The Mandalorian seems to play well for some. That "some" seems to like the prequels and hates THE LAST JEDI. Even if they know that THE RISE OF SKYWALKER is infinitely worse, they fucking hate THE LAST JEDI so they will beat up on it using Mando as a gotcha. I had to stop watching it because I didn't see a point in hatewatching nostalgia nothings. And that's what it is. But you know, if you enjoy it, go for it. I'm tired. There's a pandemic.
But I think part of the divide is that there's some of us who have known George Lucas is full of shit and he doesn't totally get STAR WARS, which is why the prequels don't work, and those who think the prequels are as intended, and do so much heavy lifting to make them a coherent whole thatthey want to claim it's a master's thesis. But Lucas just doesn't get Yoda. At all.
But, you say, didn't Lucas create Yoda? Yes and no. In a script credited to Leigh Brackett and Lawrence Kasdan and a story by George Lucas, there is room to suggest that Lucas had nothing to do with how Yoda turned out. But then you counter that Brackett died in 1978 - her credit is part courtesy - so there is always this thought that there are unknown knowns, or known unknowns. But here's the thing, George Lucas is credited as the writer of the STAR WARS novelization that has Luke as a twenty year old and Leia as 18. Either Lucas didn't actually write it (Alan Dean Foster is also credited, IIRC), or Lucas didn't actually know they would be brother and sister until RETURN OF THE JEDI, when they felt they needed another big twist like in EMPIRE STRIKES BACK (also one that could justify why the lead didn't get the girl). Regardless, the emperor has no clothes/master plan. Lucas never had a fleshed out nine film cycle, he lied. If you can't sense his change in attitude from THE PHANTOM MENACE to ATTACK OF THE CLONES to respond to criticisms, I hope that Kool Aid tastes delicious.
The other big thing is this, EMPIRE director Irvin Kershner was Lucas's film professor in college. Think about that. What a flex to hire your teacher to make a film about your cinematic avatar (and Lucas put a lot of himself into Luke) to then make a film about teaching that avatar how to be an adult.
And then think about how much of a flex it is to make that movie, and then have it be as good if not better than STAR WARS. To then create an indelible figure like Yoda who basically tells the main character that he's a chump, and then when that main character ignores the teacher's advice, shows that he's a failure. And it works as a middle chapter narrative, so you can't even say Kersh was being a dick to do it. That's some fraught melodrama behind the scenes. But he did establish Yoda, what he is and what he's about. And Lucas doesn't understand Yoda at all.
How can I say that? It's simple really. When Yoda says "Too old to begin the training" in EMPIRE he's negging Luke. It's not a Jedi rule in the universe at that time. How do I know? BECAUSE YODA FUCKING TRAINS LUKE. Not because he's their last hope, but because Yoda did it because needed Luke to know he ain't shit. Luke at that moment thought he knew everything, and Yoda needed to make him a pupil. That's not one plus fourteen times x to the fourth, that's what's on screen. Yoda pretends to be a weird old creature because he needs to teach Luke that he is looking at the world wrong. Which is why the most important line in the entirety of STAR WARS is "judge me by my size do you? Where you should not."
When Yoda says Anakin is too old to begin the training in TPM, it's a callback, but one that doesn't make any god damned sense. Why? Because it was never about age. But to make it about age makes it a thing. "Oh, that's how they do it." But if you recognize all those moments in the prequel that recall Luke's training are basically fan service (the blaster helmets) it's not a coherent ideology, but Lucas not really engaged, throwing out these moments to make fans happy. And any attempts to spin "How can the Jedi be such idiots?" into a coherent narrative betrays the fact that Lucas had no interest in doing any heavy lifting so he creates obstacles that are non-obstacles to keep them from being all powerful. I cannot watch the PT films (which I have recently) and say that Lucas had any plan so much as that any time he felt like "I should address why this is" his best response was "reasons" that now people try to map out into a coherent thing. And I'm not attacking this because I think I know Jedis better than George Lucas, it's because it's lazy. It's giving R2 the ability to fly after four movies because you can't write yourself out of a scene lazy.
How can I say that he doesn't get Yoda? Because it's a different character, and a much less interesting one (which is endemic of Lucas's PT films). Where's Yoda's sense of humor? Did he turn into a goofball magically twenty years later? I mean, it's possible being isolated on a swamp planet gets you goofy, but I don't think Yoda was bored. But as damning as TPM is in showing Lucas just not caring to engage with the ideas of the original trilogy, the moment that proves Lucas doesn't get Yoda is the minute Yoda fights with a light saber. Not because he turns into a whirling dervish, but because as a master he should never have to. It's a complete lack of imagination to have Yoda get into a fight and then lose because he's overwhelmed because it's judging him by his size. If you don't understand that Yoda is the moral heart of this universe, you don't get that universe.
And this is something Rian Johnson understands to his core, and something Mandalorian does not, because it allows Baby Yoda to be a cute murderer. If you don't understand why I don't find that appealing, I don't understand why you like things.
I think part of the reason why this is vexing to me is that the Lucas mythos is sort of like Trump. You're buying into this package that ignores the human element that suggests something completely different than what is being projected. And to find coherent ideology of the Jedi's actions (even if you can) in the prequels is to ignore the bigger picture for the service of something else. Like what you like. Enjoy the prequels if you do. But don't pretend it's something that it's not.
