SPOILER TBOBF Ep.5 - Return of…

For a lot of people ratings are nothing. But definetly there is something here. Sometimes ratings give us some clues about a movie or show. Sometimes we share same popular opinions and sometimes we are totally in the opposite side.
A couple of days ago I was cheking myself all Mando and Boba chapters and RR ones from Boba have the lowest ratings.

 

After his Razor Crest was destroyed and his son was taken away by ‘one of his own kind’ for Jedi training, Din TRIES to return to his old life of bounty hunting in support of his clan.

But … he has no ship … he misses Grogu horribly … he can’t wield the dark saber properly …and then his clan — the only family he’s known since he was a small child — disowns him. Yikes, talk about someone having his foundation pulled out from under him!

Then he goes to Tatooine to get a replacement Razor Crest and start anew. But THEN what happens? He discovers he’s getting an old N1 racer. It’s totally impractical for one of his profession. But after initially protesting, he finds himself getting excited about building this space hot rod. Din’s “wizard” exclamation following his test run is not only a TPM callback to Anakin, it reflects a momentary return of his own aborted childhood.

I believe all of these events have come together to push Din towards his one true destiny. Whether he realizes it yet or not, Din’s bounty hunter days are now behind him.

 

To be fair, he got it from a junkyard on an outer rim planet.

"Pickens is slim", as they say.

 

I just mean from a story perspective. The ship could have been from virtually anywhere. It was a conscious choice to make it from Naboo. I’m not sure what significance that location has to the title character though. Doesn’t seem to have any at all.

In an episode called ‘Return of the Mandalorian’, where multiple Mandalorian specific elements are in a state of being returned, seems like an odd choice to me. Looks like it made a lot of people who like TPM happy though. So . . . hooray?

 

Very much hooray! You're over thinking it as there doesn't have to be specific reasons to make the most sense. They probably just thought it would be cool to bring back that ship to live action and give it to Din for some awesome scenes.

Directors and writers will figure out what to do with bounties and cargo. But Groku in the back instead of a droid is probably the focus

 

Doesn’t have to, no. But that’s the fun for me. That’s what gives me those ‘nerd chills’. When a story can do both - be fun in a vacuum AND reflect the larger themes? Even better

 

Not much to say other than this episode was very well put together and thought out.

AS far as people complaining about this episode having no Boba in it consider this episode dedicated to the side character like certain novels do.

 

Personally, I think that may be the wrong thing to focus on.

Previously, he had a Razorcrest. We didn't know a ton about it (at least I don't, maybe somewhere in transmedia there's more backstory to it), but it definitely seemed like an old freighter he'd just picked up.

This starfighter holds two significant points, though:

1) It forces him to reconsider his past. He'd previously wanted a Razorcrest, partially we assume because that's what he already had. But Pelli instead offered him a new idea. And as others have pointed out, this starfighter isn't particularly well suited for bounty hunting. Makes me think that maybe he'll step up to a higher purpose again (which, given his willingness to help Fett for free as well as him planning to return to Grogu, seems to imply is the case).

Maybe this stepping away from his previous legacy will come into play more in S3. His leaving the Mando cult in this very episode hearkens to that, too.

2) He built it himself. I think there's some significance in Mando crafting his own starfighter- something far faster than normal, and able to hide off the grid. It kinda hearkens back to the Falcon, in that it looks like junk but we now know it's actually quite souped up.

Obviously a Mandalorian starfighter would be more on the nose, but I think that's actually kind of the opposite of what this episode is about. Point is that Mando is forging his own path, so a Mandalorian fighter isn't really necessary. In fact, it could be argued that it would've been a mistake story-wise to give Mando a starfighter from that planet. So the N1 on its own isn't necessarily signifiant, except in that it's not from Mandalore. It could've been anything, but it had to be something.

 

Don’t get me wrong. I love THAT element of the episode.

The mantra of his covert is “this is the way”. Which is to say ‘the one true way’ and other/alternate ways are false. It’s a decisively dogmatic and narrow viewpoint. Din went to Tatooine expecting a ship like he had before. He had preconceived notions of what was acceptable and appropriate. His growth in the narrative was about considering alternate viewpoints and seeing their benefit.

It’s brought to fruition when, while piloting the fighter, he’s told not to fly it like a gunship. To toss out his preconceived notions and treat the situation as it is instead of how he wants it to be. This is an echo of the earlier plot point of his difficulty wielding the dark sabre. He had a preconceived expectation of the ‘right’ way to handle the weapon and is similarly told his approach was all wrong.

It becomes a matter of him ‘unlearning what he’s learned’. Which is basically a metaphor for his whole character journey. He was instilled with certain ‘truths’ he believed to be unassailable, but is constantly having those truths challenged and being forced to reconcile what he truly believes. The through line is ‘cognitive dissonance’ and how someone comes to terms with the revelations of life’s experiences.

I love absolutely all of that. But not any of it is dependent on where the ship came from. It could have been anywhere. It could have been a totally new make we’ve never seen before. It just needed to be different than what he expected. But it was deliberately this one from TPM. I’m just wondering ‘why?’ And the honest answer could simply be ‘why not?’ And that’s fine. That’s just not personally all that exciting to me.

To me, it seems more of a melding. Din isn’t abandoning his Mando heritage. He’s redefining it. Altering it. Improving it. The N1 wasn’t built back to factory. It was altered. Improved. I’m not saying it ‘should have’ been that. Just that it’s a bit more in line from a thematic perspective.

He reunites with his lost Mando family with hopes of returning that relationship to its former state. He brings this spear, made of Mando metal, with him and discovers it's tainted and needs to be returned to its former state. He also brings the Mando dark saber with him and discovers it holds the potential to return the scattered Mando people to their former state. He reveals that he’s broken his Mando code, but is given an opportunity to restore it to its former state.

Each instance is him encountering a unique and damaged aspect of his culture and then presented with the prospect to repair it and maybe even make it better in the process.

 

If I had to hazard a genuine guess to the screenwriting motives, I’d say it was metatextual. As the characters are rehabilitating a prequel era ship, they’re also rehabilitating prequel era perceptions. “See! Prequel stuff can be cool too, you guys. We put a big old engine on this cutesy little ship. Now it’s baaaaadaaaaaass . . . . . right?”

 

The Razor Crest was actually an ST-70 Assault Ship.

 

Clan Mudhorn is composed of Din Djarin and Grogu, isn't it ?



If I remember correctly, Mando had his helmet off thee times:
- in the finale of season 1, wounded, in front of IG-11
- in Season 2, Chapter 15, The Believer, in order to use the facial scan instead of Mayfield who fears to being recognized by his former commanding officer, Hess. Unmasked Mando will later face Hess.
- in the finale of season 2, waving good bye to Grogu



The Armorer being Sabine Wren, not a single chance ?
- artist
- knows about the dark saber