The Mandalorian The Mandalorian 3.08 - Chapter 24 (SEASON FINALE!!!!) - Discussion Thread (Spoilers Allowed)

I’m also glad they didn’t set things up this season to be Bo Katan vs Din like so many imagined. I don’t think I would have enjoyed that more than Bo’s redemption. Similar to @Pro Scoundrel , I also was an early fan of the Armorer and was happy she didn’t take a heel turn.

 

It was a decent, somewhat non eventful ending that I think I could pick holes in for hours but that pretty much sums up the whole season:

- Another waste of Esposito as an actor. If this is the extent of villain they were ever going to make him then I truly hope he’s dead
- Why would Gideon work so so hard to build his base on Mandalore, clone himself, be incredibly proud of those clones, to then leave them unattended with somebody who is coming to try and kill him ?
- How did Grogu leave Bo Katan and get to Din ?
- Weak ending for Gideon
- While I’m actually glad the Dark Sabre has been destroyed, that again was a non eventful climax to a symbol that’s been built up massively throughout the season
- Between Grogu almost being like an added extra throughout the season and the seemingly shoehorning of the Rangers of the New Republic series it all just feels a bit of a mish mash
- The last 10 minutes, while interesting, were too rushed hopping round from one place to another
- Did I miss something or where did Din get the rest of IG-11s body from after he found the head ?
- Gideon/ Emperor Zurg death felt rushed and weak
- The Grogu adoption felt very anti-climactic as we’ve already been viewing them as father and son for a while now haven’t we ?
- No real context as to how they are going to prevent Mandalorian infighting in the future. Just more *FOR MANDAALOORREE* everything’s fine the dark saber has been destroyed but *FOR MANDAALOORREE*
- Why Din Grogu and not Grogu Djarin ?

I’m sure there’s more but that will come to me.

On the flip side though I will say:
- Fight scenes were pretty cool
- Grogu actually did something in this one and I thoroughly enjoyed him and Din doing something
- Glad the dark saber has gone as maybe we’ll get some future explanation that these old Mandalorian symbols were holding them back somewhat
- Interested in Din’s arrangement with the NR
- The Armourer is cool as **** but I want more back story still
- Interesting that Gideon was in fact working on his own project building his own clones of himself. Glad we got that tied up but as with everything Gideon, it was a bit rushed

My main takeaway is that, while I’ve found it a weak season, I’m still hopeful for S4. The ending seems to setup that we’re going back to Din and Grogu being the main focus and that interests me. I’d like the Mandalore plot to continue and keep those characters involved, but more on the two Din’s development as Mandalorians would be greatly appreciated

As with Kenobi and Boba Fett, I’m sure I’ll watch it back and find it perfectly plausible and still an enjoyable addition to the Star Wars story. It’s just not quite been what it was capable of imo

Last edit I promise - I genuinely think the biggest moment of anticipation and worry for me as a viewer was wondering if R5 was going to be able to escape when the droids spotted him.. I think that says a lot!

 

I gave it a very generous 8. Would have been higher had the season given this finale some more weight. Overall too much happened far too quickly this season, and yet it also feels like...not enough happened far too slowly.

Season Rankings:
S2 (9.0)
S1 (8.0)
S3 (6.0)

 

I gave it a 7/10. The episode was all right; just nothing in particular had jumped out at me as this being a significant re-watch like the Season 2 finale was. Everything seemed to have been resolved by the ending, and I guess Din (and his now son) are back to square one being bounty hunters once again.

But it's not to say that this episode wasn't loaded with action. Following up on last week's episode, Din escapes with Grogu's help. I guess the little guys is handy after all. Din wants to go after Gideon, and Gideon goes after Din. As Din is moving between the security gates and talking to R5, the little mouse droids sound off a security alarm. So they actually do have a purpose on ships and facilities rather than just being pests. We learn that Gideon was trying to clone himself, combining some DNA technology from Force users (like Grogu?) So that really had little to do with the Palpatine-resurrection story of the ST since everything's been destroyed. We see Grogu using the Force more; it still seems silly to me watching the little puppet raising his arms, moving large objects like nothing. It's not like Yoda in ESB. And now there's no more Dark Saber. Guess it was fun while it lasted. So by episode's end, I was satisfied with the action and resolution to the storylines (above all, I'm glad Bo lives to fight another day), but nothing really screamed that there's something special to look forward to with Season 4. If Din is only going back to bounty hunting, that sounds like there could be more "filler" type, one-off episodes that really have no ties to the grand storyline. I'm assuming there's more to it than that, but I'll let season 4's teaser trailer speak for itself when it's released.

 

This is a very big problem for me. Back in S2 I was hoping by the time the show got to the "Retaking Mandalore" battle, we'd have a larger budget and a meatier story leading up to it (which likely would've taken at least one more season and I was hoping for that), so when the battle came, it would be a massive earth-shattering TV event like the Battle of the Bastards in Game of Thrones. Obviously I once again put far too much faith in Lucasfilm, but I assure you that will never happen again.

And it's sad, because it makes live-action SW feel like a net negative due to budget/production limitations, whereas in animation we've had some of the biggest battles in TV history. Like, this was legitimately pathetic compared to the Geonosis arc or the S7 Seige of Mandalore that just came out a few years ago. Hundreds of clones vs hundreds of Mandos in an actual planetary-scale invasion, and this is supposed to compare to that?

 

That exact scene came to mind for me, too. I was already quite fond of that episode, and I suspect it'll be even more poignant now.

Will have to rewatch to get a clearer picture of some things, but I'm thinking Grogu just used another access point. The way Bo and the others were exiting looked like a different tunnel, granted it's hard to gauge. And I just like the idea that Gideon wasn't able to entirely secure his position, in line with his hubris and the "life finds a way" scene.

I think it's fairly poetic -- the cruiser that used to be his literally crashing down on him, and it's a crash he wouldn't survive, recalling that of Chapter 8. It also means Bo pulling back from the solo revenge mode she also (initially) fell into after the castle bombing.

 

So, watched it again without expectations.

Ended up focusing on the action, which was genuinely great (both the John Wick stuff and the aerial insanity, which somehow felt grounded), and the total adorableness of the Grogu-Mando material (which was particularly adorable), and I enjoyed it a lot more (surprise, surprise). I liked that there was no ridiculous twist with either the Armorer, Woves or the Mando survivors being Imperial collaborators. The reignition of the Great Forge was suitably epic. And I like the choice to simply leave the mythosaur deep down in the waters below. Gideon's still the weakest part of it, but I just went ahead and embraced the camp, and that made it easier to swallow (though this reinforced my dislike of cloning stories). And I enjoy the ending quite a bit. Din went from just a reg'lar old bounty hunter (S1) to someone committed to getting his charge back home S2) to someone committed to fulfilling a national destiny (S3) which, it seems, someone committed to a higher galactic cause (presumably, his S4 missions to hunt down Imperial remnants). That's actually progression. And one I like. Redeems some of the previous episodes where it seemed the New Republic was being portrayed as kinda awful. Din serving is a good choice.

So, yeah. 8/10. This season could've been a lot better, if it focused on the retaking Mando plot and fleshed that out. But still, it was good, clean fun. And Grogu and Din just can't fail to give me the warm and fuzzies. Even if there's a good amount of dumb stuff happening around them. I just love those two. Watching Grogu do adorable things with his dad just makes me want to hug my dog.

It's not square one. In the first season, Din hunted bounties purely for money. Selfish and immoral. Now he'll only be hunting Imperials for the New Republic. Trying to do good by the galaxy, and set a good example for his son. That's significant character progression.

 

I've stopped comparing TCW to any of the live action shows a long time ago. You can't talk about budget constraints in an animated show the way you do with a LA show. But to that end, I was satisfied with what Dave Filoni and company did in these episodes with massive battles here and there. You're not going to get a hugely massive battle with the Mandalorians, because there's just not that many Mandalorians that are spoken for to begin with. And they matched up with the rather unimpressive amount of Imperials by Gideon's side on Mandalore.

 

I'm willing to overlook the small crowds in television in some instances. There were so many times on TNG where Picard is supposed to be addressing his crew, and it's like 12 people outside of the main cast. lol. It's just the nature of most tv series, even though some series have obviously gotten more epic in scale with background extras. The finale worked just enough for me in this case, even though there was about 20 Mandos total. However, the escape out of Navarro was far too small and almost comical. Perhaps that battle should have taken place somewhere where the setting isn't a new bustling city, which is so big it's in need of a sheriff/marshal/whatever.

 

I don’t see any need for a season 4 tbh as season 3 has pretty much wrapped everything up.

The only thing I think they could do that’d be interesting for another season is discover more about Yoda’s/Grogu’ species, but if I remember right it’s been said they want to keep all that a mystery so it probably won’t happen.

 

Even though it seems like it's going back to square one of going on bounty hunts on a per-episode basis, you have to figure there's more to it than that. They're still planning on a massive cross-episode show at some point featuring the likes of Din's band of Mandos, Boba and his gang, and of course Ahsoka and the crew that she'll be running around with, right? I'd imagine that it'll be a ruse of having Din go on bounty hunts but he'll run into special characters that are more relevant to a greater story.

 

Gideon knowing exactly where Din was and not doing anything to stop him until it was too late is one of the greatest self owns in recent television history.

 

Gave it a six, which is fair imo

 

It's pretty simple. Bo led the Mandalorians to retake their fracking homeland after having suffered a horrific genocide. It's quite realistic that this would effectively erase their insistence that their leader wield the darksaber.

I have a lot of criticisms of this season, but that's not one of them.

 

Rewatched it again on my 4K setup with surround on (this morning didn’t want to wake everyone up so only saw it quietly in HD in a different room and enjoyed it even more with reduced expectations for what I thought might happen and was able to appreciate more of what I liked.

There really are some great action set pieces in this. I love the hallway scene where he keeps adding more weapons. Love the jetpack head to head battle. And the final showdowns are all fun. The ending is quite satisfying.

 

This. And I agreed with you about six pages back!

 

I’m in the six club too.

 

In other words, yes @DrDragon, you're stupid.

 

I was well aware that putting the surname first is a thing that some cultures do. It was just never implied that Din wasn't his given name, especially with the way Bo-Katan uses it. Nobody really casually calls him by his real name, since most of the people knew him before it was revealed, and some people he didn't give his name.

 

I was kidding.

 

For the first time, I gave this episode a 10. Lots of action and fun and thrilling scenes. Sure, I could pick some nits, but that's irrelevant. Being a Star Wars fan requires some "suspention of disbelief", so I'll just go with the feelings. This episode felt great. And looked really great! My only disappoint was that I somehow expected some actual words from Grogu.

 

Hmm. On TVTropes they're saying the reveal was that Din is a title given to all foundlings because "Mandalorian names don't have surname coming first". Which doesn't really make any sense to me... Plus he's not a native Mando. Granted we haven't heard the names of any other foundlings, so I guess it could be true, but I really doubt it.

 

Jango Fett was a foundling

 

Well unless Mando culture has shifted to that degree, then TVTropes is definitely wrong then.

 

If this is what happened, it's incredibly frustrating. Even from a business perspective, I barely see the logic. You wouldn't have to have a Grogu-less season because you could cut back to him training with Luke, which I think would have drawn in audiences just as much if not more. And it's not like you couldn't have continued to sell Din and Grogu merch.