Star Wars: The Mandalorian [** Spoilers **] [Disney+] (US Pace)

Foxtrol

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120488925#Comment_120488925

The character Thrawn is similar to the old trilogy books but the story from it has no relation to what happens in Rebels. I'm going to try to get through the new trilogies before Ashoka and see how they compare to the old one.

They didn't spend a major set piece talking about Thrawn - he was mentioned in passing, like he was in the last season. It showed that the Empire remnants is far larger and better organised than we were aware of, that they are purposefully trying to look unorganised, that Gideon has been working on his own projects beyond what the others know, and that he is angling to make a run at overall leadership of the Empire with the current vacuum.

The season has plenty of flaws but nothing related to Thrawn at this stage is poorly dealt with - it is bog standard foreshadowing of a character arriving into a show/universe towards the end of a season by name dropping them. There isn't any 'required reading' like you complained about earlier, just a little patience.

pixelburp

Woof. If it isn't the MCU, it's Star Wars. Debating with you is always exhausting foxtrol so gonna just step away and agree to disagree, cos it feels less a discussion and more being told to Stop Getting Bond Wrong, as it were.

Foxtrol

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120489018#Comment_120489018

You're complaining about standard build up a big bad. When their name is referenced across multiple episodes or seasons and you know they're important but don't have the information yet. Ahsoka was the perfect vessel for the Mandalorian audience to hear his name for the first time and it to again come up now through the Empire just continues to build the threat/curiosity.

I don't argue against parts of the overlap between the shows being very messy but Thrawn hasn't been (yet anyway).

Any claims that it is bad writing are completely premature in this case. Everyone is entitled to an opinion but opinions can be based on FOMO.

Foxtrol

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120489063#Comment_120489063

The feeling is very much mutual.

Tough sledding to have a discussion with someone who regularly calls things 'sh1t' while getting basic details that make up the core evidence of their point of view wrong. Like having a discussion with someone claiming 'alternative facts'.

Most frustrating is that this show has so, so many things to have legitimate complaints with, there is absolutely no need to just make them up things like there being 'required reading' about a character who has never appeared and was mentioned briefly in two scenes in 20+ episodes.

Patser

Enjoyed the finale though.

Spoiler Warning

Attack on the Star Destroyer - ships that moved fast, realistic damage, good camera work

The Mandalorian became bad-ass again, taking out the guards, the Pretorians and then actually being the one to rescue Bo for a change.

Gideon was a proper threat, maybe a bit too much of a hark back to the dark troopers of S2 but there was a feeling of genuine adversary.

Group actually did something, rather then just be a tag along.

Ending seemed very final though, if a bit comical- retired at his cabin

connemara man

This season of the Mandalorian has been about the destination not the journey. Easily could have lost half the episodes this season and had the same ending. Which is a shame as it could be so much better than it is. And I do enjoy it for what it is.

Also who was the spy????

Relikk

That was dreadful. Mando doesn't understand binary, except when he needs to. The darksaber slices through trooper beskar, but not Moff Gideon's beskar, oh no. Grogu's movements... just stop. It doesn't work. Understand the limitations and film accordingly. It looks absolutely woeful.

thegreengoblin

Decent final two episodes but they can't make up for a season that has been fairly wretched. If you were being kind you'd say it was uneven, if you were being honest...well, it was a mess. The alarm bells were ringing for me from the first episode. It just seemed off and didn't have the same feel as the previous seasons.

I think it reached a low point with the Lizzo/Jack Black episode. Dear God, even thinking about it makes my toes curl. But I had to stick with it and I suppose the only was up from that point. I thought Grogu was finally going to say his first words in the finale. How long does it take for him to learn how to speak...decades?!

Anyway, presuming there is another season I hope we move away from the whole Mandalore story. And don't be surprised to see...ta-daaaa...Moff Gideon back in some shape or form. Maybe one of his clones escaped or something, I dunno. Bring on Ahsoka!

Slydice

Right so. Season three down. Definitely a season with lows and highs. It does feel like there's a Big Story (TM) in progress between this, The Bad Batch and Ahsoka. Even.. maybe.. possilbly.. but I'm not sure.. linking Ahsoka to one or maybe some parts of Andor.

Spoiler Warning

Clones! It's all about the Clones!

3.8: Now that! was cool!

This! Is! The! Way!

Spoiler Warning

The fake space battle, the reinforcements coming in the rocket pack air fight, the ship crashing into the imperial base! So cool!

Grogu getting into the fight and bringing in the Force.

I'm more and more thinking this show is called The Mandalorian after .. well.. Grogu.. who looks to be The Mandalorian of the show.

I liked that..

Spoiler Warning

Ragnar took the creed. Imagining a future revenge arc for him against the imperials for killing his Dad in the last episode. Maybe he could hunt down Praetorians! Or.. unless the story writers might want to take Ragnar down the Dark Side.

Future: Well, season 4 is confirmed but I'm guessing big things will have happened in Ahsoka season one in between!

Spoiler Warning

Thrawn!!!

Slydice

Ha, I like how the concept art has this one Mandalorian bending over to admire the flowers

"Some lovely hydrangeas over ere" 😁

Loafing Oaf

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120497470#Comment_120497470

Anyway, presuming there is another season I hope we move away from the whole Mandalore story. And don't be surprised to see...ta-daaaa...Moff Gideon back in some shape or form.

I thought for a second the next quest would be tracking down Grogu's parents. Thankfully Mandalorian adoption seems to be a pretty informal procedure...

Penn

I don't think we'll see Gideon again. He's been the main baddie for all three seasons, and here we had him probably at his most powerful. There's nowhere else for his character to go imo.

Did we get any Pedro Pascal this season beyond voice? He went helmet-less in both previous season finales (and the Season 2 episode with Bill Burr), but none in this season that I remember. I'd say this could be the end of "The Mandalorian", with maybe just him showing up in one of the planned films. His character arc is finished, the story of the Mandalorians is kind of finished, Moff Gideon is (presumably) finished. I think they'll move on to other stories with other characters.

Relikk

Destroying the darksaber was another nitpick. Isn't it supposed to be constructed from beskar, as well? Gideon crushes it while it's in Bo Katan's hand...

Man, it just gets worse.

EltonJohn69

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120497710#Comment_120497710

Would have made a nice scene in a video game or graphic novel

EltonJohn69

Enough of mof Gideon…. Had enough of him…. I thought the short haired girl who scrambled your man’s brain was a much more interesting character/villain

EltonJohn69

So season 4…. The Madalorian: Nazi Hunter ?

Greyjoy

Enjoyed the finale very much but it had the same flaws for me that plagued the rest of the season. Taken on its own it was an enjoyable episode but the season overall has felt very disjointed. It really annoyed me that there was no significant payoff to the Pershing episode on Coruscant. They devoted an entire episode to a minor character just to highlight the fact that Gideon is researching cloning technology. If they were willing to burn one episode out of 8 just to tell Pershing's side story it has the effect of telling the audience "this is important".

But when Mando reaches the cloning chamber and discovers the Gideon clones....he just switches them off. They have no meaningful impact on the story. He may as well have just walked down an empty hallway.

Dslatt

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120498881#Comment_120498881

I really think all that is just there to show how Palpatine was revived in TROS

Penn

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120498888#Comment_120498888

Yeah. They mentioned both cloning and 'Project Necromancer', which would indicate that both stories likely lead into Palpatine and probably Snoke as well; use the TV shows to give us answers about who Snoke is & how Palpatine actually returned.

Dslatt

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120498907#Comment_120498907

Sure we know how he returned

"Somehow" is a perfectly valid explanation and TROS wasn't an absolute dumpster fire.

Greyjoy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120498888#Comment_120498888

I get that's probably the motivation for it but the line or two of dialogue about cloning & "project necromancer" in the shadow council is enough to lay the hints for Palpatines return. They didn't need to devote an ENTIRE episode from this season for something that has zero payoff in this story. I actually think the SW series are getting way worse than the MCU for crossover references that are only setups for other things instead of telling stories that can stand on their own.

Penn

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120499116#Comment_120499116

I think part of it was also resolving why Gideon was hunting Grogu, what Pershing's role was etc from previous seasons. Gideon was using Pershing to create a clone of himself who could use the Force.

I said a few weeks ago, someone in an interview acknowledged that some story elements that were meant to be included in the planned Rangers of the New Republic spin-off with Gina Carano had to be brought into The Mandalorian S3 because that spin-off was canned.

BruteStock

I don't remember there being any hint that the Palpatine who returned was a clone. Pretty sure it was the same Palpatine who was thrown down a reactor shaft. Somehow he later found a partner and had a child but thats a another story.

JJ had to come up with a new final boss of the trilogy so lazily brought back Sidious. The mimi snoke in jars was JJs attempt to downplay his importance after Johnson carelessly cut him in half.

Penn

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120499929#Comment_120499929

I think the partner and child would have been in between Episode 3 & 4, possibly even slightly earlier.

As for Palpatine in TROS, I'd agree it was probably the original Palpatine either kept alive or brought back to life (Project Necromancy). I'd say the likely scenario is Snoke was an attempt at a clone of Palpatine (and the ones in jars on Exegol). I think it was a failure of JJ though not to follow through with what Johnson was doing by getting rid of Snoke and having Kylo Ren be the final boss, instead of having a redemption story for him and bringing back Palpatine instead.

All JJ did in his films was recreate the equivalent original trilogy film; Force Awakens = A New Hope, Rise of Skywalker = Return of the Jedi.

Brief_Lives

They'll probably have a nice redemption arc and have Darth Sideous set up an orphanage with adult cooking lessons in the evening...

Foxtrol

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120499116#Comment_120499116

I thought that one was a great worldbuilding episode with a quite interesting standalone story. In it we learned about the struggles the fledgling New Republic is having with bureaucracy, what they did with all the Empire soldiers/ships/tech, how they were quickly littered with spies. All that helps to build out the picture of how the New Order grew so quickly.

Every episode doesn't have to have a big larger narrative payoff, there is room for character development and worldbuilding.

Foxtrol

Ok enough finale - there were a few 'oh that is pretty cool' moments for me even if it didn't necessarily make sense. The whole season they struggled to tell the duel stories of the Dins and Bo-Katan. Might have been better if they just covered Bo for a season and then brought the Dins in later.

As expected, concerns were completely overblown that Thrawn would suddenly be dropped in as a main element of the finale and viewers would be left confused.

Varik

Palpatine's son was a clone, who failed to inherent his force connection even with being 100% pure clone. The Snokes were partial hybrid clones to ensure they were force sensitive, even though they were part clones and force sensitive he could only control then and not pass his soul to them permanently. And then bla bla along came ray and he's got a new plan.

gmisk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120497323#Comment_120497323

That annoying acolyte of Moff Gideon who fried the scientists brain I guess?

gmisk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120498292#Comment_120498292

Really? I thought she was an absolutely brutal actress