The Mandalorian unleashes a high-flying episode
As loyalty to the Mandalorian creed is rewarded, so is someone's well-tested loyalty to Star Wars itself
TV Reviews Mandalorian
It looks like Bo-Katan’s conversion to becoming a follower of The Way, and possibly the reincarnation of Mandalore’s legendary messiah hero, is underway. After being welcomed into the covert along with Din Djarin a few episodes ago, since both of them bathed in the Living Waters and had kept their helmets on ever since, Bo-Katan has been embracing Din’s community and their more hardcore religious doctrine—while maybe quietly taking over his show at the same time. Hey, it’s called The Mandalorian, not This One Specific Mandalorian.
The episode started off with the Mandalorians training on the beach we saw in the season premiere, doing some hand-to-hand or flamethrower-to-flamethrower sparring and aimlessly firing guns into the nearby lake. (Which seemed a little silly…like, they’re not trying to hit targets, they’re just shooting guns?) Din stops Grogu from playing with some hermit crabs (he seemed to be arranging them into a pattern, if that matters) so he can start doing some actual Mandalorian training, which means sitting him in front of another kid who is not a tiny 50-year-old baby and making them fight.
The kid doesn’t want to, because Grogu looks like Grogu, but after some prodding from Din, he relents and agrees to fight Grogu with darts. Conveniently, the darts are a weapon that makes some sense to use with the Grogu puppet, since it would’ve been very bizarre to see them fight with guns or sticks, but this kid—later given the name Ragnar—easily hits Grogu with a pair of darts anyway. Before he can be finished off, Grogu does a big Jedi leap and hits Ragnar with all three of his darts, winning the fight. Everyone’s happy for Grogu, and Ragnar sulks off to feel bad about himself. (He did just get beaten by a baby in a fight.)
Unfortunately, all of this aimless shooting and roughhousing on the beach attracted the attention of some kind of dragon monster—it might be called a Shriek-Hawk, but I think that’s a different Star Wars creature—which swoops in and carries Ragnar off in its claws. The Mandalorians all jetpack after it, but one by one they run out of fuel until Bo-Katan shoots past in her ship. She’s able to track the monster to its nest (on top of a big mountain) and returns to the group to plan a rescue.
Apparently this kind of thing has been happening a lot, with this monster grabbing a kid and flying away, and the Mandalorians have learned that if they shoot the monster or spook it in some way, it will kill whoever it has captured. That’s also weird, because why wouldn’t it just kill the kid anyway? Especially when we find out later that it has apparently been carrying the kid around in its mouth and coughs him up to feed him to its babies?
Either way, Bo suggests sneaking in close to the mountain and just climbing up. There’s an interesting little scene where the hunting party makes a camp and one of them distributes food, prompting Bo to ask how they’re supposed to eat without removing their helmets. Din explains that they go off to some private place to eat, calling back to (I believe) the first time we saw him take his helmet off way back in season one. I like this as a sad little detail about life in this hardcore Mandalorian cult…it seems very lonely, but also needlessly dangerous, and it fits everyone’s typically gloomy, self-serious vibe.
Meanwhile, back at the camp, the Armorer tries teaching Grogu about how Mandalorians are like the armor they wear, in the sense that they have to be melted down and forged into something stronger and blah blah. Grogu isn’t really listening, though, because watching her work is reminding him of being on Coruscant during Order 66—when the Clone Troopers betrayed the Jedi. Grogu remembers seeing a group of Jedi trying to protect him, all of whom get killed by Clones. He makes it into an elevator and meets a Jedi named Kelleran Beq—played by none other than Ahmed Best, Jar Jar Binks himself.
This rules. I love that they finally gave Best a gift like this after decades of him defending Star Wars as a brand and after opening up about how hard he was hit by the backlash against Jar Jar, and I hope he got paid well and I hope they bring this character back as many times as Best wants. He deserves a lot more, frankly. Anyway, Kelleran grabs two lightsabers and effortlessly holds off some Clones, which is rad, and then he and Grogu jump into a flying motorcycle and zip off through the urban canyons of Coruscant.
That aerial escape sequence is kind of a stinker, though. It’s very weird to immediately be back on Coruscant after last week’s nearly episode-long trip (even if this is decades earlier), and it’s very, very weird that we not only see another one of those commuter trains from last week but also the big rock memorial. It doesn’t help that the CG is a little funky, unless that’s just how Coruscant looks all the time (especially in the Prequels era). It doesn’t really match the vibe of The Mandalorian, which tends to be more Original Trilogy than Prequel Trilogy, and it feels more fake and cheap because of it.
Grogu and Kelleran jump into a chromed-out starship (I believe it is specifically a Nubian yacht, like what Senator Padmé Amidala and her secret boyfriend Anakin Skywalker zipped around the galaxy with in Attack Of The Clones) and fly away, leaving that flashback story unfinished for now.
Back in the main plot, the Mandalorians reach the top of monster mountain and discover that the monster is not there. Paz Vizlsa, the guy in the big armor with the big gun, reveals that Ragnar is his son and runs in to try and find him, accidentally waking up a trio of monster babies that call their mother. The monster returns and coughs up Ragnar. The Mandalorians chase her through the air again and tie up her wings with nets and ropes, which causes her to plummet into a lake and get chomped up by one of those turtle monsters from earlier in the season. (Is it rude to keep calling everything a monster?)
They all return safely, bringing the monster babies with them so they can be trained in the ways of Mandalore for some reason. (They’re going to need big helmets.) Bo’s armor got damaged in the scuffle, so the Armorer goes off to repair it. Rather than another owl crest, though, Bo asks to have her armor stamped with a Mythosaur sigil and tells the Armorer that she saw a real Mythosaur back on Mandalore. The Armorer doesn’t seem to really believe her, but they both shrug off the conversation with a standard “This is the way.”
Stray observations
- No word from Dr. Pershing or those mysterious TIEs that chased our heroes off of Mandalore. Seems like Din Djarin would be content just hanging out on this planet from now on, which won’t make for an exciting TV show if it lasts much longer.
- The Armorer gives Grogu a new piece of armor, which is just a big disc that she pins to the front of his chainmail. It’s too big for him and looks a bit goofy, but we’re moving closer to the inevitable scene where he gets a Mandalorian helmet.
- This episode was directed by Carl Weathers. I wasn’t totally impressed with the various air combat scenes, but I don’t know if any of that is his fault. This is his second time going behind the camera for The Mandalorian, having previously directed the episode in season two that had a guy wearing jeans.
152 Comments
And Ahmed’s character Kelleran actually isn’t newly created for the show. He was the host of a Legends of the Hidden Temple-esque game show called Jedi Temple Challenge that had a brief run a couple years ago on the franchise’s Youtube channel. He also had a pair of droid sidekicks there, who I’m now kind of worried about.My one concern is they didn’t seem to do any de-aging on him, which doesn’t speak well for the character’s prospects for appearing in the “present.”
Because we need even more Jedi to have been alive during the OT, when Yoda told Luke he was the only one left?
And it was 100% intended at the time that Obi Wan was telling the truth that a guy named Darth Vader killed Luke’s father. The franchise has never been big on letting old continuity stand in the way of the stories they want.
“They used this one trope before, and the story was deeper and better for it, so I see no problem with them using it over and again, despite said trope now making the story shallower and worse. They did it once, so they should do it whenever they want. That’s just good writing.”
“That boy was our only hope.”“No, there is another.”“Oh, yeah. Asohka Tano! The Jedi trained by you, me, and Anakin, and who has years of fighting experience from being a veteran of the Clone Wars! She’s already held her own against both Maul and Vader! What were we thinking?”“No, I meant his sister, who we also couldn’t be bothered to train.”
YES! oh and the seemingly endless list of Jedi that survived order 66.
He didn’t tell him he was the only possible Jedi, just that he was the only hope for the galaxy. Which makes some sense given it was Vader’s emotional reaction to seeing one of his kids near death which leads to the Emperor losing.Before he somehow returned that is.
Yoda also said “When gone am I, the last of the Jedi will you be” shortly before dying on Dagobah. So that strongly implies that every Jedi shown to survive Order 66 has died prior to the Battle of Endor some 24 years later. There’s some wiggle room in the story (Ashoka is not technically a Jedi at that point, Kanan survived to the OT era but died before Yoda, Grogu never took the trials, etc.) in that a lot of the Jedi shown to be alive after Order 66 are not confirmed to be alive and/or Jedi by the time of ROTJ.
Man the less time we spend with the Mandalorians as a group the better, frankly. They seem to have no interests beyond stating the obvious or repeating proverbs. Like would it kill the showrunners to show any of these people talk about food or the weather or something? They’re always just like “I will train by fighting.” “Fighting is the ultimate expression of training.” “One says stuff but does less stuff.” “This is the way.” They’re like really boring Klingons.Also I’ve got two eyes and a heart so I love Grogu same as anyone, but we’re rapidly approaching the point where they’re either gonna need to have him start talking or have him start moving around a little better, because his combat scene was about as impressive as when the Muppets would show an explosion by just hucking Kermit across the lens from offstage.
That comment will not stand
Klingons are basically drunk rugby players, Mandalorians are like missionaries.
But Klingons are way more fun.
Drunk rugby players usually are.
The only sober Rugby player I know is my own kid.
Agreed! Is is odd, isn’t it? Since you’d think that Mandalorians are still just people, even with their creed and fancy gadgets. Like, you’d talk about other things too. At least most of them would, I reckon, aside from the Armorer.I may have looked at the promotional material wrong, but it seemed that they’d be focused on Mandalore and getting their world back. They’re likely building up to it, since it’s difficult convincing a group of people who have been nomads for so long, that their home planet could possibly sustain them again. But it’s about time that plot actually goes somewhere. I hope Bo’s deal with the Mythosaur propels that.I had the exact same thought regarding Grogu. When he won the duel and got his armor, I went: “Man that kid has experienced so goddamn much already and he’s not really even a toddler yet?” His story right now makes me feel like he’s going to become a fully fledged Mandalorian by the end of the season and then get a jetpack and a flamethrower. I know, I know, his race ages differently and whatnot, but man, he’s still the size of a football.That Muppet line made me snort my drink. My thanks.
These aren’t “Mandalorians.”They are, very specifically, a splinter cult of weirdo religious fundamentalists.
It’s like a Looney Toons gag:Name? Mandalorian.Occupation? Mandalorian.Where are you from? Mandalorian.Do you have any hobbies or interests outside of being Mandalorian? Mandalorian.
Yeah, I thought the “fight” scene was the low point of the show so far, and definitely of Grogu’s scenes. You can just feel the story machinations of “How do we work around the fact that he’s a one-foot tall puppet?” The leaping was silly, and not the intended effect of “Wow, Grogu sure is talented!” How many more ways can people attach things to Grogu while explaining why they will be visually limited as far as movement?I’d be much happier if Grogu just levitated in the air and did subtle movements to indicate he’s affecting the other person through the Force.
What even are the rules of this “world’s most boring game of paintball”? After the kid shoots Baby Yoda, the round is stopped. But then when Baby Yoda shoots the kid he’s allowed to fire all three rounds and is the winner?
Subtle movement in general is how they keep the illusion. Anytime they have him move too much when it’s not with other objects/non-humans that are at his scale or too fast it just looks so silly. It would have been much more effective if he had stopped the other kid’s last dart before it hit him and pushed it back onto the kid and then rapidly fired all three of his darts at once after a beat while everyone looked on in shock.
I think going the puppet route was the right move, overall, but they need to integrate some CGI when they need more intricate movement.
I thought he’d just stop the paint balls and splash them back at the kid.
It also doesn’t help that the more we see of the Mandalorians, the more inept they appear. Watching them clumsily climb the mountain or move some branches just looks silly. I’m starting to wonder if this is all just a callback to the OT’s Boba Fett where he looks cool but when push comes to shove he’s actually pretty useless.
Being defeated by a blind unaware Han does not hold up well.
Would anyone watch a show of people talking about what they had for lunch? Regular people need to take a shit occasionally too, but I don’t wanna see it.
The Grogu situation really is feeling more and more like they’ve painted themselves into a corner with no plan on how to get out, so they’re just passing time in hopes that somebody thinks of something at some point along the way.
Getting Grogu to Luke was a natural off-ramp, either to pivot the show into a different direction around Din and all the Mando lore, or reintroduce the character later with some good, old fashioned off-screen development, but I guess the “Baby Yoda” craze was too much of a cash cow to write Grogu out even for just a season.
Its the annoying moment in all Current Marvel/Star wars properties where Disneys’s marketing/other factors start to override storytelling.
There’s no corner to get out of. You can’t rip off Lone Wolf & Cub without the Cub.
I love this show, but I’ve become increasingly obsessed with how unsustainable the extremist Mandalorian life is. Eating communally is a major bonding exercise in almost every culture ever, yet these guys only ever eat in isolation? Are all the children foundlings, or are they being conceived and born without anyone ever taking off a helmet? Do people not get married, or get married but are still not allowed to see each other’s faces, let alone kiss? How does the inability to see a parent’s face, read her expression, not screw up the development of babies and toddlers? What happens if a Mandalorian is neuro-diverse or has major sensory issues? Are the helmets climate-controlled? Does no one go swimming for fun? Do they all have terrible haircuts because they can only cut their own hair?
Yeah, I have always wondered how the Sex-With-Huge-Cumbersome-Helmets-On thing works. I guess rule 34 of the internet would state I could probably find out by going to Pornhub and typing in “Mandalorians fucking” and get my answer. I gotta think that BJ’s are kind of out of the question.
Mandalorians are just less cuddly furries.
Marriage gets rid of the BJs anyway.
Doggy style would presumably work without any issues.
I think the deal is that members of the extremist Children of the Watch sect are celibate, and don’t fuck at all, with or without helmets on. Every child we’ve seen has been identified as a foundling. Every adult Mandalorian seems to be without a partner.
Speaking of foundlings, I wonder if those 3 pterodactyl babies were just an episode-ending joke, or if there will be follow up.As far as what you said goes, you might be right. They certainly have left themselves the ability to go with the celibacy thing. It’s interesting, an Orthodox Jewish Twitter acquaintance of mine has been saying all along that they were essentially Orthodox Space Jews, but now I think that they may be Space Shakers instead. Instead of making quality furniture, they do quality metalwork.
That one guy specifically said the kid that was taken was his son though. It was the narrative basis for him acting so rashly in the nest.
The Armorer specifies that the abducted kid is actually Paz Vizsla’s foundling in the scene where Bo-Katan comes up with the plan to form a hunting party. The name of the episode is “The Foundling” and this is meant to apply to both Grogu and the kid.
Paz Vizsla looses his shit, messes up the stupid bird nest stuff, and specifically says, “he’s my son.” Not “foundling,” but “son.”
That’s because in Mandalorian culture, to adopt a foundling is to become that child’s parent. The point of all this was to highlight that Grogu is Mando’s son now. I rewatched the episode last night and Ragnar is repeatedly referred to as a foundling throughout the episode, including a few seconds before Paz says “that’s my son!” When Bo-Katan returns, the Armorer praises her for achieving a Mandalorian’s highest honor — saving a foundling. Ragnar is not Paz’s biological son, he’s his adopted son as a foundling.The Children of the Watch don’t fuck, is what I’m saying.
Adoptive parents often call their kids “son” and “daughter” and are even known to grow strongly attached to them.
Apart from the mandolorian child the episode is about who is the son of Paz
Ragnar is lucky the monster didn’t knock his helmet off, or they probably would have just let him be eaten.
That’s because this whole sect that never takes their helmets off is exceedingly stupid and it’s apparent the showrunners never really thought through how stupid it was. Basically, it’s like they thought this would be a cool premise for one character where we don’t have to think too deeply about the implications, but the show took off though and now they’re painted into ridiculous corners. No social group could function under such a stupid rule.
He needs to master the martial art of Miss Piggy-fu. “HIIIIII-YAH!”
Agree…Not just the Mandalorians, i have found the dialogue this season to be so wooden and one note. Maybe its just me. I do however like the Armorer;s way of delivering the same dialogue I’m critiquing. I think the scene with Bo was interesting and it made me laugh because the Armorer’s responses were that of a parent listening to their childs silly made up story.
It’s also convenient that the kid picked the only weapon/form of combat that Grogu could remotely excel at.
Didn’t one of the adult Mandalorians (the kid’s father?) decide that they would use darts for this training exercise? Seems like the type of training device they’d have younger Mandalorians use – they’re not going to have the younglings train with each other using blasters and flamethrowers.
Pretty sure the kid chose it. And most of the other trainees were engaged in hand-t0-hand combat. But go check and let me know if I’m wrong.
Yeah the less stoic zealots that may have their faces covered the better. This is why Obi Wan sucked, and why Timothy Olyphant was such a breath of fresh air. After seeing Pascal in The Last Of Us, he just seems wasted in Mandalorian. They might as well have Siri voice him and the rest of the Mandalorians.
“The Way” is fucking idiotic. It makes no sense. It breaks it’s own rules constantly. Allows idiotic unspoken exceptions. Nothing about this Mandalorian culture makes a lick of sense or inters testing beyond the “Hey, cool costume.”When you compare it to what is possible with Andor you realize this is a show for idiots and children. And I’m side-eyeing anyone allowing a child to watch this dystopian might-makes-right cult shit.
Grogu should have just stopped the paintballs mid-air with the force.The writing this season has gotten so bad i think someone needs to do a welfare check on are guy Favreau
“They’re like really boring Klingons.”More like Pakleds
Does anyone think the name Pershing came from mashing together Peter Cushing or has someone already made that connection?
“since both of them bathed in the Living Waters and had kept their
helmets on ever since, Bo-Katan has been embracing Din’s community and
their more hardcore religious doctrine”Welp, that’s the exact opposite of what I wanted from this season. I don’t know if going all-in on the helmets is a penny-pinching thing (hire body doubles for all the long filming days, then have the name actors do fifteen minutes of voice recording at home), or if Favreau and Filoni genuinely find their story of mercenaries embracing religious extremism to be compelling and/or a good fit for our time (is it ever?), but, whatever the reason, they’re not likely to get a month’s subscription from me out of it.“This rules. I love that they finally gave Best a gift like this after decades of him defending Star Wars as a brand”“I saw something I recognized, and I clapped!”
Agreed—I really need those helmets to come off. I don’t care at all for them basing so much of their culture on some cool-looking helmets, but too late to fix that. I like the Armorer, but the rest of the group is just sorta there, even the big mean one with the kid (his name is RAGNAR?! Come on!) and so much of their society makes no sense at all.At this point, unfortunately, Pedro Pascal is too busy for this stuff to change I think–they made it work with him barely having to be on-set and now they’re probably stuck with it that way regardless of how much I wanna see his pretty face.
I suspect Pedro Pascal is quite happy to have his face remain hidden the way things are going with this show. It’s not as though they seem interested in using those acting chops on display in Game of Thrones and the Last of Us.
“I saw something I recognized, and I clapped!” I read this in Jay Bauman’s voice. Thank you.
I continue to feel like this embrace of the Way or w/e will not be the end result, if only because it would be a really weird unsatisfying narrative track for Filoni to spend all of Clone Wars and Rebels making it pretty clear Death Watch’s religious extremism is bad and then saying “well they were right in the end!”
More likely I think is that Bo-Katan will come up with some sort of, reformed “Way” that ends up being a compromise between New Mandalore’s complete abandonment of tradition and the extremism of the Watch. Or maybe this is all just long set up for future Mandalorian conflict if she goes too far all in, though with so few episodes per season I feel like they don’t have the time for that.
“Welp, that’s the exact opposite of what I wanted from this season.”Same. I was hoping we’d have a tale of someone gradually being deprogrammed from their extremist cult.
It’s still early in the season.
True enough
People keep saying that Bo-Katan is “embracing the way” while I read it as she’s just taking them up on their offer for a place to hide out while she figures out who the hell blew up her house.
I think I finally figured out what has been frustrating me about Mandalorian almost since the beginning, but especially these last two seasons (Boba Fett and Mando season 3). The story always SEEMS to have a logical next step. Even if we as an audience can’t specifically name what it is we are expecting, there’s an anticipation of where the next episode feels like it should go. And every single time, these shows go in completely other directions. That can be seen as clever and subversive, but I think it’s contributing to the malaise that is starting to grow over the show. Case in point, who was expecting or wanting or needing a full episode of a bunch of Mandalorians chasing a giant bird dragon that absconded with a kid? Granted, it was a cool sequence, but it didn’t feel like it led towards any sort of next step for the story WE want. Again, it can be argued that it advanced the story by giving Bo Katan more agency and deepening her (possible) faith in The Way, but it feels like there were many other ways it could have gone to accomplish the same thing except an episode-length side quest. Case in point 2, we DID get some forward progress on a story we WERE desperate to learn more about, which is Grogu’s past. I want that story. I think we all do. It’s great when we get pieces of it, but by comparison, the main storyline feels superfluous. It’s like the difference between the Mando episodes and the Book of Boba Fett episodes they showed up in the middle of. It was night and day. The Mando episodes were what we wanted. Going back to the Boba Fett story was a HUGE comedown. It just feels that every week, Favreau (and Filoni) are telling us stories we aren’t asking to hear, and avoiding telling us the stories we’ve been demanding. I get cool bits of stuff in the midst of a ton of fluff I don’t care about and won’t be revisiting.
‘…a ton of fluff I don’t care about and won’t be revisiting.’That’s Disney these days.
it very much feels like the animated shows, where because they had 20+ episodes they could alternate between plot-centric and ‘adventures of the week’. but 20+ episodes annually and 8 episodes every 20 months is a very different beast. it’s like by the time we get to an end of the season that’s almost when the season should REALLY start, but then it all resets the following season.
Or, if we’re lucky, we don’t have to wait, and it gets reset in the middle of someone else’s show.
it’s what everyone has always liked about star wars – IP synergy and a long-winded plot.
Was Grogu’s flashback all that interesting though? To me, it felt more less like it told a story, and and more like it just showed events.
It wasn’t, but at least it supplied answers to a question we actually had. “What happened to Grogu? How did he get to where he was in season one when Mando rescued him?” For me, the interesting story of Mandalorian is seeing where the Mando/Grogu relationship goes. I want to see Grogu become a Mandalorian and a Jedi. I want to know what abilities he has. I want to know his story. At this rate, it’ll be 20 actual years of our time before Grogu is talking like a toddler, much less an adult.
It definitely wasn’t interesting. They showed the least interesting and most obvious bit of his backstory. So he was rescued from the temple during Order 66? Well no fucking duh! That’s not the mystery, the mystery is what he was up to (or being sun´bjected to) during the next 20+ years.
It’s an echo of Din’s flashbacks while the Armorer was forging.
Well put. There hasn’t been any real conflict in Season 3 and the series doesn’t seem to be going anywhere at all. I never really thought the show was great, but I’m borderline just hate-watching at this point and am sometimes pleasantly surprised when something actually cool or novel happens.
I hope it’s not a case of Filoni figuring he became popular with SW fans for “fixing” the PT, mainly by adding a bunch of crap to it, and now figuring he’ll just do the same for the ST. “People didn’t like that whole Palpatine cloning stuff, but if we just add a bunch of crap to that story, and show how it got there, with a bit of Thrawn tossed in, people will love it again!”And heck, maybe if a few more years pass, and Daisy Ridley’s career seems stagnant, they’ll be able to sign her on to a few more movies, and she and Grogu can form a new Jedi Order, and battle the new Malicious Prince of the Whills (Barry Keoghan) or some sith.
But this is how ALL expanded universe stuff is done. It’s people coming along later and spackling in new stuff to fix or smooth out stuff that didn’t make sense before. Star Wars has ZERO planned stories, and that’s going all the way back to the beginning. Star Wars itself was famously saved in the edit room. Empire Strikes Back was almost completely rewritten by Lawrence Kasdan (from Leigh Bracket’s first draft) in ways that show that the story we ended up with wasn’t what Lucas had laid out to Brackett. Likewise, Return of the Jedi was a hodge-podge of ideas that were not thought of at the outset, including famously, the eleventh-hour idea to make Luke and Leia siblings. Star Wars has been nothing but later writers coming along and attempting to fix the holes in previous stories. Now, it’s not a guarantee that a fix will fix it. It’s all about the execution. While I think the Clone Wars are okay, in no way do they ‘fix’ the Prequels. But I can watch Clone Wars stuff and enjoy it while allowing the actual prequels to blur into the background of my memory as just broad shapes. Likewise, the stink of Rise of Skywalker cannot be easily erased, but maybe some of the crimes committed against some characters can be mitigated… a little bit. My case in point for how this can work is Cobra Kai. It’s successfully incorporated all the movies, even the dumb one, into it’s continuing story. It’s made Karate Kid 3 a story that is acknowledged history and has modern-day repercussions. It’s still a silly movie, but the TV show has mitigated it’s damage significantly. It’s a tall order, but I fully believe that there is a good story out there that makes all this kinda work.
It’s funny, because aside from Ahsoka, most of the stuff that Filoni fixed about the Prequels didn’t come from the characters and lore he added, it was mainly just improving Anakin’s characterization and making the story and characters that already existed make more sense.
The show is almost entirely cool-in-a-vacuum events and sequences that frustratingly do little to move any of the stories forward.
“Grogu’s past. I want that story. I think we all do.”No, thanks. I don’t need to see him get rescued from Vader’s clutches by Reva or some sh*t. He laid low, Yoda and Obi-Wan thought we was dead, he never met Ahsoka, fine, move on. Maybe he was with Max von Sydow or something.
No. It’s actually, in theory, an interesting story of how he got from the Jedi Temple to where Grogu was at the beginning of Mando season 1, episode 1, where he was in the clutches of someone who was going to sell him to the Empire. There’s a story there. Grogu was clearly trained (or attempted to be trained) by a Dark Sider. He has traumatic memories of it. That’s theoretically interesting. But we’re moving towards any explanation of what Grogu’s story is at a snail’s pace. I’ll be 70 years old by the time we resolve any of this story.
The problem I have is that he’s basically inert. It would be like following the baby from Willow when it’s kidnapped. It doesn’t do anything. It just goes wherever it’s taken.
Well, there’s got to be some explanation of how he wound up on Nick Nolte’s planet, in a weird compound surrounded by mercs, since that doesn’t seem to be Max Von Sydow’s style.
All building towards sequels that were not great or well received. Unless they are planning to bring these Mandalorians and Ashoka to the present where the First order has been defeated.
It just feels that every week, Favreau (and Filoni) are telling us stories we aren’t asking to hear, and avoiding telling us the stories we’ve been demanding.This is precisely my problem with Filoni productions. The Bad Batch season 2 is the same way. The first episode was story centric, the next 5 were completely random adventures with zero effect on the story.
I think a lot of it is endemic to (in my opinion) a vast majority of streaming shows today. They have 8-10 episode order, but they really only have a story that covers 3 or 4 episodes. Instead of just telling a killer 3-4 episode story, we get a bloated, meandering 10-episode season with stuff that clearly feels tacked on. I absolutely loved The Tales of the Jedi series. It gave us just the story, and made it no longer than it needed to be. Star Wars (and Marvel) need to do this. There just needs to be a ‘Star Wars” TV series, and it’s made up of nothing but one-to-four episode story arcs. Tell the story, from any era or corner of the galaxy, and make it as good as possible, then end it. Then move on to another story. Do a standalone Obi-Wan episode. Do a three-episode arc on what happened to Mace Windu. Do a special episode on the Last Day of Alderaan, told from the perspective of Bail Organa and everyone on the planet as they saw doom coming their way. Maybe another Young Han Solo adventure. A fully-produced Lando Calrissian adventure, as written by Lando. A two-part IG-11 adventure. A Jaxxon, the six-foot-tall green rabbit alien story. A story about the two Death Star stormtroopers who got knocked out on the Millenium Falcon and whose armor was used by Han and Luke who woke up in the hold of the Falcon hours later during the Battle of Yavin. What happened to them? On and on and on. There are so many Star Wars stories to be told that don’t need to be dragged out over eight-to-ten episode seasons.
“A story about the two Death Star stormtroopers who got knocked out on the Millenium Falcon and whose armor was used by Han and Luke who woke up in the hold of the Falcon hours later during the Battle of Yavin.”This is what they should have Taika Waititi write and direct.
I sure don’t. It’s a space western pastiching Lone Wolf & Cub. It does what it says on the tin.
The dragons kidnapping stuff was to show Bo-Kate earning a new badge of respect in the Watch. They’re moving toward her using them to either a) retake Mandalorian (which, who would want to at this point?) or b) conscripting them in some larger conflict against the Empire. I figured we’d get a couple of “Bo-Katan proves herself” episodes before the big climax, and I’m here for it.
I kind of disagree on the “filler” aspect of the whole bird chase/hunting party storyline from this episode. To me it feels like this season has been building up Bo Katan as a leader, and this sequence took her from where she was last episode (getting welcomed into this group) to earning respect from them and taking a leadership role (they specifically noted that she was the leader of the hunting party and got the prime campfire spot for eating). Add in the two weeks ago scenes of her using the darksaber like a boss and it is looking to me like they are establishing her bona fides for being the new leader of Mandalore when the covert finally decides to re-take the planet.
I don’t know, I think the flying bird story had more meat on the bone than people are letting on. To get to the next step of the story as I expect it, you needed an episode that gave the two top contenders to try to take the Dark Saber from Din—Paz Visla, who already tried, and Bo, who inexplicably hasn’t—a chance to interact, Bo to kind of find her place among the Children of the Watch, to see how Din and Grogu fit in to the Covert now, etc. If the big thing of the season is going to be seeing the Mandalorians go back to Mandalore, we’ve got to spend some time with the Mandalorians to set up that conflict. Normally, something like Din saving Paz’s son would be a big deal, except that since it repeats story beats from earlier, it just seems like their normal cycle: Paz makes it clear he hates Din, Din and Paz fight, one of them saves the other’s life and/or child, they both go “This is the Way,” rinse, and repeat.Even though I think the stuff we saw: Bo taking charge of the rescue, Din saving Ragnar’s life, the discussion between Bo and the Armorer, the prospect of Din on dragonback, eventually will all pay off, the episode’s kind of underwhelming because it was really short, and even at that length was padded with the Grogu flashback. While I like the flashback, thought Best looked like a natural with a couple of lightsabers in hand, and I really want to see more of that story, in this episode it feels like they realized that they had maybe 25 minutes worth of story, and they needed something to get them over the half hour mark. The intro to the flashback didn’t seem natural at all: Grogu had just been happily hanging out at the beach, where Mandalorian afternoon practice looked and sounded like a Star Wars version of the D-Day invasion,; his whole life with Din has been full of blaster fire, sparks, and loud clanging noises that he always took in stride. If a couple of minutes at the forge is going to give him PTSD, they need to set that up better in the flashback.
Yeah, last season I wondered if “The Mandalorian” was like “True Detective.” Who’s the True Detective? It’s a bunch of dudes (and Rachel McAdams) who come to the fore and recede from time to time. Anyway, they seem to be moving toward The Mandalorian in the plural sense of the word. Which, that’s cool.They need to break the cult of the helmet-thing, which I’m sure makes the Disney budget department go, “But… but… (sigh) … ah shit.” Plot-wise, that would mean breaking Emily Swallow’s The Armorer and her resolve – and seeing her face. Which I am down for. It follows that the Mythosaur will have to be the one to tell the Armorer to knock-it-off with helmet stupidity. “This is the New Way, fuck-nuts.” If the show really wanted to do something with some edge, they’d take on California Cult society (you know the ones) and not wishy-washy suggest that “Oh, well some cults are okay.” Really hope Sabine Wren can talk Bo off this path. The Armorer and by extension, Din, need an intervention.
Or at least make the Living Waters – Death Watch’s new HQ. Take off your helmet all you want now, just as long as you bathe nightly and say your prayers. You’ll have a Mythosaur, a Grogu, a Dark Sabre, a couple royal families, and the Living Waters all pleading with The Armorer to take off her helmet. “C’mon! C’mon. Really? C’mon. Your scalp needs to breathe.”“Fine!! I’ll do it you assholes. You want to see my face: Here’s my fucking face!”Be funny if she was just hiding a giant zit. Or had a brain-slug on her head.
It would be the most divine comedy if the Armorer took off her mask to reveal the most caked-on helmet of dandruff and hair oil underneath. On seeing it, all the Mandalorians could look at Bo, before she says, “uhh, this is the, uh, new way”
“Guys guys, guys… … the Living Waters cures dandruff. It’s good for the skin. … the hair uh, folicles. … Mythosaur urine is… clean. Refreshing, even. You’ll see. … You’re gonna love it.”
I like the idea of a Ratatouille (or a Raccacoonie) under her helmet helping her forge that’s she’s afraid everyone will find out about.
This helmet cult is a bunch of idiots and it makes me sad to see Bo Katan join them. (and the thought of Grogu joining them just makes me fucking confused. Is his helmet going to have cute little ears?)
No they’ll just do a time jump to a time when Grogu can be played by The Rock, wearing his ears like the Rock wears his ears in SNL’s Bambi sketch.
Honestly it’s kinda (and by kinda I mean super) weird that the cast list y’all use still includes Gina Carano.
Hers is weird for obvious reasons, but they also have two other actors/characters listed who are no longer on the show. I’d say they’re trolling us but it’s definitely just laziness.
You see that all the time on the TV guide screens that cable providers give you, where they list stars that left the particular show a decade or more ago.
Definitely laziness when they give the title as “Chapter 20″ rather than “The Foundling”.
Disney gives the reviewers early access screeners to do their write-ups ahead of time but doesn’t provide the titles until the show airs.
At least they still list my favorite character “Jawa” too bad it doesn’t leave any room for Katee Sackoff *shrug*
This season is a disjointed mess .The appearance of Best was however great and he was great in the part ,hope he is not killed off .
Also
good was more back story to Grogu ,maybe we will eventually find out
why and how he ended up in the desert defended by all those guys Mando
killed to retrieve him for the Empire Remnants.Big Plus NO GRAPE LIGHTSABER !!!!
I do however wish they had the Balls to Have it be The Jar Jar character saving Grougu ,they could reveal his whole clown act ws always an act ,to throw off people .
This season is a disjointed mess .The appearance of Best was however great and he was great in the part ,hope he is not killed off .
Also
good was more back story to Grogu ,maybe we will eventually find out
why and how he ended up in the desert defended by all those guys Mando
killed to retrieve him for the Empire Remnants.Big Plus NO GRAPE LIGHTSABER !!!!
I do however wish they had the Balls to Have it be The Jar Jar character saving Grougu ,they could reveal his whole clown act ws always an act ,to throw off people .
Apparently, Mando & Bo proving that the Homeworld wasn’t cursed last week made no difference to the Covert and their extremely hazardous hideout?Is the Armorer gaslighting them all? Is this basically TRIANGLE OF SADNESS in space?
They’re a crazy fucking cult! Of course the character wearing MAUL HORNS on her helmet is gaslighting them all, haha.
I’m no military training expert to be sure, but that “training” scene cracked me up with its utter absurdity. Two guys firing flamethrowers at each other like they cancel each other out? Shooting the water for practice? A duel with space-paintballs?Mandalorians are supposed to be the rough Star Wars equivalent of Spartans and this is how they train? No wonder the empire practically wiped them out.
Dear god, what an awful episode. The flashback and Ahmed Best’s appearance were the only remotely interesting things about it. Total waste otherwise.
Other than Ahmed Best, this episode was a complete and utter whiff. Ugh, what a profound waste of time. At least it was short.
Reminder: no one is forcing you to hate watch and religiously comment on this show.
I’m honestly happy other people are starting to see the show the way I do. The Mandalorians are boring, they really need to start doing something with Grogu (he should have stayed with Luke), and the story needs to start progressing. At this point I’m just watching it out of spite.
I really liked the episode. Ahmed Best, new armor for Grogu, even saving the three baby pterodactyls.. this show has heart.
I’m pretty sure their plan is more enslaving than saving
I imagine they’ll train them for long distance flights and will be well cared for in return. Especially considering their stance on foundlings.
Pets and working animals aren’t slaves.
You’re probably right about how they’ll be used (though as captured wild animals I wouldn’t describe that fate as pets or working), but I’m not sure “well cared for” describes anything I’m seeing among these bozos. Without our leads, they’ve so far been helpless to much protect themselves against sky monsters and megagators, but still do all their mando-practicing (for all the good it’s doing them) outside the cave and next to the water where this stuff keeps happening, even though they know they have a good alternative now.
I’m pretty sure their plan is more barbecue than enslaving.
I find myself wondering if Bo-Katan has well shaped boob armor and defined abs in her armor because Katee Sackhoff asked for it, or if they said to themselves: Well, hell, we got Katee Sackhoff, we’d be stupid not to give her tightly form fitting armor! “?
Body dysmorphia and eating disorders gotta be rampant among the Mandalorians.
She’s arriving as a complete look from a cartoon show where boob armor was 100% the norm.
https://www.tor.com/2013/05/06/boob-plate-armor-would-kill-you/
They put husky armor on the guy voiced by Jon Favreau
Holy exposition! That was a bad episode. Badly plotted, badly written, and badly directed.The whole child abduction plot was nonsensical but having the rescue team resting up for an entire night whilst the kid is in supposedly in mortal danger? Good job the babies weren’t hungry I guess…
All I kept thinking about was the Eagle-Cam at Big Bear and those eagles just trying to protect their brood from the unprecedented snow fall these past weeks in California trying to surviveThis episode gave all of us here the sads. So it was somebody’s kid? Well it was someone else’s cat……………
Fucking hell, we’re all a bunch of miserable bastards, aren’t we?I personally thought that episode was a fun 33 minutes of Star Wars. This ‘article’ (more like a drunken, depressed recap than anything) criticising Carl Weathers’ direction -when it had some genuinely beautiful Star Wars imagery peppered throughout – just felt mean for no reason.The Jedi rescue/escape felt like the most ”Star Wars” thing I’ve seen in years.Yeah, all the “This is the Way” stuff is getting a bit much, but seeing a bunch of Mandalorians flying around with their jet packs was a nice bit mindless, geeky fun.
I enjoyed the one dude who just saw his son snatched saying something along the lines of “this happens everytime” when their jetpacks run out of fuel and they were unable to keep pursuit. Between this and almost getting eaten by a giant crocodile dinosaur, I’d be starting to question if this group actually does know the way.
Ok, so it turns out the solution to this jet-pack fuel problem was to chase the raptor down with a ship, which raises the question: There’s not a single ship among them? How did all these bozos get to this planet in the first place? How do they intend to leave? The planet looks pretty arid, so they aren’t farming, so where do they get their Lonely Man dinners from? They aren’t getting them off-planet because they don’t have a ship, so what happens when they run out? And this isn’t really related to a lack of a ship but also they don’t have training drones to shoot at? They just fire at the water? Maybe that’s a fine training exercise for a Storm Troopers that can’t hit the broad side of a sand crawler, but the most elite mercanaries in the galaxy train by just firing randomly into the water? Or maybe they just have a contingent of dudes blasting into the water any time they go to the beach to keep the giant gator at bay?And while we’re on the subject of things that don’t make sense, the bird will kill the child at the drop of a hat, but apparently will also let it ferment alive in its gullet for an entire day before hacking it up for its babies. Ragnar had his own mini sarlacc pit moment, good for him! And then it turns out that after everything they did not to spook the bird they just fly after it with jet-packs again and the bird decides not to just kill the kid immediatly, as it is apparently wont to do? When they chase the bird the first time its weaving through a canyon, and the camera has a big shot above the canyon showing the bird weaving through it with Mandalorians in pursuit. Why didn’t they just fly above the canyon in a straight line to conserve fuel and keep eyes on the bird, ya know, like the camera does? WHY DON’T THEY HAVE A SHIP?
I’m pretty sure the long shot of the training beach shows that there are people on jet packs over the water, so I think the guys on the shore are firing at them. Not saying that it seems like the most effective way to practice, but it seems on brand for people who are also practicing shooting flamethrowers at each other.
Turns out, cults are full of dumb people.
It makes sense the Mandalorians would live on a dangerous planet where they have to keep their skills sharp and overcome challenges. But it makes no sense for them to be completely unprepared for the dangers of the planet. At least put up some guard towers or radars that can detect incoming monsters
Why do that when you can just fire indiscriminately into the water? Tune in next week to see them firing indiscriminately into the air, only for one to be eaten by a tremors worm from beneath the dirt.
B- is fair. I found it to be an enjoyable episode with some silly logic choices that aren’t really worth stressing about more than just making some jokes about it.
However, I always check the comments in various places about the show and I keep seeing a trend. We’re 3 seasons into this show. If you haven’t figured out that this show is basically a Saturday morning serial with weekly adventures and sometimes you get some larger plot advancement and other times you don’t get much of anything, that’s on you. You are wasting your time complaining about what you want the show to be. That’s not how its structured. It’s really just a live action version of Clone Wars/Rebels/Bad Batch. Not surprising given Filoni’s involvement, but that’s what it is. If you don’t like it, that’s fine. But its kinda silly to watch 3 seasons worth and bitch every single episode about the same thing.
just because it’s like something else doesn’t automatically mean it’s a good version of that thing.if the adventures of the week were better people wouldn’t complain about them.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!Oh wait, you were serious.Have you met Star Wars fans?
frankly i don’t think an actual ‘star wars fan’ is something that exists.
What a slick episode!- I thought Grogu was making himself a nice little rock circle with the Force, I laughed out loud when it was sand crabs.
– The dart training was unreal, Mando kid got 360 no-scoped by Grogu.- I know he’s been a global phenomenon for years now, but holy crap was Grogu cute in this episode. The dart scene was adorable, his facial expressions and coos are some of the most loveable things I can imagine, the way he scurries and walks delights me, and his entire demeanor while he was getting the beskar crest just melted me.- That flashback was something else. I never understood why so many Jedi absolutely blew at deflecting blaster bolts, even when there are like 4 of them and just a handful of clones. I guess maybe they were librarians or something? Either way, a little extra time in saber practice might have given them better chances.- The speeders had side-cars!! Holy crap that’s amazing.- Ahmed Best! What a great surprise. Total badass Jedi too, two lightsabers just casually owning the clones. Amazing pilot too, speeder and ship. I like that they had to throw in a half-second of the set from last week, Umate makes a surprise appearance twice in a row.- Seeing gunships and V-Wings in modern CGI is unreal. They looked so much cooler and sounded fantastic. I wish we had more time. That gunship was firing indiscriminately into other speeder traffic, and the sides of buildings, and when it got hit by a train I’m sure hundreds died. Way to go, gunship.- A Naboo ship and guards? I’m way behind on the new EU, so does this imply Padme was involved, or was it one of the many handmaidens that have had comics and books about them?- Mandalorians scaling the side of a peak is a scene I never thought (or knew) I wanted, but it was amazing. They just look so cool with their mismatched armor and gadgets.- Bo had some awesome Iron Man moments in this. The jetpack fight was spectacular. Din was so cool I almost wept.- I love the “always a bigger fish” moment. That planet is truly a hellhole, huh?- It’s interesting that it seems like the Armorer was causing Bo to doubt herself. I wonder if she’ll start being convinced she was seeing things. It also must be seeing the Mythosaur that has her so rattled still, right? She looked confused as hell when she was eating.- The escape from Coruscant had a Venator in the credit art. Why didn’t we get that?!
I just like to read the reviews and comments to know that I’m not wasting my time actually watching the show.
That bird thing coughed up that boy dry and after like 18 hrs?
It doesn’t come up much, but beskar is one of the most absorbent substances in the galaxy.
So the helmet rule reverted back to earlier seasons’ rule as soon as food was involved.
At least they weren’t those gross yellow Empire biscuits.
This season feels like a Saturday morning cartoon in comparison to the first 2 seasons. It’s fine but I hope it returns to a closer tone to previous seasons.
This show is making less and less sense. I watched The Clone Wars and Rebels, and never got the sense Mandalorians were this stuffy and boring. Maybe it’s just this specific cult, but the stilted dialogue (even Commander Data uses more contractions than these guys) and the apparent aimlessness of their existence – dear lord, Mandalore was literally proven to be habitable two episodes ago and not one character has so much as insinuated that the actual Mandalorians make even a weekend excursion to check it out – are hard to digest. At this point I really don’t know what this show is about. Din and Grogu as father and son? The restoration of Mandalore? The post-Imperial vacuum? I just don’t know. Aside from the Grogu flashback, this was indeed filler. What character development did we get? What advancement of the plot? What narrative movement? Hell, I’d take some flatly delivered exposition about Gideon.My kids have zero interest in watching the show anymore and I do it out of that ridiculous sense of obedience to my fandom, but I feel the way this story is being told is… bad. Or at best competent, if boring and occasionally confounding.
Man. What a dystopian nightmare civilization the star wars universe is. I mean sure let’s put an infant in a fighting arena. Oh. And let’s just allow our children to play adjacent to some mega-predator hunting ground and do literally nothing like, oh, say, post sentries, or use our abundant super-tech to guard them.No wonder the much of same audience that loves it so much are tech bros that love our new Techno-Fascism and fantasize about how they are on top in the New Eugenics movement.
Lol, the kid is shooting one training dart at a time, so you just assume those are the rules to this little duel. Then Grogu pops him with 3 rapid fire shots, and I’m left asking “Why didn’t dude light up baby Yoda while he was just standing there, looking like the puppet he is?!”Also, holy shit that “jedi flip” was BAD. The stiff motion would look bad enough on a regular set. But being surrounded by CGI and greenscreen make it look even worse.
I need a poster-print of that picture from the credits of giant-sized Yoda (perspective-wise) charging towards those crab-creatures.
We keep asking: if you clearly hate Star Wars, why are you recapping (you’re not reviewing) a Star Wars show?
Overall, kinda boring. And sick to death already with the phrase ‘this is the way’.
why don’t they go back to their homeworld now that they know it’s not poisoned? confused…
That Coruscant scene was some Walmart-level CGI reminiscent of the prequels. And with a known serial-killer dragon on the loose, these guys haven’t figured out any proactive measures to stop it from snatching their kids from a crowd of armed Mandalorians? This is so NOT the way.
I really can’t see Grogu ever getting the full Mando helmet. Cover up those big black eyes, his appeal vanishes. The Force will take him elsewhere long before that happens. Just maybe not to Luke in his angry monk phase.
Nabooian, not Nubian.