With so many characters and storylines in motion, episode 5 is itself a testament to directorial choreography. Mook's performance was beautiful. White's use of traditional Thai dance as simple entertainment for the new Western aristocracy who demand exclusivity and excess was artful.

Ella, 100% agreed. But they still have to wrap up the Rey narrative. George Lucas said he took inspiration for A New Hope from Akira Kurosawa's film The Hidden Fortress because the story is focused on two peasants hired by sole survivors of a massacred klan (a princess and her samurai general protector posing as commoners) to escort the princess across hostile territory. He modeled C3PO and R2D2 after the peasants and Leia and Obi Wan after the princess and her protector. Lucas originally intended to tell the story from the perspective of common ppl but as he expanded the plot he infused a hero protagonist focus.

As far as Spaghetti Westerns go ..

The Good The Bad And The Ugly

A fist full of Dollars

The Magnificent Seven

Are all westernized remakes of Kurosawa

Samurai films.

Mando3 was Disney Star Wars universe salad. So many intersections with other shows just proves that Disney doesn't understand that the Marvel approach of tangled plotlines and character crossovers is wearing fans out. And the most important difference between SW and the MCU is that the MCU doesn't pretend to be remotely believable, it's simply over the top characters in corny costumes delivering bad dialogue and awesome action. Disney Star Wars will continue to under perform as long as they keep trying to replicate the MCU. When it comes to the future, maybe they should wrap up the plot threads and characters from the poorly conceived Rebels and mandoverse and move forward with their poorly conceived Rey o-rama drama.

It seems you're right about the Ghorman massacre, this is a very good sign that Gilroy and his crew have weaved some crucial threads into the greater fabric their story. Really looking forward to Andor 2.