#Mandalorian S1 spoilers

[sabines-wrens]

grogu excessively spraying din with the bacta has the same energy as dum-e spraying tony with the fire extinguisher after his first flight in the iron man suit

[theydjarin]

Fascinated by Din, a chronic under-sharer. Nobody needs to know anything about him unless they need to know - but a few minutes into a conversation with Greef Karga, and he's saying he's an apostate. Where does it come from? Does he feel some kind of intrinsic need to Own up to his sin? He's feeling guilty for still wearing his armor and he feels the need to tell people? or is he just trying to... do better at sharing with the people he's friendly with?

[beskad]

Anyone saying to viewers or fans confused or dissatisfied by Bo-Katan's character in S3 "to understand Bo in The Mandalorian you need to go watch Rebels!" is, I think, missing the bigger issue.

Maybe Rebels addresses her arc really well and builds on TCW characterization? That's great! But the writers of Mando are not addressing it. They even appear to be currently, actively ignoring and/or retconning large portions of TCW and Rebels.

For "cinematic universes" (*gag*) like this, it's important to either adequately recap relevant existing canon, or clearly restart from square one. That way, even a casual viewer can understand the characters and and their motivations relative to the show they're watching now.

It is not a reasonable expectation to have every viewer need to have seen 4 seasons of an animated show to adequately understand a character who's been dropped into the 2nd season of a completely separate live action one.

Some decent groundwork was laid in season 2. We can't, nor should we, have all information about a character revealed to us immediately, that would just be a sloppy infodump.

Bo-Katan is the leader of a faction of Mandalorians who want to retake Mandalore. Cool. She's got a grudge against Gideon who, as we found out via Din in season 1, is responsible for the Great Purge of Mandalore, a complete bombing that made an already inhospitable landscape completely unlivable. So on and so forth.

However, at the end of season 3—a season where Bo-Katan is heavily featured—we still have received no clear explanation or recap of her backstory outside of her surrender to Gideon. There have been many opportunities for different characters to know and address that she had a leadership role in a literal terrorist group, Death Watch. It's very relevant, but it's never addressed. Even if we're going with it being previously resolved, it's a very significant and relevant part of her backstory and Bo-Katan doesn't even have private moments of reflection that might explain that to us, the audience.

She preaches about the failures of a divided Mandalore, despite having explicitly and repeatedly contributed to that division in very recent history. There's no self-awareness. from her or the writers.

If Favloni & co. want to retcon previous material—it's annoying, but they're technically allowed to do that.

However, they are not clearly committing to previous canon, nor are they doing the work to clearly establish new canon.

Regardless of the why for any of this, the fence-sitting makes for a mediocre product that tries to do both. The end result is a messy and inconsistent characterization and half-baked backstory that feels incomplete and leaves me asking the show I'm currently watching, "wait, did I miss something?"

Some additional gripes/support for my opinion that the creative team isn't committing to a clear plan for her characterization:

Bo specifically states that the planet and city didn't always look like this. But—

Completely omits that she's a key reason why it was wrecked twice over. Seized once by Maul, which I don't fault them for not acknowledging in live action because casual viewers would be confused (though technically the Solo movie did it so like, pick a lane), then later bombed into oblivion by the Empire.

She mentions her father, and that he's dead. Completely omits that she had a sister who's also dead, and who technically also died defending Mandalore (Satine's cultural genocide against her own people, which also oddly resulted in a population of seemingly all-white pacifists, is a rant for another post). There is room for a compelling and clear in-universe explanation for this! Like maybe she's in denial or tortured about it, and that's why it's not brought up. But we the audience still need to know that. However, it looks like they've just written Satine out. Maybe it would too clearly place Bo-Katan as a Bad Guy which is inconvenient for them because they don't want to take the time to address it, despite this season spending a lot of screentime with her.

They're even ignoring her characterization previously established within this same show with her showing explicit disgust for Din's faction in season 2, then somehow being fine with joining them in season 3.

[concerned-k1wi]

You guys remember that post like ‘everyday Star Wars fans come on this website and say stuff like ‘Star Wars would be so good if it was actually good’?

Yeah I’m feeling that right about now

[autumnwoodsdreamer]

no, but, Jango was chosen as the template for the clones after winning a competition against other bounty hunters… I’m just picking up shreds and shards here but… what if Din has just been chosen as the template for whatever clone experiment Gideon’s got ties to?

(and here’s the fic I wrote inspired by this idea)

[ladytano879]

The mandalorian s1: Baby Yoda/ the Child

The mandalorian s2: Grogu

The mandalorian s3: ✨Sir Din Grogu✨

[shrinkthisviolet]

As much as I appreciate the insight into New Republic politics…this was not the way to do it in this show 🤦‍♀️

[oflgtfol]

they literally said, you have made a sacrifice i can never repay, you are as worthy of respect as any human being, your death will not be forgotten and will be mourned. but also we're going to take your corpse and reboot it into a mindless shell of its former self to obey our every whim with no further thought for the conscious mind that used to inhabit it because actually you are just a mere object in the end

[todays-fixation-is-bigbywolf]

could somebody please tell me why Hunter is suddenly closed fist striking against another hand to hand fighter, when we know him to dominate with leverages and grapples...? this man fights competently, and dirty when necessary, the first thing he'd do with a flighty, dodgy opponent is control and break joints, come on now.

and then for some reason -Crosshair- is doing it instead, operating somehow with Hunter's keener reactions time and now his moves too, instead of, i dunno, -Hunter-, -again- this season?

[ruescott]

I’m so unwell right now. head empty only her (the armorer). just “do you respect my station? remove your helmet” and destroying a bunch of pirates with just her hammer and tongs and “do you respect my station? remove your helmet” and getting real close to bo-katan and “do you respect my station? remove your helmet” and “do you respect my station? remove your helmet” and “do y

[sabines-wrens]

yeah jokes about din not wanting to be the main character are funny and all but seriously i miss din being the main character

[risingroseakira]

so i finished season 1 of the Mandalorian-

[bearsbeetsbeskar]

Mando Episode 4 Thoughts:

Well foundlings, we are 2 episodes away from the season being over and here we are. I truly don't know how to feel at this point. I mainly feel like I am still clinging to the vestiges of positivity and hopefulness that this season will turn out amazing, and BUILD upon what we have witnessed and learned in s1 and s2. I would however, be lying if I said I am losing hope and feeling frustrated/short changed at what we continue to receive for our Mandalorian and his little ward (also c'mon Din when are you going to just say that you are his father and he is your son???)

Buckle up cause this is long and I have a lot of feelings, and also I am sorry lol. I still love this show with all my heart but seeing Din and Grogu not really in the spotlight has got my panties in a bunch.

The Mon Calmari and Quarren romance that was dismissed as a FLING, I COULD NOT WITH THAT (she really said boy this was a situationship, cuffing season is over goodbye)

Din is playing sidekick to Bo as she embarks on this journey of reuniting Mandalore and reclaiming her forces (now let me be specific here and say that there is literally nothing wrong with sidequests, much of Din's journey with Grogu throughout s1 and s2 after The Sin, was completing sidequests, whether it was helping Cobb Vanth, the frog lady, or Cara Dune and Greef Karga. And I appreciate the friendship he has somewhat inadvertently formed with Bo up to this point, but it truly feels like he is being sidelined and she has been the main character). While Pedro confirmed that this season will show many other Mandalorians, the premise of this show focuses primarily on one Mandalorian and his journey with his son does it not??!!

It was endearing to see how he remembered speaking to Kuuil, and was educating Bo on how to speak to Ugnaughts but that was about it

WHEN JACK BLACK AND LIZZO APPEARED ON MY SCREEN I FULL OUT CACKLED AND SCREAMED YALL (because as much as I appreciate both respectively as actors and artists, that was the point that hammered home the writers and casting directors are taking their liberties with this season, not really serious, like yeah lets throw Jack Black in SW because why not???) Again, let me preface by saying there is nothing wrong with incorporating well known actors and celebrities when their characters add value, and depth to the storyline of the season or episode, e.g. Bill Burr as Mayfeld who appears in s1 and s2. But at this point it felt like shits and giggles that these two individuals were added to the storyline

I understand that the episode was called Guns for Hire, but it gets a little tiring to see the characters get sidequested into other things before they can accomplish their main mission. It feels like a plot line that has been overplayed at this point. Perhaps it would feel different if the stakes were higher with said sidequest, but investigating malfunctioning droids??? It's not really doing it for me. Now again, when Din was quested into helping Bo take that weapons freighter in Trask, or when he was quested into helping Cobb Vanth kill the krayt dragon for Boba Fett's armour, those had substance to them, and were genuinely enjoyable to watch because of the relationships he had with those characters, but this sidequest seemed so futile and put Din two steps backwards in terms of personal growth

Bringing me to my next point of contention, which is that we all of a sudden reverted back to Din hating droids? He made such progress with IG-11, specifically wanting THAT droid to help him navigate the atmosphere of Mandalore, or what about when he was rebuilding the N-1 starfighter in BoBF and working with Peli Motto's droids, like did we forget all that and return Din to his base programming of hating droids? I got a chuckle out of watching him donkey kick the battle droids, don't get me wrong, but the persistent comments to Bo and how his demeanour quickly changed up when he was interrogating them in the droid bar (it was hot but also disheartening) made me sad :(. What happened to that character development??

And lastly but most certainly not least, the relinquishing of the darksaber. LORD HELP ME THIS WAS THE HARDEST PART TO WATCH AND I WAS SITTING ON THE EDGE OF MY SEAT IN DISBELIEF THE WHOLE TIME

I genuinely could not fathom that the writers would disregard the lore of the darksaber and everything we had learnt about it up to this point, from what Moff Gideon said about having to win it in combat, to the armorer telling Din in the BoBF the tale of the darksaber, explaining to him how to wield it properly

SO much of the anticipation built up towards season 3 has been placed on this weapon (including it in all of the show promo and posters) and it was handled so carelessly imo, its importance in Dins character and story building, his journey, him learning to wield it properly (lets face it, even though he isn't perfect at it, every time that man pulls out the darksaber and uses it I get wet) it was flippantly pushed aside just so he could hand it over to Bo and be like 'this is yours, you are the ruler of Mandalore now'

I, as I am sure many others did, wanted a good chunk of this seasons storyline to be Din's redemption, and some introspection into his pov of being a ruler, being a leader, reuniting Mandalore, what the Creed means to him now, how to be free of conflict so he can properly wield the darksaber, and how to be a Mandalorian after all that he has seen and been through (*cough* AFTER HAVING WALKED BOTH WAYS *cough*)

It felt like they struggled to connect the dots so so soooo hard by having him be like ' Bo defeated the mechanical bug creature that defeated me so it belongs to her' LIKE SIR WHAT

EVEN AXE WOVES ACKNOWLEDGES THIS. He was like girl the man you need to defeat is standing right behind you like a damn sidekick, I am not the one. And while I appreciated Bo standing up for Din and validating his identity as a Mandalorian just as much as they are, it all was such a mess and made no sense???

There is so much internal conflict within me yall, I keep thinking about what Pedro said in that interview of how interesting it is to play and witness a character that is thrust into a leadership position reluctantly, who has no desire to lead, and watching them grow, but Din has not done much growing to me in this season, he has stayed to Bo's side, watching her journey

no other thoughts of substance, except that grogu continues to be a cutie pie (he's a KNIGHT NOW ASDAGSKDASDJ), Din continues to look like a shiny WHORE without even trying (I still swoon)

I am really, genuinely, worried for the next two episodes, there is a lot riding on them. I have a sneaking suspicion that they also will not confirm Moff Gideon's return until the season finale, and end on that cliff hanger

If you have read this far honestly you are wonderful and I appreciate you following me and listening to my nonsense rambling cause this show has ruined by life in the best way but it feels so UNTETHERED rn

CAN I SCREAM IN SOMEONE'S INBOX ABOUT THIS PLS CAUSE I HAVE SO MANY THOUGHTS AND FEELINGS

[ragnarssons]

okay but can we talk about the similarities between the armorer’s helmet and moff gideon’s helmet? like yknow, the spikes on the head and all... i’m just saying, in-te-rest-ing

[hudders-and-hiddles]

i'm having a lot of feelings about din choosing to go back and settle on nevarro. like, yes, they retook mandalore, but he has no true connection to the planet, he hadn't set foot there before this season, he tells us repeatedly that he knows little of wider mandalorian culture—the darksaber, pog soup, those who do not walk the way—and throughout the seasons other mandalorians have continued to look down on him and his way of life. so yes he helped them retake their home planet because it was the right thing to do but also ultimately said that is not what home is for me.

because what he actually said is, "perhaps it is time for us to live in the light once again on a planet where we are welcome, so our culture may flourish and our children can feel what it is to play in the sunlight," and the place he spoke of wasn't mandalore, it was nevarro. because for him, home looks like a place where he'd once only lived in the cover of shadow, in comings and going, but now can live—can stay—in the light and the relative safety, security, and peace that it offers. a place where they can flourish. a place where he's wholly welcomed, with friends and allies who respect him and the life he's chosen to live and where he can indeed watch his son feel what it is to play in the sunlight

[jambowiggy]

This is now the Bo Katan show with Din just along for the ride.