US Timeline : The Mandalorian

[Stephen]

I think 16 would be too many. 8 episodes is enough to cover the main plot and any little side stories that end up being part of the main plot.

Its like most series with 22 episodes per season could usually be cut down by a lot due to so much filler rubbish. Mando gets the balance perfect.

So much about this weeks episode was just perfection.

22 weeks has never been about good storytelling. It’s about filling a broadcast slot with something the network is reasonably confident will perform well for the audience and advertisers who are interested in it. It has always resulted in horrible fillers like clip shows, comedy episodes (even musicals at times) and weeks when the main cast are almost entirely absent.

Streamed content is often more like a novel adaptation, telling a story from end to end. And that’s precisely what the Mandalorian is doing - cleverly, too, because the best quest tales aren’t perfectly linear. The story is being driven by the Mandalorian’s character, and that of the child, which is why they end up in scrapes sometimes only tangentially related to the story arc.

[Pierre]

Originally Posted by Chris

22 weeks has never been about good storytelling.

You only have to look towards the walking dead. on how things can go wrong. Started off as brilliant 6 parter, then went to extended runs split into two halves, with seasons full of meandering story and episodes where literally nothing happens.

And for success look to Breaking Bad which kept it short and rarely wasted run time.

[heero_yuy]

S02E07: Chapter 15 "The Believer" down ready to watch this evening.

Ditto, have it ready to watch later (after work).

[Stephen]

Wow!

Another cracking episode.

[General Maximus]

I'll be watching it later. Shame we are just starting to get somewhere and it is the penultimate episode of the season.

[Pierre]

It was great, that transporter was pure Gerry Anderson. Even the camera angles, pure Thunderbirds.

[Stephen]

Originally Posted by General Maximus

I'll be watching it later. Shame we are just starting to get somewhere and it is the penultimate episode of the season.

Its been building nicely to this, every episode. Your talking like nothing at all happened in 7 episodes.

[General Maximus]

Okay so a good ep but there is one thing which killed my realism factor:

Spoiler: 

All along they have made a big thing about Mandalorian lore, not taking your helmet off and not letting anyone see your face. He did it in this episode and appeared to have no regrets or reservations about doing it and I assumed as certain events were transpiring he was doing it knowing there wouldn't be any surviving witnesses. The base blew up as expected but I am really surprised he let Mayfeld live at the end. He is expendable, a liability and now a significant risk in the future. I expected this to be an opportunity for us to see a darker more ruthless side of Mando and him upholding his core beliefs.

Originally Posted by General Maximus

Okay so a good ep but there is one thing which killed my realism factor:

Spoiler: 

All along they have made a big thing about Mandalorian lore, not taking your helmet off and not letting anyone see your face. He did it in this episode and appeared to have no regrets or reservations about doing it and I assumed as certain events were transpiring he was doing it knowing there wouldn't be any surviving witnesses. The base blew up as expected but I am really surprised he let Mayfeld live at the end. He is expendable, a liability and now a significant risk in the future. I expected this to be an opportunity for us to see a darker more ruthless side of Mando and him upholding his core beliefs.

You’re really missing the heart of this story. What this is all about is Mando’s deepening relationship with the Child (the holomessage at the end was meant to really lay it out in ten foot high capital letters just in case you had somehow not got it).

Getting Grogu back is now more important to Mando than his Mandalorian oath. That’s how much it matters. Plus, this season they have surrounded him with genuine Mandalorians rather than what Bo-Katan called religious zealots. So it’s possible that Mando’s love for the child is causing him to reassess who he is and in fact deepening his understanding of what the Mandalorian Way actually is.

And the ending - it was Marshall Dune’s decision to let him go, though Mando agreed with it. And that, again, was entirely consistent with the episode’s overall theme which was to muse about justice, mercy and what cause people choose to believe in - there was a pretty significant monologue on this exact topic in the cockpit of the rhydonium tanker.

Also, literally in flashing capital letters, was the episode title, THE BELIEVER, which is deliberately just vague enough that you could apply it to any or several of the characters who featured this week.

It was a superb piece of storytelling that drove the character development forwards in a very satisfying way.

[Stephen]

He did that as there was no choice, in order to get the info to the child's location. A sacrifice he was willing to make as the child means more to him than anything else now.

[heero_yuy]

Excellent episode, defo Thunderbirds with the transporter. There's a lot of stuff to finish off in the finale. Or maybe a new season?

Season 3 has been announced.

[heero_yuy]

Originally Posted by Chris

Season 3 has been announced.

Excellent news.

S02E08 - "The Rescue" to watch this evening. Longer at 44m 05s

Pretty obvious from the last scene in the prevous episode what happens here. Plenty of stormtroopers will bite the dust.