Oh boy. Chapter 5 – “The Gunslinger.” I’m not exactly sure who the gunslinger is in this episode because no guns were really ever slung.

First, I’ve given up hope that they’ll do the right thing and ever use she/her pronouns for Yoddle. 

Second, this episode was what I expected The Mandalorian to be before seeing the first episode. It had too much fanservice, stereotyped and misused women, and featured the annoying hotshot who too accurately resembles men in big tech that are given six-figure salaries directly out of undergrad. 

Maybe I’m being harsh, but the previous three episodes of this series gave me a lot of hope and now I’m disappointed.

A Disclaimer

Anyone who has listened to the current Star Wars podcast I’m on, Rogue Podron, knows that I do not hold Dave Filoni in high regard when it comes to Star Wars storytelling. I was already expecting this episode to be not necessarily a personal favorite of mine because it was his. Mostly, I was very worried this was going to be an episode about some weird random Force thing (which Filoni is well known for). It wasn’t, thank the maker, but the issue I have with this episode is big enough to eclipse most of the joy I found in it.

Things I Loved

Yoddle hanging out with Peli Motto (Amy Sedaris cosplaying as Ripley from Alien). Yoddle gets fed meat, held tenderly, and is overall very well taken care of by Peli while Mando is out trying to earn money. Plus, we get to see Yoddle’s teeth when he smiles! 

I Was Proud of Mando When

He treated the Tuskin Raiders as equals. He respected their land and communicated with them in a way they understood. Outside of the short story “Reirin,” the Tusken Raider chapter in From a Certain Point of View, Tusken Raiders have been seen as savages who aren’t as good as the colonizers who have come to Tatooine. 

Things I Could Do With Less of

Tatooine. Dear lord, please stop using Tatooine. I get that desert planets are going to be a majority of the worlds that can sustain carbon-based life forms, but WHY did we have to go back to Tatooine? That could’ve been any other desert planet. There was nothing about the story itself that demanded it take place on Tatooine. So far, The Mandalorian has made the galaxy feel bigger; it needs to continue doing that.

Most Relatable Moment

When Yoddle slowly waddles down the ramp of the Razor’s Crest looking very grumpy because he was having a good nap but woke up and suddenly was locked in a closet and dad was gone! Yes, this feeling is extremely relatable.

I Want to Know Why

Mando hates droids. He tolerated IG-11 and only destroyed it when it was going to kill their target. He allowed a droid to ferry him back and forth from Omera’s village to the Razor’s Crest. In this episode, he won’t let the pit droids help repair his ship even though it’ll be so much faster and easier. Tell us your secrets!

Some Serious Talk

Unfortunately, this episode came out soon after Star Wars fans were dealt a major blow when it comes to representation. It was confirmed that Poe Dameron and Finn are not a romantic couple in The Rise of Skywalker. Regardless of what you think of the specific pairing, you cannot deny the meaningful impact it would have to not only have two queer men of color but also have them be main protagonists in a story as universal as Star Wars. 

“How does this relate to The Mandalorian?” you may ask. It’s because nothing happens in a vacuum. The handling of LGBTQ+ representation affects how we see the representation of other groups who are routinely discriminated against in real life and in the media we consume.  While some people may take offense to statements like “Disney/Lucasfilm/director/writer only cares about straight white men,” the evidence continuously points to underrepresented groups being treated like they are less than.  

The Mandalorian cast the extremely popular and talented Ming-Na Wen as the assassin Fennec Shand. Shand only appears for the middle of the episode and is then killed by the extremely unlikable Toro Calican. Although Calican is killed by Mando at the end of the episode, it doesn’t erase the fact that Ming-Na Wen, an Asian woman, was only in this show (and then killed) to act as a plot twist between two men.

There were enjoyable elements (again, it was very much an episode that felt like a long-running syndicated sci-fi TV show), but this one aspect taints the entire episode. I can’t in good conscious say this was a good or fine episode because of the way it used Shand. Representation is more important than a TV episode being fun.