Little concerned about Mando…feels a bit rushed. Maybe a bit comical.
Bo-Katan goes from “FU Mando” to “What is that, Grogu? Mando’s fallen down a well and needs help?! Let me run to his aid! Good boy, Grogu!”
It’s apparently Grogu is no longer “the child” if he can fly across the galaxy w/o an adult.
I understand the criticism, but I think Mando’s failings are an intentional part of his “Hero’s Journey.” He was a badass when tracking down low-level thugs and criminals, but now he’s having to rise to the occasion of leading the entire Mandalorian population. He’s off fighting Krayt Dragons, Rancors, Mythosaurs, Darktroopers. The literal and figurative weight of the Darksaber is too much for him. The only thing he knows how to do is follow The Creed, because that’s all he’s ever been taught. Now The Creed is beginning to fail him. Something’s going to give and what we understand as “Mandalorian Identity” is going to seismically shift.
We’ve been seeing this each season. First people whisper legends as Mando enters a cantina. He’s a Mandalorian, they’re ruthless. Then we see his covert. They have a Creed and that’s what it means to be Mandalorian. He meets Bo-Katan. She’s not only from Mandalore, born and raised, but can track her line back millenia. She removes her helmet, though. How can she be Mandalorian? Then he meets Boba Fett. He’s a clone who also removes his helmet. He’s not from Mandalore. How can he be Mandalorian? Mando removes his helmet as well. He’s no longer Mandalorian by Creed, yet he earned the Darksaber through combat, meaning he is supposed to be the leader of the Mandalorians. All of these disparate, conflicting meanings of what it is to be Mandalorian need to be reconciled. His struggle mirrors his struggle for identity.
Plus, episode 2 gave Grogu and Bo-Katan a chance to shine. They were both badasses.
I’m not criticizing their portrayal of Din Djarin. I think his character drives this story very well for all the reasons you stated above. Being “Creed” and such extreme idiologies is part of whats keeping the clans divided.
His redeeming will be the realization things have to change in order for Mandalore to be once more. He can bring that message back to the Armoroer and tell her to deal with it, or continue living in caves, hiding.
I feel like there’s going to be a throw down between the Armorer and Bo-Katan. They’ve both become mentors for Djarin, but are opposites. As you said, something has got to give. Mando will interject and set it right. Showing he has what it takes to be leader of all clans, as he will have a bit of all clans within him.
No, my beef is with the pace, and some supporting characters Feels like they’re jumping around a bit. Or skipping some details. Bo-Katan was about to flip Mando off for good, but upon seeing Grogu alone runs to his rescue?
Anyway, looking forward to Mando riding the mythosaur!
I just have such a low interest in this show. It’s poorly written and poorly acted, in my opinion. The plot seems sorta pointless. I just hate that everything revolves around fan service/nostalgia. What if he fought with IG-88? What if he rides a rancor! What if this character comes back? Or this one?
Again, just opinion here, but Andor was a billion times better. It expanded the universe with a fantastic story and incredible acting, and everyone once and a while, they’d drop a tiny nostalgic reminder that this is Star Wars. I feel like Mando and Andor are at the opposite ends of the spectrum.
Having said all of this, I’ll probably watch Mando S3 eventually. 
It was a short scene, but they did a good job with him.
Can’t wait to see the rest in live action.
Just finished the episode. Wtf just happened?
I don’t know if anyone else has noticed, but Something seems off this season of The Mandalorian.
I kind of had an idea, but the video above makes some very good points.
Seasons 1 & 2 were fresh, self contained episodes that were also able to move the underlying story along. The main characters were obvious and we knew who the real villains were.
This season has been choppy, a lot of jumping around with no clear goal who the story is supposed to be about (Grogu? Din Djarin? Bo-Katan? Armorer? Mandalore? Cloning?).
If I had to guess, I’d say this season “The Mandalorian” is Bo-Katan…as it seems they are telling her story of redemption (sort of like how they told Boba Fetts between 2 & 3).
So if the Book of Boba Fett was The Mandalorian Season 2.5. Season 3 is the Book of Bo-Katan, and that’s what I’ll Be referring to it until the narrative changes.
Whether this is good or bad remains to be seen. I’m still enjoying it, but I took the time to watch specific Clone Wars and Rebels episode to prep for this season so I have the background knowledge to truly enjoy her story.
But I can see Others who don’t know the character might be like “who da f is this? And why I are they spending so much time on her…more Mando and Baby Yoda!”
Anyway. We’ll see how all things come together in the remaining 4 episodes. We know it’ll Segway into Ahsoka, and I have some interesting theories on how she may actually tie into the quest to reclaim Mandalore…more on that another day…
But one thing is for sure, the casual fan is likely confused and maybe losing interest. Need to tie these loose ends…like who is this season’s villain, what’s the deal with Dr. Pershing, what happened to fixing IG-11? Hopefully it all starts to come together.
Episode 5 tomorrow.
I maintain that they are still playing catch up for the terrible decision to shoe horn Mando episodes into Book of Boba Fett.
Because nobody had the good sense to actually bring the Tusken storyline back around to a narrative conclusion that made sense. You know, them coming to Boba Fett’s aid because he earned their respect? Probably would have fit when Fennec said Boba needed an army…
But no, it had to be Mando, so they had to wedge him into the series. Leaving the Tusken arc to hang and flap in the Tattooine winds.
They wasted so much time in the first episode of Mando season 3 recapping what casual fans missed in BOBF and there was absolutely no good reason for it to be that way. All of that could have been accomplished in this season. So, we lose some of the N-1 rebuild montage, maybe some of the meat-packing plant showdown, maybe Grogu’s training scenes get cut down a little. It still would have been far better than Mando flying around dialoguing everything in episode 1. The entire first scene was just Mando having the exact same conversation he had with the Armorer in BOBF.
If what the leaks are saying is true—-that those pirates are a Skeleton Crew tie-in—then that’s just a waste of space that tests the viewer’s patience. We also didn’t need two exasperatingly long attempts to fix IG-11.
I think this season can regain its footing, but that Pershing episode didn’t help. Yes, there were some good narrative points in there, but again, way too long for the information that paid off. They could have woven that as a secondary storyline playing in the background of the first 4 episodes.
If what I suspect they are doing is true: setting up some sort of Marvel-esque Easter egg hunt, I’m not pleased with that. Just tell a good story. It worked for Andor. Have faith in your story and stop trying to sell the next one.
The Pershing episode seems like it was one of those things that had to be done to begin to explain how we got to the sequels. In that case it shows how the New Republic is less old republic and more incompetent empire.
It didn’t really need to happen in Mando, I guess, but anything taking place between the OT and the sequels is going to have some aspect of it that tries justify the events that got us to sequels. I wish it didn’t have to happen, and storytellers could freely explore this time, but thems the rules now.
Maybe they could do a Tales of the Jedi-esque show. Tales of What Happened to get us to the Sequels. 15 minute episodes for however long they need to clean up JJ Abrams mess. That would free up any show to focus on the story and not tie up loose ends.
Yeah, I’m not saying I necessarily didn’t enjoy some of these story elements while watching them in the moment. I am, after all, a die hard Star Wars fan. My viewership is basically guaranteed for them. That doesn’t make me blind to the narrative issues going on, though. The reason it concerns me is because I want it all to be successful. In order for it to be successful, we need people who haven’t been mapping out expanded universe character storylines obsessively since 1995 to be interested in it.
With a disjointed narrative overburdened with the baggage of other shows and doing the lifting for later series, the handicap gets ratcheted for this show’s success.
I agree. It’s a mess for any casual fan. It’s unfortunate the stories have to be somewhat hamstrung by explaining the sequels’ reason for existing. The show runners need to prioritize good storytelling for the casual fan and not Easter eggs or whole episodes dedicated to justifying the events that led to the sequels.
I don’t think that plot is done. Likely going to tie into Kane working for Gideon working for Thrawn. I think they threw it into that particular episode just because of the title “The Convert”.
Rumors that the woman scientist on Bad Batch is Pershing’s mother he speaks about that cloning organs would have saved.
Well, so Much for THAT rumor! I knew she had some key connection to another character though. Because Crosshair would not have used the “stun” setting…like he does on his ”brothers”…
This last episode essentially confirms this. So I’m merging my “Book of Bo-Katan” thread with this one as well as the thread title.
Yeah…felt a bit rushed and disjointed.
But the pirates decided they wanted Navarro back (is this like the only city on the planet?) and thought it was better to destroy everything so they could live in the rubble that was left. No one has accused them of being smart pirates.
Captain Teva knows something is up, but can’t convince anyone in the disfuntional New Republic to care, or they think he’s just a wacko. Now get back to your outer rim patrols, ya looney.
How Teva knew Mando had R5-D4, and how it got the tracking device and whether Peli Motto knew this (is in cahoots with Teva?) remains to be seen…or maybe its a gaff to be explained through some series of future shows (“somehow” Palpantine returned…).
Paz Vizla has a flare for the dramatic (he’s not just some Rambo type meat head with a Gatling gun) and makes us think he’s going throw Mando under the bus, but pivots to supporting him and his idea to help the people of Navarro in the interest of moving yet again…they had already decided they were leaving anyway. I guess Vizla is tired of living in a cave. But the Armorer has other ideas. I still think she’s from Darthomir. (Those horns are real…and they’re spectacular).
Bo-Katan is quickly rising through the “ranks”…the Armorer sees the way to Mandalore through her leadership. The Armorer puts more weight on the Mythosaur being the path to leadership than wielding the Dark Sabre….where is that thing now anyway….? Oh, that other Mandalorian has it…what’s his name again? You know, the guy with the little green kid that can jump and eats just about anything. Either way…clearly the Mythosaur legend is much older and thus supersedes some cool looking sabre. Bo’s destined leadership is through a different way, in other words.
Back to The Armorer…she obviously has vision beyond just ensuring her “Children” learn the Mandalorian way…and that tribes/clans/houses of Mandalorians can co-exist….must come together…if there’s any hope for rebuilding their race to what it was eons ago. And Bo is their best shot at putting differences aside for the betterment of all. So take off your helmet and go wrangle up some more Mandalorians! (Shown not to be a big deal since she can head back to the Mines , bathe and say a few “Hail Mandalores!” and be re-redeemed at any time. Although I wonder if there’s a limit to how many dips in The pool you can take before the creed is like, “ok…you’re taking advantage of this tradition a bit too far…”). Maybe the Mythosaur is the one thing that they all believe in…and she can bring it along. It will play a role. It weighs on her shoulder…figuratively and literally!
But wait….what about that tower….er…shuttle? Where’s Moff Giddy?
Well, go back to the intro to each episode ….where the helmets of Droids and Mandos and troopers are flashed with red or blue light….have you noticed blue = good, red = bad? The past few weeks a Mandalorian helmet keeps getting flashed with a red laser…hmmmm….
Did Mandalorians attack the shuttle to bring Moff to Justice for bombing their home world….or did they come to rescue him? Or was that beskar planted to throw rebels off the scent.
And how did the rebels not know Moff didn’t make it to whatever destination he was heading to? Did I mention this new republic had some serious disfunction? I have a hard time thinking Tano was involved and captured him to get more intel on Thrawn…leaving behind some of her beskar that was gifted to her (where did that idea come from…more on that another day, I suppose).
Don’t worry, Bo is going to get to the bottom of this.
Still don’t know who the big baddie is this season…maybe next week.
Loved the “Rebels” cameo. More on the way for sure.
parting thought…do they bring the baby pterosaurs to Navarro? Doesn’t seem like a good idea to introduce them into Navarro society…Look out, kids! Duck!
I just started the season and on episode 3. My youngest who watches it with me was like “where is Mando? This episode is boaring” lol. I guess I’m not the only one who thought it was lol.
If I didn’t watch all the mando episodes of clone wars and rebels, I’d. E completely lost why they were so focused on Bo.
I still like the show…but it’s not as captivating or easy to follow as seasons 1&2.
Bad batch is still the better show this year…although it just got spun on its head with a huge cliffhanger this week.
