Chapter 15: The Believer - S2-E7
Plot hole: The Imperial terminals have facial scan recognition...or just facial scan, really, since ANYONE regardless of being part of the army or not can just access any information of any level, as long as they have ANY face that the app can scan and identify as not being a known criminal.
Suggested correction: The facial scan prevents droids from stealing data from terminals.
And also criminals from doing that. It runs a check, as I said in the entry. Against "Any New Republic registry", even, which should disqualify also Mayfeld being a convicted felon, but that's another issue. Who designs a security system that does complex checks about who is a wanted criminal or part of 'the other side' but does not check if you are part of their side? Also, any low level trooper (or nobody, even the janitor) can just access any information of any level, including the location of their special forces cruiser.
Maybe it just checks if you're human. You never see non-humans as part of the empire. A lot of non-humans are as "subspecies" by the empire.
Chapter 16: The Rescue - S2-E8
Other mistake: The highly advanced and powerful Dark Troopers, when faced with a closed blast door, punch it repeatedly with their fists rather than simply prying the two doors apart. Even having dented it slightly, they don't wedge their hands into the cracks to open it, they just keep slowly denting it...more.
Suggested correction: The reason why the Dark Troopers didn't wedge their hands through the door was because during that time the door was already closed shut when they arrived at the bay door. If you watch at the beginning where Mando was trying to close the door before the Dark Troopers and exit their station but as Mando was closing the door the door wasn't fully closed but it was closing, so a Dark Trooper used its hand to open the door while the door was closing. If the door was closed then they would have punched their way through. And as you can see if you watch one dark trooper escaped but the others had to punch their way though.
Not my point. They manage to dent the door easily enough. So when faced with a closed door they could have made a dent, then put their hands into that crack to pull the sides apart. But they don't, they just keep slowly hammering it. They weren't punching through, just denting it, pointlessly.
The first Dark Trooper also punches the Mandalorian's helmet repeatedly instead of any other fighting move, and the Dark Troopers try to punch their way through the blast doors on the cruiser's bridge instead of cutting, tearing or shooting their way in. It seems their programming is limited in this way. This is still a mistake but it becomes a deliberate mistake or a character mistake.
Plot hole: Seeing The Child in episode 2-1 minute 10, Amy Sedaris' character shouts "Thank the Force." Up to that point nobody seemed to have the faintest idea of what sort of mysterious energy Grogu was using. It gets worse in episode 2-3 when Mando uses as greeting for the New Republic "May the Force be with you", which is used later other times. With the concept of Force being this ingrained in people's culture, it's inconceivable that *everyone* is completely clueless about Jedi, especially considering that Order 66 with the Jedi purge happens barely 30 years before the events of the Mandalorian, and several characters such as Kuiil or Greef Karga were alive and active during the time when Jedis were powerful and part of the administration.
Suggested correction: There's a difference between seeing the Force used and knowing what it is and the common phrase "thank the Force" or "may the Force be with you." Plus, the Child is not a Jedi.
Not technically a Jedi, but he has been trained by Jedi and does those magical Force things that people would associate with Jedi, and would be perceived as such, if only people had any memories about them. Mando and Greef do not have the faintest idea of such 'magic' having ever existed, and Kuil has heard 'rumors' of it. Less than 30 years. Really, it's a common problem for all the Star Wars saga to some extent and it has been already debated to death. In this series nobody even seems to know the concept of Force in season 1, then in season 2 it pops up with random mentions.
The sayings are just customary more than knowledge of the Force. The Galaxy is big, with 3B habitable worlds, each having up to hundreds of millions if not billions of inhabitants each. The Jedi, at their peak and fall, were around 10,000. Many never heard of the Jedi, even less seen one. Find a remote village somewhere, and ask them if they remember the Atari.
Plot hole: Mando's ship was completely wrecked, but two mechanics fixed it to top performance level and aesthetic pleasantness in a time shorter than it took for the Child to eat a small packet of macaroons.
Suggested correction: His ship was badly damaged, but mostly repaired by the Mon Calamari. The remaining repair work was less complex, but still took place over the course of several days. A space-faring civilisation being able to repair a damaged ship is not a plot hole.
His ship is literally falling apart (we see pieces falling off as it moves), the engines are barely functioning and looks like hell. It's not at all a mistake that a "space-faring civilization" is "able to repair a damaged ship", it is when the editing of an episode makes it look like two dudes fixed to pristine condition a wreckage in the same time it takes for a kid to munch his cookies.
Stupidity: Ahsoka is fighting against the spear-wielding woman. She keeps blocking the spear using both her sabers. It would be very straightforward to block the spear with just one lightsaber (as she proves she can do just as well after she loses the smaller one) and use the second one to, for example, cut off the woman's hands.
Suggested correction: This is opinion, not stupidity.
Plot hole: Weeks if not months have passed since Mando has been on Nevarro, with the power shift and the Empire taking control. The Mandalorian community was small, but he finds the Armorer in the old lair that says that she will leave only when she will have salvaged what remains. Since 'what remains' is a pile of armor pieces, and she is carrying already a cart full of those, it appears absurd that she'd still not finished with that task, especially considering that we see how the smelting process is pretty swift (she melts an armor piece and shapes it into the signet in the space of a brief conversation!) and even if every single one of the Mandalorians left their armor behind, it'd be just a couple of carts' worth of metal.
Suggested correction: This entry presumes that the armorer has done nothing but collect armor pieces, and plans to continue doing nothing but collect armor pieces until she is finished. She never says that. She merely says that she won't leave until she is done collecting everything. She could be doing any number of other tasks she never says anything about because it isn't important. It is also never said when she started collecting armor pieces, it could have been just before we see her.
We can make all sorts of assumptions; she was grieving for a time, she had to go into hiding, she had to collect the armor pieces from various places? Fascinating, but if we do not presume anything, what we get is the Armorer (known as and for just that) salvaging armor (saying "I will not abandon this place until I have salvaged what remains") at a place established as raided a long time ago. What she had to salvage was meager (just a handful of Mandos) and does it fast.
In order to be a plot hole it would have to be impossible for the armorer to take this long to collect armor pieces. Since we don't know everything she has been doing off-screen, this doesn't count as a plot hole. You have to ignore all logical and reasonable possibilities to get to the point where this is a plot hole, and you list more than one in your reply.
I listed them because they are the kind of things we can assume to justify "Events or character decisions which only exist to benefit the plot, rather than making sense.", definition of plot hole in the website. We can make up all sort of background story, but nothing changes the fact that a character is at a place raided weeks prior and in the middle of performing a task that the way shown here is not going to take more than a few hours.
It's the "rather than making sense" part that this entry lacks. There are several reasons that make sense why this could take long, chief among them the fact that we don't know how long she has actually been collecting armor pieces. If, for example she said "I've been doing this since the attack", that would be one thing. She doesn't say that. She just says she won't leave until this particular task is done, not that it was her only task. She could have just started.
Collecting armor as specific task is something I find as such for the first time in your first comment. The attack happened shortly after Mando left, and the planet has been under a tight Imperial control since. Nothing leads to believe that the pile of amor is not salvaged but was brought back through some quest that stretched out for weeks until she finally decided exactly that day to start carting them to the furnace, which is what she's in the middle of when they arrive.
Chapter 15: The Believer - S2-E7
Stupidity: The Empire has plenty troops and TIE Fighters, and the locals are armed with sticks, but the convoys of highly volatile explosives have no armed escort whatsoever, despite the fact that they keep losing those huge trucks full of precious chemicals to those troglodytes with no body armor or special skills.
Suggested correction: The empire doesn't have plenty of anything, this is after the fall of the empire, this is what is left and they are hanging by a thread. It probably costs too much to have escorts, or escorts like TIE fighters are too expensive to risk, even against "troglodytes." They'd rather accept the losses they take, apparently that is more cost efficient.
Plenty more than what the opponents have, in that very base. They have TIE fighters in the base, who provide air support at the very end. They have troops. The opponents show having no offensive weapon at all other than detonators, that they fling like stones. Losing transport convoys because you provide literally zero escort to them is no strategy in times of abundance, even less in times of scarcity. And that chemical is a strategic resource that helps their war, and the only reason the base exists.
Stupidity: Ahsoka gives the magistrate a day to surrender for no real reason - she has no advantage doing so nor it is any more honorable or humane; she is in fact giving Morgan time to organize herself with hostages as she explicitly threatens to. Had she finished her assault without this senseless ultimatum, barely anyone would have been in any danger or tortured for a full day like it happened.
Suggested correction: Tano doesn't know the strength of the Magistrate's forces. Djarin tells her that there are ex-military, hired mercenaries inside armed to the teeth and that he doesn't believe that even with the force she would survive. Tano agrees with this assessment and also asks if Djarin saw any hostages inside, so until then she didn't even know for sure whether or not there were. It is implied that had Tano continued her assault she would have been killed. There is indeed no stated reason why Tano gives a single day as an ultimatum, but it seems reasonable to assume that prior to meeting Djarin and The Child she would have used this time to plan her 2nd assault.
I think we disagree on the idea that it is implied that if she continued her assault she would have been killed; she killed 25% of their troops in their first assault, and then in the second one, which was in the open and broad daylight, she killed or disarmed everyone else including the main villain and the henchman, who was then killed by Mando, together with 2 guards. Mando was only instrumental in saving the hostages Morgan took after her threat - which, by the way, was expressed in a way that did not even imply necessarily that she was just taking the people hostages and not kill them right away as punishment. The evil henchman says it correctly "We'll be ready when she returns"; waiting only weakens her position in every way, since the stakes and/or disparity in forces is not shown adequately.
You seem to be ignoring the part where Djarin tells her that even with her skills she would be killed and she agrees. Whether or not that is actually true based on what we see doesn't really matter, it's their opinion based on what they know at the time. It seems fairly clear that she withdraws because she doesn't know what she's up against behind those walls.
She literally laughs behind his back when he says that line, and it is contradicted in every way from what we see, so it seems to be ignored by the writers first and foremost. They say the rule of writing is "Show, don't tell", I'd be fine with "Don't show the opposite of what you are telling." You can argue that it's more alike a plot hole than a simple stupidity, but I think you can agree that for what it is shown, Ahsoka had no other reason to wait for (more than) a day other than give the main character a chance to show up, and an ultimatum considerably worsens her position. It's not even clear why she took so long to make a move on the city, Bo-Katan (who does not have a direct path of communication on her) knew where she was, but the first time we see her it is also the first time she has a contact with the Magistrate.
No, I do not believe the writers included a laugh as an indication that Ahsoka believes the exact opposite of what Djarin states and that she agrees with his assessment that she is outmatched just to keep him happy. Yes, they do portray her as very powerful inside the city, but there are two people in there fighting at the same time which splits the enemies forces. Yes, giving yourself time to prepare also gives your enemy time to prepare. Sometimes there's no way to avoid that. This is neither a Stupidity nor a plot hole.
"Splits" is an overstatement; she takes the whole force down herself. We both agree that "she regroups after a preliminary assault and then prevails through teamwork" is the general idea of what it should happen, but it's not what it is shown. Remove Mando from the episode and you would only have (assuming she adopts the same effortlessy successful strategy to attack head-on a prepared enemy: she gets inside with no problem whatsoever!) a couple prisoners as casualties, which is something that Ahsoka herself brought upon her. There's not even an indication that she was preparing any strategy, since she asks about the presence of any prisoner while she is already going back to face the Magistrate.
Chapter 9: The Marshal - S2-E1
Stupidity: The bad guys have guns literally at the neck of Mando, but when his slow and erratic homing projectiles fly around, they don't shoot. Slowest reaction times ever.
Suggested correction: They may not have known what the projectiles were. Some kind of weapon would be the obvious assumption, but by the time they likely figured that, they were either panicking or simply not focused on shooting Mando, since doing so probably wouldn't save them.
Chapter 5: The Gunslinger - S1-E5
Stupidity: Mando's ally breaks the fob saying he's got it memorized. Memorize a tracking device, that's new.
Suggested correction: He means he memorized the chain code, the biometric data stored on the tracking fob. Calican already knows Fennec is headed towards the dune sea so they don't need the fob to track her location.
Beyond the dune sea, is what he says, yes, which is an enormous desert on the vaste planet. Memorizing the biometric data does not help at all without the tracking device. I took it that he memorized the positional data, but if I know someone's last known location, and that they are headed "beyond the Sahara desert" it is not really helping me find them, is it? You can make a guess, of course.
The chain code is what is used to identify the target, when they are turned in to collect the bounty. You don't need the tracking fob if you already know all the numbers in the chain code. That's the part that he memorized. It doesn't appear that the tracking fob gives you precise location data, so "In the Sahara dessert" is all you get. If the tracking fob did give more precise location data then every idiot in the galaxy would be a bounty hunter.
To identify the target he has the puck already. My point is that "Got it all memorized" is a plot device that works when your target is stationary (like The Child in the first episode), not a moving target. He smashed a -tracking - device (which took it where he is now) and then says he's "got it all memorized." You can't memorize tracking, and the chain code simply includes data like the age that are of no use for a target already well known like Fennec. What he memorized was her last known location at most... which if the fobs are as vague as you mention (one hopes that they are not just beeping dowsing rods) would make even less sense, because he wouldn't have a clue about her position and course and could be off by hundreds of miles.
The chain code contains identifying information that proves what target you've brought in. In another episode a character worries that if his chain code is scanned he will go to prison because he's a wanted man. Yes, the tracking fob is used to hunt down your target but that's not why Mando wants it and why the other bounty hunter destroys it. Without the fob, even if Mando catches Fennec he won't be able to collect the bounty because he doesn't know the chain code.
If we go with this theory, it sounds like Mando wants the money (and recognition) to bring Fennec in, but he does not care about that nor he was asking for it; the fob has a different use, and the chain code is memorized separately from that anyway (he was given in the first episode tracking The Child a fob without a chain code). The chain code is simply a code with the essential information about the subject, like a personal document. If that what he memorized, it's as if he said "Don't worry, we'll find her in the desert, I got her social security number." And if he captured Fennec, which was needed alive, he would have gotten the recognition no matter what.
I tend to agree with the mistake that the tracking fob is receiving updated biometric coordinate data, so there's no way memorize updated data, at most it would be memorizing last known coordinates. However, I would advise using terms like "Baby Yoda" if you want to be taken seriously, otherwise it looks like you haven't watched the show. There's no need to use incorrect terms just because you think people won't know who "The Child" or "Grogu" is.
Chapter 15: The Believer - S2-E7
Stupidity: We are thrilled to see Bill Burr's face, and he does some impressive acting in this episode, however Mando and him are going inside a base without any intel or cover, trying to be low-profile and avoid risk, but he chose to ditch his helmet for a petty reason (makes driving - in a straight line - harder) and he does not pick it back up even if he easily could, when the drive is over. And of course, nobody in the base realises that they have never seen that guy before, and the original drivers must had no comrades/friends who were awaiting their return ,nor officer to report to.
Suggested correction: All highly speculative. Both of them take their helmets off and nobody knows who they are. Not unlikely since there is no reason given why they should be known to the people at the base. Unless you can give a good reason why they should, this is not a stupidity.
Can you give me a good reason why nobody should be waiting for the drivers' arrival or know what they look like? Which is what I said in the entry; not that people do not know who Bill Burr is (which is incidentally also what happens since he knows the officer, and he does know of the base at least), but that nobody knows they are not the people driving the trucks. He's totally unconcerned.
Chapter 14: The Tragedy - S2-E6
Stupidity: Boba Fett sees an imperial cruiser and says "The Empire...they're back", and Fennec does not believe him. That's after they spent the previous half of the episode killing a few dozens of Stormtroopers in pristine gear and full military asset.
Suggested correction: They've encountered a lot of Imperial Remnant troopers before. That is very different from a fully operational Assault Cruiser.
Two dropships with dozens of stormtroopers in military asset, with mortars and cannons, who have a drop on their position and destroy a ship from orbit. You are saying it is implied (or canonical) that they had any kind of encounter like that before? Fennec's reply that it's impossible since "the Outer Rim is under the jurisdiction of the New Republic" is quite weird coming from someone who just sustained a prolonged fight with imperial forces with support from a powerful starship.
Stupidity: In a throwaway comedy line, the Mythrol says that he still does not have vision in his left eye. For unexplained reasons that is the one guy that they take along for the dangerous base assault mission; a wimpy, obese, half-blind accountant. And for the whole mission he is quite a good shot, even (left-handed one at that, even). Cara is the Marshall and Greef the de facto 'ruler' of the town, who appears to be the biggest if not the only one of the planet; are we to believe the whole planet is so small that its whole defence is composed by these two people and there's not a single other able-bodied person on it? (00:11:30)
Suggested correction: The base was supposed to be practically empty, run by a skeleton crew. It was meant to be a simple, in and out mission and the Mythrol was just supposed to be their driver. He goes with the group inside, against his better judgment, because the lava tide will be coming in soon. It is never stated that the four members of the team are the only able-bodied people, they simply believed that the four they bring would be enough. Which as it turns out was completely accurate, given the fact the team succeeds even with the base being full of stormtroopers. Also, you don't have to be a stereotypical tough guy to be a good shot. There's plenty of people that aren't soldiers and are far from in good shape that are perfectly capable with a gun.
And that are also blind in one eye? I figured that the lava tide was just an excuse to bring him in - no such tide is shown to affect the area, even if the mission takes them longer than they anticipated.
You say in your mistake that the blind in one eye comment was meant to be humorous. No reason to believe he was being completely honest. But yes, it is not unheard of for people with limited or even no vision in one eye to still be a good shot. It only limits your depth perception and peripheral vision. No reason you can't hit a target right in front of you with only one good eye. Regardless of whether or not the lava tide coming in was a true statement or just an excuse to get him to come in, it isn't a stupidity mistake that the group brings him in. These mistakes are not for actions by characters you would not agree with were you in their shoes. This category of mistake is for an action so daft it defies logic, such as running back into the building with the killer you just escaped.
"I'll bring my pudgy accountant to my base infiltration mission, he has a speeder bike" doesn't sound exactly logical, no (other than the fact that he's a funny character and helps making the episode entertaining). If he was supposed to just be their driver and then an extraordinary circumstance such as their speeder bike being destroyed forced him to abandon a "Keep the speeder running" (as Mando says en route - in a typical trope, they are discussing their roles and basic mission objectives only when they are already well on the way and have zero scouting or tools) plan, it would have followed some kind of logic, but that is not what happens, they drag him in. When do you ever see in a robbery/heist movie the characters tell their getaway guy "come on in, we could use one more guy with a gun actually, forget our only escape mean"? By any logic he'd just slow them down, he even just showed them that he's not any good at picking a lock.
It doesn't rise to the level of a Stupidity mistake. Bringing him isn't an action that is so stupid it seems unbelievable. He doesn't even appear to be as much of a hindrance to the mission as you suggest, they seem to operate just fine with him there.
Of course they are the good guys and it all works out in the end and it made for a fine episode, but for all we know and they know, they dragged a non-combat trained and physically unfit accountant to their commando mission, the fighting part. It's already a big stretch that the magistrate and the marshall of a whole planet have to resort on that guy of all people for a getaway driver role (he's not even portrayed as being a great pilot, since Cara drives the vehicle they will escape with: he's literally there because he's got a bike and he's an indentured servant), but it sure seems unbelievable they brought him - inside the base - all of a sudden with no story justification about it (which would have been really simple) and contradicting the original plan.
Stupidity: There is no possible reason why Moff Gideon gives any time to Mando and the others, till nightfall even, since he knows they do not have the baby. They have nothing to offer him.
Suggested correction: He didn't know that the Child wasn't in there. The Scout Troopers hadn't radioed anyone about it at that point (if they had, they wouldn't be told to wait at the perimeter of the town in the final episode) and The Client had specifically told Moff Gideon that the Child was in fact in there.
And Gideon knows it's not true, since he specifically replied "You may wanna check again" and mows him down with his guns (and then threatens to use the even bigger gun, who would lay enough devastation to kill everyone including the Child). They are told to wait at the perimeter because the Empire is bureaucratic to the point of silliness (and so Taika Waititi can put his trademark humorous scene in it).
