Quote from: jeff37923 on April 16, 2023, 12:20:30 PM
The most convincing theory I've seen online is that the spy is the captain of the land ship on Mandalore. He knew where the Great Forge was, but didn't know that an Imperial base had been built nearby?

Well, it was pretty clear that the Great Forge had been abandoned. Probably for years. Whereas the Imperial base was shiny and new.

My rationalization is that the landship survivors knew where the Great Forge was, but hadn't been there in years because they were focused on finding food and not dying. The Imperial base was not there the last time they visited the Forge.

Wednesday morning we'll see how they wrap up this season.

Do we want to speculate about who might do what?

Or do we want to avoid potential spoilers?

Quote from: Lurkndog on April 17, 2023, 09:53:25 PM
Wednesday morning we'll see how they wrap up this season.

Do we want to speculate about who might do what?

Or do we want to avoid potential spoilers?

Blind speculation isn't spoilers. I can only go off what the existing narrative gives me.

Axe went for reinforcements so I have to imagine reinforcements will arrive at the dramatically correct time.

A space battle has been foreshadowed so it'd be damn stupid for a Star Wars property to not deliver one.

Mando has been captured and had his obvious weapons removed... unless the goal is to emasculate their lead he's going to have to escape using his own ingenuity; probably after learning something important.

Per the legend/prophecy established in Mando season 2.5 (aka the back half of the Book of Boba Fett) someone is going to ride/control that Mythosaur to smash the hell out of the Imperials.

The three Imperial Guard need to be taken down by either Bo or Mando (or both) because you don't just march those guys in to kill an already exhausted Big Guy character without a hero or lancer archetype getting justice. Using them also gives room for Moff Gideon to escape.

We also have Republic Guy who found the Beskar as part of the Imperial rescue of Moff Gideon to pay off... possibly as a New Republic strike force arriving at Mandalore in time for the space battle.

While IG-12 (with Grogu pilot) may just be a new toy to buy, I think that's going to need some type of story payoff affecting the plot to really be worth the addition.

The Armorer and Bo will have some moment to shine.

* * *

There's my purely unspoiled speculation based on story structure. If the woke mind virus hasn't completely overtaken them we should see most of those.

I think the entire point of the IG-12 storyline is to give Grogu the Yes and No buttons so that he can start to deliver dialog on his own.

Once he learns to speak, (he's beginning to verbalize) they'll probably put IG-11 back together.

I also suspect we'll get to see Grogu's giant monster taming trick again.

I suspect that Moff Gideon is going to set another trap for Bo-Katan, because he really wants to get the Darksaber back (it completes his ensemble), and deep down inside he lacks the courage to just challenge for it.

Season 3 Episode 08 has dropped.

And it is good.

Please refrain from spoilers until Saturday.

Quote from: Lurkndog on April 19, 2023, 05:04:03 AM
Season 3 Episode 08 has dropped.

And it is good.

Please refrain from spoilers until Saturday.

Good to hear! Going to watch tonight, looking forward to it.

I already encountered one spoiler on a YouTube video title.

Sorry you got spoiled, Ratman_tf.

Unfortunately, the various YouTube Star Wars channels seem to be in a race to see who can get the spoilers for an episode out first.

Quote from: Lurkndog on April 20, 2023, 08:27:29 AM
Sorry you got spoiled, Ratman_tf.

Unfortunately, the various YouTube Star Wars channels seem to be in a race to see who can get the spoilers for an episode out first.

Yep. It wasn't huge, but it did annoy me.

On top of that, Disney+ failed to load for me last night. Just a spinning icon. I'll try again tonight.

Got in to watch it. It was alright. More on saturday.

WE ARE NOW GO FOR SPOILERS ON MANDALORIAN SEASON 3 EPISODE 08
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The Mandalorian S3 E08

Chapter 24: THE RETURN

Bo-Katan is leading the scout party to safety. She contacts Axe Woves, tells him about Moff Gideon and his base, and orders him to evacuate everyone from the fleet and use the cruiser as a decoy.

They continue to fight a withrawal as the Imperial troops pursue.

***

Elsewhere in the base, Mando is being dragged along by two troopers. He is bound at wrist and ankles. Suddenly he jumps up, kicks off the wall, and begins fighting back. He grabs a boot knife off a trooper, and cuts his legs free before the troopers are on top of him. He manages to snap the neck of one, but the second one gets the drop on him and is about to finish him off when IG-12 enters the fray. Grabbing the trooper's blaster and crushing it, Grogu finishes off the second trooper with a mighty kick.

Mando says they have to go after Moff Gideon or this will never end. Grogu is with him.

***

Bo-Katan and company are running thruough the tunnels back to the Great Forge when Mando radios Bo-Katan to tell her that he escaped, he has Grogu with him, and they are going after Moff Gideon.

Bo-Katan has to lead her troops to safety, but she wishes them luck. The scouting party finds a place where they can fly out of the rubble, and go to a safe location that the survivors know of.

***

In Moff Gideon's base, the fighters and bombers launch.

Moff Gideon stands before a large security screen, watching two dots representing Mando and Grogu move through the corridors.

"Shall we engage?" asks a trooper.

"No," replies Gideon acidly, "I'll take care of HIM myself."

***

Mando calls up R5 and orders him to "scomp" into the base and find the location of Moff Gideon's command center.

***

R5 flies into the base, dodging Imperial mouse droids, finds a terminal, and plugs in. He quickly finds the coordinates and relays them to Mando.

Mando and Grogu head for the command center.

***

Axe Woves flies out of the atmosphere and links up with the fleet. He orders them to load everyone into the dropships and use the cruiser as a decoy. The dropships enter the atmosphere in the nick of time, just as the Imperials fly up out of the atmosphere and attack the cruiser.

***

Mando carefully sneaks up on the corridor of nested evergy shields that leads into the command center.

He orders R5 to open the first shield, then runs in and takes out the guards. Then repeats on the second batch of guards, then the next, slowly accumulating the guards' weapons as he goes.

R5 is accosted by a mouse droid, and has to run it off with his electric prod before he can open the next set of shields.

Mando makes it to the end of the corridor. "R5, good job, buddy."

R5 is accosted by a handful of mouse droids, but flies off with impunity. 

***

Mando finds Moff Gideon's cloning chambers, and destroys them.

***

The scout party arrives at the survivors' hideout, a cavern full of indigenous plant life that the survivors planted there. They have hideouts like these all over the planet. Bo-Katan is reassured to find that the planet can support plant life. "All they need is room to grow," replies the captain of the survivors.

The Armorer announces over the radio "Lady Kryse, your reinforcements have arrived."

"Let's take back our planet" says Bo-Katan, and the scout party jets off to meet with the reinforcements and storm Moff Gideon's base. Diving into the entrance tunnel, they fight through a swarm of Imperial troopers rising to meet them...

***

Inside the command center, Mando advances cautiously, blasters at the ready. Suddenly Moff Gideon's voice rings out.

"My clones were finally going to be perfect! The best parts of me, but improved by adding the one thing I never had: the Force! I was isolating the potential to wield the Force, and incorporating it into an unstoppable army. And you smothered them before they could draw their first breath."

Having caught the villain monologuing, Mando takes the opportunity to open fire. Moff Gideon hastily puts on his helmet. (Too bad it just makes him look like a blacked-out Cobra Commander.)

Mando rockets into Moff Gideon, but Gideon's armor augments his strength, and he throws Mando across the room. Kicking Mando's fallen blaster aside with contempt, he beats on Mando for a bit.

And then the Praetorian Guard enters through a cloud of smoke, looking like badasses.

Mando turns to meet them empty-handed, but they advance together and knock him to the floor, about to finish him off like they did Paz Vyzsla.

Then Grogu enters the fray, his battlecry NO NO NO

The Praetorian Guard leave the battered Mando, and advance on Grogu in IG-12. Grogu backs out through a blast door, but they pursue him. Mando sees Grogu in danger and gets up, running to save him, only to be knocked flat by a cowardly wrist rocket from Moff Gideon. Mando scrambles to his feet again, but Moff Gideon sends a grappling line around his neck from behind, and pulls him back...

***

Outside, the jetpack war rages, with the Armorer, Bo-Katan and Koska Reeves cutting down enemy troopers.

***

The Praetorian Guard chop down IG-12, but Grogu is able to force-jump out of the droid to a ring of suspended lights above. The guard attack him with spear-points, but he evades their thrusts and jumps to temporary safety...

***

Mando cuts himself free of Gideon's grappling line, and the two fight toe to toe, but Moff Gideon's powered armor makes it an unequal fight, and he batters Mando and throws him around.

From up above, Bo-Katan wastes a trooper with the Darksaber, and spots Moff Gideon closing in on Mando. She rockets down and shoulder-checks Moff-Gideon, knocking him away.

"I've got this," she tells Mando, "go save your kid."

Mando scrambles up, grabs his blasters and runs to save Grogu.

Moff Gideon stands and addresses Bo-Katan condescendingly "What's it going to be this time? Surrender, or fight?"

Wordlessly, she fires up the Darksaber. Moff Gideon pulls out a saber staff, and they exchange blows...

***

The Praetorian Guard finally manage to chop the light fixture out from under Grogu, and he falls, pinned by girders. He whimpers as they close in...

Suddenly, blaster bolts strike the guards as Mando arrives to save the day. But their armor stops the blaster bolts, and they attack Mando in numbers. Grogo throws one of them across the room to temporarily even the numbers...

***

Bo-Katan is better with the Darksaber than Moff Gideon is with his, but his armor protects him, and its strength allows him to clinch and then throw her. She re-engages with a cry of rage...

***

Up above, another trooper meets a well-deserved fate...

***

Mando and Grogu fight together against the Guard, Mando fighting with his vibroknife against their energy weapons, Grogu aiding him with force-shoves and snatching away dropped weapons. Mando recovers his blaster, and with blade and gun and Grogu, they finish off the Guard.

"You did good, kid" says the proud Mando.

***

Up in the sky, the captured Imperial Light Cruiser, with Axe Woves at the helm, plunges down out of a thunderstorm, wreathed in flames and approaching the end of its warranty.

Axe hails Bo-Katan and Koska, and tells thim he's coming in hot and is going to take out the base.

***

Moff Gideon and Bo-Katan fight, and Moff Gideon lands a solid shot to her midsection, sending her flying. As she struggles to her feet clutching her side, Gideon mockingly tells her "Hand over the Darksaber and I will give you a warrior's death."

That pisses Bo off, and she attacks Gideon furiously, and only his armor saves him. But save him it does, and he intercepts Bo's saber hand and catches it in a powered armor gauntlet. He bears down on it, and crushes the Darksaber. Bo falls to her knees clutching her sword hand, and Gideon pulls off her helmet.

"The Darksaber is gone!" taunts Gideon, hitting her with a spear thrust. "You've lost everything. Mandalorians are weak once they lose their trinkets."

Bo-Katan gives him a wicked grin.

"Mandalorians are stronger together."

Blaster shots strike Moff Gideon's helmet as Mando reenters the fight with Grogu at his heels.

***

On the burning bridge of the cruiser, Axe Woves aims it towards the base, then blows out a window and bails.

The cruiser crashes down into the base as Mandalorians fly out on all sides.

***

Mando and Gideon exchange shots, with Gideon getting the better of the exchange. Bo-Katan dives in to cover mando with her shield-buckler, and the cruiser hits the base in a rain of fire. Grogu force-shoves Gideon towards the edge of the base, knocking away Gideon's energy spear, as the fiery explosion from the cruiser engulfs the base.

Screaming, Moff Gideon is engulfed by the fireball.

Inside the base, in the midst of the flames, Grogu uses the Force to shield Mando and Bo-Katan from the flames.

The flames die down, and the little guy sits/falls down, spent.

***

Beneath the bombed-out city center, at the Living Waters, Ragnar undergoes the Mandalorian baptism as Mando did, receiving a bowlful of water poured out on his helmeted head.

Mando enters, and sets Grogu down at the edge of the waters. He wants Grogu to become his apprentice, and be "added to the Song." The Armorer says that since Grogu cannot speak the creed, he must remain a foundling.

"If his parent gave permission, couldn't he then become a Mandalorian apprentice?"

"Yes, but his parents are far from here, if they are even alive."

"Then I will adopt him as my own," says Mando.

"This is the Way," the Armorer replies, approvingly.

"This is the Way."

The Armorer faces the assembled Mandalorians. "Let it be written in song that Din Djarin is accepting this foundling as his son."

She tells Grogu "You are now Din Grogu, Mandalorian Apprentice."

"This is the Way," the assembled Mandalorians say in chorus.

The Armorer tells Mando "You must leave Mandalore and take your apprentice on his journeys, just as your teacher did for you."

"This is the Way."

Grogu chirps, as deep below the Mythosaur stirs.

***

The Armorer hands Bo-Katan a torch, with which she relights the Great Forge. Axe Woves leads the Mandalorians in shouting "For Mandalore!"

***

Mando's N1 comes in for a landing at Adelphi Base, the New Republic airfield we saw previously in the season.

Mando and Grogu enter the cantina/officer's club. At the bar, Carson Teva offers to buy him a drink, but Mando is here on business.

Grogu hops up onto the counter, grabs some snacks, and notices a row of helmets behind the bar that ends in an IG robot head. He points it out to Mando and gibbers happily. "It's not him, kid," Mando replies.

Mando makes Teva an offer: They don't have the manpower to cover the outer rim. He'll work for the New Republic as a bounty hunter on a case-by-case basis, off the books. He asks for the assasin droid head as an advance. "I need it for parts."

***

On Nevarro, Greef Karga gifts Mando with the deed to a small cabin just outside of town, a place where he can lay low between adventures.

Mando has a gift for Karga as well: A fully restored IG-11 to serve as the new Marshal of Nevarro, rebuilt with the help of the tiny Anzellans.

***

In the desert outside of town, we see Mando's cabin with the N1 parked out back.

Mando lounges contentedly on the front patio, with his feet up on a hitching post, while his weird alien kid plays in the yard.

Was really hoping for Thrawn here, but I suppose he'll show up in the next series.

Mouse droids were fantastic. Doo dee doo, I'm just patrolling along over here, and - ha HA, scofflaw, halt in the name of the Imperial Remnant!

Satisfying conclusion. I assume we'll get a Season 4 a long way away.

Quote from: Thornhammer on April 22, 2023, 10:02:38 AM
Was really hoping for Thrawn here, but I suppose he'll show up in the next series.

Mouse droids were fantastic. Doo dee doo, I'm just patrolling along over here, and - ha HA, scofflaw, halt in the name of the Imperial Remnant!

Every time I see them now, I think of this:

Quote from: Thornhammer on April 22, 2023, 10:02:38 AM
Satisfying conclusion. I assume we'll get a Season 4 a long way away.

Favreau has said that Season 4 is already written. Hopefully we don't have to wait two years for it.