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inkerii · 2 years

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Watching fandom reactions to the new ep of the Mandalorian- sorry, Book of Boba Fett (totally did this on purpose to be snarky haha totally did not actually slip up and called the series the wrong name, Disney pls I dont even care for Boba Fett but this is wrong), and I feel like... it's okay to be ambivalent about it? I feel both "sides" have a point here.

Grogu ultimately does need someone like Luke in the sense that he can help harness his powers, because when you're force sensitive it really is important to have proper training. And there IS some truth to asking Din if he's here for Grogu or for himself... Dude just lost his foundling and then his entire way of life, it's natural that he would be drawn to the one person who brought him happiness who he could still reach.

Which brings me to the infamous attachment discourse.

So first of all, yea, Luke did not actually appeal to his father's "attachment" to him. Anakin had to learn to let go and accept his death and accept that he wouldn't be able to be with his son, and that would be okay bc he'd be safe and happy even if he himself couldn't. Luke, who despite the situation had a bond with his father, had to let go and accept that he would die despite his best attempts to save him. ROTJ Luke is compassionate and firm about saving his father without the frenzied fear that led him to be very sloppy, reckless and cost him his hand and nearly his life in Cloud City... for the most part. He does give in to fear and then anger when Palpatine pokes and prods him but he regains his senses this time :'D

Remember, to Lucas, attachment is not a positive word. It's the same as greed and posessiveness. When it comes to people, it's when you're *unhealthily* attached to someone. Your entire world revolves around them to the point where loosing them would drive you mad.

HOWEVER.

Saying that "the devs are finally writing about the Force the right way and everyone is wrong" is also a step too far. A lot of fans these days grew up with the clone wars. Y'know, the series whose director explicitly said multiple times that for all their good intentions, their system and the way the Jedi did things WERE flawed and half the point of the series was to show how Palpatine exploited the weaknesses of the Order. It's literally shown in the canon of the show, btw, not just in interviews. I firmly believe in giving Luke the benefit of the doubt here since we don't know if this is more of a test for Grogu, but having him not try to correct the flaws of the Jedi Order IS weird if that's what he's really doing.

The basic philosophy of the Jedi isnt inherently wrong, but the way they were applying that philosophy in the prequels WAS flawed and it showed to Luke- to a smaller degree bc both Yoda and Obi-Wan had grown over the past 20-ish years, but it was there. Them being flawed is no reason to hate them (I find them fascinating! If they were 100% perfect it would be much more boring) but people CAN be upset and confused as to why Luke is behaving as though he has no intention to change even the issues that have costed the Jedi everything. The Jedi's main flaw was that in legit trying their best, they had grown *too* detached and did not always know how to handle trauma and other complex emotional situations, such as in regard to Anakin's fears and Luke's terror at the vision of his friends when they were captured by Vader. They meant well, but the way they dealt with it was.... not the best. You'd expect Luke to try to do better in regards to Grogu's trauma and subsequent attachment (which, thanks to him not being able to talk, we dont know the extent of) to the one source of security in his life since the clone wars, which is, by the way, very similar to Anakin's own attachment to the single source of peace, security and joy as a slave. It shows how Grogu's bond with Din COULD be dangerous but it also shows that Luke really should not be treating it the same way the Jedi did with his father.

As a side note, it's starting to really bug me when people start saying that Legends Luke is wrong and didnt understand the force as Lucas intended, etc etc. Yes, Luke was more moderate than the Jedi before him, in which he did take a wife and have children, but this does not mean he didn't understand the importance of selfless love and compassion and the need to let go sometimes. I'm sure not every writer was the same, and I'm sure more than one wrote the Jedi/Force wrong, but (and spoilers for a decade old book but I highly recommend you read it) for example, I distinctively remember that in the second book of the Hand of Thrawn duology, Luke talked to Mara about how sometimes you have to let go of the thing you value most (the thing you're most attached to, wink wink). By the end of the book, despite having a vision of Mara seemingly dead (like his father!! and the book came out before the prequels even did!), Luke still put his faith in the Force, accepted that she might die no matter what he did, and went through with his plan. Mara did not die, but Luke was prepared to let go of her if need be, despite being in love with her at this point. Mara herself had to give up on her ship, which had been her greatest attachment (as it represented a sense of safety, security and home, something she did not have for a long time), because it was what needed to be done. Luke was just able to not let his fear of loss override his senses, and he was able to coach others, such as Mara, through the process of letting go without freaking out as well.

Basically for Legends attachment did not have the same meaning as for Lucas. It did not mean greed/posessiveness, it meant just having relationships with people. Luke allowing marriage and the building of families in the EU and not wanting to imagine his life without his own did not inherently go against the philosophy of the Jedi because ultimately he was prepared to let go and trust the Force if need be, and he (at least in the books I've read *shrug*) attempted to teach his Order to love the ones dear to them without getting unhealthily attached, so like. Lay off EU Luke, pretty please with a cherry on top? George has had a negative view of marriage since his divorce and has said before he believes it to lead to attachment in the negative view of the word, which is a very controversial opinion to say the least.

It's understandable that this causes confusion in the fandom but seriously, please.

Anyway, to get back to it, I really do think both sides have a point here. There's a truth to what Luke is trying to teach Grogu, but you'd expect him to be more tactful about it based on what TCW has shown about the flaws of the jedi way in the prequels (TCW, not the EU. People are upset bc this goes against what CANON has said about the Jedi, they're not trying to enforce EU views upon disney's canon).

Imo, I DO really hope this is leading to a more moderate/balanced view of bonds with others. It bothers me that they seem to be contrasting detachment as the Jedi way vs loyalty (attachment as the EU saw it) as the Mandalorian way. Do I trust Disney to handle this nicely? lol, no. But I'll continue to watch on the sidelines andat least try not to bother too much about it, since lately I just pick and choose what I like from Star Wars (aside from hard canon like TCW + the 6 movies) these days. Its healthier for the soul :'D

PS: Also also, I dont even like Boba Fett this much but I weep for the unrealized potential this show had. Even if you brought in the Mandalorian, contrasting Boba and Fennec wanting out of the bounty hunting system to Din who still uses hunting for his own goals to people like Cad Bane who are oldschool bounty hunters would have been one hell of a story. Hope Boba gets a few lines in on the next ep I guess.

#tbobf spoilers #sw #sw spoilers #the book of boba fett #inke speaks #this is probably the last I'll write about sw in a while I just needed to #put these thoughts into words bc they wouldnt let me sleep lol #luke skywalker #din djarin #the jedi #sw tm

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trainsinanime · 3 years

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Just finished Mandalorian season 2 so far (up to Episode 14 / Six of season 2). Some random notes:

The start felt like they had run out of ideas, which is fascinating for a show that felt like it never had a single original idea to begin with. The thing is that Mandalorian takes very old tropes and just executes them to perfection. No subversion, no nothing, just the old thing done really, really well. Most of the times that's enough. Sometimes, though, it seems to start dragging just a tiny little bit. The ice planet episode in particular was just a generic trench run followed by a generic monster fight, with nothing ultimately learned or gained.

There are parts where the storytelling is arguably too conventional, and this is most obvious with the character of the blue coward in the cloning lab episode. Apart from the fact that his objections were very reasonable - he's an accountant, not a superhero, and it makes no sense whatsoever that they expect him to act like one - the whole character is a very old trope: He is portrayed as cowardly, untrustworthy, concerned with personal comfort and material wealth, and coded weak and effeminate when compared to the very masculine no-nonsense main heroes… in short, this is an old homophobic caricature. Compare TVTropes. Now, I'm not saying the cast and crew of Mandalorian are deliberately homophobic, or at least not all of them. But I am saying that they are creatively bankrupt (which should be obvious, they brought Boba Fett back) and clearly don't think enough about the context of the old tropes they're stealing.

Another thing is Baby Yoda eating the unborn children of the frog lady, which I know Twitter was upset about back when that episode first aired. Personally, I agree that this joke is weird and leaves a bad taste (I mean, I assume, but clearly Grogu disagrees), but since the whole frog lady plot was a giant waste of time anyway, I can't even bring myself to care. Honestly, why are they setting up the whole "can't communicate" conflict, then provide her a means to communicate, have her not say anything of value, and then revert back? That's just weak.

I'm not entirely sure whether I like Ahsoka Tahno here, or just Rosario Dawson. She is an amazing presence, but it's not like she gets a lot to do here. I appreciate Thrawn being canon in the live-action TV universe again (I vaguely recall something about a show called Rebels that was apparently animated, happened before this, and also brought up our favorite art lover, but I never watched that show. Maybe I should). That being said, the moment anyone even so much as whispers "Yuuzhan Vong", I'm out.

I know a lot of people like Din's unwavering commitment to his own questline, but personally, I think it's selling us short. Like in that heist episode, he learns that "the way" he's been following may not actually be "the way", or at least the only way. And his response is… to skip the dialogue lines so he can get to his side quest quicker. Gotta say: Meh.

I don't like the Boba Fett episode, although it did something unbelievable: It briefly made Boba Fett seem cool! I don't know why people keep insisting that he has ever been cool before. I did watch him in the movies. I did read all the Karen Traviss books. But I never thought he was actually cool or interesting. And the fight that was meant to convince us that he was cool in this episode was mostly just ridiculous. The way that these stormtroopers completely fail to hit Ming-Na Wen is just plain ridiculous, especially once they set up their machine gun. But then they manage to hit only the characters that are wearing armor, so the whole thing seems more threatening. And in the big finale, a character with a jetpack arrives to late to save the day because he couldn't walk fast enough. Like, seriously? This is a classic idiot plot that only works because at any given point, someone was incompetent enough, not because of any actual reason, but just because the plot wouldn't work otherwise.

Overall, Mandalorian season 2 is still mostly the same as season 1: Unoriginal ideas executed with beautiful perfection. But I think we're seeing more and more cracks form.

#star wars #the mandalorian #mandalorian

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