The Mandalorian season 3 finale: And they all lived happily ever after?
A somewhat aimless season of The Mandalorian comes to a very definitive close
TV Reviews Mandalorian
By all accounts, that was not the series finale of The Mandalorian. Oh sure, it wrapped up (almost) every ongoing storyline, the big villain was (apparently) vanquished, and the last shot was almost as definitively “This Is The End” as Indiana Jones literally riding into the sunset at the end of The Last Crusade (though that was also not The End, so maybe that’s an even more apt comparison than I thought), but no. Jon Favreau has already confirmed that a fourth season of The Mandalorian will happen, and we have Dave Filoni’s crossover movie coming at some point as well. So no, this is not the last we’ll see of Din Djarin and the newly christened Din Grogu, but…I wouldn’t be too upset if it were.
You can see the trajectory that all of the characters are on after this point. You know who’s going to do what next. The only lingering mysteries left are way in the past and won’t really impact the present day anyway. I’d be happy to see more, but I don’t really need to, so hopefully Filoni and Favreau know what they’re doing with Ahsoka and their other upcoming projects.
But as for this episode, it kicks off immediately after the events of last week, with Din Djarin getting captured by Moff Gideon’s new Mandalorian-style soldiers and Bo-Katan retreating with the other Mandalorians. Din easily escapes his captors with a pretty brutal fight scene that involves him stabbing one in the stomach and snapping the other’s neck (reminder that these are definitely people and not droids, unlike last season’s Dark Troopers), and then Grogu shows up in his IG-12 mech suit for backup. Meanwhile, Bo sends Axe Woves ahead to warn the fleet that Gideon’s TIE Fighters are coming, telling him to abandon their flagship as a decoy and just bring everyone to the planet’s surface, and he uses his jetpack to fly into space (wild!).
Back on Mandalore, Din and Grogu try to track down Gideon, reasoning that if they let him live he’ll just keep doing evil stuff. They call up R5-D4 and ask him to hack into the base’s computer and find Gideon’s lair, setting up a bunch of cute astromech shenanigans, like R5 peering over the edge of a bottomless chasm and getting scared, or R5 getting harassed by a herd of Imperial Mouse Droids. Give this guy a spin-off, Filoni! Call it Bad Motivator!
Din eventually gets to the laser-walled hallway that we saw last week, and while the nods to The Phantom Menace are obvious, it was a pretty neat gimmick for a fight scene. Each section of the hallway was blocked by the walls, so Din would fight two guards at each one, loot their weapons, and then move on to the next section and its slightly better-equipped guards. It was very video game, in a good way. Din constantly losing his weapons was also a nice thread in the early part of this episode, and I loved the quick little shot of him stabbing a trooper in the throat and then desperately trying to pull the knife out before the guy fell down a pit.
Next is Gideon’s room of clone pods, all of which obviously contain clones of him (one dramatically opens its eyes when Grogu gets close!), and Din hits the “destroy all clones” button on a nearby computer console to blow up the pods. Gideon is pissed that he labeled that button so clearly, and when Din and Grogu find him in the next room, he—once again—lays out his evil plan: He wanted to clone himself, but make it so the clones could use the Force! Yeah guy, we know. We’ve been watching the show.
Din and Gideon fight, Gideon calls in the Praetorian Guards and gets the upper hand, Grogo runs in hammering his “No” button, and the guards decide to go kill him instead in another room, leaving him and Din separated. The Guards shred the IG-12 mech suit (R.I.P.), and Grogu uses his Force jumps to dart around the room like the little scamp he is.
Meanwhile, the other Mandalorians have escaped to the surface, with Axe Woves staying behind to control their ship as it gets blown apart by TIEs. The Mandalorian survivors who had been living on Mandalore show Bo and her people an underground cave full of plant life, revealing that they’ve been able to grow farms on the planet—something Bo had never seen, even before the Imperial Purge destroyed their civilization.
The Mandalorians rally and go back to Gideon’s base, with everyone zipping around on jetpacks. Ideally, this could’ve been like the perfect blend of a spaceship battle and a boots-on-the-ground shootout, but there are so many jetpack people on both sides that it was hard to really track a ton of the action. Back on the ground, though, Bo sees that Din is in trouble and drops in to help him, sending him to go rescue Grogu, who is about to be killed by the Guards. Din comes in at the last second, and together they’re able to kill the bad guys thanks to Grogu’s use of the Force.
At the same time, Gideon is about to beat Bo-Katan and uses the superior strength of his Dark Trooper suit to crush her hand and destroy the Darksaber. He quips that Mandalorians aren’t so tough when you take away their toys, but Bo reminds him of one of the themes of his season: “Mandalorians are stronger together.” Din rushes in and shoots him just as Axe arrives in the crashing Star Destroyer. He tells everybody he’s going to ram it into the base and blow it up, but Bo and Din and Grogu don’t have time to escape. Gideon screams and angrily throws his hands in the air as he’s consumed by the explosion, and our three heroes all die.
No, just kidding! Grogu uses the force to shield them all in a bubble like Groot in the first Guardians Of The Galaxy, and the strain of it tuckers the little guy out so much that he has to take an adorable sit when he’s done. Little guy needs a nap! Let him nap, Dave Filoni! God damn!
And that’s it! Good guys win! The rest of the episode is all post-adventure wrap-up, with the Mandalorians relighting the Great Forge at the heart of their planet (Axe Woves is there, somehow surviving the crash) and The Armorer welcoming Paz’s son Ragnar into the Creed by bathing him in the Living Waters beneath the Civic Center. Din shows up and asks her to make Grogu his apprentice, rather than just a baby foundling, and she says no because Grogu can’t speak and therefore can’t take the necessary oath. Din says that doesn’t matter if Grogu’s parents speak for him and announces that he’s going to formally adopt Grogu as his son. Like with Gideon’s speech, was this not already established? People, including Bo-Katan, have been referring to Grogu as Din’s kid for a long time now, so it was odd that the show treated like this a huge moment.
Either way, The Armorer agrees and rechristens Grogu as Din Grogu and names him Din Djarin’s official apprentice. But, she notes, that means they now have to leave Mandalore and go on more galaxy-spanning adventures, maybe once-a-week for eight weeks, meeting fascinating and unusual characters along the way who are played by surprising guest stars. It’s basically the in-universe version of “here’s some money, go see a Star War,” and I love the directness of it. She literally just sends them off to have serialized adventures somewhere else. The perfect ending for this show.
But it keeps going, Return Of The King-style, to make sure there are as many endings as possible. Din and Grogu track down Teva at the beachy New Republic base and tell him about their new “go have adventures” mission, and Din offers up his skills as a bounty hunter to the New Republic so he can help them clear out any other Imperial remnants hanging around. Grogu spots the head of an IG assassin droid hung up on the wall, and Din says he wants to keep it as an advance on his fee.
The gang then flies back to Nevarro, and Greef Karga explain that they can hang out on the plot of land outside of town “between adventures” (he literally says that!), and Din presents him with a gift: the reconstructed IG-11, now fully operational since they were able to get the parts they needed from the other head. Remember that storyline? I thought they abandoned it!
Finally, Din and Grogu relax at their little house, complete with a nice tree and a patio where Din can kick up his feet and chill out, watching as Grogu plays with a frog at a nearby pond. Everyone’s happy (except the frog). Everyone has achieved their goals. Another perfect ending for the show. Or not, because The Mandalorian is getting a fourth season.
Stray observations
- This was largely an aimless season of The Mandalorian, but I enjoyed the ride. I don’t think any of it was necessarily bad, but it feels a little like they stretched out a somewhat slight and straightforward story to fill out the whole season. I would say, then, that things probably would’ve been more propulsive if the story of Din and Grogu reuniting had happened on this show rather than Book Of Boba Fett. It also would’ve made Grogu’s extensive Force-use in this episode feel more like a character beat—like he has grown and learned since we last saw him—than just a plot point.
- It was pointed out to me that last week’s episode title, “The Spies,” may have been a reference to the story of the The Twelve Spies, in which a group of Israelites explore the desert to find a new home after leaving Egypt—you know, like the Mandalorians were doing. Seeing as how there were no spies in the traditional sense, I’m going to admit that the title was a smart reference that totally went over my head.
- This episode never went back to Elia Kane on Coruscant, so we know Gideon still has an agent working for the New Republic. I don’t really care about that, but I am disappointed that it didn’t resolve the story of Kelleran Beq, so we don’t still don’t really know how Grogu survived Order 66.
- There was also no post-credits stinger like there was last season, when they revealed The Book Of Boba Fett for the first time.
- With a heavy sigh, given the playful one-sided feud the two of us have had ever since he started taking over Star Wars, I must acknowledge that one of the pilots in the background at the New Republic base was obviously Mandalorian co-creator Dave Filoni. He was wearing his cowboy hat and everything. Dave, I know we’ve had our differences and I’m the only person in the world who hates your reliance on ancient Jedi temples with access to outrageous fantasy magic (Star Wars: Rebels has TIME TRAVEL and nobody talks about that in any other Star Wars story), but all will be forgiven if you make that show about R5-D4.
- Like a lot of people, I’ve had a shaky relationship with Star Wars since… December of 2019 or so, but I had fun with this. I hope you did too! I’ll always love this dumb universe, with its 5o-year-old babies and ancient cult of warriors who often get their butts kicked by space-gorillas, and The Mandalorian is still some of the best Star Wars around. This is the Way.
233 Comments
I’m not sure it was aimless. It was pretty clear that the point of the season was to reunite the Mandlorians and retake Mandalore. If anything, I was surprised at how quickly they managed to accomplish it. I thought this was going to be series finale content, not season finale content. On a smaller note, Din learned to work more as a team, and Grogu began to assert some independence after being relegated to a floating bassinet for the first two seasons.
Who’s going to start taking bets on what Din Grogu’s transportation of choice will be next season? My bet is him riding a Loth-Cat.
That is kind of what made it aimless for me-everyone kind of messed around for a while, and then reclaimed Mandalore in 15 minutes after years of hand wringing about it.However, as I posted above, I was highly entertained by each episode so I am not going to worry about it too much.
People had their complaints for this season but through it all I found it a great fun, Star Wars filled Wednesday distraction so Id say mission accomplished.
Sidenote: there was a scene where Axe Woves missles out a window and flies out of the Cap ship before it crashes
Yeah, it wasn’t some great piece of cinema, it meandered a bit, and was a bit inconsistent. But you know, that’s nothing new with SW. It was fun and entertaining, with some emotional depth to it, that’s the core of SW. Anything more is great, but as long as it hits those three marks, we’re good to go.
Thank you. I came here to say just that. They showed him jetting away before impact clear as day.
More than anything, this season has laid bare just how much the biggest voices railing against the show are just trolls. Because these last two episodes delivered everything they claimed they were wanting from the rest of the season, but the vast majority of them just pivoted to completely different complaints and acted like they had been the problem the whole time (my favorite being our not getting some huge backstory for Paz Vazla that tied into a whole bunch of franchise lore). Plus, for all the complaining they do about how the show is too reliant on “member berries,” an ending like this comes and suddenly they’re all “Where’s Boba Fett? Where’s Ahsoka? Where’s the entire Rebels crew?”
No joke, after the episode dropped, I saw someone write a paragraph complaining about the Pershing episode and then argue a few sentences later that the show should be dedicated only to Din and Grogu’s story or world building.
That Pershing episode basically laid out what Din and Grogu will be doing. The New Republic is overstretched at best and rotting with corruption at worst and can’t be bothered with the Outer Rim.
And Elia Kane is still in play. It was vital.
I’m not denying that there are lots of trolls, but I didn’t like the first half of the season and I didn’t like the second half. And I don’t that makes me a troll. (Heck, I find myself defending RoS) The show has issues with characters and writing, and both halfs of the season showed this, in their own ways.
I think the entire season feels aimless because they decided they wanted to MCU this story. So out of nowhere the plot pivots to being about Mandalore. Which isn’t a bad thing but the way they do it is shoddy. It wants to be about Mandalore, Bo Katan, The New Republic, The First Orders creation, Grogu’s past and future but it hasn’t been built up to focus on any of the other stuff. So it just feels like it juggles too much.
I think you’re only a troll if anyone actually catches you defending ROS. Gross.
1000% fair.Also, though, I wanted the show to be more interesting, and I also think that’s 1000% fair while admittedly 10000% subjective.
i love the idea everyone who dislikes it must be acting disingenuously.
Show me where I said that.
You literally said anyone who doesn’t like the show is a troll.
I just don’t get why people would be in the comments section of episode 24 of a show they didn’t like. Sure, it’s a free country, so do you. But that time could be spent watching and commenting on shit you actually like.
I comment in the Succession thread a little, but this site doesn’t review a lot of shows anymore.
He spent the entire first season posting comments about how the show sucked and it would never be a hit. Once he realized it was a massive hit his comments turned to “I’m right and you’re wrong, you’ll eventually realize that this show sucks.” It was hilarious to read knowing how successful the show was after the first two seasons.
He didn’t though. He said that many of the biggest voices criticizing the show are trolls. Saying many of the biggest voices criticizing the show are trolls is perfectly compatible with the fact that some people criticizing the show have reasonable/valid criticisms.
I’d say that what he’s saying has been true basically since the prequel trilogy though – many of the biggest critics of everything Star Wars related since Phantom Menace are (at best) engaging in extremely bad faith criticism, and to an extent it would basically be impossible to please them, as if any piece of Star Wars content isn’t just like the original trilogy it’s too different, but if it’s just like the original trilogy it’s too derivative. I truly and sincerely think that a good half of the criticism levelled at all Star Wars post Phantom Menace falls into that category.
All of that said, it’s also perfectly compatible with the fact that there is also plenty of genuine, cogent, rational criticism of Star Wars. I guess the key is finding which is which and only engaging with the good stuff.
How are you defining “biggest voices?” The people who use the most caps? It’s a meaningless distinction. SOME people with big voices are trolls! Others have criticisms, but their voices are, uh, small, so they’re okay? Certainly there’s been plenty of bad faith criticisms about SW across its entire existence, but I’m not sure the terms here are very well defined at all. Not sure the distinction you or the OP are making.
Sorry – was probably not the best written comment/best choice of phrase. I was more meaning that there is a significant volume of the criticism made of Star Wars that reads (to me) as just simply trolling/bad faith criticism. So when I said the biggest critics, probably what I was meaning was the people who are the most negative/critical, or who are consistently negative/critical. Definitely not intending to imply that all loud voices are engaged in bad faith criticism, nor that people who criticise quietly are inherently engaging in bad faith criticism. I was meaning that (to my eyes) a significant volume of the criticism leveled at Star Wars is bad faith criticism, from people who were never going to be satisfied by anything; but that I think that even though there is a (numerically) high volume of such bad faith criticism, that doesn’t mean that all criticism of Star Wars is bad faith, just that a lot of it is.
“The biggest voices” and “the vast majority” isn’t “anyone.” C’mon, I know you know what “literally” means.
What does literally have to do with it? He said people complaining about the show are trolls.
I suspect you’re being deliberately obtuse, but just in case you haven’t read the thread you’re commenting on:
OP said a lot of the loudest voices (not everyone) are trolls. Another user argued in bad faith that OP was saying “anyone” who disliked it was a troll. OP asked them to show their work; you chimed in saying OP “literally said anyone,” which is demonstrably untrue. Now you’re asking what “literally” has to do with it?
You’re basically proving the OP’s point.
Dude, you literally come here every week just to shit on this show. And it wasn’t just this season.If you don’t like being called a troll, don’t act like one.
Shhhhh, The Gatekeepers of the EU know all, dontcha know?
Yeah, so according to all of you, a troll is simply someone who disagrees with you. Gotcha.
You are more than welcome to disagree. Nobody is forcing you to like this show, but you take “disagreement” to a whole new level. What you are doing here may not be trolling per se, but it’s definitely exhausting contrarianism. It’s all documented on every comment section of every Mandalorian review/recap, every week. You feel compelled to come here episode after episode to tell us how awful this shit is. And I get it: you hate this show. It’s fine; you are entitled to your own opinion. But I mean, have you at least considered spending time watching something you actually, you know…enjoy?
Not sure how I’m taking “disagreement” to a whole new level. And that’s really the crux of the issue, isn’t it? I’m (almost never) disagreeing with anyone one person in particular and I rarely challenge people directly on their opinions.Rather, I just criticize the SHOW itself. Not posters (Look, I’m sure there are instances where I did that, but not that many.) So I’m don’t know how I’m being disagreeable or contrarian. The problem is, many people seem to, I dunno, take it personally when I express criticisms of the show. Well, that’s why it’s a discussion board and it’s not actually your show. It’s not personal, I’m not criticizing you, I’m critiquing the series. And by you saying I’m being contrarian implies that the majority of the people love the show and that I’m showing up just to, what, fuck with or annoy them? Which is silly.
Yes, your constant critique of a show you apparently love to hate-watch can be annoying. Do you actually watch any shows you like?
I don’t know about you but I tune in every week after the Mandalorian airs to get Lawrence Q’s take on the action. They clearly have their finger on the pulse that I crave.
I came to the show late (after season 2 ended) so it was hilarious watching season 1 and reading the reviews and comments and seeing LaurenceQ week after week saying that this show sucked and it would be a massive failure. Once he realized the show was a hit his comments turned into “This show is a hit but you’re deluding yourselves, it sucks and you’ll eventually realize I was right along.” So funny.
Wow, thanks! It’s comments like this that make it all worthwhile!
Every show I watch (save this one and Picard) are ones that I like.
no u
Their disingenuous response to you is rather ironic.
No, the rest of you just have bad taste.
There is someone on another site I frequent on an epic rant because Grogu didn’t speak. Literally said “It’s exhausting to have a 50-year-old character non-verbal.”
Actual Make-A-Wish children or breast cancer patients whose pictures you see on coin jars at the convenience store are not as needy as Star Wars fans.
This show sucks perfectly well even when it’s not just an endless parade of pointless cameos (as season 2 was.) Yes, “trolls” indeed.
When there’s so many ingenious hate brigades for easy clicks on reviews tearing down any show willing to go past their first good season, it tends to intertwine with real critics and blur the lines. Yeah, it’s easy to spot no matter how people say opinions opinions, when they ask for something and complain that it’s not there and that’s why it’s bad…then the next episode gives them the thing they ask for, and it all comes down to impatience. Sure that’s another fair critic, but it’s weird when you’re requesting resolution in the first episode of a plot spread out for the season then mad when plots aren’t spread out for the season then mad that you don’t know where the story is going then mad that you do…screams of i have to hate this or I’m not in the mood ill watch and hate watch etc.
There is a sizeable, though far from majority, portion of the Star Wars fanbase that just wants to bitch. They will watch every property, complain about what’s wrong with it, how its garbage and not worth watching, but be right back in the comment section the next week
I hate spoilers in the headline, I’d love to watch Mando as soon as it drops but like most people, I have to go to work first. Writers may feel this is vague enough but even indicating that there’s a happy ending is a spoiler.
Agreed. The “happily ever after” portion of the headline is completely unnecessary. I doubt anything the writer includes in the headline is driving increased readership, so it’s really just there to potentially spoil something for someone who hasn’t watched yet.
This place has not given a shit about spoilers in headlines recently. The big surprise at the end of the latest Dr. Who episode? Spoiled the day after broadcast with headline literally spelling it out. The major event on Succession recently, one that’s been built-up for years? Two articles the next day heavily hinting in their titles in a way any viewer would get, and then another the next day just saying it. It’s just another sign of how this site is going downhill.
Why would you look up a recap of the show before watching it?
“In the headline.”Headlines typically don’t have spoilers because people have to read them to know what the article is even about, and because they’re on the front page along with plenty of other unrelated content that a person might still want to see.Granted, I don’t think this particular headline is all that egregious, but still.
In the good old days they used to do these things called reviews where you could actually get a sense of a writers opinion on the piece without them actually spoiling any of it. I know that sounds like craziness in the day of clickbait recaps but I swear there was once a time.
I agree. Those days are gone. And let’s face it: This “review” is really just a scene-by-scene recap with some opinion sprinkled in.
Hey, at least I don’t have to worry about watching Succession anymore, a show the AVC has been propping hard for years now.
You’re right, but honestly, any other ending would simply be inconceivable for this show.
Why would anyone go to an entertainment website before they have watched the episode? This is like someone going onto Twitter before watching the episode and seeing related hashtags and complaining that Twitter spoiled the episode. If you can’t watch the episode right away then don’t go online where you could see some random hashtag/tweet/headline. This is a problem with a remarkedly easy solution.
SOOOOOO with you on this.It’s ironic because all it does it make me avoid this site altogether until I can get to the shows.Let’s be honest. It’s amateurish as hell and stupid
“I am disappointed that it didn’t resolve the story of Kelleran Beq, so we don’t still don’t really know how Grogu survived Order 66.”Kelleran saved him from the Temple, and they flew away to safety in a spaceship. I literally have no idea what you think isn’t clear about that.
Gotta leave room for a ‘Book of Kelleran’ spinoff…
RELEASH THE KELLERAN CUTH!
How did he survive for 50 years? Who was looking after him and why?
You mean they “somehow” flew away from the center of the nascent Empire to “safety”. Yeah, REAL clear sequence of events there, lol. As well, at some point in the proceeding twenty eight years, Beq lost Grogu and disappeared, and Grogu ended up in an egg on Arvala-7. That’s all we know so far. That’s a lot of unconnected dots, and it’s totally fair to want to know more.
Unclench, not everything is an attack.
“Unclench, not everything is an attack.”Physician heal thyself
There’s a lot there, too. Was Beq killed by Inquisitors? By Darth Vader himself? Is Beq yet another Jedi who survived the Purge and the events of the OT and is still in play? If so, why did he abandon Grogu? Also, who are Grogu’s parents? Is there a planet full of Yodas, are they an endangered species, is Grogu the last of his species, why are they all apparently Force sensitive? There are definitely more stories worth telling around Grogu’s backstory, leaving it where it is just explains why Anakin didn’t run him through with a lightsaber, which we kind of figured given that he’s still alive after ROTJ.
I find myself wanting the origin story of Din as well. We know he was rescued by the Mandalorians after his parents stashed him in that hole, but I can see an entire series with little Mando’s adventures with his teacher. Please and thank you.
It did seem like they were going somewhere with the Din flashbacks with the Super Battle Droids and the mysterious parents, but then they totally dropped that!
I think the point is that as soon as they flew off he had “survived order 66″. The rest of his life after that, all the things you listed, are a different chapter. “Post survival”
I literally have no idea what you think isn’t clear about that.
You say that to the person who wonders how Axe Woven survived the crash, when there is an extended sequence showing him escaping the ship before the crash with his jetpack.
Never took Grogu for a Titan main, but that was a clutch Ward of Dawn,
I got this reference!
Easily the best episode in an overall not very good season. I’d be fine if this was the end of the show, but they made it abundantly clear they will go back to the adventure-of-the-week storytelling next season which will probably please most people. I wish someone would have died in the finale though because without a death Moff Gideon and his troops turned out to barely even be a threat. Really weird how the Elia Kane storyline hasn’t been resolved nor was it teased to continue into next season. Especially since they carved out nearly an entire episode for her. Funny how a few episodes ago the Mandalorians didn’t have enough jetpack fuel to chase down a pterodactyl but now they’re able to jetpack all the way into space. These kind of inconsistencies are really easy to avoid and make for some lazy screenwriting (just come up with literally any other reason the pterodactyl got away).
“Really weird how the Elia Kane storyline hasn’t been resolved nor was it teased to continue into next season. Especially since they carved out nearly an entire episode for her.”And it was even in the recap!
You go tell Giancarlo Esposito to his face Gideon wasn’t a threat. I’ll be right behind you.
I’ve seen him get blown up twice now, he’s not so scary anymore!
Gus is alive, damn it! I’m a truther!
yeah, because SW isn’t filled from ANH onward with story inconsistencies or anything……you’re not wrong that it can be seen as lazy, I wouldn’t argue that it is but I’m not objecting to the argument that is saying it is lazy writing. But, these kind of inconsistencies are just a part of what SW is, it’s part of its DNA and has always been there. It’s just that they stand out more for the parts of SW individuals dislike and fadeaway into the background for the parts each individual like.
Funny how a few episodes ago the Mandalorians didn’t have enough jetpack fuel to chase down a pterodactyl but now they’re able to jetpack all the way into space1) Those were two different groups of Mandalorians.
2) The Children of the Watch lived in a cave and would have had limited supplies.
3) Axe’s group were in the employ of a wealthy planet’s government, so obviously they are better-funded and better supplied.
4) The show never actually specified how far they had to fly to chase down the pterodactyl thing. The Blue Origin flight that Jeff Bezos was on, for example, only reached an altitude of 66 miles, and that’s considered “space”. If anything, Woves should be able to fly farther vertically than horizontally on the same amount of fuel, because gravity and air resistance decrease as you gain altitude. It’s not like he was accelerating to orbital velocity.
#1-3, sure, maybe.
#4. The cave Mandalorians didn’t follow that pterodactyl very far, and certainly not anywhere near 60 miles. But you’d actually be able to fly further horizontally than vertically anyway. Yes, air resistance decreases as you gain altitude but gravity doesn’t decrease that quickly and you’re fighting it the whole time when you ascend vertically. Let’s assume Mandalore is similar to Earth (since it appears to have the same gravity) which means it’s radius is ~4,000 miles. Woves would need to fly 4,000 miles, doubling his distance from the planet, to cut the force of gravity down to 1/4 of the surface gravity. Obviously that’s much further than 66 miles to reach low orbit. There’s a reason the escape velocity spacecraft launched from Earth need to reach 25,000 mph. If the Mandalorian jetpacks were anywhere near that fast they would have quickly been able to catch the pterodactyl…
To be clear I don’t really have any issue with the fact that Woves can fly into orbit, this is Star Wars after all. It just seems silly that an entire episode hinged on the jetpacks running out of fuel but it’s clearly not an issue later. I think the real answer to the question of “how far can a Mandalorian jetpack fly” is: as far as the plot requires.
And the jetpacks clearly travel at no more than 100 mph. They obviously don’t travel fast enough to fly into low orbit. It’s silly.
In addition, space shuttles don’t fly vertically. They have to account for rotation of the planet. A mandalorian on a jetpack would need to do the same.To paraphrase a catchprase used too often in this show, “this isn’t the way”
Dude, that’s a lot to say, when the obvious truth is fuel lasts as long as the writer says it does to create whatever scenario they want. This show hasn’t been consistent about most anything.
I feel like im missing the koolaid this season because so much youtube critic boils down to this too…like stuff not making sense, but easy to explain if you pay attention. heck the reviewer didn’t notice the dude escape the exposition, i thought that was the cooler thing in the episode, since its against the dumb go down with the ship trope when you can easily escape. the pterodactyl is a big punch that people use on why that episode was trash, yet in the episode they are shown fighting and training with their weapons jets included and then try to chase but run out…i wonder if they were using them on half full unlike when they’d expect to go into battle and didn’t use them until said battle…no better tell the audience in some sorta comment “good thing we filled our packs…and got the super juice.” now the reviewers complain all this shoehorned exposition, trust your audience. Also, they say in the show they dont wanna hit the kid, they also show her go after it to just track its whereabouts, yet people say why can’t she go after him. People also say why do they train there its dangerous…and they explain in another ep they were using it as safety…dangerous for us, also for intruders plus they were about to relocate just from being noticed…Even the hot take that this season was random episodes doesn’t hold up, it was way more focused than season 1, with 3 epsiodes of yoda baby then last 2 are important, yet people love that season. All the stuff this season bled into the themes of found family and mentorship along with clones and abuse of power and shifts in authority.
my thinking was similar, they had to chase down the bird, and flew aggressively, burning through a possibly not so full fuel tank.
My 8 year old kid pointed out the jetpack fuel inconsistency. A grown-ass adult got paid big time to write this.
When a bunch of people in a cave can’t fly very far, but for some reason a bunch of people spending a year on a luxury planet working as privateers and security with a fleet of space ships can. Weird.
There’s a line by Bo Katan when they arrive at Mandalore surface that they double the capacity of the fuel. I don’t know if the old Mandalorian that stay after the destruction get the upgrade too.
Are we sure the fleet is in orbit and not just hovering somehow? They seemed to be barely above the clouds and stationary over the drop area.
Seems like Elia Kane will probably show up in the Ahsoka series? Is that in the same time period? Maybe they just didn’t want us to forget about her until that show starts, so they put her in the “previously” recap.
Funny how a few episodes ago the Mandalorians didn’t have enough jetpack fuel to chase down a pterodactyl but now they’re able to jetpack all the way into space.I’m going to venture that Axe Woves and his crew have better jet packs than the fundamentalist covert, but then Bo Kayan could have jet packed after the pterodactyl instead of using her ship, but now I’m overthinking it.
I just finished the season and had similar thoughts to you. Bringing Gideon back for so little seemed like waste of the character (and actor). I’m surprised Kane didn’t show up either, but not disappointed. I’d be happy never to see Kane again. Maybe if they replaced the actress…My kid said the same thing about the jetpacks haha “Wow, they never seem to run out of fuel”
“I’m the only person in the world who hates your reliance on ancient Jedi temples with access to outrageous fantasy magic (Star Wars: Rebels has TIME TRAVEL and nobody talks about that in any other Star Wars story)”I mean, if it helps, I’d rather Star Wars not have any time travel, too.
(Also, it seems strange to rag on Filoni without calling out his making Ahsoka so wildly important and awesome, and yet alive and completely unmentioned during the OT. Even if she were trapped on a deserted planet without a ship, couldn’t the Force Ghost of Qui-Gon or Obi-Wan have made contact with her, and then told Yoda about her, or something?)
As SW moves forward, folks gonna have to drop the “not mentioned in the OT,” I get it, but let it go cus it’s just going to keep upsetting you. SW will always have a loose cannon, and things like that. Shoot Lucas did it himself with the prequels. SW story and how it’s told will always be messy, just part of what it is. Embrace the mess.
And let’s, for argument’s sake, say that Disney decided to really go for it and deep fake Alec Guiness talking to Rosario Dawson while Force Ghosts Liam Neeson and Samuel L. Jackson are in the background, or shoehorn her wandering around Alderaan or Tatooine, keeping an eye on de-aged Hamill or deep-faked, de-aged Fisher or figured out some Force Dyad bullshit with Hayden, do you know what the fan reaction would be?
YoU Mudrdered Muh ChildHOOD!”
Lucas openly acknowledged that Obi Wan’s “certain point of view” bullshit was a desperate attempt to cover that when the first film was written, his idea really was that Vader was just a guy who killed Luke’s father, and he just really lucked out that Alec Guiness decided on his own to play the scene in a way that suggested Obi Wan was hiding some deeper secret.
This too— gave the OT grace in my head because of how they were made by the seat of their pants. But yeah, from it’s inception, SW has always been full of messy retcons and shifts.
In the Grays, here. But that’s the game how she is played. It was pretty OK. Fairly underwhelming, but OK. Aimless is an excellent description. I did find a few things irritating.1. They need to settle on Grogu’s level of Force power. He straight-up lifted a charging Mudhorn a while back, but he only gives the Praetorian Guards some light shoves. 2. Din’s on the comm, shouting for R5-D4 to “Lower the last gate!”, like it was an escape. He was still fighting the dudes from the prior gate. Opening the last gate when he asked would have just added to his problem. 3. I was especially frustrated at the non-use of Chekov’s Mythosaur. I thought it had to make a reappearance for sure. 4. In one episode, the Mandalorians’ jet packs give out when chasing that flying lizard with Paz Vizla’s kid, but here they’re able to get up to orbit. A little consistency would be great.
We must presume the Praetorian Guards are not weak-minded, and were perhaps even trained to resist such stuff to a degree. In the Rebels finale, Bridger tries to Force-push three of the Emperor’s [cloak-less] Red Guards; one goes sprawling, one takes a knee, and one just tanks it outright.
“I thought it had to make a reappearance for sure.”Technically the mythosaur did not make a reappearance, but it’s still chilling out at the bottom of the holy waters pool.I thought for sure this season would end with Bo riding it into battle.
Yeah. To be honest, I watched it while I was eating lunch and I totally missed it. I figured it out after reading other comments. Still, that shot of the mythosaur would have gotten a “That’s it?” from me. Bo riding it would have been awesome.
Book of Boba Fett at least gave us Fett riding a rancor.
“ the Mandalorians’ jet packs give out when chasing that flying lizard with Paz Vizla’s kid, but here they’re able to get up to orbit.”The crazy cult Mandalorians’ jet packs gave out when chasing a flying lizard; the professional merc Mandalorian’s jet pack is able to to get up to orbit.The crazy cult Mandalorians have a metallurgist, not a rocket scientist.
That’s a damn fine explanation.
so Dave Filoni is like autistic Kevin Feige?
‘Hey Mando, here’s a cabin for you. On the land I gave to the Mandalorians a couple of episodes ago? But I’ve already forgotten about that place. And no one will ever mention it again.’
I kinda took it to mean that they built him a cabin on that land, not that it was all that was left of the gift.
Cut to the Dins picking up a bunch of wacky neighbors because Greef didn’t make it clear he was banking on gentrifying that whole area.
I felt bad for Carl Weathers. His planet got taken over by pirates, a bunch of Mandalorians arrives and saved them, he invited them to stay and gave them some land, they accepted, and a day later they all left to go back to their home planet.
While i am admittedly more a fan of “Mando & Grogu on the run and having adventure of the week” than this season’s “Mandaloreans find a homeland” theme, I thought this conclusion wrapped most things up nicely. Gideon was again too Snidely Whiplash. perhaps he could return as a clone or better yet make snidely the clone and have the real Gideon return and be a bit less goofy of a villain.I did think the show had some of the same flaws as BOBF but overall was much more entertaining and not quite as much of a strain on my suspension of disbelief. I will have to rewatch the Pershing ep as I fell asleep the first time but still feels like a weird diversion mainly stuck in there since Andor was so well-received.I like that they pretty much cleared the chess board in terms of supporting cast aside from Mr Kim and (presumably) Sedaris. I hope S4 is much more focused on Grogu & Mando, Mando & Grogu. Plus R5 of course
“Grogu & Mando, Mando & Grogu”Is… is this a reference to Mission to Zyxx?
I would be totally down if Star Wars (and the MCU) gave us a procedural. Just watch a few episodes of Walker, Texas Ranger to get the gist.
I suspect the Pershing episode was to cram in at least some of the major developments that the Cara Dune show was supposed to cover, so Ahsoka and Skeleton Crew don’t have to start off with the baggage of catching up to that.
I liked that Axe Woves turned his life around and became the hero none of us guessed he would ever be. Axe Woves, you sir have made yourself worthy of an action figure. Many Prog Rock songs shall be sung about the adventures of Axe Woves. He smokes cinnamon cloves… in droves. I kid. Axe, admittedly, started in a hole because I hated his character on Agents of Shield. Like the actor. That guy on AoS (Bakshi, had to look him up) was a smarmy bastard.
I liked seeing the actor show up pretty much entirely due to me wanting to see all of the AoS cast, even short-run villains, get something more from Disney. Still sucks that a lot of promises made to the cast weren’t delivered on due to exec fueding.
I second this. I was happy to see Hunter in Andor for two scenes and a shoot-out. Still on the lookout for Elena, Deke, and Mac to appear in any project anywhere. Slingshot should be on Disney+ mfers!
Rick Wakeman is gonna record a 45 minute opus on pipe organ about Axe Woves.
The good guys win but they’ve earned it. Axe Woves stuck to the plan and was faithful. The Armourer came through. All of the Mandalorians stood their ground and fought together.Honestly “we have to stop this now or it will never end” is a timely message.
So…A 50 year old baby punching yes/no buttons.Thank you Star Wars, I feel seen.
Seeing as how there were no spies in the traditional sense, I’m going to admit that the title was a smart reference that totally went over my head.This episode never went back to Elia Kane on Coruscant, so we know Gideon still has an agent working for the New Republic.You mean like a spy?
Right—spy, singular. Episode 7 was called “The Spies”, plural. Primed the viewer to expect betrayal from one of the Mandalorians, but that didn’t happen. I suppose it could also imply more such agents out there whom we haven’t met?
If the title of the article spoiled the episode for you in any way, you should probably stop fucking around at work on pop culture websites…
Still disappointed in how Gideon was handled. They made him a buffoon for the last two episodes, committing the cliche cardinal sins of any generic bad guy.I get why they setup the Din’s off Mandalore, but did they really need to sit on a different planet between adventures for reasons? Is that a thing, you are part of the coven, unless you have a kid, then you have to leave and travel alone until it’s randomly time to come back?That being said, I liked the season and enjoyed the show.
This is his cabin up north where he takes his kid fishing for two weeks every summer. He can get back to his pals and his girlfriend after some Me Time.
I’d have to go back and watch the earlier seasons, but I don’t remember Gideon being quite so mustache-twirly as he was this time around.
Plot twist, it was a Gideon clone the entire time!
Still disappointed in how Gideon was handled. They made him a buffoon for the last two episodes, committing the cliche cardinal sins of any generic bad guy.
If there’s one consistent theme with the villains in Star Wars, it’s that hubris is their downfall. Anakin, Dooku, Jabba, Palpatine, Tarkin, etc. they were all killed (or maimed in Vader’s case) due to their own arrogance. Boba Fett’s transition from villain to anti-hero was centered on him learning humility while living among the Tuskens.
To be fair, they were hinting show dont tell, that he wanted to clone the mando. I thought they were also hinting mando has force in him. I think star wars originals must have had alot of straight tell dont show stuff (havent seen em besides the games lego form lol) since alot of issues with mando come down to people questioning why things happen and not filling it in with context clues.
I agree with your point, maybe it’s me, but this time around I attribute it less to hubris and more to stupidity. What sets Gideons ignorance apart is that he lost to Mando twice before. In the other examples (Anakin, Dooku, ete al) situations came to a head and they failed because they thought they couldn’t lose. Gideon has been taking loses since season 1 and clearly didn’t learn anything from those loses. That everything about his responses to the situations in the last 2 episodes was so lacking in urgency and tactically unsound is disappointing. Yeah, he believed he was powerful enough to beat Din and BoKatan ( and he was), but his continued I have you right where I want you, but I’m going to step off screen and let you do your thing for 20 mins to ruin parts of my plans was dumb.They showed that he could track Din’s movements, so he just sat in his control center and waited for everything to unravel? I’ll let you destroy my clones, then i’ll fight you? I guess that is truly the Star Wars model. I just thought Favreau/Filoni were better than that.
What I want to know is why did he age his clones up to 60-something year old men? Shouldn’t he have let them out of their pods once they hit 20 or something?
True. Should have looked more like this
Maybe Gideon remembered what he was like in his 20s and decided he didn’t need a force-wielding headache.Or, more likely, it was to keep his use of cloning under wraps since he was pretending to be entirely disinterested in the tech at the meetup of imperial remnants last ep. Make a clone, age it up, then have it replace him without the others realizing.
Yeah, I had the same thought about that. He wasn’t going to publicize the fact that he was doing this and the clones were going to basically “replace” him. I’m guessing he was going to stay in his command center and somehow remotely control them to do what he wants. Everyone else would just be awed and scared of his new force powers allowing him to take control of the Imperial remnant.
I thought he was keeping them as an insurance policy, kind of like Rusty Venture’s clones of Hank and Dean.
It’s so they don’t have to pay a ton of Mando guest stars every episode. Can’t have the Armor and Bo-Katan just idling in the background for three minutes every week.
Yeah, I get that. Just doesn’t make sense story wise.The Din’s could have easily had a place a ways off from the main Mandolore settlement. Based on the group they had, he appears to be the only one sent off to train on his own. Paz and his son weren’t sent away…
Well not recently no. But they did state that the only requirement for apprenticeship that Grogu didn’t meet was “being old enough to talk” so presumably you can start that nonsense way early, and maybe Paz and Ragnar did that when Ragnar was like four or something.
That scene of Grogu saving them from the fire made me immediately think of Groot’s sacrifice, so I’m glad someone mentioned it too! Even the music for both scenes sounded really similar to me, haha
Made me think of Dumbledore dueling Voldemort in the Ministry of Magic in “Order of the Phoenix”–less a physical shield & more of a force field. Well, capital-F Force field, I guess.
“This was largely an aimless season of The Mandalorian, but I enjoyed the ride.”This sums up how I felt about the season too. I enjoy the story of the week serial western style of the Mandalorian more than a lot of people, but honestly: The story of this season doesn’t hang together very well. It is kind of a mess looking back on it all.But……I enjoyed every individual episode a lot, so I don’t know. If the point is to be entertained, this season worked for me.On to Star Wars: Re……I mean, Ahsoka!!!!Didn’t Axe survive by using his jetpack to fly out of the crash before it crashed?
He did .
I didn’t watch Rebels, but the Ashoka trailer sure looked good.
It sure does look good. There are also a crap ton of characters from Rebels in the short trailer, which is pretty exciting for those of us who love that show. Rebels references and characters have also been popping up in Mandalorian too.Star Wars: Rebels has its flaws, and certain episodes are pretty strictly for the kids (especially in season 1). But it is a great Star Wars show if you ever find yourself with spare time to watch. I have watched through twice with my sons, and it is a blast. Also: It has the best droid in the Star Wars universe (sorry R2, but you know it), who also appears in the Ahsoka trailer!
I tried to watch Rebels a few years ago but couldn’t get into it and only made it through maybe 10 episodes, which jives with what you said about season 1. At least I’ll have a passing knowledge of who the characters are already and won’t be completely lost for Ashoka.
Watch the season 2 premiere and go on from there. Future you will thank you.
Agreed. Rebels is great! My minor revision: If one wants to skip most of S1, I would still watch the S1 finale. It is really good.
“Star Wars: Rebels has its flaws, and certain episodes are pretty strictly for the kids”
I felt the same way about the “Clone Wars” series—took quite a while to really get going, & even longer to feel canonically essential, but it eventually got there. I’m late to the “Rebels” party (only just getting through Season 1), but figured I really should get it all in before “Ahsoka”. Really enjoying it so far, even with so much “strictly for the kids” silliness, & am looking forward to it sticking the landing. (I’ll try to squeeze “Bad Batch” in, too, if I can carve out the time….)
I agree with you, although I find Clone Wars much harder to recommend to fellow Star Wars fans. It has so much going for it, including fleshing out the character of Skywalker in much needed ways and the creation of Ahsoka. But the tonal shifts on that show can be pretty whiplash inducing. You will get a three episode arc about Padawans training and learning the value of hard work and family. And then the next three episode arc will be about investigating horrific war crimes on Ryloth. It isn’t just that a lot of Clone Wars is for kids, but it would veer pretty wildly back and forth between kid stuff and heavy stuff.Don’t get me wrong-I really enjoyed Clone Wars. I just don’t praise it as freely as I do Rebels.Bad Batch is a lot like Rebels actually. It does NOT get off to a good start, and I actually stopped watching it after a few episodes. My oldest son convinced me to give it another chance, and it has gotten really good now. If you can stomach a rough beginning, I highly recommend Bad Batch.
It just aggravates me that Grogu is 50 years old, has learned to use the Force, and yet he still can’t figure out language. Are the Yodas bereft of language centers in their brains? (It would certainly explain Yoda’s problems with grammar.)
No problems with grammar, Yoda has. Consistent with how he speaks, he is. Ends sentences with verbs, he does.
Yaddle’s speaking role in Tales of the Jedi confirmed that the species is perfectly capable of speaking normally, and Yoda’s apparently just a weird hipster who thinks he sounds cool.
So what you are saying is that Yoda was drinking IPAs on Dagobah when Luke paid him a visit in ESB?
I presume their vocal cords develop later tha most species. Like they aren’t physically capable of speech until they go through puberty. Either that or he can speak but is limited to a range of tones most humanoids can’t hear.
Yeah, I thought this season made it very clear he could understand what people were saying, and in fact use speech when given a (crude) speech device. So it feels to me like a physical limitation, or at least mostly.
You can assume he’s proportionate by age. Like how thor is thousands of years old but his mentality and stuff stays with his looks. Hence its not weird when he dates a woman 1000 years younger than him.
Because the moment the kid talks this show is dead in the water. Grogu is cash cow for merch. The moment he talks they’re gonna lose it since there is nothing worst than a precocious kid.
many very intelligent people are nonverbal.
Reminds me of when Stranger Things season 4 came out, and revealed that Eleven’s stunted grammar wasn’t a result of being raised in captivity since all the other kids spoke normally.
Grogu normally only makes monosyllabic noises, but at the end of this episode someone talks to him and he says what sounds like 3 or 4 words in a row – it wasn’t English (sorry, Basic) but still. Was it just me or was this the first time he ever said a full sentence like that?
This does not preclude me from DESPERATELY wanting an action figure of Grogu in IG-12 that has a “yes” and “no” button. I know it would drive my wife nuts, but I’d spend more than I should on this.In my mind, it would be a bit like the old oversized TMNT Krang figure where the brain guy comes out of the exo-tummy. Make it happen, Disney.
https://mattthecatania.wordpress.com/2023/04/19/the-mandalorian-yodaling-season-3-is-homeward-bound/
The pacing on the series has always been meandering with a loose plot
that only tightens up in the last few episodes. It’s a mix of streaming
streaming series focused on telling one story & a network series
that has room to explore tangents.
There’s depth added to this toy commercial, which makes it a very effective toy commercial. The heroes’ happy ending feel earned. Although it’s open ended for
upcoming crossovers, “The Return” could function just as well as a
series finale. It’s a much more satisfying season than the superfluous Obi-Wan.
There’s potential to bring him back via a secret cache of mid-clones,
but he was on the verge of wearing out his welcome. Let Moff Gideon go
out in a blaze of infamy!
I know its really because “Sell more toys” but with the cape , ‘sabre, light up armour and finally his black helmet , he really REALLY wanted to be Darth Vader. Which is why he wanted The Force so badly .
Moff Gideon is a visionary who realized stormtrooper armor ought to protect its wearers whilst being toyetic!
I’m glad the Mandalore storyline wrapped in one season because if these live action shows are going to act as extended codas for the cartoons, I think I’m out. You could really feel how checked out the entire season was. There’s fun, loose screenwriting and then there’s lazy screenwriting, and S3 fell in the latter category more often than not.
lol
Axe woves jumped out a window right before the ship entered the base
Axe Woves is there, somehow surviving the crashHe shoots out a bridge window and jetpacks out of the ship before it crashes. It’s at the 25:40 mark.
It’s been pretty up-down this season, and I’m not crazy about this finale. So many capes with jetpacks, another badguy who needs his own Darth Vader style costume, taking the helmet-worshipping cult so goddamn seriously still, like they’re going to make a stupid wide ear-accommodating helmet for Grogu or something. Is Pascal even on set for this show?
He spent significantly less time on set this season due to The Last of Us.
“they now have to leave Mandalore and go on more galaxy-spanning adventures, maybe once-a-week for eight weeks, meeting fascinating and unusual characters along the way who are played by surprising guest stars.”Yes! That is exactly the show I want! I don’t care about Mandalore, as much as Filoni wants me to. Just give me Din Djarin and Grogu on their adventure-of-the-week, crossing the galaxy collecting bounties and solving people’s problems. “The Incredible Hulk”, but in space.
Axe Woves “somehow” survived the crash by blowing open a window and flying out before impact, as the show went to lengths to illustrate.
You say that like the reviewer watched the episode.
Really disappointing to learn that (at abt 15m) that Famuyiwa, Filoni, Favreau, the actor, et al. have no idea what the difference between “cache” and “cachet” is, or how to pronounce them.
Maybe that’s how you pronounce “cache” in a Mandalorian accent. But only in Southwest Mandalore, and all the other Mandalorians are really speaking with a Northeast Mandalorian accent.
Did they say it that early? Because I believe they said it near the end, too, in the garden.
“I’ll always love this dumb universe” Yeah, this show is as dumb as a box of rocks, and I love it!
I thought “The Spies” was a reference to the Imperial Remnant cabal from that episode. Were they all former ISB, or was Gideon the only former ISB member?
Did Grogu eat the frog?
Maybe the fact that he didn’t (at least before the credits rolled) shows personal growth on Grogu’s part.
Maybe it’ll become Grogu’s equivalent of a KFC eater’s having a pet chicken.
That is the finale cliffhanger. Tune in next season to find out!
There were lots of threads that they really left hanging because they weren’t useful in that moment of the story anymore (hello Elia Kane, I would have enjoyed more time getting your story), but this one they did tie up nicely:“(Axe Woves is there, somehow surviving the crash)“He is clearly shown blowing out a window and jetpacking out of the ship before it crashes, so it’s not a real surprise he’s at the lighting of the great forge.
It was pointed out to me that last week’s episode title, “The Spies,”
may have been a reference to the story of the The Twelve Spies, in which
a group of Israelites explore the desert to find a new home after
leaving Egypt—you know, like the Mandalorians were doing. Seeing as how
there were no spies in the traditional sense, I’m going to admit that
the title was a smart reference that totally went over my head.
Jewish acquaintances on Twitter have been comparing The Mandalorian to Orthodox Jewry since day one, so I would almost guarantee that’s the truth. Also, Favreau’s production company is named Golem Creations. I think if you view the show through the lens of Jewishness, it helps in understanding it.https://jewishstandard.timesofisrael.com/the-mandalorthodox/
the real Darksaber was the friends we made along the way…
I was v satisfied with this season finale. I also thought it could have been a series finale, but I’m obvi not gonna be mad to get more Din Djarin and Grogu.I’m glad that IG-11 is back (hello again, Taika Waititi’s full range of voice). But I’m super bummed that we had so little time with Grogu in his IG-12 mech jamming his yes and no buttons.So, what is “Din”? Is it some sort of title, like “Moff” and “Darth”? Is it Djarin’s surname? Which, what? Kryze is Bo-Katan’s, and she’s “Bo-Katan Kryze,” not “Kryze Bo-Katan.” What is happening? Does Mandalorian royalty work differently with respect to names? I honestly don’t fully get it. Anyway, I’m still calling Grogu, “Grogu.”I laughed about how direct the series was being about setting up the future, like, “This is what our main duo will be doing next season. Here’s where they’ll get their missions from. Here’s where they’ll hang out between missions. Enjoy this image of Grogu using the Force to torture a frog. Isn’t he cute? You’ll get more of that next time. Till then!”
He very logically had his name before he was Mandalorian.
Clearly, he’s Hungarian
It’s time for another good idea, bad idea.Good Idea: giving each mouse droid an alarmBad Idea: not giving any mouse droid any weapon, or training any underlings to pay attention to the mouse droid alarmThis has been another good idea, bad idea.
You don’t want to know what a mouse droid would do with a weapon. Keeping them unarmed is the only sensible safety policy the Empire has.
We are mice as smart as people, we will kill you in your sleeple . . . .
I assume that Moff Gideon and his clones are all dead now, and that the Shadow Council will pick up on this and take over for him. Thus, I assume that Elia Kane will be someone else’s spy when next we see her.
I, for one, welcome further Jack Black and Lizzo cameos. And would like them to meet Amy Sedaris.
(Axe Woves is there, somehow surviving the crash) You somehow missed the sequence when Axe shoots a window out of the ship then flies out before it crashes. Gideon is pissed that he labeled that button so clearly…Can’t disagree, that was fucking silly. Yeah guy, we know. We’ve been watching the show.Can’t disagree here either. This show has always had overly expository dialogue, but this season hit new heights of having characters literally saying what they were doing moment by moment or explaining things we already know. That’s either the show not having trust in the audience or just uncreative writing, or some combination thereof. Overall, and okay season. I would say it really didn’t deal with the Mandalorian stuff in a particularly cohesive manner. It oddly sidelined the importance of the the Darksaber to Mandalorian culture established in the prior material. The show was just all over the place in that regard. Last season the Armorer even blamed the fall of Mandolore on Bo losing the Darksaber, but then it’s retrieved and everyone is just, eh, whatever. Then this thousand year old light saber, different from all others, a symbol of Mandalorian rule, gets smooshed easily by Gideon, and it’s treated like, well, that happened and not a single character brings it up. By destroying it the show even set itself up to have a character say the rule of Mandolore should never have been defined by a lightsaber to begin with, or some such thing, but it’s just ignored. On that same Mandalorian culture note, I’m rather shocked that this season didn’t lead to Mando seeing that the extremist cult he belonged to, invented for the show, had nothing to do with actual Mandalorian culture and history. I figured that was the obvious route. Instead the show made the extremists, who kicked him out because he took his helmet off, suddenly be chill with normal Mandalorians, and now apparently everyone is cool with everyone, despite this cult still believing it’s extremist cult shit.
They’re Mandalorians. Give them a week and they’ll be fighting each other again.
To me it was interesting how the Armorer appeared to be consciously changing “the rules” of the cult in order to support an alliance that could take back Mandalore. As I read her body posture and actions, as soon as she found out Mandalore was still habitable, the wheels started turning for her, and she formulated the basics of the plan that ended up succeeding.Among other things, it seems to me this really confirmed it IS a cult, with the Armorer as their cult leader. And it is somewhat realistic that a cult leader would have the power to redefine the rules of the cult to serve their own interests.
“so hopefully Filoni and Favreau know what they’re doing with Ahsoka and their other upcoming projects.”Why start now?
Do you even read your own headlines before you spoil episodes? What is wrong with you?
If you haven’t watched the episode yet, don’t go to a TV/movie website that will have a review of it on the front page.
I’m going to add to the chorus informing you that Axe survived the crash by bailing out of the ship before it hit the base.
This season fucking ruled as did that finale.
Axe shot out the window and took off before the damn thing went boom.
Whenever Moff Gideon launches into one of his here-was-my-evil-plan monologues, I pray he ends it with “And I would have gotten away with it, if it weren’t for you meddling kids.”
Axe Woves is there, somehow surviving the crash
Did…did you not see him shoot out the window and jetpack out of there?
How long before we find out that was a clone of Gideon who died?
That’s what I’m thinking. The ‘clone’ who opened his eyes was the real Gideon. But why?
Hey, if regular baths worked for Boba Fett, why not build one of your own?
Imagine being a stuntperson on this show. “And now you get wrecked by a telekinetic Muppet baby.”Axe Woves survived by wisely blowing out a window and flying away, clearly not intent on doing the heroic sacrifice thing like Paz did last week. Smart man.I’m still amused that in a show with like, DOZENS of Mandalorians flying around, people still, in-universe, call Din “The Mandalorian.”I’m relieved that Grogu’s first words weren’t “The Way, this is.”
Mandalore lore (for lack of a better term) does nothing for me, so this season was largely a drag. The prospect of a return to more “adventure of the week” storytelling has me cautiously optimistic for next season, however, especially if “Ahsoka” can keep that chump Filoni as far from the writers’ room as possible.
F*ckin’ Filoni and his dumbass cowboy hat. To paraphrase Mr Burns, he looks like Robert Rodriguez’ non-Mexican union equivalent.
The Bad Motivator joke made me laugh way more than it should have.Thanks!
I openly hated the last episode. I was wrong to despair. Sure the ending was pure Star Wars cheese but gat dammit if you don’t want some Star Wars cheese now and then.
As someone that’s always been into the Mandalorian stuff from Filoni’s previous projects, this episode was pretty freaking sweet. That was fun way to cap off the season.
Overall, this season wasn’t bad by any means but I will say it was a tad bit weaker than the previous 2. I know Favreau has written most of the episodes of the series but I think season 4 would be better served letting some others get their hands with it. Just feels like a fresh voice in the room could help tighten things up a bit.
Hooooooly shiteballs. What an episode. I was not prepared for about ¾ of that.- I did not realize that Mandalorians could just…jet pack into space. That’s something. Those seals on their helmets are pretty legit, huh?- Grogu staying behind and saving Mando was adorable. He was such a standout this episode with the character growth. I’m going to miss his mech’s Yes and No feature.- This Imperial base is absolutely bonkers. That’s a metric buttload of TIEs, how would they never have noticed this before?- I love that Sparky has booster rockets just like R2. Does every astromech??- The entire sequence of loading the Mandos into the Gauntlets and then dropping them over the surface was spectacular. So many visuals to feast on in this.- Why exactly does a light cruiser not have any shields? They just got lasered to death, which should take a bit longer than the 3 minutes it looked like it took.- The security mouse droids were great. I love that he ran to get reinforcements, he just got more mouse droids, and then they just tried to boop Skippy to death. Wonderful.- So these were Gideon clones all along? That means we’ve been fed a huge red herring since the first season. I thought he was working to make Snoke and Palpatine, but apparently, he can just augment regular clones with midichlorians?? You’d think the Kaminoans and Jedi would have been all over that.- The jet pack fight and charge were unbelievably cool. Bo leading the charge with the Darksaber was just perfect. The Armorer beating the hell out of them with her tools is always appreciated. I could watch this scene on a loop.- Grogu dancing around the Praetorians continues to make them not that menacing, which I find hilarious. Din (which is apparently his family name?) was so badass in this. The knee slides with the jetpack were probably my favorite.- Bo’s fight with Gideon was epic. The emotion in her voice, the ferocity she charges at him with, everything. I love the “stronger together” messaging, and I adore her, Din, and Grogu tag-teaming him hard. I was really surprised they junked the Darksaber though and proceeded to have zero follow-up on that.- I can’t work up the effort to believe that Gideon is actually dead. Not only did we not see his body after the flames, but he had about a dozen clones that we don’t know for sure are totally dead. Either way, amazing scene.- I laughed out loud when Bo slid in front of Din and Grogu with her dinner plate-sized shield to protect them from the explosion. I was very glad it turned into Grogu being a Force badass instead of trying to make us believe her shield would have worked.- The adoption scene got me misty. I’m so happy they’re officially father and son now. Grogu went from adorable and hapless to adorable and a badass, it’s been quite the ride.- Talk about Mythosaur blue balls! Another shot without any interaction!- This had huge series-finale energy. Did we get a fourth announced yet? I wonder if they’re just going to roll the stories into Ahsoka. Everything was wrapped up with a bow and Mando even has a son and a cabin. It was all a little neater than I expected.
I enjoyed your post! I just wanted to say:“ This Imperial base is absolutely bonkers. That’s a metric buttload of TIEs, how would they never have noticed this before?”Everyone thought that Mandalore was uninhabitable or “cursed”, which is why the remains of the Empire were able to set up shop there without anyone knowing. To me, it is still one of the biggest plot holes of the season for a different reason-if all it took was one Mandalorian to go down there for a few minutes to check this out, then why did no one do this for years? They are so heartbroken over the loss of their home, but no one thought to go down for a few minutes to make super double sure the planet is not habitable? But they at least did try to provide an explanation of how this base got built in secret.“Why exactly does a light cruiser not have any shields? They just got lasered to death, which should take a bit longer than the 3 minutes it looked like it took.”This bugged the crap out of me. Small fighters can bring down a cruiser in a few minutes now. Axe should have been able to eat a sandwich and read his mail up there before even thinking about those ships. “This had huge series-finale energy. Did we get a fourth announced yet? I wonder if they’re just going to roll the stories into Ahsoka. Everything was wrapped up with a bow and Mando even has a son and a cabin. It was all a little neater than I expected.”I am almost positive I read an interview from JF confirming Season 4, but I could be wrong.
Mandalore suggestion: It got its reputation as “cursed” specifically because the Imperial Remnant hiding out there ruthlessly killed any would-be explorers who wanted to check it out. This would be pretty effective at creating a no-fly zone.
Yeah, I think that is probably exactly what the Empire did, which is probably part of how the planet got its rep after it was bombed.But it was still pretty silly that one Mandalorian, a droid, and a 50 year old baby could just fly down and figure it out after a few minutes of taking readings. You would think the Mandalorians would be a little more persistent for their beloved homeworld if that was all it took.
“if all it took was one Mandalorian to go down there for a few minutes to check this out, then why did no one do this for years?”To continue the reference to the Twelve Spies from Numbers 13, ten of the spies brought back bad reports that the Israelites would be unable to take Canaan, and because the Israelites believed them they were condemned to wander for 40 years.Gideon just had to control the reports of people who claimed to go to Mandalore, which worked until his brief stint in the custody of the New Republic.
I think the in-show explanation for why the cruiser was so easy to take out is it couldn’t be properly defended by just one person without a whole crew. I got the sense they were trying to represent that with Axe trying and basically failing to activate the defensive cannons.Of course the truth is they needed the timelines to match up so that Gideon could (maybe) be killed by his own former cruiser. Because Star Wars!
Not sure if every astromech has thrusters, but it seems like the R line of droids does, which kinda of makes sense considering they’re built to operate on the outsides of ships. Though having sustained flight capabilities seems kind of weird. Same goes for the jetpacks being able to fly into low orbit. Yes you could do a handwave explanation saying Mandalore has low gravity or something, but it’s still weird to think that any Mandalorian with a jetpack could potentially just fly off into space if they wanted.
“This Imperial base is absolutely bonkers. That’s a metric buttload of TIEs, how would they never have noticed this before?”
I don’t want to go back and check but could they be all the reinforcements he requested at the bad guy high council holo meeting in an earlier episode?
I 100% agree with the “Gideon or one of the clones isn’t dead” – his jazzed up Beskar MechSuit plus the lack of a body tells me there’s gonna be some shenanigans. Plus, Giancarlo Esposito is so good, even when he’s playing it cheesy.
“So these were Gideon clones all along? That means we’ve been fed a huge red herring since the first season. I thought he was working to make Snoke and Palpatine”Daddy Hux was doing the Palpatine clones. Gideon wants to have his own thing going and not just be a stooge. That’s why he didn’t want to wait for Thrawn to show up, and why he was okay with Pershing getting brain-puddinged.
– I laughed out loud when Bo slid in front of Din and Grogu with her dinner plate-sized shield to protect them from the explosion. I was very glad it turned into Grogu being a Force badass instead of trying to make us believe her shield would have worked.That was a great scene, and my son pointed out its similarity to (potential Rebels spoiler!) a move Kanan Jarrus pulled, but with better results.
Air battle was cool. The Moff Gideon battle was so poorly handled. The whole season was poorly handled. The most important stuff happened in the last couple of episodes and they packed so much stuff in only 30 minutes. That is not a good thing. Especially with no tease for, well anything. It really did feel like a series finale with everything wrapped up and a happy ending. I’m stumped. I’m also stumped how you gave this messy episode a B+ when its obviously a C.
While I am down for another season, which seems like it’s happening, this ending also would function as a series finale quite well.
Add some kind of fluffy alien creature pet and that little cabin on Nevarro is pretty close to a sheep farm on the moon.
“(Axe Woves is there, somehow surviving the crash)“maybe you should watch the episodes you recap
This episode played it way too safe.
I know they’re wrecking you in the QTs for not noticing that Axe shot out a window on the cruiser to escape before it crashed, but I’m partially on your side here, because that’s not a fucking window, it’s a transparisteel viewport on the bulkhead of a capital spaceship, supposedly hardened against emergencies, laser fire, regular fire, and even impact so that the whole ship doesn’t vent to vacuum in an instant, and he shot it apart with a pistol in a second. Finding out the whole ship has single pane picture windows was a little silly.
I’m just pretending to myself it is a safety feature where they can be intentionally shattered from the inside in case of a need for an emergency exit.
the ableism at the core of “you can’t be a Mandalorian unless you can verbally speak these words” was bizarre and upsetting.
OTOH, not being allowed to join a cult unless you explicitly say you want to join the cult is a pretty reasonable position for a cult.Besides, the Armorer didn’t say it was because Grogu couldn’t speak, but because he was too young to speak. I guess they’re Space Anabaptists.
Communication is not limited to vocalized speech. I would hope you understood my comment was referring to the messaging the show itself conveyed. This is a show that got props for developing a sign language for the Tuskens, and I was genuinely moved when Grogu was able to communicate “yes” and “no” because it seemed like he was accessing the beginning of something like an AAC device many nonverbal folks use to communicate. I expected I guess the bare minimum from this show, and I think this reflects how a need for diversity in the writers room should also include writers with disabilities.
I gather I liked this season considerably more than some others.I will acknowledge the writing was clunky/implausible/goofy at times, but overall it felt like a big galaxy again, I was engaged by the Bo-Katan/Mandalore-centric plot, I thought there were some really excellent action sequences, and I was satisfied by the finale while also being interested in more development of some of what happened this season.So, A-/B+ or so, which is fine.
So you’ve obviously watched Rebels and you say Baby Yoda bubble shielded like Groot…but not like Kanan in Rebels. And as everyone pointed how, how the hell did you miss the cruiser’s window being shot out and Axe flying away.
I was disappointed that the mythosaur didn’t emerge and help drive off the bad guys. They bothered to set it’s existence up and then call back with only a useless wink at the end.
The problem with Gideon having access to cloning technology and knowing that he has cloned himself means that his “death” means nothing because the show could bring him back later and say “This is the real Gideon, the one Mando fought last time and we saw die was just a clone that the real Gideon sent into that battle.”Spider-Man did this a bunch of times with the Jackal in the 1990s Clone Saga. “You thought I died back in the 1970s? That was just a clone – I sent a clone to that battle with you and that’s the one that died.” Then he died again and again, and each time we were told the one we saw dying was just a clone, the real one is still alive. They did that so many times that every time he died it felt meaningless.I’m worried they’ll do this with Gideon. I can’t believe they brought him back for 2 episodes this season just to kill him.
I feel that the title of the previous episode (The Spies) negatively effected my enjoyment of these last 2 episodes. The fact that it was “spies” plural made me think “Oh, Kane is a spy, which means there’s another spy in this episode … is it one of the Mandalorians? Is it the Armorer? Is it Bo? Is it Ax Woves?”I should have been just watching these episodes and enjoying them, but I kept waiting for a reveal of some character was going to be revealed to be a spy. And that never happened.So “The Spies” title was not only inaccurate, but it caused me to watch these 2 episodes with predictions I never would have had without that title, and those predictions were always present and reduced my enjoyment I would have had without that title.
It feels weird to call it aimless when there was a very clear goal being worked towards, retaking Mandalore.