After watching The Mandalorian season 3 final. The overall season was a mess, from start to finish. Mainly due to it’s awful structure. The overall goal and where the show was heading wasn’t very clear, the episodes and events seemed random. The built up suffered from a messy structure, that easily could have been fixed by intercutting with other episodes. Here the Dr. Pershing episode comes to mind.
The choice to reunite Grogu and Mando in in The Book of Boba Fett was a mistake. The choice is clearly felt in this season Especially when season three doesn’t even give you a recap of their reunion. Meaning that people who skipped the awful Book of Boba have no idea what happened.
The Jack Black, Lizzo and Christopher Lloyd episode was awful. It felt stilted. The overall quest in that episode had no bearing on the episode, other then a excuse to force the three into the episode and the episode suffered from it.
To sum up the hole series as a hole. The Mandalorian has always been a mediocre show. On the same level as Rise of Skywalker. It’s never been great, it got it’s moments and I love it for being Star Wars. But in honesty it’s a pretty mediocre television series and has always been. Just as obsessed with nostalgia and memberberries as both J.J films.
One of the things I enjoy most about the show, is that it manages to do what The Clone Wars tv series did for the Prequels. Fleshing out the state of the galaxy, the rise of the First Order and helping Poe Dameron explaining how Palpatine returned.
The show like all Star Wars media got it’s moments that makes it enjoyable enough to continue.
Agreed, I’ve went on record before, but I’ve been getting very tired of the overarching narrative that started with Mando. Lucasfilms and Disney really doubled down on this with Mando, Boba Fett, Ahsoka, and the film that is slated to be developed. I think what bothered me the most about Season 3 was how directionless it felt until the penultimate episode where something actually happened.
The Jack Black, Lizzo, and Christopher Lloyd episode was probably the most questionable thing I’ve seen the Star Wars IP do lately, but it’s largely cause in the past the Films and TV have done celebrity cameos that weren’t as in your face as this and in my opinion were handled a lot better. It’s definitely up there with the moped gang from Book of Boba Fett in my opinion.
I think all together Season 3 aka Mando Season 4 (Disney aint fulling anyone) is proof that they should stop while they’re ahead. The Big Bad is dead, and they ended things without leaving much room for questions. If Lucasfilms and Disney can see the writing on the wall. I think it’s time for Mando to hang his blaster up.
I don’t think they should stop, they need a more focused screenplay and a more coherent plot. I always felt that the adventure of the week format felt outdated, like Xena and Hercules series. I expected more of a HBO quality series.
The big bad is gearing towards Thrawn, which is cool. I did expect him to show up and more or lesser make Moff Gideon look weak in comparison.
But overall I don’t think the show is much higher quality than Rise of Skywalker.
Please elaborate, this is a discussion thread. Lets discuss your views, I would love to hear your thoughts.
I didn’t think the season was that incoherent. I agree that the Pershing stuff could have been shorter, but it was informative to see what the state of Coruscant was and how the New Republic was dealing with the ex-Empire personnel. It also informed how poorly that was going if someone like Elia Kane was able to achieve a position of such importance that she could flay Pershing’s mind. Clearly the New Republic isn’t very effective (which was also reflected in the pirate attack).
I watched all of Book of Boba Fett so I didn’t have an issue with the Grogu and Din Djarin stuff happening in that series. I really don’t know why people didn’t watch it. If they were already watching The Mandalorian, I would have expected them to have watched Book of Boba Fett too. It wasn’t a bad show, in my opinion.
The episode with the cameos (Black, Lizza, Lloyd) did further the plot of the season by showing the other Mandalorian clan and getting Bo Katan and Din Djarin in contact with them. I don’t mind side-plots in shows as they show what other parts of the galaxy are doing. That particular one gave some insight into droid “culture” and showed what other New Republic worlds were up to (not much as it turns out). It also showed what sort of reaction those worlds had to the New Republic (indifference mostly - many didn’t really see much difference between the Empire and the New Republic).
I actually liked most of Rise of Skywalker so comparisons to that movie fall differently to my ears. Star Wars has always been about nostalgia. The Prequels (which Lucas wholly controlled) went out of their way to establish connections to things in the Original Trilogy that didn’t need to be established. I don’t mind nostalgia.
I don’t think you mentioned it, but in regards to the Thrawn thing, not only did I not mind that Thrawn didn’t show up, I liked that he didn’t show up. That story will be told in Ahsoka and that is properly where Thrawn should be. He was mentioned in The Mandalorian and that was enough.
When I saw Rise of Skywalker I didn’t need any additional information on how Palpatine returned that wasn’t already provided in the various movies. Episode 3 established that Palpatine was seeking a way to survive death. Episode 9 established that Palpatine had used clones to recreate his body. Episode 6 established that he wasn’t afraid of death in the first place. The pieces were there to solve that puzzle without any extra exposition.
I’m not sure what “HBO quality” means. I’ve seen some HBO shows that weren’t that great and others that were pretty good. I quite like Avenue 5 but I think Last of Us falls flat (though I haven’t played the game). Like any studio, HBO makes good and bad stuff. So does Disney. I think Andor and The Mandalorian are two different shows and while I understand comparing them, I prefer not to. I have a feeling that after the second season of Andor, many fans will feel like it was rushed to get to the start of Rogue One.
I apply the same lens to this show as I would to any other television show. It’s episodic by nature (or it wouldn’t be produced in Episodes). Expecting simply an eight-hour long movie is bound to disappoint. It’s no different to me than a show on broadcast television would be. I realize there are far fewer episodes now in any given season than there were 5 or 10 years ago but most shows from the major studios seem to be going that way these days.
Anyway, those are my thoughts on the 3rd season of The Mandalorian. Like I said though, different people will have different opinions.
Also, to be clear, there were things that I did have issues with for the season.
The mythosaur had almost no impact whatsoever on anything. Bo saw it and it was implied that Grogu felt it, but beyond that it didn’t matter. Bo could have asked for the mythosaur sigil regardless.
They made a big point of not having enough jet pack fuel to reach that bird nest thing but then had enough fuel to jet all over Mandalore during the last episode.
Does anyone care about the Darksaber being destroyed? I can’t tell.
IG-11 has apparently been completely overwritten to be a marshall. After establishing the droid bar and the fact that droids apparently have lives of their own, I was a little uncomfortable with turning IG-11 into a chariot followed by a completely different droid (despite the comedy of having Grogu piloting a mech).
The plot point about rescuing Navarro and establishing a Mandalorian encampment there was meaningless since they retook Mandalore. Aside from Din Djarin getting a little homestead there, there was no reason for the Mandalorians to regroup on Nevarro. They could have done that in the cave that they were living in at the start of the season just as well.
The Darksaber has and will always be a McGuffin. Yes it’s cool, but it’s purpose outside of being a weapon doesn’t extend past who has the biggest dick in Mandalore and then who has a bigger dick to take it away from the person who had the biggest dick. So if anything they’re gonna move past it.
That much is fairly clear, but, as with all mcguffins, it’s the main focus of so much story and then suddenly it’s Poof! Gone! and no one seems even remotely troubled. I don’t know how they fix that, but it bothered me.
I have no problem what It sets out to do, but if we look at the overall season and how it present the story. Episode 1. Din needs to fix IG-11, there is a heavy emphasis on how important he is and it’s the only droid he trust. Can’t be done, oh well I’ll go with R5. They make a big deal out of how important IG-11 is, he doesn’t have any importance until the two last episodes.
The overall season 3 plot is all over the map, it’s not really before episode 6 that we know what they want to achieve. Most of the events seemed non important, that said they did pay off towards the end. However it’s a sloppy execution. Moff Giedon was first “interduced” in second last episode. We all knew that he would return. The hole clone thing was awesome, but we are interduced to the Clones and 30 sec later they are dead. They could have built this up a lot earlier and the impact would have had a greater effect. The hole Imperial regrouping is some of the best part of the show, it gives us a fascinating view into a broken Empire that’s trying to stay under the radar. While they are building themselves up. Far to many times they throw a lot of balls into the air and then they don’t follow up, until the very end of the show. The writing is good, the structure is sloppy and messy. I had no idea what the plot was until episode 6 (I did, but there where so many seemingly dead ends, that the plot could go in any direction).
I have big problem with it, it smells of Disney panic. Grogu was to big of a merchandise force to let him be site lined for a half/hole season. So instead of following up on what season 1 and 2 had built towards, they retconned the season 2 final.
Book of Boba Fett was enjoyable enough, but the Boba we got in Mando season 2 is not the same character we got in Book of Boba Fett. The trailer and promotions paved the way of a gritty gangster series, what we got was Uncle Boba - The Landlord. The best part of Book of Boba Fett didn’t even star the title character.
The problem with the reunion in Book of Boba Fett, is that neither Din or Grogu got to really evolve on their own. We never got to see them apart. I truly believe that sticking with what season to set up, would have made a more appealing storyline and character growth for both. Instead of it being undone in a spinoff show, that casuals fans probably didn’t watch due to multiple reasons. One the reception was poor.
yes the last 10 mins did further the plot, but we spend 30 min a plotline that had no effect on the overall series. All while forcing 3 horrible cameos into the show. They could have spend that extra time building up towards Bo Katan’s and her old crews reunion. Used it on actual character development. One of my biggest grips with the series is also the low run time. Mostly 30 min episodes and they squander it with a B-plot that leads nowhere.
I think George Lucas would disagree, heavily. He wanted to explore new things, his sequel trilogy would have gone new places and doubled down on what he liked. I wish we had his sequel trilogy, even if I heavily enjoy TFA, TLJ and ROS (even if I find ROS to be one the worst SW films created). You can say that George did connect the prequels and original trilogy through a few planets and characters. But I don’t see it as nostalgia, TFA , ROS and The Mandalorian heavily rely on nostalgia. It has to feel like the original trilogy, Lucas didn’t want the prequels to feel like the original films and his sequel trilogy would have felt like neither trilogy.
I don’t think it need to either, the prequels set it up yes. The Afthermath books explored his plans in case of his death. Yet the biggest explanation we got for his return was Poe saying “Somehow Palpatine retuned”. That is awful writing. Star Wars has a genius way to handle exposition, the opening crawl. It could easily have setup a more satisfying answer then “dunno”. Most film franchises don’t have this tool for exposition.
That said what Mandalorian is doing, is the same thing that Clone Wars did. It’s expanding the story of the sequel trilogy. Fleshing it out, making it better.
The Mandalorain’s format feels outdated, it feels like a typical adventure of the week show. Just like Exena and Hercules (both mid 90’s and early 2000’s show). Andor has quality writing, dialog, quality scripts. Everything serves a purpose and everything is brilliantly setting the next thing up. It doesn’t care about fluff. There is a lot of Fluff in The Mandalorian, some might like the adventure of the week. I find it outdated.
Don’t get me wrong. I love all Star Wars. Star Wars is like Pizza, even a bad pizza is good. I just find The Mandalorain to be overall poorly executed and especially season 3. I stil like the Mandalorian, season 3 just has a lot of execution problems.
I mean, I don’t know how successful the kids LEGO Mario
Andor has been the best Star Wars we got and has been the most competent thing to come out of the Star Wars IP especially since there was a lot more care put into it compared to Obi Wan, Boba Fett, and Mando. As someone who had no interest in Andor before it came out and never really cared for Rogue One. I ended up really enjoying what Andor have since we finally got something Mature out of Star Wars that isn’t space wizards fighting or stuff so hellbent on Nostalgia.
Strongly agree, I love just about anything Star Wars but I have my preferences when it comes to the IP. I’m fully aware Fallen Order is great, but it hasn’t grasped me like it did for everyone else. I very much love everything about The Clone Wars. It’s my era of Star Wars, but I can tell you a one off episode revolving around C-3PO and R2D2 getting fruit is very boring and had no real consequences to the over arching narrative. We all have our preferences and Mando season 3 had a whole lot of what I don’t like about the IP.
I can not get into Ashoka. I waited to get started so I watched all 5 of the episodes that are out over the last 2 days. It’s Star Wars and the production quality is solid so I don’t hate it, but it seems like they are stalling for time and the acting is flat.
I’m gonna keep watching bc the story will have things that matter in the next Mandalorian, but I’m hoping for some excitement in the next couple episodes.
I was watching Return of the Jedi (again) and I noticed that when Obi Wan appears to Luke on Dagobah, he noticeably interacts with the vines that are hanging nearby. He brushes against them and they move in reaction. I believe this was the first instance of a force ghost interacting with the physical world.
When Yoda did it in The Last Jedi and when Luke’s did in Rise of Skywalker, everyone made a huge deal out if force ghosts interacting with the real world. It had been established canon for 40 years!
Alright I gotta talk about Episode 5 of Ashoka given it’s a testament to Dave Filoni and just respecting George’s Legacy. While Ashoka isn’t the greatest thing to come out of Disney Star Wars especially since it’s very much cementing itself into its Sister Series Star Wars Rebels which you either watched or don’t watched. I personally never watched it, but it’s largely due to the earlier seasons.
Episode 5 felt special, and it’s largely cause of Hayden Christensen. Just seeing specific things on screen that episode was very comforting simply because it’s the Star Wars I grew up with. I know people have their opinions, but seeing that person specifically being apart of these new live action projects it just feels very much deserved.
So far my ranking for the Live Action Star Wars TV shows have been
Anyone here played Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic (KOTOR) 1 or 2?
It’s one of my favorite games I’ve ever played. While both are really old it’s a game I always go play again when I’m bored. Since I was a kid RPG games have always been one of my favorite game genres. That and also being a huge Star Wars fan I guess it isn’t really surprising I fell in love with it.
