I don’t see how he obviously has to be Ezra. My guess is that some fans of the character would think that having him under the mask would be dumb and unsatisfying. It’s perfectly fine for Marrok to be a standard henchperson with a cool look and not much characterization who maybe really is just a former Inquisitor and nothing more.
If I were writing this series, I would consider having Ahsoka and Sabine travel to this other galaxy to find that Thrawn and Ezra are working together there for a greater purpose, whether it be the Yuuzhan Vong, the Rakatans, or something new.
Yes I was thinking that they could take this opportunity to do a reboot of sorts of Star Wars in another galaxy with a couple familiar characters. It could be a way out of the whole sequel trilogy mess Disney has created.
I thought the episode was alright but I was kind of hoping that the mega hyper drive was operational but untested, and that Ahsoka and Sabine would be forced to use it to get away and end up in the other galaxy.
Pretty solid start and Thrawn is possibly my favorite character ever so I can’t wait to see him in live action. Also, never that big a fan of Ezra, but oddly looking forward to seeing him as well.
Going off the idea that Dave Filoni is the “fixer” combined with the fact that almost none of these characters are around during the sequels lends credence to your theories.
He has to figure out a way to show the rise of the First order/set up the sequels, but also get these people out of the picture. Mando, Ahsoka, and Skeleton Crew (the three shows of the “Mandoverse”) have already been confirmed to be leading to a big Avengers-style movie event. I think this event is going to be all these players banding together to travel elsewhere to deal with a different threat.
It’s a convenient and intriguing way to explain their absence and also set up potential new stories without the drag of the Skywalker saga weighing it down.
I mean, he could just kill them all off, but that wouldn’t be a very Disney way to do things.
Grunching because I’ve only gotten through the first two seasons of Mandalorian and don’t want to risk spoilers.
So anyway, Mandalorian’s pretty damn good. Not S-tier - I’m not blown away by it like I thought I’d be, based on the hype - but it’s easy A-tier TV viewing. Gourmet comfort food. And I definitely see why everyone was obsessed with baby Yoda.
My wife and I just watched S3E1. Question: how much time has elapsed since the end of S2? I feel like we missed something, especially because Grogu is suddenly back with Mando after the big deal of Luke coming to get him.
The show feels like a video game. Main character has his big quest, but every episode has to go on side missions to advance.
You need to watch episodes 5 & 6 of The Book of Boba Fett. They’re basically Mando season 2.5 since Boba Fett sucked and they didn’t even have enough material for 7 episodes of it without doing 2 Mando episodes in the middle of it. Those episodes will answer your question.
ETA: I think you might need to watch the first few minutes of episode 7 too. It’s been a while though.
I liked Book of Boba Fett, pretty much the whole thing. But yeah, at least those episodes are mandatory viewing if you want to be fully up to date on Mando.
The first four episodes of Boba Fett when it was just Boba post Sarlac were pretty good I thought, it went downhill when they brought Mando in and didn’t commit fully to developing Boba. He became a 2nd tier attraction on his own show.
We’ve gotten through those so far. They’re fine. Nothing special, really. My wife said, “These Star Wars shows are really all about fan service,” and she’s not wrong. Still entertaining.
The one thing I kind of don’t like about the Boba Fett series, and I guess this applies to The Mandalorian, too, is that Boba Fett was fun as a mysterious character.
I’m pretty sure that part of why I liked Book of Boba Fett is that I’m in the seeming minority of Star Wars fans who didn’t previously care about him at all. His popularity never made a ton of sense to me. That series definitely seems to subvert his character in ways that might annoy me if I did think he was cool before.
This is exactly why I also enjoyed it. I literally had zero opinion about him before, so ANY exploration was interesting in a “huh, that’s cool I guess” kind of way.
The fact that they chose to make him more wise and measured in his older years is one that I found to be quite realistic, tbh. I mean, he’s in his 50s? As someone approaching 50, there ain’t no way he can be jumping around shooting rockets and kicking ass the way he used to. Gotta use his brain more.
He also has an underwhelming brain, based on this series. It was like watching Fredo try to run a family. Although I guess in the three really obvious homages to The Godfather in the finale, he was Michael twice and Vito once, so perhaps I’m supposed to have a higher opinion of him.
But yeah, not only being older but also having cheated death, that’s a combination that can take a fair bit of the edge off of anyone. Again though, I understand how a longtime fan of the character would dislike the neutering of him. I just thought it made him a more interesting character to follow.
Overall, definitely the best episode to date. The semi-crappy light saber duels of the prior episodes were laid to rest; the dueling here was a lot more entertaining and Ahsoka came off as a proper badass.
I was extremely annoyed by the sequence starting with Ahsoka going over the edge and then Sabine being buried further as the weakest non-stormtrooper character in the entire franchise. They’re burying her much too hard regardless of whatever future redemption they have mapped out. That whole 10+ minute sequence was terrible and brought the episode down.
Thankfully, the ending was electric, both because of the Anakin return and because it raised new questions about cool new lore possibilities that are being opened up. It snapped me out of my state of annoyance and got me looking forward to the next episode.
Google News sent me a spoiler as a push notification less than 2 hrs after the episode went up. If I’m going to give up all of my personal data to these folks they should be able to realize that I hadn’t watched the show yet.
I feel like they are going to HAVE to do a flashback or some kind of exposition about Ahsoka and Sabine’s first try at the training thing. I mean, what the hell was that about Ahsoka being the reason Sabine’s family died on Mandalore?
I’m upset that she gave up so easily, but I also kind of understand it. However, the idea that she didn’t once stop to think “what would Ezra want me to do here?” is what upset me the most. She just threw away his sacrifice.
I think Ahsoka died…that’s why she’s in the World Between Worlds with Anakin. Though I have seen some crazy theories that it’s not really Anakin, it’s The Son fucking with her.
For those reading this who have no idea who the Son is or what the WBW is, go watch Clone Wars’ Mortis arc (3 episodes) and Rebels Season 4 Episode 12.
Gonna have to be talked down here, this was a pretty big miss for me. Some Lucas level vacuous dialogue throughout and it’s adding up to be more than annoying. The action was ok but the pacing was off; there were two scenes back to back about Ahsoka’s misgivings that amounted to some of the most paint by numbers foreshadowing ever. I don’t know how one can possibly redeem Sabine’s decision going forward, then again the morality of Star Wars (beyond Andor) is and has always been an incoherent mess, like Obi-Wan not killing genocidal Anakin for the second time in the recent series – and Anakin too is back now, Jesus Christ is this Dragon Ball Z now, nobody ever dies?
I appreciate that Anakin resonates more for people who are fans of the animated series, but as a movie/live action only guy this was an exceedingly strange choice. How is Thrawn reveal going to compete with spirit realm Anakin?
Sure; obviously her giving up is justifiable on some level, they had leverage and she was weak. I just really don’t like how overboard they’re going with making her weak here. In Rebels she obviously had flaws - she was slow to become competent with a blade, and she made her share of mistakes - but she also did some great things that made her a very worthy member of the Ghost crew. With this series, if a person didn’t watch the animation, they would think that she’s canonically pretty much worthless.
I hadn’t considered the possibility of Ahsoka actually being dead, but it’s a fair theory (especially considering that her voice turned up late in TROS, a fact that always irks me even though that’s still 25 years later in the SW timeline and wouldn’t have to portent death anytime soon). If true, I’d have to rescind my annoyance with her big fall. How much I would actually like it would depend on whether it goes from here, but it’s an intriguing possibility.
Jesus Christ is this Dragon Ball Z now, nobody ever dies?
The refusal to have any finality in any death ever is the worst part of Star Wars by a lot. Maul being literally cut in half and then living is a level of stupid that I’d rather not ever have had in my life. That said, he was such an awesome character in the animated series that it was hard to stay mad at, even if that was all fruit of the poisonous tree.
Palpatine returning was the worst, of course. And now they’re going to fall victim to sunk cost fallacy by patching that up instead of simply decanonizing their worst movie ever and letting it die.
All that said, it’s clear to me that I liked this episode a lot more than you did overall. But I’ve got a major grudge with the SW creators over their ongoing handling of death; it absolutely sets me on tilt every time they go there or remind me in any way.
