The Mandalorian The Mandalorian 2.08 - Chapter 16 (Season Finale!!) - Discussion Thread (Spoilers Allowed)

This simply isn’t true. There is a significant stylistic difference between, say, Famuyiwa’s episodes, and Rodriguez’s. Their visual stamp and actor direction matters. To me, it matters a lot.

 

Peyton Reed's last episode had great action and a lot of heart. I expect this one will be the same.

 

I don't know what to expect, really. I'm just along for the ride at this point. I had a lot of insanely boring work to do this week so I rewatched all of season 1 and 2 while I worked. I just love this show... I don't want the season to end.

 

Be cool if they dedicate this finale to Jeremy Bulloch. RIP. This Is The Way!

 

I don't want to make any predictions, but I'm ready. Hey, I'm still working (it's 11 pm soon) so I can watch it right in the morning.

No, I have a prediction. Tension will be high and after watching it I'll be a mess but have to fight through my workday somehow.

And do anything, unless one of my new kittens will be named Grogu. Grogu & Yoda, I'm sure that invites little sith lords right into my flat.

 

They wouldn't leave it on a downer in a year like this has been for the world, surely...surely...would they?

 

Darn, I was hoping the long shot that the secret last director of season 2 would be George Lucas himself. However I knew that was a longshot.

Does anyone know what the runtime of this episode is? *crosses fingers and hopes its over 1 hr*

 

Yeah, it's totally fine if it matters to you. You I assume are familiar enough with their work that you can tell the difference. I can't, I just see The Mandalorian.

With a show like this, yes, they may be putting their own touches on it, but it's within the framework of Jon Favreau's vision.

Taika Waititi's episode, for instance. It had a little bit of his silliness, but it was unmistakably an episode of The Mandalorian. It was not a Taika Waititi episode of The Mandalorian; or to do a Spike Lee, it's wasn't a "Taika Waititi joint." It was a touch of Taika Waititi within Jon Favreau's vision.

And it's like, who directed the second episode of the first season? I have no idea, I would have to look it up. And who directed the episode after the Ahsoka episode? I have no idea, I would have to look that up too. Whoever the directors were, it's all still feels the same. It's not like it's different like The Force Awakens is different from The Last Jedi. Or like A New Hope feels different from The Empire Strikes Back. Or how the prequel trilogy all feel the same, and the sequel trilogy feels totally different from the prequels.

In one instance the director is doing their own thing because it's a movie and they can do what they want. In the other instance the director is working within the framework of Jon Favreau's vision.

Movies have their own personal style (unless they're Marvel movies).

TV shows, episode by episode, don't, unless of course it's something like an anthology show where the director can do whatever they want with their episode.

 

Well, we don't always get what we want

This is only true to an extent. Sure, in a show it is more of a collaborative effort but the director's touch is very important too.

For me storytelling >>>> direction
I am not impressed by fancy visuals as much as I am by strong emotional moments, deep and impactful dialogue and thrilling scenes. That's why I loved all of Filoni's episodes and Rodriguez' episode too. And that's why I wasn't impressed by "The Prisoner" or "The Marshall" as much as other people. But different strokes for different folks.

Having said that, I wish I didn't know who's directing the last episode prior to watching and I wonder why people look for these things beforehand. It has been great to not know from before for me. It removes bias completely. But I also loved Peyton Reed's previous episode so I am not worried.

I DO wish we get a George Lucas episode in the future. It would be glorious and meaningful.

I remember a rumor saying that "The Jedi was the longest episode of the season and then the season finale would be either 2nd or 3rd in length (my memory fails me) along with the season premiere also being in top 3. But.... It was only a rumor. I hope we get at least 45 mins.

 

I'm still convinced we'll see a flashback to Grogu being rescued from the jedi temple by a hooded Jedi who be revealed as Obi-Wan Kenobi played by Ewan McGregor. He did admit to having been at Lucasfilm many months ago and trying on his old costume.
I live in hope.

 

The episode after the Ahsoka episode was directed by Robert Rodriguez. And that episode compared to the Ahsoka one is like night and day in terms of directing - shot composition, pacing, action, etc. Filoni is nothing like Rodriguez and it shows. You may not see the difference because maybe you're simply not a visually-oriented person. But to me, the differences are pretty huge. And it doesn't take knowing their past work either - the styles are simply noticeably distinct while watching, no matter if I know who directed or not. In short, just because it's all just "The Mandalorian" to you, it doesn't follow that it actually is...all just the same.

 

Prediction Time! (A bit late)

VIDEO: Which Jedi Will Return?


In the sixth episode of The Mandalorian season 2, Grogu was placed on the seeing stone in the ancient Jedi temple on Tython as Ahsoka instructed. He successfully called out through the Force, but Moff Gideon’s Dark Troopers descended and abducted him before a Force Sensitive mentor could arrive.

Given that Grogu successfully called out through the Force in the sixth season, I feel like it’s really likely a Force user arrives at the eleventh hour in the finale.

I want to run through some of the options for who that Jedi character might be. There were no direct hints in the episode itself, so this isn’t really a theory, so much as it is a guess based on the available options.

Let’s start with the most well-known Jedi still living in the post Return of the Jedi era, Luke Skywalker. We know that Luke eventually rebuilds a Jedi Academy which eventually collapses thanks to Ben Solo turned Kylo Ren. I do believe Luke and Ahsoka eventually need to cross paths, but I’m not sure that now is the right time for Luke to enter the story.


In last week’s Disney investor event, Kathleen Kennedy announced that the Mandalorian, Rangers of the New Republic, and Ahsoka will be building to a big event – and I believe that will likely be a crossover adaptation of Heir to the Empire. As such, I feel like we might need to wait longer for Luke’s return.

Don’t get me wrong, it would be really interesting if Luke shows up here – I’m really interested to see in new canon exactly what Luke is doing in the direct aftermath of the Original Trilogy. De-aging technology has become – so I imagine Mark Hamill could reprise his role here.

However, five years after Return of the Jedi, Luke probably isn’t yet ready to start his academy and thus wouldn’t seem to be a great choice for Grogu’s mentor.

A second option I have seen suggested is Cal Kestis from the game Jedi Fallen Order. I haven’t played the game, but I know it stars Cameron Monaghan as a Jedi survivor of Order 66. Assuming he survives the game, it’s entirely possible he’s still out in the Galaxy somewhere in the post-Empire era and as such is certainly a possibility. Cameron Monaghan who provided voice and motion capture for the character has appeared in several live action series like Gotham, so he certainly could make the jump to live action in Star Wars. Katee Sackhoff already set the precedent earlier this season.

I can’t see any downsides other than the fact that the character may not be familiar to non-gamers, but I’m not sure that’s a problem given the fact that we’re now seeing characters from the animated series which didn’t necessarily reach as broad of an audience as the films.

Option number three is Mace Windu – and yes, Mace is presumed dead in Revenge of the Sith, but Samuel L. Jackson has actively campaigned for his character’s survival – even to the man in charge, George Lucas.

I have always been a believer that an older, one-armed Mace Windu would eventually make his way back into Star Wars and perhaps now the time is right. There was a hint that someone helped Grogu escape from the Temple unharmed. Perhaps Mace rushed back to the Temple and extracted a valuable asset before Anakin arrived with the 501st to execute Order 66.

Samuel L. Jackson is presently 71 and Mace would be 81 in canon around the time The Mandalorian takes place, so the timeline would work out pretty well.

While I’m confident Mace will eventually make his return, I’m not sure this will be the right time. If he was able to return to the Temple to rescue Grogu, he would also have been able to warn the other Jedi in the Temple. I imagine if Mace survived, his wounds were pretty serious after his battle with Palpatine and thus he was out of commission as order 66 took place.

Option number four would be either an unknown brand new Jedi character or one more familiar to fans of the EU like Kyle Katarn or Quinlan Vos. I feel like an unknown character would fail to generate much buzz – particularly after this season brought back Ahsoka and Boba Fett. As such, as much as I acknowledge this as a possibility, I think it’s rather unlikely. Someone like Quinlan Vos or Kyle Katarn, famous in the EU could make sense. Dave Filoni has pulled characters like Thrawn and Rukh into canon – and recently dropped Dark Troopers into season 2 of The Mandalorian. That said Vos has limited screen time in canon and Kyle Katarn hasn’t made his way into new Disney canon.

The sixth and, in my opinion, most likely option is Ezra Bridger. Ahsoka demanded the location of Grand Admiral Thrawn from Morgan Eslbeth, likely in her search for Ezra. He would seem like the perfect fit to hear Grogu’s call. At the end of Rebels, Ezra’s training with Kanan was complete – and so perhaps it’s time he takes on an apprentice of his own. In the Rebels epilogue, Ahsoka and Sabine set out to search for Ezra, but perhaps with Grogu’s help, he will find them.

The last option, and one I hope doesn’t come to pass is that a Sith or Force user adept in the Dark Side of the Force answers Grogu’s call. Din Djarin is a good judge of character, but he isn’t Force sensitive – and thus would not necessarily be able to detect disguised malice. Even Yoda and the Jedi Council failed to detect Darth Sidious in close proximity. Grogu was left in a desperate situation and the seeds are perhaps planted for his struggle with the Dark Side of the Force.

If Mando and Grogu are parted, perhaps learning that the one who has taken him in is in fact a disciple of the Dark Side will provide the narrative imperative for Mando’s arc in season 3 – as he attempts to rescue Grogu from the mentor with whom he was entrusted at the end of the second season.

That said, I don’t really know what Dark Side users would be available. The exact role Palpatine plays in the creation of Snoke is presently unclear. George Lucas indicated that Maul would have become the Godfather of crime in the post-Empire Galaxy in his version of the sequel trilogy, but in canon, Maul died before A New Hope in the Rebels episode ‘Twin Suns’. I’m not sure that there are any other notable Dark Side users left alive to come take Grogu from Mando.

So as I said, my money here is on Ezra Bridger, but I’m sure there are other options I neglected to mention here.

 

Luke doesn't have to show up to be Grogu's mentor. He could just show up because he sensed Grogu was in danger, and then tell Din that Grogu chose to stay with him. We know Grogu reached out through the force. But we don't know that he chose to be mentored by a Jedi. I suspect he did not make that choice, and has decided to stay with Din.

 

You might be on to something, hehe:

 

For not the first time, I will say that I love Ant-Man, so...

The Jedi who turns up will be.... Thrawn. In the past decade or so he has been trapped with Ezra and the Space Whales, and naturally his enquiring mind has lead him to embrace the Light.

There you go. My random pick.

 

Last year's finale was more of a part two to the previous episode, so I hope this episode will be epic from start to finish.

 

It's just so awesome to be anticipating Star Wars Content again with so much internal excitement.This second season has elevated SW to such a degree. Not to insult anyone would loves the Sequel trilogy (They have every right too), but damn, with The Mandalorian, it just makes those movie so embarrassing to watch. Like I've said, fun movies, but (to me) those films did nothing to propel SW to another level. Again, just my opinion!

 

I see that the second episode was directed by Rick Famuyiwa. If someone had given me 10 guesses I would have never guessed that. It was an episode of The Mandalorian. What touch did Rick Famuyiwa bring to that episode? Search me.

And the Dave Filoni Ahsoka episode was different than the Robert Rodriguez episode because one was a heavy action episode, and the other was a more quiet episode, that's clear to anyone. And obviously the differences were for story reasons. And I don't believe there's any question that that was the most personal episode of the series thus far. Because it was Dave Filoni directing Ashoka. And Jon Favreau obviously gave him that freedom because of this. Dave Filoni's other two episodes, the first episode of the series and the fifth episode of the first season, they felt like regular The Mandalorian episodes. I didn't see any signature Dave Filoni touches anywhere in those; does he even have any signature live-action touches yet, or did he then.

Anyway, again, Robert Rodriguez's episode was an action episode. Taika Waititi's episode was an action episode. Jon Favreau's episode was an action episode. They were heavy action episodes of The Mandalorian. I didn't know Robert Rodriguez had a style until I read other people saying that it was a very "Robert Rodriguez style" episode. It's like, okay, if you say so.

So yeah, if you're familiar with these people, then you may notice these signature touches. However overt or subtle they may be. On the whole though, it's Jon Favreau's story, his vision, and all of the director's are working within it. That's how television works.

And to get back on topic: Peyton Reed has a style, I assume. I have no clue what it is, but I assume he has one. Whatever it is though, Jon Favreau's story takes precedence over whatever his style may be. I don't believe that's even a question, is it?

EDIT:

Yes. Correct.

That's how television works.

 

It'll be Rowan Freemaker. I have spoken!

 

Yeah, that's a good point!

 

You watch this at about the same time I do right Chiznuk - are you on the east coast? Drops for me around 11pm tonight, Thursday. You and I are usually online when it drops.

 

Translation: I am incapable of discerning visual and stylistic differences in film and TV, and therefore, there aren't any? Look, if you're engineer, don't be an art critic. The Dunning-Kruger schtick isn't a good look.

 

Boy am I glad we haven't received any spoilers. That leaked track listing (supposedly) aside, there hasn't been much at all really. I doubt even the run time is correct.

We can presume a certain course of action but all the juicy details are hidden.

Bed time here. See you on the flip side!