The Mandalorian and Grogu, More Apocalypstick, and The Life I Lead

THE MANDALORIAN AND GROGU

Okay, so I was a Star Wars kid. I liked both Star Trek, and Star Wars, but honestly, Star Wars was more exciting. Trek was a soap opera and kind of procedural to me. Star Wars was adventure. It was unpredictable, and it felt like the world had so many corners that were just teeming with stories.

Being a child of the 80s, I obviously grew up with the original trilogy. When someone says Star Wars, more often than not, I think of the 1977 Star Wars. Without context, that's my default Star Wars.

Now, 40 something years later, Star Wars is this massive undulating blob of lore and stories and characters and movies and TV shows and video games and books. All of these complex, overlapping threads that make up the tapestry of Star Wars. It's far more than I've been able to keep track of. I've seen the movies. I can say that much. I've seen all the movies. I didn't really watch all the shows though.

I did watch The Mandalorian, and enjoyed that quite a lot. It treated Star Wars like a western, and it got back to the kind of episodic, old timey serial style filmmaking that made the original trilogy so great.

This movie was that. It was exactly what it claimed to be, which was a movie version of the TV show. That's what they set out to make, and it's what we got. Anyone complaining about that needs to reconsider their choices. If a movie says "Hey, this is the movie of a TV show" and you go to it and then complain "It was just the TV show!" then you need to rethink your life.

But listen, it has practical puppets. SO MANY PUPPETS. There's this little group of mechanic guys that Grogu (I've decided to stop dead naming Grogu) runs around with sometimes, and they're all little puppet guys! They're the best! Those little guys are worth the price of admission. I'm serious. Weird little puppets. That's what I want from Star Wars.

Then there's Sigourney Weaver, making her debut in a Star Wars movie. If you don't know, and of course you know, Sigourney Weaver is science fiction royalty. Her appearance in a Star Wars movie felt like some legitimacy that frankly, Star Wars kind of needs. It's gone off the rails a bit, as far as I can tell, and I think adding someone with genre gravatas like Sigourney Weaver really made it feel like a good addition to the Star Wars canon.

Was it perfect? Nah. But Star Wars rarely is perfect. Return of the Jedi is ridiculous in parts. If I had to nitpick, I'd say Jeremy Allen White was a very odd casting choice for a Hut character. That was weird. Cast someone with an interesting face like Jeremy and then make him a giant slug with abs? That was goofy as shit.

It's a little long. There was a point when I thought the movie was almost over, but then it had another like, half hour. That wasn't a bad thing, but the pacing was a little odd at times. Plus I had to pee pretty bad so I was eager to get out of there by the end of it.

I will tell you this: If you like little green goblin things that look precious always, then you're in for a treat, because this movie is heavy on Grogu content. It's really all Grogu all the time. That was no problem for me, my friends, because I love Grogu. I'll watch him all day.

So basically, the people complaining that The Mandalorian and Grogu is just The Mandalorian and Grogu instead of being something other than what it said it was, they're right. It is that. It's a big budget, spectacle version of The Mandalorian. If that sounds like something you'd be into, then enjoy! If not, then don't watch it and don't cry about it on the internet. You friggin nerds. Not you. Just the other ones that are being nerds.

One last thing about that:

No offence to Dave Filoni, but I didn't need to see his goofy face popping up from time to time out of nowhere. Pulled me right out of the movie.

GUT FEELING, UNCONTROLLABLE URGE, AND FREEDOM OF CHOICE

So I've been writing this... I guess it's erotica, but I don't think it actually is. I think it might be romance, but I don't read romance regularly, so I don't know that i can call it that, considering that I'm not particularly familiar with the genre.

That said, the more I'm writing it, the more it's just feeling like regular fiction with some particularly sexy scenes. So I dunno. I'm not sure where to put it.

I'm working with an editor right now, who is currently helping me make sense of the first book. It's an interesting process, and I'm glad to be doing it.

It's far more about being neurodiverse and having ADHD and OCD than it is about being in a sexy relationship. That's the story, but what it's about is living with these conditions. I think that does kind of change the dynamic a bit.

Anyway, I'm about halfway through book three and book one hasn't even come out yet. I'm looking forward to finishing the series. That's going to feel nice.

Alright fam, that's about all I've got for now. Tomorrow I go see The Passenger and then this weekend is Backrooms. FUN TIMES!