Viewer Log: Young Justice ep 4

Battling cultists and roided out monsters on a tropical island, so just an average Tuesday.

Well, with the year and The Mandalorian both closing out, I might as well finish with another episode of Young Justice. What? I’ve liked doing five of these things a month, so I’d rather not break the pattern.

Last time on Young Justice the Team moved into its new digs. After a short tour and newbie member Miss Martian learning about Superboy’s telepathy hang ups, the local town of Happy Harbor is attacked by a supervillain. The teens do battle with the villain, an Iron Man looking fella with wind manipulating powers named Mr. Twister and get spanked hard. They come at him hard a second time, and use Miss Martian’s shapeshifting powers to trap him, and defeat the robot. In a cut away, we learn that it was created by Dr. T O Morrow (groan) who is looking to capture the Team’s adviser and his own runaway creation, Red Tornado. It’s a very busy first day, I tell you what. Let’s get to it.

As cool as Superstrength would be, I think I'd turn it down if I also had to
deal with skin ripping muscle enhancement. Just Sayin'.

We open to a prison on the fictitious island of Santa Prisca. You might recognize the name, as it’s the home of reigning Batman Back Breaking Champion, Bane (Played by Danny Trejo). Bane’s Venom manufacturing facility has been taken over by Cobra, a snake worshiping cult not unlike the villains of GI Joe but still a separate entity. Cobra agents release Bane and return his Venom injector, claiming that they’ll leave the island if Bane fights and defeats their champion. Bane, feeling cocky for some reason, agrees. Cobra’s champion walks in as Bane bulks up. He’s a string bean looking kid, until he gets an injection of a purple chemical cocktail. He basically triples in size, dwarfing Bane, and getting so huge his skin seems to rip open to expose muscle. Gross. Bane get’s the piss beaten out of him as the assembled Cobra solders start chanting Hail Cobra and their leader, one might say their commander, Cobra smiles evilly.  

…

Are we sure that GI Joe doesn’t have grounds to sue?

Anyway, we cut over the Team as they fly to Santa Prisca. In a flashback, Batman gives the kids their mission. The island’s main illegal export is the neo-steroid Venom, the weird thing is that the factories are all still running according to heat scans, but they haven’t shipped any Venom out in some time. The Team is being sent in to covertly observe and report what is happening on the Island. Robin is rather eager to hear who of the group is going to be Team Lead for the mission, but Batman and Tornado think the kids need to figure it out. As the mission begins, their ship goes into camo mode, and Aqualad dives in to sneak aboard the beach to give the others a landing bad. The rest of the kids drop, after the more brightly colored members switch to “stealth gear,” black variations of their costumes. The only ones to obtain are Robin and Superboy, who both dress largely in dark colors normally. Group B makes for the factory while Group A, consisting of Aqualad, will meet up with them at the factory.

Group B is nearly set upon by a pair of guard patrols. Thankfully Superboy’s hearing tips them off. Robin disappears into the jungle the moment they think they hear something, much to Kid Flash’s annoyance. The others almost go unnoticed, until Kid Flash goes to find Robin, slips, slides down the hill and lands right in front of Bane’s crew. Whoops. Kid Flash just barely escapes getting shot before the rest of the team join him. Robin reappears and berates his allies for not following his lead and vanishing into the jungle. They take out both groups of guards as Aqualad rejoins them.

I can accept superpowers, aliens, and a lot of other weirdness,
but even my suspension of disbelief gets stretched too far when
there are supposed to be TWO nerds on a team. *Joking*

Robin tells the team about the Cult of Cobra, and they’re able to piece together the general plan. Cobra snuck in, took over the factory to get Venom and are using it to pump up their crew. Kid Flash is all for calling it Mission Accomplished and heading home, but Robin points out that none of the goons are on Venom and wants to know why the higher ups of the Cult must be hording the stuff. Robin tries to assert his dominance over the group, which Kid Flash vehemently rejects. Off to the side, Superboy and Miss Martian both agree that neither of them is really cut out for leadership, so they’ll leave it to the other three to sort out. Superboy’s hearing catches the Bane goons trying to figure out a plan. Bane offers to lead the kids into the factory via his secret entrance. Miss Martian confirms that there is an entrance via telepathy but also senses that Bane is obviously hiding something. He just smiles and says “Nah-uh-ha Chica, Bane is not that Easy,” and mentally recites Futbol scores in Espanola to protect his thoughts. Bane claims the old “Enemy of my enemy,” adage.

At the factory, Master Cobra is expecting their contact to arrive and buy their new product. Master Cobra tells his minions to prepare.

The kids see Cobra goons preparing the product and agree that they need to identify the new buyer. Bane leads them into his secret tunnel. They make it inside the factory, and Robin disappears almost instantly, with Kid Flash zooming after him to try and beat his friend to the ops center. Robin makes it there and starts hacking. The others observe as the Cobra goons get the product ready, Superboy noting that they’re only taking the new stuff, not the Venom stockpile they’d accumulated. And then tells the group about an approaching helicopter. Superhearing isn’t typically up there when it comes to favorite powers, but it is damned useful.

In the lab, Kid Flash joins Robin, who explains that he’s found chemical formulas on the main computer. Considering this is a drug manufacturing plan, that really isn’t too surprising. No, the weird thing is that it looks like the baddies are combining classic venom with a new chemical, the same Blockbuster formula they ran into at Cadmus Labs. The one that turned a simple geneticist into a blue hulk. Oh no. According to Cobra’s research, the combine formula, dubbed Cobra Venom, is three times more potent, and the transformation is permanent. Yeah, that’s all kinds of bad. Kid Flash and Robin realize that whomever the buyer is must have also supplied the Blockbuster formula, and try to radio the info into the others, only to find coms blocked.

So I guess Mr. Freeze and Calendar Man aren't the only formerly
comedic Batman villains to get a bad ass injection. Looks like
you're on your own, Condiment King.

Outside, the helicopter touches down, and the buyer steps out. This is Sportsmaster, a usually almost comedic Batman villain redesigned into a mercenary badass. He’s the “Buyers” point man on the operation. Sportsmaster claims the formula is potent enough that the baddies think it’ll let them go toe to toe with the Justice League. Given the powerhouses on that team, that’s a hell of a lot of confidence. Miss Martian, watching invisibly from above, lets the others know what the buyer looks like. When they discover coms are out, Bane leaps in, causing a massive brawl between the Team and Cobra soldiers. Superboy brawls with Cobra’s super warrior, Mammoth, while the others take care of the soldiers. With coms down, Miss Martian uses her telepathy to link the up and be the de facto radio. Aqualad takes command and calls a retreat. They make for the secret tunnel and sprint away. Superboy smashing support beams to cover their exit.

In the tunnel, Robin bemoans the fact that his “first mission as leader” went so haywire. Aqualad points out that it really isn’t a lack of skill on Robin’s part that is the issue, it’s actually his overabundance of it. In universe, Robin has been at this since he was around 8. Five years later, he and Batman can operate pretty much operate silently. So Robin expects that from the rest of the team, which is kind of an unfair standard to expect the first time out. Robin and the others all agree that Aqualad should be in charge, which he accepts, but tells Robin that he’ll just hold the spot until Robin is ready for it. Or more accurately the team is ready for him.

Top side, the Helicopter is stalled, with Sportsmaster and Master Cobra both realizing it was probably Robin’s doing.

The kids run for the exit. As they do, they realize that things are way more complicated than they might have originally thought. They know that Sportsmaster isn’t the type to hire anyone to do his dirty work, and that he nor Cobra have the chemistry chops to attempt to bond two neo-steroids together. So obviously there’s a large force at work here. They realize this just in time to see Bane attempt a double cross. He explains that he plans to kill the kids in a cave in to try and force the Justice League to step in and kick Cobra out of his factory. This gives Kid Flash more than enough time to super speed over and steal the detonator. Miss Martian lifts Bane with telekinesis and then drops him into a Superboy punch. Yeah, he’ll be out for days.

The team attacks the helicopter just as it’s about to take off. They divide and conquer, having Aqualad and Kid Flash handling crowd control, Superboy and Miss Martian try and destroy the shipment, and Robin battling Master Cobra. They actually use Bane’s mines to destroy the shipment and cause the copter to crash into the factory. Nice plan kids. With five on one odds, Master Cobra somehow does that Batman vanish into the shadows trick. Weird. Robin is surprisingly chipper about not leading now, as it means he won’t have to explain to Batman why they ended up blowing up a building on a recon mission. Dick move… Dick Grayson.  

You know it's a really evil group when they can rock a name
like The Light and not sound too silly.

Back at Mount Justice, Batman first yells at the kids for said exploding building before congratulations them on finishing the mission. With the bad guys, Sportsmaster reveals to his bosses that he only was able to save a single injectors worth of Cobra Venom. His bosses don’t seem too concerned, as they will be able to reverse engineer the formula from that. No, they’re much more interested in these kids butting into their operations. Cadmus and Mr. Twister were both their ops. They claim that Enemies of the Light must not stand. Well, that’s ominous.  

Overall, this was a solid continuation of the Young Justice story. We got to see how the kids handled an actual mission. While they tried to work as individuals, they kind of sucked at it, but as soon as they started to coordinate and talk to one another, things got much, much easier for them. In their first stand off against Cobra, Kid Flash was running around wildly, Superboy was too focused on taking Mammoth down, Robin was trying too hard to get a Batman brawl with Master Cobra, and Miss Martian and Aqualad were just trying to survive. Round two, things were much more focused, with Kid Flash focusing on the normal Cultists, Aqualad using his powers to take Mammoth off the board entirely, and Miss M and Superboy focusing on the important, chemical destroying part of the mission. Robin still went after Cobra’s head, but hey, he was more focused this time. I also liked the reveal that ultimately the kids only really delayed what the big baddies are planning. This is a recurring plot point for the Team, while they almost always are successful on their main mission, the episode usually closes out on the reveal that villainous Light organization got either it’s main or secondary objective completed. It makes a greater amount of dramatic tension when the heroes don’t have the foggiest idea about how screwed they might be. And obviously I love Danny Trejo as Bane. Why the hell did no one think to make him Bane in that STUPID Batman Forever film? Bane is an intimidating and intelligent Hispanic supervillain, Danny Trejo is all of those things. Or can at least fake the two-character traits super believably. I’d better start stop before I go on a Screw you Batman Forever rant. Have a Happy New Year, everybody.

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Twitter: @BasicsSuperhero

Viewer Log: The Mandalorian ep 8

A battle fought, a discovered plot, a friends sacrifice, not once but twice, all to protect hope's spark, and uncover a saber most dark. 

Last time on the penultimate episode of The Mandalorian, said Mandalorian was “hired” by Greef Karga to help the Bounty Guild get the ex-Imperials out of Navarro. Apparently, since Mando, the Kid, and the hidden Mandalorian enclave left, his former Client has more or less taken completely control of the volcanic world. Sensing a trap, Mando assembled a crew of allies to back him up. Said crew consisted of Cara Dune, Kuiil the Ugnaught, and a refurbished IG-11. After the Kid saved Karga’s life, the Bounty Guild agent revealed that he’d planned to kill Mando and take the Kid himself, but had a change of heart. Cara didn’t really trust him, but Mando did. They slipped into Navarro’s main city by pretending Cara had “captured” Mando and was going to turn him in for a reward. Meanwhile, Kuiil was ordered to make for this ship and hold up until things cooled down with IG-11 and the Kid. Unfortunately, the Client is gunned down by his own employer, a Moff named Gideon, and Kuiil is killed by some Scout Troopers in route to the Razor Crest. Not a great place for our heroes to be left in, let’s see if they can get out of this one. Let’s get to it.

Chapter 8: Redemption

I think this is the longest Stormtrooper scene in the entire
40+ year history of Star Wars.

We open on the two Scout Troopers zooming away on their speeder bikes, the child in a knapsack. That’s no way to carry a baby, dicks! They pause to get confirmation to make the final approach to town, where their contact advises to make doubly sure they have the right “asset” as Moff Gideon had killed a group of local troops minutes before. The troopers kind of hang out for a couple of minutes while waiting for additional confirmation from the boss. Their contact advises that they’ll probably have to wait a while, as Gideon just killed an officer for interrupting them. The troopers kind of goof off for a few minutes before IG-11 walks up and demands they hand the Kid over. IG-11 beats them both to death when the refuse his request, and steals one of their speeder bikes. It and the Kid ride off at high speed.

The heroes are still pinned down by Gideon’s forces. Mando suggests that they beat a hasty retreat through the sewers, as the hidden enclave of Mandalorians formally on the planet built several access tunnels through them. Outside, the Stormtroopers prepare a plasma gattling gun to light our heros up. Thankfully, Mando found the tunnel. Gideon takes a moment to pontificate evilly. He mentions disturbing levels of detail about Carasynthia Dune of Alderaan, disgraced Magistrate Greef Karga, and the decommissioned Mandalorian Hunter, Din Djarin (WE HAVE A NAME PEOPLE) while trying to scare the crap out of them. I hope no one minds that I’ll be referring to the Mandalorian as Djarin from this point onward. Gideon is willing to deal, but is clear that our heroes can’t particularly trust him unless their actions benefit his self-interest. He gives them until nightfall to make their decision.

Karga wants to deal, Cara most definitely doesn’t, and Djarin realizes who they’re dealing with. Apparently, Moff Gideon was a scary as hell Imperial Moff that was supposedly execute for his war crimes years ago. He knows that it’s Gideon in part because Gideon knew his name, one that hadn’t been spoken aloud since he was a child. It’s here where we get confirmation that, while Din Djarin is most definitely a Mandalorian by upbringing and creed, he isn’t one by birth.

Yeah, this totally explains the Droid hate.

We get a flashback to when Din Djarin’s village was bombarded by droids when he was a child. We see dozens die by blaster fire as Din’s parents rush him to a cellar. They lock him in for his protection seconds before a massive explosion more than likely killed them. A Super Battle Droid opens the cellar doors and was about to execute Din before a Mandalorian warrior killed it and saved him. We then see a squad of Mandalorians fly in on jetpacks and clear out the droid troopers as best they can. His savior flies off with him, and after that inducted him into the ways of the Mandalorian. In the present, Djarin explains that a newer aspect of that creed is that their personal names are almost entirely purged, never spoken aloud and the only record of it being in the records of Mandalor. Said records would have been read by Gideon, who was an ISB officer during the Purge. Djarin believes that the Kid escaped, as if Gideon had him, then the need to keep the group alive would be gone.

Djarin tries to call Kuiil again, but instead gets the Kid’s giggles followed by IG-11 explaining what happened. IG-11 says that he’s fulfilling his base function. To Nurse and Protect. The battle droid then flies through the city, killing Stormtroopers left and right as he goes. He makes it to the square, creating an impressive distraction as he kills troopers. The others join the fray, with the tide of battle pretty much turning in their favor after Djarin knabs the Imps rail gun and starts killing them with it.

Psst. Nobody tell him literally millions of people have seen him
without his helmet now. He's having a rough enough week as is.

Gideon stops his assault with two shots, one to Djarin’s head to distract him, and the second to the rail gun’s ammo canister. The blast sends Djarin flying, knocking him out. The others grab Djarin and return to the Cantina. Cara tries to wake Djarin up as Karga asks IG-11 to break the grate blocking their exit open. Gideon orders his troops to burn them out. Djarin wakes up and tells them to go. Cara notices he’s bleeding, and tries to take the helmet off to check his wounds but he refuses. He gives Cara his Mandalorian medallion so the “Cohort” will recognize them as allies. Outside, a flame trooper walks up and starts torching the building. I guess they’re taking Gideon’s orders literally. The trooper walks in, and the child calls upon the Force and pushes the flame back, killing him. IG-11 hands the Kid over, orders she protect him, and swears that he’ll look after and bring the Mandalorian. Djarin wants a quick death, saying that IG’s are all hunters. IG-11 refuses and tries to remove the helmet. Djarin threatens him with a blaster, saying that no living thing has seen him without his helmet since he swore his creed and he’d rather die than see that oath broken. IG-11 points out he’s not a living thing and takes the helmet off. We have two firsts people, we have the name Din Djarin, and what he looks like! Djarin looks really exhausted as well as beaten up. IG-11 sprays him with Bacta spray, that should help him heal faster.

The signet alone probably made this whole headache worth it.
The Jetpack is just gravy.

In the sewers, IG-11 and a limping Din Djarin catch up to the other three. They wander the tunnels, looking for some way out. Djarin believes that they’ll need the other Mandalorians to escort them back to the Razor Crest. They reach a point in the sewers that Djarin recognizes and he leads them to the Cohort. They only find dozens of Mandalorian Helmets, most clearly damaged. Djarin is clearly heartbroken to see all the death and demands to know if Karga’s hunters did this. Karga claims to know nothing about it and that the Mandalorian’s just vanished after Djarin and the Kid left. He almost attacks Karga anyway before the Armorer reveals herself. She says that the Imperials arrived after they revealed themselves. She hopes some got away, but refuses to leave herself until she salvages the Beskar that the dead left behind.  She asks to see the child, the one that was deemed worthy of such destruction. She claims that it looks helpless, but Djarin informs her of the child’s ability to move objects with it’s mind. She tells him of the Legendary Mandalor doing battle with sorcerers that had such power, the Jedi. While the Jedi were the enemies of the Mandalorian, by their custom, the Child is a foundling. She charges Din Djarin with protecting the child, to raise it as his own and to see the Child back to his own people. When he points out the insanity of asking him to search the galaxy for a tribe of enemy sorcerers, she merely states that This is the Way. Djarin wants to stay and help the Armorer but she refuses him. Instead, she gives him his signet, the Mudhorn, and deems them a clan of two. I guess Karga and Cara are chopped liver.

The Imperials track them down and prepare to attack the Cohort. The Armorer has IG-11 to hold them off as she hands over her last gift, a jetpack for Djarin. She’s full of free stuff, the Armorer. She bids them farewell. The group walks off. A few minutes later, the Imperials find the Armorer kneeling before her forge with tools in hand. When they demand to know where they are and touch her helmet, she beats them to death with her tools, MELTING one in her forge. That’s going to take forever to clean out.

The group finds an old ferry in the river of lava that they can ride. They free it from the bank and climb aboard. Only a few seconds after setting off, the ferry’s droid ferryman reactivates and starts ferrying them down river. They come upon the entrance to the river tunnel, but Djarin sees a crowd of Imperials waiting by the tunnel. IG-11 offers to help them. He gives Djarin the child and his jetpack, and tells them that he’s going to use his bomb to help them escape. Djarin is, somewhat shockingly, sad to see IG-11 go. The droid marches down the river of lava into the crowd of Imperials and blows them to smithereens.

The journey for one ends, but for another, it is just beginning.

As they come out of the tunnel, Moff Gideon starts strafing the boat from his TIE fighter. Karga tries to get the Kid to use the “Magic Hand” thing to take it down, but the baby isn’t getting it.  Out of other options, Djarin throws on his jetpack and takes off. He leaps over the TIE fighter and hits it with his grappling hook. He gets on the ship while Gideon does his damnedest to knock him off. Djarin gets some thermo charges on the TIE Fighter and blows it out of the sky. He regroups with the others. They start celebrating, rather prematurely I would think, about what to do next. Karga and Cara make plans to stay on Navarro and rebuild the Guild there. They offer to let Djarin stay, but he has more pressing concerns. He flies off with the Kid. After burying Kuiil near where he fell, the two set off again. There’s a very cute moment where Djarin sees the Kid is wearing his medallion, and tells him to hang onto it.

As they fly off, we cut over to Gideon’s TIE Fighter. Jawas are already raiding it. They’re scared off by Gideon, who uses a lightsaber to cut himself free. Not just any Lightsaber… the Darksaber. Oh no.

Before my wrap up, here’s why that particular lightsaber is a big deal. The Darksaber was the personal weapon of Tarre Vizsla, the first Mandalorian in history to be inducted into the Jedi Order. By all accounts, he was a gifted Jedi and powerful leader amongst his people. After his death, the Jedi held his saber in a vault, until it was “liberated” by other members of house Vizsla and has since been an immensely important relic and status symbol to the Mandalorian people. For guy’s like Djarin, Gideon having the saber is like seeing a Nazi holding Excalibur. Or at least I think it’ll fill him with that level of fear and disgust when he finds out.

This was a spectacular finish to the first season of The Mandalorian. We got to see heartfelt sacrifices, the new lore of Star Wars expanded, to finally see our heroes face and hear his name, and see new plots develop. The battle scenes were great, with IG-11 using the Imperials as target practice and the others obliterating them with the heavy cannons they stole. It was very interesting to hear how the Mandalorian’s viewed the Jedi. Considering all three trilogies and most of the shows followed Force Users, I for one at least take for granted how well known the powers and mythos of the Jedi are in the Galaxy Far, Far away. Obviously, the laymen of the Star Wars Galaxy, and more importantly the enemies of the Jedi wouldn’t know much of the Force, it’s power, limitations and philosophy. Plus, we’re still at a point where Jedi as a concept is more myth than fact to those not in the know. Moff Gideon, while a late arrival to the show, was an excellent villain for the episode. He’s confident, violent, and probably a high functioning sociopath, which is a very dangerous mix. I liked how he was actually pretty upfront about being only as trustworthy for as long as they had things that he wanted. And his careful take down of Djarin was calculated and yet merciless. The fact that he has a historical relic of the Mandalorian as important as the Darksaber as his personal weapon pretty much guarantees he’ll be back with a vengeance. I do hope that the second season drops sometime soon. I want to see more of the adventures of Din Djarin and his foundling. And to know what the Heck happened with that mysterious figure that picked up Fennec Shand’s corpse. More plot threads to unravel, I guess. We’ll just have to wait and see. Have a goodnight, everybody. 

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Twitter: @basicsSuperhero

Viewer Log: The Mandalorian ep 7

He's done running.

Last time on the Mandalorian, Mando walked into an obvious trap. Sorry if that’s a bit harsh, but it felt like the best way to put it. He got in contact with an old ally named Ran Malk who hired the Mandalorian to help his crew bust out one of their members from a New Republic prison ship. Despite all of the warning signs, his teammates not respecting him, not being told who they’re rescuing, at least one member of the crew being a spurned romantic interest, he goes along with the mission and is predictably thrown in the prisoner’s cell upon springing him. Mando breaks out, obviously, and then systematically takes out the crew before transporting the prisoner home. Malk tries to double cross, possibly triple cross, Mando by sending a gun ship after him, only to find out that Mando slipped a distress beacon on the rescued crewman. The New Republic assaulted the space station while Mando tells his little buddy the Child, “I told you that was a bad idea.” Let’s get to it.

Chapter 7: The Reckoning

The episode proper opens with Apollo Creed… I mean Greef Karga sending a message to Mando, claiming that there are no hard feelings about killing each other on his end. Apparently since The Mandalorian and his clansmen left Nevarro, the planet has now been largely taken over by the Client and his ex-Imperial forces. They’re a large enough force that the Bounty Guild can’t remove them on their own, so Karga is asking Mando to come in and give them some much needed additional fire power. He’s offering Mando additional resources and manpower to complete the mission. If he kills the Client, Karga will also clear him of charges against the guild. After looking at his sleeping charge, Mando powers up his ship and flies off.

His first stop is to Solgren, to pick up one of his newest friends. We find Cara Dune embroiled in some kind of futuristic cage mage against an Iridonian of all things. That’s what Darth Maul was, FYI. She defeats her opponent with a chock out as Mando and the Child walks in. She’s hesitant to join up, as apparently, while she’s a veteran Rebel fighter, she’s done some things to get on the New Republic’s $#%* list since the war ended. But, once Mando mentions the target is ex-Imperial, her interest is Piqued. They move out.

One the Razor Crest, he lets Cara have a look in his armor. While she outfits herself, the ship starts flying out of control, they find the Child attempting to fly the ship of all things. Strength in the force does not always equal unusually gifted pilots, apparently. They decide to drop the kid off with someone he trusts while they try to take care of the mission. So, it’s back to Kuiil’s house.

Even for these two, an IG unit offering lunch must be pretty
high on the weirdness scale.

They arrive at Kuiil’s front door and are invited in. While discussing their course of action, Mando offhandedly mentions that he thinks that the Child might be some sort of clone or genetically engineered organism, but Kuiil doesn’t think so. Apparently the Ugnaught once worked in the cloning field and the Child looks too naturally ugly to be that kind of science experiment. His words. It’s then revealed that Kuiil has since gone out to the monestary where the Child had been held, took IG-11’s scrap metal, rebuilt the machine and re-educated it. I guess Kuiil wasn’t enough of a computer programmer to just rewrite its code, or something. Mando asks Kuiil for his help, which he agrees to, so long as Mando agrees to bring IG-11 and the Blurggs. Good thing his ship has cargo space.

While on the flight over, Cara and the Mandalorian have a friendly arm-wrestling match that gets out of hand. Not because either of them was taking it too seriously, but because I guess the Child couldn’t tell it was a friendly match. He tries to “Help” Mando by force chocking Cara into submission. Mando stops the kid before any serious damage is dealt. Kuiil reveals that he thinks he knows what the kid can do, but is interrupted by Cara being distrustful of the former Imperial. Kuiil explains that he was, in actuality, a slave that spent roughly 240 years (if the human life time in the Galaxy far far away is still about 80) yearning his freedom and he won’t take any lip about that.

Mando and Cara talk about the mission. Navarro was an imperial planet up until the end of the War, being a heavily fortified location that with few ways into the major city. Their conversation is interrupted by IG-11 asking if they want lunch, which Mando refuse. He tells Cara that under no circumstances are their going to let it off the ship. I have kind of glossed over it a bit, but Mando has serious issues with Droids. Even astromechs (R2-D2 model) and other service droids. While it hasn’t been stated, his handful of flashbacks early on seem to suggest that it’s because Droids were the main soldiers in his villages massacre. But that’s just a guess.

Mando and the crew land on the outskirts of Navarro, where Karga and his men are waiting. Mando, Cara and Kuiil go out to meet them on Blurggs of all things. Karga attempts to keep manipulate Mando into leaving Cara behind but he refuses. He asks about the Child, and Mando shows him. There’s a tense moment while Karga looks the Child over, but he just puts him down a second later. They move towards town, planning to set up camp once the sun goes down.

Umm... this isn't the Mandalorian
you're looking for?

That night the group relax around the fire, and Mando and Karga talk over the plan. They’re planning on bringing the Child to the Client’s base, be brought inside and then have Mando execute him. It’s so simple, there’s absolutely no way it’ll work. Just saying. Karga thinks the stormtroopers will scatter once the Client is dead. Their meal is interrupted by some kind of predatory birds attacking. They make off with two of the Blurggs, one of Karga’s men and almost Mando before the blaster fire scares them off. Karga got sliced by one when the attack began, the wound in his arm looking really bad. The bird’s claws were venomous. Karga looks bad, as they don’t have the medical supplies to heal him. But the child walks over and uses the force to heal the wounds. Exhausting himself once again.

The next day the group continues their trudge. Upon reaching the city, Karga says this is it, turns and executes his surviving men. He reveals that the plan was to kill Mando and take the kid, but after the Child healed him he changed his mind. Karga tries to convince them to let him help them to get the Client. Cara wants to execute him, but Mando is willing to figure something out. He sends Kuiil back to the ship with the Kid. Cara will say that she captured Mando and brought him into the client for payment. They take the Child’s hover stroller with as a decoy.

Oh no! They're hitting the broadside of a barn! It's not possible!

They make it to the city gate and bluff their way passed the scout troopers guarding the gate. While that is going on, Kuiil rides hard back to the Razor Crest. The main group enters the Client’s new abode. The Client is impressed with the Mandalorian’s armor, and offers Karga a drink while they settle the bill. The Client asks the Mandalorian as to why his people resisted the Empire, but it was a rhetorical question, I guess. They’re interrupted by a call for the Client. His boss, the former Moff Gideon, tells the Client to “Check again” on the client before someone opens fire on the building, killing the Client, his stormtroopers and the droid bartender. Through the hole the firing squad made, they see eight black armored stormtroopers and then a horde of regular ones. Mando radios Kuiil and tells him to make a run for it, unknowingly letting some scout troopers listening in to target his Ugnaught friend.

A new age TIE fighter lands and then opens up. It reveals Moff Gideon, whom steps out and up to the building. He says that the Mandalorian has something that he wants. At the same time, the Scout troopers catch up to Kuiil when he’s within spitting distance of the ship. He’s shot and killed, and the Scout troopers pick up the Child, as Mando screams into the commlink to try and get and answer for Kuiil.

Thy enemy has revealed himself. Gideon has risen.

Part of me wonders if the obvious trap that Mando stepped into last time was meant to prep him for this next, slightly less obvious trap. Granted, I don’t think anyone who works with bounty hunters for a living would completely trust Karga on his word alone, but he was at least less obvious with the double cross. Or maybe I’m just predisposed to trusting Carl Weathers. Who knows? I liked the friction between Cara and Kuiil. It made the alliance with the Mandalorian seem more natural, with his two most trusted allies not being completely trusting of each other. What? Am I the only one that had friends in high school that didn’t like each other? Anyway, their friction was good, as well as hearing a bit about Kuiil’s past. Sure, in retrospect finding out he is an Ex-Imperial freed slave and at one point a genetic engineer as well as a mechanical one was obviously setting him up for his death. That amount of rushed character development always stinks of an early end. But the info was still cool. It was also cool to see the Kid bust out a few more Force powers. It’s been a while since he lifted the Mudhorn in the second episode, so I was beginning to wonder if he was ever going to flex his metaphysical muscle again. Curious how it seems that every Force user’s natural impulse is to choke someone with the Force when they use it offensively. Weird. But it was also cool to see the kid bust out some healing mojo. Which is something I don’t believe was ever introduced in the films proper. I know that most of the games and many of the expanded universe stories had examples of Jedi and other Force Users healing themselves or others with their powers, but I don’t think Luke or any Jedi pre-Empire ever showed off that skill. Maybe it’s a rare talent. I know nothing at the time of writing this about Moff Gideon, but the dude’s entrance was spectacular. Having his elite stormtroopers blow holes in his subordinates before striding forward in his black armor was amazing. Fun fact, the production crew didn’t have enough Stormtrooper costumes ready for these last two episodes, so they turned to the international Star Wars fan group the 501^st to fill out the ranks. The group is big into cosplaying Stormtroopers and of having as true to film armor as possible. So yeah, most of the extras in this episode are die hard fans. I like it. While I’m usually hesitant of stories that introduce the main villain just at the end of the arc, this intro was pretty damned good, so I’m more hopeful than worried going into the season finale of the Mandalorian. Have a good night everybody.  

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Viewer Log: The Mandalorian ep 6

Does it count as a double cross when it seems like literally everyone saw it coming?

Last time on the Mandalorian, our heroes found themselves stuck on one of the crummiest planets in the galaxy, good ol’ Tattooine. Mando left the Kid with an eccentric mechanic as he agreed to help a wannabe Guild Hunter, Toro Calican, track down and capture an ex-imperial assassin named Fennec Shand. Things went reasonably well, until Shand told Toro about the Mandalorian he’s working with and what he’d done to the Guild. Toro, being an idiot, tried to take both the Mandalorian and the child hostage to turn over to the guild, not realizing a bounty hunter with a minimum of two decades experience would knock his punk ass down hard. The Mandalorian and the Kid escape, paying off their repair bill with Toro’s money. Also, I stand corrected, the Razor Crest is in fact the Mandalorian’s ship. I didn’t realize it had a name. Let’s get to it. 

Chapter 6: The Prisoner

Our duo lands on a large space station. Mando meets up with an old acquaintance of his, Ranzar “Ran” Malk. Malk is aware of Mando’s recent Guild trouble, and has offered to give Mando some work. He wants the Mandalorian to help his crew of four to free a captured associate of his, specifically he wants to use Mando’s ship, the Razor Crest. He makes a joke about seeing Gratitude on Mando’s mask for the work before introducing him to the crew. We have Mayfeld, an ex-imperial sharpshooter (he’s super adamant he wasn’t a stormtrooper), the muscle Burg, a droid pilot Q9-0, and a Twi’lek woman named Xi’an. Xi’an worked with Mando in the past as well, and seems to have a crazy ex vibe to her.

Q9-0 integrates with the ship, he gets a couple of seconds of Greef Karga’s last message to Mando, but it’s heavily distorted so he doesn’t get anything from it. Mando meanwhile is given the breakdown on their mission. He immediately sees a glaring problem with the plan, they’re going to break into a New Republic prison ship to free their guy. He was under the impression that they were freeing Malk’s man from a rival gang, not the new government. Malk isn’t worried and insists Mando goes along with the plan. Q9-0 isn’t impressed with the Razor Crest, but it apparently is on the New Republic or Old Imperial databanks, so they can use it without raising flags. It will also jam the prison ships signals. The crew boards and they take off.

The crew in general seems unimpressed with the Mandalorian, save Xi’an, but she’s pretty dismissive of him as he is now, too. Mayfeld and Burg push him to show the group his face, which as we’ve established is a No-no at this point in Mandalorian culture. In the quick tussle between Mando and Burg, they accidentally open the hatch to where Mando had stashed the Child. I was wondering where the little guy went. Things get tense, but are interrupted by Moss… I mean Q9-0 executing his mission directives in rapid succession. He takes them out of hyperspace, jams the signal and lands in Now seconds.

I don't think this mission is going to help Mando get over his
droid hatred.

Mando opens the hatch and the crew slip into the ship. The place is entirely run by droids, FYI. While they move in, Q9-0 disables most of the surveillance systems as they go. They pass several prisoners, including one Imperial officer, before approaching the control room. Burg shoots one of the little mouse droids that drives around the ship, which triggers the security droids to the intruders. While the main group gets pinned down, Mando slips around and single handedly disables at least a dozen of the guard droids himself, shooting, smashing, and flamethrowering them into scrap metal. The group seems unimpressed, but they’re dicks so…

They make it to the control room to find that there is in fact one human on the ship. The lone human guard is nervous and tries to hold them off, but it’s four on one. He pulls a tracking beacon, threatening to summon an attack squad to blow them to kingdom come. Mayfeld theatens to shoot the guard. The Mandalorian threatens to shoot Mayfeld if he shoots the guard. Burg threatens to shoot Mando if he shoots Mayfeld if he shoots the guard. They end up in a Mexican standoff, which only ends when Xi’an throws a knife and kills the guard. Unfortunately, the beacon was activated. Q9-0 tells them they have twenty minutes to get the prisoner.

They make it to the cell, freeing the prisoner. The prisoner is another Twi’lek, Qin, whom is also Xi’an’s brother. The group almost instantly betray Mando, shoving him into the cell and making a break for it. While the crew make for the Razor Crest, Q9-0 continues to and finally clears up Karga’s message, getting the dirt on Mando’s little green friend. He tells the group they have ten minutes to escape.

Mando, not one to be trapped for long, lassos a guard bot to get it’s key am. He unlocks his cell and makes a break for it. Q9-0 tells them that Mando has escaped, just before he puts the ship on lock down, sealing most of the exits, and separating the crew. As comms cut out, Q9-0 spots the Child and begins pondering. The Child disappears again before the droid can do anything. Qin and Mayfeld go one way, while Burg and Xi’an go another. Mando, watching from the control room, seems to pick Burg and Xi’an for his target before grabbing the tracking beacon from the floor.

Think attempting to use the force but being interrupted by
your guardian shooting the droid in the back counts as
doing or not doing? 

          Qin offers Mayfeld triple what Malk offered, if he can kill the Mandalorian. The crew on the ship hunt Mando, while Q9-0 hunts the Child. Ultimately, it’s Burg that ends up being Mando’s first target. Mando tries to noose him from the rafters but is pulled into the room. Burg and he had a pretty intense fight, with the large Devaronian beating the Mandalorian hard, right up Mando gets him in a entry way and drops a door on him, before closing another set. Mando is all about overkill.

Mando tracks down Xi’an next. She tosses several throwing knives at Mando, but his Beskar protects him extremely well, their fight ends ambiguously with his knife on her throat. He sneaks up on Mayfeld a few minutes later, getting him in the dark. When he tracks down Qin, he tells the Twi’lek that “they got what they deserved.” How mysterious. Qin turns himself over to the Mandalorian, figuring that the Mandalorian will at least get him off the ship.

Q9-0 tracks the Child to his little hatch. The little guy holds up a hand and seems to try Stun Droid on him. It works… if Mando shooting it from behind counts. They fly back to Malk’s ship. Mando turns Qin over to Malk. There’s an awkward moment where Mando makes it clear the rest of the crew isn’t coming and gets his money. Mando flies off. Malk orders his fighters up to the deck and tell them to kill Mando. It’s at that moment that Qin realizes that the signal beacon from the ship was planted in his pants. As Mando flies off, three X-Wings fly in on the space station. They bombard the station, presumably killing or capturing Malk and Qin. Mando unscrews the Child’s favorite ball thing from one of his toggles, tell him that “that was a bad idea,” as they keep flying.

"Can we please go somewhere where you don't end up
blowing something up?" The Child thought, knowing
the answer is a resounding NOOO.

Back on the prison ship, it’s revealed that Mando didn’t kill the crew, and instead stashed them all in the cell that Qin vacated.

I started out not particularly caring for this episode. I mean, in the first minute you can tell that Mando is getting double crossed at either the midway or conclusion of this mission. You know it, I know it, and even Mando seems to know it. That sort of formula gets kind of boring. As does the crowd of bad people being dicks to the hero cliché. But the episode does pick up after the betrayal and Mando starts setting about taking care of his teammates. The brawl with Burg was particularly funny, with the red devil alien shrugging off most of the hits Mando lands, right up until the doors slam onto him. I also liked Mayfeld’s third robotic arm and his three-pistol style. While the telegraphed the hell out of the whole stash the tracker on Qin to backstab Malk plot point, it was satisfying as hell to see them pull the tracker out and see the X-Wings fly in. Forty-two years later and they are still some of the best space ships ever created. With this, we’re coming up on the penultimate episode of season one, I hope it lives up to the hype. Have a good night, everybody. 

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Viewer Log: The Mandalorian ep 5

What could possibly go wrong on Tattooine?

Last time on The Mandalorian, the Mercenary and the kid found a planet that they might have liked to settle down on. Sorgen, home of a few farming villages, blue krill, and a group of bloodthirsty raiders and their AT-ST walker. Oo… Mando gets roped in to helping a small farming village protect themselves from the raiders and recruits another merc on the run, Cara Dune, to help in the fight. In classic western fashion, Mando and Cara get the villagers into… well, not fighting shape but close enough, and they’re able to drive off the raiders and destroy their AT-ST. Mando considers leaving the kid on Sorgen, and possibly taking off his helmet and giving up being a Mandalorian to be with a kind widow, but has to stow that plan when it’s clear that the Bounty Hunters Guild is still after the Kid. I think he thought he was the target, hence why leaving the kid in paradise seemed like a good idea. He and the kid parted ways with Cara and their chance at peace. Let’s get to it.

Chapter 5: The Gunslinger

Apparently, the “Razercrest” that was mentioned last time on Sorgen was just where Mando parked his ship, because we open this episode in space during a dog fight. The other ship does well against Mando’s ride, right up to the point where the other bounty hunter gives the “I can bring you in hot, or I can bring you in cold,” line that Mando delivered in the first episode. This pisses the Mandalorian off something fierce, maybe, but definitely causes him to fly better, out maneuvering his opponent and turning him into space dust. Their ship, unfortunately, is badly damaged and Mando has to land on the nearest planet to get repairs. Unfortunately, the nearest planet is the one that’s farthest from the bright, shining center of the universe. Yeah, it’s Tattooine.

Never thought I'd think of the Three Stooges and Episode 1
at the same time...

He lands in a repair shop on the planet’s surface. He tucks the tuckered-out child in a storage closet and goes out to meet the person in charge of the repair depot. It’s run by an eccentric woman named Peli Motto. His ship is in need of a number of repairs, most likely due to being on the run for several weeks, and while he has money, apparently 500 Imperial Credits don’t carry the same weight after two blown up Death Stars, and two dead Sith Lords. It’s really only enough to get him use of the hanger. He tells her he’ll get the money, so long as she remembers to not use the droids on his ship. He goes out looking for work.

He goes outside and sees a LOT of stormtrooper helmets on pikes. Dark. While he’s gone, a poker playing Peli and her droids find the Child when he wakes up from his nap. She seems pretty instantly smitten with the kid, like most of us, and decides to look after him while the Mandalorian is out. She tells the Child she is going to look after him and charge him extra for babysitting. Clever loon.

Mando arrives at a cantina and asks the droid bartender if there is any local “hunter” work. The bartender says that since the Guild no longer operates out of Tattooine, there’s not much there. A young bounty hunter named Toro Calican overhears and offers The Mandalorian a cut of his bounty if he helps Toro bring her in. His target is Fennec Shand, an assassin that worked for the empire. Mando isn’t interested in helping, as Fennec Shand is an omega level badass. He does agree to help Toro when the kid offers to let him have the whole bounty, so long as he gets the credit. Turns out, he’s actually not in the Bounty Hunters Guild, but wants to and thinks Shand will be his ticket in. Mando agrees and tells Toro to meet him at his hanger in half an hour. And for him to bring two speeders. Mando tries to also take the tracking fob, but Toro smashes it. You know, to ensure Mando doesn’t cut him out of the deal.

The Mandalorian returns to his ship to find the Kid gone. He freaks out, until Peli comes out with him. She scolds him for poor parenting, but Mando, I think, is too relieved upon see him to get too pissed. She started to work on the repairs, believing that since he has an infant to look after, the Mandalorian would absolutely find money to feed it. She follows Mando out, clearly trying to extort more money out of him, as he meets Toro. Mando loads up his speeder, and asks Peli to look after the kid for him while he’s out.

I was 100% not prepared for this scene to end with a peaceful trade,
no honking screams and gaffi stick waving. 

The two hunters travel across the dune sea on their speederbikes.  After some travel, they come across some Banthas and Tusken Raiders. Sand People still aren’t SUPER fond of non-natives. Toro tries to sound tough, insulting the Raiders, while not realizing two snuck up on them while his back was turned. Mando is able to speak with them using sign language… huh, I suppose that’s easier on the throat than the honking they do, and negotiate a passage price for the two of them. Turns out they just wanted his binoculars. Considering how often the Raiders have been show to be “Shoot first, ask questions never” type, I’m with Mando in thinking that the binoculars are a cheap price for passage, just saying.

After the least violent interaction that I’ve seen involving Tusken Raiders, EVER, they shortly there after find a dewback and a dead rider. He’s another bounty hunter that got dropped in pursuit of the bounty. Shand takes several sniper shots at Mando from a ridge nearby, thankfully his Beskar armor protects him from the shots. He makes it back to Toro and tells the kid they’ll go after Shand after dark. Toro isn’t stoked on the plan, but goes along with Mando.

After Suns set, Mando reveals his plan. Basically, they’re going to rush Shand’s position on their speederbikes, occasionally setting off flares to disrupt her heat vision scope. Mando’s bike takes a disabling hit when one of the flairs fails to go off, and he crashes, but he’s able to walk away from the crash. He sets off another flare to let Toro get the rest of the way there, and takes another shot to his chest plate. Toro makes it to Shand’s position, and the two get in a fist fight. Shand outclasses the kid in just about every way, but Mando walks up and pulls a blaster on her before she can do more than almost dislocate Toro’s arm. Woo.

Realizing that they’re down to just one speederbike, the partners decide to collect that dewback from earlier as an extra bit of transport. Mando goes to do it, leaving the rookie with an expert assassin. What. Could. Possibly. Go. Wrong? A few hours Shand tries to convince Toro to let her go, offering him double the bounty if he gets her to her rendezvous point. When he makes it clear he’s more interested in the glory than the money, she drops a bigger bombshell on the rookie, that his Mando is a traitor to the Bounty Hunter’s guild he’s so into, and capturing him and his little green friend would be worth so much more glory than even her. Toro, being an idiot, decides that he’ll bring the Mandalorian and his alien in. But, not being a complete imbecile, he shoots and kills Shand rather than try to work with someone who could easily murder him and he has no leverage on. The Mandalorian returns shortly there after on the dewback and sees the corpse.

Want to know the secret to a long life? Don't threaten things
important to someone that can kill you with negligible effort.
Toro can take that with him to the next life.

He rides back into town and arrives at the hanger. Inside, he finds Toro has the Child in his grasp and Peli at gunpoint. He demands that Mando hand over his blaster and surrender. Mando does so and puts his hands over his head. Peli is ordered to cuff him. When she does, he draws her attention to another flare he’s got in his hand. She whispers “You’re smarter than you look,” and pretends to cuff him. While Toro is pontificating, Mando sets the flare off, blinding him. Mando gets his gun and drops him with a shot. I, personally would haven’t been able to shot with the Kid in his arms, but Mando is a much better marksman than me. They find the Child after he ran off and hid. Mando bids farewell to Peli, after paying her in for the repairs. He stole Toro’s money pouch from off his corpse. Well, waste not, want not.  

Meanwhile, a mysterious figure finds Fennec Shand’s corpse and leans over it menacingly. Yeah, that’s probably not good.

For me, this is probably the weakest episode thus far. I liked Peli and her… eccentricities, as well as her bits with the Child, and Fennec Shand is an omega level bad ass that leaves an impression despite only getting like five minutes of on-screen time. It probably helps that she’s played by Ming-Na Wen, an actress that has spent a good chunk of the last five years playing the bad ass on Agents Of SHIELD. She’s one of the gals I think of when one of the more outspoken sexist politicians makes cracks about the strength of women. Be willing to bet that Ming-Na Wen and Gina Carano (Cara Dune from the last episode) could put 90% of guys on their asses. Just saying. No, the weak point in this one is Jake Cannavale’s Toro Calican. He’s such an unlikable whiny prick, and was just aggravating to be around the entire episode. Like, I’m shocked he made it this far out into the Outer Rim without getting shot already. He’s way more interested in acting the bad ass and trying to perfect the gun twirl than actually being a badass. And this guy thinks, “Hey, I got my ass kicked by Fennec Shand. But I can totally beat the guy that helped me capture her, no problem.” Granted, I’m a 29-year-old whom, at least not to my knowledge, never indulged in the youthful fantasy of immortality. I just might not get the headspace of an early 20 something high on my own self-importance. It was very satisfying to see him get shot. All that being said, while I didn’t like the character, Cannavale portrayed the too cocky for his own good wannabe bounty hunter extremely well. I really did believe he was an insecure kid hiding behind bravado a good chunk of the time. I did like the moment with the Sand People. It was nice to get a couple of minutes with them for once where they weren’t shooting at people or screaming in rage. Fun fact, the actor playing the Sand Person that signed to the Mandalorian is actually deaf and was communicating with actual American Sign Language. A neat bit of behind the scenes info there. I assume they did this to humanize the Raiders a little bit, and to make communication easier for we the viewers. The video game “Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic” had a long bit of dialogue with the Raiders where you find out about their history and those honks get aggravating. The mysterious figure going out to and, more than likely, picking up Shand’s body is interesting, and more than likely suggests to me that she’s not quite done yet. But we’ll have to wait and see. Good night, everybody. 

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