Author Topic: The Mandalorian - Season 3 (SPOILERS possible)  (Read 5525 times)

Offline Matt_Fury

  • Jedi General
  • *
  • Posts: 9374
  • I aim to misbehave.
    • View Profile
    • Every Action Figure Parody has a beginning.
Re: The Mandalorian - Season 3 (SPOILERS possible)
« Reply #90 on: March 31, 2023, 03:22 PM »
So I guess "The Mandalorian" hasn't been Din, but rather it's been Grogu this whole time? 

I've been catching a lot of crap online for floating that theory.
This is the way.


I have spoken.

Offline Rob

  • Staff Member
  • Jedi Elder
  • *
  • Posts: 25281
    • View Profile
Re: The Mandalorian - Season 3 (SPOILERS possible)
« Reply #91 on: March 31, 2023, 06:46 PM »
I can't tell if you guys are joking, but I'm calling total bull**** if that ends up being what it is.

I'm 100% convinced that Grogu's arc was supposed to end after season 2 with Luke taking him off for training, and that some pencil pushing ******* at Disney imagined a world without Baby Yoda sales and demanded that they write him back into the Mandalorian, which was the sole reason we had that spin off episode in BOBF.

And now here they are, with him as an accessory, trying to figure out how to make him important.  They may very well make him "the" Mandalorian, but I'll never believe that was the plan all along.

Offline Matt_Fury

  • Jedi General
  • *
  • Posts: 9374
  • I aim to misbehave.
    • View Profile
    • Every Action Figure Parody has a beginning.
Re: The Mandalorian - Season 3 (SPOILERS possible)
« Reply #92 on: March 31, 2023, 09:08 PM »
I'm not joking Rob, I think this was the plan from the beginning.
This is the way.


I have spoken.

Offline Jeff

  • Administrator
  • Jedi Elder
  • *
  • Posts: 26321
  • Leave me where I lie
    • View Profile
    • www.JediDefender.com
Re: The Mandalorian - Season 3 (SPOILERS possible)
« Reply #93 on: April 1, 2023, 01:02 AM »
I can't tell if you guys are joking, but I'm calling total bull**** if that ends up being what it is.

I'm 100% convinced that Grogu's arc was supposed to end after season 2 with Luke taking him off for training,

I was joking.  I agree with you Rob.  It sure seemed like the plan was for everyone to go their separate ways at the end of Season 2.  I assumed everyone would spin off (Grogu with Luke, Dune with the New Republic Rangers, Fett and Shand to TBOBF, etc).  Then Mando and Bo were going to take the darksaber and go do a Mando thing.  Maybe eventually there'd be some reason to get the band back together, but I was not expecting that to happen before Mando Season 3 even started and especially not on someone else's show.
Editor-in-Chief  - www.JediDefender.com
On Twitter?  Follow JediDefender -> @jedidefender

Offline Nicklab

  • Jedi Sentinel
  • *
  • Posts: 13810
  • I saw we fight!
    • View Profile
Re: The Mandalorian - Season 3 (SPOILERS possible)
« Reply #94 on: April 1, 2023, 09:19 AM »
I feel like Grogu is far too unique of a character to have been written off of the show.  He’s old enough to have been a youngling at the Jedi Temple during Order 66.  That alone sets him apart from any other student that Luke might have taken on to train.

And I’m trying to look at it from the standpoint of the Sequel Trilogy, and the bodies of the students that Ben Solo killed when he turned.  Based on the abilities he’s displayed I don’t think Grogu would have been that easy for Ben to kill.  And his attachment to Din Djarin is profound.  Bo-Katan refers to Din as Grogu’s dad when she was in the caves on Mandalore.  And Din Djarin went so far as to reveal his face to Grogu willingly. 
"Call up a Hammerhead Corvette.  I have an idea."

Feedback

Offline Nicklab

  • Jedi Sentinel
  • *
  • Posts: 13810
  • I saw we fight!
    • View Profile
Re: The Mandalorian - Season 3 (SPOILERS possible)
« Reply #95 on: April 5, 2023, 01:37 PM »
This week's episode seemed like a bit of a departure.  But the whimsical parts were counterbalanced by some pretty intense dealings that were set up in last week's episode.  I'll leave it at that for now.
"Call up a Hammerhead Corvette.  I have an idea."

Feedback

Offline P-Siddy

  • Jedi General
  • *
  • Posts: 9380
    • View Profile
Re: The Mandalorian - Season 3 (SPOILERS possible)
« Reply #96 on: April 5, 2023, 03:56 PM »
At least 3 cameos for sure... there's another rumored that I haven't seen any confirmation.

But, yeah, it's kind of a weird one.
« Last Edit: April 5, 2023, 03:58 PM by P-Siddy »

Offline Nicklab

  • Jedi Sentinel
  • *
  • Posts: 13810
  • I saw we fight!
    • View Profile
Re: The Mandalorian - Season 3 (SPOILERS possible)
« Reply #97 on: April 5, 2023, 08:38 PM »
This week’s episode was easily the source of the next Disney Parks Droid Factory 4-pack.  It’s just a matter of which ones are chosen.
"Call up a Hammerhead Corvette.  I have an idea."

Feedback

Offline Rob

  • Staff Member
  • Jedi Elder
  • *
  • Posts: 25281
    • View Profile
Re: The Mandalorian - Season 3 (SPOILERS possible)
« Reply #98 on: April 6, 2023, 10:47 AM »
I’m still not impressed with much this season.  The end of this one was good to have gotten done I suppose, that detail needed taking care of. 

The beginning thing with aquatic Romeo and Juliet felt forced and banal at the same time… the entire arc of the episode was again, very local and didn’t seem to advance any story… it was a 30 minute device just to get Bo Katan to be able to talk to Axe Woves… an entire episode of the two of them hashing it out on some mission or other would have been a far stronger story… the two of them working it out through dangerous circumstances… him slowly coming around…  Instead it felt like the end note on another inconsequential side quest.

Also I might be the only one, I don’t need all these cameos.  It takes me out of the story in all the wrong ways. 
« Last Edit: April 6, 2023, 10:50 AM by Rob »

Offline Nicklab

  • Jedi Sentinel
  • *
  • Posts: 13810
  • I saw we fight!
    • View Profile
Re: The Mandalorian - Season 3 (SPOILERS possible)
« Reply #99 on: April 6, 2023, 12:12 PM »
I thought that the opening scene might have been a callback to chapter 3 of the first season.  Was this the Mon Calamari nobleman's son that might have been Din Djarin's next bounty after he had turned over the Child to the Client?

I generally liked this episode.  Not every planet can be the "used universe".  The Empire had power and wealth, and no doubt there were places where the standard of living was quite high.  Not everyone lived in what looked like adobe homes, in a hut in the forest or on a volcanic plain.  Jack Black and Lizzo took me a little bit out of the episode.  But I thought that Christopher Lloyd was quite good!  And he served the purpose of showing some of the fragmented political thinking that might have been prevalent after the fall of the Empire.  ANDOR certainly showed that there were varied political interests within the Empire - the Separatists hadn't just completely gone away.  Helgait's monologue made that even more clear.  Based on this episode and the last, the New Republic is looking like a hot mess.

The resolution over the chain of custody of the Dark Saber was actually quite well thought out!  And the end of the conflict with Bo-Katan's former faction seems like it will lead to some kind of union among the Mandalorians from the Children of the Watch and the Night Owls.  Add in the political angle of Plazir being prepared to recognize the independence of Mandalore?  It looks like things are heading in an interesting direction.  Especially with the breadcrumbs about Moff Gideon from the previous week.
« Last Edit: April 6, 2023, 12:15 PM by Nicklab »
"Call up a Hammerhead Corvette.  I have an idea."

Feedback

Offline GrandMoffNick

  • Jedi Master
  • *
  • Posts: 6236
  • You are what you choose to be
    • View Profile
Re: The Mandalorian - Season 3 (SPOILERS possible)
« Reply #100 on: April 6, 2023, 12:46 PM »
Excellently put Nick.
This is the water, and this is the well. Drink full, and descend. The horse is the white of the eyes, and dark within

Offline Matt_Fury

  • Jedi General
  • *
  • Posts: 9374
  • I aim to misbehave.
    • View Profile
    • Every Action Figure Parody has a beginning.
Re: The Mandalorian - Season 3 (SPOILERS possible)
« Reply #101 on: April 6, 2023, 01:47 PM »
I really enjoyed this episode.  Lots of show-don't-tell moments.

The opening with Axe Woves and the mandalorians bringing the Mon Cal home shows how much they've fallen.  They are pure mercenaries, no higher purpose.  The don't care that the two are in a bit of a Romeo and Juliet type situation.  They have a commission and they are going to carry it out.

Another look at the opulence of some worlds.  Although it played out like a video game plot, (you want to see this person, you need to handle our problem with the droids first).  I liked the Christopher Lloyd character being a separatist.  He was loyal to his home world and resented a former Imperial being allowed to hang around.  Going back to the video game parallel for a bit, that droid running the bar sounded like some of the droids in KOTOR II...I loved it!

I absolutely loved the interaction with Bo Katan, Din Djarin and the Axe Woves mercenary crew.  How Bo Katan said that Din Djarin was more mandalorian than any of them was awesome!  Bo Katan has had an arc similar to Baze Malbus.  Someone who has lost their faith only to regain it.  I am loving it!  I kind of thought her defeating the creature that bested Din Djarin gave her the right to wield the Darksaber again, and I'm glad that they went that route.  Although, now I feel she's going to die at some point in this story.

They've set a lot up this season and now we have a couple of episodes left to see some payoff.  I'm enjoying the ride!
This is the way.


I have spoken.

Offline Muftak

  • Jedi Apprentice
  • *
  • Posts: 1235
  • Cardboard Entrepreneur
    • View Profile
Re: The Mandalorian - Season 3 (SPOILERS possible)
« Reply #102 on: April 6, 2023, 01:52 PM »
This one really really felt like an episode of afternoon GI Joe or a Saturday morning cartoon from the 80's, except with a little serialized storytelling tacked on at the end. And that's not said with disrespect, because I look back fondly at some of those old cartoons and the storylines they were able to tell. The difference is this isn't farmed out to a bunch of writers to come up with those how many dozens of episodes...here we have such a shorter season, guided by one storyteller, so it feels weird that the storytelling is coming out so disjointed.

I liked the callback to the Mon Cal Prince...I'm sure he's the guy Din took the bounty on only to forget about the job to rescue Grogu back in season one. That, at least, was rewarding storytelling.

The episode itself was a weird homage to a detective procedural, and gave me strong vibes of the "School Cafeteria" episode of Clone Wars, ie the last episode of Clone Wars I watched when it was airing on Cartoon Network before giving up on the series. I did come back to watch the last few episodes, but the show never really connected with me again.

As far as Bo-Katan finally getting the Darksaber back, it just points out even more how much the overarching storytelling is broken here. None of the events from the finale of Season 2 that should have been complications have been anything that has taken any kind of work or character development by the characters to fix. Grogu is just back, and now superfluous to the story. Din is just fully devoted to the cult again, and not questioning the tenets of their beliefs anymore. Bo-Katan has the Darksaber, her fleet, and her followers back. Why do the work to set up these complications if they are just going to be randomly--and quickly--undone?

(The one good thing was, when Din explained how the Darksaber was now hers by right, my 13-year old son questioned it, and we got to talk about how relying on dogma in religions often leads to people being able to twist and distort the religion to mean whatever they want at the moment. A good teaching moment for us.)

And I have to add, the stuff about the Beskar in Gideon's shuttle...wasn't he the guy who took all the Beskar after Mandalore was destroyed? Wasn't he the source of Mando's own Beskar armor? If Beskar points to anyone on the galaxy anymore, it ought to implicate Moff Gideon himself.

Offline GrandMoffNick

  • Jedi Master
  • *
  • Posts: 6236
  • You are what you choose to be
    • View Profile
Re: The Mandalorian - Season 3 (SPOILERS possible)
« Reply #103 on: April 6, 2023, 02:17 PM »
I would have found it ridiculous if Din and Bo hadn't found a loophole. Din doesn't want it. They are working together. Maybe Axe could have beat Din and then Bo beats him, but whatever.
This is the water, and this is the well. Drink full, and descend. The horse is the white of the eyes, and dark within

Offline Muftak

  • Jedi Apprentice
  • *
  • Posts: 1235
  • Cardboard Entrepreneur
    • View Profile
Re: The Mandalorian - Season 3 (SPOILERS possible)
« Reply #104 on: April 6, 2023, 02:36 PM »
Eh, but once Mando has the Darksaber the way they did it, then an interesting story development is him having to become a reluctant leader, maybe grow a bit so that he is not always taking rash action and jumping at a chance to solve things with his fists. In the process he could learn to be a become a better protector of Grogu rather than needing a baby to bail him out again and again when he gets in over his head.

And Bo-Katan was primed for some character development once her followers left. Now that has been truncated to, join a cult and get everything back that you wanted.