The Mandalorian S3 (HIGH CHANCE OF SPOILERS!)

[Jim_Campbell]

(Starting a new thread to include a spoiler warning in the header, since the spoiler tag doesn't seem to be working. You have been warned!)

Reaction to the first couple of episodes of the latest series seems to have been pretty lukewarm which, I assume, is born out by the lack of comment here to date.

I'll be honest, I've been slightly baffled by most of the griping I've seen elsewhere on social media, mainly that the new season is "fluff" or "insubstantial"... which seems (to me, at least) to be attributing a seriousness and depth of meaning that the series has never delivered, or even promised to deliver. I don't know if people were needing a readjustment period coming out of Andor (in much the same way that I needed a readjustment period going into Andor, in order to acclimatise to the slower pace and more sombre tone) but I really enjoyed the first two episodes.

It looks great, and exciting stuff happens, and there's a fantastic chill-down-the-spine moment towards the end of Ep2.

Ep3, however, is genuinely fascinating, providing a mirror to several scenes in Andor, showing that the good intentions of the post-Empire Republic don't stop the grinding bureaucracy chugging away in much the same way as it did under the previous regime.

There's also the contrast between the prevailing attitude on Coruscant (that the war is over, the Empire is gone) and the fact that someone in the farther-flung corners of the galaxy seems to still have an awful lot of TIE interceptors and bombers at their disposal.

Plus, there's an excellent aerial chase/fight sequence.

So... all good for me, so far. I'm hoping The Mandalorian doesn't stray too far down Andor's miserablist take* on Star Wars, but I'm intrigued to see where it goes.

*Don't get me wrong — I thought Andor was great, but I don't want all my Star Wars to be gloomy political allegory. I quite like being able to have Serious Star Wars™ and Fun Star Wars™ at the same time!

[sheridan]

Personally I've been fairly quiet on the forum as I haven't been able to log in on my home computer since the board update (though can on my work computer, hence I visit during my lunch hour).

Off the top of my head I can't think of any Star Wars moving picture things* I haven't liked since the last film (which had its moments but was also a lost opportunity).

The chattering classes of Coruscant were a little unsubtle, but it all worked well enough.


* i.e. live action series and animated series.

[Colin YNWA]

Personally I've been fairly quiet on the forum as I haven't been able to log in on my home computer since the board update (though can on my work computer, hence I visit during my lunch hour).

Oh its not just me then. I can't login via any device on my home ISP but the same devices in work on the work network its fine. The same devices at home using my work VPN, its fine, on my mobile connected to data rather than home wifi = fine... its infuriating...

In my head - with very limited understanding it must be to do with security certificate, though a work meeting this week made clear how little I understand those!

errrr to get back on topic.... I will be watching this at some point...

...oh to get back on topic

[sheridan]

Wonder what'll happen if I try to log in at home, using Opera with the VPN switched on?  Shall try tonight, if I remember.

[The Legendary Shark]

Enjoying this overall, with a few niggles. The "I want this droid, no other will do, and I'll scour the galaxy for the parts needed to fix it. This is my quest!" "Will a dodgy astromech droid suffice?" "Sure, why not?" thing seemed like a huge waste of time and a clumsily planted seed for later on. Other than that, lots of shooty-bang-bang and monsters are keeping me entertained and the plot developing on Coruscant is keeping me intrigued. Not bad at all.

[Jim_Campbell]

Another perfectly good episode this week... exciting stuff happens, and there's a definite sense of a power struggle brewing somewhere just under the surface.

But... I dunno if it's just me, but I'm feeling this increasing sense that the "Children of the Watch" are basically just an abusive, coercive cult. I'm kind of hoping that the series throwing Bo-Katan into the mix, as an outsider to the order, is somehow working up to addressing this, but it's taking a bit of the shine off when I'm spending a big chunk of the episode thinking "C'mon, man, just get the little green chap away from these nutcases..."

[pauljholden]

tbh I was all in for the single adventures of Mando and Cub, and the deeper star wars lore doesn't do a great deal for me (let alone the deeper mandolorian lore)
So maybe it's a failure to meet expectations on this series (which to be fair are expectations I gave myself) also it feels like they're bored with Mando the character and that's not making it any more interesting to me.

I hate that I'm not enjoying it.

[The Legendary Shark]

The Pirate.

Now that's Star Wars.

[The Legendary Shark]

An absolute corker of a penultimate episode - setting up a mouth-watering finale.

This is the Gruddam Way.

[Jim_Campbell]

I'll say, again, that I'm really enjoying this series.

Yes, frankly, in alternate universe I could have happily watched three series of Din Djarin making his way through the Star Wars universe in an unlikely hybrid of Strontium Dog and Lone Wolf and Cub... but it was pretty clear by mid-way through S2 that that wasn't the direction they were taking.

I WARNED YOU ABOUT SPOILERS!

It seems pretty clear that Favreau and Filoni are trying to rehabilitate the sequel trilogy here. We're seeing the bridge between the remnants of the Empire and the rise of the First Order, and I have no doubt that "Project Necromancer" is all about reviving the Emperor by creating a force-wielding clone.

TBH, I admire their efforts to shoe-horn the fucking mess of the sequel trilogy into something that actually makes narrative sense... but I'd as soon that they expended their self-evident creative talent on fashioning something entirely new within the Star Wars universe.

Nonetheless, I find myself thoroughly stoked for the final episode of this season.

[sheridan]

Well, that's the Quartz Zone in live action then!

[sheridan]

p.s. some scenes look exactly like the Quartz Zone we've seen in the comics!

[Trooper McFad]

Been enjoying season 3 and I too thought of blue men running about bombed Mandalor.

Known that the new order does rise up can't see it ending well for the Mandalorians even if they get rid of Moff Gideon

[sheridan]

Known that the new order does rise up can't see it ending well for the Mandalorians even if they get rid of Moff Gideon

I did wonder that - but Mandalore and Mandalorians don't feature one way or another in the sequel trilogy (do they?  If they do then I missed it).

That's a great question, and we talk about many different things. That's a question for a bunch of characters by the way, not just Grogu. Where are they during these events?  If anything, having made The Clone Wars and weaving a tale so intricately between two movies that were much closer together, I've learned that there's expansive room in this galaxy for us to tell stories and have characters doing things...So we'll just have to wait and see how the story evolves and what makes sense. But in my experience, there's definitely a way to weave everything together and make it exciting. It's possible it would never even have to cross over with what we saw [in the Sequel Trilogy] if the story has us somewhere else.

[Hawkmumbler]

Can't wait for the Rise of Skywalker Redux, where a hastily shot insert scene is added of Poe mumbling into his own hand to further elaborate on how the emperor returned.

Project Lazarus sadly will not replace my personal canon for what Palpatine was up to for nearly four decades.

Oh, and yeah. Mando S3 is pretty enjoyable stuff, glad I gave it another shot after being thoroughly disenchanted with S2.