Tag Peli Motto

The Mandalorian, “Chapter 18: The Mines of Mandalore” Review

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The Mandalorian, season 3, Bo-Katan poster, Katee SackhoffSERIES: Star Wars: The Mandalorian
EPISODE: S3:E2 – “Chapter 18: The Mines of Mandalore”
STARRING: Pedro Pascal, Katee Sackhoff, Amy Sedaris
WRITER: Jon Favreau
DIRECTOR:  Rachel Morrison
PREMIERE DATE: March 8, 2023
SYNOPSIS: The Mandalorian and Grogu journey to Mandalore for the first time.

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By Rob Siebert
Fanboy Wonder

I haven’t yet seen the majority of Star Wars: Rebels. But my understanding is that during the events of that show, Mandalore is mercilessly bombed by the Empire, to the point that the planet’s desert sands crystalize. Thus, the green crystal we saw Mando with last time. The Mandalorian has explained this to us before. But it bears repeating heading into this episode.

The episode kicks off on Tatooine, as we go back to Peli Motto’s hangar. We learn that it’s Boonta Eve. The only place I can recall hearing this term before is in The Phantom Menace, when Anakin entered the Boonta Eve podrace. It never occurred to me to look into what the holiday was about. Apparently it honors the rise of the hutt Boonta Hestilic Shad’ruu to godhood… Okay, sure.

Peli sells the droid R5-D4 to Mando, so that he can test the air on Mandalore before he breathes it. I was a little unclear on this, but I checked: R5 is in fact the droid from A New Hope that Owen Lars nearly purchases before it breaks down. It’s a small galaxy, after all.

I miss the Razor Crest. The repurposed starfighter is sleek and cool. But it’s also small, and feels kind of cramped. Especially now that they’re traveling with a droid.

I love the look of post-purge Mandalore. Especially the city portion beneath the surface. Very creepy. Very memorable. The bit of action between Mando and the cave aliens was great too. Mando came off legitimately threatened, overwhelmed, and outmatched.

I always thought Mando was controlling Grogu’s little pod thing via magnetization. But as Grogu is able to float away from the big alien robot crab thing, apparently there’s also a mode where he can control it himself. Good to know.

After he’s captured, Mando sends Grogu back to Bo-Katan Kryze on Kalevala. This thought occurred to me last time, and then again this time: What does Bo-Katan do all day in that castle? Is it just her and the droid? It looks like she just sits in that big chair and broods…

Grogu guides Bo back to the caves where Mando is being held. She starts to tell him that she knew Jedi back in the days before the purge. She doesn’t actually drop any names, though. There they go, teasing Clone Wars fans with references.

Incidentally, how old is Bo-Katan supposed to be? Katee Sackhoff is in her early forties. But. I think Bo might be older than that. Late forties? Early fifties, maybe?

As she’s talking to Grogu, Bo refers to Mando as “your dad.” I think that’s the first time we’ve heard Mando formally referred to as Grogu’s father. As he’s not with Luke anymore, I suppose it’s official now, isn’t it?

This episode is also the first time we hear someone refer to Mando simply as “Din.” That might take some getting used to.

And now for another timeline question: How long did Grogu train with Luke Skywalker? It seemed like it was only a short time. But Jon Favreau has indicated they were together for, get this…two years. I don’t know that I buy that, quite frankly. It was two years before Mando tried to visit Grogu? It was two years bef0re Luke brought Yoda up to him? It just doesn’t add up to me.

It would, however, explain how Grogu’s Force abilities are more advanced now, i.e. the big leaping somersault we see him do in this episode.

Am I detecting a hint of something romantic between Mando and Bo-Katan? Not sure how I feel about that…

Email Rob at primaryignition@yahoo.com, or check us out on Twitter.

Rob Watches Boba Fett – Hijacking the Show

Rob Siebert 1 Comment

The Book of Boba Fett, Mandalorian posterSERIES: The Book of Boba Fett
EPISODE: S1:E5. “Chapter 5: Return of the Mandalorian”
STARRING: Pedro Pascal, Amy Sedaris
WRITER: Jon Favreau
DIRECTOR: Bryce Dallas Howard
PREMIERE DATE: January 26, 2022
SYNOPSIS: The Mandalorian gets a new ship, and learns more about the power of the Darksaber.

By Rob Siebert
Fanboy Wonder

Let’s call out the elephant in the room. The big critique of this episode, as well as the following episode, is that they’re episodes of The Mandalorian shoehorned into The Book of Boba Fett. Whether anyone likes it or not, that’s a fair and just criticism. This is supposed to be a Boba Fett show, and he doesn’t even appear in this episode.

That’s not to say Mando has no place in this story. He could have come to Tatooine to help Fett in his fight against the Pykes. But this? Basically hijacking two episodes of Fett’s show to shift back to his story with Grogu? That’s too much. It’s good stuff, but it doesn’t belong here. It should have been saved for season three of The Mandalorian.

So what happened? How did The Book of Boba Fett get hijacked? I’ve got two theories…

The first is that the showrunners realized they didn’t have enough story with Boba Fett to fill an entire season. So they fall back on the Mandalorian stuff, which they knew fans would like. That doesn’t excuse it, but it’s a reasonable explanation.

The second is that the higher-ups at Disney and/or Lucasfilm said, “Mando and Grogu are popular. So put them in the show.” I’m not sure how likely that is, as Jon Favreau seems to have a good amount of control over the “Mandoverse.” But never underestimate the possibility of non-creative people trying to exert control over creative people. There’d be a sad irony there, as George Lucas fought vehemently against that sort of thing while making the original trilogy.

But to reiterate, even though these two episodes don’t belong here, they are pretty damn good. So let’s dive in…

The Book of Boba Fett, Mandalorian

Awesome entrance for Mando, not surprisingly. A sure fire way for a Star Wars project to impress me is to show us new and unique places in the Star Wars universe. “Return of the Mandalorian” manages to do that not once, but twice. We get this slaughterhouse in the opening scene, which is pretty cool. They could have gotten a little more creative with the fight and maybe had Mando and the goons smacking into bloody slabs of meat. But maybe that’s a little too much…

But what I really loved was the city of Glavis, which is situated on a gigantic ring structure in space. They could have just had Mando on another desert planet, or a jungle planet, or an ice planet, or whatever. But instead they got creative. Excellent.

Amy Sedaris is back as Peli Motto. Given her background, I’m curious if she has any input on what she says. That stuff about dating a jawa, for instance. Did she come up with that, or was it in the script?

Mando’s new ship is a modified Naboo starfigher, like the ones we saw in The Phantom Menace. It looks cool, but I miss the Razor Crest. This fighter doesn’t double as a home base the way the Crest did.

Mando has Mandalorian armor made for Grogu, and wants to deliver it to him personally. He apparently knows where Luke took him. But how? Luke didn’t exactly give a forwarding address. And you’d think he’d want to keep its location a secret. So what gives?

Email Rob at primaryignition@yahoo.com, or check us out on Twitter.

Rob Watches Boba Fett – Krrsantan Steals the Show

Rob Siebert 1 Comment

SERIES: The Book of Boba Fett
EPISODE: S1:E3. “Chapter 3: The Streets of Mos Espa”
STARRING: Temuera Morrison, Ming-Na Wen, David Pasquesi, Danny Trejo, Sophie Thatcher
WRITER: Jon Favreau
DIRECTOR: Robert Rodriguez
PREMIERE DATE: January 12, 2022
SYNOPSIS: Another attempt is made on Boba Fett’s life.

By Rob Siebert
Fanboy Wonder

The cyborg gang that Fett ultimately recruits are riding multicolored speeder bikes. That prompted a few Power Rangers jokes on Twitter. As a Power Rangers die hard, you’d think I’d have been more amused. I wasn’t.

As Fett is riding through the city in the flashback, we see the a shot of stormtrooper helmets on spikes, which is obviously an idea recycled from The Mandalorian. As if to add an exclamation point, we then see Peli Motto, the Amy Sedaris character, walking in the distance with some droids trailing her.

Fett returns to the Tusken camp to find they’ve been slaughtered by the nikto gang. So I’ll ask again: How long was he with the Tuskens? Months? Years? He couldn’t have been with them for almost five years, could he?

I loved Black Krrsantan breaking into the palace and grabbing Fett in his bacta tank. It’s one of the highlights of the whole season, if you ask me.

Fett winds up letting Krrsantan go after his conversation with the hutt twins. He lets this big hairy sasquatch just run out into the desert without any water or anything. I guess the idea is that the palace is in Mos Espa, so he’s close to civilization. But it still made for a bit of an awkward visual.

The twins give Fett a new rancor to put in the palace’s pit. Fett expresses a desire to eventually ride the young animal. Well, they’ve planted that visual in our heads. Now it’s going to be disappointing if we don’t get it at some point. If not during the season finale, then during a subsequent season.

I enjoyed the speeder chase through Mos Espa between the cyborg gang and the mayor’s majordomo. Any time there’s a high speed vehicle chase in Star Wars, I imagine George Lucas’ inner child smiles, given his well documented love for cars and speed.

One of the trailers for The Book of Boba Fett made it seem like Sophie Thatcher’s character, the cyborg Drash, would have a bigger role in things. Hopefully as time goes on, we’ll learn more about her.

Email Rob at primaryignition@yahoo.com, or check us out on Twitter.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 

Rob Watches The Mandalorian: Giant Space Bugs

Rob Siebert 1 Comment

SERIES: The Mandalorian
EPISODE: S2:E2. “Chapter 10: The Passenger.”
STARRING: Pedro Pascal, Amy Sedaris
WRITER: John Favreau
DIRECTOR: Peyton Reed
PREMIERE DATE: November 6, 2020
SYNOPSIS: Mando attempts to bring escort someone to a nearby planet, but crash-lands in an icy cave filled with gigantic spiders.

By Rob Siebert
Fanboy Wonder

In hindsight, I don’t know why I expected them to follow up on Boba Fett in this episode. Especially given the buzz about a new Boba Fett series. I just figured, given Mando has Fett’s armor, that they’d be on a collision course. To add insult to it all, Mrs. Primary Ignition seemed surprised that I was surprised.

Another day then, Boba.

I don’t say “That’s stupid” very often during this show. But I said it when we got to the Mos Eisley Cantina, and Peli Motto is sitting across from what appears to be a giant space ant. They didn’t even dress it up to look like some kind of alien ant. It’s just an ant. Yeah, that’s stupid. Apparently he even has a name: Dr. Mandible.

Our titular passenger is simply referred to by Wookiepedia as “Frog Lady.” But at least Frog Lady looks like an alien who could exist in the Star Wars universe, as opposed to the giant ant. I bought her.

Mrs. Primary Ignition popped for Paul Sun-Hyung Lee, who played one of the X-Wing pilots in this episode. Lee is one of the stars of Kim’s Convenience, which is a pretty fun show. I, of course, pointed out that the other pilot was played by executive producer Dave Filoni. And oh, how she cared…

Were people really upset about Baby Yoda eating the eggs? Was that really a thing? We don’t have enough to be concerned about in the real world, so we have to get mad about what a puppet does on a TV show?

So here we are on the totally-not-Hoth planet of Maldo Kreis. On the upside, it’s the same ice planet we saw in the first episode. Some nice continuity there.

The giant spiders in this episode immediately reminded me of a TV movie called Ice Spiders. Someone did a write-up of it on the old site. I’ve never seen it. But honestly…do I really need to? The title pretty much says it all.

Once again we have giant space bugs. But unlike our friend Dr. Mandible, at least they made these spiders look a little more alien by adding a mouth and teeth. *shudders*

Every time there’s some sort of giant spider monster in a movie or TV show, my mind immediately jumps to some of Rupert Grint’s dialogue in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. “Follow the spiders! Why couldn’t it be follow the butterflies?!?”

Someone, somewhere, is writing a fanfic about Mando and Frog Lady getting it on in that pool. You don’t have to read it. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t there.

I don’t think there’s ever been a bad episode of The Mandalorian. But coming off last week’s episode, it’s difficult not to see “The Passenger” as a step down. That’s a shame.

I suppose that’s just what happens when you follow Boba Fett.

Email Rob at primaryignition@yahoo.com, or check us out on Twitter.