Spoilers The Mandalorian season 2 discussion

[137th Gebirg]

Glad to see that I'm not the only one peeved at everything being moved to online. The Amazon videos and music you buy can be taken down at any time. There's actually a lawsuit over this in California.

So even if you pay them full price for a movie or album, Amazon can take it away from you and keep the money.

A lawsuit over this finally! Very nice... I hope this spreads throughout the entire streaming/cloud industry. Usually it takes a few years for people to get pissed off enough at the shenanigans these megacorps like to engage in. Eventually those birds come home to roost if the business model is draconian enough.

 

[Campe]

And people think I'm mad for still having a VHS player.

Mad? Naaah. We all have our different feelings about these things. Do I disagree with your rationale? Absolutely. Does it make it wrong for you? Nope. You do you, bud.

 

[fireproof78]

Mad? Naaah. We all have our different feelings about these things. Do I disagree with your rationale? Absolutely. Does it make it wrong for you? Nope. You do you, bud.

Actually, the only real rationale is that it's cheaper to get the stuff I want to watch

 

[TedShatner10]

And people think I'm mad for still having a VHS player.

I'm more into streaming nowadays, but I've still got a blu ray player and DVD/Blu Ray to fall back on.

 

[fireproof78]

I'm more into streaming nowadays, but I've still got a blu ray player and DVD/Blu Ray to fall back on.

A blue what?

 

[plynch]

Just bought a good boom box with a cassette player. Lots o' homemade cassettes.

 

[fireproof78]

Just bought a good boom box with a cassette player. Lots o' homemade cassettes.

Good way to work out.

 

[Ithekro]

A lot of computers now don't even come with any kind of disc drive. Not even a DVD or Blu-ray player. Windows 10 don't come with the means to playback movies even if you have a player. You have to download something to do that.

 

[dupersuper]

So Operation Cinder gets name dropped (alongside Grand Admiral Thrawn) and we get more insight into how the New Republic, despite winning the wider galaxy, was still in a comparatively weak military state decades later against the First Order and Sith Eternal from their redoubts in the Unknown Territories - I got the impression Operation Cinder (in my head canon) was Darth Sidious attempting to not only spite the galaxy but to also recruit the die hard fanatics loyal to him for a possible new Empire .

But amid galactic scale anarchy with many Rebel factions advancing fast, unruly civilians rising up enmasse, Imperial troops mutinying enmasse, and Imperial warlords like Gideon carving out their fiefdoms (in my head canon), Palpatine's scorched earth plans did not go smoothly.

Some core worlds got BDZed, industries wrecked, much of the Old Republic bureaucracy/infrastructure got ripped out when the Galactic Empire imploded and exploded, and the galactic economy may have been ruined for a century.

It ended up in a the New Republic that was a popular government and nation crippled by a small military, while the First Order was a still relatively massive military without a legitimate government and nation, with the Sith Eternal being the true Sith Empire reborn....

It's not like streaming services have much incentive to release their stuff on video. If you own the shows/movies, why would you keep paying the monthly fee?

 

[TedShatner10]

I enjoyed these two seasons, but the overall formula gets a might repetitive (go into bandit camp/crimelord lair/imperial facility or vessel, shoot it up) and the Stormtroopers in this 2nd season felt even more like cannon fodder than in the previous season and the ST (it was mental how Boba, Mando, Fennec annihilated an entire platoon of Moff Gideon's loyalists - up to EIGHTY INFANTRYMEN - and it was not as if even the humble Stormtrooper grew on trees in this uncertain period after Jakku).

 

[fireproof78]

The training of Gideon's troops is suspect. Might be why he was designing the Dark Troopers.

 

[TedShatner10]

The bulk of Gideon's private army by S2 may have not even been "real" Stormtroopers, but hired criminal thugs and low grade bounty hunters Gideon put into surplus Imperial gear and then tried to drill at short notice - if Fennec, Boba, and Din faced a similar sized landing party of Republic Clonetroopers, they would've more likely lost, no question. If they faced First Order Stormtroopers in a similar situation, they would've held their ground and prevailed, but after a more lengthy fight at a higher cost.

EDIT: Gideon's Dark Troopers were not his special project, but important post-Jakku assets he managed to keep hold of, to shore up his mini-army (alongside his S1 Death Troopers).

 

[fireproof78]

The bulk of Gideon's private army by S2 may have not even been "real" Stormtroopers, but hired criminal thugs and low grade bounty hunters Gideon put into surplus Imperial gear and then tried to drill at short notice - if Fennec, Boba, and Din faced a similar sized landing party of Republic Clonetroopers, they would've more likely lost, no question. If they faced First Order Stormtroopers in a similar situation, they would've held their ground and prevailed, but after a more lengthy fight at a higher cost.

EDIT: Gideon's Dark Troopers were not his special project, but important post-Jakku assets he managed to keep hold of, to shore up his mini-army (alongside his S1 Death Troopers).

I mean, stormtrooper ranks would be incredibly devastated between Endor and Jakku and on going conflict. Time to train is going to be shortened, and the doctrine of overwhelming numbers rather than superior training is going to make the individual trooper less skilled and dependent on a squad. Which, if you watch Boba Fett he is isolating troopers to reduce their effectiveness. Their tactics are adaptive while the stormtroopers relied upon top down leadership.

And, more my point with the Dark Troopers is that such assets would be further invested in by Gideon because of trooper loses.

 

[Kor]

It's not like streaming services have much incentive to release their stuff on video. If you own the shows/movies, why would you keep paying the monthly fee?

When all the good shows were on cable, we still kept our cable subscriptions even after we bought our favorite shows on DVD or blu-ray. Well, many of us, anyway. The only reason I had cable at all was to watch Mad Men. So once the show ended, I immediately canceled with no regrets. It was expensive to have cable just because I liked one show.

Personally, there are certain shows and movies that I want to have on pristine physical media because I like them a lot and I want to enjoy them in the best possible audio-visual presentation, without dealing with the hiccups of streaming, internet outages, the first minute of every show looking like garbage while it buffers, possible losses of licenses, etc.

On the other hand, there are dozens of other shows on the streaming service that I find entertaining enough, and I will gladly watch, but I don't want to own physical copies. And other viewers may buy some of those particular shows on disc, but not buy the shows that I personally like. So it's well worth it to keep paying the $6 a month for the service even after paying $40 or so for a season set of one particular show on blu-ray. If I get The Mandalorian and WandaVision on blu-ray, then the Mouse just got a lot more money out of me than if I only had the streaming service. And besides, I cancel the service between seasons of shows that I enjoy. So they lose the revenue from my subscription during those times.

Kor

 

[Jedi_Master]

I enjoyed these two seasons, but the overall formula gets a might repetitive (go into bandit camp/crimelord lair/imperial facility or vessel, shoot it up) and the Stormtroopers in this 2nd season felt even more like cannon fodder than in the previous season and the ST (it was mental how Boba, Mando, Fennec annihilated an entire platoon of Moff Gideon's loyalists - up to EIGHTY INFANTRYMEN - and it was not as if even the humble Stormtrooper grew on trees in this uncertain period after Jakku).

I appreciate the thought you have put into this, but if you review SW canon, "Troopers" be they clone, storm, or droid, have had wildly varying degrees of effectiveness in combat, and generally exist to set the emotional parameters of battle scenes, be it to imply that peril is increasing, or that salvation is coming, or in some cases that heroic sacrifices are occurring.

 

[Ithekro]

The Clone Troopers did have to get better trained and do better on the battlefield because, unlike the Stormtroopers and their doctrine, the Clones were usually outnumbers by the Droid Armies. That only goes so far though. The Clones and their Jedi Generals and Commanders still tended to do frontal assaults and mass formations to counter the larger Droid formations, and it cost a lot of clones to win some of those battles. It is possible that the older clone armor was superior to the Stormtrooper armor, and the Clones would survive more often than Stormtroopers. Which makes sense...the Clones were a costly, nine year investment. Stormtroopers, while pricy, you can always get more conscripts. First Order Troopers were likely a middle ground, since training children would take longer than the Clone Armies.

 

[fireproof78]

Sorry for the YouTube Spam here but the channel Generation Tech does probably one of the better break downs of different trooper types throughout Star Wars, from Clone (the host's personal favorite) to the Empire and First Order.
10 Reasons Clones were better than Stormtroopers:

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How Troopers compare across each one, starting with their training (first of a five part series):

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[JD]

And people think I'm mad for still having a VHS player.

My only problem with VHSs at this point would be the picture quality. After getting used to DVDs, Blu-Rays, and HD streaming and TV, I don't think I could take the poor picture quality of a VHS.

A lot of computers now don't even come with any kind of disc drive. Not even a DVD or Blu-ray player. Windows 10 don't come with the means to playback movies even if you have a player. You have to download something to do that.

I made the mistake of getting one without a DVD drive, which really sucks because I have the Star Trek comics DVD with literally hundreds of comics on it that I haven't read yet, and now I have no way to read them. I'm probably going to have to get an external drive at some point to get back to work on it.

When all the good shows were on cable, we still kept our cable subscriptions even after we bought our favorite shows on DVD or blu-ray. Well, many of us, anyway. The only reason I had cable at all was to watch Mad Men. So once the show ended, I immediately canceled with no regrets. It was expensive to have cable just because I liked one show.

Personally, there are certain shows and movies that I want to have on pristine physical media because I like them a lot and I want to enjoy them in the best possible audio-visual presentation, without dealing with the hiccups of streaming, internet outages, the first minute of every show looking like garbage while it buffers, possible losses of licenses, etc.

On the other hand, there are dozens of other shows on the streaming service that I find entertaining enough, and I will gladly watch, but I don't want to own physical copies. And other viewers may buy some of those particular shows on disc, but not buy the shows that I personally like. So it's well worth it to keep paying the $6 a month for the service even after paying $40 or so for a season set of one particular show on blu-ray. If I get The Mandalorian and WandaVision on blu-ray, then the Mouse just got a lot more money out of me than if I only had the streaming service. And besides, I cancel the service between seasons of shows that I enjoy. So they lose the revenue from my subscription during those times.

Kor

The main reason I still have cable is because most of the cable channels require you to have a cable subscription with that channel if you want to watch theirs shows on their website.

 

[fireproof78]

My only problem with VHSs at this point would be the picture quality. After getting used to DVDs, Blu-Rays, and HD streaming and TV, I don't think I could take the poor picture quality of a VHS.

Mileage will vary. Picture quality is relatively low on my priority list when it comes to home media. Save for stuttering and artifacts.

 

[JD]

Understandable.