The irrepressible praise in its last two episodes and the hyperbolic conversation in networks seems to have agreed with many that the final stretch of season 3 of ‘The Mandalorian’ has made it worth the lurches of aA collection of episodes as irregular as it is spectacular. True or not, only one thing makes everyone agree: the action of the star live-action series continues to be impressive and restores the faith in the stagecraft technique that caused so many tears in ‘Obi-Wan Kenobi’.
Is impossible not to enjoy the naval battle scenes, the fights with monsters and the warlike display with flying Mandalorians fighting armies sold to the wing of Moff Gideon, but beneath that waste of millions is a sense of constant improvisation, of matrices designed to fit moments that die-hards like, but without a meaningful narrative foundation or crescendo. And this would not be a problem if his ambition had stayed in the tone for the first two seasons.
SPOILERS OF THE SEASON IN THE TEXT
Because, despite the fact that now we see politics, great arcs or entire episodes dedicated to characters that have not been introduced, ‘The Mandalorian’ has never been a great television series, but it has a very fun, light hobby and very expensive (15 million per episode) with two characters going to places to fix things in the tradition of ‘McGyver’, ‘Fantastic Car’ or ‘The A-Team’ and, although you wanted to see more in it, there never was, it was just a good weekly youth adventure and fantasy date whose secret was its half-hour episodes and a healthy spirit of destruction.
A season of swerves and improvisation
For this reason, the season finale is not terrible or disappointing, but it once again opts for fun and flying lasers because it knows it is incapable of engaging emotionally, proving that there has not been a well-armed dramatic arc from the beginning. We all still remember the moment of farewell in the previous campaign, and that moment of separation of Mando and Grogu was bittersweet but real -despite Luke made of digital wax- and it is the last time that the series sustained that feeling.
The beginning of all the current problems comes in the season of ‘The Book of Boba Fett’, which halfway became a correction of that ending of ‘The Mandalorian’ and which showed that no tonal coherence is strong enough if it does It is necessary to introduce with an enema what the databases dictate to us. That is why at the beginning of the season there were many faces of “What is happening?” Among many casual viewers who they did not understand why Baby Yoda had returned to the hands of the protagonist.
And since the first episode, there has been an annoying weightlessness that has not finished curdling in a specific line. First Din had to get to Mandalore to be redeemed, and that was quickly cleared up. Bo-Katan emerged as a new protagonist in a series that is not hers, as Mando did in Boba Fett, with which the rest of the episodes would revolve around her legacy with the dark saber and the reconquest of Mandalore, something that ‘Star Wars’ fans might find it exciting, but it looks like another campaign fanfiction.
Blank check to recycle the worst ideas
Many hoped that the ending would redeem that boring episode with Dr. Pershing on Coruscant appearing in the middle like a wart, but the connection to the pilot and the general thread did not justify it. Meanwhile we have seen Grogu with armor, Grogu jumping or Grogu inside a droid. At least they’ve given up on Grogu’s egg-eating and frog-eating jokes that had become all his presence was good for. Watching the first episode now is symptomatic of what it is supposed to represent and what it is now.
‘The Mandalorian’ has exhausted the reverse shot of a faceless guy and a bald mowai making gestures. It’s funny for a season, and that’s why in this one they play the jumps again. He makes think of how the fandom reacted to Yoda’s scenes in the prequels, and it seems that no one has been punished. What’s more, when Moff Gideon finally returned, summoning the choir of the Praetorian Guard to end the Purge of Mandalore, it seemed like it would portend an exciting ending but we found ourselves in another recycled Clone Wars plot.
For years, the galaxy’s mob has reiterated how boring George Lucas’s Episode II is, and yet there is praise for this return to the same forum, and what’s more, with a revelation of cloning with the force that summons the worst moments of midichlorians and the resurrection of the Emperor that everyone seemed to loathe. The force has gone from being mystical to scientific, something manageable and moldable as required by the afterlife of fan fiction. But whatever, this is still “the best Star Wars since The Empire Strikes Back.”
Star Wars is on its way to the niche
But if we analyze the end at a level of emotional satisfaction there are no surprises of any kind; nothing refreshing or feels like a reward for the moments invested. Promises of returns like Thrawn’s in another series and a threat to recover the characters when Din officially adopts Grogu, although they have been father and son for all of them for years. There has been no real ambition for eight hours that have been like another procedure for one more restart for its protagonists. But for some reason, all this continues to please many of those who follow the series.
Fans hurt with the Abrams and Lucas trilogy, but willing to buy everything they hated in some moments of them. If R2-D2 turned into a crazy flying video game android, he is now fully assimilated into R5. In a scene, furthermore, he stretches the acceptable limit of using mouse androids with their characteristic little sound. There is a constant recycling of funny moments from the original saga that are repeated over and over again until they are stripped of meaning. There is an inability to create new pure moments, everything is conformism and commitment to characters from animated series for very coffee growers.
‘Star Wars’ goes from being something universal to closing in on itself, with less and less weight gained in its twists, appearances of characters and plots. Like the overblown ‘Andor’, everything goes into connecting this with the new or old movies or series, in explaining things and filling in the gaps, but there seems to be no effort to offer a story that stands on its own. ‘The Mandalorian’ has lost many viewers, but this path marks the pulse directly towards the brand’s niche, turning ‘Star Wars’ once again into a merchandising of expanded universe products as comics were in the 90s. A whim of fans very expensive
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