The Mandalorian General Discussion

I feel your pain, fren. - this season was way diff and I still can't figure out why they refused to include Boba Fett in Season 3. They sure liked putting Mando & IG-Grogu into HIS show.... as it stands; everything depends on how they handle Ahsoka. If that rocks, I'll more than likely watch the next season of Mando. If not, I'm good with where all the threads are currently knotted.


This is the ERA that belongs to Luke Skywalker; but for he isn't good enough for Disney.... except when the Mandalorian & baby Yoda needed saving.


I like Tano and always have, I hope they tell a great story.... my future Mando viewing(s) are hedged upon it.

 

I was blown away by the first three episodes of The Mandalorian: S1 and enjoyed the last five episodes too. Then I absolutely loved all eight episodes of S2. I consider it one of the best seasons of any TV series. Season 3? I enjoyed them all but (IMO) they weren't as compelling to me as S2 was. But when you've been enjoying a show to the point of fanboying and fangirling about it here, where does all the vitriol suddenly come from? I just don't understand that mindset.

One of the things I've noticed with message boards in recent years is that -- like our world's politics -- the discussions have gotten more and more polarized and dramatic. Everything has to be a war of words.

 

I've said it before, but season 3 really does feel like it was plagued with rewrites. Granted, rewrites aren't inherently a bad thing and are often beneficial (i.e. Rogue One). The first two seasons felt like they were taking their time and plot points came to their logical conclusion that gave their audience satisfying emotional payoff. Season 3 feels like they had a change in story direction (Thrawn, I strongly suspect) and realized they still had loose plotlines leftover that they wanted to just hurry up and finish. Which is also probably why Boba Fett didn't show up, they couldn't do anything with him as they were trying to hurry along and get Djarin & Bo-Katan to retake Mandalore so they could make room for whatever it is they're wanting to do in season 4.

 

I think you nailed it, @TK-1204. It felt to me like Favreau had a lot of heavy-lifting, set-up work to do this season.

 

Emphasis on a lot. Had Rangers of the New Republic not gotten shelved I think it would've taken some of the pressure off of Favreau this season and the narrative probably would've been a bit smoother than what we ended up with.

Though now that it's over and done with, I think season 4 will be more of a return to form in terms of quality. There's none of the same baggage season 3 had going into season 4, since season 3 effectively created a clean slate for Favreau to work with.

 

I think this is probably hitting closer to the heart of the matter than all this "cutbacks" nonsense. Jon and Dave may have had the Rangers Series playing a sizeable part in the Mandoverse Story, so once that became compromised, they had to shift some things around. This could have also played part in Grogu's return in BoBF. I think Jon has made it as clear as he is going to that HE had to make some decisions. For all we know, the slight "clunkiness" of S3 may very well serve to prevent a much bigger mess trying to shoehorn info and devices into other storylines down the road.

Again, good point, and I'll add to it. I think that not only did S3 and it's ending tie up most of the series so far and give a reset to the Father/Son dynamic, it serves as a solid jumping off point for the rest of the story as it pertains to all of the connected series to come. That being said, the issue of quality in S3 is moot to me. If we look at it as a jumping off point for not only Din and Grogu's continued story, at least two spin-offs, quite possibly another, and a feature film, in that aspect, the quality of storytelling and the writing for S3 was actually more complicated and involved.

This x100
And I know sometimes I find myself wanting to take up arms simply because so much of the negativity feels like it is coming from that far opposite and is often at least coupled with the pervasive hate and vitriol spewed by the ignorant and hateful. I have to remind myself that there is a big middle ground there. The struggle is real when, much like the RL politics and social issues, the far-fetched, and negative conspiracy theories seem to be the loudest voices and most often noticed. It can be quite tiring when trying to maintain a positive and common-sense perspective, on Star Wars and the Real World.

 

I thought Rangers was going to be set much closer to the events of the sequel trilogy.

 

I don't think we ever got even a broad synopsis, but the assumption or speculation all seemed to point to a similar timeline to Mando. I think we also assumed the Carano debacle was the cause of Rangers being stifled, when again, I don't think we ever got confirmation the two were related.

I do think that Favreau likely repurposed the concept, stories, whatever they had in mind for Rangers and that may have given him a boost in completing Mando S4. That's especially a good thing with a writer's strike looming. I am hoping that may have setup the continuing Mandalore arc into a spin-off Bo-Katan series.

It all feels to me like Favreau and Filoni are really looking at the big picture here as a guide, not just focusing on one story, and that has been what some viewers have taken issue with. The good news here is that these two guys really seem to work well together and are utilizing each other's strengths more and more. I believe that they have a great deal of autonomy, not getting much, if any, interference from LFL, much less Disney. KK has a great deal of respect and trust in Filoni, and at the very least acknowledges what Favreau brings to the table. Let's not forget, they created an absolute juggernaut, from scratch, and changed the game for not only SW and LFL, but for Disney, and streaming TV in general. You don't see the GM and front office telling Tom Brady how to throw the football. That being said, with great power comes great responsibility. F&F know they must maintain a standard, and that standard is only going to get higher and higher. They are their own oversight. Season 3 may not have been what a small, overly-vocal portion of viewers wanted it to be, but I guarantee it was EXACTLY what Jon and Dave wanted it to be.

 

I know that there's a group of vocal anti-KK fans here. I'm also aware I'm on record questioning whether 'higher ups' might have pushed Favreau and Filoni to bring Grogu back prior to the start of Season 3. But it's really hard for an open-minded SW fan to read @MBWilson's reasoned take here and disagree.

 

I haven't been keeping up, has season 4 been delayed because of the strikes or is the crossover event movie first or what's the status?

 

Yes, the strikes are going to delay Mando 4 unfortunately, like they are hurting production schedules across the board. Favreau did say that he had a complete script for S4 prior to the WGA strike, and shooting was to start in October. That clearly won't happen now. There have also been rumors that S4 could be condensed into a movie, but I don't see that is likely, mostly because they have multiple series that are spinning off from The Mandalorian, and a feature film already announced for the culmination of this Era. I would speculate that the most likely result for all of this is just simply going to be everything getting pushed further out as opposed to condensed or scrapped.