Top 100 Episodes Flashback: #97 | Episode 3,319

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Hey, it's summer vacation time at Star Wars 7 by 7, and in past years we've done flashback episodes in various themed capacities. And this this time. Considering that this is the 10th year of the podcast and we are on a long countdown to the 10th anniversary, I thought it might be fun to look back at the most popular episodes of all time. So over the next year, we're going to count down from 100 to number one as far as the most downloaded episodes of the podcast and we're going to start with our summer vacation here and do the episodes from 100 to 91. We're to going continuing on with number 97. This one is one of the more recent entries on the list. It's episode 2360 from December of 2020. It is the Mandalorian briefing on the rescue, which was the climactic episode from season two. Let's go. Hey, Rebel Rezer, I'm Alan Voivod, and this is Star Wars 7x7, your daily dose of Star wars joy. And thank you so much for joining me for it. So the Rescue is Chapter 16, or if you prefer, Season 2, Episode 8 of the Mandalorian, the final episode of Season 2. And it actually answered more questions than it left behind, which was a bit of a shock. But then again, considering the way season one ended, it did more or less the same kind of thing. It actually wrapped most things up in a nice neat bow and only left a couple of little things going, maybe. I mean, I suppose we could possibly think about other options that still exist. And in case you need the warning, this is a full spoiler briefing. So everything is on the table for this one potentially. So if you haven't watched the episode yet, for pity's sake, just pause this right now, go watch the episode and then come back. All right, now let's just dive into the way things were left at the end of season one of the Mandalorian. The forces of Moff Gideon had been dispatched and the child had been secured. That was it. It was pretty much done. Yes, we knew that Moff Gideon still lived. We knew he had the Darksaber. It left a lot of intriguing possibilities for the following season. And of course, you know, having to take the child on his next quest. Right. So it set up what the next journey would be, but it really kind of, you know, closed the books on the season and let Moff Gideon be an antagonist who would have his next shot. It wasn't really cliffhangery, is basically what I'm saying. And that's more or less where we've been left with the end of season two. So instead of there being cliffhanger, we actually have a resolution for the rescue. We have a resolution for Grogu's storyline, seemingly. We have another resounding defeat of Moff Gideon, and. And that's pretty much covering everything. Right. There's still a few loose ends to deal with. Right. Like the thing I was saying that you could suppose, for example, is, have we really seen the last of Grogu? And I would venture to say that no, we haven't. And there's, of course, the matter of the Darksaber and the fact that Bo Katan has to win it from the Mandalorian in combat. And if you saw Star Wars Rebels, you may remember that Sabine Ren offered the Darksaber to Bo Katan, and Bo Katan accepted it at that point. And so you might have thought to yourself in this particular Mandalorian episode, how is it that Bo Katan can't just accept the Darksaber from the Mandalorian? This doesn't seem to fit with what happened previously, and I think there is a reasonable way around it, because there's still a lot we don't know about the circumstances under which Bo Katan lost the Truth Darksaber. And one way that she could have lost it is in combat. So if that were the case, then the only way she could get the Darksaber again, via Mandalorian code, is to win it back in combat, as in win it back the same way that she lost it. So we knew at the end of season one that Grogu had to be reunited with his kind. We knew that Moff Gideon was still going to be an issue, and we knew that there were Mandalorians out in the galaxy with whom the the Mandalorian would ultimately want to make contact again. And obviously, the introduction of the Darksaber suggested that there would be a future for the fight for Mandalore. Right. And we pretty much have ultimately the same kinds of things set up for the end of season two. We have more about the fate of Grogu, but the definitely likely situation that we're going to hear about Grogu again, we have Moff Gideon, who's been captured. But because of the fact that Giancarlo Esposito, who plays Moff, Gideon has talked talked about the third and the fourth seasons and how things will unfold eventually, it makes sense to believe that he is still going to be a thorn in the side of the Mandalorian and the New Republic, that somehow he is going to get to cause more trouble. And then more about the fight for Mandalore. Obviously, the Mandalorian doesn't want anything to do with winning over the throne of Mandalore, but something's going to come to a head here, and the Mandalorian is going to have to fight Bo Katan or they're going to have to come up with some other way for the Mandalorian to either say, here, I don't want this Darksaber, you can have it and actually make it legitimate, or for the Mandalorian to decide, you know what? I got this thing, I guess I'm going to keep it and I'm going to fight for what it represents. Now, I had been asked on Twitter, along with a few other folks, who I thought the Seven Samurai were going to be that would come to help the Mandalorian, the implication being that this was going to turn out to be sort of a play on the Seven Samurai, if you will. And my response turned out was actually pretty on the nose. But I don't feel like it was really necessarily that difficult. Everybody was kind of lined up already, right between Boba Fett and Fennec and Cara Dune. That was three. And I guessed that the other three coming in would be Bo Katan and Casca and Axe, and then the Mandalorian himself would be the seventh. And if I had to replace any one of them, it would have been with the mystery Jedi. That was alluded to, with the whole thing about bringing Grogu to the Seeing Stone, which happened in Chapter 14 or Season 2, Episode 6, if you prefer. And what do you know, Axe wasn't there, but the seventh person to show up in this fight was in fact a Jedi. And you know, it's really interesting to and I'm going completely sideways on this, the way the episode went, the fact that they picked Luke Skywalker for this, but particularly that they also picked Peyton Reed to be the director of this episode. I find fascinating because Peyton Reed has overseen the Ant man movies, and among the effects that they did in those movies was the de aging of Michael Douglas for movie. So it very much makes sense to me from that previous experience to use Peyton Reed on this episode and have him de age Luke Skywalker, or at least oversee a younger presentation of Mark Hamill from the version who exists today. And I'm pretty sure I've said on the show before when we were talking about the Jedi who remained to show up for Grogu, that he was on the list, but it felt like he was not necessarily the most obvious choice because of the whole Skywalker saga thing. And we'll dig into that separately at least. I just want to admit that I was not on the mark about that one. Alright, so did pretty well with the Seven Samurai, but as far as that mysterious Jedi being Luke, eh, yeah, not so much. And before we talk about the Stinger that happens mid credits, I do want to say that thank you so very much to everybody listening or watching the show who heard me talk over the past few days about trying to hit that modest goal of 500 subscribers on YouTube. And it has happened. In fact, it happened a couple of days ago and I had pre recorded episodes, so I was still saying help me get to 500 even though I'd actually gotten to 501 and have gone past that at this point too. It's a small thing perhaps, but it's also a big milestone and I'm so grateful to you for sharing the show and for subscribing to it as well. Thank you so much for making that goal possible. And now it's on to the next one, which is a thousand. But I did just want to stop and say thank you so much for making that 500 YouTube subscriber goal possible. And as for the Stinger, first of all, I was watching the credits and when I saw Bib Fortuna listed in the credits, I thought to myself, this makes no sense. Why is Bib Fortuna listed in the credits? And I was about to roll back to the scene where Mando and Boba go into the bar and find Bo, Katan and Casca and look around in the back like did they stick him somewhere that I didn't know about? Well, surprise. That's when the mid credits Stinger situation happens and Mando and Fennec come go back to Tatooine and Jabba's palace and kill Bib Fortuna, who has apparently taken over the role of Jabba the Hutt and is the crime lord on Tatooine. And yeah, that was a bit of a surprise to say the least, let alone the announcement of a new series called the Book of Boba Fett, which is slated for December of 2021. And that's fascinating too, because they didn't announce that at the Disney Investor Day, so they were keeping that one in their back pocket waiting for this particular announcement. That is fascinating to me just the way that they make the decisions about how to reveal this stuff. And obviously if they wanted to make it a big surprise, they couldn't say anything at Investor Day, even though everything that was being presented right should have been presented there. You would have thought, thought. But in this particular case, the story and the reveal took precedence over the nice neat Investor Day presentation and I'm very glad for that. And that is where we're going to leave things with the general briefing, but we still have a lot more to talk about and we are going to get to that. We're going to have a moment tomorrow though, that's going to be a little bit different, a little bit related, but a little bit lower key, you know. And yeah, we'll get to that tomorrow. But a successful season finale and causing a lot of talk on social media channels. Very exciting stuff. And yeah, we've got a lot to talk about to keep us warm until we get to Mando Season 3. But for now that is going to do it for this episode of the show. It just remains for me to say thank you so much for joining me for it, as always, and may the Force be with you wherever in the world you may be.

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