I thought I’d bust out a new post for the weekend. It’s an excuse to talk about the latest Mandalorian episode since I won’t be reviewing them officially anymore.
Here’s the good news. This episode, directed by Ant-Man’s Peyton Reed (and written by Favreau), was MUCH BETTER than the premiere. It’s relevant to what I talked about in yesterday’s article in that nothing goes according to plan. Mando has to escort this fish creature and her eggs to another planet… but they’re not allowed to travel light speed because the eggs will explode. This leaves them open to attack. Two X-wings (unexpected cause X-wings are good guys) want to confirm their beacon signal. Mando is forced to flee. Get to an ice planet, crash. One scene after they crash, the ice cracks and they fall into the depths of the icy planet. Nothing was going according to plan.
When you do this, it becomes harder and harder for the reader to gauge how they’re going to get out of this. Which is EXACTLY where you want the reader to be. Most writers create minor problems for their heroes where it doesn’t take any thought to figure out how they’re going to escape. This episode genuinely had me thinking, “Hmmm, I don’t see how they’re going to get out of this.”
Another thing I picked up from this episode is to mix up the episode (or movie) goal. The problem with last week’s goal (kill a monster that’s terrorizing a town) is that it was tired and overused. Another often-used goal is to find something (the Ark of the Covenant) or someone. Keep in mind that there are other goal types available to you and today’s Mandalorian episode proves that. The goal of this episode was to escort important cargo from Point A to Point B.
Don’t get predictable. Always look to add variety to your plots.
There is now news coming out that there’s a Boba Fett spin-off series in the works. Sounds cool although I don’t know how they would make that different from Mando. One thing I know is that this series is in desperate need of a villain. Their current ultra-villain, Breaking Bad Guy, is both non-existent and uninteresting. It’d be cool if they set up Boba to be Mando’s nemesis. Always flying around the same circles but never quite meeting. Then finally they have to face each other. I’d sign up for that!
