Quote from: Ratman_tf on November 23, 2020, 03:34:11 PM
What if Gideon's plan is to infuse regular people with Force ability? But... in the thousands of years of the galaxy, why hasn't someone tried this before?
I speculate, that they have. That trying to "force" the Force onto a being via blood transfusion results in a corrupted being. That it's a "Jurassic Park" level idea, that gives you what seems to be a really powerful being, but they get all physically and mentally fucked up from the process. (Observe the beings in the tubes didn't appear alien. They appered to be malformed humans) And so it's a line of thought that the Jedi consider unnatural, and has backfired on the Sith or whoever tried it in the past.

My fun head-canon is that the Empire has been trying to do this by extracting the midichlorians from ten thousand stormtroopers instead of one powerful force user. This results in stormtroopers who can't shoot straight.

Quote from: Ratman_tf on November 23, 2020, 03:34:11 PM

What if Gideon's plan is to infuse regular people with Force ability? But... in the thousands of years of the galaxy, why hasn't someone tried this before?
I speculate, that they have. That trying to "force" the Force onto a being via blood transfusion results in a corrupted being. That it's a "Jurassic Park" level idea, that gives you what seems to be a really powerful being, but they get all physically and mentally fucked up from the process. (Observe the beings in the tubes didn't appear alien. They appered to be malformed humans) And so it's a line of thought that the Jedi consider unnatural, and has backfired on the Sith or whoever tried it in the past.
The suits are some means to control the subjects of the experiment, but Gideon's Force Troopers are going to be funky mutants that turn on him in the end.

And that's my speculation.

   This happened in the old Expanded Universe--in the backstory for Vjun, as explained in the novel Yoda: Dark Rendezvous (a speedily constructed schedule filler, but one that wound up being an underappreciated gem despite that). It didn't produce physical corruption, but the resultant surge in Force abilities led to madness and the planetary population largely wiping itself out through homicidal mania.

The situation with midichlorians in Star Wars reminds me a lot of the use of the transporter in Star Trek. In both cases, they are a concept that was invented to do one simple thing, but the basic concept kind of mushroomed out of control.

The transporter in Star Trek was created so they didn't have to film endless spaceship landing scenes. Instead of having to do an elaborate, tricky and time-consuming model shot of the Enterprise landing, or a shuttle launching and landing, the transporter was a fairly simple fade from an empty set to the first frame of the actors on set, overlaid with some sparkly lights. An easy effect to pull off, and in seconds your characters are on the planet ready for an adventure. But then people asked them how it worked, and that opened a whole kettle of worms, and now the transporter can do anything from cloning people, to suspended animation, to making a cup of Earl Gray tea.

Midichlorians were invented so Qui-Gon could measure how strong the Force was in Anakin Skywalker. (George Lucas says otherwise. George Lucas says a lot of things.) Unlike the transporter, though, people hated the concept immediately. Instead of The Force being something mystical and transcendent, it's now just microbes. They could have distanced themselves from the concept by saying that midichlorians are a reaction to The Force, rather than its operating mechanism, but no. They seem determined to double down on it.

I suppose, at the very least, they have established that what Moff Gideon is doing is Wrong, and contrary to the laws of the universe.

Episode 13 is out. It is a lucky number. I recommend watching this one without delay.

Let's talk about it on Monday.

Quote from: Lurkndog on November 27, 2020, 10:36:18 AM
Episode 13 is out. It is a lucky number. I recommend watching this one without delay.

Let's talk about it on Monday.

I have fewer thoughts about this episode. It's good, but very straightforward.

Not going to spoil this episode specifically, but is anyone else getting the feeling that Mando is getting pushed into the background more and more this season? With all of the secondary characters and guest characters popping out, he's really lacking in spotlight time. I guess there might be some reluctance to overdevelop the "laconic gunslinger" of our space western, but a little more time on him and a little less time on everybody else (including the child) for at least an episode or two would be welcome in my eyes.

Quote from: HappyDaze on November 28, 2020, 04:53:38 PM
Not going to spoil this episode specifically, but is anyone else getting the feeling that Mando is getting pushed into the background more and more this season? With all of the secondary characters and guest characters popping out, he's really lacking in spotlight time. I guess there might be some reluctance to overdevelop the "laconic gunslinger" of our space western, but a little more time on him and a little less time on everybody else (including the child) for at least an episode or two would be welcome in my eyes.

That's one of my nitpicks I was going to save for monday, but I can do it without serious spoilers.

Too many cameos waters down the cameo characters, pushes the main characters into the background, and makes the setting more self-referential.

I loved that season one gave us some good, new character like Kara Dune, Greef Carga, Moff Gideon, Kuiil, IG-11, etc, etc. I want more of that and a few cameos sprinkled through the season are ok.

Quote from: Ratman_tf on November 28, 2020, 09:03:54 PM

Quote from: HappyDaze on November 28, 2020, 04:53:38 PM
Not going to spoil this episode specifically, but is anyone else getting the feeling that Mando is getting pushed into the background more and more this season? With all of the secondary characters and guest characters popping out, he's really lacking in spotlight time. I guess there might be some reluctance to overdevelop the "laconic gunslinger" of our space western, but a little more time on him and a little less time on everybody else (including the child) for at least an episode or two would be welcome in my eyes.

That's one of my nitpicks I was going to save for monday, but I can do it without serious spoilers.

Too many cameos waters down the cameo characters, pushes the main characters into the background, and makes the setting more self-referential.

I loved that season one gave us some good, new character like Kara Dune, Greef Carga, Moff Gideon, Kuiil, IG-11, etc, etc. I want more of that and a few cameos sprinkled through the season are ok.

I agree, because that is one of my nitpicks as well. I think that this might be Disney's attempt at damage control for the sequel trilogy - showing the fans that their favorite characters are still alive in the franchise.

Quote from: jeff37923 on November 30, 2020, 05:54:27 AM

Quote from: Ratman_tf on November 28, 2020, 09:03:54 PM

Quote from: HappyDaze on November 28, 2020, 04:53:38 PM
Not going to spoil this episode specifically, but is anyone else getting the feeling that Mando is getting pushed into the background more and more this season? With all of the secondary characters and guest characters popping out, he's really lacking in spotlight time. I guess there might be some reluctance to overdevelop the "laconic gunslinger" of our space western, but a little more time on him and a little less time on everybody else (including the child) for at least an episode or two would be welcome in my eyes.

That's one of my nitpicks I was going to save for monday, but I can do it without serious spoilers.

Too many cameos waters down the cameo characters, pushes the main characters into the background, and makes the setting more self-referential.

I loved that season one gave us some good, new character like Kara Dune, Greef Carga, Moff Gideon, Kuiil, IG-11, etc, etc. I want more of that and a few cameos sprinkled through the season are ok.

I agree, because that is one of my nitpicks as well. I think that this might be Disney's attempt at damage control for the sequel trilogy - showing the fans that their favorite characters are still alive in the franchise.

It's probably only a matter of time before we have a goofy episode featuring Mando interacting with Artoo and Threepio. We can be thankful that they don't seem to do CGI-only aliens, or we might get the return of Jar-Jar.

Quote from: HappyDaze on November 30, 2020, 06:45:56 AM
It's probably only a matter of time before we have a goofy episode featuring Mando interacting with Artoo and Threepio. We can be thankful that they don't seem to do CGI-only aliens, or we might get the return of Jar-Jar.

They brought Jar-Jar back for a couple of episodes of The Clone Wars. Jar-Jar was teamed up with Mace Windu, and he was used as an everyman type character out of his depth, to provide exposition and make Mace Windu look awesome and badass by comparison. That actually worked.

It's Monday, spoilers are legal.
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Wow, this one blew me away.

I really liked how they handled Ahsoka. She's badass, but centered. Rosario Dawson did well with the role, and even looks the part fairly well. The makeup works, and she is able to act in it effectively, and it fades into the background and lets her performance shine through. I also liked the fact that Ahsoka displayed mercy towards the goons when circumstances permitted. Really, she translated to live action just about perfectly.

Note the owl that appears in a tree immediately before the Mandalorian encounters Ahsoka in the woods. This is a long-running visual cue that Dave Filoni uses for Ahsoka. It's her spirit animal.

I suppose it wouldn't have been chivalrous for Ahsoka to simply block with one saber, and flick the other one down the length of the spear, severing her opponent's fingers. I'm surprised Morgan Elsbeth fought as close up as she did.

Grand Admiral Thrawn is out there. Is Moff Gideon working for him as well, or are they rivals?

The Child has a name, Grogu, and a troubled backstory. He's a survivor of the fall of the Jedi temple. But who saved him?

He can communicate telepathically, which I guess explains why he is so nonverbal.

Nice to see Michael Biehn again as Lang the gunman.

Morgan Elsbeth is one of Thrawn's lieutenants, and she was equipped to fight a Jedi. She's not an Inquisitor, though, or even a force user. Where did she come from? If this is what an Imperial Noblewoman looks like, she's pretty kick-ass.

Diana Lee Inosanto is the daughter of martial arts master Dan Inosanto, and the goddaughter of Bruce Lee.

Nice to see another Loth-Cat. They did a better job of making it not look like a cartoon animal this time.

Quote from: Lurkndog on November 30, 2020, 11:17:31 AM

Quote from: HappyDaze on November 30, 2020, 06:45:56 AM
It's probably only a matter of time before we have a goofy episode featuring Mando interacting with Artoo and Threepio. We can be thankful that they don't seem to do CGI-only aliens, or we might get the return of Jar-Jar.

They brought Jar-Jar back for a couple of episodes of The Clone Wars. Jar-Jar was teamed up with Mace Windu, and he was used as an everyman type character out of his depth, to provide exposition and make Mace Windu look awesome and badass by comparison. That actually worked.

We already had the blue-skinned alien from two episodes back (and that was in the pilot episode) for that. He was way less annoying than Jar-Jar ever was.

I can't argue with you there.

I do feel a little sorry for Ahmed Best, though, who gave us the best Jar-Jar he could, and probably gets a ton of crap about it.

Quote from: Lurkndog on November 30, 2020, 02:46:10 PM
I can't argue with you there.

I do feel a little sorry for Ahmed Best, though, who gave us the best Jar-Jar he could, and probably gets a ton of crap about it.

I don't blame the actor for a bad character. For example, I wouldn't automatically assume that Daisy Ridley is going to be terrible in another part just because of Rey.

Ok. I liked the episode, but as mentioned, I think the cameos threaten to drag down the series.

A new Jedi (ish, if you know Ahsoka's backstory) character would have worked just as well. There was nothing about this role specific to her character.

The idea of Thrawn really makes me wince. I don't like the character, and we already have an Imperial Remnant baddie with a master plan. Tossing Thrawn in there threatenes to water down the Moff Gideon character.

The Beskar steel being resistant, at this point it looks to be totally impervious, to blasters and lightsabers makes the Stormtrooper armor even more comical in comparison. I'd like to see Stormtrooper armor deflect or absorb a shot once in a while, and show that there's a reason to wear it, and Beskar not to be a complete counter to energy weapons. So far Beskar's only drawback is it's rarity.