Mandalorian Season 2 Review

 

The Mandalorian Season 2 has been fully released now and I do say that it is excellent. The series has seemingly a higher budget this season after the massive success of the first. So many great set pieces are incorporated such as the Kryat Dragon and Giant Spiders which brought some genuine horror to the series. There is simply awesome action in this season especially involving other mandalorians. And getting to that we have three big characters in mandalorian armor returning from other material, the first of which being Cobb Vanth from the Aftermath books. Then Bo-katan with some other mandalorians. And finally Boba Fett pulled up. I think that it is simply awesome that these characters are appearing here and they are incorporated so well. And that's not even mentioning Ashoka Tano who also appears in live action for the first time this season. It is just amazing to see her brutally epic jedi skills brought to liveaction. Some people are concerned about bringing in aspects from the wider universe to this series, which is a concern I understand. I'm concerned that there are some things that could be brought in that would feel like shark jumps. But I don't think that has happened yet and I feel like they have brought in the large scale elements while keeping smaller stories that are true to this show. I feel like this season has really moved the plot into gear more, although I think that some of the small l scale stories can feel similar. Although the monotony of doing the same job everyday may not feel unfamiliar. 

Not to brag, but I’ve been predicting many of these characters since the show was announced 

Moff Gideon is a very cool villain that has ambitions for the child, involving clones and although he was captured I would wager that his villainy will continue. The show, The Book of Boba Fett was confirmed for 2021 in the very cool end credits scene and will seemingly be about Boba Fett ruling Tatooine. So I am very excited for that and I hope that some other B Huntaz can show up in it.

In the episode with Ashoka it is revealed that Baby Yoda's true name is Grogu and he was raised in the Jedi temple on Coroscant. Which is making it ever more possible that he is the son of Yoda and Yaddle. I wonder if we will find out more about their species in this series, my baseless theory is that they a native species from Coroscant that has been driven to near extinction by the urbanization.

We saw Grogu reach out in the force with the seeing stone on Tython so when the great Jedi master Luke Skywalker pulled up it was amazing and made sense with the series. Although the series was left on a bittersweet ending. Because if Grogu doesn't get out of Luke's order before it is destroyed by Ben Solo, bad things will happen to him. But I heavilly doubt this is the last we will see of Grogu. I think Luke was done very well and it was awesome to see him ignite the green and mow down the dark troopers, I think the digital recreation of a young Mark Hamill was very good in the episode.

Another possible arc for future seasons that is more mandalorian-centric is finally going back to Mandalore and fighting for the planet and the darksaber. There could be numerous factions including The Empire with Moff Gideon, Bo-Katan and the Mandalorian clans, Boba Fett, The Children of the Watch with the armorer, and the Mandalorian himself. I think in the end Grogu would be the one to unite Mandalore with the darksaber as a Mandalorian Jedi like Tarre Vizsla before him. I think it would be cool if eventually there could be a legacy series possibly with Grogu being part of the new Jedi with Rey.

A fan-made possible future

The directing is amazing in this season as is all of the filmmaking including the music which put in work, ask Ludwig. I'm very excited as well for the shows recently announced to tie directly into the Mandalorian, which are Rangers of the New Republic and Ashoka, which hopefully will bring in Thrawn as he was mentioned in this series.

I will also admit I was somewhat wrong about tv movies as I want the eventual series finale for Mando to be a movie released on Disney+

Overall Mandalorian is an awesome series with an awesome story and the titular character is awesome too and I'm excited to keep watching his arc of the meaning of being a Mandalorian and wearing the helmet subtlety play out.