SPOILER The Mandalorian S3E3 Chapter 19- The Convert

It's probably depressing because the flaws and foibles in a society rebounding from a civil war as witnessed in chapter 19 are quite familiar to us in today's society, IRL. And. depressingly familiar though it may be, at least completely innocent people aren't being taken off the street and forced into hard labour until they are dead or get killed for resisting. And then planets full of billions of people get blown up with the product of that labour. Those are the reasons why the heroes of the OT bothered.


I don't agree that this episode is even about or tries, inordinately, to paint a picture about the depressing state of the New Republic government. It does show Pershing being frustrated at not being able to express his newfound hope for a better society through his skills and expertise (I'm sure many of us can relate). But it's probably because we've seen Andor and that show had such a profound impact on our general understanding of the GFFA in the Imperial era, we can't help but compare and come to the inevitable conclusion that in many ways, some things just stay the same. Victory for liberty is not instant utopia. It's an opportunity to build. But it is often, initially, a period of mistakes and further hardships.

We don't actually see the New Republic government anyway. Just Pershing and Kane who are not your average citizens. It's about how the system set up to reconcile and rehabilitate fails one person, while another subverts and exploits it.

The saga movies actually take place in a war. It's ironic that people should prefer the fun and games of those movies. But that's also true to life. Veterans and civilians who lived through wars are often nostalgic for the sense of purpose and unanimity they had, or think they had, in those days. (Even if you ask Kane why she is doing what she is doing, she might confess that she misses the regimen. Being given orders and purpose that made the world make sense at the time. While the world she's in now doesn't make sense. And is doomed to fail. So might as well help it along and sweep the old regime back into power)

 

Don't blame Favreau and Filoni, they're simply playing the cards dealt to them by the ST filmmakers.

When you're dealing with the power-hungry remnants of the Empire, you'd THINK the New Republic would 'grow a pair' and deal with this 'Empire' nonsense effectively, once and for all. But when they're 'wishy-washy' and allow the people who supported Palpatine to hang around to spew their hate -- should we be surprised to learn Ol' Palp comes to power again???!?

At least give F&F credit for playing this true to life.

 

I don't blame them, I just don't like canon of this time period in the Core. I went through all this questioning with the ST and I just don't want to do it again.

The problem really is that I also know how the ST ends, and I'm not convinced it's not going to happen all over again.

 

Is that a problem? Isn't the larger story of the GFFA and the "Star Wars" all about it happening all over again, and again; every few decades, centuries or millennia?

 

The Taxi Driver is Threepio's grandfather.

 

Yeah, I think it's a bit odd to think that a place as big as a galaxy could ever have a "happily ever after".

 

Yeah, weird.

 

Ah, the afterparty.... when I was King for a day.​

 

Blow up one battle station - It is a dark time for the rebellion.

Blow up a second battle station - Nothing bad can ever happen again.

 

I guess it really depends on how you read the intent of those cyclical motifs. For me, I see them as representations of self-destructive behavior patterns.

The galaxy, in essence, is a troubled person in a continued state of recovery. It has a darkside addiction. It’s trying to get better, but suffers from relapses on that road to wellness. It isn’t so much that we’re dealing with the ceaseless repetition of an endless series of iterations, but a continual progression towards betterment and advancement.

Like with the Luke character. He undergoes circumstances very similar to his father’s, but decisively makes a better choice than him informed by what came before. He grew and evolved beyond that pattern, but later in life, fell back on that familiar crutch. He relapsed. Then he had to find his way back to recovery again.

It’s not that Luke is simply doomed to repeat this same lapse of composure over and over again. It’s not that it was inevitable. It was a personal failing stemming from a place of complacency and fear. It could have been avoided had he responded from the evolved state he was fully capable, but had lost sight of.

The Rey character, the beneficiary of that inherited experience, will hopefully carry that knowledge forward and not repeat that same disfunction on her own journey. Hopefully she progresses, evolves and ‘grows beyond’ what came before . . . and maybe falls victim to her own unique failing, that her own inheritor will then learn from.

That same hope lays with whatever body rises in the wake of the New Republic’s demise. But the conclusion of the ST though doesn’t really deal with that inherited experience or lessons learned. Maybe the galaxy will improve itself beyond the failings of the past. Maybe the ‘Citizens' Fleet’ is the start of something like that. But otherwise there’s no real indication that things are much better at the end of the ST than they were at the end of the OT.

 

Bro, that's so CLEAN. Like surgical silver fresh off the anvil.

 

But they've never been about trying to achieve utopia. Just to overthrow the tyranny that's been momentarily imposed on the galaxy. Better than having innocent people used like disposable objects to build weapons to annihilate anyone who objects to such policies is good enough. Is it not?

 

Had a similar situation with my fiancé. She didn't like SW or rather, wasn't interested in it. Just knew Vader and pop culture references as I am a huge fan and have some memorabiliar, stuff and video games...
She agreed to watch the sequel trilogy, because she can't stand old movies but knew in general about Luke, Vader, Leia etc.
The whole First Order and other stuff was confusing to her, she had no idea what happened when Starkiller Base destroyed Hosnian Prime, who the hell is Snoke (we pretty much don't know either) and the only coherent episode was the last one for her.
Mandalorian is bit more friendly but not as much and same as Boba Fett and Mando wondering, that Empire is back and hunting Grogu, I wonder as well
and I am super fan and nerd, hence why I hope that we get some explanation this season.
Too much TIEs for Imperial warlord, "too late before you act" promises some huge villain reveal.

And yeah, seeing New Republic being arrogant pacifists, clueless and useless, that kinda hurts.
But I must say that I love these real world allusions and takes me back into the Red Dwarf: "Call it extreme if you like, but I propose we hit it hard and hit it fast with a major - and I mean major - leaflet campaign."

 

Ha, your fiancé is doing better than my husband--he still calls Kylo Ren "that Roger Waters kid" so pretty sure he doesn't have a clue what happened there. Well, baby steps.

Yes, with the Alliance fleet being dismantled, the leaflets would be their primary defense against the foe. Gotta hit 'em where it hurts.

 

Silly space hippies. What did we expect when their leader was dressed like this...

 

When did we see this?

 

( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) So, what does he call Snoke? ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)