'The Mandalorian' មានបញ្ហា Mandalorian

There’s a scene in the latest season of នេះ Mandalorian in which Mando has Grogu train with the other Mandalorian Foundlings. The Foundling he’s supposed to train against scoffs at him, telling Mando that Baby Yoda is too young. Mando insists and the two opponents are given ‘training darts’ to spar with.

These, it turns out, are simply paintball guns. The Foundling and Baby Yoda stand five feet away from one another and shoot paintballs, practically point-blank, without moving. Without any kind of strategy or rules beyond first to three hits wins. Considering how close they are, this seems like it will be over quickly—and it is.

The Foundling shoots Grogu once—and Grogu seems very upset—and then another time, but then Grogu uses the Force and does a backflip to the other side of the Foundling, and because he’s clever(?) shoots three times all at once instead of one paintball at a time. He wins! The Foundlings papa is disappointed.

Yes, well, so am I. It really takes a certain level of creativity to craft this boring of a training sequence. Real work has to go into choreography—and concepts—this lame. I’m honestly curious to see how this was blocked out in the script, and whether the problem was at that level or with the direction. Or both. Whatever the case, this was a laughably bad scene and frankly it points to a bigger problem with this series that’s been bugging me since សៀវភៅរបស់ Boba Fett ។

Mandalorians are just kind of ridiculous now. Once upon a time, these were some of the most mysterious badasses in the galaxy. Now? Well, right from this season’s premiere they just come across as enormously incompetent. Mando’s group just keeps losing at everything, and no matter how tough the Armorer comes across, her people are bungling morons, incapable of defending themselves. In the first episode, they almost lost to the crocodile monster because they never thought to either A) run away or B) throw some explosives in its mouth. Then this week they lose a Foundling to a dragon-like creature that “always gets away”. Why are you even on this planet if you can’t figure out how to guard against its beasties?

When they set out in search of the Foundling, Bo-Katan leads. They’re sitting around the fire for dinner and one hands out food and she asks Mando how they eat with their helmets on. He says they all have to leave and go be alone to eat. Two things about that:

• This makes Mandalorians perhaps the most antisocial group in the history of any culture. Mealtime in just about every civilization is one in which people come together to socialize.
• How do they know when everyone else is done? Every single meal they have to just call out to the person left at the fire and ask if they’re ready yet?

I think I’ve just lost patience with the whole “no helmets off in front of anyone” custom. It’s just silly. I could understand if there was a no helmets off around outsiders rule, or a no helmets off when you’re out in public rule, but no helmets off ever even in front of your family? Do Mandalorians have sex?

And isn’t it borderline abusive to make young kids swear this stuff before they’re even teenagers, before they hit that rebellious stage when they want to sneak out and make out with other teenagers and all the rest? And will they really put Grogu in a stupid helmet at some point?

I do kind of like Bo-Katan’s newfound respect for the more traditional sect of her people, which is probably the only thing I really like this season other than the second episode on Mandalore. But the thought of having to wear a heavy Beskar steel helmet all the time, no matter what, and never take it off for anyone is ធ្នាក់ and starting to wear thin. Between that and the overall goofiness and incompetence of the Mandalorians themselves, I’m just not sure this is the right group to focus a whole entire show on, now that the story itself has basically fizzled out.

That’s the other problem. This show had a purpose for the first two seasons. Mando decided to take Grogu under his protection and try to reunite him with his people—not his species, but the Jedi. There was a clear antagonist in Moff Gideon. And even though the show would sometimes tarry on a ‘monster of the week’ style episode now and then, it was still moving toward a goal.

Now it’s just treading water and it feels flimsier than ever, especially after the truly terrible third episode. This had its entertaining moments, but the Mandalorians are not coming across very good. Perhaps familiarity really does breed contempt, but at this point I really wouldn’t mind seeing them all eaten by a giant sand snake so that we can move on to something more interesting.

I did enjoy some of the action and the fight with the dragon-like creature, but not enough to make me really care about the show, which I’m starting to find . . . boring, honestly. That’s a problem. Boring is អាក្រក់​ណាស់ នៅពេលវាមកដល់ សង្គ្រាមផ្កាយ

I will say, I did like that they gave Ahmed Best his due. The actor previously played the most hated character in សង្គ្រាមផ្កាយ history, Jar Jar Binks, and was finally able to play someone that’s actually cool and not a walking joke: Jedi Master Kelleran Beq, who ends up being the Jedi to save Grogu during Palpatine’s Jedi purge (though it’s silly how easily they show the Jedis being taken out, something that’s always bugged me about Order 66).

Of course, I think these memories would have worked better if Grogu were still with Luke or had been handed over to Ahsoka. They’re Jedi memories, after all. In fact, the choice to bring Baby Yoda back so soon (and during a different show) is increasingly looking like a mistake. It would have been much more interesting to have him return after a longer absence. At the very least that would have driven some excitement. Had he returned trained up significantly more in the ways of the Jedi, that would have been even better (Chapter 25: Return Of The Child). Maybe in black robes or something. Grogu wearing a ridiculous Mandalorian breastplate and shooting paintballs is such a massive letdown. It basically erases all the buildup of the last two seasons and to what end? Can this show not survive one season without Baby Yoda?

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