Season three drops Wednesday, March 1st.

I'm going to try and avoid spoilers for the first couple of days after an episode drops. If it drops Wednesday, no spoilers until Saturday. If it drops Friday, no spoilers until Monday. But if they bounce the schedule around again, all bets are off, read at your own risk.

I see this as a make-or-break season for The Mandalorian, and Disney+ Star Wars in general. There were plans for the show to branch out in a bunch of directions after Season 2, but a lot of that seems to have collapsed in the wake of Gina Carano's firing, and meddling and mismanagement from the higher-up at Disney in The Book of Boba Fett. Jon Favreau is rumored to be furious with upper management, and on the verge of walking out.

I'm guessing Mando S3 will lead into the Ahsoka series, which is in post-production. Rangers of the New Republic is apparently dead, though we see one of the New Republic pilots in the trailers for Mando S3.

I'm guessing Favreau and Filoni have a lot of aces hidden up their sleeves, but we'll just have to see.

I still have faith in this creative team.

I look forward to your impressions.

I'm having a hard time getting enthusiastic over this, despite really liking (and, at times, loving) The Mandalorian. All The Goddamn Culture War Shit including the fact that Gina Carrano isn't going to be in this season has crushed my interest.

Maybe, if others have positive stuff to say, I might watch it. I still have to watch Andor...

I'm enjoying  Andor, for what it's worth.

Also, the art books for the first two seasons of Mando are currently available for like $20 each, and that's a steal. I think they're worth twice that easily. At some point they'll go out of print and be worth hundreds.

Quote from: Ratman_tf on February 11, 2023, 02:30:32 PM
Maybe, if others have positive stuff to say, I might watch it. I still have to watch Andor...

Andor is slow going for the first two episodes, it improves quickly starting in the third one.

Any scene with either of the mothers is just death, though. Ugh.

Here's a scene from Season 3 that they just dropped.

https://youtu.be/L6yE7fUE220

Eh. I'm hoping this is where Mando is about to say "I'm doing the exact opposite of that."

One week out, and I'm not sure if I want to scour the Internet for breaking news, or go into complete monastic seclusion.

The new season is here! I'll try to refrain from spoilers until the weekend.

Short take: This one is more about catching up with what's been going on in the galaxy after the end of Season 2, and setting up what is to come.

It is worth watching more than once.

SPOILERS for MANDALORIAN S3 E01 FROM THIS POINT
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Happy Saturday, everyone!

OK, let's dig into it.

On first viewing, I hit the end of the episode and I thought "Is that it?" I guess I was expecting more big plot right away.

But there is a LOT going on under the surface in this episode. The theme for this one seems to be foreshadowing.

As far as the opening with the dinosaur turtle, it was a way for Mando to make a big entrance, and remind the audience of the Watch cult's ban on showing one's face. Presumably, it also got Mando back into the good graces of the cult long enough to have a talk with the Armorer.

That green crystal Mando showed the Armorer is supposed to be trinitite, a type of glass formed in the heat of a nuclear explosion. Trinitite is a real thing, but it's not as pretty as that prop.

After killing the dinosaur turtle and meeting with the Armorer, Mando and Grogu fly off in the Naboo fighter, and Grogu sees the shadow of a group of purrgils traveling through hyperspace. Purrgils are tentacled space whales with the ability to travel through hyperspace. They showed up in Star Wars: Rebels, where the young Jedi Ezra Bridger summoned a pack of purrgils to seize Admiral Thrawn's flagship and drag it away into infinity with Ezra and Thrawn on board.

So that is clearly foreshadowing the return of Thrawn, as well as the possible return of Ezra Bridger. Ahsoka was searching for Thrawn in Mando season 2. She has also sworn to help the Mandalorian Sabine Wren find her comrade Ezra Bridger.

They return to Nevarro, now a prosperous trading outpost.  What were once dirt streets are now paved roads, and the place is now an official hub on the big hyperspace trade route.  This is supposed to be a clue that some time has passed since the end of Season 2.

According to Jon Favreau, roughly two years have passed since the end of Season 2.

https://news.yahoo.com/mandalorians-jon-favreau-dropped-shocking-043027216.html

https://comicbookmovie.com/tv/star-wars/the-mandalorian/the-mandalorian-the-apostate-concept-art-released-as-jon-favreau-clarifies-recent-timeline-confusion-a200823#gs.rngwjn

Greef Karga wants Nevarro to be an independant trade hub. Oh, boy. Be a shame if something happened to it.

Mando tries his hand at necromancy with IG-11, but it goes wrong, and the robot reverts to its assassin programming and has to be destroyed again. Mando has a new quest: to find a memory unit to restore IG-11 to life, so the dependable droid can help him go to Mandalore.

Leaving Nevarro, Mando has another run in with the pirates, this time encountering their leader, Gorian Shard, who has a Clone Wars era flagship. I'm getting a mid-boss vibe off of him.

He then arrives at Kalevala in the Mandalore system, where he meets with a dejected Bo-Katan sitting alone in her castle. Her forces have slipped away through her fingers, and turned to privateering. The end of this scene is the foreshadowiest scene of all. Does Bo-Katan plan to take the Darksaber by force or treachery? Or is she just mad he hasn't called in two years?

So, maybe not a great episode on its own, but it does serve well as a re-introduction to the Mandalorian universe, and the beginning of some new storylines.

We did learn what happened to Gina Carano's character of Cara Dune. According to Karga, "After she brought in Moff Gideon, she was recruited by special forces."

Will Gina Carano come back to The Mandalorian? Don't know, but considering the new CEO of Disney and his approach it seems more likely now than it was in the past.

Quote from: jeff37923 on March 05, 2023, 01:32:31 PM
We did learn what happened to Gina Carano's character of Cara Dune. According to Karga, "After she brought in Moff Gideon, she was recruited by special forces."

All things considered that is a decent "In-Universe" way of explaining her absence.

- Ed C.

Quote from: jeff37923 on March 05, 2023, 01:32:31 PM
We did learn what happened to Gina Carano's character of Cara Dune. According to Karga, "After she brought in Moff Gideon, she was recruited by special forces."

Will Gina Carano come back to The Mandalorian? Don't know, but considering the new CEO of Disney and his approach it seems more likely now than it was in the past.

At least they didn't bump her off, off screen.

At least they're keeping the door open in case they can bring her back.

I've read rumors that Rangers of the New Republic is back on the table, though I don't know anything more than that.

Quote from: Lurkndog on March 04, 2023, 11:02:13 AM
He then arrives at Kalevala in the Mandalore system

SAMPO!

Quote from: ThatChrisGuy on March 07, 2023, 06:39:58 PM
SAMPO!

Sorry, Sampo's off.

Quote from: Lurkndog on March 06, 2023, 08:39:47 AM
I've read rumors that Rangers of the New Republic is back on the table, though I don't know anything more than that.

That would be quite the amount of crow to be eating, I tell ya whut.