixth episode we're continuing through The Mandalorian Season 3, with Chapter 20 "The Foundling". We talk about themes, performances, story details, jetpacks vs rocketpacks, Ahmed Best lore, lariats, mythosaur-sighting metaphors, and much more. Watch out for our "West End Geek Girls" segment, which now has a little theme tune!
Sisters of the Force is a weekly, UK-based, Star Wars podcast, produced with joy and love by Seah and Branwen. Sisters of the Force theme by Seah and Branwen.
Follow us on Instagram @sistersoftheforcepod, Bluesky @sistersoftheforce.bsky.social, https://www.youtube.com/@SistersoftheForce, and https://www.facebook.com/sistersoftheforcepod.
Merch now available: https://www.redbubble.com/shop/ap/174934721
Recommended
Transcript
Favorite Lines from The Mandalorian
00:00:07
Speaker
Hi Branwen. Hello. What is your favourite line from The Mandalorian Chapter 20? We begin as raw ore. We refine ourselves through trials and adversity.
00:00:20
Speaker
Nice. Emily Swallow, anything she says is gold. so I nearly rewound it to write that down and then I didn't. It's a part of a massive speech which I wrote the entire thing.
00:00:33
Speaker
i was I was waiting to see if you'd do more of it. No, I thought that's just my, that's the nugget for me. That's the nugget. That's beautiful. Nice. Sia. Hi. What's your favourite line from The Mandalorian, Chapter 20?
00:00:46
Speaker
He is too small. suck that
00:00:51
Speaker
It's not wrong. is is not true. He's too small. He's really small. He's very, very small. SMRL. But is he too small? No. No. turns out he's not.
Podcast Introduction
00:01:07
Speaker
You're listening to Sisters of the Force, a Star Wars podcast with me, Bran Wen. And me, Sia, hello. And we break down Star Wars stuff. Yes. We're currently near the end of our Mandalorian watch in advance of the film, which is very, very soon coming. i don't know what I'm going to do with myself.
00:01:27
Speaker
Well, I can tell you what we're going to do with ourselves. I mean, yes, Many, many seasons, many, many episodes of an animation show. Yeah, I'm very excited about the film. I'm getting more and more excited. there was a little Empire magazine article about it recently.
00:01:46
Speaker
Not recently for you listening, but recently for us recording. And there were some exciting pictures. There's just been a little bit of like extra flurry. The Oscars happened. Yeah, Grogu was at the Oscars. Grogu was there.
00:02:02
Speaker
So yeah, we are planning a special secret Sisters of the Force event around the film. Oh my God. Which is going to be amazing. I'm so hyped.
Discussion on The Foundling Episode
00:02:12
Speaker
It's going to be exciting. It is. But for now, today, we are just going to be digging into Chapter 20, The Foundling. Yeah. Which is a cool little episode. It felt very contained, compact contained. It's quite short, and time yeah.
00:02:26
Speaker
Yeah, quite short. yeah Only sort of two main things happened within it kind of thing. It's quite nice. It's quite a relief. Yeah, yeah. After like the epic of last week. and Well, this whole season so far has been pretty deep.
00:02:39
Speaker
Yeah, there's been a lot going on. And then this felt like a little aperitif of an episode. Yeah, yeah. it's like a little, remember the kind of pulpy one-off episodes we used to do? yeah This is one of those. We're going to do that again.
00:02:53
Speaker
It's a Carl Weathers directed episode, which is cool. um Sadly, I think it's the last one that he did The Mandalorian. But it's a great one for him to have done. Yeah, it's very sweet. It's got that high action, adventure, fun, yeah, which I feel like is his bag. Yeah. The title of the episode is The Foundling and...
00:03:13
Speaker
As always with these Mando episodes, it feels like there are multiple possible... kind of dual foundlings, many foundlings actually in this episode. Yeah, was going say because we've got Ragnar obviously, who's presumably the main... Foundling. Yeah, foundling. I've got questions about him, but I think we'll get there. Yeah. We'll get there later. We will.
Grogu's Training and Foundlings
00:03:33
Speaker
Grogu is, I mean technically Din is is still a foundling, but you know he's just he's a grown-up man And we got three Shriekhawk babies, yeah which are also foundlings.
00:03:45
Speaker
but Which are like adorable and terrifying in equal measure. They're terrifying, they're ugly and they're beautiful. Yeah. All at the same time. Like baby pigeons. Have you seen a baby pigeon? Yeah, yeah. Like featherless baby pigeons. They're so ugly, but so cute at the same time. Yeah. Yeah.
00:04:05
Speaker
So we have a recap, which yeah um i bet you skipped. Did you skip it? No, I did not skip it. You watched it. I watched the recap today. The episode was so short. I watched the recap. Also, my brain's fallen out of my arsehole as far as I'm concerned. So you needed the catch up. I need the catch up. I've got no idea what's going on. But it was worth watching because there was a clever bit of audio collage where they overlaid two voices saying, I shall walk the way of the Mandalore, namely yeah Ragnar and and Din. Yeah. It was so cool. like They ended up in sync and really cool. I also had the subtitles on and it reminded me of how there are two different spellings of Mandalore. Yes, one with an apostrophe. Yeah, and the E on the end. It's like Mand-alore. And then the you know the regular spelling, which is just a one word with an E on the end. And it gave me vibes of the thing that we've talked about many times on the pod, which is that
Flashback to Order 66
00:05:00
Speaker
multiple names for things. Two names, yeah. and It's kind of a version of that, even though it's the same sounding name. yeah It's like the Mandala with the apostrophe is almost like the original Mandalorian language version of it. and then Sure. Which if you live in Wales, and I'm sure this is true in other countries with minority languages or whatever, Welsh is an old language. It's been here forever and... There's a lot of work to maintain the language and keep it going. yeah And that means that a lot of road signs have Welsh and English instructions on them. or More predominantly Welsh now. Yeah. They're trying to make the Welsh language more, always has priority over English, which is super cool because it keeps the language alive, which it needs to.
00:05:42
Speaker
But you'll notice if you come to this country that a lot of the Welsh words... if you know how they sound, they sound the same as the English words, but they look different. And it's that thing of like how they've been anglicised. And I feel like this is a version of that where basic speakers have taken Mandala yeah and written the version of it that they thought it said i thought it said yeah audibly kind of thing, which is interesting. It is interesting. It gives mythology a more real feel, I think, which we've always spoken about in terms of like different names for things. And this is a
Jetpacks vs Rocket Packs
00:06:14
Speaker
really specific example. Yeah. One that you'd only get if you turned the subtitles on. Yeah. yeah
00:06:23
Speaker
We're straight into Mando training fest. Yeah, they are going nuts. There is a lot happening. Everyone's in training. Everyone's battling. those hand to hand yeah There's There's flamethrowers flaming each other and yes seeming to not hit each other. Seeming to be fine. There's a little bit of jetpack action. Yeah, there's some jetpacks. There's blasters going off into the lake. And like the last time we saw this lake, quite a scary beast came out of it. They are not really hiding.
00:06:52
Speaker
No. So they don't seem too bothered by the fact that there's definitely lake monsters. I guess with all of them in like fight mode, they're all like primed for action at this point. Yeah, but it took a Naboo Starfighter to get rid of the last one. True, this is true. Yeah. I guess, while they choose to stay there, they're weighing up the pros and the cons. You know, the obscurity of the planet yeah is a pro, but the dragontail is a con.
00:07:20
Speaker
that's For sure. But poor little Grogu, he's not involved. He's sitting on his own. i i think he's having a whale of a time. he' He's playing with hermit crabs. Yeah. These little stones stone crabs, which i don't think have any other name than stone crabs.
00:07:35
Speaker
I just went hermit crab because that's what they look most like. but Yeah. They gave me big Pixar vibes, like the Pixar shorts that they do. Yeah, yeah. Like this one about a sandpiper that's got some crabs in it. And it really reminded me of that. It's probably some of the same animators maybe. Yeah, excellent. There is a bit where he picks one up and I was wondering if there's puppet. he going to eat it? Oh yeah, well, firstly that. I don't know, I think he was sort of friendly with them, I don't know. I don't know. I thought he was going to eat it. Yeah, you're probably right actually. I thought he was trying to work out how to eat it. Oh, maybe. I think I was naively thinking he was just like making friends with them and he's like using the force to commune with
Mandalorian Family Dynamics
00:08:16
Speaker
creatures vibe that he does. Oh yeah, maybe. But I guess if they're smaller than him, then they become... Food. Yeah. but but
00:08:25
Speaker
But yeah, it was cool it was it a puppet picking up a puppet? It looked like it, didn't it? There was a lot of... It was kind of... It looked like magnets to me because there's a like the last little second it just kind of springs into his hand. Oh, I'll need to rewatch. A little magnet.
00:08:40
Speaker
Maybe a little magnetic Grogu hand. That wouldn't surprise me. All the magic of ILM. But playtime's over, says Mambo. I'm going to need you to focus. Which, baby, come on. whats Well, I think he's like he's hoping that Grogu is going to up his game a bit. Yeah. Because he's chosen to come with him He's chosen to be a Mandalorian. The way, Yeah, and I suppose Jedi School wasn't exactly much playtime either. Most likely. I don't know when they start them off with lightsabers, but they look pretty young in the prequels.
00:09:15
Speaker
But yeah, instant. I'm sending him in for a challenge. Yeah, which Bo is not feeling this at all. They mention,
Rescue Mission Analysis
00:09:22
Speaker
or did mention, about progressing from a foundling to an apprentice. An apprentice, yeah. don't know if we've heard that term before. No.
00:09:30
Speaker
It reminded me of the Jedi and there is like always this parallel between the Mandalorian Creed and the Jedi Code. Yeah, yeah. I mean, they're very different things in some ways, but there are similarities and it feels like these tiers of like how you start as a foundling or a youngling and then you progress to a Padawan or an apprentice. Yeah. And then you become a Jedi Knight and then you become, um I guess, a Mandalorian. Mandalorian, yeah.
00:09:56
Speaker
The next level up would be... Yeah, just reminded me of those... Who is the next level Armourer like the head of the Jedi Council, I guess, don't know. She seems to hold a lot of authority. Yeah, she's certainly a master, yeah I guess.
00:10:11
Speaker
Whereas the others are all knights, maybe. Din drops this line about, one does not speak unless one knows yeah to the kid. In other words, shut up, I think. yes we say The kid goes, i know. Yeah, yeah, he's not... He's not going to cave. Which is the attitude of a kid, really. like well Totally, yeah. Especially a newly minted, leave we've seen this kid recently get made ah an apprentice. So he's got attitude, which he's going to need.
00:10:41
Speaker
It's not going to do him any good, though, in the end. No. um They put the little firing thing on Grogu's arm. I think Bo does it. And Bo's
Speculations on Grogu's Future
00:10:50
Speaker
giving him some really, like, lovely encouragement. Like, I was just, oh, Bo Katan, you're my mum. She just goes, don't worry, my dad was the same way. yeah Learn to fight, and off you go. And this thing that we're seeing him put on is, I think it's the same one that we've seen in the trailer for the movie. Okay. So he's evidently going to have this because he's got his little chest plate that we see getting made later on. Yeah.
00:11:15
Speaker
And all of that is in the trailer. So he's obviously going to be kitting himself up yeah for something. At the moment, they're just paintball. Yes. Paintball darts. forgotten
Bo-Katan's Role and Future Arcs
00:11:28
Speaker
that was like are they actually gonna fire darts at each other that's clever though i like it they're children essentially still so i'm quite up for like a mandalorian paintball adventure that would be really fun actually why has nobody's done that but i think that'd pretty fun haven't been paintballing in years for someone who is as anti-war as i am i do love paintballing yeah
00:11:55
Speaker
yeah It's designed to be fun, isn't it? I guess. I don't know. Yeah. yeah Yeah. It does hurt. But most of my hobbies hurt, so it's fine.
00:12:05
Speaker
Grogu finds this out quite soon. he gets hit by a couple of splats. Yeah, quite quickly. Din goes, don't look at me, look at him, carry him. Yeah, and do what you do. like, he's like don't... Don't hold back.
00:12:18
Speaker
I mean, I think Grogu is being honourable by not immediately using his four skills, which is kind of cool. I kind of like that as an approach from Grogu, but Din's like, no. No, go for it. Just do it. And he does the cutest tiny little flips. Yeah. Lots of little flips and then three straight hits. He's just bouncing all over the place so that the kid's like, whoa, what's happening? Yeah. Distraction force bounce. I think call that. Yeah. And it pays off, yeah. Three splats. He's making up the rules.
00:12:50
Speaker
Quite quickly though. Yeah. No, it's a dragon. What is this thing, please? This is called a Shriek Hawk. A Shriek Hawk. Apparently, i found that out on Wikipedia, I'm not going to lie. Okay. I don't think it mentioned it in the subtitles. Apparently, it was on some Topps trading cards, which, you know, the little collecting card things, yeah which is where it was named. But it's not anywhere else. I did have a look in the Bestry book, but I couldn't find it. Bo-Katan calls it a raptor later on, but... Yeah, I think a raptor is sort of a generic, you know, for anything that flies and hunts. Yeah, i mean birds of prey in the real world are called raptors, like hawks and shell stuff like that. So it's like a hunting, flying thing. They also refer to it on Wikipedia as reptavian, which is the same name as they gave those creatures on Navarro. Yeah, yeah. That bit Grief Karga on the arm. Yeah. And and then not they do look similar. And those things are in the vestry and they are called reptavians. it talks about their poison bite and everything. okay
00:13:53
Speaker
But they're definitely not the same as this. This looks bigger and it hasn't got the poison bite, I don't think. looks scarier. They do look pretty scary. And it immediately whips the poor kid. Kid away, yeah. Ragnar gets taken. LAUGHTER And as we find out later, like digested. Yeah, regurgitated. Overnight. How did he survive that? Please. Well, Beskar, maybe. Beskar, suppose. I mean, we know from the Book of Boba that Beskar impervious. But he looks like he's only got a Beskar helmet on at this point. Yeah, he doesn't have like full covering, does he's not got full armour.
00:14:28
Speaker
Yeah. He probably had some pretty bad burns, is all I can speculate. And scarred for life. I mean, that's going to be trauma forever. Not pleasant, is it? Spending the night inside a shriek hawk. Inside the belly of a thing. Gross.
00:14:43
Speaker
Gross, gross. There is some amazing flying shots. Yeah. we get like the point of view ah of a jetpack at one point, like you just see yeah just the corner of a jetpack. Yeah.
00:14:57
Speaker
You know we're going. I said the keyword. It's a bit like QI, you know, when the klaxon goes off. This is what I feel like now. It's become that. It was never intended to be that, but it's become that. Wait for me to say the keyword and then raise your eyebrows and then play the soundboard.
00:15:11
Speaker
Listener, this is End Geek Girls where we pick a thing from this episode or whatever it is we're talking about. And I do a bit of West End Games role-playing game rewind research. I found this episode quite tricky because this is not very much stuff that's likely to be in the role-playing game. Yeah, sure. But we've already done Boba Fett's armour. I did that one of the, I think, Mando season two Boba episodes. think so, too. Yeah. So we will have mentioned jetpacks. We also mentioned all the other things. But I just thought i pick it as a thing because i remembered seeing it somewhere and I scoured through my books and I found a few mentions in some of the galaxy guides. There's a galaxy guide called Fragments from the Rim and it mentioned and a certain type of jetpack called an Arachide Whisper or Arachide Whisper, which is then also mentioned in other books.
00:16:03
Speaker
Books as well, like continuity of like brands and stuff is quite good in the role playing game. They also mention it in the Empire Strikes Back Galaxy Guide, just specifically about Boba Fett and it described the sort stats for his jetpack.
00:16:17
Speaker
But then I found the thing i had in the back of my mind which was in galadinium's fantastic technology guns and gear for any occasion which i didn't mention in a previous episode i think which is the most bizarre book of role-playing game rules ever it's got so many weird things in there and i'm sure we'll be drawing on it again in the future and it had a massive section of jetpacks versus rocket packs Okay. Which I was immediately interested in because I've never known the difference.
00:16:51
Speaker
It tells you a lot about the Arrokid Hushabout jetpack, which is the Arrokid Aerodynes Incorporated Hushabout AJP400, which is a personal jetpack.
00:17:03
Speaker
And it tells you how much it costs and what it does and everything else. But yeah, while particularly impressed with the advanced soundless design of the hushabout, Galadinium continues to stock a variety of jet and rocket packs for all your personal transportation needs. A comparative listing of models is given below. When deciding which model best suits your particular needs, consider the following. So it gives you a whole load of blurb about the difference between jet packs and rocket packs. And it seems like jet packs are lighter, quieter,
00:17:32
Speaker
probably cheaper yeah and tend to operate in a sort of a burst mode where they'll right just take you so far on a burst of the fuel. yeah And then you often have to let it cool down before you can fire it again. and there'll be a limited number of bursts depending on how much fuel you can fit into it and stuff. But you can sort of do continuous flight if you keep...
00:17:55
Speaker
doing best So I'm guessing that that's not what the Mandos use. So I think the Mandos are using rocket packs, which are self-contained units providing direct thrust from a regulated mixture of large amounts of combustible chemicals. Sounds so dangerous. Very, very on brand for Mandalorians. They can operate in zero, low or high atmosphere situations, which jetpacks you can only use atmosphere. Yeah. But Mandos, you can go into space with them. Yes. And definitely we see that in the animated shows for sure. That would make sense. Yeah.
00:18:28
Speaker
ah So yeah, they're more adaptable, more more versatile. Right. Yeah. That's basically it without getting into the nitty gritty of it. I do love how deep the Gallaudinian book goes. It's written from the point of view of like a kind of big supply store yeah of anything you might want from like small little tiny things to huge vehicles. Nice. And everything in between. Yeah.
00:18:56
Speaker
It says um rocket packs are typically faster than corresponding jet packs, which again is very on brand for Mandalians. And designed to provide a better all environment flight capability. By comparison, jet packs are generally lighter and quieter to operate.
00:19:10
Speaker
It mentions the Aratec Screamer, which is hybrid, by the way. Okay. Does that mean you can go into space and... and it could be quite quiet. And it could be quiet. Yeah, maybe. Very good. I love the level of detail of these books, particularly Galadinian. I didn't mean to take note of who wrote the Galadinians book because it's brilliant.
00:19:31
Speaker
But I'll definitely be using it again. Anyway, that was your little jetback slash rocketback breakdown. So we've been doing it wrong. We could be going in rocketbacks, yeah. To be fair, I think everyone uses jetpack just because it's quicker to say. It's got one less syllable. Yeah, yeah. True. But I'm going to try and say rocket pack. Rocket pack.
00:19:48
Speaker
All right. I will tap that into my brain. Yes. It's a rocket pack, not a jet pack. But going back, so yeah, we do see some really cool stuff. We see them running out of fuel, which is, I think that's what made me like, oh, I'm sure I've read about this somewhere. fact that we see they can't go unlimited because i think we've asked that before this podcast, like how far can you go on jetpack? far can they go?
00:20:11
Speaker
no pa says when he runs out of jetpack juice or rocket pack juice, he says it always gets away. Yeah. And just that line suggests that this has happened before. Yeah. Yeah. They've lost kids to this thing before. Yeah. Yeah. Which is again, very dark considering it's like quite a fun, healthy episode. It's like, wow, this is actually... It keeps eating your children. Yeah. Oh, Yeah. thank goodness for Bo-Katan she's certainly earning her keep in this covert she's on it straight away always there in the gauntlet yeah and she doesn't mess up she doesn't try and blast the thing out of the sky and obviously put the kid in danger she just does she just follows it yeah does a bit of a what do you call it like a recon mission yeah a little recon mission so she comes back she's got a holomap with exactly where it is yeah she's really cool love a holomap I love a 3D holomap She is particularly cool in this episode, actually. Yeah, she is. And if you remember a few episodes ago, I called her out in a good way for her 3D holomap acting.
00:21:16
Speaker
yeah I meant to watch this time, but forgot. See if she's still at Because she's really good at it. Katie Sackhoff for the she was good. ah By the way, she's been, all along, she's been denying that she's in The Mandalorian and Grogu.
00:21:29
Speaker
Has she? Categorically, they haven't called me. blah, blah, blah, blah. buth But very recently, she said something about the fact that her character is written after Dave Filoni's wife. Oh. I think name-wise. So she's basically saying, don't worry, Bo-Katan's not going anywhere. Right. While Dave Filoni's still in control, we're always going to get Bo-Katan. Okay. So I don't know if that's her, like, i don't know.
00:21:55
Speaker
I wouldn't be surprised if she showed up at some point. She seems to always just show up at the right moment. So we'll see. See if she is there. yeah Yeah. Either way, it felt like she knows something we don't, which I'm always excited to think. Yeah, yeah. should They make a very quick plan. Yeah.
00:22:11
Speaker
Of like, right, off we go then. um Part of that actually has just struck me. Paz says they can't use the rocket packs because they're noisy. Yeah. So if they had jet packs, if they had their Arrakids hush about.
00:22:24
Speaker
That's true. 400, they could have just like Do they refer to them as jetpacks as well, though? I think they use both terms because I've written down rocket pack when I'm talking about powers in my notes. So I'm guessing he said that and I wrote it as he said it kind thing. Interesting. I forgot to check. Yeah, we'll have to check next time. Now we're clued up. Yeah, yeah, now we know. You start picking apart the script. Jean Favreau, you haven't read Galadinium's fantastic technology, guns and gear for any occasion. Get on it, mate. We'll find you out. The armourer helps join in with the plan. got a very particularly gorgeous accent. She does, yeah. She's always got this very precise English accent, but it felt like extra duty this week, and I'm here for it. Can we have Emily Swallow with an English accent reading Mandalorian audiobooks? All of the things. Oh my God. Just everything. there for that. Read everything.
00:23:17
Speaker
She tells Grogu that he's too young to go and he's not allowed to go with them. She becomes the best babysitter. Yeah. You are now with me, child. Come in. into the forge. Come in and see how this works. Yeah. We get a very ghostly utterance of the guitar motif, but it's back on guitar now, like the original. Yes. I wrote that down. love that. The Forge music cue is my favourite music cue. The guitars, the percussion, strings. It's beautiful. Great.
00:23:46
Speaker
Yeah. As it develops, the strings go all bendy. Yeah. Portamento, they're like sliding between notes. That's what portamento means for... Yeah. For those who don't know. Yeah. Yeah, non-muso heads. And it's very mysterious sounding and it tells us that we're going into a mystical bit of story. And it also kind of tells us we're going to have a flashback. Well, it sets us up because we know what yeah the armourer does. Yeah, she's almost like a hypnotist. yeah And she starts like explaining, this is the forge. It is the heart of the Mandalorian culture.
00:24:17
Speaker
Just as we shape the Mandalorian steel, we shape ourselves. And I'm like, yes, yeah we do. And then we've got that beautiful line about refining ourselves. So good. Fair play, Jon Favreau. And Grogu goes with her. Yeah, he does. He's wide-eyed. He's a bit...
00:24:33
Speaker
Ooh, trepidatious maybe. That's a good one. Yeah, and he starts to look sad as we know what's going to happen to him because we've seen it happen to other people that they go into these flashbacks. Yeah. But he starts to look very forlorn and we see a very sad time in Grogu's life, I guess, older 66, which is yeah always devastating.
00:24:54
Speaker
it never gets any easier to watch. It's really traumatic flashback. Yeah. I mean, we've had many, many flashbacks at this point. No spoilers, but in multiple other things, we see Older 66 from different people's perspectives. Yeah.
00:25:09
Speaker
And it's almost like Lucasfilm love making us feel really depressed, but it's always... hard. This one has a lot of joy in it. Yeah. Mostly because of Ahmed Best, who is the guy who played Jar Jar, and it's yeah okay his return yeah to the galaxy. When this the news of this came out, um he was at celebration i think that same year it was just like oh this is beautiful because he has endured so much toxic abuse and yeah of course on all kinds of levels absolutely horrific yeah he has been in the galaxy in the meantime he hosted a kind of quiz game show thing called jedi challenge maybe no i think i've got that name wrong sorry guys if you're listening and know come at me on social media He plays this character, Keller and Beck, yes yeah as the host. And kids come on and they have to do like Jedi Challenges. I would love that. It's amazing. It's an amazing show. sounds great.
00:26:13
Speaker
I want to do Jedi Challenges. So cool. So the fact that he was back in it yeah already, it was just perfect that they make him part of the Order at the time of Order 66. And he is the one that gets Gregor out. I just love it yeah so much. I was going to ask you about this because i was going to say, do we know this guy? But clearly we do. Well, only through the quiz show. kind of Yeah, like he is canon, even though the quiz show is obviously not really canon because it's got all these random kids from real life. Yeah.
00:26:46
Speaker
But it is he is a real character. He's a known character. He's a canon character. Yeah. Excellent. And he's also co-written a comic one shot, which has just come out quite recently as well, called Jar Jar, issue number one. So maybe they'll do some more, but at the moment it's just a one shot. yeah But he co-wrote with ah another writer. And it's Keller and Beck and Jar Jar in the same scenario. I've just bought it, so I haven't read it yet. Excellent. so excited to read it. It's apparently really, really good. Cool.
00:27:16
Speaker
Love it. So it's good that's a bit who he is. Yeah, he's a legit Jedi. He was obviously there. It feels like he's surviving Order 66. Yeah, it does. I don't know. Maybe.
00:27:26
Speaker
i wouldn't be surprised if we see him again. Yeah. Maybe I'll find out when I read the comic. I'll let you know. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'll keep you posted. Find out if that's a thing. We get a hell of a Coruscant chase, which we wouldn't necessarily appreciate if we hadn't had the episode before. Yeah. Because we've seen all of these places so recently. Definitely. We saw the same Monument Plaza with the mountain. So we know we're super high up, which is kind of part of the escape, I guess. It's like getting high. We see the tunnels. It's probably not the same tunnels, but he goes through train tunnel some tunnels, yeah. Yeah, yeah. And then he ends up like...
00:28:02
Speaker
bouncing through onto the subway platform and then like it's going wild i say subway subway means underground and we're clearly not underground we're like very very we're very high up ground yeah There was some really nice speeder sound design, both prequel type sound design. I think right at the beginning before, I think it's when the clones arrive, their speeder that they come in on has a more prequel-y, you know, the kind of jittery sort jittery type speeder. And then when Kelleran gets on his speeder bike, we get the, yeah return the Jedi speeder bike sound. So we get all of those sound nostalgia hits from, they do this on purpose, I know. Yeah.
00:28:44
Speaker
They're doing it on purpose. And I think it was Tamara Morrison doing the clone voices. I did look it up and on IMDb it said it's him. Okay. Whether they're just generic clones. Generic clone things. There he him. you know like ah It does seem to be. There's a lot of like, blast him, they're getting away, don't let them get away kind of thing. But it would have been a nice, easy job for Tamara, and it would have been really lush. I know he loves playing clones, almost as much as he loves playing Boba. does things enjoy it.
00:29:15
Speaker
Just before the end of the flashback, we just see Kelleran passing Grogu to Naboo guard, I think. It's like a Naboo ship. It's got that kind of sleek, chrome look. I presume it's a Naboo ship. And...
00:29:34
Speaker
Yeah, there's a guard that says, what about the others? And Beck says, there are no others. There are others. But they've taken Grogu. it just, yeah, it obviously it's supposed to leave us with loads of questions. yeah What is going on? Are they taking him to Naboo at this point? And if so, to whom?
00:29:50
Speaker
Is there like a Padme remnant? I mean, Padme's still alive at this point. Yeah. So did she know Bael is still alive? Yeah, what's going Does he have something to do with this and the whole kind of...
00:30:03
Speaker
pardon me organa link up i don't know we're i'm hoping we're going to find out at some point yeah because obviously at some point he ends up in the hands of some underworld pirates yes of course but there's a good couple of decades in between that we need to yeah that we don't know about we don't know about and they keep teasing us with these little things I wonder if we'll get any more of that in the film, hopefully. Yeah.
00:30:27
Speaker
Hopefully. I wouldn't be surprised if we don't because they don't want to like distract. But equally, I would not be surprised if we do because I feel like there's going to be some stuff about Grogu and his force abilities in this film. Sure. My instinct is like that is going to be a big aspect of the film. There are many clues that have been coming out in...
00:30:47
Speaker
some of the stuff around the release of the film that point to the fact that we're going to get some Grogu Frost stuff. So cool that would suggest maybe there is going to be some of that information. But who knows? We will find out. Who knows? Who knows?
00:31:02
Speaker
My next note here is that I was actually feeling a little bit emotional with the armourer giving the plate to Grogu. Yeah. In a way that I was like, oh, that's kind of caught me by surprise. I don't know where i'm ah I was at this morning, but clearly somewhere. Yeah. It it was very emotional. and yeah I don't know. I think having seen him putting this stuff on in the trailer of the thing and like the emotional music in the trailer and the way that made me feel yeah yeah felt very similar to how we see this happening. is it now? she's
00:31:35
Speaker
I think she's making it and she's it's got Din's sigil on it and all that stuff. Yeah, to the clan two, the Mudhorn. They're the clan of two, they're the Mudhorn clan. And as soon as I felt it happen, I was also a bit like, am I being manipulated by the music? Because that that's a big thing. That's what it's there to do. I think, yeah, absolutely. There were some other nostalgia things. Just seeing the Mudhorn again, like in Focus, reminds us of really early on in the Mando. And she's telling Grogu about the donations for the foundlings, which again reminds us of season one. and what the covert was on Navarro. And yeah, there's a whole load of mixed up stuff going on in there.
00:32:14
Speaker
But yeah, I'm sure the music was... Plus, we've just had this Order 66 flashback that's always going to be a bit of a tricky... Yeah, it sets us off on one. It sets you off already.
00:32:24
Speaker
She delivers a line which was almost my favourite line. You will grow into this rundle as you grow into your station foundling Grogu. Yeah. And it was like there's somehow she's putting a stamp of approval, like literally, Grogu. Like this is the first time she's made something directly for him and it's too big for him. So she's yeah allowing the fact that he is going to continue on this path. Yeah. yeah Love it.
00:32:48
Speaker
ah Very cute. Meanwhile, on foot. There's some very scenic shots of Mandalorians walking. yes With some really nice music, to be fair. Very cool. Yeah.
00:33:00
Speaker
We've got that gated synth again that we've been hearing since season one. i love the gated synth. Mixed in with the orchestral like epic orchestral stuff, but we're the gated synth. Yeah. did did did did didoodood did did it So cool. Love it.
00:33:11
Speaker
And you gave me Lord of the Rings vibes, the walking on the rocks thing. Yes, the journey thing. And also, it always reminds me of Rise of Skywalker with the Knights of Ren on the planet where they find the Uchi of Bastoon ship. And there's some wide shots of them standing on top of a rock and helicopter shots. It gave me the same vibes. Same vibes, that similar thing.
00:33:35
Speaker
The scenery in this, I did have that as a question in my brain and it' something's just gone. The scenery in this, it looks quite real. What's going on? I think we talked about it a bit in an earlier episode of season three where we saw this planet. oh sorry before yeah And I think my research pointed to the fact that they used some actual scenery in, was Arizona, I think? Okay. Or Nevada, one of those states in yeah know the southwest of the US. And I don't think they went there to shoot, but I think they gathered footage there. Right. So they did go and shoot, but they just shot footage of the background and used it to help create the 3D volume backdrop. I'm pretty sure they're still in the volume. They may have built some actual physical rocks yeah or brought some actual rocks in. Who knows? they're probably sculpted rocks to be exactly how they wanted them.
00:34:28
Speaker
so But the backdrop, I'm pretty sure, is going to be volume. yeah But just cleverly composited from possibly real footage of an actual location in the US. Possibly extended with 3D software. You know, who knows? yes Who knows? Who knows how they did it? I am interested to find out, though.
00:34:47
Speaker
They have this cute little campfire moment, which was giving me Lord of the Rings vibes. Yeah, definitely. And Bo-Katan is asking the important questions of... Wait, how do we eat? How do we eat? Yeah, this is what I think where Paz starts to like give her extra respect. He's always but he's already been quite respectful yeah and working with her with the plan and stuff. Like they've collaborated well already, considering that we know Paz is a bit spiky and he is not into the whole Darksaber thing.
00:35:15
Speaker
And I guess he was very sceptical of Bo-Katan originally. But he says, you're the leader of the party, so you have the honour. You stay by the fire. Of staying by the fire, which was really cool.
00:35:25
Speaker
She takes her helmet off and like her acting. yeah I shouldn't do anything. She just takes her helmet off and sits down. And I'm like, wow, Katie Sarkoff took me on a journey. yeah She's like, what am I doing? like She's working through so much stuff. Yeah, just in micro expressions. Yeah. So good. And and you can really be sure that Katie Strykov will have really looked into the whole Mandalorian. Like she knows this character so well anyway, and she knows about the Darksaber and she knows about the politics and splinter groups and all of this stuff. But this just must be some extra layer where she's got to like do everything other than voice act and tell us that.
00:36:05
Speaker
It's really, really cool. It's clever. Yeah. She's deep. She's in the Children of the Watch. and Yeah. So they stayed up all night, which I find bit weird. That's a really silly thing to do. Yeah. They must know that the kid is being digested. yeah, yeah. Surely you can just fly up in the dark. Kids being eaten. So, yeah, really odd. i don't I don't entirely know why they did that other than we're going to... think we just needed a campfire scene. Yeah, yeah.
00:36:30
Speaker
And then they start, they have a quick game plan in the morning and then they're stealth climbing, which yeah the shot of that, i was like, ooh, originally I went yes and then went, actually, no, thank you. Yeah, the higher they got. And I love climbing things. Yeah. I like to climb. But then, oh my gosh, this is high. Maybe not. So they're using their whip cord things. with They must have grapples on them.
00:36:54
Speaker
Yes. That like fly out and lock into the steering. Yeah, yeah. Terrifying. No, thank you. I quite like a belay. I'd be happy with that. Yeah, yeah. It's this thing of them just doing it solo. Each of them is doing it and they're being quite laissez-faire with the way that they swing across the rocks. I'd be like clinging to it.
00:37:15
Speaker
Yep. Paz's repeating blaster looks extra heavy. Yeah. Trying to get up. what That was maybe not the weapon to bring on this mission. It's so big.
00:37:27
Speaker
So cool though. But he's quite huge and he's very much like, I'm going to do this. and yeah I don't think I've ever seen him without the repeating blaster either. No, it's part of his armour, isn't it? It's physically connected to his armour. yeah They get to the nest and they go into whisper mode and Mando uses his glitcher vision TM yeah to see that there there is some heat in the nest.
00:37:49
Speaker
Yeah. It's a heat source. Turns out it's not the kid. But at this point, this is where Paz reveals that Ragnar is his son. So, questions being, one, Paz has repeatedly referred to him as a foundling.
00:38:05
Speaker
Yeah. Up to this point. So, are they all just foundlings until... Because they they he wasn't found, he was born into this.
00:38:16
Speaker
But was he? But was he? Yeah. i mean, we're all calling Din Grogu's dad at this point. Yeah, that's true. And I feel like the family units in the Mandalorian world are very different, especially at this point since the fall of the planet. Yeah. And the fact that they've all had to go off and be isolated little sects and cults and stuff all over the place.
00:38:36
Speaker
I feel like they're probably relying on foundlings to keep their numbers going just because there aren't enough like breeding Mandalorians to put a gross slam on it.
00:38:47
Speaker
So i it could be that he is just an adopted foundling, but Paz is calling him his son because that's how they do. They they still need father figures and mother figures yeah even if they are adopted into the Children of the Watch or whatever. Yeah. So that was my question was, was he born into this or was he a foundling? But then yeah if he was born into it and they never take off their helmets, yeah like how do you even conceive someone if you're not going to take your helmet off? That has always been a bit of a question. And perhaps cho perhaps it tells us that Children of the Watch, and I did think about this in season one, because when we so started to realise that Children of the Watch...
00:39:27
Speaker
Well, actually it would have been season two when the we first saw Bo-Katan return. Yeah. When we discovered that children of the Orsha, they're the only ones that don't take off their helmets. Yeah, sure. So maybe they entirely rely on foundlings to keep their numbers growing. Yeah. And recruiting people effectively. Whereas other parts of Mandalorian culture, you can have relationships and couples because have helmet on all the time. Yeah, yeah. You can take your armor off for a moment Yes, you're allowed to. Yeah, because Bo-Katan was born into it. Yeah.
00:40:00
Speaker
But then we've also had Paz Vizsla talking about Clan Vizsla and yeah was he kind of born into it as well? He would have been, yeah, because the Vizslas didn't have the helmet rule. Right.
00:40:13
Speaker
and but Not as far as I know, anyway. Yeah. It feels like this is part of a new... A new sect. Yeah. Yeah, a new sect of the Mandalorian Creed. But it is based on the old ways. So maybe back in the day, right this was a thing as well. And it's always been made clear that Mandalorian is not a race. Like that's not new. We've always known that. I think that's always been pretty much a given.
00:40:37
Speaker
So, which explains a bit about this. Found family is a huge part of Star Wars. When you've got shows like Rebels, that is basically a family of misfits that don't connect by blood, but they become a family. And Mando and Grogu is ah another example of that. yeah Luke and Leia don't have parents that they can be with for whatever reason. So they kind of find their family in the Rebel Alliance. Yeah. I guess it's like part of Star Wars and it feels really super nice and positive to me that it's just a thing. You know, Children of the Watch, they don't even refer to that. It's just, no, he's my son.
00:41:15
Speaker
yeah Ragnar, yeah, he's my kid. Yeah. Which is great. I don't know. But that's never clarified specifically. I'm just speculating. Speculating about it, yeah. And then the other thing I thought was then this means that even if he did, if he was his son either adopted or not, or biological, then he's never seen his father's face, which is, again, kind of a bit weird. Yeah, such as the Mandalorian Creed. This is the way.
00:41:43
Speaker
my My exact note was, what the hell, guys? but We know that is a huge thing because we've seen Din show Grogu's face. Show face, yeah. like And that's only he'd only been with Grogu for a short amount of time, whereas we're talking about now, these kids have probably been adopted when they were very young and have grown up and never seeing their adopted parents' faces. Yeah, yeah.
00:42:06
Speaker
Or any parent's faces, or any adult's faces, potentially. Yeah. Which is wild. That is pretty wild, isn't it? But we are in a galaxy far, far away, and yeah anything goes. so Stranger things have happened. it makes you think. It does make you think, which I guess is the point of...
00:42:23
Speaker
I find the Mandalorian story, lore, creed, all of that is so compelling and so interesting and layered, possibly more so than the Jedi. quite different from anything that I'm personally familiar with. There may be people in the world that are more familiar with this. I'm trying to think of cultures around the world and whether there's anything even remotely like this. I don't think there is, but it does feel very different and yeah intriguing.
00:42:54
Speaker
But these are still people. They're still, was going to say humans, but we don't know if they're all humans or not. don't know they're humans, I don't think, not all of them are, are they? I don't know. We don't know. They don't take their helmets off. We've only seen human foundlings, but Grogu is a foundling. Grogu is a foundling. He's not a human. Yeah.
00:43:11
Speaker
So it's super interesting. But before anything else can happen, babies attack. Baby raptors. I think they're like, I put puppets question mark.
00:43:22
Speaker
They're great. I feel like at least in some of the shots, they're puppets. They're puppets. I feel like they made some life-size baby shriek hawks, which must exist somewhere in a warehouse now. Amazing. I love that.
00:43:34
Speaker
Just knowing they're out there is great. I like it. My full note for this was, baby raptors, they're quite adorable. Also, this kid was just regurgitated and is fine? question mark Yeah.
00:43:48
Speaker
Gross. Yeah, the parent comes back and just out pops Ragnar. Yeah. That's the wildest bit of the whole episode for me. Yeah, yeah. Keller and Beck, yeah, whatevs, you know. Yeah, yeah, fine. Yeah. But a kid... This kid is fine? Okay, cool.
00:44:05
Speaker
I mean, birds do this. yes Seagulls do this. They swallow things. Yes, but very much chew things. Yeah, that's the point of it. Anyway, Beskar. We'll just say that Beskar protected him. Yeah, right, we'll go with that. It's not a plot hole. Yeah.
00:44:22
Speaker
The kid needed to live. And really then... We are into this final yeah fight. Yes. Bo flies off as she does to the rescue. But she's to the rescue again, yeah. She is very much... It's a team effort to do it, but she's the one that's like, vroom, straight away. She is not afraid to put herself in the line of duty.
00:44:43
Speaker
She gets swiped, she loses a pauldron, which I didn't notice the first time around. Yeah. and Made sense when I saw the end of the episode. And she her rocket pack fails, but she rescues herself. Yes. Yeah, earlier on, the armourer had said that she was going to extend their lariats. Oh. I googled lariats, and it turns out they are a type of lasso.
00:45:05
Speaker
Okay. Which totally makes sense. Yeah. Because when she said it earlier on, I thought she just meant like the whip cord so they could climb up the mountain easily. But I don't think it has anything to do with that. I think it's like these specific weapons which you use like a lasso to catch a live...
00:45:20
Speaker
target sure and that's what they do okay mando flies in with his vibra knife which was in the first west end geek girls i think yeah i think it was i always love it when i see it now reminds me of those hazy days yeah and yeah he rescues well he releases his the kid he gets he manages to get the kid yeah well the kid gets dropped and he very much goes in and yeah saves him and then always a bigger fish Yeah. The dinosaur turtle turns up again from the earlier episode and eats the raptor.
00:45:56
Speaker
Which leaves these three foundlings without a parent. Yes.
00:46:02
Speaker
Also, what? How did they get them onto the ship? My dad asked the same question. I just said they corralled them on somehow. So on a wavelength.
00:46:14
Speaker
Yeah. I reckon they lassoed them, used their, and I'm going to use that word again, lariats, so that remember it. They were all tied together when they came out, so that makes sense. Yeah.
00:46:25
Speaker
yeah That's probably how they did it. It turns out Mandalorians applaud by hitting their forearms together. which Yes. I think we've seen that before, haven't we? Have we? Yeah, possibly. Yeah, I think we have. I think we've seen them do it before because yeah they've obviously got gloves on and they've got plates on their forearms. Yeah, best car on best car, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Makes a good sound. They can applaud like that, yeah.
00:46:45
Speaker
But it's a very triumphant rescue party. It is. And I i don't know if I'm looking too deep here or searching, stretching. Tell me. I got vibes with the armour and bow.
00:46:57
Speaker
You got vibes? these vibes continue. i'm I'm sure this is not... i remember the first time around thinking... It's that. And then sp like it seemed to carry on through the next few episodes. So yeah we're going to be on Vibe Watch. We're on Vibe Watch.
00:47:13
Speaker
Because she says, when she says, ah first of all, she compliments Pocahontas and says that she's done the most honourable thing yeah in the Creed by saving a family. Saving a child, yeah. And then she says, you're in need of repair, come with me. And it's, even though they're both wearing helmets, I'm getting Getting vibes. Yeah.
00:47:32
Speaker
It's something about the body language. Are you projecting? Yes, possibly. Come at me. Also, I wouldn't know flirting if it smacked me in the face. Neither would I. In the real world, chance whatsoever. But two Mandalorians, I can spot it mile off. Oh, you just need masks. Okay, good.
00:47:50
Speaker
Helmets. Take away the facial features and then you can do it. Yeah, this whole conversation, like Beau is kind of opening up to the armourer. She's becoming very vulnerable.
00:48:04
Speaker
Yeah. And first of all, she says, can I have the mythosaur? Which she knows like quite a big question. I'm sure she knows the answer really, but she's like doing the right thing by asking the armourer because the armourer is the armourer and you've got to ask her. Yeah.
00:48:18
Speaker
And the armour is really nice. She's never a kindly Mandalorian. No, that's true. in as much as she can be, she She is quite nice. And she says, of course, you can have it because it's for Mandalorian. belongs to all of us. Yeah. Yeah. But then she says, what if I told you I saw one which was almost like, who's going to broach the subject? You know, that conversation. Yeah, yeah, Who should I talk about? Are you? Yeah. What would you say I saw a mythosaur?
00:48:51
Speaker
I would say that you've had a noble vision. i mean, come on. Subtext. This is Jon Favreau's way of writing subtext. When you choose to walk the way of the Mandalore, you will see many things.
00:49:07
Speaker
but But will we see your face? Yeah. Anyway. It was touching. I thought it was a very beautiful conversation. I'm sure I'm projecting onto it, as you say. But i wories we are going on Vibe Watch. care you're saying. We're on Vibe Watch. Yeah, no, that's fine. We can go on Vibe Watch. I'm just laughing at all of these interactions because I've had those conversations.
00:49:29
Speaker
Yeah. And I've also been too chicken to have the conversations and just sat back and watched to see if I could work it out. Yeah. but We have all been there. We've all been Bo-Katan in this scene. Like 100% we have all been there.
00:49:42
Speaker
That's why I think it's so good. And that's why think it is vibes. Go and watch the scene again and say was it. Okay, fair enough. With that in mind. The armourer seems pretty chill about the fact that Bo-Katan's being like, I saw a real mythosaur.
00:49:58
Speaker
And I was like, well, does she believe her or is she just brushing her off? Nothing ever jolts the armourer. No. She's like, yeah, okay, you saw one.
00:50:09
Speaker
I don't think she's being dismissive or anything. i think she's just doing it. She is what she says. I don't think she lies. Like the most cryptic, she'll just say, this is the way and leave it at that, which I kind of like that. Which she does. Yeah. Yeah. Like you go so far down the conversation with her and she tells you everything you need to know, but then you just ask that one extra thing and this is the way. This is the way. This conversation is over. We will see. Leave me be. Yeah.
00:50:43
Speaker
See, it was a fun episode. It was only 50 odd minutes, which is a lot less than we normally do. Yeah. I feel like there was a lot in there.
00:50:53
Speaker
There is a lot in there. There's a lot going on. It was really fun. It was, yeah. It was fun. it was a good combination of like fun and emotional. It had a yeah quite a few emotional bits and also quite dark and revealing as well. There's a lot of lore in it. and Yeah. yeah Loads of lore. Loads of less obvious lore. Like in the past, in this series, we've had lore told to us by Yama or whoever is telling us stuff. But this is a lot more like we're seeing it, show, don't tell kind of storytelling, which is yeah really cool.
00:51:28
Speaker
I kind of like that we've got to see Din and Bo-Katan just in the covert, just living. And like yes this is their downtime at the moment, essentially. I know it's not downtime because they have to go on a huge rescue mission, but it's still like... Yeah, yeah. We're still getting this kind of day-to-day between the adventures-ish. Yeah, before they they're building gradually towards retaking Mandalore. Yeah. And we're going to get there, but...
00:51:54
Speaker
For the moment, yeah, they're just taking stock, recruiting, I think, in a very quiet, unobtrusive way. Yeah. Oh, my God. Lush.
00:52:04
Speaker
Well, I hope you enjoyed us going on some the weird conversation paths. Yeah. It's fine. It's what happens. We are going to be back again next week with the next episode, which... Oh my God. It's called The Pirate. The Pirate. I know. I know which one this is. This is a banger of an episode coming up. I love it. More of the Moss Man. Yes. Or the Seaweed Man. oh my God. He's great. He is cool. So yeah, we'll be here next week with that.
00:52:35
Speaker
In the meantime... Go and follow us on all the things, please. I'll write a little song about it. it's I have suddenly realized that our YouTube versions of our podcast don't have tags on them. I would have thought the tags would have carried from the audio podcast over onto the YouTube version, but they don't. But I've started to put some in like retrospectively because that will help them reach some people. But if you are on YouTube or even if you don't listen to the pod on YouTube. You can still interact with our YouTube. If you could go over there.
00:53:10
Speaker
And just follow, follow, subscribe to us. That's you need to do, really. Just go onto YouTube, find Sisters of the Force and subscribe. That will help make the channel bit more viewable. It helps the algorithm. We are all submissive to the algorithm. Exactly. We're all just fighting. So please go and interact. We're all just fighting to be heard and seen.
00:53:32
Speaker
Like the middle child. Yeah. Yeah. So anything you can do down with that is amazing. Help us get to be more significant is what we want you to do. Yes, like the youngest child. Give us a little five-star review. We always ask, give us five-star review. And yeah, hit us up with messages if you've got any questions or anything you want us to talk about. We are making big plans for what comes up after Mando and Grogu. Oh my God, it's going to be exciting. It's very exciting. There's lots of sort of plans alongside each other, which is really exciting to me.
00:54:07
Speaker
We've got some new people in the works to bring on. Yeah. Yeah, it's going to be really cool. mind blown. Yeah. But yeah, we'll see you next week for Pirates. Lush.
00:54:19
Speaker
See you then. Bye. Bye.