The Mandalorian: Season 3 OR The Fall of the House of Lucas

Lorn Conner has had enough. The man often called a living encyclopedia for Star Wars knowledge has seen all he needs to know that The Walt Disney Company and Lucasfilm, as currently constituted, have no ability to restore the franchise to its former glory.

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Prior to the release of Season 3 of The Mandalorian, I had a dilemma on my hands.  Rumors of a tenth Star Wars movie featuring Rey had already broken, and I knew patience for Disney Star Wars was wearing thin.  My job on this site is to stay abreast of Star Wars though, so I put it to the audience with a poll:  should I break my boycott of Disney+ in order to watch Season 3 and report back to the audience, or should I continue the boycott and look instead to the past, highlighting things from the glory days of Star Wars and Lucasfilm?

While there were a small number of voters, and the vote tally ran mostly neck and neck, those who wanted me to review the series came out in the lead.  More interesting were the comments – I was told by many (including some who didn’t vote) that my job was to take the bullet so that others could decide whether it was worth subscribing themselves.  The justification essentially is that, while I would be supporting Disney, IF the season were bad, it might prevent many more from giving their hard-earned cash to the Mouse.

I agreed with the logic.  While I had high hopes for Mando S3, The Book of Boba Fett and Obi-Wan had left me with serious worries.  What in the world had happened with those series?  There were many rumors, but nothing that seemed concrete or verifiable.  I had no choice but to put my faith in Jon Favreau, hoping that he could deliver on the promise of the first two seasons of the show, and somehow make sense of the interlude in TBOBF.

(Aside:  I’m aware not everyone holds The Mandalorian (or Jon Favreau) in as high regard as I do.  As a confession of my own biases, Jon was my choice to direct Episode VII before Abrams was announced.  I loved what he did with Iron Man 1 and 2 – yes, I said 2.  People LOVED that movie when it came out, and only started bashing it months after release when it became popular to do so.  Yes, I understand you may not like it.  No, I don’t care.)

Chapter 17:  The Apostate – A slow beginning with a short runtime, mostly used to reset the scene after a two year absence.  Not great, but probably necessary for those who haven’t seen anything in a couple of years.

Chapter 18:  The Mines of Mandalore – For me, this was the best episode of the season and a tremendous improvement over Chapter 17.  We get straight to Mandalore and into the mines, which has a spooky vibe and an homage to the Morlocks from The Time Machine.  A fantastic fight with a creature in a spider tank cemented the episode, and Bo Katans encounter with a Mythosaur and how it changes her promise an unexpected arc.

Chapter 19:  The Convert – From a high, to a low.  The one thing that I said I would quit the Mandalorian over would be overt ties to the sequel trilogy.  This taboo was violated very early in the season, and almost the entire episode was dedicated to a side character to explicitly make the tie.  Also shown were the absolute incompetence of the New Republic.

Chapter 20:  The Foundling – This was actually another good episode for me.  While the series is showing an over-reliance on megafauna this season, and some questions about timeline rear their heads, as an action-oriented episode I thoroughly enjoyed it.  Character growth for Paz Vizsla is welcome.

Chapter 21:  The Pirate – Another wasted opportunity.  Like TBOBF, this show is dropping intriguing narrative threads, only to resolve or abandon them far too early.  Worse, one of the most interesting ship designs that I’ve seen in Star Wars is destroyed in the episode, when it could’ve been used for future storytelling AND been a killer toy that everyone would’ve wanted to own.

Chapter 22:  Guns for Hire – What the hell am I watching?  Is this a fever dream?  Did somebody slip something into my drink?  Is that Jack Black?  Is that Lizzo?!  IS THIS ALICE IN WONDERLAND?  WAS GROGU JUST KNIGHTED?! WHY DOES EVERYTHING TASTE BURNT?!

Chapter 23:  The Spies (Allegedly) – OK, so Mandalore is a thing again.  Din has completely signed away his agency to someone who hasn’t shown that they deserve it.  Mandalorians have come together even though they don’t want to.  Oh they’re fighting.  But Oh, they’re not.  Grogu is inhabiting the gutted out husk of a friend that he previously saw sacrifice himself and explode, for comic relief.  Moff Gideon has returned, but is now a Saturday Morning Cartoon villain who has sacrificed everything about his character that once made him interesting.  Paz Viszla is killed, and it feels like a meta warning.

Chapter 24:  The Return – The Shadow Council is revealed, and somehow even an EXCELLENT portrayal of Captain Pellaeon and a mention of Thrawn don’t elicit a jump in heart rate.  There’s a lot of great set and character design in this episode, and plenty of great action as well – but somehow, it all feels anticlimactic.  Gideon monologues and is dispatched, without ever having scored a victory.  Mandalore is taken, but the victory feels unearned and unimportant.  The Darksaber is destroyed, and the entire series is essentially reset to the end of Season 2.  Any narrative weight has been completely lost.  Din is no longer interesting, and Grogu is an irritant. Something is very wrong.

Throughout the season, it felt obvious that something terrible had happened behind the scenes.  Speculation amongst us and the rest of the community had run rampant.  Did Favreau really write this?  Was creative interference going on, and if so – from where?

The sudden ST ties (shortly after an announcement of another Rey Palpatine movie) definitely felt like a mandate, and likely something that occurred during the long hiatus after the Gina Carano firing – likely a strategic move.

Sadly, information that has come our way seems to corroborate our worst fears.  While these disclosures are rumors and must be taken with a grain of salt, they come from sources that WDW Pro has cultivated, and which have been shown to be accurate in the past.  Combined with what we’ve seen, it’s hard to take away anyhing other than what has been said.

So what now?

Well…as for me, I’m done with Disney.  I cannot in good conscience give them money for anything, and I urge you not to give them any either.

The Mandalorian – to me, the most succesful Disney+ Star Wars outing outside of Rogue One – is dead.  In my head, it ended at Season 2.  I see no reason at this point to watch Season 4.

I wish I had better news to give – if you watch the video above, you’ll see that I got quite angry – something I usually try to keep a handle on.

I told WDW Pro after we finished recording that I felt like I had watched somebody shooting my dog, and I still feel that way.  Star Wars has been precious to me for a number of reasons, mostly because my best memories with my best friends and family surround it.  It taught me lessons and made me think about things in ways I otherwise might not have, and I’ll always be thankful to George Lucas for that.

I also feel a great deal of sorrow for Jon Favreau.  He has now been screwed by Disney twice, and the man gave us a gift of two great seasons and a restored Luke Skywalker.  For that, I’ll always be thankful to him too, and I hope someday he is properly rewarded for his talent.

Let’s hope at some point in the future, someone writes a tell-all book that exposes what these cultural vandals did – and let them be endlessly mocked for their hubris.

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