Spoilers immediately ahead!
Given the appearance of Ahsoka - one of my favorite Star Wars characters - in Chapter 13 of The Mandalorian, I felt compelled to analyze the show thus-far and where I think it could go from here.
I’d like to begin describing what I enjoy from the show, because I do find it does a lot of things uniquely compared to any currently running show out there. I like the general world-building of the show. This includes the music, quality of CGI, and costume design. It drops me into the world of Star Wars, and I’m always mesmerized looking at Mando’s helmet. They have many old and even new species throughout the show, so it has the diversity of life we’ve come to expect from Star Wars and expands on it. I can tell the care and quality put into making everything look “correct”, so props to all the teams involved in the technical aspects of the show. The choreography and general cinematography during high octane action or fight scenes is also great!
Despite the technical aspects of world-building I just praised, the world feels very barren, sparse, and empty due to the sets and lack of extras. Yes, most episodes occur in a completely new location that we may have not even seen in other Star Wars mainstream media. However adding a new planet or town does not make up for the visuals presented. Often there are no extras in the background, and the set look to me like they’re a single alley with nothing beyond it. As I understand it, this is a technical barrier due to the “Volume” where most scenes are shot. This is essentially a small room that is surrounded by screens showing the relevant background. So instead of a character acting in a green screen, they get to see desert or water or some metal structure. Though this may be beneficial for actors, this seems to me to have restricted how open yet full they can make a scene look. I can’t help but always notice this emptiness in many of the scenes.
The lack of extras could be remedied, but there are always even very few main characters in a a scene at once. It is not like this is required for every shot of every episode; no, I realize that’s not possible and it would likely hurt the show. However I would expect some more scenes that have the space filled out with characters we are familiar with, if that makes sense. The most stark contract to me is when Mando and someone else are in a bar, and it near always empty except for them and the bartender. I can only ever think of the cantina scene from A New Hope, the first Star Wars movie, which was bustling with life and music!
I recognize this is a nitpick and extremely situational, as there are some scenes I remember that counter my argument. However I find that the issues above coupled with the sparse dialogue and lack of general interest I have in most of the characters (which I will explore later in the analysis) makes the world feel empty to me.
The typical definition of fan service is when a character does or says something, or there is an object that has been brought to attention, that nudges fans like “Hey, remember this? Rememberrr?”. I applaud The Mandalorian for doing fan service in all the right ways. Every reference I have recognized have actually had direct use to the characters or the plot. Or they are simply included in the scene to add to the world building but is not something the characters ever acknowledge. THAT is how you do world building. My favorite example is when Mando sets out in the Tatooine desert with the Marshal of Mos Pelgo in Chapter 9. The Sherif is riding a speeder that is a repurposed engine of Anakin Skywalker’s podracer from The Phantom Menace. It is consistently present in the scene for the fans to admire, but the characters bring no attention to it, because it is something normal from their world. I really appreciated that.
There are countless examples of this perfectly done fan service in The Mandalorian, but I find they bring characters into episodes for the sake of connecting them to the mainstream Star Wars universe that the movie or Clone Wars viewers will recognize. It partially feels like they are including Star Wars Intellectual Property but not expanding on it.
Bokatan, a prominent character in The Clone Wars, is in Chapter 11. I thought she would be in the rest of the episodes of Season 2 and even join up with Ahsoka again (which would have been awesome, given that we just saw her last with Ahsoka earlier in 2020 in Season 7 of TCW). However, she goes to reclaim Mandalore and leaves Mando to go find Ahsoka. So clearly the writers are setting up either a season or spin-off show centered around another siege of Mandalore. That is fine and dandy, but she makes no real connection with Mando himself. I recognize the bits of dialogue between the two about Mandalore and the different factions of Mandalorians created after the fall of Mandalore, which is definitely a connection the two have. However this does not get fleshed out because they separate within the same episode they meet. All that said, I don’t believe they are doing this carelessly, but instead that they are setting up future projects or team-ups in season 3.
This leads me to my greatest problem with the show: how episodic it is. I will preface my thoughts on this with: I’m well aware that is the point of the show, but personally I find this stunts character growth, character relationships, and the development of intricate plots with gargantuan spectacle season or show endings. The plot of each episode rarely deviates from the below:
Mando is in his ship at the beginning of the episode, lands in a location and has his ship to get repaired, possibly needs help getting somewhere, gets asked by someone to help them defeat someone or something in order to get their help, he obliges and defeats someone or something (who often just looks into the distance with a menacing glare), and flies away to the next destination. Sometimes the show deviates from this, like when we are back on Nevarro with the two other recurring characters Greef Karga and Cara Dune. However most episodes still follow that formula and are always contained within that episode.
Mando himself gets good character development even with the episodic formula, given that he gets all the screen time. I particularly enjoyed that he relaxed his distrust and fear of droids throughout the show, when he realized the IG droid would protect and serve him once he was reprogrammed. He also shifted his priorities from doing bounty hunter jobs to protecting Baby Yoda (Grogu) in a fatherly role.
However the rest of the characters do not receive this treatment. The other protagonist characters exist solely as plot devices to either require something of Mando or help Mando in some situation. Besides a couple, they are not recurring. 40 minutes is not enough time to establish a character, their situation, their outlook on life in the galaxy. 40 minutes is not enough to establish their relationship to Mando beyond pure necessity. The relationship that did receive more than one episode to blossom was between Mando and “I have spoken”. He proved himself a useful companion that was willing to share and sacrifice. Just from a numbers perspective, the extra minutes the two had on screen allow for more dialogue, which is something the show in general lacks because Mando himself is very reserved and doesn’t speak unless spoken to.
Similarly, the antagonists exist as plot devices for now; all as single episode antagonists (besides Moff Gidian, who is recurring and has motivations to experiment with Grogu). They get minimal dialogue, minimal backstories, and very surface-level interests. They are introduced and defeated in an episode, so any amount of fear and power the character might showcase is forgettable. All of this makes it tough for me to care about the villains.
The most recent instance of not caring about the villains is the standoff between Ahsoka and the Magistrate, alongside Mando and the Magistrate’s mercenary? Bodyguard? I’m not sure what he is or his name; there was minimal backstory provided or reason given to recognize him as a true threat to Mando. Similarly, we know the Magistrate is cruel and works for Grand Admiral Thrawn. For those of us that know Thrawn, we care about that name because we have read in the books and watched Rebels, so we know his cunning. However I have no idea who this Magistrate is, I’m not certain they said her name in the show.
There were shots of people being tortured in some electric chamber, and one villager was scared to talk to Mando because of the soldiers, but besides that we get nothing. Not that those two instances aren’t enough to show that the Magistrate is evil, but they are examples of evil that have been done in many shows and are not fleshed out, so the writers’ efforts to convey that the antagonist’s power and ability to instill fear comes off as rushed to me at best. Perhaps if the characters being mistreated were protagonists that we know, the stakes would be more impactful.
Given the episodic nature of the Mandalorian, the sense of consequence is not as great as I wished it to be. The overall consequence of Grogu being put in harms way is ever-present and I will acknowledge it does keep me intrigued because the Mando-Yoda bond is the only consistent one in every episode. The sense of consequence does not extend to most other characters, especially the antagonists. What do they have to lose? What are they attached to? Generally episode to episode nothing is lost and nothing is gained.
As much as I personally dislike the episodic structure of the show, I can understand why so many fans like it. It is a way to explore the world of Star Wars adventure by adventure, all while having simple overarching character motivations and plot. The show does contribute to a lot of Star Wars world-building through the adventures, name dropping, and dots connected between characters and events we didn’t know about previously. Though, as I argue above, it has always felt too loose and sparse for my taste to pique my interest.
Now that the show has decided to circle ease into the world of Jedi and the Force besides the occasional name drop or display of ability from Grogu, I would urge the show runners and writers to consider moving away from an episodic structure and adopt a season-long (or at least multi-episode) one. The Force has always been mysterious and a bit of an ex-machina given our lack of knowledge of its limits. However in the movies and previous TV shows it has been a sacred and coveted connection between a Jedi or Sith and their ancestors and the energy of the galaxy. If it is used and explored in an episodic fashion, I fear it becomes just another tool at the disposal of the protagonist. The Jedi are not just swordsmen, but characters that have to deal with power, emotions, loss, love, consequences, and the responsibility of protecting the galaxy. This could be lost without a season-based and central-plot-focused approach.
Given my problems with the show I’ve delved into, the biggest benefit the show would gain from dropping the episodic structure is the increase of payoff; payoff done through more fleshed-out protagonist and antagonist motivations, and more consequences and loss for both parties. 40 minutes of running in a metaphorical circle of plot simply isn’t enough for a show bearing the Star Wars name in my opinion.