Film Review: The Mandalorian and Grogu

Want to watch basically just a no-stakes, super-long episode of The Mandalorian on a huge movie screen this summer while eating popcorn? You can.

A long time ago (3 years), in a galaxy far, far away (Hollywood)...

Dave Filoni and Jon Favreau had just finished writing season 4 of The Mandalorian TV show. But amid all of the hubbub of the 2023 Writers Guild of America strike, LucasFilm decided to hold off filming it and instead prioritized making a Mando movie. And that, my friends, is why The Mandalorian and Grogu exists. 

Once you learn this, everything all starts making a lot of sense. Here are the answers to a few questions I know you'll have right off the bat:

• Yes, it's essentially a two-hour episode of the TV show that's released in time for summer blockbuster season. 
• No, it doesn't reveal any interesting lore or invest in heavy world-building.
• Yes, it has the typical Filoni-esque easter eggs, fun cameos and Clone Wars-style easy, clean, G-rated storytelling.
• No, there's absolutely no reason this had to be a movie.
• Tragically no, (for me), the Armorer isn't in it. 

The plot

Our guy Din Djarin is enjoying life as a single dad and contracting for the New Republic. As per usual, he's tasked with a tit-for-tat mission: If he agrees to rescue Rotta the Hutt, son of Jabba the Hutt, his aunt and uncle will provide intel on the location of post-Imperial Warlord Commander Coin. 

He finds out that Rotta, voiced by an unrecognizable Jeremy Allan White, is a popular gladiator on the cyberpunk planet of Shakari. The whole plot revolves around Djarin rescuing and/or escaping from various monsters, creatures, and aliens and double-double crossing the Hutt aunt and uncles. 

There's not much to it, though it does get a little convoluted. It's the standard fare of any Mandalorian episode, really. Problem --> learn about McGuffin to fix said problem --> encounter difficulty --> Obtain McGuffin --> Watch Grogu eat something.

What makes a Star Wars movie a movie

Lest it sound like I'm one of those fans who pooh-poohs nearly every Star Wars entry into the canon, The Mandalorian and Grogu isn't a "bad" film, and this is coming from someone who used to post weekly Mando recaps here. There's just...not much to think about. And maybe that's okay! If the goal for LucasFilm was to launch a fun Star Wars movie for the summer that's just a popcorn movie, I have absolutely no qualms with that. There are definitely things to like about it (more below). 

But Star Wars movies, in general, are emotional gateways for fans. Watching Luke stare into the binary sunset on Tatooine, witnessing Anakin and Obi-Wan's final duel on Mustafar, and experiencing Jyn Erso and Cassian Andor's final embrace on Scarif— these are the moments that stick in our hearts and have followed us into adulthood. Even the polarizing Last Jedi had moments of awe, shock, and absolute sadness.

For a Star Wars movie to have no stakes goes against everything we love about the franchise. Djarin and Grogu get into some tough scrapes in this movie, but there is never a single second where you worry about them not coming out on top. There's even a scene where Grogu has to take care of Djarin for a few days as he lies unconscious recovering from a venomous dragonsnake bite (in a great parallel to Pedro Pascal as Joel recovering in The Last of Us — he's always a down-on-his-luck single dad, isn't he?). 

The things I liked

I've probably said this before, but I like any glimpse into the Star Wars universe writ large, and seeing gorgeous tableaus on the big screen is always a delight. I particularly enjoyed:

• The murky, swampy Hutt planet of Nal Hutta, including the rusty towers that folks will recognize from Jabba's palace on Tatooine. That little bit of continuity just hits different.
• Visiting the cyberpunk planet of Shakari was an interesting addition to the Star Wars "clime-as-planet" database. Though futuristic in shape and feel, it was actually inspired by 1920s Prohibition-era Chicago. It felt lived in and different from the hyper-modern versions of Coruscant we've seen over the years. 
• Ludwig Göransson, who also does the score for the TV show, really outdid himself with the Shakari theme. He takes the Eastern-style pipe and synth leitmotif we're familiar with and incorporates streaking synths and neon audio bursts that creates a Blade Runner-meets-Star Wars vibe. It's Outrun/vaporwave/synthpop but set in space. It slaps.
• The various monsters and beasts are a blast to watch — but then they better be, as it's the only action/plot device in the film. 
• If you live long enough, you get to watch your heroes become X-wing pilots. Seeing Sigourney Weaver don the iconic helmet and go careening through an alien planet was absolutely Ripley-level badassery.

At the end of the day, I'm glad I went and saw this on the big screen on the Thursday before Memorial Day. It was me and a handful of other hardcore Star Wars fans, and we all laughed and reveled together at certain points. It didn't affect me emotionally at all, but maybe that's not always necessary for a fun movie. Like I mentioned earlier, I appreciate any time spent in a galaxy far, far away.

I just may not be able to convince other folks to go with me. 

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The Math

Baseline score: 6/10

Bonuses: Martin Scorsese as an alien food stall owner; the killer synth score;

Penalties: No real soul; Grogu is experiencing Flanderization; absolutely zero stakes; I cannot take a Hutt with six-pack abs seriously.

Gonk droid count: 0

POSTED BY: Haley Zapal, NoaF contributor and lawyer-turned-copywriter living in Atlanta, Georgia. A co-host of Hugo Award-winning podcast Hugo, Girl!, she posts on Instagram as @cestlahaley. She loves nautical fiction, growing corn and giving them pun names like Timothee Chalamaize, and thinking about fried chicken.

Recap: Mandalorian Episode 24 — The Return

The final episode of season delivers the goods with incredible action and a weeks-long payoff that was definitely worth the wait.

The past week has been a wild ride for Mandalorian fans as conspiracy theories abounded. Is the Armorer a spy? What about Axe Woves? Will Din die? Will his memory be erased by the mindflayer?!?

Thankfully, none of these were true. 

We start right where the last episode leaves off, as Axe heads off to get reinforcements to help Bo-Katan fight their way out of the base. He flies through the atmosphere to the capital ships and gets it evacuated, but I’m not gonna lie — the entire time, I was just waiting him for to contact the Imperials. He doesn’t, thank god. 

The Return of Badass Mando

Lest you may have forgotten, Din Djarin is an incredible fighter, and his skills are on full display this episode. This finale isn’t unlike the last episode of The Last of Us, which also features Pedro Pascal dead-set on righting some wrongs with muscle and huff. 

He escapes capture and is rescued by IG-12/Grogu, and they decide to make their final stand against Moff Gideon. But he can’t do without the help of a classic Star Wars trope: an astromech plugged into a mainframe. 

R5-D4’s Redemption Arch

R5 has been in several episodes of The Mandalorian over the years, but it’s important to remember his origin story: the one Owen Lars & Luke almost bought that blew a top thanks to a bad motivator. R5 is nervous and twitchy, but he gets the job done.

In this episode, Din communicates with him to control the Phantom-Menace plasma screens, allowing him to tackle them piecemeal. Pesky mouse droids interrupt him, but he holds his ground before jetting off to safety. Good work, R5-D4! Once again, these fight scenes between Din and the Imperials are incredibly orchestrated, and an absolute joy to watch. 

It’s Raining Mandos

In the air, the Armorer returns with reinforcements as the Mandos go up against the jet troopers, and the aerial battle is wild, all over the place, and sheer, non-stop excitement. Seeing the Armorer fly into battle with her hammer and forge tools knocking the ever-loving hell out of bad guys was something I didn’t know I needed, but definitely did.

The visceral KA-THUNK as her hammer makes contact with a body that then falls from the sky — amazing. Bo-Katan also soars into the fray wielding the Darksaber, and nothing feels more natural. We also learn in this episode that plants are growing again on Mandalore, which means that the future is looking up for the planet's inhabitants. 

3 Praetorians and a Baby

Din and Grogu pass a hall of clones — including Gideon’s clones that we learn he’s been growing that have Jedi powers. (This ties together threads from the very first episode of the series — why he wanted baby Yoda in the first place).

Obviously disgusted, Din pulls the plug on these brewing clones, much to the imperial leader’s dismay. When they finally meet up with Gideon, Grogu gets separated from Din as he's dragged away by three Praetorian guards. Din, meanwhile, is stuck battling Gideon in his super powerful Beskar armor and things aren't looking good. Thank goodness for a Deus Ex Bo-Katan-icha, as she arrives to take over the battle so he can go rescue Grogu. 

This fight scene with Din, the three guards, and Grogu is wild — he manages to take them all on and defeat them, thanks to key force pushes by Grogu. They make a great team, and its interesting to note that Grogu isn’t using the force for attack — only for misdirection and keeping weapons just out reach. 

Still Flying Half a Ship

Axe Woves, doing his best Anakin Skywalker, is flying/crashing the light freighter down from the atmosphere on a direct course for Gideon’s base. Bo is still battling Gideon, who has crushed the Darksaber with his beskar fist, and now it’s her turn to be saved by Din.

As the ship comes crashing down around them, flames engulf everything — except for a small circle around Din, Grogu, and Bo. Grogu uses the force to create a safe bubble as Gideon falls away — but is he defeated? Are there more clones? Time will certainly tell, I have a feeling.

Din Finally Signs the Adoption Papers

After the battle, we’re back at the living waters of Mandalore as we witness Paz Vizsla's son take the creed. RIP Paz, but your son is following in your footsteps, and you died a hero's death. Din approaches with Grogu, asking for him to be confirmed as his apprentice. He’s still too young to speak, but could become an apprentice if a parent gave consent. So, he adopts Grogu, henceforth known as Din Grogu. Bo and the Armorer together relight the Grand Forge, and it’s clear that Mandalore has a future. 

What’s in Store for Our Duo?

Back at the New Republic base, Din meets up with Carson Teva to propose a business deal — he’ll work as an independent contractor/bounty hunter for the New Republic. It’s hinted at that future seasons of the show will revolve around the types of missions we saw in season one, but this time Din and Grogu will be a team. While at the bar, Grogu finally gets his chicken nuggets, and notices an assassin droid head, which they take. 

A Single Dad, Now Officially a Homeowner

That assassin droid head? It has the parts to repair IG-11 (finally). Our duo return to their homebase of Nevarro and present Greef Karga and the citizens with a restored-to-life IG-11. Greef then gives Din the keys to a cute little cabin on the outskirts of town, where he can raise his small green son when they’re not off gallivanting around the galaxy. 

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The Math

Baseline score: 9/10

Bonuses: + 3 Finally! The action we’ve been waiting for.  

Penalties: I have none this week!

Nerd coefficient: +3 Dave Filoni cameo in the bar! So many mouse droids. Phantom Menace-esque laser gates!

Gonk droid count: 1! In the final scene, whew.

POSTED BY: Haley Zapal, new NoaF contributor and lawyer-turned-copywriter living in Atlanta, Georgia. A co-host of Hugo-nominated podcast Hugo, Girl!, she posts on Instagram as @cestlahaley. She loves nautical fiction, vidalia onions, and growing corn and giving them pun names like Anacorn Skywalker. 

Recap: Mandalorian Episode 23 — Spies

The penultimate episode starts masterfully weaving together all the plot threads from this season and beyond — including ties to the sequel trilogy. 

Also, before this recap begins, I'd like to hold a moment of silence for the Satine Kryze erasure that continues to dominate season 3. 

Let's begin!

We start with a very cyber-punky cold open on the lower streets of Coruscant following Elia Kane — AKA Imperial Amnesty Officer G-68 — as she swaggers in her best Rick Deckard trench coat to meet an Imperial probe droid. She makes contact with Moff Gideon, her old boss, and FINALLY! 100% direct proof she’s a spy (mindflaying aside).

The Galaxy’s Most Evil Zoom Call

It’s important to talk about context again, for folks who may have forgotten. The Mandalorian takes place 9 years ABY (after the battle of Yavin, where the first Death Star was destroyed) or, as my brain makes sense of it, 5 years after the events of Return of the Jedi. After the Empire’s defeat, the New Republic moves in to take over, but there are still lots of systems loyal to the Empire. Roving bands of Imperial Warlords are jockeying for power.

Moff Gideon walks into a room featuring a meeting of the Shadow Council, a collection of these warlords. A LOT happens here — so buckle up. 

They’re discussing how to collaborate and prepare for the return of Grand Admiral Thrawn, who is the firm leadership they definitely need right now. Then, almost in passing, they discuss Project Necromancer. They don’t get into details, but word on the street is that this may have to do with the reappearance of Palpatine in Rise of Skywalker. Or maybe it’s the creation of Snoke — it remains to be seen. Either way, it’s thought that this will tie current Star Wars properties into the lore of the sequel trilogy, which it definitely needs. Dave Filoni is really doin’ the lord’s work on this one. Honestly, anything they come up with will be better than just "Somehow...Palpatine came back."

We also meet Captain Pellaeon in the flesh, and it’s a fantastic portrayal. A fan favorite like his boss Thrawn, he’s another EU legends-turned-canon character. Also present on the council is Brendol Hux — General Armitage Hux’s dad. 

Fun fact: Brian Gleeson plays Brendol, who is the real-life brother of Domhnall Gleeson, who portrayed Armitage in the sequels. You love to see this kind of continuity.

Gideon expresses his concerns about the Mandalorians retaking their home planet, and receives reinforcements from the council— including Chekhov’s Praetorian guards. 

Jets & Sharks: The Mandalorian Campsite

Bo-Katan returns to the Children of the Watch with her fleet and army, and it’s not an instant party. The two clans are wary of each other at first, but a relatively easy detente occurs as the Armorer welcomes them and plans a feast. Bo has a lot of work to do to get these two camps on the same page. 

IG-11 Is Dead. Long Live IG-12!

You may have forgotten that IG-11 was in the process of trying to be restored by the Anzellians. I know I did! But they did their job — kind of. They created a new version that’s essentially a mobile exoskeleton a la Krang’s android body.

IG-12 is to be driven by you guessed it — Grogu, in an adorable scene that gives us a little language from him. He can press a button and exclaim “yes” or “no” in ways that are almost entirely comedic. Man, just thinking about how Grogu can combine extra-human mechanical prowess with Force ability gets me real excited about what’s to come.

Mandalorians Returning to Mandalore

Bo rallies a strike team to begin the first reconnaissance of their home planet as the entire fleet leaves Nevarro. As they search for the Great Forge on the devastated Mandalore, they encounter a roving landship (Locomotion with no electronics or technology! Actual sails and winches and ropes! Seeing this kind of archaic technology in Star Wars is stellar, and I'm 100% here for it.) with surviving Mandalorians, its inhabitants still loyal to Kryze.

She explains how she surrendered after the Night of a Thousand Tears and negotiated a ceasefire with Gideon — but he betrayed her and purged Mandalore, the Darksaber in his possession. 

Many of the survivors are ill, from what I can only assume is scurvy, as they've been at-land for what appears to be a while, and their first question to Bo and company is "Do you have food?"

A Knight in Shining Beskar

We get a touching moment between Bo and Dinn as he finally understands what led to the purge. He reaffirms his belief in her leadership — as well as her loyalty and character. “Your song is not yet written, I will serve you until it is.” Man, what a guy!

Meanwhile, Paz Viszla and Axe Woves are bored and decide to let their egos take the wheel and battle it out on the landship as they speed toward the former capital. Grogu steps in to stop them, his cuteness overpowering their rage. Here, we see the Jedi in him coming out — and not the rigid honor-bound Mandalorian — and honestly, often toxic — behavior he’s been exposed to. He really may turn out to be the best of both worlds. 

Ambush on Mandalore

Our heroes are attacked by a huge dragon creature (but sadly not a mythosaur) and abandon the landship, taking to the ruins of the Great Forge. Then, another ambush — this time by those flying stormtrooper-type soldiers we saw earlier in the season. An epic ground fight ensues, reminiscent of Battlefront sorties. Turns out that Moff Gideon has made this part of Mandalore into his secret Imperial base. 

A VERY Intense Conclusion

As they get surrounded, Din is separated and captured — and we see Gideon appear in his own Mandalorian-type armor. He plans to mine the planet for its beskar to make new, more powerful Darktrooper suits. He also speaks of combining Jedi, cloning, and Mandalorians to create an unstoppable fighting force — which ties together why he wanted Grogu in the first place back in season one. Maybe he wants to make a Jedi clone army? Is that even possible? What type of balance would THAT bring to the force? I have so many questions. 

As Din is carried off, the remaining Mandalorians get to work trying to escape — and our boy Paz Visla makes a final stand so everyone can escape, his machine gun overheating in a molten glow. He takes on three Praetorian guards — the Chekhov's ones mentioned in the opening! — sacrificing himself in the process. Say what you will about The Last Jedi, but the Snoke throne room battle scene with these red boys was absolutely incredible. It's great to see them again.

As is common with a lot of penultimate episodes, it appears everything is all but lost, our heroes in an impossible situation. It'll be interesting to see how much happens in the finale.

Next week, we may not get our long-awaited Thrawn episode, as he's been teased in the recent Ahsoka trailer, but we are inching close towards his appearance, it's going to be a game-changer. 

The Math

Baseline score: 7/10

Bonuses: + 3 Pellaeon! Baby Yoda in a Krang bodysuit! More Anzellian screen time! Incredible battle scenes!

Penalties: - 1 A LOT happens in this episode, but it also flies by. It’s over before you can barely blink.

Nerd coefficient: +4 Effortlessly tying together EU-Legends lore with sequel trilogy plot lines and characters is fantastic.

Gonk droid count: 0. Sadly, not a single gonk droid in this installment.

POSTED BY: Haley Zapal, new NoaF contributor and lawyer-turned-copywriter living in Atlanta, Georgia. A co-host of Hugo-nominated podcast Hugo, Girl!, she posts on Instagram as @cestlahaley. She loves nautical fiction, Vidalia onions, and growing corn and giving them pun names like Anacorn Skywalker. 

Recap: Mandalorian Episode 22 — Guns for Hire

Folks looking for plot advancement may be disappointed. Folks who relish getting to be immersed for a weird and wacky hour in the Star Wars Universe will be thrilled.

There’s a fine line between superfluous fan service and paying homage with a well fleshed-out world with species, robots, and lore that you love. I think this episode is the former. Of course it will be (just like this entire season, honestly) divisive, but I had fun. 

I’ve seen folks complaining about how so many episodes this season have been light on plot. And while they’re not wrong, they may be kind of missing the point. Do y’all remember how this show has always been basically just a monster-or-quest-of-the-week engine? How many times has Din needed some random piece of equipment for his ship? A lot.

Fish Tales: Romeo & Juliet

We open on a Quarren ship being overtaken by Mandalorian pirates. Yep, that’s right — the Beskar armor found lodged in Gideon’s ship last week? It wasn’t a plant, it was this band of Mandalorians led by Axe Woves for hire.

Their quarry? Well, we have here a classic Romeo-and-Juliet love story — the Mon Calamari and the Quarren have traditionally been enemies. The Mon Cal’s vice-roy dad wants his son back from this love affair, and the Mandalorians, led by Axe Woves, grab him.

Sidenote: Hearing these two aquatic species with mellifluous, posh British accents kind of took me out of it. Call me old fashioned, but I like my Mon Cals with garbly, gasping-for-air, barking voices a la Admiral Ackbar — not like they’re stepping out of Savile Row with a fitted suit and carrying-an-umbrella brogue.

Bo & Din Go Looking for Mandalorians, Meet Royalty

En route to the Mando encampment on Plazir-15, Bo and Din get tractor-beamed to a docking port. A goth protocol droid & astromech unit direct them to the planetary plane train, where they’re told they can’t meet with the Mandos without approval. 

As the enter an opulent palace, a huge white door opens with a hiss, and for a brief moment, you wonder if it’s a trap — the framing is near identical to the scene in Empire when Darth Vader surprises our heros on Cloud City. 

We're treated to a long table featuring the most diverse dinner party at Star Wars i’ve ever seen — it’s got everyone! Ithorians, Sullstans! Bith! The Frog people from last season! It's Lewis Carroll's Star Wars Dinner Party, and I'm here for it.

Dave Filoni at It Again With the Guest Stars

At the head of the table are none other than Lizzo and Jack Black — playing the Duchess of Plaizir-15 and Captain Bombardier, a former Imperial and Amnesty Program graduate, respectively. Together, they rule the planet, and well, they need help. 

(But first, as an aside, this was just fun. Seeing Grogu LEAP into Lizzo’s arms for a little sardine was just wonderful, and 100% cute-overload-to-the-max. Jack Black is also delightful, gaining even more nerd cred fresh off his role as Bowser in the Mario movie.)

Before Din and Bo can meet with the Mandos, though, they have to help with Plaizir-15’s rehabilitated battle droid problem. To get started, they meet with Commissioner Helgait, played by Christopher Lloyd, Back to the Future’s crackpot inventor Doc Brown himself! From him, they learn that the planet’s reprogrammed droids are going haywire and wreaking havoc. (Including a rogue hibachi droid, who starts spinning knives in his arms a la General Grievous.)

The  Hardest Working Species in the Galaxy & Recertified droids

Our heroes venture down into the belly of the planet to meet with the Ugnaughts who build and program the droids. Bo tries to address them but is flatly rebuffed. Din, on the other hand, knows this species, and addresses them as a friend of Kuiill, using their turns of phrase (I have spoken). Thanks to Din’s tact, they get the list of malfunctioning droids. See, he's not all muscle!

Their first stop is a loading dock that has a team of Certified Pre-owned Battle Droids™ carrying cargo. Din invites trouble and finds a rogue one, and gets more than he bargained for. (He didn’t have to watch those wrist rockets, though). He did, however, get saved yet again by Bo as they take the battle droid down in a city that has serious Coruscant-meets-Blade-Runner vibes.

Where Every Droid Knows Your Name

I don’t know about you, but I’ve spent my entire life wondering why, at the Mos Eisley Cantina, R2-D2 and C3P0 aren’t allowed in. (“We don’t serve their kind here,” shouts Wuher the bartender.) This episode doesn’t answer that question, but it does flip the conceit on its head: We see our heroes walk into a droid-only bar called The Resistor and you can practically hear the record needle scratch as every metallic head in the place looks up at them. 

Din, who was so understanding and polite to the Ugnaughts, plays bad cop here as he threatens the bartender for information. Bo plays good cop and gets them the whereabouts of the other droids.

Solving the CSI Whodunnit of the Week

After pulling a battle droid from a robot morgue (A ROBOT MORGUE!), they learn that all the rogue droids had partaken of the same batch of nepenthe, a mecha-vitamin-enriched sort of oil kombucha for mechanicals back at the bar. And its source? Good ol’ Commisioner Helgait. 

Our duo confront him and we witness a fascinating monologue about being a Separatist, loving Count Dooku, and mistrusting the Republic, then the Empire, and now the New Republic. Still not sure what his endgame was, but Bo stops him before he can shut down all the reformed battle droids, and he’s off to exile on the planet’s moon.

In a supremely silly but sweet scene, the Duchess present Bo and Din with the key to the city, and knights — KNIGHTS! — Grogu. I didn’t know that I needed to see Lizzo tap baby Yoda on the shoulders and dubbing him a sir, but I did. I really did. 

The Transitive Property of the Darksaber

Side quest completed, Bo and Din can now go catch up with the Mandalorians. Bo challenges Axe Woves to a battle, and takes care of business. But it’s still not enough — she has to have won the Darksaber in battle for her people to follow as her leader. 

Din, who doesn’t like the damn thing anyway, proposes something: Because he was defeated by that robot eyeball a few episodes back, and Bo then defeated it — by the transitive property, the Darksaber now belongs to her.

We love a humble king and his Mandalorian royalty BFF.

The Math

Baseline Score: 6/10

Bonuses: + 3 Battle Droids! Fun cameos! Bo-Katan (finally) gets the Darksaber!

Penalties: - 1 An episode-long detour into Plaizir-15 may annoy some folks.

Nerd Coefficient: +5 Clone Wars fanatics will have a field day with this one. 

Gonk droid count: + 1 Honestly, there should have been more in the droid bar, they work hard and probably play hard.

POSTED BY: Haley Zapal, new NoaF contributor and lawyer-turned-copywriter living in Atlanta, Georgia. A co-host of Hugo-nominated podcast Hugo, Girl!, she posts on Instagram as @cestlahaley. She loves nautical fiction, bland white cheeses, growing corn and giving them pun names like Timothee Chalamaize.

Recap: Mandalorian Episode 20—The Foundling

A fun monster-of-the-week episode filled with tender moments and an incredible cameo.

Episode 20 of The Mandalorian opens back on the Nevarro covert as its denizens engage in some good, old-fashioned Mandalorian Crossfit. They’re warriors, so it makes sense that rugged training and weapons handling is most likely a daily part of life. It just seemed a little funny watching them target practice into the lake all at once.

What We Talk About When We Talk About Baby Yoda

It’s also time, we learn, that Grogu begins his Mandalorian training. Spurred on by his proud dad — and encouraged by Bo-Katan, whose father did the same thing — he absolutely embarrasses what is probably a 9-year-old while sparring. Turns out you never, ever bring a Jedi to a Mando fight.

Jokes aside, this scene really made me think critically about Grogu in a way that I hadn’t in a few episodes. His cosmic cuteness can often overshadow him, sometimes to the show’s detriment. We’re starting to get glimpses of him with agency, not just a sweet silent young thing that Mando adoringly totes around. 

He has Jedi training, which he willfully left. Now, he’s following in his father’s footsteps joining another, equally arcane and weird religious cult. But does he really want this? Or is it just out of love for his dad? Will he eventually don a helmet as he commits to the creed, depriving us — and Disney’s profits forecast! — of his huge eyes and adorable little face? 

Hello, Monster of the Week!

As if the defeated 9-year-old isn’t already humiliated by losing to a 50-year-old, 12-inch little green guy, he gets snatched up by a monstrous, dragon-like pterosaur. The adult Mandalorians fly out in pursuit Iron Man-style, only to run out of rocket fuel a few miles out from camp. But know who’s smart? Bo-Katan, who wisely had hopped in her ship to chase after it. She also then organizes a rescue party, like the badass she is. Have I mentioned how much I love Bo-Katan? I love Bo-Katan.

Auntie Armorer’s Bring-Your-Foundling-to-Work Day

While the search party sets off, Grogu stays behind. Though he’s not fighting, he’s getting another lesson — one in Mandalorian culture. She crafts for him a piece of beskar armor, in a truly touching scene. Everyone loves Grogu.

Grogu Has Trauma! 

The sparks from the Armorer’s forge trigger what is clearly Grogu’s PTSD from Order 66. Blasters, lightsabers, vehicle changes, and a harrowing escape from Coruscant mix together at a frenetic pace. We’d known from previous seasons that Grogu survived the purge, but this episode shows the origin story. The thought of how this traumatic event haunts him is tragic, and helps to further flesh out his character, helping to make him more real. Grogu is cute AND contains multitudes, in turns out.

Dave Filoni is a Damn Saint

When I tell you I SCREAMED when we find out that Grogu was rescued by a Jedi named Kelleran Beq played by AHMED BEST — the man who played Jar Jar Binks in the prequel trilogy — I am not exaggerating.

Ahmed faced incredible backlash and hate for his role as the awkward Gungan, causing him emotional distress. In 2020, he became the host of a game show for kids called Jedi Temple Challenge, in the role of — you guessed it — Jedi Master Kelleran Beq. Dave Filoni did the damn thing. He made another awesome thing canon.

Bo-Katan Looks to the Future

After successfully returning home with the rescued child (and a very fun action sequence as they chase down the pterosaur) Bo-Katan speaks with the Armorer while she forges a new piece of armor for her. She chooses the mythosaur sigil for her new pauldron — a sign that she’s starting to move away from Nite-Owl clan. She then confesses to seeing a mythosaur, but it’s not entirely clear that the Armorer believes her. Also unclear is whether Bo will join the Children of the Watch — we’ll have to wait and see. 

The Math

Baseline Score: 7/10

Bonuses: +3 Carl Weathers directed this episode! Who’d have thunk!; When the pterosaur got eaten by another monster it was a fun nod to Qui-Gon Jinn's maxim “There’s always a bigger fish."; This episode passes the Bechdel test! Not a terribly common occurrence in Star Wars.

Penalties: -2 I laughed out loud when Bo-Katan took off her helmet and her hair was COMPLETELY PERFECT and straight; Bringing the three bird foundlings home to the covert was cute but definitely silly.  

Nerd Coefficient: +10 Seeing Ahmed Best save the internet’s favorite tiny Mandalorian foundling is maybe the coolest thing to happen to Star Wars in a while.

POSTED BY: Haley Zapal, new NoaF contributor and lawyer-turned-copywriter living in Atlanta, Georgia. A co-host of Hugo-nominated podcast Hugo, Girl!, she posts on Instagram as @cestlahaley.

Mondays on Mandalore: Rise of the Cuteness

I, too, would die for Baby Yoda

Welcome to Mondays on Mandalore. Unlike Mandalorians, this will not be a quiet, stoic affair. It will, however, discuss The Mandalorian, and in doing so, assume you have seen same. So there are spoilers.

Here's the million-credit question: why is Boba Fett a Thing? He pulls one clever trick in tracing the Falcon, has a handful of lines, and then gets dumped into the Sarlacc. So why is he this great cult icon?

In my opinion, it's actually due to that lack of information - we didn't know much at all about Boba, some comics and books in the old Expanded Universe aside - until the prequels came around and gave us a big ol' heaping backstory. Did this help the character at all? It did not. The grandeur lay in the mystery.

So when The Mandalorian was announced, I was apprehensive - how would a show entirely about someone akin to Fett work? Would it be able to resist the urge to tell us everything? So far, so good - and there are reasons to be optimistic that it will keep doing so.

We find this in the roots of the show - Westerns, mostly, and the modern western, Justified (which is one of my favorite shows of all time). There are numerous moments in the first three episodes of the Madalorian that are straight out of Justified, or the fabled 'Dollars' trilogy (also a personal favorite). Both Dollars and Justified relied on tight writing, stoic heroes and moral grey areas.

So if we are talking about why the mystery works, I think the morality needs to work just as well. In all these examples, there are people living in an amoral world, an are confronted with choices - sometimes cut-and-dried examples of right and wrong, but everyone around them always chooses wrong, sometimes grey, but the choice is always there.

This has been thus far my favorite progression in the show. We know our hero is a bounty hunter, and they usually just, ya know, hunt bounties, without thinking about or caring who or why. We learn in Episode 3 that he is supporting a family of sorts - his Mandalorian cadre, with him being the only one visible at a time.

So he has motivation to -as he does at first - just take the Beskar and walk away.

This is initially set against a droid bounty hunter, whose cold willingness to off the cutest thing in recorded history is to be expected. It's also not a stretch for 'Mando' to drop the droid and bring the Yodaling in alive.

But what is a little harsher is the willingness of literally every living bounty hunter to kill it, along with Mando. Again, it becomes about making the right choice, even when no one else is willing to.

Even if that choice is primarily motivated by cuteness.

-DESR

 Dean is the author of the 3024AD series of science fiction stories. You can read his other ramblings and musings on a variety of topics (mostly writing) on his blog. When not holed up in his office tweeting obnoxiously writing, he can be found watching or playing sports, or in his natural habitat of a bookstore.