Let’s gooooooo!!!!

Dope opening episode. Nice fake-out at the beginning with it looking like a flashback to Din's ceremony as a kid, but him coming in to save the day present time.

The season is gonna be GREAT for Manadalore drama, with all the different factions. It's annoying that they brought Grogu back to Din in a completely different show, but if the season is packed with Mandalorian action I kinda understand. I'd have preferred them being apart for this whole time to let Din come to terms with what it means to be Mandalorian first. But I'm sure Disney wasn't gonna let the most popular character not be in it. Completely separate side-note - last night I was at my 8 year old's basketball camps. This girl had on a Grogu T-shirt - one of the coaches asked her:

"Cool shirt do you watch Mandalorian?" *Blank stare*
"Do you watch Star Wars?" *Blank stare*
"Do you just like Baby Yoda?" "Yeah he's so cute!"

I think this season will maybe have the different sects battle each other but then come together for a common enemy. I think it's funny that Bo Katan looks down on Children of the Watch so hard for being a cult and following the creed, but her faction does the same regarding the Darksaber. "Wave that thing around and they'll do whatever you say..."

I think Din will end up bringing both sides together, along with others like Boba and Satine...

I'm done with Grogu, but as you said, Disney isn't going to let its cash cow go away anytime soon.


I hope this does end with all the Mandalorian factions coming together to fight Imperial Remnants/Moff Gideon/First Order.

I want more Carl Weathers; he looks like he hasn't had this much fun making something in a long time. I also loved how they Cuban B'd Cara Dune; that was handled pretty well.

Overall it was an ok episode but it looks like it'll build up more soon.

Hearing Grogu was gonna be back for season 3 made it easy to not re-up my Disney+ subscription, which I canceled the same day Luke showed up at the end of season 2.


I absolutely do not care about anything related to the movies at all, the first three are great, the second three are charmingly bad and the last three are dumb with great special effects.


Star Wars can be bigger than that story and I'm frustrated it's afraid to be. Grogu represents all that for me while also making Mandalorian way cuter than it seemed to be in the first three episodes. So as long as there's Grogu, I'm not just out on Grogu, I'm out on the show, period.


Edit: As someone who also thinks the animated series look like absolute shit (spare me your favorite fight scenes, I've been through this dance before) I'm never going to care about anything related to that stuff, either. Grogu's definitely the dealbreaker but I kinda realized in general that not even something with as much promise as Mandalorian can scrub the stink of this franchise off. At least the Jedi game next month will likely be dope.


~~~~~~~~~
"This is the streets, and I am the trap." � Jay Bilas
http://www.popmatters.com/pm/archive/contributor/517
Hip Hop Handbook: http://tinyurl.com/ll4kzz

What do you think is the big movie/show where this whole story has its Avengers moment? And who is the big bad? Thrawn? Snoke?

but at the same time Thrawn seems a bit anti-clamatic. As much as I love Thrawn he's not this huge personality that would live up to years of hype. Especially given that he already was in Rebels.

Thrawn will definitely be in this story - Ahsoka already brought him up in her Mando season 2 episode. They need to resolve what happened to him and Ezra (did anyone else notice the purrgil space whales that were connecting with Grogu while they were in hyperspace?) On top of that, Sabine will be in Ahsoka's show.

All that said, We don't know yet who Moff Gideon was/is working for, or why he wanted Grogu. But my guess is it has something to do with trying to clone force users given the Dr. Pershing connection. The Bad Batch just came out with an episode yesterday showing Mount Tantiss and cloning experiments happening there on the orders of Palpatine. So I think it's definitely possible that all this is leading up to Palpatine creating Snoke as part of the process of making himself immortal so he could come back...

I think this leads to our first look at The First Order. We've already seen Imperial Remnants still operating and gathering supplies etc. Giedow has to be working for the remnant, and as you said, it has to tie into Palpatine clones and Snoke. I think that has to be where it leads.


I'm guessing Sabine appears somewhere this season as a teaser since this season seems to be about gathering the scattered Mandalorian groups under central leadership, be it Katan, Din, or even Sabine. Maybe it culminates with them fighting the Imperial Remant/First Order.

I think Filoni and Fav are gonna do what Filoni/Lucas did for the prequels with the new trilogy. I think Mandoverse will all tie into the beginnings of the First Order. I think we see Snoke as the big bad and prob the last scene of this story we see the emperor.

Last week's episode was good, but was more of a "set the stage" type of episode without much actual plot happening compared to previous season openings.

I thought that the setup for this second episode would lead to him spending the entire time on Tantooine looking for the memory circuit for ID-11 as a side quest. But then he immediately gets R5 (from A New Hope) and heads straight to Mandalore.

It was incredible seeing the ruins of Mandalore and recognizing locations that were only shown in animation on The Clone Wars previously. I also loved the scenes between Din and Bo Katan and their conversations. Grogu is also WAY more independent than before. They are deliberately showing us Din teaching him and then him using what he's learned. (Speaking of, I'm guessing that in the Mandoverse Grogu ends up being the way Ahsoka and Sabine find Ezra through his connection with the space whales...)

Then the episode ends with us seeing a freaking Mythosaur???? As a cliffhanger???? They aren't playing around this season...

Who rides it? Bo, Din or Boba?! lol

I say most interesting because I think that’s the best opportunity for character development. I’ve said from the beginning that I think this entire show is about Din finding out for himself and others what it means to be a Mandalorian. He doesn’t want to lead. Honestly he isn’t cut out for it at this point. In this episode we saw Bo-Karan have to save his life twice, prove that she’s better with the Darksaber, and more. However we also saw in this episode Din inspiring her and possible motivating her to change. Same in the last episode with him inspiring even the Armorer to accept the possibility of his reconciliation, challenging her belief that the mines were destroyed.

It’s a much more interesting story having a hero’s journey where a leader is unwilling to take the call to leadership but grows into it. Also offers character development for others, with Bo-Katan eventually giving up her quest to be Mand’alor and choosing to follow Din, and the same with the Children of the Watch. Din could be the middle ground to bring them together. We’ve seen him as a leader throughout. No matter what another character has going on they fall in line to help Din. The show outwardly makes it seem that it’s Grogu who has that impact and everyone wants to protect him, but it’s just as much of not more the leadership traits of Din that they see more than he himself.

So yeah, I think Din “tames” the Mythosaur. Maybe the Mythosaur already knows this and that’s why it didn’t attack them immediately. It might know that Din already IS the Mand’alor. Not that I think we’ll get there in a straight line or the next episode, but I think that’s where the story is leading us.

that the story is clearly written about Din, it would be weird for him NOT to be the one who becomes the one on the throne. Bo is the better warrior and it's obvious but its also obvious shes not the greatest leader. Her own crew has even left her. She is as obsessed with the idea of whoever takes the darksaber is the leader as much as Din is obsessed with his own version of the religion/culture. Thus is the story of me having a very nerdy ass convo with my friend after the show lmao

So are we agreed that Bo-Katan is going to screw over Din right? I mean she had the dark saber and let him have it back, but she's gotta be scheming on something. Or was seeing the Mythosaur in the waters make her believe in her goal of unity Mandolorians again and she's going to do the "right" thing?


Also, Heinz, you were right. I thought I didn't want anymore Grogu, but my boy showed and proved with them little yoda flips and using the force. I like the touch with Bo talking to him about fear and getting past it. A good little piece about fear and how it can lead to the dark side.

It was dope seeing Mandalore or what was left of it. Also, seeing the Mandalorian fighter was fun. I geeked out when she took off and landed.

R-5 and the Jawas were cool and anytime seeing Amy Sedaris is great.

Because I’m not even sure how she WOULD screw him over. He doesn’t really want the Darksaber. He also doesn’t want to be the one to lead the Mandalorians (at least at this point.) So I don’t know how she would win it in combat with him being an unwilling opponent.

In this episode we saw him still struggling with the “weight” of the Darksaber, because he hasn’t come to terms with really wanting it’s responsibilities. He’s conflicted in terms of that, so it’s heavy to him. Meanwhile Bo-Karan wields it like a pro because that’s been her singular goal for YEARS at this point. Yet she still have it back to him.

I also do believe that this episode was a “come to Jesus” moment for her. She’s sarcastically reading the sign by the living waters, but then you could see on her face how impacted she was by Din reciting the creed as he walked into the waters. Then she actually sees the Mythosaur while saving him???? Telling her that all those children’s stories are real???

So in the next episode we’ll have ti see how she handles it. Din didn’t see the Mythosaur. Does she instantly tell him about it or keep it secret? Is she now threatened completely by Din because of the Mythosaur appearing after his show of faith? Or does she go completely the other way and convince him to lead with her following, based on his faith fulfilling the prophecy? Or is is somewhere in the middle, that she becomes determined to unite the separate Mandalorian factions through balancing faith in the creed with the overly evangelistical Children of the Watch group?

She needs to defeat him and she needs her people to see it otherwise they won't buy it. Bo Katan does not have a good reputation amongst her crew.

And despite what others have said here, I don't think she can beat him in a 1x1

>And despite what others have said here, I don't think she can
>beat him in a 1x1

Bo-Katan is CLEARLY the more skilled fighter. She's way more experienced after decades of fighting across multiple eras. Din meanwhile is clumsy - but he has an elite level ability to take damage and to use nonconventional methods to win a fight. Also Bo-Katan has lost multiple battles as a leader - first with the Nite Owls vs. the Darth Maul Death Watch, and later with the battles against the Empire. We don't know how Moff Gideon got the Darksaber, but I wonder if he beat her 1v1 which added another element of why she wanted revenge.

Honestly though Din's lack of pure skill is an important character trait, because they've been able to show him overcoming being an underdog several times throughout the show, whether it's through learning how to do something new, using a new piece of equipment, creatively using his environment, or whatever.

I mean he's the main character. So it makes sense that they'd set up Bo-Katan as being more of a skilled fighter so that if they ever do end up fighting, the stakes are higher and him winning pushes his character development further. Especially if he's using the Darksaber - because his struggle with it is due to his own internal conflict and him not wanting to lead in the way that comes with the Darksaber.

My initial thought is that this episode is an example of how Andor has spoiled me in terms of Star Wars story telling. This was a good Mandalorian episode with HUGE story implications, and we continue to dive into more of how I think this will be a great season. Even starting to answer some questions going back to the beginning of season 1.

Part of it is the beauty of Mandalorian (and Mando-verse in general) and the fact that you have episodes that are unique genres of fiction. You’ll get a western style episode, a heist episode, a Clone Wars anthology style episode, a even a Star Trek TNG style episode, etc. In this episode it was similar in story point style to a Andor episode, with some spy intrigue feel, and I can’t help to think about how uneven this was compared to Andor. Specifically structuring this episode with Din and Bo-Katan only at the beginning and the end with the majority of the episode being the Pershing story. Again - this was all great content, but in Andor you would have had scene by scene cutting between several different plot lines that were all thematically tied together in some way. I don’t expect that level here, but I think this would have felt better with us not spending 30 minutes all on Pershing and the amnesty program plot. If some cut backs to Mando and Bo were in there it would have made it feel like some time was passing, and flowed better with the double cross with the officer.

Again this is a personal issue I have. This episode was consistent with the Mando-verse so it’s just something that was on my mind comparing it to how Andor would have been structured. I don’t know if anyone else felt that way at all.

All that being said - I love where this is going. We talked about it above but I truly think Bo was inspired by both Din and by seeing that Mythosaur. I noticed the entire time that she didn’t remove her helmet when she had plenty of opportunity. With her not telling Din I think she views the possibility of taking the Mythosaur as a way for her to lead without the Darksaber. It was greet seeing her with the Armorer and others at the end and be accepted. Meanwhile all her crew left her when she didn’t have the Darksaber.

I’m REALLY interested in seeing what happens with the ex-Imperial communications officer. My guess is she’s still working for Gideon who is running things while in custody. and has been assigned to get Pershing back on board with Gideon’s plans. Based on Pershing’s speech, we can pretty much confirm that he was trying to clone Grogu (and more specifically clone a Force user.) The New Republic is completely naive and honestly incompetent - and that’s consistent with what we see in the sequel trilogy with the demilitarization and letting the First Order form under their noses. Side note - did y’all peep when Pershing was on the mind-flayer he yelled out to the Mon Kalamari doctors “it was a trap!!!” lol

Back to Mando - who ordered that attach on Bo’s home? Honestly it was a very much Thrawn like approach. Send a couple fighters to draw them off, and meanwhile have bombers take out the actual target and draw them back to an entire fleet of fighters. Interesting…

Edit - forgot to mention that Coruscant looks AMAZING!!!

I dont believe shes a believer shes just playing the role because she is making a move for the dark saber. Its just feels too easy in this story for her to convert. I think she uses the knowledge of the mythosaur but it backfires as I beliece Mando ends up being the one to tame it. Like you said the Pershing stuff is a callback to season 1. I believe the Mythosaur is a callback to Kuill’s comments to Mando about riding the Mythosaur when he was teaching him how to ride the Blurrg and its foreshadowing that he’s going to be the one.

it’s internationally gray at this point. In Episode 2 I could tell she was genuinely inspired by Din as he recited the creed. Then right after that she sees a Mythosaur? That would be the equivalent of someone raised in the church, maybe the daughter of the biggest pastor/religious figure in the world, growing up and just going through the motions eventually becoming an atheist, but then having a literal physical encounter with Jesus or something. That’s gotta have some impact.

But I definitely think she’s planning on saving that information and using it to get back to Mandalore and try taking that Mythosaur. What’s interesting is I’d think all of the armorer’s group would also want to go see it now that they know it’s not “poisoned”. There’s gonna be some beef and fighting there somewhere…

Why couldn't Bo just take it from the crab guy after Mando had lost it? She's earned it as long as she's killed the monster, right? I doubt Mando would even care that much.

The “rule” about having to get the Darksaber through combat was told to us in canon by Moff Gideon when they’d captured him. But previous to that it passed through hands (including Bo-Karan herself) without that being the case. She believes in those rules now, likely because she sees taking it before without being worthy as part of the curse that caused the purge on Mandalorians.

But we don’t know what other details there are to this “rule”. The cyborg/crab thing she defeated wasn’t using the Darksaber in that fight so maybe that’s why. Or maybe it’s because the crab thing didn’t assume any claim to the title, as that wasn’t its intent in beating Din. Although they wouldn’t hold up because Don’s intent in beating Moff Gideon wasn’t to claim the title, he didn’t want it. Maybe the issue is she didn’t feel like Din lost it in a fair fight?

Whatever it is, Bo-Katan didn’t feel worthy of the title at this point, or that she’s actually “earned” it.

An interesting side note to me - whatever that crab/cyborg thing was, it likely used to be an actual Mandalorian. You can see a human eye inside it, and it’s ON Mandalore, surviving after the Empire bombed it. It also had some fighting tactics/skill. Would have been funny if Bo hadn’t killed it and it laid claim to lead and reunite all Mandalorians with the Darksaber.

I will revisit again. I lasted thru episode 3 I think.

Far above anything else in the Star Wars universe.

Dude really told the mindflayer guy it was a trap, lmao.

The direction and the way it was filmed and the way it was acting was, IMHO, as bad as any of the prequels.

They could have done it better or made it shorter.

I might just like the larger hero's journey theme stuff and just not care about political intrigue.

Because 40 minutes of that episode had zero to do with Din and even less to do with what we've seen in the season so far. The only connection is that whatever project Dr. Pershing was working on involved Grogu and there are questions left to be answered with Grogu's backstory.

I think that plotline may have originally been intended for the Rangers of the New Republic show which was likely cancelled because of Gina Carano getting fired. When they confirmed the cancellation they said something about the ideas being incorporated into other shows. As we saw in Book of Boba Fett, Favreau and Filoni can be a bit clumsy in how they "incorporate" ideas across different shows. But I think they have something specific in mind that they are building up towards.

For me, I actually enjoyed this episode alot more on a rewatch. It was weird at first having the story be away from Din and the Mandalorians for so long, but I on rewatch I was really enjoying seeing Coruscant at this point in the timeline. Dr Pershing being so awkward and naïve also made more sense knowing where the story was going (and same with the awkward way Elia was pushing him towards being entrapped.) Also I enjoyed the huge implications of what we were seeing. in his "Ted Talk" he talked about experiments of combining genetics from multiple hosts. We already saw the failed version of those experiments in season 2 with what could have been "proto-Snoke" looking clones. This would also lead to how "somehow Palpatine returned".

I don't think it's possible to 'fix' the problems of the sequel trilogy, but I definitely see that they are trying to fill in the gaps in Star Wars canon and the timeline. Another example is the state of the New Republic. It never made sense to me in Force Awakens that Leia had a "Resistance" within the New Republic and that the First Order was able to form. But we absolutely see the seeds of that here with how incompetent the New Republic is, and also how similar it is to the Empire itself in many ways while trying to appear to be morally "good" . It makes zero sense why they'd allow Imperials who were working for Moff Gideon around 10 years AFTER Battle of Endor and the death of the Emperor to be in the Amnesty program. That would be like giving amnesty to Nazi officers who were STILL working for the Nazis a decade after WWII and the death of Hitler.


>The direction and the way it was filmed and the way it was
>acting was, IMHO, as bad as any of the prequels.
>
>They could have done it better or made it shorter.
>
>I might just like the larger hero's journey theme stuff and
>just not care about political intrigue.
>
>

WOW! And Carl Weathers directed this???

directed it I thought "Good job Carl Weathers. Good job."

I’m ready for Mr. St. John to start talking, verbally or telepathically, unless it’s only been a few months that we’ve seen over the course of these multiple seasons.

In terms of the timeline they are being purposefully ambiguous, but it seems that a couple years have passed since season 2. Favreau/Filoni said that in an interview in a saw that wasn't clear if they were talking about real world time since season 2 or in universe. But from what we've seen in the show - Nevarro had time to grow into a budding trade center, and the Children of the Watch covert has grown from just Paz and the Armorer into having dozens. Significant time has also passed from the New Republic perspective with Gideon's war tribunal though they have also been vague on what's happened there. Regardless - a good amount of time has passed.

For Grogu - I really think they are building up to him talking this season. There have been some foreshadowing elements in these first few episodes. First the Armorer making his beskar plate and talking about the forge revealing weaknesses leading to his flashback, is the same trope we saw in season 1 with Din. So I'd expect more flashback's to Grogu's trauma after Order 66. With Din's trama revealing his backstory as a foundling leading to him adopting Grogu as his own foundling, I think Grogu himself will be working through the trauma of his past to show some growth. Ahsoka said that he'd concealed his Force powers to stay hidden. Maybe he also has repressed his verbal communication, and through beskar forge therapy he'll work through that to say his first words? They also had some smaller foreshadowing with Pelli thinking he said her name, and also him babbling like he was trying to repeat "This is the way" after Bo and Din said it on her ship.

Last bit of foreshadowing I think was when Paz's kid called him out for not wearing a helmet and Din said he was too young to say the creed. At some point that's gonna come up again...From a story standpoint I don't think they can go the entire series with him not talking. I could see potential conflict among the covert - maybe Grogu will be able to speak and Din won't even want him to say the creed swearing to never remove his helmet.

Awesome start to the second half of the season. I love how because of the helmets they can play with our expectations of the Mandalorians - I thought Paz was about to go against Din, and later on I DEFINITELY thought the Armorer was about to play Bo-Katan like “Gotcha! You ain’t a true Mandalorian now!”

What’s interesting to me is how Bo will be able to gather other Mandalorians. Her group left her because she didn’t have the Darksaber. She still doesn’t have it. They have no reason to believe that she saw the Mythosaur. So how will she convince them to join up with the Children of the Watch?

This is the second episode where we see Din and Bo working together as pilots and it was amazing again. The dogfighting scenes are so well done. And speaking of ships, how did all those Mandalorians even get there without ships? Also I thought for SURE they were gonna end up taking the pirate's ship but dude went out like a punk getting it destroyed along with himself.


The New Republic is completely incompetent. Which kinda has to be the story because they have to make it fit that the First Order grows right under their nose. But with all the mystique around Gideon and how much of a Keyser Soze he is how do they let him escape??? And how would they let the Amnesty program have one of his officers just working within the New Republic, looking like she got a promotion (ironic because we heard from the other former imperials that they don’t get promotions.)

It will be interesting to see how all of this goes. You can definitely tell that they combined elements of what was planned for the Rangers of the New Republic series. I’m guessing that all of this including Ashoka is leading up to Thrawn.

I saw someone on Reddit point out that at the New Republic base that Lassat talking to Teva was actually Zeb from Rebels (confirmed in the episode credits.) Also, when Bo goes off to find Mandalorians to unite, yes there’s her Nite Owls that left her, but there’s also Sabine from Rebels (and her mother’s clan), and Fenn Raul’s group (also from Rebels). So we could be getting a full reunion of the Ghost crew from Rebels as a preview for the Ahsoka show which I assume will initially be focused on Ahsoka and Sabine trying to find Ezra.

Speaking of additional Mandalorian groups - for Gideon’s escape they found remnants of Beskar. What if Moff Gideon has the Imperial Commando Mandalorian group led by Saxon (again, this is also from Rebels) working for him. Gideon might even be one of them. The entire season might be about all these separate Mandalorian groups uniting or fighting each other.

All this being said, I wonder how this season is being received by casual fans. We’re seeing DEEP cut references that I love, but the show is going far away from the Mando and Baby Yoda premise that a ton of casual fans loved. I mean their reunion was showed on an episode of a completely different show. I’m sure some folks are confused watching it…

>I saw someone on Reddit point out that at the New Republic
>base that Lassat talking to Teva was actually Zeb from Rebels
>(confirmed in the episode credits.) Also, when Bo goes off to
>find Mandalorians to unite, yes there’s her Nite Owls that
>left her, but there’s also Sabine from Rebels (and her
>mother’s clan), and Fenn Raul’s group (also from Rebels).
>So we could be getting a full reunion of the Ghost crew from
>Rebels as a preview for the Ahsoka show which I assume will
>initially be focused on Ahsoka and Sabine trying to find Ezra.

I figure she finds other hidden groups along with the ones you mentioned. As you said in your earlier post this ep was a Rangers of the New Republic episode. The Darksaber is def going to come into play but I'm wondering with the whole Armorer saying how she walks both ways that it might get dropped and it'll be about creating New Mandolore and not taking back the old planet that's now destroyed which that whole possession of the Darksaber business will go away. Or if Sabine appears, they give her the Darksaber so she can go with Ashoka to find Ezra.

>Speaking of additional Mandalorian groups - for Gideon’s
>escape they found remnants of Beskar. What if Moff Gideon has
>the Imperial Commando Mandalorian group led by Saxon (again,
>this is also from Rebels) working for him. Gideon might even
>be one of them. The entire season might be about all these
>separate Mandalorian groups uniting or fighting each other.
I think Saxon died, so I doubt it's a Mandalorian group that broken him out. In season 2, Bo mentioned how Gideon took all the Beskar from Mandolore before or during the purge. He probably has Beskar-based weapons, which were used to get him out. But it'll be blamed on the Mandos because the New Republic is oblivious to anything and making nothing but bad decisions like hiring former Imps to work for them.

>All this being said, I wonder how this season is being
>received by casual fans. We’re seeing DEEP cut references
>that I love, but the show is going far away from the Mando and
>Baby Yoda premise that a ton of casual fans loved. I mean
>their reunion was showed on an episode of a completely
>different show. I’m sure some folks are confused watching
>it…
Hopefully, casual fans are enjoying it, and it's building a bigger story for them to watch. I think the deep cuts are there for fans like us that have been watching since Clone Wars, but help to flesh out story lines for casual fans.

characters I've seen. I'm sure they didn't invest all of that just for a quick cameo and we'll be seeing more of him...

Are Moff Gideon and Big Brother Almighty brothers from another universe?

Din has his beskar armor suit on, is hit with the e-web cannon in the open, with nothing to hide behind, at about the same distance as he was from it when they were hiding from it in that building. What happens?

I loved this episode. Unfortunately while loving it all I could think about was all the people in Star Wars fandom and YouTube reviewers complaining about it being a side quest and not “moving the story forward”…I just hate that sentiment in today’s TV watching world, mostly because it’s typically said by reviewers who get their channel views and subscriptions based on their theories about where the story is going, and their complaints when the story doesn’t go where they predicted. It’s fun making theories about the story, we do that here but I don’t feel like we get mad and complain about the show when it doesn’t go our way. I’m sure I’m also gonna see complaints online about Jack Black and Lizzo being in the SW universe, but again I really enjoyed that plot and story of droids going rogue because of Christopher Lloyd.

Anyways - I thought this episode was a ton of fun. They are CLEARLY showing us Din and Bo working together in many different ways whether it’s fighting or diplomacy/negotiations. I think that’s good character building for whatever happens there, but also it’s a micro version of what will happen when all these separate Mandalorian groups come together.

Nice how they handled the Darksaber. My take on it is that Din was planning on doing exactly that all along, and was waiting for the right moment to do so in front of the Nite Owls.

My one complaint about this season so far has to do with Grogu. I REALLY wish we had some time with him and Din apart. And based on the stories in this season it looks like that may have actually been the plan - he’s just randomly there, not part of the actual story. It’s like Disney nudged them to bring them back together in Boob of Boba Fett after they already had the story planned with them being apart. It would have been way more impactful to have him with Luke all this time, and then have the story in this season show Grogu deciding to return towards the end.

Beyond that, I’m loving this season.

You can tell that this and last week's episodes are mash-ups of whatever the Rangers of the New Republic show was going to be. It was nice seeing DIn and Bo work together and get the job done, but this was a police procedural for the most part.

I like that they can pivot and take that into this show and move the overall story forward, but I'm upset because it feels like that show would've been good.

I wouldn't have been surprised if Kermit or Gonzo showed up in a cameo.

What is the point of Grogu now besides being cute? He left one cult and joined another.

>What is the point of Grogu now besides being cute? He left
>one cult and joined another.

It’s clear that the story of this season originally planned to be with Din and Grogu apart. Whatever the reason was that they decided it were told Grogu needed to be here (and I do understand it - I’d guess almost half of the viewership of Mandalorian think of it as the Baby Yoda show) it would have been a better story with them apart for some time. Then is would make sense with Din somewhat regressing - first going back to his bounty Hunter ways, and then back to the comfort of the covert and their orthodox view of the Way. They could have shown Din struggling with missing his son and showed Grogu also struggling while being trained by Luke, instead of squeezing all of that into BOBF.

All that being said I’m still REALLY REALLY enjoying this. Honestly at its worst it’s like a live action Clone Wars show (to Heinz’s point about about Filoni’s style of storytelling). It was a bit jarring at first going back to this vibe after Andor raised the stakes to HBO drama style level, but I still love the show.

First of all just because it was a fun George Lucas and Clones Wars style story. But there’s a lot in this episode that’s happening thematically that I haven’t seen anyone mention yet even in YouTube episode breakdowns (I’m sure someone else noticed but I haven’t seen it.)

Thematically this episode is doing HEAVY lifting in foreshadowing some type of Din/Bo relationship. (One that might not even come to fruition because I have a feeling that Bo will end up dying/sacrificing herself either for other Mandalorians or for Din specifically.) Think about what happens in this episode separate from Din and Bo - it opens with a forbidden love situation with the Mandalorians taking the Mon Calamari Prince away from his love interest. Forbidden love because their species hate each other and have a long history of war between their people on the planet they share. That couple was an example of forbidden love not working out.

Then in the middle of the episode you have another forbidden love couple - with Lizzo and Jack Black’s character who are an odd pairing because of his history with the Empire. That couple ends up being an example of forbidden love they DOES work out. (Also an example of the New Republic’s amnesty program being successful to give the other side of how incompetent the NR looked earlier in the season because of it.

Finally you have Din and Bo who are have shown throughout the season that they make a great team. The last episode ended with Bo being given a quest, and it’s interesting that Din came with her with no discussion at all - it was assumed they’d be together as a team. Before this when they teamed up it was because of the circumstances - here it’s clearly by choice. We see them bickering like a couple and still working great together in this episode. They are also essentially flirting with each other. Look at the way they look at each other. The episode ends with him giving her the Darksaber in a legitimate way, with him having waited until exactly the right moment to do so. Din and Bo would also be somewhat of a “forbidden love” situation with him being from the Children of the Watch and her the Nite Owls/mainstream Mandos and there being a huge split between the groups and what it means to be a Mandalorian. Them being together could be an analogue for the two groups o being together.

On first watch it seemed a bit odd that there was a focus on that couple at the beginning of the episode, but on rewatch the theme stood out to me.

storytelling

I’m high-key jealous, but I was like “I thought you were a gangsta!”

I don't have much to add, enjoying the season and the new Ahsoka trailer looks amazing, cannot fucking wait for that!

No words but WOW…

First - the episode title “The Spies”. Obviously the episode opens with Kane being a spy working for Gideon from inside the New Republic. But the show typically has dual meanings on titles - so who is the other spy?

The Armorer is definitely a suspect because it was her who got the different Mandalorian groups to come together, and then she conveniently dipped out just as she brought them to Gideon’s base. BUT we’ve seen her kill Gideon’s Stormtroopers before. And Gideon seemed surprised when Kane told him about the two clans coming together. And she could have given up Grogu’s location to Gideon back in season 1. Still - definitely suspect. Notice Gideon’s armor has Mauldalorian spikes on it like hers does.

The spies could also be the Mandalorian survivor group they found. But that doesn’t seem like a shocking enough reveal to have go across two episodes. Could it be someone like Ace Woves?

Going into the finale, I think it’s dope that Din will have to be rescued by Bo and the rest of the Mandos. I think Gideon will remove his helmet - and my guess is he won’t go back to wearing it all the time. Goes along with what he said to Bo - he doesn’t care about the Darksaber, but about honor. Maybe he finally puts away the helmet rule also.

I think the Mythosaur will show up. Maybe that’s what takes out the imperials, and maybe it’s Grogu who tames it. I also think we get a Thrawn reveal. I don’t think it’s an accident that they showed him in Ahsoka to the crowd at Celebration last week. Maybe after the Mandalorians win over Gideon, Thrawn shows up in a mid-credit scene saying something about it all being part of his plan, having them eliminate Moff Gideon who was setting himself up as a potential rival. It would be a lead into the Ahsoka series.

It's absolutely CLEAR that they want us to think the Armorer is a spy. When I watched again I paid attention to every scene she was in and the way they shot her. It's giving strong sus vibes to the point that it might even just be a misdirection. You see it when Bo tells the group to form up, also when they are on the ship and Bo tells her story about surrendering (everyone at the table is shocked except the Armorer), and you definitely see it after she conveniently leaves the group before the trap is sprung when they keep cutting back to her flying back to the fleet like something is about to happen. On first watch during those cuts I thought she and the fleet were about to be attacked in orbit, but on second watch knowing that the trap is actually down on the surface it makes you wonder what they were trying to show...

Is it possible that both she AND the survivor Mandos are working for Gideon? Maybe the weak survivors are actually faking and when she gets them aboard the light cruiser they will all spring into action and take over the ship? I was hesitant on her being a spy based on prior seasons, but maybe Gideon got to her later. OR maybe she's been scheming all along, and her and Gideon were both from Death Watch splinter groups. Again, there's almost TOO much foreshadowing her to the point that it could all be a misdirect.

I'm sure we'll find out next week!

Also...on my second watch I think it's pretty clear that Bo-Katan is about to die. Just makes sense from a story perspective. This is like the fourth time she's had the leadership position over the Mandalorians. There has always been failure for one reason or another. But you can see the development in her character. They've spent TIME this season on her character and letting us see all that development. It just makes sense that this is the time for her character arc to be complete, as much as I'd love to see her, Din, and Grogu as a happy Mando family.

In this episode Din said "your song is not yet written and I will serve you until it is." Sounds to me that she'll sacrifice herself in an impactful way. Maybe she'll do so by calling up the Mythosaur ina way where she is killed by it along with Gideon and his followers?

>It's absolutely CLEAR that they want us to think the Armorer
>is a spy. When I watched again I paid attention to every scene
>she was in and the way they shot her. It's giving strong sus
>vibes to the point that it might even just be a misdirection.
>You see it when Bo tells the group to form up, also when they
>are on the ship and Bo tells her story about surrendering
>(everyone at the table is shocked except the Armorer), and you
>definitely see it after she conveniently leaves the group
>before the trap is sprung when they keep cutting back to her
>flying back to the fleet like something is about to happen. On
>first watch during those cuts I thought she and the fleet were
>about to be attacked in orbit, but on second watch knowing
>that the trap is actually down on the surface it makes you
>wonder what they were trying to show...
>
>Is it possible that both she AND the survivor Mandos are
>working for Gideon? Maybe the weak survivors are actually
>faking and when she gets them aboard the light cruiser they
>will all spring into action and take over the ship? I was
>hesitant on her being a spy based on prior seasons, but maybe
>Gideon got to her later. OR maybe she's been scheming all
>along, and her and Gideon were both from Death Watch splinter
>groups. Again, there's almost TOO much foreshadowing her to
>the point that it could all be a misdirect.

I think it was shot to show something was off with the Armorer but I think she was there with Mandalore fell and just won't say. I also think it's a misdirection and they come back and rescue the remaining Mandos stuck on the surface after Gideon's attack. When it first opened Gideon was not happy that both groups were coming back together to take Mandalore. And we see why because he's built an entire underground base there and obviously has the tools and resources to build Beskar-based weapons and armor. I think she comes back to save them and could possibly die.

>I'm sure we'll find out next week!
>
>Also...on my second watch I think it's pretty clear that
>Bo-Katan is about to die. Just makes sense from a story
>perspective. This is like the fourth time she's had the
>leadership position over the Mandalorians. There has always
>been failure for one reason or another. But you can see the
>development in her character. They've spent TIME this season
>on her character and letting us see all that development. It
>just makes sense that this is the time for her character arc
>to be complete, as much as I'd love to see her, Din, and Grogu
>as a happy Mando family.
>
>In this episode Din said "your song is not yet written and I
>will serve you until it is." Sounds to me that she'll
>sacrifice herself in an impactful way. Maybe she'll do so by
>calling up the Mythosaur ina way where she is killed by it
>along with Gideon and his followers?

I don't think she's going to die. It seems pretty et up that she's going to be a part of the final chapter of this overall story with Filoni's New Republic film that will close out this time period before the First Order take over. I think the Armorer goes out and then she can finally be the true leader of all Mandos.

And that's partly why on first watch I didn't think she was the spy. But on second watch it was clear to me that they wanted to foreshadow it, again it could be a total misdirect. To the point about Gideon being surprised - as he said in the episode he LIVES in secrets. It's not a big jump at all to me to think that he was feigning surprise while actually knowing all along because of the Armorer being another source. That's a common trope for a villain to have multiple spies who don't know about each other. It could be that Kane is his imperial spy that others on the Shadow Council are aware of, and that he needed her intelligence on the matter to be able to go to them and request additional resources, while the Armorer is a spy that only he knows about. Honestly sounds like a plan Gus Fring would have lol...

>When it first opened Gideon was not happy
>that both groups were coming back together to take Mandalore.
>And we see why because he's built an entire underground base
>there and obviously has the tools and resources to build
>Beskar-based weapons and armor. I think she comes back to save
>them and could possibly die.


>I don't think she's going to die. It seems pretty et up that
>she's going to be a part of the final chapter of this overall
>story with Filoni's New Republic film that will close out
>this time period before the First Order take over. I think the
>Armorer goes out and then she can finally be the true leader
>of all Mandos.

I don't know - I think they may be preparing us to have our hearts ripped out next week.

Is it possible Moff G. is from Mandalore and or was part of the helmet wearing click before being kicked out/betrayed/disillusioned?

How do they not know that that monster is not in the water with all the tech they got? No bio sign reader on the boat?

I guess that they gotta do it for the story's sake but it's kinda odd who a small town or area represents a whole planet. Like when they were about to tear up that planet that Greef Karga was on the focus was on that small area. The same with Manadalore. Kinda like the Lower East Side of Manhattan representing all of Earth.

Grogu in the IG-11 suit is more Krang than Gundam. Whoever said that the 80's tv shows/cartoons and toys tie ins was taken off the table lied. Grogu and Moff G's new suit had me thinking about that.

>Is it possible Moff G. is from Mandalore and or was part of
>the helmet wearing click before being kicked
>out/betrayed/disillusioned?

The Armorer mentioned that Death Watch was no more and splintered into separate groups. He could have been part of Death Watch and went off after Maul was defeated. Or he could have ended up being one of Gar Saxon's Mandalorian Imperial Commandos.

>How do they not know that that monster is not in the water
>with all the tech they got? No bio sign reader on the boat?

That boat didn't look to be the height of Star Wars universe tech lol...

>I guess that they gotta do it for the story's sake but it's
>kinda odd who a small town or area represents a whole planet.
>Like when they were about to tear up that planet that Greef
>Karga was on the focus was on that small area. The same with
>Manadalore. Kinda like the Lower East Side of Manhattan
>representing all of Earth.

That's one of those Star Wars things that you just gotta suspend belief on. Another example was something that went the opposite way in the last episode on Lizzo and Jack Black's planet. Typically anyone can just fly their ship to any planet, land and go wherever they want. Even when there's a blockade in orbit, once through it they just go where they want. Don't thy need to go through customs or something??? Show some kind of SW passport? Who knows what alien bacteria they are bringing to the planet. But in that episode they had to show their chain codes, and had control of their ship taken over to land. That actually makes logical sense for any planet with a civilization on it...

Thanks for amnswering.

1 Mandalorian can win a fight against 100 enemies.

50 Mandalorians seemed to be completely overwhelmed by 100 storm troopers in beskar.

Is their only winning tool beskar?? Don't must of them had very limited beskar?

Also, why when they see the giant dinosaur they waited until they are 5 feet form it to jump off. Maybe turn the boat around????

Why didn't grogu do any force type thing during the fight??

I wish they'd not try to weave this into the sequel trilogy/first order and jsut do this as completely standalone.

Or does the final episode consist of Grogu getting his life force sucked out by the resurrected emperor and dying?? I'm not interested in seeing that.

I think they are either clones created by Moff Gideon (remember at the beginning of the episode when he walks by the beskar armor in the next room we’re cloning vats) or they are actual Mandalorians who are with Gideon. At a minimum they gotta be some type of Imperial Commandos or elite group like the Death Troopers - they aren’t just basic cannon fodder Stormtroopers.

And even still, they had numbers on that group of Mandalorians way more than just 2 to 1. That was like 4 to 1 when they sprung the trap inside the base.

Completely agree on that giant dinosaur though, they had PLENTY of time to turn around. Unless that was all part of the plan with the survivor Mandos being spies who weee leading them straight to Gideon.

>I think they are either clones created by Moff Gideon
>(remember at the beginning of the episode when he walks by the
>beskar armor in the next room we’re cloning vats) or they
>are actual Mandalorians who are with Gideon. At a minimum they
>gotta be some type of Imperial Commandos or elite group like
>the Death Troopers - they aren’t just basic cannon fodder
>Stormtroopers.
Now are Clones, Mandalorians, or machines, that's yet to be seen.
>And even still, they had numbers on that group of Mandalorians
>way more than just 2 to 1. That was like 4 to 1 when they
>sprung the trap inside the base.
Numbers and...The Highground, lol. But seriously they had highground and numbers. Plus they had fucking TIE fighters in there, even if they beat them they still would've lost.

>Completely agree on that giant dinosaur though, they had
>PLENTY of time to turn around. Unless that was all part of the
>plan with the survivor Mandos being spies who weee leading
>them straight to Gideon.
They were on a hunk of junk wind sail, they weren't going to turn around. Skinny Pete and bruh from Top Gun Maverick weren't spies.

When he landed in his villain monologue he said "I have created the next generation Dark Trooper suite, forged from beskar alloy." It's possible that he was talking about the troopers who came in, but he also said that the most impressive improvement was that he was in it, so I think he's talking about his own all black suit that he was wearing, not the white gray and black suits worn by the troopers. (As I mentioned above though, its very possible that those troopers are all Gideon clonses which gives his statement dual meaning.)

Death Troopers and Dark Troopers are two different things - Death Troopers are the tall skinny troopers in all black that were introduced in Rogue One, and Gideon also had them in Mandalorian season 1. Dark Troopers were the droids from season 2 that kidnapped Grogu and got waxed by Luke Skywalker. Dr. Pershing was talking about Dark Troopers when he mentioned that the latest generation got rid of the last weakness, the human inside. I think it's intentional irony that Gideon's new suit would be the 4th generation Dark Trooper suit, improving on the 3rd gen by adding a human back - him.

Outstanding. Rick Famuyiwa put in WORK on these last two episodes. The action scenes with Gideon, the Praetorian Guards, Din, Grogu, Bo, etc were just fantastic.

Axe Woves came in CLUTCH this episode. So did the Armorer, the survivor Mandos, etc. so I don’t know who “The Spies” were in the last episode separate from Kane.

I definitely thought we were about to get a post credit scene with Thrawn talking to the Shadow Council and taking credit for the Mandalorians killing Gideon. I’m glad they didn’t leave us hanging on the plan to create force sensitive clones of Gideon.

This episode felt like a series finale…the scene with him talking to Teva about taking on imperials as a contractor definitely sets up his involvement in all the other shows. But I wonder what will happen with Grogu and the Mythosaur? Might be a little while before we get a season 4. Or maybe season 4 will essentially be Rangers of the Mew Republic with Din and Grogu going on missions helping Teva?

When they were reignighting the forge, Paz's son was standing next to Axe Woves. Looks like he's taking him on as an apprentice, which is a great sign for hte separate clans truly working together going forward. The Armorer is good with Ragnor (sp?) being mentored by a Mando who isn't wearing a helmet all the time (along with him also retaking the creed and not saying the part about never removing his helmet.)

Also fitting after Axe risked his life in a very similar way to Paz's sacrifice the last episode.

>