Analyzing The Mandalorian’s Fighting Styles — “The Prisoner”
Word count: 895
One thing I really liked about Mando’s retribution in “The Prisoner” episode is that it was in line with his character, and it furthers my gripes with season 2 specifically because “The Prisoner” reinforces that Mando is a hunter, and a lethally efficient one at that. Hunters lie in wait and plan their moves from afar, observing and stalking their prey as they move silently and decisively, calculating the entire time.
Mando breaks out of the cell and immediately goes for the command center, which by his ability to act efficiently there tells us he was likely making observations about the room when they were there the first time. Mando is constantly aware of his surroundings and is always thinking of the multiple possible outcomes of a situation at any given time. He knew or intuited how to re-route the crew and override security measures, blocking corridors and dropping the walls between hallways, and did so quickly while planning as he went.
In the control center we see him cut the crew off and redirect them in specific ways that will put him at an advantage: by pairing Mayfeld with Qin, he puts Mayfeld at the disadvantage, knowing he was the new guy— Qin has no reason to care about Mayfeld because there was no prior connection between the two of them. Qin’s also unarmed until he takes one of Mayfeld’s guns (further disadvantaging one of the crew), and Mando knows he’s only going to look out for himself regardless of whether Xi’an is his sister or not. Qin’s the most likely to just bail on the rest and make for the first escape he can find.
Divide and conquer.
Mayfeld is a sharpshooter so by turning off all the lights and knowing the alarm lights will be flickering, he’s taken away Mayfeld’s ability to even see what he could be shooting at. Stalking Mayfeld in the dark and moving with him allows Mando to close the gap so he can overpower him at close range, which wouldn’t be a sharpshooter’s forte.
When Mando sees Burg and Xi’an split up he redirects Burg to the command center because the only way he can hope to defeat him is by literally getting the high ground, which wouldn’t be found anywhere else on the ship they have access to. Burg’s the strongest so he needs to eliminate him first; if any of the others were to team up on him he could still win that fight, but Burg tips the scales too much for Mando to not get him out of the equation entirely.
The command center is the only place Mando could get the upper hand on Burg and he knows he can’t go up against the Devaronian in a contest of brute strength, so he lies in wait in the grating above, hoping he can string Burg up and cut him off with a trap. Obviously Burg is able to yank him down and Mando has to improvise from there, but even though Mando doesn’t succeed in a close quarters fight, he’s still setting up advantages for later (like by getting both of Burg’s sidearms while his hands are occupied, even if Mando wasn’t able to shoot Burg with them).
What’s interesting about Xi’an is that if you notice just before their knife fight, it almost seems like Xi’an realizes he’s there because she can smell him. What makes his fight with her a challenge is that we can tell shes’s also a hunter, and she’s deadly from afar— Even for as many knives as she throws that he’s able to deflect, one of them still lands in his shoulder. They may have equal skill with blades, but the key for him here is that if he keeps moving forward he knows if he can close the gap between them where he’ll have the advantage of bulk muscle and physical strength. It’s also better to get her to expend her arsenal now so she doesn’t have anything left when he has to remain in close proximity as he drags her back to the cell.
All of these skills demonstrate his powers of observation and ability to predict what his enemies will do next. Mando planting the distress beacon on Qin was him knowing the New Republic would show up at the chop shop. He anticipates Ran’s betrayal, he knows Qin would have no idea what the beacon was (thereby preventing him from acting on its presence and implications even if he’d found it sooner), and he knows what the New Republic will do, thereby clearing his escape of any pursuers
One of the first teachings of fight choreography is that a fight happens when words stop being effective, and that any fight within a narrative is a story in itself. Fights are character-driven and the results should further reinforce those characters, and/or change the story for the characters involved in a significant way. Every action in this episode reinforces the idea that Mando thinks ahead, thinks on his feet, and does his best fighting when he’s able to be a hunter. He’s just as smart, stealthy, and capable in the more subtle aspects of his craft as he is in an all out fight, and I wish they’d kept that characterization beyond the first season because it’s integral to how this guy operates within this world.
I know we already had to fight to get Karen and Foggy in Born Again, but no Mahoney is deeply upsetting to me. He brings a certain "They don't pay me enough for this shit" and "So Over It™" that I really appreciate and miss.
