The Mandalorian Chapter 14 rewatch thoughts, in which there is much ado about Looking
letās get the most Look heavy out of the way first lol
- the scene of din holding the silver ball is shot from below, like we often get when weāre in babyās POV because groguās almost always gazing up at him. so the camera/audience is looking at him through the childās eyes still, in a way, just to emphasize the connection even more. h e l p Ā m e
that firmly establishedĀ ādin looks down, baby looks upā rhythm paying for itself yet againĀ ššš also I love the effect that because of the smoke it looks like heās standing in a serious thunderstorm, while the sky is actually really bright and lit up with only light cloud cover from other angles. it plays into this thing that... this is basically the end of the world for him, and barely anyone else knows or cares. he or the baby never appear in the sequels, din doesnāt have a huge ~*destiny*~ within the Force, his world is so much smaller than what weāre used to in star wars -- his grief at having it come crashing down around him is only a black cloud around him, it doesnāt block out the sun on a galactic scale ala anakin skywalker. heās not Important. except actually heās the MOST IMPORTANT, perhaps exactly because of that. (he certainly is to me) yāknow? well I wouldnāt blame you if you donāt, Iām not sure I know. but my heart is so full.Ā Ā Ā
- for a good portion of the scene where din is picking through the ashes of the razor crest (;_____________; still not over it) boba is actually looking at fennec looking at din
more precisely he seems to be looking at her while din is looking at the silver ball, and is looking at din and having some kind of Emotion while din finds the beskar spear
hm. I am now exTREMELY curious to know what boba and fennecās relationship is actually like in more detail. strictly canonically Iām pretty sure there shouldnāt be enough of an age difference that he could sort of be a father figure, but... thereās something here, some parallells being drawn
the shots of them right before din finds the ball is interesting too -- you have fennec looking at din with a pained flinching sort of sympathy
and then she looks down and glances half towards boba like sheās checking in with him out of the corner of her eyes, but sheās not seeking gaze contact at all, sheās not asking him about anything or even initiating contact (it comes across better in motion but this was the best I could do to show it)
presumably theyāve already decided theyāre going to help din, from the matter of fact way they inform him about it right afterwards, but thereās something complicated going on here within fennec at least, I think, it makes me want to know more about her backstory. (boba does look at her when he says theyāll help, and heās trying to meet her eyes even if she doesnāt reciprocate)
and then at the very end of that scene boba is looking at fennec again, and sheās finally meeting his eyes and they both seem pretty satisfied and pleased (I guess doing the right thing has not necessarily figured hugely in either of their careers lol)Ā Ā
sideline but boba has so many excellent Stances in this episode, itās wonderful. he looks so steady and grounded
- also boba and fennec are close enough that the smoke actually affects their point of view for now and darkens their world too. howās that for a metaphor for empathy hahahaĀ
- itās actually quite sweet of boba to take the time to explain his own state of mandalorian-ness to din, like heās at least eliminating the one source of uncertainty and tension that itās in his power to remove hahaĀ Ā
(I wonder if heās also gauging dinās reaction to the concept of foundlings? Iāve seen some people theorize that it might not be a recognized tradition across all of mandalorian space (then again... what even is, the only true mandalorian trait is accusing someone else of not being mandalorian right) and that it was one of the apples of cultural discord in the civil wars)
- the whole journey bobaās face goes on as he watches din with the spear... I do not understand what it is exactly but I am OBSESSED with it, his eyes are doing some things and it makes my heart feel funny
he pretty quickly glances away with a sharp inhale of breath thatās some shade ofĀ āwell. fuck.ā, but I canāt quite tell you exactly whatās going on there haha
- okay so honestly -- maybe we find a force user to train the baby and maybe we donāt, but not having din be an active part of that training either way would be a fucking CRIME. din clearly just has so much fun being able to engage with him like that, as does the baby, and it gets results. if someone shows up to help with this I hope they have the insight and flexibility to understand that. (listen to babyās excited squeal and dinās breath of laughter before he encouragesĀ ācome on, you can do itā! itās consistently the most engaged and happy we see din and baby obviously feels safe doing this with him when he doesnāt with anyone else, come ON)
- the soft soft mando and baby music kicking in when din gives grogu the silver ball back and tells him heās special T_______T oh my actual god Ā
- I love the way bobaās just... studying din all the way through their first meeting, itās such a look of cold, dispassionate but not necessarily unkind evaluation. thatās the gaze of a bird of prey or something, itās perfect (his eyes have softened significantly when looking at din towards the end of the episode, I guess that whole father son situation hit a tender spot huh lol)
- dinās shoulders rise up immediately when fennec starts talking about the bounty on grogu :ā)
it also seems heās a little š¬ about being in such a hurry back in chapter 5 that he missed that she wasnāt actually, yāknow, dead haha, he slumps a bit uncomfortably and thereās also the āI owe you oneā later on
- oh to have the utter yet unwarranted confidence of this storm trooper behind a minigun, still blasting away as the boulder crushes me
- I want to say something to gideon about what sorts of things a man must be compensating for to take the time to gleefully gloat at AN ACTUAL BABY, but thankfully Iām way too classy for that
- fennec shand using her entire strong but slender sniperās frame to push that boulder off the cliff... poetry
I love that one pose she does jumping backwards off the stones at one point too, itās so graceful, she looks like a dancer
- this entire scene of boba fett fucking eliminating storm trooper after storm trooper is doing some stuff to me, I canāt lie
itās so AWESOME to see a mando interact with their armour in the same natural and expert way as din -- bo katan & co didnāt really have that many surprises and tricks to theirs, itās more sleekly functional, boba and dinās have a different feeling to them, more personal to them and lived in, in a way (probably because they work alone much more often and need some tricks up their sleeves)
bo katanās armour is for War and has been for generations, theirs is more just to Live as themselves? does that make any sense?Ā Ā
- I wonder what it feels like for din to try to push through the force barrier - heās making sounds not just of exertion but with a little bit of pain to it?
- I really like that when boba says āI was aiming for the other oneā fennec clearly knows heās not joking, she doesnāt smile or anything. it makes it feel like they actually know each other quite well at this point
- grogu makes small sleeping baby noises when heās passed out on top of the stone Y____________Y Ā
- genuinely touched by how much better bobaās armour looks in the next episode, after him having it back for like a week max. LOVE what this show does with the relationship between a mandalorian and their armour and how itās almost a living thing when itās with them, and dead when itās taken away
- the way boba leans forward a little in his seat when he spots the big ship *chef kiss* it so instinctively reads as him watching something dangerous, and after seeing the way he went through all those troopers like a hot knife through butter you fucking KNOW that if heās unsettled youāre damn well unsettled too haha
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