It started with The Mandalorian Season 2, episode 15, when the Mandalorian removed his helmet and had his face scanned.
In a CBR article it says the possibility of why Din Djarin’s facial scan through, however unlikely was because he harbors a secret.
There’s one last possibility, however unlikely it is, that must be considered. Perhaps the Empire’s database is secure, and somehow Din actually has a security clearance. This would go against everything we think we know about him, but perhaps he wasn’t always the devout Mandalorian he is now and had some sort of past involvement with the Empire. Maybe the Children of the Watch has something like a Rumspringa, where young adults can temporarily leave the traditional way of life, and Din spent time as a Stormtrooper? That would certainly be a major twist.
In the Book of Boba Fett, season 1 or The Mandalorian Season 2.5, Din Djarin learns to wield the Darksaber. But the Darksaber is heavy for him. The Armorer says he is fighting against the blade. Djarin has a mind block from using the Darksaber and he is not sure why.
In The Mandalorian Season 3, episode 18, Din Djarin was trapped by a large spider monster droid in his trap. Bo-Katan came to save him she was readily able to use the Darksaber to fight an defeat the droid. She does not have a mind block to fight with the Darksaber successfully, although she was given the saber from Sabine Wren who won it in ritual combat.
So why can’t Din Djarin wield the Darksaber like Bo-Katan? Why is it too heavy? He has a mind block. What is blocking his mind?
The theory here is: Din Djarin has a mind block that causes him to fight against the blade because he was in the Empire as some low level enforcer. He was a Mandalorian that favored the Empire over the Rebels.
And when the Empire collapsed, they mind wiped him with a mind flayer similar to Dr. Penn Pershing in The Mandalorian Season 3, Episode 19.
We hypothesize that once the Empire failed, Din found himself lost wandering in Mandalorian armor that he barely recognized as his, and was picked up by the Children of the Watch who rehabilitated former Imperial Mandalorians. There were strict rules to walk the way of the Mandalore. To make money, he became a bounty hunter and could make short order to finding his bounties.
However the mind flayer is not 100% wiping. Snippets of memories re-occur. We have not seen them yet. But he did something nasty that he will have to atone for and we might see it in the Mandalorian Season 3.
Whatever Din Djarin did or did not do, can he still be Mandalore or Mand’alor of the Mandalorians? The king of Mandalore.
Now, if you don’t believe us, fine. Move on. If you don’t understand, please ask questions. But if you agree, let’s get to know one another.
The lightsaber forms of Star Wars align with the 7 principles or Nguzo Saba of the first fruits harvest of Kwanzaa. How cool is that? To become a Jedi and use a lightsaber, one could follow the 7 principles of:
Umoja – Day 1 – means Unity of family, legacy and tradition
Kujichagulia – Day 2 – means Self-Determination – manifesting one’s own destiny
Ujima – Day 3 – means Collective Work and Responsibility or service to the community
Ujaama – Day 4 – means Cooperative Economics or industriousness with innovation
Nia – Day 5 – means Purpose or finding a reason to defend one’s family, legacy and tradition
Kuumba – Day 6 – means Creativity or balancing responsibilities with creating something new
Imani – Day 7 – means Faith or finding meaning in all what one is doing.
Each of word = 1 day starting on December 26th, 2022 and ends on January 1st, 2023 = each day has a different meaning like each lightsaber form for combat are different and bring you closer to The Force. Kwanzaa is to bring you closer to your family, legacy, and traditions.
The lightsaber forms are:
Shii-Cho – Form I – the initiate form to lightsaber combat
Makashi – Form II – The Way of the Ysalamiri or the contention form
Soresu – Form III – The Way of the Mynock or the resilience form
Ataru – Form IV – The Way of the Hawk-Bat or the aggression form
Shein and Djem So – Form V – The Way of the Krayt Dragon or the offensive form against Form III
Niman – Form VI – The Way of the Rancor or the moderation form.
Juyo/Vaapad – Form VII – The Way of the Vornskr or the ferocity form.
The two ideas are related in how a Jedi would approach with no emotion only The Force.
This article states that Disney’s purchase of Star Wars seemed like…a lost droid in the desert.
But with Andor…it is the most engrossing show in the Franchise this year, if not in many years.
This article tells what makes a show a good one out of the many reasons:
The characters are nuanced. They are not the lead characters from previous movies or shows.
Messages of large issues without being overwhelming.
The settings should be planet-side or floored surfaces.
Plots should be character-based and their neuroses but not of lead characters
The audiences enjoy Star Wars stories based on the characters and they do not have to marquee characters outside of cameos and mentions.
Writers and director should write and direct characters that gnaw out the story and plots. How much are characters ready to give-up to the story’s main problem. Will they be a goody-two-shoes guy, or will they be a flawed baddie? A fantasizing princess Mary Sue/Gary Stu type character is not believable for current Star Wars audiences.
All of this above is because the writers and directors do not need to be mega-Star Wars fans, but they should know some key concepts and work with the archival team, such as Pablo Hidalgo. Being wholly invested in total canon. It frees up the creators to write a story that is wholesome to Star Wars.
High technology is unnecessary for Star Wars stories to be told. Practical effects work to tell stories and have always been done.
What does this all mean for intepretation?
The use of any character in Star Wars depends on the story’s wish to be told. Sometimes that includes lead characters; occasionally, secondary characters are pushed to leads. And sometimes new characters. But whatever it is, known lead characters should be either cryptically referred to or name-dropped in passing to avoid confusion from fans. Professional writers know how to tell a story that weaves the more famous characters within the dialogue or filming of the show/movie. It is not that hard for them. An entirely new show/movie has to include more famous characters by reference or name-drop.
Messaging about current events is a matter of audience relatability to the story being told. If that is about rising fascism, how can the story be Star Wars-dized? Does production re-vamp new world-building exercises to say to a Star Wars-dized tale of a current event? For example, new, never-seen-before villains invade the galaxy invoking their beliefs. Or go with the devil, such as the evil empire. Both require world-build, but one needs a new exposition, and the other is easier to build for fans. However, the more effortless exposition caters to fans’ whims, making it fan service.
Star Wars created the movie to start as an aerial battle. However, once in the grit of the story, there are flat surfaces. The camera angles show these surfaces in wide, angled, or close-up shots. Images from Star Wars A New Hope cannot be compared with other pictures because the stories are different, historically and realistically. In 1975-1976 Lucasfilm created the technology used today with artistry. And that is why one goes to film school to become a director to tell their story with camera shots. Usually, textbook examples of these storyboard shots are done to convey the story best and connect with the audience. It is what they are doing in Andor. Strange movements or boring wide theater-only shots disconnect the audience, which was evident in the Sequels. Camera angles relied heavily on special effects rather than telling the story with a classic mechanism of how a movie is made. The Reylo interrogation scene in The Force Awakens is an example. Another example is the Reylo scene where Rey tells Kylo Ren about the future in the elevator when he desires to kiss her in The Last Jedi. Both examples are mainly wide shots, not as close as they could have been to convey the meaning of Force Dyad and possible lovers.
As stated before, using lead versus secondary versus totally new characters depends on the Star Wars story. But the characters’ flaws and internal conflicts must be shown to the audience. Either by dialogue or facial gestures, which makes it rest on the actors. The difference between the Original Trilogy, Prequels, and Sequels is that the actors had a free range of emotion in the Original Trilogy. Then due to time to the following stories, emotional expression was lost. Acting is different from 1977 compared to today. Thus, actors are told to share an emotion as described than permitted long ago. It is not due to the quality of actors because the Prequel and Sequel actors are superb in their skills. But they appeared to be restricted based on what had been told them in the script. In my opinion, to get the grit we see in Andor, actors must be allowed to show off their skills and be told to review Star Wars literature to gain a better appreciation of what is performed — basically, the actors should be fans of all of Star Wars.
The lesser characters should know what well-known characters say in the story’s context. In The Force Awakens, Rey said “Darth Vader” after she thought Luke Skywalker was a myth, as if the entire story is mythical. Rey states Vader as if she knew him to Kylo Ren, who personally knows Vader because he is his grandfather. While the scene is interesting, the awkward dialogue with a marquee character name-drop happens after the mythological comment. What should be done in the script storyboard and dialogue maintenance? And careful overview with archival follow-up before filming. Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni seem to check the flow of their scripts and have an outline before production. Any filming changes are necessary.
Well-developed characters with both endowed strengths and weaknesses. The flaws of the characters and the compassion of all characters seem to be what audiences want to see. How characters become their greatest selves and overcome, their flaws are a part of the story. Heroes succeed in the good, and villains fail in the bad. The conflict in Star Wars is good and evil. The alignment is based on the characters and their machinations in the story. Andor shows more weaknesses in their hero characters to show how impossible the fight is against fascism and how the heroes overcome the minuscule chance of defending democracy. In short, the characters should be well-developed.
The writers and directors do not have to be Star Wars fanboys for a good Star Wars movie or TV show. They must be highly trained with quality movies that align with the Star Wars story. If Disney Lucasfilm wants “new blood” to write their own stories, those stories should undergo a Star Wars-dization process. Even the new blood has a Star Wars learning curve to fit the Franchise. Whether that is further action by Disney Lucasfilm is unknown, but the book must rely on more than Wookieepedia for that information because sometimes, they are wrong. While Pablo Hidalgo is a great resource, it is better to be familiar with primary sources, such as authors or other notes that might not be public knowledge that Wookieepedia missed. As an intro to Star Wars 101 review, Wookieepedia is good, but a true encyclopedia is not. They are selective in the fullness of the information. The Legends characters and stories of the Yuuzhan Vong are an example. The writers of Wookieepedia hate these characters and stories. Thus, well-developed characters and stories are skewed into whole negativity that hurts production if Wookieepedia is used as a sole source. When writing Star Wars stories for a show, one must consider a comprehensive literature review with short personal author interviews.
While Star Wars has been known for new high technology in their stories for movies and TV shows, Andor has used practical effects to tell their stories than this technology. When showing aspects of battle, then yes, high-tech prison VFX should be used. But in the prison, interrogation audience relatability. These must be weighed according to the story. A story against fascism and torture can use practical effects. A story about a navy must use VFX to tell the story. In the end, all of the use of technology effects depend on the story.
In the TL;DR – What makes a “good” Star Wars story is well-developed characters with strengths and flaws. These are depended on the writers and producers that do not necessarily have to be Star Wars fanboys, but not only use a known wrong sole source as comprehensive information of the Franchise. The actors should be fanboys and have read the Star Wars story. Lastly, while practical effects seem to resonate with audiences, the use of VFX depends on the story being told.
Listen to our podcast on this subject at this blog post
We are talking about Legends TV shows vs. Current Canon TV shows in a matter of story hype, not necessarily content. But is it “your kind” Star Wars story? Based on this article: ‘Andor’ Is What Star Wars Was Meant to Be | WIRED
Key tenets to the article were:
Star Wars…feels like…a droid lost in the desert = the shows are hit and miss interesting after a ruckus moviegoing experience.
…A Star Wars enterprise has earned its audience’s investment in its characters rather than borrowing it from their bank of nostalgia for familiar names and faces = name drops without building character grittiness.
[Tony] Gilroy’s gift then, may be that he’s not a Star Wars fanboy…[has a steep] learning curve…[but]…freed to develop new kinds of Star Wars stories by not being doggedly devoted to the canon = the old adage of “fresh pair of new eyes” >>> long-time fans.
Andor went on location and built real ones. The show’s authenticity and realness starts there = the use of exposition and setting strengthened connection to each character and story.
DO NOT HARASS THE PODCAST ORIGINAL POSTER!!! They brought this incident to our attention. But what Star Wars fans are doing is inappropriate. It is not about story, it’s not about Disney, it’s is plain racist hatred against Black Women we fundamentally by definition oppose. These kinds of fans are misogynoirists. They HATE BLACK WOMEN!
Below is an example:
Imagine if your fear of black women and little girls made you hate Star Wars.
Any Star Wars Fan that project racist hatred against Black women in particular deserve to be made into non-fungible token art at 1 ETH or direct payment of $500 through paypal.
Disney Lucasfilm Star Wars does not support roleplayers (RPers) on social media.
Those who roleplay for Star Wars are left to fend for themselves. Forget that most social media RPers are cosplayers, and Disney Lucasfilm Star Wars enjoys cosplayers presence at their conventions, such as Star Wars Celebration. Without cosplayers, their conventions would be bogus.
So why not social media roleplayers?
It has been explained to Disney Lucasfilm Star Wars as precisely what RPers are. And what they see is toxic fandom infighting. Disney Lucasfilm Star Wars wants no part of that.
There is a schism between Legends and Current Canons of Star Wars content, and the infighting makes it worse. And now, the toxicity has become personal. Some in the fandom use racism to justify their dislike Star Wars content simply because prominent corporate (liberal) media make it.
The Star Wars Actors Guild 77 has written letters to Disney Lucasfilm Star Wars to legitimize the RP space on social media. In some ways, they gave a tiny bit of leeway until new employees who were clueless about social media RP started to hate roleplayers actively. They misconstrued social media roleplay as a bastardized form of tabletop roleplaying games (TTRPGs). While social media roleplay uses a few similar terms in TTRPGs, the medium in high-format social media (Facebook, Twitter, etc.) is structurally different from written rules and dice-type roleplay.
SWAG77 has explained this difference.
The thought by many users on social media is that RPers, especially independent ones, are only toxic fans who know nothing about Star Wars and that they create original characters (OCs) that are overpowered and perform god moderation (godmod) to fit story arcs in fan-fiction suggest a massive misnomer in what actual RPers are doing — which is NOT THAT!
Because there is no support from professional groups, new fans get involved in social media roleplay that have no idea that there is a way to RP that is a fun part of Star Wars fandom, expands knowledge of the Star Wars content, and is participatory. But that requires education not to be overpowered, godmod, metagame, and puppeteer. It requires a lot of writing, resources, literature review, and willingness to perform.
SWAG77 does that exactly.
What we see after years of watching roleplay on social media is that most GOOD RPers try to limit breaking the rules of social media RP in several ways: They are open to RP practice or rehearsal by taking their characters on a “test drive” — a response to dynamic real-life Star Wars content that is in the character’s voice that is created. To do this requires reading several books, both Legends and Current Canon books. Many roleplayers write their character development to support other aspects of their fandom, such as cosplay, podcasts, and fanfiction.
SWAG77 practices and rehearses RP. We read and write formal scripts than behind-the-scenes private messaging plotting. After our performances, we compose the fanfiction result.
The problem with fanfiction is that while Disney Lucasfilm Star Wars can look at fan art, they officially refuse to review fanfiction. SWAG77 understands this, and we have created other ways to participate in the test drives. The risk is turning toxic when fans do not know or understand when the account is a roleplayer account. It happens because roleplayers have no support from Disney Lucasfilm Star Wars. Moreover, not many fans realize what social media roleplay exactly, since there are many opinions on the subject.
SWAG77 has tried and failed to put some minimum standards on social media roleplay, which is why we are a GUILD. At a minimum, what is required for a fan to do social media roleplay, such as having a bare minimum character sheet, rules, and how the muse will be played. Most of our suggestions have come from long-established social media RPers who are not part of our Guild. Other proposals have occurred by meta-studies on several small closed social media sites with strict rules. Rules are created to protect all RPers. It is the minimum and not the only way. No one plays football without understanding how to play and the rules. Social media roleplay is the same way. Doing whatever one wants hurts people and looks like toxicity to corporations. Even for portrayal RP accounts (test drive practice).
While most casual fans know who the canon-based characters are and can see them in RPs, SWAG77 roleplayers use robust, accurate, and authentic studies of the characters, similar to the cosplayer. However, our RP platform is social media. We do it as a form of entertainment. And because we impose rules as a Guild, we have lost many fans because they do not understand our process, which requires marketing strategies for product launches.
We do not say one of our accounts will be a lead character, and fans should accept us. We organize a professional market strategy to launch a character properly. We do it because fans enjoy interacting with the character in a particular manner. There MUST be several actions, such as profile pictures, character backstory, and a RPer who understand the class and type of the character that will be RPed. If that is NOT done, corporations only see what we do as toxic.
When a company like Disney Lucasfilm Star Wars puts out a new show with new characters, the RPers are the ones who encourage fans to enjoy the show and the characters. SWAG77 has tested this concept several times, and fans respond as they are encouraged and challenged to read official content.
While podcasts and other forms of video media are great and expands the messaging to the fandom, some podcasts and video media promotes disinformation to fans who do not understand if Star Wars content is true or not. Some fans do not realize that it is other fans sharing opinions and not established Star Wars content. Many Star Wars fans want the latest scoop the share with others and to fill in their gaps with their imaginations. That is fine, but when there is disinformation, it causes toxicity.
The underlying and fundamental basis of social media RP rests on a well-rounded knowledge and extensive review of the literature. If a RPers wants to perform accurately and authentically, then our method educates and is extensive. Most fans do not want to do that because it is too much time. We understand. We empathize with fans schedules and abilities.
However, as a GUILD under business license, we cannot successfully launch a product that has not been prepared with our minimum standards. And we cannot educate fans who are not willing or committed to our endeavors. As a business, we cannot do it. Our selling point is how we organized targeted information for performance. That is why SWAG77 discourages fans we discover as unprepared for what we professionally do. Moreover, we have to limit our age groups. It is not about skill. It is about our business safety. Interactions with underage children requires parental consent. We are not developed enough legally to manage that.
We use social media marketing tactics to tell our fan stories on social media. Tactics include several social media accounts with images, backstories, interactives, questions and answers, frequently asked questions, etc. Then, we get into our Star Wars lore with references and selling books from several commercial sources. And our team is tiny and volunteers. At any moment, our selected social media platforms can suspend us over the most insignificant posts from several years ago. Our commercial sources can remove us from our ability to promote books. We deal with a lot of individuals who report us.
We have many social media accounts for several years to relay our perspective on the Star Wars content in order to present the best on social media. WE ARE PERFORMING CHARACTERS. That requires a different kind of preparation for the latest show, And a discussion account is not the same as a active performing character RP account. WE ARE AS IF WE ARE THE CHARACTER RESPONDING TO OUR ACTIONS WITHIN THE SHOW ALL BASED ON STUDIES FROM THE LITERATURE!
We do not get exclusives from Disney Lucasfilm Star Wars. Therefore, since the owner is a trained scientist who has written scientific research grants to submit to the United States Health Services National Institutes of Health, we hypothesize what story and plot will be pursued and to do that requires a lot of reading and review of the literature.
The Star Wars Actors Guild 77 is Star Wars Graduate School for fans. Some of our supporters are Literature Professors. We have people with doctorates who advised us on how to create our methods. What we do not have are lawyers.
SWAG77 also uses other corporate business people to assist us with our marketing endeavors. But they are not Disney Lucasfilm Star Wars employees. Much less are they associated with the entertainment industry.
That is SWAG77’s goal. It is NOT perfect. But it is our goal.
Moreover, when fans become toxic who lack our system of organization, fandom becomes destructive and it focuses on marginalized communities, such as race, ethnicity, sexual preference and gender identities, the mentally and ability challenged, and sexism.
Disney Lucasfilm Star Wars is neutered to do anything and RPers as well as several fans and fan groups are suffering.
Here’s where we, the RPers of SWAG77 can make a difference:
Because we highly develop our character accounts, we can stop toxic fans and minimize the destructive behavior seen in fandom solely by being in character.
But Disney Lucasfilm Star Wars will have to support us. Otherwise it is a wasted effort.
So why is a Paramount CBS Program RPer for Star Trek is stepping in to protect the latest character from the Obi-Wan Kenobi show, Inquisitor Reva Sevander played by Ms. Moses Ingram against racist attacks?
SWAG77 RPers could have easily step in and shut down fandom hate. We would have used collective redirects toward reading the literature because we extensively studied it.
That’s right, Disney Lucasfilm Star Wars sees RPers are useless, and fans are convinced to ridicule us in this fandom. We get no support. Yet when our accounts step in, the toxicity stops.
Most fanfic writers create original characters that do not fit a Writer’s Guild Of America west writer and creative groups character design or story arc. Many fans do not incorporate aspects to pursue a logical story with plot design if a canon character is used. But a PERFORMED ROLEPLAY IN PUBLIC can be “observed” without comment by official Disney Lucasfilm Star Wars employees and actors. And there are caveats that SWAG77 is unable to discuss here.
Which character is a good fight back? Darth Vader, of course, when he is in full character. But by SWAG77’s experience after 13 years, we have found it more compelling that an unexpected character class is more effective than a most famous character. Emperor Palpatine would work. But other characters from Legends work well, such as the Yuuzhan Vong.
RPers KNOW their Star Wars material and good RPers will not overpower, godmod, metagame, or puppeteer. The minute we saw the attack on Reva Sevander, we could have been out there mitigating its effects, expanding the knowledge to fans so that gatekeeping is limited in fandom. We do not justify by discussion of the debate, we use direct quotes from Star Wars literature that involves the story, themes, conflict, plots and support characters.
Why does this work? Because SWAG77 introduces a paradox in the minds of the attackers. We show how the story of Star Wars is written and performed. We do this by rehearsal and practice. It takes a few comedic gimmicks and running gags with that are a part of our marketing plan. We disarm toxic fans. It is not harmful because most fans respond with “I never thought of that perspective before” comments.
The only reason why it will not work is when there are businesses that have been told to attack content.
SWAG77 does not think that the toxic fans who use racism are lone wolves that successfully perpetuate this heinous behavior toward Reva Sevander. We believe it is an organized attack to demolish the Star Wars franchise. The attack was planned because we have seen these actions before with Star Wars and other franchises.
But without support, SWAG77 stands isolated as a well-organized project.
Today, Legos advertised their products at Star Wars Celebration at a panel. We at SWAG77 are happy for Disney Lucasfilm Star Wars. It is a fun concept. And while there are shifts in their ad campaign, SWAG77, a little guy fan group, started a similar campaign in 2020. We created T-shirts, merch, fanfic stories, headcanon, and non-fungible tokens (NFTs) for a parody campaign for Grand Admiral Thrawn. We conceived the idea and organized the artwork for optimal presentation. For a small operation to function as a fan group, we monetize the activities that we feel would not infringe on any copyrights of intellectual property by fair use parody.
The character Thrawn is classified as a villain who would NEVER consider a beach for fun times during the summer. So we find it comedic that we would put a surfboard into Thrawn’s hands, and he learns how to surf as his “Zen” for stress relief.
We know Disney Lucasfilm Star Wars has iron-clad IP copyright rules and found ideas. That is why we did not seek to request permission to do what we did as a fan group. We would rather ask forgiveness on this issue.
But it is cheaper to circumvent our idea as well as other fans ideas and do it better than us with their powerful and huge resources. And we must say, the Legos campaign is done well. Better than any small guy side group barely managing to make it into black.
But our problem is the takedown notices to our 3rd party on demand providers, threats to servers holding our art and absolutely ZERO SMALL TOKEN OF APPRECIATIVE ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ON SOCIAL MEDIA of what we did. At least use our initials. Would that be asking too much?
Star Wars fans and some workers have accused SWAG77 not attributing Fan Artists and ideas. As if we did not have a brain trust first and considered thinking of our proprietary ideas first. Hence, the merch monetization, the paywalls to access to our ideas, and now NFT minting. We are NOT competing and yes, based on law, we could be misconstrued that we are violating IP copyright. We are uninterested in fight back with lawyers for rightful claims because we recognize that is an uphill battle.
But Star Wars would be nothing without the creativity of all fans and if Disney Lucasfilm is going to skim ideas from the fans, then at least a group initialing acknowledgement at one siting would be nice. It can even be fine printed, but at least at minimum something otherwise, toxic fans who harass us over ideas tease us.
Since, I as the owner am in my 50s, the harassment is irrelevant to me. But what if this was a teen to 20-something that works very hard with a dream to be shot down by big corporation skimming ideas from them? For a fandom they love and devoted themselves to doing. It hurts.
So this is a plea. SOME minimal recognition and acknowledgement.
Here is the Disney Lucasfilm Star Wars Legos campaign:
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