If grogu was still with luke, it would have given mando a great reason to feel lonely and wanting be part of his clan again in order to fill the void.

Season 3 committed the worst sin it possibly could; it made me wonder if the two seasons that I loved before hand were really that good to begin with

If you ask me, this season should’ve been about Din having to grasp his new responsibility as the mandalorian leader, wether he wanted it or not. This new responsibility and his struggle to grasp it could’ve made such an interesting story.

I think if grogu was with Luke still it would’ve made Mando have a reason to go back to his clan. He would be lonely and sad. Grogu could also have his own subplot where maybe he’s lonely to and eventually decides he doesn’t care to be a jedi and reunited with Mando. This way we have an overall theme of loneliness and friendship through the season, mandalorian lore in the season, and a wholesome reunion between the two protags leading to the finale with Gideon.

I will always hold to my theory. That season 3 had a whole other story prepped. ..and then Disney forced em to bring grogu back before it started.

Disney has been the kiss of death to every film franchise they have touched

I'd actually argue that we absolutely know why Din wants to rejoin the covert and that's actually exactly why the entire storyline fails. We spent TWO SEASONS watching how important Din's identity as a Mandalorian was to him. It isn't really ABOUT Din being "lonely" so much as it is about how much of Din's personality is wrapped up in the fact that he's a Mandalorian, that's his culture and it means everything to him. That's why the moments when his helmet gets removed in season 1 and season 2 are so impactful. In season 1, he's literally about to let himself DIE rather than live without being a Mandalorian and only changes his mind when IG-11 provides a loophole. Which leads us to his choices in season 2 where he continues to try to find a loophole by just putting on a DIFFERENT helmet until he can't get away with it anymore and the choice is now to remove his helmet and let others see his face and sacrifice his entire Mandalorian identity, or let Grogu die. And obviously he chooses to make that sacrifice in order to save Grogu, but that moments work only because we know just how hard it was for him to do that and how much he just gave up. And even in that final moment where he takes it off one last time in order to give him and Grogu a moment to say goodbye, the moment DOESN'T WORK if we don't know exactly how much that means to Din, what he's giving up in order to give this to Grogu. We've literally watched him decide people aren't Mandalorian explicitly because they remove their helmets. And while he starts down a journey of accepting that other Mandalorians show their identity in other ways and his is not the ONLY way, it's still made VERY VERY CLEAR that Din associates being Mandalorian with having that helmet on and just how important that is to him. People go from friend to foe very quickly based on whether he's willing to consider them Mandalorian or not. So LOSING that identity is a major thing for him. ALL OF WHICH means that when we get to season 3 and they begin us on a journey where Din is told he CAN reclaim that identity, we're absolutely invested in it. We know why he wants it, because we spent TWO SEASONS watching Din show us time after time after time just how important that identity is to him. This show is literally called The Mandalorian, I don't think they had to do a hell of a lot to get its audience invested in watching its title character reclaim his Mandalorian identity. The problem then isn't that it forgot to make us care about whether Din is redeemed or not. The problem is that show ITSELF forgot to care about whether Din was redeemed or not and so the investment it built in its audience for two seasons NEVER gets paid off in a satisfactory way. The entire arc is finished within 3 episodes and those 3 episodes are split between Din's story, Bo-Katan's story, and the New Republic story. Most of episode 3 in fact is spent on the New Republic storyline with only a few minutes at the beginning and end allotted to Din and Bo-Katan. Most of episode 2 is focused on Bo-Katan rescuing Din with Grogu and talking about her backstory. And half of episode 1 is given to Din going to Navarro to fix IG-11 because he says he can't go to Mandalore without him only for Din to then go to Mandalore without IG-11 anyway. We barely get any time spent on Din's actual redemption and what time IS spent on it is spent badly, without reminding us of just how important it is and letting Din really fight for it or show how far he's willing to go for it. We KNOW it's important, so we want to see Din have to work for that reward. And then all of the big emotional climactic moments are given to Bo-Katan instead. When Din goes to bathe in the waters, he sinks comically and it's Bo-Katan then who has to go in and rescue him and ends up seeing the mythosaur. When they return to the covert, Din's redemption just sort-of comes and goes very quickly with barely any acknowledgment of it, but Bo-Katan's redemption involves every single member of the covert coming up to touch her in welcome, her staring at the mythosaur skull meaningfully, a big zoom in on her helmet/face so we know how emotional this is for her, and it takes up the final few minutes of the episode so that THAT is what we remember when the credits start rolling, not Din. So I don't think that this is a problem of them forgetting to get us invested, it's them forgetting that we WERE invested in it and refused to actually pay off that investment in a satisfying way. Your other two examples I think ARE a problem of them failing to get us invested, but this one I think is actually the opposite issue and is sort-of the starting point for the rest of them. Because if they'd recognized just how invested we all were in this storyline and actually spent the entire season on it the way we all expected them to, we may not have ended up with quite as many other issues as we got in this season. This season forgot who its main character was and just sidelined him to focus on other weird shit that nobody gave a crap about because we weren't invested in it at all. We're invested in DIN, people watch this show for DIN, and no one writing this show seems to have given a single iota of a shit about him at all.

I really thought that Bo not wearing a helmet in s2, Dinn obtaining the darksaber, and Dinn getting kicked out of Deathwatch was the foundation for a great character arc where he realizes he grew up in a fundamentalist cult. All the seeds were there. The weird rituals, the fact that he can’t remove his helmet, him becoming a father, him becoming the de-facto leader of Mandalore, etc. But no, he actually wants to try and get back in. Deathwatch has always been a cult as long as they’ve been in Star Wars. They’re a primary villain in the Clone Wars and the remnants of them in Rebels are the exact same. There is no character development in him immediately trying to just get back in and try to go back to normal, and after finishing the season I think we all can say season 3 was a regression in his character development.

The more I watched season 3, the more it made me believe Favreau and team wanted it to end in season 2, but Disney forced a Boba Fett show plus more Mandalorian.

I used to think Mandalorian was the best current Star Wars had to offer. During season 3 I lost hope and gave Andor a go. Now I'm convinced Andor is the way to go.

I really liked Mandalorian season 1 & 2. It had that 80s feel of a hero going from town to town to put right what once went wrong. And they did a great job making things actually feel terrifying, like that AT-ST walker...that episode showed how scary Empire tech could be. But then came season 3 episode 2... They changed the main hero to Bo-Katan by humiliating its lead...good thing she was there to save him or he would have been some random monster's food. What a disappointment and it completely killed my interest in the season. Haven't seen an episode since.

For some reason, I was convinced that the show just ended after season 2. I didn't follow the news too much and was actually surprised that there is a season 3, it just felt so wrapped up

Personally as someone who isn't devoted to watching all of the Star Wars media I was ABSOLUTELY LOST at the beginning of s3 having not watched Boba Fett. Like, the end of s2 of Mandalorian is grave and emotional as we see Mando and Grogu part ways, and then on s3 on episode 1 they're back together with NO EXPLANATION. I started watching and had to pause to make sure i hadn't missed any extra episodes on the show only to realize that they did a WHOLE PART OF THE SHOW in a DIFFERENT SHOW.

I still cant believe disney had the audacity to shove mando and grogu's reunion, a crucial plotpoint for the mandalorian, into the book of boba fett, and didn’t even bother explaining why mando and grogu are back together despite separating in season 2.

The seconf half of Book of Boba Fett, especially for the sole fact of Grogu returning to Mando quickly, broke my expectations for a decent future for Star Wars.

My biggest issue with this season it’s : Din going backward. We follow him and Grogu for two season, they create a strong bond and even ending father and son. Din was, before finding the Child, a « lonely » bounty hunter that found a sort of family in the Mandalorian way of life. As it is said in the video, Greef may have told him to get « real friend » or at least, settle down to have a real life. That is the result of Karga seeing Mando evolution since he found Grogu (imo). SO WHY, Din wants to go back to his old roots ? He is not alone anymore, it would’ve been so interesting to see him struggling between « The Way » and a new start because he removed his helmet. Im not even saying that we had to get the answer of his struggles in season 3 but leaving some questions for the 4th. Him going back to the Way destroyed a lot of his growth. Being the official Grogu’s father is not enough. Him settling down should’ve been the last episode of the series, showing a great parallel between the 1st episode and the last. Another big issue : The season lacks of Din. It was more a Bo Katan show than a Mando show YES ! And finally : yes I did not care about any single episode in the season, it’s crazy bc Im a big SW fan and I loved the 1st two seasons, the atmosphere, the characters were so cool… and now they’re pretty blank and all interconnected bc Disney like this « MCU sh*t » way to much and it sucks. I hope I wrote something understandable.

For me the show feels more like "Look, it looks like Star Wars, right?" "Look, we used puppets instead of CGI just like the hardcore fans wanted" rather than focusing on creating a good story.

I swear Disney cant stop making bad decisions. From cancelling one of their most popular shows, to milking live action remakes to death, to having such a small variety of shows on their service that really targets adults (ofc anyone can enjoy stuff like Owl House and Amphibia). I just wish the execs were capable of learning from their failures tbh

I feel like if grogu was taken out of the equation, this whole series would have maken so much more sense. In the beginning, mando tries to reunite with his clan to fill the gap left by grogu. Then, due to mando having nothing really to lose (without grogu, the mandalorian had noone to look after), there would have been a much greater conflict between him and Bo-Katan, which would have eventually resulted in him and kryze in a war to determine the ruler of mandalore, only to then be united against the threat of moff gideon, and eventually decide to rule the planet as equals. It would have made a much more compelling story, but I have a feeling disney execs demanding that grogu be put back into the show kind of derailed it.

Looking back, all I remember about season 3 was poorly-directed extras in Mandalorian-suits mulling around beaches and other random places. I never met them, I never engaged with them, I never felt anything for them, I never learned anything about them, they had no personality. It was like watching the Borg Collective. It was truly weird. How could they miss by that much? I re-watched Rebels last month and it was startling how much that show made me care for the characters within seconds.

The biggest problem with how Bo-Katan is handled is the lack of acknowledgement of her past or the fact her sister was the former ruler. Course Disney would rather not ruin their girl-boss than reference the fact the leader of the Mandalorian group that wants to retake Mandalore, was also the second in command of the terrorist group that destroyed Mandalore and caused the death of it's former ruler.

Honestly, you sent off my writer's block. I didn't have the motivation to write anything, then I started to watch you and now I'm writing my first book! Thank you so much.

The thing with Bo Katan wanting to take back Mandalore is Disney's huge pitfall: appealing to the nerds. All her motivation for that was established in the Clone Wars cartoon, something a fraction of the general audience has seen, but Disney just assumes everyone watching Mando has seen it and builds off a completely separate foundation.

11:33 thats sometimes the problem with Star Wars where you have to watch everything to make connections. She wants the Darksaber but she wants to win it, in Rebels she was given it and miserably failed at taking back Mandalore and thus everyone abandoned her so she lacks purpose and wants one to redeem herself and two find a purpose again.

What made the season weak for me was everything being regressed back to the show’s original roots and even before the mandalorian show begins in the timeline. -Din learns to let go of his helmet rule to save grogu’s life only to have it on again. -Grogu returns to Din in a separate show. -Bo Katan receives the Darksaber again after that tease that she and Din would either fight for it or Din could possibly lead. The season just feels like it was made to return everything to what made the show originally popular so that Disney can sell merchandise. There’s supposed to be a season 4 but idk I feel like the show can end here cause Din and grogu are reunited, Bo is leader and mandalore is reclaimed. I just don’t see how a season 4 can progress the story outside of cute baby yoda moments and fighting Imperials. To conclude the season just feels like it was afraid to take risks and instead return things to what they were over telling new and bold stories with these characters.

My biggest complaint got to be Grogu. Season 2s finale being reverted in itself, although explained and done in another show, and Grogu being a literal 1 year old this season. He is only here to sell more toys, the mystery from the first episode in season 1 is gone.

I feel like Din’s reason for wanting to return to his covert, while it could definitely use some elaborating on in the season, is still relatively self-explanatory in the context of his character. Mandalorians pride themselves on familial bonds and their loyalty to their kin above almost everything else, and the covert is basically all he’s ever known since he was rescued by them as a small child. It would be like kicking out a dog you rescued as a puppy and expecting it not to return; hell, the entire reason he _became_ a bounty hunter was to provide for them. We already saw how devastated he was when he came back to Nevarro to see nearly the entire covert slaughtered. Can you imagine how much worse it felt when in one of the covert’s darkest times, they purposefully shunned him and expelled him from their already near-crippled circle? Not only was it a discouragement to him being able to help protect them and therefore a reason for him to feel distress on their behalf, but it was also barring him off from pretty much the only family he’d ever had and effectively telling him he was all alone now. Without Grogu, he has no companionship, but he can get over it because he knows he has to pull through to support his covert. Without his covert, though, he has quite literally nothing. What purpose does he have to keep working if he has nothing to work for but himself? He views himself as somewhat expendable if it’s for the sake of keeping those important to him safe (as do many Mandalorians, it seems) and keeps his connection to them discrete for the most part, which is reasonable. He’s a pretty high-value target to many people in the galaxy, and the lower the chances of people going after his covert should they ever decide to try and terminate him, the better-but he is still a Mandalorian, and his connection to the rest of his kind is an almost inextricable part of his identity. Them and Grogu are pretty much the only existing priorities to him at any given moment, and at the time he is banished from the covert, Grogu is not there. So it makes sense that he would be pretty desperate to recover one of the only things he lives for, especially when at that point in time, it was all he had left.

Another point to mention is that when Mando started, The Bad Batch was still running and arguably started releasing better episodes in its later part of the season than Mandos early episodes.

That lizzo episode just... It took the wind out of my already hole filled sails. It wasnt just her acting, which was bad in of itself. There was a weird focus on treating grogu like a purse dog

When I was watching the finale, the whole time I was screaming “why should I care? You haven’t made me care about anything that’s happening!”

I think Vizla and his kid could've been depicted less caring. Maybe show him training his son, but in a more distant mentorial way without revealing the nature of their relationship. He seems like he's harsh on the kid, but when the dragon thingy shows up, he's vocally angry/worried for his pupil. During the hunt, Vizla gets more and more reckless, until we get the scene at the nest where he's told to stand down and would retort he can't because it's his son that's in danger. Vizla doesn't come off as the openly warm type of parent, so I feel this rundown would allow us to keep him in character while still showing he does care. Added to that, we might get hooked with the question of why Vizla's so disproportionately invested in the kid's safety when he's normally so stand-offish.

We went from literally eberybody being obsessed with the show to nobody caring and wonderimg if the first two seasoms were as good as we remember

Season 3 felt like Bo Katan doing a bunch of side quests while Mando stands in the background waiting for the main plot to get going.

I was really starting to get back into Star Wars after hearing about the ending of Season 2. Basically binged the entire Mandalorian in two days and was hooked. When Grogu followed Luke at the end of Season 2 I was deeply moved. Then the Book of Boba Fett happened and I was confused, why bring him back so fast when they could've put an emotional tension with Din missing him during Season 3? Then I started watching Season 3, I watched about 4 episodes and when I realised it wasn't going anywhere, that's when I knew this season wasn't going to have the same great story I had binged last year. It really sucks being a Star Wars fan right now :\

I was one of those that dropped off before episode 5. Glad to hear that others understand.

For me the show kinda went down from the moment Luke basically gave Grogu an ultimatum. It just feels strange to know that Luke is to rebuild a jedi order without repeating the mistakes of the old masters and then instantly doing it again, and again in every new movie or show...

If all Star Wars had Andors attention to detail, dialogue, and cinematography it would be top tier. Imagine an Old republic series done with that level of perfection, or even the Mandalorian lore itself. Everything in the new Mandalorian season is just so watered down.

Religious redemption is a very cool and underused character motivation that's relatable to allot of people. His rebaptism could have been a powerful moment. It would have meant more to the audience if the show showed us what his faith had done for him, how it helped him become a true warrior, gave him a true purpose for living, helped him find family, or helped him find inner peace despite living in a galaxy of external conflict. We know that redemption is important for Din but we're told that and not shown that. Missed opportunity to fill out dins character and explore the Mando lore and lifestyle.

There was a movie called "Wolf Creek" that's been released 15 years ago or so. It's an horror movie, so you basically know the codes. But this one was different. The majority of the film is a road trip in Australia where you get to know and appreciate the characters. Then when the psycho comes in and torture those teenagers, you feel very bad for them. Consider characters as normal poeple you get to know. If someone says to me that a dude in my town that I don't know has been hit by a car, I wouldn't be sad. If I just had known this person a little bit, just talking to him sometimes, then, the same person tells me he's dead, I would be more affected. And this feeling will increase the more I appreciate the guy. Show to poeple moments of life that we can relate to. In a cinema you're like a friend they can't see, in another dimension, behind the screen, but you are there and you live those experiences with them as well. That's important for identification and emotional implication. Now that you love them and you care for them, when bad things happen to them, you are concernend and scared.

Problem with the 3rd season was that it made us realize the story should have already ended and Disney was just dragging it out.

0:46 Don’t forget, he tried to give the Dark Saber to Bo before, and she REFUSED because she wanted to earn it honorably through combat. Bo felt that because she had accepted the Dark Saber when presented with it the last time, it made her a dishonorable leader who practically deserved to lose it. If she was going to wield the Dark Saber again-and she fully intended to-it was going to be done the right way this time. However, she didn’t want to duel Din for the Dark Saber in that moment. But she reluctantly would, eventually-at least that’s what was STRONGLY foreshadowed. If she was just gonna take it as a present, why tf didn’t she take it from Din when he offered before? Like wtf?!

I just hope what happened with The Mandalorian doesn’t happen to Andor. Every episode of Andor was so consistently good. I have faith though, bc I don’t think Disney has realised how successful it actually is among the fans

I’m so mad Grogu didn’t stay with Luke. But Disney just couldn’t, because it would be too much lost merchandise.

So, I finally decided to watch S3 a few days ago and while, yes, it does have structural problems, on the whole I was pretty happy with it. Season 2 was all about Din learning that being Mandalorian means more than just following some arbitrary rules, season 3 is about sharing that perspective with the rest of their society. Din was never going to keep the Darksaber; he didn't want it, or the responsibilty that came with it. He tried to hand it to Bo-Katan immediately after he got it; there was no conflict there. Yes, the season was uneven, just like most TV series, but it had some truly excellent episodes. The ending fell a bit flat for me, but mostly I fully enjoyed it.

The mandalorian is being very safe First season it was very much not safe, they had a lot of mystery and it was brilliant, we did not know of anyone would survive and now we know mando and baby yoda will survive with no issues

I think the problem with Bo Katan is that Filoni and the writers KNOW damn well what her motivations should be. She has a very well laid out storyline in Clone Wars that is subtle but builds up into something major, and then she ends up as a very important plot point in Rebels. There’s a lot of lore set out there between those two stories as well, and there’s even some good buildup to where she is now in mandalorian season 2. But - they never TELL THE AUDIENCE in season 3. She should be an emotional wreck, trying desperately to hang on to her mental stability in lieu of her numerous failures in the past. She feels responsible for the death of her sister, mentor, and all of Mandalore now. Her loyalists abandoned her, and now she has NOTHING. She and Din have that in common now, and part of her desperately wants to connect with him to feel less alone in her isolation, but there’s the angle of him being partially to blame for her losing her followers to begin with. I’m a fucking amateur writer and I can piece this together easily. What the hell was Disney even thinking with this script?

Imagine that they built up the retaking of mandalore, only for Din to get a message Grogu was in danger with Luke, and he abandons Boka Tan to go save Grogu. Youd have a hugely compelling reason for them to clash, fan service, and some of that tie in to the sequel trilogy Disney loves. Instead, we have Lizzo and Jack Black OC cosplay

I Can see why Favreau was PISSED. KK forced him to write this crap and it completely ruined his entire plans for Boba and Mando

I think one of the biggest sins shows keep consistently committing is not having an overarching goal from day one. None of the arcs seem connected because its never explored how much the Mandalorian want to regain Mandalore until the last season. They did this well with Mandos quest to find a jedi, but evidently wanted to keep things going, but had no reason to do so

This is exactly what I thought! When I was watching The Mandalorian season 3, I felt nothing, when it was over, I felt nothing. Disney throws millions of dollars into their shows, but they don't make sure the most crucial part is good, the writing. What a disappointing way for The Mandalorian to end. I don't know if the show can get back on it's feet from this.

I always got the impression Din doesn't care much for his covert. He provides for them, but we have never seen him interacting with them much except for Paz who wants to fight or the Armour. It takes til season 3 and Bo katan to spend time with them and we don't see any fleshing out of the characters of the covert. Battlestar shows humans as refugees on the run without a planet. You did an excellent job fleshing out why this season didn't work. I liked Bo katan and Din's romance. I was fine with Grogu being back, but the season was like a fanfiction that hadn't been proofread at any point. There is so much work that goes into these shows, how did they forget to write a storyline that makes sense?

The worst part about watching power rang- I mean The Mandalorian is that you have to explain everything to people who haven’t seen the Clone Wars.

The biggest problem for me was Grogu himself. His story Arc was really complete (or so we thought) at least for the time being until he matured abit, he was then brought back into the story in another show but left with really nothing to do plot wise aside from be cute and do cute things for the merchandise! (which seems to be the real reason he was brought back) It was like the writers or at least the Execs at lusca/disney were worried Mando alone did not draw enough to the plot! Mando losing over and over and needing saving also took away alot of what we knew and expected of him and was just disappointing, and the training he ended up receiving on the dark sabre wasted. The dark sabre being destroyed the way it was ruins it's entire lore and build up over more than a decade of Clone wars and Star wars novels.. Had the stuff from the Boba Fett series been in this season it would have improved it right of the bat to start with, then everything else you suggested on top and the season could have worked. I personally wish he'd gone back to his route as a bounty hunter, Then each episode could have been it's own story, or a new bounty that was so tough and elusive/dangerous a cat & mouse game that could have lasted a whole season!

The same thing happened with the fourth season of Stranger Things. Many of the problems could have been solved by having a consistent through-line in the story.

2:50 The only thing we have is previous mentions of Din having his clan be the only family he had, but everyone except for the Grand Master died, so we need to know what is in his old clan's base that is not worth moving on from for Din. That is precisely what we needed, and they blew that. Wait a second, they didn't do that? They actually didn't do that? Color me the color of impressed.

They brought back Grogu because the show doesn’t test as well when he is gone. Also, there is the issue with him not being around in the last trilogy and killing of all of Luke’s padawans. That would’ve meant that the kid survived the last purge only to be purged some 50 plus years later.

One of my biggest issues with this season, is that nothing felt connected until episode 7. Sure, The Mandalorian has always kind of been a bunch of side quests, but at the very least, they were all connected to one another. They weren’t a bunch of mini-side stories, they were one large side story. With season 3, that simply isn’t the case. There’s a whole lot of side quests that just don’t add together, until episode 7 has SOME of them connect. I really hope season 4 makes up for the mediocrity we got in season 3, but on the other hand, why does there need to be a season 4? Din has officially claimed Grogu as his son, Moff Gideon and his clones are dead, and the Mandalorians are once again united, under the rule of Bo-Karan Kryze. There wasn’t any cliffhanger or hook to keep us wanting a season 4, just an extremely forced anticlimactic ending

Now that I've learned more about the writers strike, I think I understand more about why these mistakes happened. These streaming series only have the writers on for the preproduction. Meaning that the writers only have so much time to do any revisions. So a lot of mistakes don't get fixed.

for me the final nail in the coffin was that they had built up to the beginning of season 3 to be about Dins redemption into the way of the mandalore, made din a secondary character as compared to bo kotan, and built up the idea that din was going to become king and unite their people, by giving him the dark saber. But instead this turned into a side narrative to help delay bo kotans rise to power and force her into joining the children of the watch, which meant all of dins character build up between the first 2 seasons became meaningless. Essentially the focus of the show was always grogu and din, but instead they made it about everyone but them and ruined the hopes of many (the majority) that believed din was meant to become king.

Honestly, Paz had the potential for an amazing arc. Like even if they did want to hold off on telling the audience the stolen kid was his. It could have been folded into his rivalry with Din. Like the Kid isnt paying attention cause he was trying to show off for Paz, only to get taken. And Paz demards to join the rescue party despite having a injury. They would play it off as Mando interpretating it as Paz being a glory hog and paranoia (since an outsider like Katan is present). Then it could be spun on its head with Paz suddenly breaking cover to try and save his son.

The Mandalorian brought me back to loving Star Wars, so it'll always hold a special place in my heart but it hurts what they did to one of their best shows. Can only hope that season 4 can save it, but my expectations are low after the disaster that was season 3.

just listening to your brief narration of that movie, will smith's acting, and my own memory having watched it more than a decade ago, made me more emotional than every disney+ show made the last couple of years combined

Considering how we also had to wait way longer for this season compared to season two, it makes it sting extra with how much time they had to figure a good season out and yet failed I was really looking forward to season three, but unless season four can pick this series back up again, I don’t think there’ll be any other quality content to look forward to in Star Wars 😞

I think one of the greater failings of s3 was the droid episode. You have Mando who is still trying to get over his droid prejudice but has seen them become more than tools, Katan who still sees droids as tools but wants to earn the respect mandalorians deserve and the planet officers which may see the mandalorians as 'mercenaries' and trying everything to maintain their status quo by a means they assume is 'creulty free' Katan would push against mercenary angle, Din would push against the tools angle, they would push against each other over the best way to complete the job and the planet would push back against each ones beliefs but not enough to fully push them away from the job. All you need is a reason Din needs to complete this job and you have two sides working together. And the possibility of having Din constantly watching his back because he carries the 'OTHER' thing she needs. It really had the opportunities to be one of the better episodes in the series... But instead we get "it's ok because they're droids and are being mind controlled by a virus made by one bad apple".

Season 3 certainly became the Bo-Katan show.

"why does din wants to rejoin his clan?" FINALLY! THANK YOU FOR POINTING THAT OUT 😭😭 this season stresses me out cause i care so much about these characters but the show won't give me enough reasons to be invested in them

You really get the sense in modern film and tv that the writers and producers are terrified of boring audiences with plot or making them have to think for themselves, so they are constantly bombarding them with action scenes and exposition to hold their hand through the whole story.

THANK GOD for Bad Batch and Ahsoka coming in Clutch

I honestly loved the din djarin training with the dark saber and it felt like they’ve added investment into shit only to throw it away immediately

Mandalorian season 3 gave you all the satisfying endings for the characters in it, without the actual struggle of journey it took them to get there.

I think one thing is, I think a lot of people, at least me, hoped he would've chosen to leave the watch, and essentially do his own thing. I probably hoped for this because it'd cement the image of essentially a space western, as the first season was so much of. Plus it'd continue that point in season 2 about, basically the watch being a cult and traditionalist, perhaps seeing him decide to do his own thing.

Man, I was laying down and relaxing while listening to this. You mentioned Carl Weathers and my ears perked up. I had a pretty good stew going earlier tonight....

S3 really felt like they went forward in time to have the show written during the writers' strike. Oh well, at least we can already get used to chaotic, unstructured seasons for what's to come 🤣

THANK YOU for using Mass Effect as an example!!!!! They did such an amazing job making you care about the characters and what made them special!!!!

I enjoyed every single episode of Mandalorian.

That's a good explanation. I've only seen the first season. I didn't necessarily think it was bad, but for the most part it was pretty trivial.

Why can`t they just give us a show about the actual main character, the fking Mandalorian, that can`t possibly be too much to ask for.

I think with star wars and any other large franchise you often see the more traction something gets with fans the more likely it is to slip. My best guess is it always comes back to someone corporate/business minded who has the power to interject choosing to do so in fear of losing the traction the creatives worked so hard to cultivate. I think this also explains pretty well why a huge budget show can suddenly seem like a high school fanfic, because the only writing the corporate/business minded person has done was back in highschool for their 3rd period writing class.

This summed up exactly why i havent gone back to finish the last few episodes of season 3 😂 now with ahsoka out ive been kinda dreading going back to finish Mando because it feels like a slog. But i also dont wanna miss anything important. I should finish it still, right?

There are a lot of plot/character motivations in modern Star Wars that are extremely vague and are usually answered with something like: “oh you’d have to watch the clone wars/rebels to understand” And while I love those shows and references made to them in Star Wars, it doesn’t change the fact that most of the audience isn’t going to understand. I experienced this first hand watching Mando season 3. My dad hasn’t watched the animated shows and therefore didn’t understand the main things the show wanted you to understand. I had to explain to him the dozen or so episodes that make up the mandalore and dark saber arcs for him to slightly grasp the concept. You can have connected universes in writing, it worked well with the MCU, but with Marvel, there was a clear understanding of what to watch Ava even then, they tried to explain crossover things in each movie. With SW on the other hand, Clone Wars/Rebels came out pretty much a decade ago and many older fans didn’t watch them as they assumed it was a kids show with not much to offer. Then Mando season 3 came out and expected everyone to have already watched 2 shows that came out before the modern era of SW. This is the equivalent of of the MCU decided to have the infinity war plot revolve heavily on the X-Men. Sure people have seen it, but it wasn’t set to be part of the MCU and fans who didn’t see those movies would be lost. The main thing I’m getting at is that Mando season 3 was jarring change of pace. Season 1&2 were largely self contained and focused on Mando trying to protect Baby Yoda and get him a home. When there are fetch quests, he has a clear goal in mind of what he wants out of it. Then (not even in season 3 mind you, but in a different show) the entire show is undone by Baby Yoda going back to Mando. In season 3 there’s not a clear plot of what it’s about anymore & on top of that, it relies HEAVILY on the audience knowing deepcuts from other spin-offs. Pretty much all but the last episodes are just him going on random fetch quests and him not having any wants for himself. Anyhoo, there’s my unorganized rant about Mando season 3

I loved the first two seasons. I was really looking forward to seeing the third season. But as the series progressed, I realized the excitement that I had during the previous two seasons just wasn’t there. I wasn’t staying up late to watch a new episode drop. I wasn’t looking for places online to discuss the most recent episode. And I wasn’t even remembering when a new episode was out. Midway through the season, I was trying to figure out why I just wasn’t as invested in this season. Like many have pointed out, the show felt aimless and lacked any tension or driving motivation to the season. Mando himself didn’t have a whole lot to do and his motivations were unclear and didn’t seem to track from what we already knew. A lot of character and plot development that was built towards was suddenly being undone and set back to a previous state. While there were good moments, a lot of it lacked cohesion or necessary connective plot to tie those fun moments together making them worth it. By the finale, I realized that this season really was a disappointment. I don’t WANT to hate the show. I don’t WANT to criticize. I don’t WANT the show to fail. But here I am feeling baffled and frustrated that they could mess up something that they literally had people loving and supporting. This season was SUB-PAR at best. There was some good ideas, but it failed to create narrative tension. Failed to establish clear motivations. Undid plot and character developments that had taken two seasons to build toward without actually providing clear in story reasons for it. The dark saber was important until it wasn’t. Mando removing his helmet was a significant character step until it wasn’t. Bo Katan and the Armourer having different ideologies was a conflict until it wasn’t. Mando wanted to rejoin his covert until he wanted to settle down on Navarro with Grogu. I just….sigh. I don’t necessarily hate any one of these ideas in and of themselves. What I hate is that they lacked proper development. Proper execution. And when not one but multiple plot points start being undone, it makes the audience feel a little cheated like they can’t trust anything that the show tells you because it can be undone on whim. They just too for granted that the audience would just go along with it. I hate how much behind the scenes crap ruins good storytelling.

I honestly liked 1 episode in this season, and it is the one with the pirates. Why do I like? Well, Din has a reason to what he's doing. I enjoyed the episode, because of course he would help Greef Karga. They're friends. There's a bond there. I didn't clock it before I watched this, but I did feel strangely disconnected during the whole season.

a problem I have with modern disney star wars shows is that every show is trying to be the Mandalorian, a dark, western-esqu, more adult and violent. besides Mandalorian seasons 1-2 my favorite recent shows are the Bad Batch, and Tales of the Jedi, two animated shows that do get a little darker in comparison to something like rebels, but they embody what star wars has been from the start, a sci fi fantasy hybrid action drama soap opera. modern disney shows that copy the mandalorian are sci fi that doesn't feel like star wars, fantasy explained away by exposition, boring action, dumb drama, and is a bland morally gray sitcom.

The show just feels like mando doing the bad side quests to get some lvl ups

The writers understood one half of “show don't tell“ The second half

What really did it for me was watching Andor, If the Mandalorian season 3 released before Andor did I wouldn’t mind the 3rd season. Now I’m I won’t be satisfied with any Star Wars media being mediocre anymore. Andor set the bar too high for me, it’s hard for me to enjoy anything Star Wars unless it’s just as good as Andor. It’s not like I’m against anything if it’s not exactly like Andor, it’s about the quality of the show itself. I loved Star Wars Visions though.

I think mando series 3 helped people realise that the show never had a plot and it was just episodic shenanigans.

The writers at Disney need to use your skill share link

Just so you know, Overlord said his "sources" told him EP-9 was going to be about Rey time traveling to the past to become Shmi, that Filoni had spies that secretly planted props in that movie to be able to decanonize it later, and that Disney was never going to be able to reopen their them parks because the machines were permanently stuck.. Not worth paying attention to him.

"They've given up hope that Star Wars could ever be good under Disney" And that's where Andor comes in

Worst part about Bo katan in the "mandalorian" and the thing about the dark saber is that the writers dont know why she wants it. She does not want a cool light saber that goes woosh woosh, the dark saber is the symbolic relic of the Mandalorian culture that their leader has, and it signal that you beat the priveus leader in single combat, because that is how you obtain it in mandalorian culture, its a significant relic in their culture and it is much much more then a cool light saber that goes woosh woosh. Its like if Harry wanted the English crown, like the real crown, made of gold, then Charles just gives it to him, we all know that it wasnt a pile of gold and jewels he wanted, but an ailien who dont know out culture would think so.

For me, this show was over in S2 when Bo Katan stepped in. Filoni needs understand that putting the same 3 characters into everything he works on is a bad idea and makes the galaxy feel small. And you could feel the Disney influence. It was not about telling a story anymore, it was about selling toys and shoving as many political statements in there as possible. Because of the terrible content Disney had been putting out, a mid S1 and a bad S2 seemed much better than they actually were because you had at least a few enjoyable moments and so people began seeing this show as something it wasnt.

I appreciate the effort you put into your video essays so much! Your proposals for improvement seem so subtle and yet make such big difference in how I feel about a scene, when you simultaneously play clips from the show in the background. They instantly carried so much more depth! (As you've said in the Avatar The Way of Water essay: I, not a writer, couldn't pin point what exactly was bothering me so much about season 3 other than it feels like lazy writing, it's dragging on etc. You're helping me to open my eyes more to these types of things ^^ )

Having Doomcock as a source is so ironically funny.

My guess is that Kathleen Kennedy was horrified by the fact that the show was still watchable by the end of season 2 so she stepped in to fuck everything up

Grogu is the weirdest character of Star Wars right now. The rapid shifts in his cognitive abilities/age feels extremely unnatural. In one scene, he's interested in listening to a long dialogue of the history of the Mandalorians that he seemingly understands, and in the next one he's a glutton with a toddler's attention spam who can't even grasp the concept of paying for food in the market instead of just taking it. I'm almost 100% sure Jon Favreau had a plan with Grogu to become more characterized and intelligent as the show goes on but Disney was afraid they'll lose views if they make their cute little plushie merch into a serious character so as a result Grogu ended up in this weird inbetween state when his intelligence literally switches between shots.

Honestly, the save the kid plotline could have very easily been combined with the proving ones worth plotline by instead of having to search some weird fountain, Mando instead helps rescuing the son and prove his worth to his clan that way.

I think the show started losing its spark for me when he got back to the clan. I don't really know why, but I just preferred it when he was moving away from it. He showed his face to someone, and he accepted that there were mandolorians who lived differently from him. Plus, I just preferred the, moving from place to place, never quite knowing who to trust, and always meeting new characters, plot that the first two seasons had.

I love how the say "let's take cover under here to avoid the dragon seeing us" then proceed to split up to eat without their helmets on.

Mandalorian writer me: "Okay, we finished season 2 with Mando handing over Grogu to Luke. Nice way to wrap up the series guys. It's been great working with all of you. Take care." Mandalorian writing team: "Wait. Let's do a season 3 where Grogu goes back to Mando undoing the whole point of the first two seasons. And then let's make the entire show about Bo-Katan now and Mando is just her sidekick. Oh, and we can have some dinosaurs that keep attacking the Mandalorians on the beach. And then we can have some side missions that go absolutely nowhere." Mandalorian writer me: ".................... What the *_actual_* fuck?????????????"