3 Reasons The Mandalorian fails as show
Time for another hot take. Buckle those space seatbelts.
Where to begin?
1.) EVERY EPISODE IS EXACTLY THE SAME
The great Stephen King has described himself as being the literary equivalent of a Big Mac and fries, his work fills you up, feels good going down, but leaves you feeling empty. He happens to be one of my favorite writers of all time so I personally think he’s overly harsh on himself, but its that description that I really feel applies here.
The Mandalorian suffers from being an extremely easy to digest form of media. Nothing about it pushes boundaries, its quite honestly the safest thing Disney could venture to make following the backlash of Star Wars Episodes 8 and 9. Why? Its pleasing to look at, it shines like a freshly polished suit of Beskar (which is a problem in and of itself). It is the very thing South Park made fun of when The Force Awakens came out, its a big plate of ‘Memberberry pie, an amassed collection of things that Star Wars fan creams their jeans over.
But thats fine and dandy and sweet like candy, it looks pretty, whats wrong with that? Every episode follows the exact same formula. I challenge any reader to break down an episode of this show that doesn’t follow this formula:
1.) Mando reaches a destination looking for: A.) Information B.) An Object C.) A person.
2.) Upon reaching this destination, he meets someone who will give him the episode’s McGuffin, on the condition he completes a task for them first.
3.) The mission was harder than Mando thought, now he must team up with: A.) A Random EU Character that has just been cannonized. B.) A friend (or enemy) from a previous episode. C.) Baby Yoda
4.) With the mission complete, Mando returns to the quest giver, they give him the information. BUT. Oh no! The thing he is looking for is on another planet.
5.) Mando goes to the next planet and the cycle begins anew.
Every episode becomes stale as a result of this video game quest style of story telling. Fans are simply blinded by the rose tinted Mandalorian Helmet Lenses.
2.) There are no stakes.
I am/was an A1 certified Star Wars nerd, I attended my first convention ever in 2014, which was Star Wars Celebration in Anaheim. I even took a picture with Mark Hamill (who is a gem of a human.) Therefore, I feel qualified enough to talk about the complexities of the Star Wars Expanded Universe, and the subject of this rant will be on Beskar. Which, for the uninitiated, is the metal that comprises Mando’s armor, the one that is blaster proof and lightsaber proof. The rarity of this metal in the EU was such that anyone of our heroes that came across it literally didn’t know how to attack or defend themselves against it.
Now, Mando has a suit of armor crafted from this metal, a spear, and a mithril-like suit of it for Grogu. This effectively makes Mando invincible, no blasters hurt him, nor can any lightsaber (or darksaber) touch him.
In the original trilogy, Luke loses a hand, Han gets frozen in Carbonite, heck, even Darth Vader gets a lightsaber to the shoulder in his fight with Luke. The point is, while we never lost our heroes, they were in perceivable danger, they could be hurt or harmed. Mando, on the other hand, cannot. Even when he is in danger, it never feels like he can’t escape. I recall an episode in season two, where he teams up with original Madalorians, he runs down a hall while being bombarded with blaster fire, only to come out clean on the other side.
I can’t help but feel cheated. The only time any stakes arise are when Grogu is put in danger. But even then, we as an audience know nothing is going to happen to him (See reason 1).
3.) No one hates Star Wars more than Star Wars Fans
The irony of this statement and my writing an article on this very thing are not lost on me. But this is the main reason for the largest issue at the heart of this problem.
Fan outrage has crippled this universe.
It’s not a reach to say the problem with The Rise of Skywalker stems from the massive backlash that arose from the fans after the controversy that was The Last Jedi. Now, Disney is in a tough spot, they are throwing an unimaginable amount of money at this cash cow of a franchise, with only one option: Play everything safe.
It is truly sad, this series was at its best when we could have open discourse on the how we interpret each installment. It was that bond that made Star Wars what it is SUPPOSED to be, a franchise us nerds can bond over. Those days are gone.
WHAT CAN BE DONE TO FIX THIS UNIVERSE?
I don’t know. I’ve heard arguments saying that new installments should focus on past events, or future ones. I’ve heard fans petition for a new run at episodes 7–9.
But me? I think it should be abandoned. The franchise is a hollow shell of its former self, it is NOT the Star Wars I grew up with and came to love.
Who knows what the future holds, but I ain’t holding my breath for the next “great” installment in this series.
