Spoilers for The Mandalorian Season 2 Finale
I haven't written much about Star Wars on this blog, which is strange since like many people I have a lot thoughts about Star Wars. I do find it incredible that the most popular thing Disney has done with Star Wars is the Disney+ show, The Mandalorian. Though it also makes sense. The animated The Clone Wars became more well liked than the prequels and even redeemed them in many peoples' eyes. The Mandalorian has the same executive producer as The Clone Wars, Dave Filoni, who is seen as the heir apparent to George Lucas. And with the divisive reaction to Rian Johnson's The Last Jedi and further negative feelings towards J.J. Abrams' The Rise of Skywalker, The Mandalorian has the benefit of being outside what Disney has done with the Sequel Trilogy. It doesn't reactionary the way The Rise of Skywalker did, nor is it deconstructive like The Last Jedi. It's a show about a guy in cool armor and his cute baby.
But in the season 2 finale, a major cameo and story turn caused many to rejoice and provoked cynicism in others. Luke Skywalker (a de-aged Mark Hamill) cut through Moff Gideon's (Giancarlo Esposito) Death Troopers before taking Baby Yoda-a.k.a Grogu- to train him in the ways of the force. Fans were happy to see the "real" Luke back after The Last Jedi showed us a broken Luke, no longer the hopeful young man of the original trilogy. Others felt Luke's appearance was a further rejection by Disney of Johnson's objective in The Last Jedi, which was to deconstruct both the Star Wars mythology as well as the mythic hero archetype Luke came to embody.
On a surface level Luke's appearance does feel like a retreat back in to nostalgia and providing people what they wanted in the sequel trilogy, i.e. Luke being a "badass." But as Alden Diaz, a user on Twitter, laid out in a thread, Luke in The Mandalorian does connect with Luke in The Last Jedi. I've posted a link to the
I agree with Diaz, especially since in The Last Jedi Luke he got caught up in his own image: "I was Luke Skywalker, Jedi master." And in The Mandalorian, when he's chopping up those droids, with his cloak up, he is definitely playing in to the image of the mythic hero. Diaz says,
"We are witnessing the man gain the mythical status & aura that make him feel invincible. It’s underlining his fall"
and that Luke's taking on Grogu after Ahsoko Tano refused underlines how Luke still believes the Jedi's old ways can work.
I have to admit, in the moment, seeing Luke the way we remember him from Return of the Jedi really got me. While I'm not against the direction Johnson went with Luke in The Last Jedi I still want to see more of what happened in between the trilogies and what got him to that breaking point with Ben Solo. I'm also wondering where Grogu was during the events of the sequel trilogy.
There's also the question of where the show goes from here. The relationship between Grogu and the titular Mandalorian, Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal), has been a huge factor in the show's popularity. People love that little green guy, including me, so I his absence will have to weigh on Din going forward.I assume the taking back of Mandalore will be the main arc going forward. And I guess Din and Bo- Katan (Katee Sackhoff) still have to fight for the Dark Saber.
And even before Season 3, we are getting The Book of Boba Fett in December 2021. It definitely feels like we've brought the Expanded Universe to live action. Before, anything specifically focused on Boba Fett would be a book or a comic. And Luke rebuilding the Jedi Order was also a ongoing thing in the old Expanded Universe.
So, what are your thoughts on The Mandalorian finale and the direction the series may be going in? Are you excited for a Boba Fett show? Comment below and let me know.
No comments:
Post a Comment