The Mandalorian is completely wasting Grogu this season
The flagship Disney Plus Star Wars series has lost its way in season 3—and Baby Yoda’s limited role is a big reason why
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The Mandalorian used to be my comfort show. In our house, it was simply called “The Baby Yoda Show” for most of its first season, and a good deal of the second. Ever since that little green guy popped up at the end of the series premiere—and kudos to the Lucasfilm team for somehow managing to keep him under wraps until then—we’ve been hooked on the adventures of Mando and his young charge. It was fun following them as they explored new corners of the Star Wars galaxy together. I especially enjoyed the episodic, space-Western take on the lone wolf and cub trope. In this third season, though, that comfort has often been replaced with frustration. My family is still watching—whether out of habit, nostalgia, obligation, or some combination of all three—but I’m not getting the same satisfaction out of The Mandalorian that I once did.
I’m not alone in that. Ratings for the third season have significantly fallen in comparison to the first two. The reasons for that drop are as varied as the audience, but a few critiques have been consistently cropping up in our recaps and the greater discourse surrounding the show. The storyline is unfocused; the tone is inconsistent; it’s trying too hard to be Andor; the celebrity guest stars are distracting—all of these complaints have been rightly leveled against The Mandalorian in recent weeks. For me, though, it comes down to the way the show has used—or hasn’t used—its greatest asset: Baby Yoda himself, aka Grogu (I’m slowly, begrudgingly coming around to the name, but hey, even Pedro Pascal himself slips up sometimes).
The storyline of the first two seasons centered around Din Djarin (voiced by Pascal, with stunt doubles Brendan Wayne or Lateef Crowder usually performing underneath the mask) initially protecting Grogu, then searching for Grogu’s people, the Jedi. At the end of season two, the Jedi were the ones who found him. Specifically, one Jedi in particular—Luke Skywalker—came to the rescue when Grogu was captured by Imperial bad guy Moff Gideon (Giancarlo Esposito). By that point, Din and Grogu had bonded as Clan Mudhorn, “a clan of two.” Season two ended with a sad farewell between them, as Din made the heartbreaking choice to let Grogu go so he could train with Luke and fulfill his destiny as a Jedi. Although Luke’s surprise cameo was controversial among fans, I personally dug seeing him in action again (through the power of suspension of disbelief), and I could relate to the conflict within Din as he struggled to balance his own attachment to his foundling son and doing what he believed was right for him. That’s the kind of storytelling I signed up for; it’s what got me invested in the show in the first place.
That’s where it all kind of fell apart, though. The next time we saw Din and Grogu was in an episode of The Mandalorian spin-off The Book Of Boba Fett. While that series had some intriguing aspects, it was narratively all over the place. Nothing illustrated that more than the fifth episode, “The Return Of The Mandalorian.” After four episodes of pretending they had something new to say about Boba Fett, the writers gave up trying and brought back Din Djarin in an episode that barely featured the show’s title character. What does it say about the quality of a show when its best episodes center on characters from a completely different series? Nothing good.
The next episode, “From The Desert Comes A Stranger,” continued the side-quest storyline, and we got to see Grogu training with Luke. Din drops off a little beskar chainmail shirt for him, but reluctantly leaves without speaking to his son. After Luke gives Grogu the choice to stay and complete his training or go back to his dad, the two reunite in the season finale, “In The Name Of Honor.” Considering The Book Of Boba Fett had a much smaller audience than The Mandalorian, I wonder how many viewers went into season three without knowing any of this (though I suppose that’s what Google is for).
You’d think the lesson showrunner Jon Favreau would have taken from this is that anytime you add Grogu to a story, he just naturally makes it more interesting. Apparently not, because the playful young lad has barely been a factor in season three. He’s just been tagging along on his dad’s adventures, cooing, disrespecting boundaries, and casually using the force to spin around in chairs and jump into people’s arms. It’s cute, but hardly consequential. The only time he’s actually made a difference in the plot was in episode two, when he fetched Bo-Katan (Katee Sackoff) to rescue Din from that crab-droid creature in the mines of Mandalore. Grogu was just the messenger, though. It’s not like he was the one doing the rescuing. Ever since then, it’s been the Din and Bo show, with Grogu reduced to a background character, no more important than a pet and less useful than a droid.
It seems the writers have become more interested in Bo-Katan’s quest to reunify and rule Mandalore than in the characters we started with. Considering that Din’s decision to adopt the kid rather than collect the bounty for handing him over to The Client (Werner Herzog) was the inciting incident of the entire show, that’s quite a swerve. Especially when you remember Grogu’s face spawned a thousand memes and generated millions of dollars in merchandise sales.
I think a lot of the issues fans are having with this season could be fixed by returning Grogu and Din, and their evolving relationship, to the center of the narrative. He may or may not be part of the cloning plot that was integral to episode three, but despite a reference in the most recent episode, none of that has paid off yet. If Grogu has outgrown his usefulness as a MacGuffin, at least they could give him an arc with some character development. We learned a little about his past, but how about his future? Let’s see him struggle with the dueling allegiances of Jedi and Mandalorian. One day, he may grow up to become a powerful force user. That journey has already begun, and it’s one I’d like to see continue. Now that would give me great comfort.
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Alternatively, since this season just has Grogu as a side character, they could have left him with Luke off-screen. It would have made their eventual reunion more emotional if they were apart longer.
This article has made me wonder if this season was planned before whatever powers decided they needed Grogu back sooner, and Grogu’s inaction is because it was written assuming he wasn’t there.
This is a great take, and it wouldn’t surprise me at all. Similarly how there is a lot of New Republic stuff being sandwiched in, because the New Republic show got cancelled, they needed to tell the important parts of that show in The Mandalorian.
I think what was planned was that after two seasons, Boba Fett would’ve taken over as the titular Mandalorian, and after his story was complete, Bo-Katan would’ve taken that role. But Baby Yoda makes money, so they’ve wound up in this weird mess where Din and Grogu are somehow positioned as the lead characters, despite it now being someone else’s story, and anything they’re given to do feels utterly inconsequential.
This doesn’t bother me that much, because wild retcons have ALWAYS been part of this franchise. And anyone who wants to argue otherwise apparently thinks Lucas fully intended to write a make-out session between siblings.
Can you imagine how “A certain point of view” would have flown the if the Internet had existed in 1983?
That would be a good explanation for why the tiny Deus Ex (that stopped a Mudhorn in it’s tracks because daddy was in trouble) has to forget that he is one to forward the plot sometimes. Gus Fring and his Chicken Soldiers should be dead already, alas.
Based on the writing we’ve seen in Book of Boba Fett, this season of Mando, and Obi-Wan, to say nothing of the mixed (to put it mildly) effectiveness of the SW features, I think there’s just not a lot of quality control over at Lucasfilm.
Title: The Woke Adventures of Grogu in Space by ChatGPTIn a galaxy far, far away, the Mandalorian and his trusty sidekick Grogu were on a mission to save a planet from destruction. However, as they landed on the planet, they realized that something was different about Grogu.Grogu had become “woke.” He had been studying social justice and intersectionality in his spare time and was now a champion for social justice causes. The Mandalorian was confused and didn’t know how to deal with the new, politically correct Grogu.As they walked through the planet, they encountered a group of aliens who were about to be evicted from their homes by a corporation. Grogu immediately recognized the injustice and demanded that they take action to stop the corporation. The Mandalorian, who was used to solving problems with brute force, was taken aback by this new approach.Grogu organized a peaceful protest, and the Mandalorian was stunned to see the aliens and droids marching together in solidarity. They chanted, “The people united will never be defeated!” and “No justice, no peace!”The corporation responded with force, sending in their army of stormtroopers to disperse the protest. Grogu, however, had a trick up his sleeve. He had been practicing the Jedi mind trick and used it to convince the stormtroopers to drop their weapons and join the protest.The Mandalorian was amazed to see how effective the new approach was and was beginning to see the value of Grogu’s newfound “wokeness.”As they continued on their mission, they encountered more social justice issues, such as wage inequality among droids and environmental destruction caused by corporate greed. Grogu continued to lead the charge, and the Mandalorian began to see the importance of fighting for justice for all beings in the galaxy.In the end, they saved the planet and left it a better place for all its inhabitants. The Mandalorian and Grogu flew off into the sunset, with Grogu humming John Lennon’s “Imagine” and the Mandalorian pondering the lessons he had learned on this adventure.As they jumped into hyperspace, the Mandalorian turned to Grogu and said, “You know, I never thought I’d say this, but I think I’m becoming woke too.” Grogu just smiled and replied, “It’s about time, Dad.”
Although I’m totally not defending this season, Grogu’s story is basically over. The Grogu Saga effectively ended in The Book of Boba Fett, when he chose to be a Mandalorian over a Jedi. Sure we’ll get snippets of his backstory and see where he does from here, but now the show is now in it’s Mandalore Saga. For better or worse.Personally, I’m enjoying more where it’s building to, rather than the ride we’ve been on this season. They should really rename the show to The Mandalorians, because that’s basically what it is now.
Holy shit — the Boba Fett feature was that consequential? That’s absolutely infuriating.
Consider also that some think the title character has been Grogu all along. If true, that means his turn into the title character didn’t happen on the show.
An embarrassing storytelling precedent I hope is never, ever repeated.
To quote the orginal: Over it, the fuck you should get
Yeah, sorry if I spoiled it, but pretty much if you didn’t see ToBF, you were denied the resolution to Grogu’s story told in the first two seasons of The Mandalorian.
Fortunately I don’t watch the show anymore. It’s sad that it’s reasonable for me to say that.
Wait until y’all hear how a critical character development for Tony Stark happened in a Captain America movie 😱😱😱
Grogu barely even approached being an actual character; he was basically a plot device with the personality of a cat.
Basically he is comic relief. Which is not the worst thing in the world.
Nothing wrong with comic relief per se, of course. It just baffles me that people are treating Grogu like he was an actual character with an arc or agency.
It’s not about Grogu being a fleshed out character, but the main drive of the actual show revolved around Grogu and his past and his future. Once that was resolved(in an entirely different show), it was very jarring. Especially to those that didn’t watch TBoBF. I don’t think it’s about people treating Grogu like a fully realized character, but that the show is no longer about his and Din’s adventures.
“bang” YES! “bang” NO!
And 90% of the jokes are him eating stuff.
Like this guy?
I would definitely watch this show if Grogu repeatedly devoured full-sized humanoids.
You also missed Cad Bane, Ashoka and Luke interacting and the goddess that is Ming-Na. Fuck you if you missed it
Stop coddling those people. It’s their fault they didn’t watch.
Oh yeah, they had 2? 2.5? episodes dedicated exclusively to Din Djarin and Gorgu in the Book of Boba Fett.
Absolutely. That’s why people were joking/not-joking about it being Season 2.5 of the show. Just a very bizarre creative choice.
“Infuriating” LOL
As much as I do enjoy watching Din and Grogu: the fact that they, and the Mandalorians in general have no appearances or impact on the later Star Wars story lines is somewhat concerning in a continuity sense. How do the writers plan to deal with none of them appearing or even being referenced in the sequel movies? I guess it doesn’t matter but it is strange: it’s like the story is heading for a conclusion that cannot be resolved in the cinematic stories.
Yeah, I’m not sure how it all can be resolved and also not referenced in the sequel trilogy. I’m not super well versed in the books and comics or the animated shows, but there are possibilities, that I’m well…skeptical about.Not to spoil anything, but if you’re interested in a possible explanation, look into “Star Wars A World Between Worlds”.
I’m sure it will all be resolved in the Skywalker Saga Sequel Special Edition Trilogy, coming to theaters in summer 2032.
But they do seem to be laying some groundwork. Just this last episode Bo said united Mandalorians have never been defeated it was only their divisions that caused their downfall. So they can go the direction that united Mandos become strong enough to rebuild their home world and protect independent systems like Navarro and neither the First Order nor the Republic mess with them. Or an internal conflict shatters the Mando alliance causing the survivors to scatter again and become a non-factor during the events of the sequel trilogy.
Similar to quite a bit of things that showed up in all the pre OT media, to be honest. No spare battle droid parts in the Sandcrawler? Where are the Death/Beach troopers and U-Wings?
It’s very strange to have all this new stuff popping up in the past to never return again in the future.
Double perplexing since Favreau seems to be turning the show in a slow-burn origin story for the First Order, Snoke and Palps’ return. Which exactly zero people care about. Why he is so obsessed with checking boxes in the lore?
It’s a big galaxy. Not everything has to be interconnected.I’m already half ignoring the sequel trilogy as canon anyways. It’s just too dumb.
Two And A Half Mandalorians.
I already bought the toy, so they accomplished their goal.
errr….yeah, I have one sitting on my piano. I kept the box in case it ever gets really valuable lol
I kind of like Mobile Suit Grogu though. Second cutest little alien baby after that son of a bitch Rogu.
Every time Baby Yoda shows up in his mech, a random soldier should scream “IT’S A GUNDAAAAAM!” and then die.
The Mandalorian is the flagship show, but it’s now one of many. Some of the seemingly disparate and disconnected pieces of this season appear to be laying the foundation for a version of Timothy Zahn’s Heir to the Empire story. For example, mind flaying the empire’s top cloning scientist is probably intended to turn him very, very evil – and cloning is central to that story, so that’s a foundation that needs to be laid. I don’t want to spoil it for anyone, but that book trilogy is perhaps the best Star Wars story ever told. Stick around. You’re going to love it.
It does not hold up on reread. I loved it when I was nineteen. Not so much now.
Our house canon is that Grogu will bond with the Mythosaur when they get back to Mandalore, recalling that he showed some Force control over a large angry beast in an early episode.
“In our house, it was simply called “The Baby Yoda Show” for most of its first season, and a good deal of the second.”Well, that sounds like a you problem.“Considering that Din’s decision to adopt the kid rather than collect the
bounty for handing him over to The Client (Werner Herzog) was the
inciting incident of the entire show, that’s quite a swerve. Especially
when you remember Grogu’s face spawned a thousand memes and generated
millions of dollars in merchandise sales.”Three seasons of a show all about a baby creature that can’t even talk sounds pretty horrible to me, doubly so if they do it because of memification and merchandising.
Yeah, there’s only so much they can do with Grogu before they have to let him go (not an option—he’s too popular), age him up (impractical without a time jump, possibly ruins the cuteness), or let him fade into the background.
Exactly…I would have been fine with them leaving him with Luke for a season but Star Wars is all about merch so that was never going to work out.
They could have had him with Luke for the bulk of the season with occasional pop-ins to his training to keep the character’s presence in the series.But, yeah, bringing them back together was handled absolutely terribly and for what? So the puppet can be a literal piece of luggage throughout the entire season.I agree that there’s only so much you can do with a non-verbal puppet as a character. But just shoving him to the background, when he was the entire reason for the show’s popularity, isn’t the solution.
I pretty much agree, but at the same time Grogu was always pretty much just a prop. Sure he was the driving force of the first season, but he, it maybe, has never really done much other than be cute and coo like a baby. A time jump like you mention, not gonna work, considering how long that species lives any time jump to actually make Grogu anything but a baby prop would age out the entire cast as they would all be dead lol. That said I am enjoying this season so far, regardless of what other people think. Hell Grogu’s best use in the series to date IMO, is him getting that mech suit and wailing on the yes button.
That was hysterical!!! I loved it. Still I would like to see Grogu use the force a bit more. I am hoping he can tame the mythosaur, rescue Mando and have the Mytho eat Moff! Lol
Give us a moody adolescent Grogu with acne and a patchy beard.
I kinda agree with the author on the first point. I think Baby Yoda was a gigantic factor in the popularity of the show. I definitely agree with you on the second, though. The character is limited so he’s not that interesting. But they keep him around for merchandising. So maybe they should figure out something interesting to do with him.
This is “The Last Jedi” argument of fanboys: you didn’t give me what I expected or wanted, how dare you subvert my expectations and take the story in interesting directions! Now I’m mad and going to blog about it.While 8 bottle episodes of mando and grogu would’ve been fine, it would’ve worn out it’s welcome quickly and painted the show in a corner. Im glad they’re branching out, and I hope I never listen to people like this author.
If it would have been all Grogu front and center we would have heard ‘There’s too much Grogu he can’t even talk and Mando doesn’t do anything!’
It’s almost like fanboys aren’t the best at storytelling! Who would have thought?
“Well, that sounds like a you problem.”
That wasn’t a minority opinion. This was how pretty much the entire audience described and thought of the show.
Yeah a lot of people go all in for cute shit, still a ‘them’ problem.
Really? Still sounds like a “you” problem that these people didn’t get the show. The title is literally “The Mandalorian” and only one of the plotlines focused on Grogu.
If baby Yoda was the hook, it didn’t sink deep enough to keep my kids on the line. Neither has any interest in Star Wars whatsoever.
Analyze a Star War do not.“I am your father” that ended with.Enjoy the pew pew it is.
Well, yeah.
I’m absolutely certain he’s only here because Kathleen Kennedy (or some other Disney suit) found out the creators intended to just keep him at Luke’s for the season and demanded they change those plans posthaste.
This. The logical end of Grogu’s story was he goes off to train as a Jedi. But Disney Lucasfilm don’t much like Jedi, and are still trying to rescue the Ep7-9 disaster, so they clearly felt that conflicted with the storyline that made sense for The Mandalorian.
It’s not even that complex.
They just want to make sure their cuddly cash cow is on TV so everyone keeps watching and buying merch.
“Disney Lucasfilm don’t much like Jedi” – um, what? Of course they do; that’s why they’re bringing back Rey to train new Jedi, and they’re advertising Ahsoka as being a Jedi even though she technically/nominally isn’t one. Lucasfilm doesn’t have anything against Jedi; they just treated Luke horribly, and are unable/refuse to contradict that.
JJ wrote Luke into a horrible/uncharacteristic situation and left Johnson holding the bag*
He got the closest treatment to Lucas’ outline for the sequels in TLJ, weirdly enough.
Nobody “treated Luke horribly” ffs. They treated him like (GASP!) a character. One with flaws and complicated emotions and a difficult family history. I cannot understand this weird fucking fanboy knee-jerk that just because Mark Hamill didn’t leap off the screen in a golden halo of badassery and Force Karate all the bad guys with a wink and a grin that somehow constitutes abuse of their precious special hero.
I love you for this
He wasn’t treated like a character. Despite all the head canon created by Riann Johnson apologists, they did not do the work needed to show how the character went from who he was at the end of The Return of the Jedi to who he became in The Last Jedi. Not everyone who didn’t like The Last Jedi is an angry Reddit fanboy. It was a beautifully shot, poorly written film.A sequel has two jobs, it needs to be an entertaining movie and it also has a responsibility to what came before it and comes after it. Whether it achieved the former is up for debate, but it failed at the latter.Deconstruction and subversion may play well with cool kids, but it would have taken more work to do the heavy lifting to do the world building to extend the saga in a meaningful and satisfying way.
I don’t know if you remember the Force Awakens Macguffin of “Luke Skywalker has gone missing” but that movie ended with Rey discovering Luke living as an Obi-Wan like hermit. So to act like it was “Rian Johnson apologists” writing “head canon” is disingenuous. Luke’s character direction was set down in that first sequel film. I don’t think there’s anything to object to about it but IF you’re gonna complain let’s not pretend that Johnson was the culprit.
Bitter, angry Luke was a Johnson creation since he was allowed go any direction he wanted with his sequel. I referred to the Riann Johnson apologists because they seem to be the only people who had any fond memories of that abomination of a trilogy. His was the best of the three, which isn’t saying much, but it was a horrible movie.
We knew from TFA that Kylo was Ben Solo. We knew that something turned Luke’s nephew to the dark side. We knew that Obi Wan went into hiding in part out of guilt over his inability to keep Anakin away from the Dark Side. In Return of the Jedi we see how close Luke can be pulled to darkness and anger by Palpatine. We know from the original trilogy that Luke HAS the capacity for bitterness and anger. All these events, established well in advance of TLJ, lead very reasonably to a bitter, angry Luke. I would have found a different version of Luke equally easy to buy into if it was built on a foundation of character development. The version we got DOES make sense. It WAS built on character development. The fact of the matter is that a bunch of fans didn’t LIKE that version of Luke and have spent a ton of effort pretending that it was a misrepresentation of the character. And it fucking wasn’t.
Return of the Jedi ended with Luke believing that his father, the second in command of a genocidal empire capable of destroying planets was capable of good. So much so that he risked his life. So, we are to believe that this dude is willing to kill his nephew, child of his sister and his good friend, because said nephew MIGHT end up being evil. For that to be believable, Johnson needed to show his work. That was a whole lot of character development that he just hand waved away.They made sequels to a story they had no interest in continuing which is the whole point of sequels.
Luke was not responsible for his father turning to the Dark Side. He also wasn’t responsible for Ben turning but in HIS MIND he thought he was. The weight of responsibility is so much different from the notion of redemption. Luke, who has always suffered self-doubts (something we saw many times throughout the OG trilogy), is dealt a huge blow to his already shaky sense of self when he believes Ben will turn.And hey, guess who DIDN’T kill his nephew? Luke! So ACTUALLY we are to believe that he was TEMPTED, and in that temptation he experienced the self-doubt and fear he was always fighting. The same emotions that LEAD to the Dark Side. AGAIN, I get why people don’t *like* this version of Luke. But it’s consistent with the character we knew prior to the sequels. It’s not a misunderstanding of the character. It’s not a betrayal. It’s a valid creative choice. It’s a choice that I WOULD have liked to see developed in more depth and breadth. It certainly deserved that. But Mark Hamill is fucking old. And the sequels are not ABOUT Luke, they’re about Rey. I mean, eventually because JJ and Disney can’t stand to let any shred of the fandom go without a personal handjob the whole fucking 9 movie SERIES is about the Skywalker family at large, but whatever. The point is that Luke is not the be-all end-all of those stories. I got accused of creating a strawman when I went hyperbolic about Luke being a golden Force god-king but fucking HONESTLY, what direction would people like you WANT to see the character go in? What would have satisfied you? I submit that not a fucking THING would have made people like you happy.Jesus christ I’m sick of talking about Luke motherfucking Skywalker.The worst. SW fans are the absolute fucking worst. Followed by MCU fans. Disney has cornered the market on infuriating stans.
You are filling in the blanks. As a moviegoer that is not my job. It is the job of the writer. Not all fans are willing tolerate the lack of planning, sloppy writing, and poor storytelling, especially from people who are being paid very well. Billions wasted on three movies that were completely forgettable and contributed next to nothing.
His character direction was set down in the first film, but that doesn’t mean Johnson or anyone else did a good job justifying it.
Is there a good story to be made out of turning Luke into a bitter old hermit? Probably. Wouldn’t been nice to see that story, instead of summing it up in a couple minutes of flashback screentime.
There’s also a pretty big gulf between not “leap[ing] off the screen in a golden halo of badassery and Force Karate all the bad guys with a wink and a grin” and fans being rubbed the wrong way because the ultimate optimist abandons everyone he knows and loves to become old and bitter, and then dies without ever being physically in the same space as any of his friends and family.
1. If you want to complain that the development was given short shrift, I would not disagree. But EVERY fucking plotline in those sequels was underserved by the writing. Luke’s character development was no MORE rushed than Rey’s. Or the cringe-worthy “romance” between Finn and Rose. Or whatever nonsense Poe was getting up to in his Bucking the System subplot. Putting a spotlight on Luke’s development as an outlier is ignoring the rest of the issues of those films generally and TLJ in particular. Having said that, I still would not agree AT ALL that it was “treating” him “horribly”. It was a choice they made which WAS supported by the text of the prior films. Rushed? Yes! Agreed!2. Of course there’s a fucking gulf there. It’s hyperbole, which I thought was pretty fucking obvious but I guess with some Star Wars fans I have to put yellow tape around my words and turn on the warning flashers and “WARNING: IRONY!” klaxons.
“I cannot understand this” – well, not defaulting to straw man arguments might help you gain insight.
Not wanting Luke to be a miserable failure who contemplated killing his own nephew, who he helped raise, when he was previously willing to die to redeem his (far worse) father he barely knew, and then abandoned the galaxy ≠ demanding that he have no faults or missteps whatsoever, and being on God Mode for three movies. Obviously.
And that constitutes “treated horribly” to you?Sure.
If you have some problem with the complaint Gaith laid out, by all means share it.
If you’re accepting that as true- and still don’t consider it a pretty poor handling of the character, then pop culture criticism is probably not the place for you.
I did. “treated Luke horribly” was my problem. Because nobody “treated” anyone “horribly”. It’s a fucking ridiculous complaint. A group of people made choices about a character. Those choices were narratively justified. Agree or disagree with those choices, the notion that it was some kind of abuse is stupid.I don’t know how much clearer I need to be about it.
So your problem isn’t that they were horrible choices, which you basically allow as a matter of taste. It’s that fans take those choices personal enough to talk about fictional characters as if they’re real people. I am being unfair there?
And just to reply all in one place, since Kinja is a fucking trash fire…
1. The writing in the ST is and was sub-par, no question. But I don’t think it’s either unusual or somehow out of line that fans would take that most personally in reference to the character they’re most invested in, and who the previous trilogy of films was built around.
And at the same time, while you can justify the narrative choices for Luke with the text (personally I think that takes some squinting and handwaving, but I’ll grant it to you), fans really do have some ground to stand on to say that taking a literally incorruptible optimist and turning him into a curmudgeonly pessimist is kind of shitty, no matter what hoops you have the story jump through to get there. Justifying a bad idea with text doesn’t make it a good idea.
2. You carry on about people calling some writing choices “treating Luke horribly”, but your hyperbole is just for dramatic effect? How are you squaring that circle for yourself?
This makes more sense. The top brass decided.A benefit of not having Grogu for an entire season would be no pointless stupid cameos.
Show us on the doll where Lizzo hurt you.
That dude from Swingers has already said season 4 is written. So expect zero in the way of resolution with the final episode. Maybe next year Ike fucking Barinholtz will guest star as a janitor or some shit.
Seasons 1 and 2 ended with unresolved plot hooks so I don’t see why this would be any different.
Maybe next year Ike fucking Barinholtz will guest star as a janitor or some shit. Buddy if you have a problem with celebrities being cast in Star Wars, you need to go back to 1977 and tell them not to cast famous oscar-winning actor Alec Guinness in the first movie. Dude’s name was literally above the title on many theater marquees.
That’s really interesting, but I think the difference is that Guinness was one of the main characters while Jack Black was just cast in a distracting cameo.
Anyone distracted by a cameo shouldn’t be allowed to drive or operate heavy machinery
Not distracting, but pointless to the story.However, unfortunately, there’s a very long list of “I love Star Wars too!” celebrities.
“ Jack Black… cameo”He had about as much screen time as Peter Cushing in ANH.
And he hated every fucking second of it.
that’s not a cameo.
That’s no cameo, that’s a main character!
Alot of famous actors just want to be part of Star wars even though they don’t get credit like Daniel Craig.
That’s not really the same thing. A more accurate analogy would have been if Uncle Owen in 1977 was played by Benny Hill.
Or hiring Miss Piggy to play a mysterious hermit monk.
It’s clear now this season is just setting up the Ahsoka show with its emphasis on the Imperials and the return of Thrawn.
Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.
Counterpoint: Grogu sucks.
My favorite is the people who are acting like casting Jack Black and Lizzo represents the mainstream-ification of a beloved niche property, as if the very first Star Wars didn’t become the highest grossing film ever until it was beaten by its own sequel (something not even Avatar managed!).
According to BoxOfficeMojo, Empire Strikes Back made about 2/3 the amount of money as A New Hope in its original release. Rereleases don’t get it over the top either. Or are you meaning The Force Awakens is the sequel?
That was how it was back in the day and we were fine with it. Sequels were always expected to underperform from the first movie.
It sure was the dumbing down of Star Wars.
People said the same thing about Ewoks 40 years ago.
My brother in the Force, we had Ewok cartoons from Filmation forty years ago. We made a meme out of the Cloud City Ice Cream Man when Empire first came out. We had the damned Holiday Special. The “dumbing down of Star Wars” ship sailed long ago.
Yes, the famously intellectual Star Wars.
Somehow I am always a contrarian without meaning to be one because I am enjoying this season a lot more than last season. They definitely should have left Grogu with Luke but the story about retaking Mandalore is a lot more compelling to me than just seeing the adventures of Grogu.
Yeah, I’ve been really confused by all the negativity this season. I get that people are kind of irritated by the part that was in Book of Boba being in Book of Boba, but since I actually watched that show, it doesn’t matter to me. That was just a thing that happened in the story that I saw—same as if the title card had said The Mandalorian instead. And maybe people don’t like the Bo stuff because they haven’t seen Clone Wars? I’m not a diehard Clone Wars fan but it’s possible I’m enjoying that story more because I did watch most of it so I have some familiarity. I don’t know. Regardless, I’ve been entertained this season.
I like it, too. I think the franchise has suffered by focusing so much on Jedis (and their not very great organization) and specifically Skywalkers, so having the series focus on Mandalorians (and even having Grogu choose them rather than the Jedis) is refreshing. I’m not too worried, either, that whatever happens is independent of movies 7-9 — the galaxy is big, and I don’t have a problem with Mandalorian stuff happening in one part while the First Order is focused on another. I expect at the end of this show Moff Gideon’s Beskar army plan will have failed, but the cloning silliness (and maybe Thrawn, I have no opinion on that) will still be a threat.
Me too! They had me at Star Wars so I will watch anything star wars! I fell in love with Grogu and Mando. I was a bit annoyed they are showing so much of Bo but I’m still enjoying it. It feels like a GOT Jon Snow situation. I want to know who the other spy or spies are! We know Elia is a spy but alot of people think the armored is a spy too. I hope they are wrong. I think the helmet and her leaving the planet with the sick are red herrings. I think the spy might be the guy who flew out the hole of the ceiling when they were pinned down by Moffs soldiers but what do i know?
Um, excuse me, they gave him a mech. A mech with a “Yes” button. If you’re not into that then I don’t know what to tell you. Other than “it’s baby yoda in a mech with a yes button, when did you stop liking fun.”
All of this, we got Mech Suit Grogu, Yes and No button and Babu Frick “bad baby!” All gold. Grogu isn’t the main character but he’s basically Kramer now which is totally okay
It was hysterical! I loved it! He also has a no button and he wasnt afraid to use it! hahaha
Exactly. It’s like they drilled into my brain to find out the one thing that would make me happier than anything else in the entire world, and that is Grogu in a mech suit with a Yes button.
I’m not into it after the previous ep. Or any time I remember that droids are supposed to be sapient.It feels like a retread of that storyline from Transformers Prime where a Decepticon’s corpse is turned into a mech only…its cute corpse defiling?Did not work for me at all.
This season sucks shit
And another site I read is just thrilled that they are getting away from the distracting little puppet.
The moral of the story: Fuck Star Wars fans. Actual Make-A-Wish children are not as coddled.
Grogu didn’t do jack in seasons one or two, either. Say what you will about the current season; this is a weird complaint.
“Kid do the magic hand thing!”
Thank you.I’ve been pointing this out since he first appeared on screen. I would honestly like the show more if they weren’t trying to sell a new Grogu toy every time he’s on screen.
I guess the difference was that seasons 1 and 2 were about Grogu—getting him away from the Empire and then finding the Jedi—and season 3…isn’t. Which shouldn’t be a problem. If anything, it reinforces that his role on the show has always been to provide the cute factor and occasionally save the day with the Force.
I always considered “get Grogu home” to be more of a “find the one-armed man,” “capture Doctor Claw,” “X-files alien conspiracy,” “finally quantum leap back home” type meta goal: the supposed endgame for a serialized-but-not show which most episodes mention briefly and occasional episodes move forward slightly. Obviously that isn’t quite the case, but then I’ve been the type of viewer who was more interested in the standalone, quest of the week episodes of Mando so far.
Well, I think that’s the issue — Luke’s appearance came far too early. It should have happened in the series finale.The show is about Mando going on these episodic side quests, and for the first two seasons he had a meta quest, which was getting Grogu to a Jedi. Once that was resolved, Mando was left without a meta quest, which is causing all of the issues with story focus in Season 3. What is Mando even trying to do exactly at this point? Unite the tribes of Mandalore? Bo-Katan is doing that, and Mando doesn’t even really care about it all that much.This is like if the crew of Star Trek Voyager made their way back to Earth at the end of the second season, and then they were just hanging around processing that time they got lost in the Delta Quadrant.
This is like if the crew of Star Trek Voyager made their way back to Earth at the end of the second season, and then they were just hanging around processing that time they got lost in the Delta Quadrant.That was actually on the table if the “lost in the Delta Quadrant” premise wasn’t working. That’s why they mentioned a possible way home (the Caretaker’s companion) in the pilot.
what a crappy take, you a nerdotic fan too? the constant crapping on shows like any of you have any idea what you are even talking about, like you opinion even matters. what matters is you spreading your god awful hate on the internet for others to consume and use to do what exactly?the show is great, it makes me laugh and i am sure hundreds of thousands more agree. i mean the point you are saying is that he is being wasted, well he can’t even talk so how is that show going to work? this is a show about the people of mandalor not a creature we don’t even know the name of his species.
Look at the amount of screen time Grogu had in each episode in the first two seasons…. Sure, Din was working to protect him, but most episodes he’d hand the kid over to the babysitter of the week, and Grogu would only have a reaction shot or two an episode.Just like this season. Only difference is, Din’s story is connected to himself, not to Grogu. Now that Moff Gideon is back in play, I’m sure the stakes for Grogu will skyrocket. (Not to mention, I’m sure if Thrawn learns of Grogu’s existence, life’s gonna get even worse for the green guy.)I’m okay with a season of exploration for other characters. It makes the cast richer and fuller.
I think the main issue is that they tried to combine too many disparate plots together this season without giving them the time (too many short episodes) to make anything cohesive. It would have made much more sense to have this be a season without or with limited Grogu interludes. Take his episode with Luke in Book of Boba Fett and sprinkle that throughout this season as a contrast to Mando’s plot of retaking Mandalore. There’s some talk that this season absorbed some of the storylines that the Gina Carano spinoff Rangers of the New Republic show were supposed to cover – presumably the reintegration of the Imperial officers, New Republic bureaucracy, growing threat of the Imperial warlords, etc. This season of The Mandalorian would theoretically have focused more heavily on just the retaking of Mandalore, but judging from how limited their writing and plotting have been, they would have needed a lot of extra work to make it into a full season of television on its own.
And who thinks this season is too much like Andor? They certainly haven’t tried copying the writing…or the acting…or the use of practical sets…or logic.
Din: Grogu, NO!
Grogu: Yes. Yes. YES. YES! YES! YES! YES! YES!!!!!Greef Karga being the cool uncle that gets Grogu the noisy toys and Din being the exhausted parent who has to deal with it had me in stitches! lmao
Me too! Hysterical! Especially with the fruit and the Mech holding it away from Mandos reach! I’m hoping Grogu saves Mando, tames the mythosaur and feeds Moff and the Praetorian guards to the Mythosaur for lunch! I feel bad we lost Paz!!!!
Massive sci-fi action budget, compelling fish out of water parent-child relationship bolstered by silent comedy, built on the foundation of an insanely popular established universe. It had a tantalizing come hither motion for blokes, ladies and children alike. What could go wrong?It even had a good story arc for both seasons, man reluctantly adopts responsibility of adoption, man reluctantly allows beloved child to leave the nest. Topped with a beautiful crescendo cameo that echoed what people first adored about this fictional world nearly half a century ago. The Mandalorian loved something and let it go, but Mickey Mouse could never let such a profitable story finish with integrity. The Mouse did not love The Mandalorian as The Mandalorian loved Grogu so now The Mandalorian falls from grace.I beg of you dear reader let this tale of woe be a lesson in letting go and not a bitter reminder of the ruinous potential in shareholder investment :p
It seems the writers have become more interested in Bo-Katan’s quest to
reunify and rule Mandalore than in the characters we started with.
100% that’s what is happening, especially with the news about them doing a movie that will tie it and Ahsoka together with Thrawn as the big bad. I wouldn’t go so far as to say that Din Djarin feels like a side character in his own show now, but it’s getting there (I wouldn’t be surprised if he ends up ultimately as a love interest for Bo-Katan).
Grogu just can’t really change much more as a character unless they let him grow up or start talking.
“The only time he’s actually made a difference in the plot was in episode two.” He made a difference in the latest episode when he broke up a fight between two Mandalorians from different groups. “No. No. No. No. No.”
I’m just glad they finally answered the “How do they eat if they never take off their helmets” question.
I was wondering how they procreate if they can’t take their helmets off lol. It’s possible but they’d be missing alot, just sayin’.
Given the “orthodoxy” of that sect, I imagine procreation is not for pleasure.
The Armorer has both hammer AND tongs.
Grogu shouldn’t even have been a thing this season. The cuteness ran it’s course and the necessary amount of toys have been sold. Should’ve left him with Luke.
Hi, did you know you can buy things with money?
It’s almost like his story was over after Luke took him to train and everything since has been Disney desperately trying to keep one of their most marketable new Disney characters since Kylo relevant.
The storyline is unfocused; the tone is inconsistent; it’s trying too hard to be Andor; the celebrity guest stars are distracting—all of these complaints have been rightly leveled against The Mandalorian in recent weeks.These are odd complaints to me. Nothing about The Mandalorian has felt like Andor or even like a show trying to be like Andor. The tone / pacing has been consistent with other seasons (and with The Book of Boba Fett) as well. I don’t think the show is perfect by any means, it just doesn’t feel any different to me from the first two seasons.It also seems pretty clear that Grogu was not meant to be in this season at all – that Bo-Katan was brought in to provide Din a new companion and mission. But Grogu is basically the Steve Urkel of this show and his popularity got him forced back in.
Episode 3 of the current season very much felt like The Mandalorian doing an Andor.
It’s interesting to see reactions to articles like this, with so many people saying some variation of “I like this season”. I haven’t read that much about it because I’m a couple episodes behind, but my general sense was that this season isn’t considered great. That mainly comes from anecdotal evidence of my friends, but it’s also supported by the fact that this season has a 49% from audiences on Rotten Tomatoes (vs. seasons 1 and 2 being in the 90s). I realize that could be review-bombing, but I haven’t heard of that happening and don’t know of any specific reason it would in this case. Anyway, the season hasn’t been bad, but I do keep forgetting about it and then watch the next episode more out of duty. With that said, more Grogu is definitely not what I’d want from it. I’m not sure what else there is to do with him right now. It’s still weird to me to have him training as a Mandalorian.
Yeah, this is a big part of my issues with Season 3. At first, it was all about Din becoming a reluctant father to Grogu while they searched for the Jedi. It was a huge deal in the storyline that he took off his helmet to say good bye to Grogu. And then? Just completely neutered that by having Grogu come back and Din taking a dunk in the waters of Mandalore. Yesterday’s episode did a lot to correct what I haven’t liked about the season thus far. Grogu got a lot more screen time, all of the various side quests and dangling plot threads got brought together, and I actually cared about Bo-Katan’s quest for the first time all year. So it seems to be getting back on track, let’s see how the ending goes.
I agree! I’m dying to know who the other apy/spies are! I don’t think it’s the armorer (at least I hope not).
If I had to bet, I’d say it was the leader of the Mandalore survivors, since he took them directly to the forge. Plus it’s doubtful that Gideon wouldn’t be aware of them and just let them do their thing.
Probably the fairest criticism is that the whole Din, Grogu reunion arc should have played out over the first half of this season, and not the last two episodes of a spin-off show. But…. the show otherwise has had a Grogu problem for a while. Grogu is a toddler, and how many stories can you really do centered on a toddler.
The funny thing is this article comes on the heels of probably the biggest Grogu development besides the force training stuff. The mech, and the yes/no response, is clearly intended to get Grogu to be able to flow into situations more naturally since he was otherwise almost a bump on the log. We’ll see where they go with it, but seems like Grogu has a way to be part of the action that makes sense without trying some sort of weird “Grogu went through puberty and can now talk and fight after being a toddler for close to 50 years.”
The last scene of this season:Din is tied up in a cell and Grogu breaks down the door using his Mech suit.Din smiles, and Grogu speaks:“A fool you are. Working with Moff Gideon am I.”Then he shoots Din.
One just needs to go on YouTube for any of the dozens of industry takedowns of what likely happened to this show: more Kathleen Kennedy “woke -meddling” and typical mismanagement, Grogu merchandising abuse, emasculating the main character, Pascal walking off the set, Favrau getting pushed out, awful stunt casting, losing the entire plot in the middle of “Boba Fett”, “Mando needs a bath” plot… it’s a complete amateur shitshow at this point.
They could have had a genuinely compelling, serious, dramatic arc in Mando HAVING to fight BoKatan because he possesses the Black Sabre, but does not want to lead, whereas she wants to lead but must WIN the Black Sabre from him in battle to lead. Instead we get Lizzo stunt-casting, extras awkwardly standing around an empty grass field full of CGI spaceships after lunch call, and “Here. You take the Black Sabre now. ” zzzzzzzzzz It’s awful television.
I’m not a hater in general, and I’m frankly exhausted by the toxic aspects of the SW fanbase. Having said that, since we’re talking opinions… objectively this season does feel like a step back, but not because there’s not ENOUGH Grogu, but more because it doesn’t make sense for him to be there anymore given the way the second season ended. I heard a rumor that I cannot substantiate that Kathleen Kennedy (or some suit) insisted Filoni and Co. bring Grogu back against their wishes even though his story arc was logically resolved. That might be complete BS, but it “sounds” like the kind of thing Lucasfilm under Di$ney would do, and explains a lot of why he feels so shoe-horned in like an afterthought. Maybe more Grogu would be a good thing – not denying he was a big draw the first couple of seasons. But if he was so precious to the quality of the show, they made a bad call in resolving his story at the end of season 2, because now it feels like they’re just including him because they have to. I don’t know if a Grogu-less show is a better show, but this season would have made more sense without him.
I wonder if they didn’t realise quite how popular the goblin puppet (look at that thing, look at standard depictions of goblins, and tell me that thing isn’t 100% goblin) was going to be until the first programmes in the first series were broadcast, and now that the ‘character’ has become the focus of attention, its presence is required to keep the consumers buying the spin-off products. So the story has been changed to keep the character present, but there is no space to do anything meaningful with it, thus the addition of the new gimmick (which also won’t hurt when it comes to promoting new products).Marketing concerns trump narrative consistency every time. It’s very sad.
It’s not complicated: Grogu has nothing to do because Grogu doesn’t belong on the show right now.Grogu was mostly a cute MacGuffin there to drive conflict, and the plots that did this have all ended. Shipping him off in S2 was the end of Grogu’s arc as it was. But no fucking way was Disney going to shelve this valuable piece of merch, so not only did Book of Boba Fett become the Grogu Show, S3 of Mandalorian has to shoehorn him into a plot with no relation to him at all.If Disney valued the storytelling, they’d hold off for even one minute. Let Boba Fett be about Boba Fett. Let Mandalorian pivot to being about Mandalore. If they wanted, they could even tack on post-credit scenes of Grogu training with Luke, drive the hype machine with speculation about that. “Here’s Grogu with Luke.” “Oh, they’re doing the backpack thing!” “OMG Grogu is meeting Ahsoka!” That one BoBF episode could string out all of Mando S3.But nope. Gotta get that money. Get that adorable puppet on my screen ASAP.
Ita not the Grogu show. Let’s be fair, we are lucky if we see 1 scene with Grogu doing something. I love Grogu and can’t wait to see what he does in the Mech body!
It kind of feels like they might have planned this season with Mando and Baby Yoda apart and then just backtracked on it because he’s selling too damn many toys. It probably would have been better that way…we wouldn’t be sitting around impatiently waiting for them to get the little guy involved. But they didn’t have the courage of their convictions, they wimped out before the third season even started.
well, it’s not HIS show….the real story continues to be that they are wasting Din on his own show.
Puppets. LOL!
That’s the way to do it!
This is a two-season show that they have stupidly made into an ongoing. (And the less said about the Book of Boba Fett, the better.)
This is what I’ve been saying all season long, but whenever I dare post something critical about this show here, people loses their damn minds.
Lighten up, Francis!
I had seen an article saying they wanted to do many more seasons of Mando, and honestly, I don’t understand why (other than money). While I have really enjoyed watching it, I would rather them come to some sort of conclusion rather than flail about trying to continue the story. That’s one thing I am most excited about over Andor. It’s supposed to only be two seasons and I’m here for it. I think it makes sense if they wanna bring Mando and Grogu back in other media, but currentlty, I would prefer there to be some sort of ending in mind.
yeah Grogu sucks
Unpopular opinion, but Grogu should have never been a character beyond the first season. Unfortunately he was little and cute and sold a lot of merchandise, so Disney probably overextended what is a tired character beyond his usefulness.
While the show, particular this seasons, has dozens of flaws, “trying to be Andor” is a thought that has occurred to exactly no one. There’s nothing remotely Andor-like about this season in any way. And that’s not a knock on the show. While I love Andor, the recipe for fixing this show is not to try to make it like another show that it shares very little in common with.
Din and Grogu’s shared arc ended in episode 16.Din’s personal arc was resolved in episode 3!This show shouldn’t be on the air anymore.
Every time Grogu’s not on screen, people should be asking, “Where’s Grogu?”
They missed their chance to do what makes sense with this story: leave Grogu with Luke and let Din go off on new adventures. It was the right choice for that season and the right ending for the character.
But they chose to go back to the well, and now they’ve fallen it with no way back out.