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So I was one of the vocal about how pointless Andor was before it came out and after it came out and wrapped that Andor is the single best thing Starwars has made. It managed to just give us a really good story with really good stuff all around. It wasn't going back to tell a prequel about how [insert character] got their [insert stuff]. It was a character driven narrative with purpose.

I like the general vibe of the new season of Mando so far. But it falls a bit flat because we know what they COULD be doing with Andor and instead we are getting... this.

Maybe that will end up being great. Probably it will be... fine.

Starwars has finally shown us how great a story it could tell and now they need to rise back to that level.

fething hell Bad Batch is bad.

Honestly part of the issue with Mando season 3 is a sense of aimlessness.

I thought the season would be about getting his redemption but he wrapped that up in two episodes.

I thought he was going to help restore IG-88. Except he seemed to forget about that.

I thought maybe he'd help deal with some pirates but he flew away.

There's like a bunch of plot points being set up but there's no sense of direction or sense to how they're being laid out.

The stuff with Grogu is great and Bo-Katan isn't being a meanie like she could have been, but it be nice to have an idea where we're going rather than no idea at all.

I thought he was going to help restore IG-88. Except he seemed to forget about that.

I honestly don't know why they bothered to set that up. Just... nothing about that makes sense.

Its the only droid he trusts. Except he didn't, and his attempt to fix it immediately made it go berserk (which makes it completely untrustworthy). Even if he had, he's stuck with the tiny fighter now, so he couldn't have taken the IG droid anywhere, anyway.

But he needs a completely reliable droid, so he goes to exactly one person for the part he needs, then gives up and takes the most visibly cowardly and unreliable droid he can find.

Which... doesn't really work out, but it is an astromech, so by pure coincidence and no intent of his, it can fly his fighter back to recruit Bo after she's told him to go feth himself and is seemingly going out to fight him when his fighter lands again.

Was that the pay off for that bizarrely complicated set up? Just to have something that can fly the ship for that one scene, because the writers are intent on keeping baby Yoda at the level of a well trained pet?

He didn't need any droids to 'test the air,' presumably his ship has some atmospheric detection, and he could have 'sealed up his helmet' and taken the SW equivalent of a geiger counter into the cave, since that's basically what he ended up doing anyway, as he had to go fetch the droid back.

The writing is just really murky with a lot of tail-chasing. Presumably he and Bo are going to lead the cult against a returned Moff Gideon, but its going to screw around a lot before we get to that.

Voss wrote:

Which... doesn't really work out, but it is an astromech, so by pure coincidence and no intent of his, it can fly his fighter back to recruit Bo after she's told him to go feth himself and is seemingly going out to fight him when his fighter lands again.

Also this shows off the absolutely insane travel times of bad starwars. Mother fether had to spend who knows how long flying from Bo's citadel to Mandalore. Gets captured by cyborg monster that starts harvesting his blood. Grogu escapes, makes it into the ship, flys to Bo. A droid has to download it's logs and Bo has to review them. Get her own ship prepped, fly BACK, and then get led down into the ruins and find Mando... not bleed dry and dead already? WTF?

Also a possibility me and a buddy noticed;

It sure is convenient that nobody else ever bothered to investigate Mandalore and the incredibly valuable bescar mines there.

 Lord Damocles wrote:
It sure is convenient that nobody else ever bothered to investigate Mandalore and the incredibly valuable bescar mines there.

We don’t really know when the purge occurred. It’s some time between 5BBY when Rebels’ story began, and given the Imperial Forces involved, 4ABY, when Palpatine was killed over Endor.

Mando is set in 9ABY.

Also, Bo Katan clearly didn’t believe the myth that Mandalore was cursed. But the Mandalorian people and culture was shattered having had a pretty vicious civil war prior to The Great Purge. I don’t think 5-10 years is that long for a shattered people to avoid the marker of their most significant defeat. Especially given until Palpatine’s demise, they’d need to overcome any Imperial garrison, fleet based or not.

You can narrow that down by another four years to 1BBY. Mandalore is fine at the beginning of Rebels season four.

 Lord Damocles wrote:
It sure is convenient that nobody else ever bothered to investigate Mandalore and the incredibly valuable bescar mines there.

It's more that no one who went there came back, or whoever came back didn't tell. What's convenient about this is that Din found the one guy who went there, came back, ran his mouth and brought a souvenir.

Even then that's not among the more questionable things the writers came up with.

It may simply be no Mandalorian survived a visit in the early days - probably due to some kind of Imperial Fleet presence. Given Din’s sect appear traditionalist to the point of superstition, them deciding that’s because of a curse does make sense.

Bo Katan likely never returned because she screwed up so badly.

Sure. The cult does cult things and Bo does guilt things.

But... the rest of the system is plainly still occupied, the Empire has a tendency to exploit/strip mine worlds and there are 10000 illicit groups with droids that do shady things in the SW universe.

The idea that nobody did nothing with the remains of a legendary planet, renowned galaxy wide for its super metal, is absurd.

The only information we're given is that Mandalore was destroyed by the Empire, the mines along with it. The surface got glassed, the cities were destroyed, and the magnetic field of the planet was disrupted.
The Empire had also already funneled considerable resources into trying to make Mandalore a useful planet and the Purge was their final message to its people.
By the time Din Djarin goes back, it's at least 9ABY (when Gideon attacks Nevarro) possibly 10ABY. A considerable time has passed since the Purge and the only thing anyone remembers is that the planet is cursed. Obviously explorers and adventurous types have started going to the ruins to try and make some bank off of them by the time Mando S3 happens. It's not that hard to believe.

 Gert wrote:
The only information we're given is that Mandalore was destroyed by the Empire, the mines along with it. The surface got glassed, the cities were destroyed, and the magnetic field of the planet was disrupted.
The Empire had also already funneled considerable resources into trying to make Mandalore a useful planet and the Purge was their final message to its people.
By the time Din Djarin goes back, it's at least 9ABY (when Gideon attacks Nevarro) possibly 10ABY. A considerable time has passed since the Purge and the only thing anyone remembers is that the planet is cursed. Obviously explorers and adventurous types have started going to the ruins to try and make some bank off of them by the time Mando S3 happens. It's not that hard to believe.

That anyone would believe in a 'curse' after ~10 years is definitely hard to believe. A decade is not 'a considerable time.' They know the Empire glassed it. A poke in the system will show they haven't been guarding it, so scavengers would flock to the ruins of this bizarrely powerful independent planet, the sole (somehow) source of a legendary metal..

A quick check by anyone would show the planet isn't poisoned (and even if it is, there are droids or workers the underworld types don't care about). People would be looting that planet night and day from the moment it was clear there wasn't an Imperial presence in system.

There was still a Mandalorian presence though. Just because their homeworld got glassed doesn't mean people still don't fear their reputation. I'm not saying there's going to be no interest, cos that's obviously not true given the dude hanging out in the cave hoarding Mando armour, just not waves upon waves of treasure hunters.

Well, I'm not sure what the point of that was, by my kid kept asking, "When is the Mandalorian coming back?" during the whole New Republic bit.

New Republic seem like dicks. Where's Cassie when you need her?

Also, how did they get so many Mandalorian cult members after they got wiped out season 1 and there were only 2 in BoBF?

Seems Mando season three is about as directionless as the Sequel Trilogy and Marvel Phase 4.

 bbb wrote:
Well, I'm not sure what the point of that was, by my kid kept asking, "When is the Mandalorian coming back?" during the whole New Republic bit.

New Republic seem like dicks. Where's Cassie when you need her?

Also, how did they get so many Mandalorian cult members after they got wiped out season 1 and there were only 2 in BoBF?

Apparently they have multiple 'coverts' that they hide in and land ostentatious fighter craft immediately outside, especially when suddenly on the run from hostile forces that destroyed them before.
Which you know, is weird, because the Ringworld hideout looked actually effective for hiding.

 H.B.M.C. wrote:
Seems Mando season three is about as directionless as the Sequel Trilogy and Marvel Phase 4.

To be fair, this is only the third episode. It just feels directionless because it looked like it was setting up a season-long redemption arc then decided that would only take a good 30-40 minutes. But they kept all the setup for it despite abandoning it mid-shoot, after what must have been a bloodbath in writers' room.

Its not exactly unprecedented in this show. Remember how vitally important it was to take his bounty/pet/child/protege/pet back to 'its kind' was? And that lasted maybe a couple weeks in-universe before being scrapped and reversed?


The real trick is whether or not the pirate subplot is going to tie into the return of Moff Gideon or be an irrelevant multi-episode distraction from that. Will Bo-Katan be the heroic sacrifice (or fridged) so Mando gets to be the Great Leader and lead the cult to True Freedom on the back of a passing asteroid? Are they going to resettle on Mandalore, be awed by the Mythobeastie, and eat well on roasted grimlocks in the ruins of their former civilization? So much mystery and potential here.

 H.B.M.C. wrote:
Seems Mando season three is about as directionless as the Sequel Trilogy and Marvel Phase 4.

At this point and time, yeah. Unfortunately, I think the nostalgia memberberries moments of S2 was a red flag that they really didn't know where they were going with this, especially since a lot of Mando's relationship with Grogu got resolved so quickly in Book of Boba. The refreshing part of S1 was that it felt like it was its own separate thing within the larger SW mythos, in a largely unexplored period between the OT and sequels. Now that it's crossed SW street with so many major character cameos, it's lost its way of Mando really having a purpose besides doing cult things that happen to move the plot forwards.

Just an aside because I rewatched Mando S1 and feel like it makes a good comparison to Bad Batch S2 and why S2 just isn't very good.

In Mando S1, Mando often ended up not getting what he wanted. But 'failure' was rarely the right word. Most of the time he managed to achieve something, whether it be get paid or keep Grogu safe. It made not getting what he really wanted a much more mundane sort of 'gak happens' rather than 'we came to do X but the cosmos decided we're not allowed to win.'

It helps that Mando season 1 on ran 8 episodes, so it didn't really repeat the pattern for 24 different mini-stories that all play out the exact same way.

Voss wrote:
Remember how vitally important it was to take his bounty/pet/child/protege/pet back to 'its kind' was?

It's kind was "other Jedi". That never went away.

 H.B.M.C. wrote:

Voss wrote:
Remember how vitally important it was to take his bounty/pet/child/protege/pet back to 'its kind' was?

It's kind was "other Jedi". That never went away.

Until Mando went back for it (in Boba, naturally, because that's where failure lives, and is apparently contagious). Then it did go away, because it was presented as an ultimatum to Grogu (despite the immense questions about Grogu's agency and ability to understand complex concepts like this one): either choose the lightsaber and stay, or choose the mithril shirt and leave. That he learned how to levitate frogs and hop-pop was... useful (especially to the puppeteers and animators) , but the show presents him as a Mandalorian-in-training now, and has strongly suggested through Luke that its either one or the other (legendary sword-smiths being an exception, apparently).

Now sure, Luke could be carrying on the fine traditions of the Jedi Order and just blatantly lying to students, but the choice is presented as a clear dichotomy.


Though additionally, the creepy implications of 'one's own kind' referring to being members of religious orders is something I really don't want to address. Boo at them for framing the story this way.

Voss wrote:

Now sure, Luke could be carrying on the fine traditions of the Jedi Order and just blatantly lying to students, but the choice is presented as a clear dichotomy.

Luckily, we know that Luke would never choose friends/family over the Jedi...

...wait...

And Luke's a galactic hero, not the type to turn his back on everyone and die as a recluse on some backwater world...

It wasn’t like, a bad episode, but I’m just going to be annoyed because what predator travels that far for food, doesn’t kill it, and stores it alive for that long, especially when it’s got kids to feed. Not to mention how long they apparently lived inside that things gullet.

So, reasonably decent epidoe, not bad by any means. Agree with AduroT about that though.

Most important thing here for me was how they are handling Bo Katan's character arc. Very well done in my opinion.

In case anyone didn't quite get it:

1. If they use their jet packs, they'll alert the beast.
2. They have to go on foot after a while, as the ship will alert the beast.
3. The beast's lair is at the highest tower.

And now, because I'm sure some of you missed it:

1. If they use their jet packs, they'll alert the beast.
2. They have to go on foot after a while, as the ship will alert the beast.
3. The beast's lair is at the highest tower.

Holy fething God what has happened to the writing on this show? I swear they said the same thing three times in slightly different ways, to people who already knew the information, after they went after a creature that grabs prey for its young, but... doesn't kill it for over a day? WTF?

Meanwhile, Jedi Jar Jar gave us the most interesting bit of the episode (and itself nothing to do with the Mandalorian) and we only get part of that story. No wonder this show is tanking...

Meanwhile, in Bad Batch, Disney infects everything, as all the good guys do nothing but stun the bad guys... they're not even fellow Clones this time with the "we can't hurt our brothers!" excuse. They're regular Stormtroopers!

And no odds on scientist lady turning against the Empire. That's basically a given now.

I liked that Crosshair stunned the scientist, but shot dead the troopers. Also scientist lady is definitely somehow connected to Omega. She just sounds too much like her. It’ll be our answer to why this other most pure version of Jango’s dna came out female and nothing like the other clones.

Definitely feeling that Mando has lost its way this season. After the first two episodes wrapped up the redemption quest after a bizarre set of pointless sidequests, we're now left with 2 plodding episodes that seem to just be spinning their wheels. The writing has taken a nosedive with the clunky exposition, as pointed out by HBMC, and I feel that the forward motion the show was always pretty good at maintaining has simply drained away.

I wonder if this is partly down to the way the episodes are structured. Instead of having strong A and B stories taking us through the episode, each one tends to concentrate on a single story. Even when we see something else, like with Grogu's flashback, it's all handled in one chunk before sending us back to the central plot for the episode. I feel like they could easily have combined the plots from the last two episodes into a 2-episode arc and kept things more exciting as a result. I'm assuming episode 3 actually served a narrative purpose for this season, which may not even be the case, given how much it screamed "pilot episode" to me.

Also, minor niggle, could the Mandolorians not set up base camp somewhere a little less dangerous? Like, the middle of a minefield, maybe? In the space of 4 episodes (or 3, really) they've been attacked by a giant crocodile/turtle thing and had a Foundling snatched by some giant flying dinosaur. Apparently this happens often enough that they know all about its feeding patterns and hunting behaviour.

Why doesn’t Grogu speak do we suppose? He seems to understand what is spoken to him well enough, and Ahsoka was able to read his thoughts and have a conversation with him and tell Mando his name, but he doesn’t vocalize these thoughts. Is his species really so slow to develop physically that at fifty years old he’s still just got the body of a helpless (if not for the force) baby?

PTSD and the likely lack of any sort of real interaction before bonding with Din Djarin. If a child isn't given an environment to actually grow properly it won't.

Bloody loved that chapter!




Automatically Appended Next Post:
Bad Batch.

Yeah if this could be it’s base level of quality that’d be lovely. Said it before and I’ll say it again, this season has had more filler than a sandwich even Scooby Doo would consider daunting.

But when it’s been good? It’s been so good.

Less waffle. More…I dunno. Maple Syrup? I’m not really one for waffles (though I always eat what others cook for me, Mumsy Grotsnik raised me that way).