Happy New Year! Welcome 2020! Don’t let the door hit you in the ass on the way out, 2019.

I did not think I was going to like the Mandalorian.  Given the fanboy worship of the character of Boba Fett over the past few decades, my hopes were not high for this show.

Yes, I know this isn’t Boba Fett.

I have been very pleasantly surprised by this show.

A. I love spaghetti westerns, and this is a spaghetti western through and through.

B. BABY YODA! Yes, I know he isn’t THE Yoda.  But someone did the research and the only  species name we have for them is Yoda.  So he is A Baby Yoda.

C.  NO FRIDGING!!!!!!!!

Or at least not yet. Seriously, there was one moment in the second or third episode where all I could think was, “This is it.  This is where they kill a woman for man-pain.”  And they DIDN’T!  I was shocked!!!!

D. The leader of the Mandalorian group he belongs to is a woman.

E.  It’s basically Lone Wolf and Cub in space.

F. He very obviously views women as equals and takes them seriously.

Pedro Pascal does a fantastic job of emoting through a voice filter and by gesture and body language.  He really is very good at it.  And the puppeteering of Baby Yoda is fucking fantastic.  Man, this is a far cry from the beloved Muppets of my childhood.  Also, the fight scene he interrupts by sipping some broth… Awesome.

It’s great that the Mandalorian isn’t amazing at everything.  He’s very good at what he’s very good at, but there are also things he doesn’t know because he doesn’t know them.  He hasn’t needed them.  And he has to learn them, and look like a schmuck doing it just like everyone else.  He makes mistakes, he has blindspots.  But he is also super determined and focused, and is capable of adapting the skills he does have to make up for a lot of what he lacks.

I’m just really enjoying it.

Highly recommend.

And you know, even if/when women die, I feel fairly confident it will be an outgrowth of the story, and not, “Well, we need a reason for him to be sad…”

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Also, if you’d like to see what sort of fiction I write when left to my own devices, please feel free to check out my fiction Patreon, Nothing Nice Comes Out of My Head.