dredwulf60
Member since: 2007I've been running my Mandalorian-based game for quite some time now. We just finished our 28th session. I thought it would be kind of neat to talk about it as if we had been doing a TV show. So i've written this as a retrospective done by a fictional media outlet. I've used a variety of actors photos to represent NPCs, some with digital mods some without. So I've gone with the assumption that the actual actors would have been playing those parts if it were a TV show.
I finished it off as a PDF, but I can't post that here, so I'll relate it as a copy-paste of the text:
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Star Wars:
Way of the Mando
Season One Retrospective
December 5th, 2015
Just as the world gets hyped into overdrive for the next big-screen installment of the Star Wars franchise, a small-screen action-drama set in the galaxy far, far away wraps up its first full-length season. But this has been no far-flung fantasy epic of Jedi, Sith and galactic rebellion. This is Star Wars dialed-in to the gritty, brutal world of the Mandalorians. For those not in the know, Boba Fett and his clone-father Jango are the archetypical Mandalorians, but the Expanded Universe saw them fleshed out into a detailed and much-loved culture of warriors and bounty hunters, primarily through the works of estranged Star Wars author Karen Traviss.
Way of the Mando takes that culture and fuses it with elements of the award-winning FX series Sons of Anarchy to create a story centered around an operational Mandalorian group called Clan Sevarisk. Set on an outlying planet a few years after the end of the Clone Wars and the formation of the Galactic Empire, it follows the story of a group of brothers who lost their parents fighting for the losing side and who are just now considered matured and skilled enough to take their place in the family business.
What is that business? In the words of the patriarch of the clan, Jeddak (Played by Tom Berenger best known for his performances in Platoon and Sniper) “Violence is our business. Violence and threat of violence. Our customers are those who can’t or won’t go to the law. But that doesn’t make us criminals.”
They may not intend to be criminals, but throughout the season they find themselves running afoul of the law, with two of the clan members cooling their thrusters in Imperial Prison, ironically for a crime they didn’t commit.
Like an outlaw motorcycle club, the Sevarisk Clan’s first priority is to make money, in this case, Imperial Credits. This isn’t about getting rich and retiring from the underworld; for them it’s about supporting that way of life and preparing to raise the next generation of blaster-toting, blade-wielding, wookiee-punching bad-asses and releasing them upon the unsuspecting galaxy. But money would be easy-come-easy-go…if it wasn’t so hard to come by. They work hard for those credits, which makes it even worse when they get in debt to a certain notorious Hutt gangster while visiting planet Tatooine.
Director, JP ‘Dredwulf’ Crough, or Dred as he’s often called, often mentioned his enjoyment in setting stories in the Star Wars universe, since the days of West End Studios. When asked about how his stories fit into the greater Star Wars canon, he was quick to point out that his works are officially non-canon. “I like to think of it as another galaxy…another reality.”
His first Star Wars series, Swoop Gangs of Tatooine, proved that things were very different, by showing an alternate reality where the Death Star destroyed Yavin IV and wiped out the Rebel Alliance leadership instead of getting destroyed by a young outer rim bush pilot named Skywalker. He wouldn’t say definitively whether Way of the Mando is set in that reality, but he pointed out that the events in the current series precede the Battle of Yavin by about a decade, so literally anything is on the table.
But so far, we haven’t seen anything of such a grand scale. The story is intimate, focusing primarily on two of the Sevarisk brothers, Deshkar (played by Donald Schepis; best known for GWN: Operations, and Robotech: Resistance) and Darro (Played by Dave Beardmore of such favorites as Darkvault and Apocalypse: The Human Race.)
The brothers arrive on Kal ‘Shebbol, the capital planet of the sector at the far end of a long hyperspace route. It is the end of a journey in many respects for the brothers who are leaving childhood behind. Although Deshkar is adopted, anyone familiar with the Mandalorian culture knows that it doesn’t make much of a difference to them. In a bit of exposition, Desh tells the story about how he was first caught trying to pick the pocket of his soon-to-be Mandalorian father and then talked his way out of it and eventually into the family. It is a story we are led to believe Desh tells often, yet we never hear it again.
But while they may be family, they aren’t yet in the family business. They have to first prove themselves to the operational members; the ones who sit at the big table and have a say in the way the clan is run.
Cassus, a front running character who featured in the show’s first quarter, is the youngest and wildest of the brothers, played by Austin Livingston (GWN: Operations and Mercenaries Guild) is eager to get into the action upon arrival. Born a few years too late to see a Clone Wars battlefield, he’s a borderline psychopathic warmonger ready to start his own war if need be, and pull his family into the fire with him.
Austin’s time on the show was limited. There were rumours circulating that his character was written out of the story due to differences with the director. Austin had signed on when he read the title had the words ‘Star Wars’ and then stopped reading the script. Expecting a frolicking space opera, he was a little disappointed with the show’s gangster-grunge motif when he turned up to film the first episode. He hadn’t ever seen Sons of Anarchy, which Dred had used liberally for inspiration for the story. In words that would haunt his time on the set, Austin declared that when it came to portraying Cassus, he’d “just wing it”.
Cast and crew started wearing T-shirts featuring the Nike logo with wings. It went on for a long time, but Dred insists that Austin found his footing after a few episodes. There’s no doubt that the character Cassus has a cult fandom. You never knew what he was going to do next or what was going to come out of his mouth both in front of or behind the camera as Austin was a big one for improv.
Cassus is a character that’s been compared to the Tig Trager character from Sons of Anarchy, an observation that is coincidental at best, considering Austin still hadn’t seen a single episode of Sons of Anarchy by the time his character was sent back to join the Mandalore’s standing military organization. This of course mirrors the actor’s true reason for leaving the show; to sign up with the USMC, an endeavour he is reportedly very successful with.
Austin said in interview for this article that he enjoyed the vast majority of the time he was with the show. He especially enjoyed the laughs that were shared with the rest of the cast and crew, both on and off camera.
Of course who can forget Cassus having to dispose of his own dirty work; from dismantling a taxi cab to fit into an incinerator, with the body of the taxi driver still in it. Or the time he gunned down a group of petty criminal teens who stole a truck full of animal feed. That one had him cutting the bodies into little pieces with a plasma cutter for orderly disposal, all with less protest than having to cover the damages done to the clan speeder when his older brother hit a fence line coming to his aid. Or the time he hocked his priceless inherited sniper rifle for a fistful of credits to bet on a speeder race. They even had to invent a word for ‘bigot’ in mando’a, the mandalorian language to describe the character’s wildly inflammatory views of anyone who wasn’t family.
Iilya, played by Dani Tzoweh ( GWN: Operations and Mercenaries Guild) was another protagonist character had the biggest established legacy at the start of the series. As the eldest, he was the only one of the four original brothers who was a veteran of the Clone Wars. He had a decidedly militaristic attitude, which often clashed with the rogue-like Deshkar and Darro and the sheer chaos of Cassus’ antics.
Early in the season, we see Iilya re-united with the lovely Talia Jenness, his previously established love interest. This story thread brought the action to the tropical forest world of Mantessa. There they consummate their love, and we see the previously urban characters hunting big game in their first wilderness foray.
Unfortunately for the show, Dani had to be written out due to an overseas commitment in Beijing, which is why we have Iilya opting to stay on Mantessa with his woman and make a life with the remains of her clan.
But his isn’t the only romance to be explored. Darro is established in the very first episodes as a lothario whose pursuit of seduction consumes a large chunk of his screen time. This is not without purpose as it eventually leads him to the first extended space voyage away from kal’shebbol as he and Deshkar play bodyguard to the hyper-sexualized twi’lek dancers Vivian and Alyssian (Russian cosplayers Vavalika and Sallozare) who tour the galaxy putting on exotic shows and even more risque performances.
Although he does get himself into a steady relationship with the young swoop-gang rider, Tetonia (Played by champion motorcycle racer Melissa Paris) it’s clearly not a serious venture and his inattention to maintaining it, coupled with his service to the exotic dancers see that relationship implode amidst the backdrop of ‘Sand Meet’ a fantastically popular gathering of repulsor-racing enthusiasts on the desert planet Tatooine.
But in a flip of the coin twist, these events lead him into the bed of his cousin Deena, the harder-edged of the twin Mandalorian women from Clan Ordo who make up part of the Sevarisk gang. Although not blood-related and distant enough to avoid the squick-factor, it’s a hook-up that they take pains to keep hidden from the others.
It’s clear by the other characters reactions that it’s a poorly kept secret at best, even with no awkward manifesting of the Al’Found effect, but it is a source of constant tension for the rest of the series as we wonder whether the cantankerous clan treasurer Myrtyr, ‘Murder’ as they call him (Played by the menacing Lance Henrikson; best known as the android in Aliens, but who seems to be indulging in a sci-fi reimagining of his 1980s cult vampire classic Near Dark.) is going to find out the mouthy, flippant Darro is getting down with one of his cherished grand-daughters. We can’t help but wonder if Myrtyr is so focused on counting credits that he is blind to the coupling, or is his dislike for Darro fading in deference to whatever makes the girl happy.
We talked with Dave Beardmore about his character Darro;
“I think he is seen as a bit of a punk kid. Seen as a mandalorian that kind of skirts the ideas and rules but still does the job. Although I feel like that is starting to change (and is my hope to change it even more). I still want him to be willing to do things others might see as a bit shady. It was a bit frustrating when he was framed as a ‘man whore’ and less like a guy that can get the girls, nice girls …. I saw him more like Handsome Rob (from the Italian job) and less of the type of guy that will just sleep with anything that moves. Darro walked away from girls that didn’t meet his standards but he got quite a bit of flack about being overly ‘easy’.”
Darro may be a victim of his own success, but it’s clear to fans that his connection with Deena was more than a physical conquest. Now with her vowing to leave for parts unknown, it remains to be seen where Darro will go looking for love next.
Dave was pleased to show Darro’s role model side when he fell into the mentor and guardian role for young Konnir when the teen’s father Mamdu (Faran Tahir, Iron Man) was captured by the rival mandalorian Lone clan. This made for some endearing, if humourous moments as he tried to handle a hormone-laden teenager who assumed Darro would teach him how to score with the ladies.
“Although Darro would do things differently than Mamdu,” Dave said, “Darro sees them as a guide for when he is ready to be a parent. Taking on the responsibilities for Konnir while Mamdu was captured was a bit of a wake up call.”
But we can’t talk about Darro’s conquests without mentioning Cassus’ peculiar love life which was equal parts disturbing and comical as he developed increasingly raunchy fetishes to combat the high levels of stress the character had to deal with. Narcotics-fueled nights in dance clubs eventually lead to group cross-species sex in the brothel owned by Bortho (Played by Mickey Rourke who won an Academy Award for his lead role in The Wrestler, who is barely recognizable in this show in his overweight orange twi’lek makeup and prosthetics.)
It’s worth noting that Cassus was known to find twi’leks grotesque, in direct opposition to nearly every other species in the galaxy that could be identified as having a male gender.
Stunts
We see a lot of rough and tumble on the show. Blaster fights, close-up hand-to-hand combat, knives, swords and some high-speed driving in some claustrophobic sets. It’s important to point out that the actors do most of their own stunts. If it’s on screen you can pretty much guarantee that it’s the actor under that armor dictating the actions.
In fact, in the climactic fight between Raud Lone and Papa Jeddak, the head of the Sevarisk Clan, it was Dave Beardmore who normally plays Darro standing in for Tom Berenger, just as Wyatt Hamilton performed the combat actions for Lance Henrikson’s Myrtyr when he faced off against the deadly Mando assassin Brakius in the darkness of the waste water treatment plant. Most of the principal cast has stood in for other characters when it comes to combat at one time or another.
When Dred was asked about his favorite action scene, he immediately related an incident from Episode 23 where Deshkar makes a running jump out of a derelict housing complex, crashing through the boarded up windows while shooting at gang members who were surrounding co-star Chuck Davis, who was guest-starring as the older down on his luck mandalorian bounty hunter Rok Ordo.
“The scene was written with Desh taking out both the bad guys and then landing on the hood of the landspeeder. It was going to be ultra-slick matrix-style. But when Don came bursting through, I guess he was expecting break-away boards. They weren’t. So he lost a lot of his momentum. One of the blaster bolts went wide and grazed Rok and Don fell short leaving a pretty distinctive mandalorian helmet imprint on the speeder.
“There was thought about a character point re-take, but in the end Don decided it was more realistic the way it was. It shows the grittiness of the system and Deshkar’s willingness to go beyond. And it set up the joke with Myrtyr later on that episode when they have to account for the dent in the speeder.”
Enemies
Clan Sevarisk is surrounded by adversaries. Season One saw them square off initially with the Green Backs, a prolific street gang made up of rodians; bug-eyed green- skinned aliens like Greedo who tried to shake down Han Solo in Star Wars: A New Hope. Like rats, they don’t seem that dangerous individually, but in groups they can cause some hurt. They are apparently just as prolific as rats on the mean streets of Kal’Iten, the capital city. With the Green Backs it’s all about turf, and it’s Clan Sevarisk who protect some of the more lucrative street businesses from the predations of the street-level criminals, all for a stiff and promptly collected fee of course.
They are balanced off with the Vibro Slicers, a little more sophisticated street gang, with a little more penchant for effective violence. You get the sense that Sevarisk could take the Vibro Slicers down if given an ultimatum, but they couldn’t do it easily and not with a hoard of Green Backs waiting to make their move.
It’s a delicate three-way balance; the only way Clan Sevarisk can prosecute a street war with one faction is to make a truce with another. When the Green Backs start a plot to frame the brothers for the murder of an under cover cop investigating the Vibro Slicers, the war is on.
But you get the sense that this is daily life on Kal Shebbol in the criminal world at least. When a Mandalorian poser shows up at Selepp’s Cantina, a space port bar protected by the Clan, the brothers decide he needs to be taught a lesson for appropriating a culture that he isn’t part of. This sets events into motion which shape the rest of the season. The poser’s brother is Jacen Mathers (Donal Logue, who pretty much reprises the role of Lee Toric from Sons of Anarchy) an influential man with ties to the Sector Rangers, and he suspects the clan for the disappearance of his brother. And he has lots of connections on both sides of the law.
The Clan gets wind of a high ransom kidnapping. When the vote comes out in favor of rescuing the captive rich girl and returning her to her parents on Coruscant, the Imperial Center, in turn for some future favour, Mathers sees to it that the two who are delivering her are arrested for the crime. This strands the brothers Darro and Deshkar on the multi-leveled planet-sized city, hiding out from Imperial Storm Troopers in the dregs of the neon-lit undercity. Two senior members of the clan: Kalo ( Val Kilmer; Top Gun, HEAT) and Kane ( Cam Gigandet; Pandorum, Never Back Down) are not so lucky and are eventually found guilty and sent to an Imperial Prison.
Mathers isn’t done settling his score, so he calls in some contacts with some very bad people; the Lone Clan.
The Lone clan gets its first onscreen appearance in Episode 17 when Raud Lone (Sam Worthington; Avatar, Sabotage) confronts Darro and Deshkar at the Oyu’baat bar on planet Mandalore not long after their escape from Coruscant. It’s foreshadowing of what is to come, especially that final scene with the ship that blasts into hyperspace right after the brother’s ship leaves the system.
In Episode 22 the Sevarisk Clan knows someone is messing up their business, but it’s only in Episode 23, when the Lone Clan shows up on screen with blasters blazing that they truly realize that war has come to the streets of Kal’iten. This launches the final story arc of the season.
Dred talks about the Lone Clan;
“Clan Sevarisk is a collection of some of the baddest, most competent tough guys and girls you could ask for. Each is a concentrated mandalorian-iron can of whoop-ass. It takes a special kind of adversary to go toe-to-toe and hit pound-for-pound as hard as a mando. That’s why you need another group of mandos to even the odds.
“The Lone clan is the evil counterparts. If the Sevarisk were Jedi, then the Lone clan would be the Sith. Mandalorian culture actually has such a dichotomy within it; the Protectors and the Death Watch. It just makes the hatred that much more personal and visceral when the viewer finds out that both clans share the same great grandfather. The family split when Mandalorian culture went to war with itself. It’s literally a brother against brother sort of story.
“When I wanted to cast the members of the clan that you see on screen, it was right around the time I saw the movie Sabotage. I saw that group, the way they interacted…and I knew I had my Lone Clan.
“Arnold Scwarzenegger, who played Carson Lone, only agreed to put on the armor if it was clear that he wasn’t ‘all-bad’. So I got away with making him mostly-bad with a solid streak of honour keeping the other psychopaths in line. These days it’s hard to see Arnold as a true villain, isn’t it?”
Then there is Joe Manganiello (True Blood, Sabotage) who gets to play both sides, as Morrow, the Clan Sevarisk sergeant at arms and Brakius the Lone Clan swordmaster-assassin.
“He’s got a screen presence,” says the director, “I first saw him in True Blood as the werewolf Alcide. He has a menacing persona, a big guy who could do you some damage, but won’t without at least a little provocation. I wanted that in the Sevarisk sergeant-at-arms. Then I saw him as part of the ensemble cast of Sabotage. I didn’t want to bust up that team dynamic. So I said ‘screw it’, the Lone clan is blood relation to the Sevarisk clan. It’s not beyond possibility for these two to have an uncanny family resemblance. And when the two characters have to be onscreen at the same time, they’re in full armor, so it’s not a problem special effects-wise. I had a bit of fun with that right after Jeddak and Raud’s fight in the battle circle. I wanted Morrow and Brakius to have a literal face-to-face stare-down. And they did. And it was great.”
We just know it’s not the end of hostilities for these two, especially with Morrow declaring he’s going out on his own at the end of the season finale.
Of course there have been other enemies; the detour to Tatooine saw the brothers upset a slaver ship collecting stock; namely Darro’s twi’lek dancer friends. It ended with a lot of dead slavers and one stolen slave ship. At least until Jabba the Hutt was alerted; he isn’t one to let things like that go down in his neighbourhood without his consent…and a big cut of any profit.
This left the brothers with a decision. They could keep dodging deadly gank killers; the Hutt’s own brand of ruthless armored thugs with other assorted professional bounty hunters. This would ultimately bring those problems back to the rest of the clan. The other option was to go into financial dealings with the crime lord.
As we saw in episode 11, it’s always about the money. And as usual, there’s never enough.
The law on Kal Shebbol presents a different sort of problem. The kind of adversary that you just can’t shoot no matter how convenient it might be. While under Jeddak’s authority it’s just not an option. It’s against the code he wants for his family. This means that the cops have to be out maneuvered and outsmarted. And when that doesn’t work they have to be outrun.
Way of the Mando has a lot of high speed pursuits, and getting a bigger and better engine is always as useful an option as getting a bigger and better blaster. The Season One finale introduces a character that personifies the law enforcement on Kal Shebbol in the form of Captain Jensen, head of the organized violent crime task force, the police response to the open warfare that has been going on between the Sevarisk Clan, the Greenbacks and the Lone Clan. We can expect the local law to become a bigger factor in the equation next season.
Friends
Ghent Kaedo is a character that was brought on to the show while Darro and Deshkar were hiding out on Coruscant. Played by newcomer Wyatt Hamilton, Ghent is from an expatriate family of mandalorians. Raised for several generations in the urban core of the galaxy, he’s been brought up to think of his mandalorian heritage as symbolic only. The way a lot of people in real life only pay lip service to their religion, or study the historical culture of their own people passively; like a kid descended from a great samurai bloodline who takes judo lessons every other week.
He is a gateway for the audience to come into the mando culture. He’s one of them by heritage, but he still has to learn to truly live the resol’nare, the ‘Six actions’ that make up the mando way of life. It also gave the primary characters someone to look after and mentor now that they were established as full members of Clan Sevarisk.
Right around the time Kalo and Kane were set to stand trial for the kidnapping of the rich girl and all of the clan were banned from wearing their armor in public on Kal ‘Shebbol, Ghent became quite important, Since wasn’t on the police radar, he was one of the only ones who could legally wear the armor and represent the clan in public, which was essential to maintaining their street cred and warding off attacks against their protected customers.
It was an ironic twist, that the guy who was barely mandalorian was the one carrying the torch, while the others were pretty much seen as nobodies in their civvie clothing. This led to Ghent being the target of an attempted snatch and grab by the Green Backs, being the only clan member they could identify and seemingly all by himself. Donald, who plays Deshkar had this to say about protecting Ghent:
“It was definitely a high point for me. I love to do the action stuff. Running full tilt, jumping onto the moving vehicle and taking them all out at close range…that showed that Desh was able to kick ass…with or without the armor and gadgets.”
When Ghent gets gunned down in episode 27, it’s the death of innocence. The Way of the Mando is one of violence and blood; and it’s not always the enemy’s blood.
Rok Ordo was a late comer to the season. An easy going old bounty hunter rattling around the galaxy by himself in a ship that should probably be condemned; and that’s how the audience first meets him; his ship grounded at the Kal’Shebbol space port for unpaid safety fines.
Played by Chuck Davis, who has a long history acting in nearly every one of Dred’s features from his earliest series Bloodhawk and Silverwolf, to Apocalypse: The Human Race and the Fantasy epic Coreanic Pilgrimage. Listed in the opening credits as a guest star, he is very at home in Rok’s armored boots. Dred admits the role was written specifically with him in mind.
Although Rok is said to be difficult to work with sometimes owing to his long-suspected dyslexia learning disabilitiy coupled with his sometimes inability to string together a coherent sentence. And that’s before he gets into the alcohol. There was at least once this season where the director had to eject Chuck from the set due to his intoxication level.
“When he gets like that, he’s a danger to himself and everyone else on the show.” Dred confessed. “There’s no telling what might happen. So it’s better to just send him home and either let one of the stuntmen finish the shoot or do re-shoots the next day.”
But there’s no denying that he’s a fan favourite as a supporting character. Even the other members of the cast look forward to having him on the show. When he appeared for the first time in Episode 21, it was a surprise to everyone except the director.
Here’s hoping that since Rok was voted into the Sevarisk table in the season finale, he’ll be a regular cast member in Season Two.
Early in the season we saw a lot of development with the Star Birds, a group of young speed and adrenaline junkies who raced high performance speeder bikes for fun around the Kal’Shebbol countryside. This was a deliberate nod to the earlier Star Wars related show that Dred directed, Swoop Gangs of Tatooine, which both Dave Beardmore and Chuck Davis also starred in.
There have been observations from those who are fans of Dred’s shows that David Beardmore is a one-note actor. He consistently plays the same role over and over and that role is basically synonymous with his own personality. Much like Steven Seagal is pretty much Steven Seagal in every movie he’s in. When asked about this, Dave simply said that he’s been type-cast and finds it hard to get other work.
The Star Birds sequences were a fun way to show off the newest additions to the Sevarisk Clan by having fun and blowing off steam while they built up their skills. It also showed off the beautiful Scottish highlands where much of the Kal’Shebbol landscape was filmed.
It is a time and tone in contrast to the hardships that started to come at them around the time they arrived on Tatooine when Bodie the handsome young leader of the Star Birds was killed by Jabba’s ganks who were trying to get to the brothers. When the Star Birds connection was broken, it showed that playtime was over. But that’s not to say that the swoop gang subculture isn’t set to make a comeback in Season 2.
Faruza Joppis, (played by Fairuza Balk; The Craft, American History X). We first saw her in episode 7 when the brothers attend an inter-clan social get together on planet Pamorjal. Affectionately called ‘The Mando Games’ it’s a time for the invited clans to get together play some recreational ball, feast, boast but for the young single mandalorians it’s a way to meet eligible others of their culture, competing in a series of challenges to show off what they have to offer to prospective mates.
Deshkar and Faruza attract each others attention and being what becomes a long-distance relationship. This is made more interesting because as the owner of her own small interstellar spaceship she has the ability to come and visit. She shows up again to lend a hand during the events on Tatooine and then again after the brothers are lifted off Coruscant.
From then on, Faruza is there to assist Clan Sevarisk. She has often been shown to be the level-headed clear-thinking common-sense factor in some of the brothers’ more off-the-wall approaches to getting things done. Despite this, we see something lacking as the relationship between Desh and Faruza, though it sometimes hits a good note, it just as often limps along.
We’re left to wonder if these two belong together and if they do, when are they going to realize it. Deshkar’s sudden proposal seems whimsy and tacked-on at the last minute, not the kind of dialogue we’ve come to expect from a show of this caliber. We were wondering what was going on behind the scenes.
But finally, the show’s most promising couple made plans for a possible union late in the season… Cue all hell to break loose as the Lone Clan starts tearing things up.
Now that all that’s settled, will we see a mandalorian marriage in Season 2?
Maybe not according to Donald, who said:
“Deshkar's relationship with Faruza is kinda bland and feels underdeveloped. Faruza feels very passive, which is kinda counter to Deshkar's over-enthusiastic approach to life. Deshkar spends more time with Darro than her and I feel like it would be cooler if she was more magnetic and actually pulled them apart a little. In all honesty I just kinda realized Deshkar's relationship with her is largely based on his sense of duty, that marrying her is the right thing to do, not necessarily the thing that makes him happier. Also she can't keep up with the brothers in a fight, so that promotes leaving her behind too, which doesn't help to involve her more in Desh's life.”
We went to the director to see if he might shed some light on the situation:
“Faruza's primary personality traits are Respect and Responsible. Which means she's pretty far afield being away from her own family for so long, which shows a high level of devotion to Deshkar and what she feels will be her future family. She's also not going to be voicing any demands on Deshkar out of respect for him and the work he does for his clan, but that doesn’t stop her from venting to Vyxie. She is going to be there to help Sevarisk responsibly in the capacity that does the most good; which means she's been running short-haul flights around the sector whenever possible.
“If Deshkar is having any kind of internal crisis over the pairing, it's likely doubled for her under these conditions. It’s Donald’s opinion that she can't keep up with the brothers in a fight, not necessarily his character Deshkar’s...if they tried fighting in her element…see how long the fight lasts...
“Character development-wise Deshkar has to ask himself what he wants in a wife. Faruza is strong where he is weak and she doesn't overshadow his strengths. She is a space pilot whose secondary specialty is domestic; BEING a mandalorian wife. That's what she wants...to the same degree that Deshkar wants to be able to fight unarmed as a combative.”
What does this mean for season 2? Faruza’s father and uncle are on their way to Kal’Shebbol, but this doesn’t mean the characters need to tie the knot. We can’t say for sure, but sources suggested we might see Deshkar get a rival for Faruza’s attention that might make him realize or remember what he’s missing out on. Would this make him realize he wants her after all or will it make him cut her loose? Talks of a spin-off show featuring Faruza are out there, but so far unsubstantiated.
Season one of Star Wars: Way of the Mando has been a hell of a ride for those who are fans of Dred’s screenwriting and the top notch acting talent involved. Season 2 has been given the green light by the Roll20 network and should start filming sometime within the next few weeks. With Jeddak’s news of the Empire starting to throw its weight around on planet Mandalore, it remains to be seen how this will end up affecting our favourite Mandos on the Outer Rim,
Until then, there is a little movie opening soon that we’ll all want to check out.
---GM Journal