My point of reference, I've never watched the cartoons, but I've read about general character development and have seen a few crucial scenes here and there but do not have the emotional investment that a lot of people have with Asohka. My personal history with Star Wars is big time OT nerd (I'm 40 yo) I read all of the EU books in the 90s. Disappointed with the Prequels like a lot of people and thought the Sequels were god awful. R1 and Solo were much better.
My trajectory with Star Wars was super down. I would still watch any new movie, but man no more excitement.
Then Mando came out. Hoo boy. Best SW since the OT imo. This weeks episode? Best SW with only Empire above it maybe? I have to think about it.
This episode has completely revitalized my interest and love in Star Wars and I can't wait for the future. Here are some of my thoughts on what we'll probably see.
- Unless the Tython main quest is complete in one episode, I don't see a conflict this season with Din and Gideon. I see a build up for season 3.
- I don't see Luke or Mace being intro'd in Mando. But I don't feel strongly in that.
- The intro of Thrawn changes everything.
The future of Star Wars can potentially get incredibly interesting unless John and Dave are short sighted and I don't think they are. I am completely connecting the dots between Favreau and his working with the MCU and Disney's desire to make Star Wars have multi-billion dollar movie profits in 3-5 years. In order to do that after the failure of the Sequels/Spin Off attempts, they need to lay the ground work.
The sequels had almost zero worldbuilding (comics and books backfilled some of that, but that's not mainstream knowledge). Who is the First Order? Why was the Republic so weak and who were they? Where did the Empire go? How did it fall? Why did they ignore the First Order? How big was the First Order? Where did Snoke come from? Does it matter he's dead. If you take a step back and without reference material you could almost say that the three movie took place over the course of a year? Maybe 2? Hell, one movie was just a slow moving chase scene over like 3 days.
My point is that you can almost ignore it.. maybe? Sure we love Han, Luke, Leia but the galaxy doesn't care about them. Luke was a hermit, failed and hidden. Han went back to being a sad broke smuggler running for his life in obscurity as a washed up general. Leia? She left government and is running a rag tag "Resistance" (Resisting whom?). Kinda extreme. Everyone basically ignored her in her time of need.
Third movie tried to change all of that, but that movie had some horrible ideas that made no sense. Palpatine? lol A thousand ship show up in like a hot minute when none would come when they really needed them before the fight?
Anyway. You can wrap up that whole story in a bubble and just kind of put it aside in the whole lore of the galaxy. Some kind of regional hiccup/fight. Obviously the First Order was not much compared to the whole Galaxy if everyone just ignored them. Canto Blight taught us the rest of the galaxy just laughed at both sides selling them weapons and ships.
No need to retcon/get rid of the Sequels from canon.
Now you hear about Thrawn. That sent tingles down my spine. Here's why.
Mandalorian is all about telling small stories. Local stories that just touch on something bigger but then come back down to earth. It's not meant to be an epic story. Ultimately it's a side quest in the grand tale of the galaxy. Do you know what this kind of story is perfect for? World Building. Getting a sense of the shape and size of the galaxy. Introduce characters and plotlines that can later grow into something bigger.
Filoni saved the prequels by giving those characters depth. He connected the prequels and OT with Rebels. He's now bridging the gap between the OT and the sequels and then the future of Star Wars.
Mandalorian and future Disney+ shows are going to set up the First Order as a thing to root it more in the Galaxy more. But he's going to set up a way to sequester the sequels so you can safely call them fun stories and then move on to the future.
You can't have a new epic series of movies in the Star Wars universe knowing that the sequels are happening in the future. There isn't enough room to breath. With Thrawn being mentioned, it's my hope that they are using the next few years to set up the return of Thrawn and be the Thanos of the new Disney Star Wars saga that is coming to a theater near you in 2027 or whenever.
Mandalorian is not the show for greatness, but it's a show for taking a peek at greatness and living legends while we watch someone live the daily life in the galaxy.
Asohka will hopefully get her own show and further set up the galaxy for a return to the big screen because Asohka is all about epic stories. Favreau and Filoni are using D+ as a vehicle to do that. Instead of Iron Man and Captain America movies to set up Avengers they are using TV.
But that's just my guess.
Thanks for reading my Ted Talk.
p.s. Star Wars has an awful timeline just from a narrative point of view and a lot of content is shoe horned in, so you can totally do this.
