Mando season 3

[Ruin Explorer]

I thought that was fine because it resolved that plot thread and it gave Din a home without the obligation of having to be Carga's marshal. He and Grogu can just relax there until the New Republic or Bo-Katan come calling.

He'd already been told, extremely specifically, that he could just hang out there now, with Carga literally saying "between adventures" like this was a videogame or meta-comment in a TTRPG, so I still put it down to Favreau's bizarre obsession with IG11 - a totally non-fan-favourite character but one who got a lot of talk this season.

Talking of non-fan-favourites did anyone else catch that we saw the Space Vespas again on the robot uprising planet a couple of episodes back?

It wasn't quite the letdown of Luke tossing a saber off a cliff, but it was similarly empty to me.

I think the issue here is that certain fans (including JJ Abrams lol) care more about the lightsabers in question than the actual characters do.

The Darksaber so far has never been shown to be more than a slightly inadequate and hard-to-use lightsaber, that has some cultural significance to the Mandalorians (but only so much - it's 1000 years old in a culture that's 10000 years old).

In comparison, the end of season 2 literally brought people to tears.

But that was, and I cannot stress this enough, purely and entirely because of nostalgia, not good writing and I guarantee it didn't do that to anyone under 25, maybe under 30.

It was a 100% deus-ex-machina moment, just hardcore leveraging a character who had never previously been in the show or even really hinted at, for the nostalgia equivalent of a shotgun to the face. If it wasn't Luke, the reaction wouldn't have been tears of joy but rather would have been "What a cheap deus-ex-machina ending that was!".

So what, you wanted them to have Han Solo or Leia or someone equally nostalgia-y turn up in a similarly pure-nostalgia moment? Maybe instead of the cruiser crashing, the Millennium Falcon could have inexplicably hurtled into the base and Chewbacca could have leapt off a ramp whilst it hovered and started whaling on Moff Gideon?

I mean, that's what you're praising. Brutal, unsubtle use of nostalgia.

I think there was a missed opportunity to use the darksaber in a manner similar to Captain America finally being able to pick up mjolnir. Even if it did eventually get crushed or whatever, I think it would have helped to make the emotional journey(s) of Din (as well as Bo and others) more fulfilling.

Problem is, in S2, which you're praising, they already established, at some length, that the Darksaber isn't good at cutting through Beskar. So it would be a pretty bad weapon against a man in Besker power armour (and his armour was powered, you could hear the whine of the motors when he overpowered Din repeatedly). Certainly no Mjolnir.

Also, the Darksaber itself isn't Mjolnir. Even if it's semi-sentient and judging its wielder (which I do not think is the case), it's evil or at least rather thuggish, rather than virtuous. Consider that previous people able to wield it well include Pre Vizsla and Darth Maul - absolute scumbag trash, morally speaking. Do you really want Din to be in their company? If the Darksaber is sentient, all it respects is strength and maybe "being a terrorist" (because Bo-Katan is an ex-terrorist). Sabine Wren, a genuinely good person, had huge difficulty learning to wield it, I note - and it took Jedi training for her to do so.

Season 3 hinted at a lot of things being important but then didn't follow through on having them actually be important. Still good, but a little odd at times because of that.

Despite everything else, I would agree on this. It felt like they'd planned the finale and realized they could get to it in like 4 episodes at most, so chucked a bunch of other stuff around to make time. And in the finale itself they made a lot of narrative leaps which could have exploited the stuff they set up, but didn't.

 

[Zaukrie]

I could nitpick, or I could say that was fun, very good, science fiction. Seriously, of you didn't enjoy that, why are you watching?

 

[Paul Farquhar]

He could be, since he was a foundling. Maybe that's how they did it on his home planet.

This was my thought. He was old enough to know his own name when he was orphaned, and there is no indication that the Children of the Watch have a thing about changing names to fit some Mandalorian custom. Din Djarin is not a Mandalorian name, it could work any way.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

In order for Din Grogu to become a true mando-jedi he will need to craft his own darksabre.

This is the way.

 

[delericho]

He is now! But why is he Din Grogu, rather than Grogu Djarin?

He's baby Yoda. Of course his name has to be backwards!

That's a rather flat end for the Darksaber though. Weird that the main villain spent so long trying to get it, just to casually toss it aside.

It sets them up rather nicely if they're wanting to do a riff on the "broken sword that must be reforged" thing - Bo Katan as the new Aragorn?

Yeah, or maybe they just had to be more conservative with fuel while hiding out on that planet. None of them had any ships, so it’s not like they could go get more. They were probably rationing it.

Yep. Plus, it's entirely possible that Bo Katan/Axe Woves' group had loads of fuel that they then shared with the followers of The Way when they joined forces. Would have been nice to have a line to that effect in there somewhere, but it's not the biggest gap left to be filled in.

 

[Hussar]

The fight scene with Din where he constantly upgrades his weapon after each fight is probably the most video game based scene I've ever seen outside of a video game. Very, very cool visual.

Anyone else get a total Vader vibe when Gideon says, "Leave it to me." ?

 

[Zardnaar]

While I enjoyed seeing the rise of Bo-Katan, I agree that this season was not as good as the first two seasons. Still better than the Book of Boba Fett, though.

Pretty much everything is better

The fight scene with Din where he constantly upgrades his weapon after each fight is probably the most video game based scene I've ever seen outside of a video game. Very, very cool visual.

Anyone else get a total Vader vibe when Gideon says, "Leave it to me." ?

Yup on the Vader vibe. Tribute to the OT.

 

[Reef]

Yup on the Vader vibe. Tribute to the OT.

At least Vader didn’t totally forget about the clones he had stored outside…

 

[billd91]

It wasn't quite the letdown of Luke tossing a saber off a cliff, but it was similarly empty to me.

By contrast, I loved both moments. They're both situations where an object that's been treasured, maybe even fetishized, is superseded by things that are more important and at the core of what's at stake. The darksaber is destroyed but Bo-Katan comes back with something more important and powerful - Mandalorian unity. Luke tossing the lightsaber lets us know right where he is, psychologically, and that Rey's got to find some way of reaching him.

I think there was a missed opportunity to use the darksaber in a manner similar to Captain America finally being able to pick up mjolnir. Even if it did eventually get crushed or whatever, I think it would have helped to make the emotional journey(s) of Din (as well as Bo and others) more fulfilling.

Cap picking up Mjolnir is a cool moment, true. But another very cool moment comes in Ragnarok when Odin's spirit/memory reminds Thor of who he is. "Are you Thor, the god of hammers?" Thor moves beyond the hammer and saves the Asgardians in a Crowning Moment of Awesome.

 

[Argyle King]

By contrast, I loved both moments. They're both situations where an object that's been treasured, maybe even fetishized, is superseded by things that are more important and at the core of what's at stake. The darksaber is destroyed but Bo-Katan comes back with something more important and powerful - Mandalorian unity. Luke tossing the lightsaber lets us know right where he is, psychologically, and that Rey's got to find some way of reaching him.

Cap picking up Mjolnir is a cool moment, true. But another very cool moment comes in Ragnarok when Odin's spirit/memory reminds Thor of who he is. "Are you Thor, the god of hammers?" Thor moves beyond the hammer and saves the Asgardians in a Crowning Moment of Awesome.

The second is very true.

However, the Darksaber could have served both purposes. It's a reflection of the person wielding it just as much as it is an item to be used.

I'm not so sure Mandalorian Unity is what the end showed. Instead, what I got from it was that everything about Mandalorian culture had been culturally appropriated by Moff Gideon.

He'd already been told, extremely specifically, that he could just hang out there now, with Carga literally saying "between adventures" like this was a videogame or meta-comment in a TTRPG, so I still put it down to Favreau's bizarre obsession with IG11 - a totally non-fan-favourite character but one who got a lot of talk this season.

Talking of non-fan-favourites did anyone else catch that we saw the Space Vespas again on the robot uprising planet a couple of episodes back?

I think the issue here is that certain fans (including JJ Abrams lol) care more about the lightsabers in question than the actual characters do.

The Darksaber so far has never been shown to be more than a slightly inadequate and hard-to-use lightsaber, that has some cultural significance to the Mandalorians (but only so much - it's 1000 years old in a culture that's 10000 years old).

But that was, and I cannot stress this enough, purely and entirely because of nostalgia, not good writing and I guarantee it didn't do that to anyone under 25, maybe under 30.

It was a 100% deus-ex-machina moment, just hardcore leveraging a character who had never previously been in the show or even really hinted at, for the nostalgia equivalent of a shotgun to the face. If it wasn't Luke, the reaction wouldn't have been tears of joy but rather would have been "What a cheap deus-ex-machina ending that was!".

So what, you wanted them to have Han Solo or Leia or someone equally nostalgia-y turn up in a similarly pure-nostalgia moment? Maybe instead of the cruiser crashing, the Millennium Falcon could have inexplicably hurtled into the base and Chewbacca could have leapt off a ramp whilst it hovered and started whaling on Moff Gideon?

I mean, that's what you're praising. Brutal, unsubtle use of nostalgia.

Problem is, in S2, which you're praising, they already established, at some length, that the Darksaber isn't good at cutting through Beskar. So it would be a pretty bad weapon against a man in Besker power armour (and his armour was powered, you could hear the whine of the motors when he overpowered Din repeatedly). Certainly no Mjolnir.

Also, the Darksaber itself isn't Mjolnir. Even if it's semi-sentient and judging its wielder (which I do not think is the case), it's evil or at least rather thuggish, rather than virtuous. Consider that previous people able to wield it well include Pre Vizsla and Darth Maul - absolute scumbag trash, morally speaking. Do you really want Din to be in their company? If the Darksaber is sentient, all it respects is strength and maybe "being a terrorist" (because Bo-Katan is an ex-terrorist). Sabine Wren, a genuinely good person, had huge difficulty learning to wield it, I note - and it took Jedi training for her to do so.

Despite everything else, I would agree on this. It felt like they'd planned the finale and realized they could get to it in like 4 episodes at most, so chucked a bunch of other stuff around to make time. And in the finale itself they made a lot of narrative leaps which could have exploited the stuff they set up, but didn't.

I think S2 was more than nostalgia. Yes, that was part of it. However, S2 also had more coherent writing from start to finish than S3. (In general, I feel that the first two seasons had a clearer creative direction concerning both story and tone; however, also see below about planning things out.)

As far as the darksaber being evil or whatever...

I wouldn't mind that being a plot point. For one thing, Din was a gun for hire, so there's room to explore not always being hired to do things which are morally clear. For another, that could have been used as a reason why the "hero" of the story ultimately decides to discard the weapon.

In regards to what Beskar does or doesn't do, you have a point there. Though, that seems to change from episode to episode. I get the impression that not a lot of thought was put into how exactly Beskar works. In the same way, the culture of not taking off helmets wasn't thought through.