flowers and convicts - thrills, travel, extravagance, rebellion
minu ga hana - Japan, east and south-east Asia, soft, girly
About:
My hobbies on tumblr are ranting about stuff no one cares about but me, and hoarding pretty pictures and quotes. You’re welcome to follow and interact! Just don’t feel bad if you find me not very social - I’m like that.
These are my fandoms - I don’t care if ships are platonic or romantic just as long as they’re sea-worthy.
The editing of this video is hysterical and genius- they switch between so many editing styles to reflect exactly what kind of thing they're going for in each segment its GREAT.
I once posted a question in r/japanlife and was shocked at how rude people were. Yeah, I know it's reddit (I mean this post should end here, it's true). But I was gobsmacked. I posted a totally non-controversial question about living in japan in a subreddit for people living in Japan, and many of the responses were rude or dramatic. Like some people were telling me to contact the police, and others were making fun of me for being concerned at all. I doubled down because it was totally legit for me to be concerned, not "contact the police" level, but enough to ask for advice from people who might have had a similar experience to mine. But a handful of these guys kept insisting that I was expecting them to psychically know the answer to my question. I wasn't. I was hoping that if someone DID have an idea what the answer to my question MIGHT be, that they would share it. The end, full stop. I explained that to them but no good. I had apparently made a major error by not knowing everything about all variables that can crop up while living in Japan, and this got me lots and lots of down votes. I have not posted in the group since.
But I was pissed off enough to wonder if I'd really been such a moron, or if this subreddit was just Like That. So I joined and watched. The subreddit is for sure Like That. And there was just a post today that reminded me of it. A guy asked an innocent, slightly anxious question. A few people gave helpful answers, the same answer I would have given. Problem is, the answer is something only the OP can do, and they are also likely panicking over nothing. This is very human! And like me, OP is living in a country different from where they grew up, and new adult problems are complicated by culture and language barriers, which makes panicking a lot easier. Lit all this guy needs is for commenters to say "Call X, and don't panic, this is probably not a big deal."
But here they come, that trusty group of know-it-alls, to assure OP that they're an idiot. They're worried about this? What a moron! Who'd be worried! Anyone with a brain knows this is not even a real issue! And also, OP hasn't made that call to X yet? They posted without making the call first? What a lazy-ass! Imagine, asking for advice before doing a thing! Unbelievable!
It's so exactly what they did to me that I just had to laugh. And vent on Tumblr lol.
I wonder what they get out of it. Trolling at least is kinda fun. This isn't trolling, or if it is, it's very dull trolling. I guess they get a sense of superiority, but like, you feel superior because you think you'd handle a vague situation that a complete stranger posted about on the internet better than they are...? Well, aren't we easily impressed!
"I'm redditor johnnyjimbob12345 and I ALWAYS know what to do at any given time and NEVER panic about anything, and it should be EASY for everyone to be as unflappable as me." but if everyone can do it then it's not really that impressive is it. and also I have no proof that they are unflappable in the first place. I suspect they flap a lot.
anyway nice to know this subreddit does this to everyone for no reason. and that reddit is still reddit. it can be pretty great, but when it sucks, boy does it suck
some hyper famous artists like Van Gogh transcend overratedness and become underrated because they're so normalized. Like I'll look at a van Gogh and I'm like wait this really is amazing you guys don't get it
Watched season 3. Very glad I didn't watch it before. It wasn't good. Not as bad as those Book of Boba Fett episodes, and the finale was a little better than the rest of the season. The finale should be the best part, or at least on par with other good parts, so that's in its favor.
But on the whole, yeah, it was disappointing. The movie was better. I'm glad watching The Mandalorian and Grogu is what reminded me of this series and not deciding to catch up on season 3, which has been on my watchlist for years now. If I'd watched season 3 first, I probably wouldn't have bothered watching the movie because it was just so meh.
The bits I hated most about the Book of Boba Fett episodes, namely all the Marvel-esque one-liners, the non-stop empty and repetitive dialogue, and the many scenes of people standing around planning stuff, continued in season 3 of the Mandalorian, sad to say. But not as bad. I don't know why, exactly, this season felt that it was necessary that Din always have someone around to talk to. He'd always been a man of few words, but apparently if you put him around Bo-Katan or someone he will fill the silence with vapidity. They both will. Actually, Bo-Katan was worse.
In Boba Fett I thought Din didn't seem like himself. In season 3, he was characterized better in my opinion, but still a far cry from the character I enjoyed so much in season 2. Maybe that is who he really is, and it just wasn't obvious when he didn't have other characters around as much to expose him. If so, that's too bad. I liked the Din Djarin I thought he was in season 2 much better. I'm going to go on as if that's the real Din Djarin.
The story was boring. I like the Mandalorians, and I think the arc of Bo-Katan regaining power and restoring Mandalore is a good one. It just didn't need to be the WHOLE story. I liked the previous seasons with the world-hopping and the different locales and stand-alone adventures. I have nothing against more epic plotlines, but they do tend to fall apart more easily. This wasn't exactly epic, but it was heading that way, and I think it was the totally wrong direction for this series.
The Mandalorian started as a show about a single guy who meets a single kid and they have random adventures together. Adding all this other stuff killed that. Even though Din and Grogu were reunited, they hardly spent time together. In the scene where Din officially adopts Grogu, I felt so regretful that we hadn't gotten any build-up to it. Din had already seemed like he thought of himself as Grogu's dad. What if he had doubts? What if that had been his emotional arc this season - working up the courage to accept that he really was Grogu's parent and there was no more foisting him on Luke Skywalker or leaving him behind on a random safe-seeming planet? That would have been great. I don't expect sentimentality from The Mandalorian. That's not the point. Din was among Mandalorians, some of whom had children. He helped save Paz Vizsla's son. He encouraged Grogu to spar with the other kids. He could have bonded with Paz and gotten over their greivances through talking about parenthood, which would have also given Paz's death more impact. Maybe he'd have had a moment with Ragnar later to reflect on what the boy lost. There should have been ample opportunity for Din to grow this season but the showrunners were just like nah. Let's make an epic about Bo-Katan.
And look I don't hate Bo-Katan. I liked her a lot in season 2. I liked her through most of this as well, but I did also find her really annoying sometimes, the way she seemed constantly pissed off, or when she was just lolling around having a pity party on her throne... Fortunately she improved. I really enjoyed her saving Din from himself the cyborg creature, and when he later says he serves her, I enjoyed that moment as well (but I wish we'd seen their friendship develop more beforehand - just being in proximity to each other in fights is not character development). I know Bo-Katan has a history in Star Wars much longer than Din, and I don't mind her story showing up here, but it should not have overshadowed Din and Grogu. That was really annoying in the same way that Din and Grogu overshadowing Boba Fett in Book of Boba Fett was annoying.
I'm an X-men fan, I'm used to epic crossovers and characters showing up all over the place and yadda yadda. It's nearly always bad. Too many competing storylines. Stuff that readers were looking forward to inevitably gets lost in the sauce, or if it does manage to worm into the main event, it's a ghost of what fans wanted. But this method makes money because it SOUNDS cool. It is a clusterfuck but on paper it looks impressive so people buy into it. I hate it so much. Please leave The Mandalorian alone, entire rest of the Star Wars franchise.
Back to the show. There was that episode that was nearly entirely the scientist and Elia. I would not have minded this if it had been half the episode, or even more preferably, a story that bounced between them and Din and Grogu. But nope, they got a whole episode. For no reason. Seriously, WHAT did that episode give us??? Absolutely nothing. Din getting the piece of crystal from Mandalore happens off-screen, the reunion between Din and Grogu happens in an entirely show - but Moff Gideon's ex-scientist and secret spy kid get a WHOLE episode dedicated to them doing stuff that does not matter at all. Elia is a spy, surprise surprise, she tells Moff Gideon that Mandalorians are interfering with him and that's the last we see of her. The scientist gets his mind flayed, poor guy. Does not matter. A total waste of an episode.
As for location. We're on Nevarro. We're on Mandalore. We're on Coruscant. Back to Nevarro. Back to Mandalore. Back to Nevarro. Geez.
And the one excursion elsewhere, to the world that seemed like the Capitol from the Hunger Games, was def not a fav. I have no idea who this episode was for, but definitely not me. The whole season was too brightly colored for the Star Wars aesthetic I'm used to and def for the aesthetic on The Mandalorian, and this episode was especially so. While intentional, it was really glaring. And the message of that episode... I mean... again it was more pointless junk. Like the writers really had nothing in mind for The Mandalorian so they were just pulling random scripts they hadn't used from other stuff and adapting it for this show. It was really bad. Like an elementary school stage play tbh.
And what was with Din Djarin in this episode! He hated droids in season 1, but then Kuiil was like, "But have you considered it's actually their programmers you should hate??" and Din was like "omg ur totally right" and after that appeared to cease hating droids. He let Motto's work on his ship and his remaining reservations seemed dashed by the "nurse" robot helping him survive and then sacrificing itself so the rest of them could escape. That was season 1. So what's happening in season 3? Din is kicking and provoking and insulting droids left and right. He's a fucking bigot! lmao. It's honestly not funny, I hated this Din Djarin. Even when he hated droids in season 1, we never saw him be so aggressive. And he learns nothing - but later in the season he's praising R5 and seems totally ok with droids again. Like did the writers just have no idea what show they were working on??? God I haaaated this episode.
The one kinda cool thing about that episode was Din making nice with the ugnauts and remembering Kuiil. I had wished Kuiil would matter in season 2 (I mean, I wish he hadn't died in season 1), so it was nice for him to finally get referenced. It wasn't an amazing scene, but it was nice. And the annoying part is, Din's ability to adjust and filter himself to communciate with the ugnaughts stood in stark contrast to his inability to do so with the droids. There could have been an arc for him there, but again, the writers went NAH.
Oh and the PIRATES. They were so dumb. Pirates of the Caribbean knock offs. Why the hell did the pirate captain wait until his ship had been nearly destroyed to fire on Nevarro??? Also it was funny to see Greef Karga address his whole town and it's like maybe sixty people there lol.
The Darksaber went down as I expected: Din used it a little and unimpressively (the coolest thing he did with it happened in Book of Boba Fett and that was when he cut his own leg with it) and then gave it to Bo-Katan. Whoooooooo let it get broken by Moff Gideon. I assume it will turn up again (I mean if there's ever a movie where they decide it shall be relevant), magically fixed. But yeah what an underwhelming cool weapon. Can writers writer anymore? Inquiring minds want to know. (Very much reminded me of when Nightcrawler had a whole solo series where he wound up with the Soulsword hidden in his own soul because he was "so pure" and then it was totally forgotten about until Illyana needed it and so she just got it out of him. I guess he was a security vault for her lol. Lmao. Fuck you Nightcrawler fans! as usual)
And the way Din gave the Darksaber to Bo-Katan... I dunno about it. His logic is, she beat the buy who beat him, so she's the rightful owner. This probably means that the cyborg was temporarily the rightful owner of the Darksaber since it beat Din and just didn't know it. I guess that's fine... but why didn't he just give the Darksaber to her then and there? Well, maybe he didn't think of it. But I do think it's kind of silly that to own the Darksaber you have to fight for it, and any fight will do. If it's a ritual then only ritual combat should count. It's not really that I wanted Din and Bo-Katan to battle... I just thought this was silly.
Also silly was the whole "ohhhh my Mandalorian friends all left me, they're following this other guy now and being mercenaries, waaaah" turning into "Guys can't we all just get alone?" "But you don't have the sword" "Here Bo you can have the sword" "look guys I have the sword" "We instantly follow you again" like talk about killing the tension
Also for a cursed planet, Mandalore is teeming with life. There are monsters. Cyborgs. The mythosaur. And uhh some Mandalorians, turns out they're there too. Idk. Seemed kinda dumb.
Dumbest of all was Moff Gideon. I did say the finale was the best part of the season, and it was - but I mean the competition wasn't exactly stiff. The finale was the best because Din finally remembered about Grogu, Grogu got to fight, and there were some cool battles. Paz's death and the guy who flies the ship into Gideon's base were good. (By the way I completely forgot R5 existed until this episode.)
However, Moff Gideon. Moff fucking Gideon got neutered like whoa. He'd never been more than a knock-off villain, but Idk I guess he was a teeny bit scary before. But the minute he sees the Mandalorian contingent, he starts MONOLOGUING. And what's he monologuing about? Well, he is expounding the central mystery of the show: why did he want Grogu in the first place!? Oh he wanted his blood to make clones of himself that could use the Force! Do we get the fun of solving the mystery? No, Moff Gideon's just gonna tell us point blank in the final episode. Is it even a good mystery? No. To be fair I think we all already knew this was what Gideon was up to. But still. The hunt for Grogu hadn't mattered all season. Gideon suddenly going off about at this point felt very "We need to wrap up all the holes we forgot about when we were too busy writing that episode about how Din is an anti-droid bigot." And worse, it closed the book on the hunt for Grogu. I mean so did Gideon's death... but it could have been that Gideon wasn't the only one hunting Grogu. Yeah I want him to keep being hunted :P It was fun.
The Armorer is one of my favs in this show. She did manage to hold up this season despite how lackluster it is. But in my opinion, since she appears to have special knowledge and skill that no one else has, it makes no sense for her to join in so many things. She should stay where the covert is except in really extreme circumstances, like the finale. It made sense that she would got to Mandalore to look for the original forge. Other than that I don't know why she was involved so much. And the back and forth with her and Bo-Katan could have been so cool and just wasn't.
By the way, the nurse droid. Like Kuiil, a character that hadn't mattered since season 1 is suddenly relevant, but also not relevant, because in the end the story goes in a totally different direction and Din never goes back with the parts for it, instead settling for R5 (stupidly). So they had to do something about that, so Din just finds parts at the New Republic base or whatever, coincidentally, and they make the nurse droid into Greef Karga's new marshal, like this is some kind of justice for it. I don't think this droid needed justice. I think it needed to be left in peace/pieces. Lol. Just unnecessary. Am I really supposed to be emotionally hung up on this nurse droid, when the entire season has barely allowed Din and Grogu a moment together?
And speaking of Grogu. WHYYYY did Din bring him along in the finale. The other kids stayed behind. Din was fine letting Grogu stay back with the Mandalorian kids earlier this season. Why bring Grogu now? He was in crazy danger the whole time. I didn't get the point of the robot suit either. I think they did explain it but I forgot and I'm sure I thought it was silly. It was CUTE! Like I loved watching Din deal with having a seven-foot-tall preschooler on his hands. But that was a short comedic moment, and Grogu kept on in that suit for a looong time. I just don't get it. However, Grogu's angry voice when he saw Din in danger and began hitting "no" over and over WAS really adorable and kinda made it worth it.
The worst part was learning nothing more of Grogu this season. End of season 2, he's leaving to become a jedi. Boba Fett, Luke is letting Grogu decide to continue studying to be a jedi, or return to Din. Grogu picks Din. But... he keeps using the Force. Is that ok??? Is it ok for him to keep doing this without training? If he's going to primarily use the Force to fight, then shouldn't he stay with the jedi??? Especially since he was ignored most of this season... He might as well have stayed with Luke :P I wanted to know the answer to that question: if Grogu is becoming a Mandalorian, what does that mean for his Force powers, does Luke or Ahsoka care, or is it all on Din's shoulders now, and if so, shouldn't Din be concerned that Grogu can do all this and he, Din Djarin, doesn't understand it one bit? He's got a kid who can throw giant monsters around and also heal wounds, who is getting stronger, and has already been a target for the greedy. Seems like if he's gonna be Grogu's dad, he should understand that Grogu is clearly not ever going to just be a Mandalorian. He's too Force-sensitive for that. Idk but this bothers me.
My favorite scenes were small ones, like Din teaching Grogu about the different dials and screens on the ship, or the Anzellans trying to repair the nurse droid (the Anzellans feel very Star Wars and I love them). Of course it was nice that Din adopted Grogu formally but i already gave my thoughts on that.
Overall I did not like Din Djarin anywhere near as much as I liked him in seasons 1 and 2, and even Grogu was somehow not as cute. Characters I'd liked before, like Bo-Katan, I was pretty blah about in season 3, and the episodes felt both short because I kept being surprised that they were ending with nothing really happening, and also long because I wanted them to be over faster. It just wasn't engaging. What a bummer.
Really did feel like Disney gave this show the Marvel treatment: make everything more colorful, have random people running around a lot, make jokes, fill silences, have a long connected plot instead of stand-alone stories and make sure lots of characters get highlighted but not necessarily in interesting ways, and forget that there's also a main character who is being neglected.
I wonder if there was any plan for this show at the outset. Probably not. They were probably like, let's make a show about a Mandalorian, but how can we drag in max viewers? Add a baby! Yeah, an ugly-cute alien baby! The end of planning process. Le sigh. You don't need to have the story totally planned out. But you should have some direction in mind. Otherwise what are we all here for? Moff Gideon spoon-feeding us the plot in the final episode?
And of course the problem with Star Wars is it's a huge franchise with tons of characters and lore, and the bigger something is the easier it is for cool ideas to get lost or misused. There's so much to be juggled and everyone's got different priorities. For me, I wanted Din Djarin to be Din Djarin, and for Grogu to matter for a better reason than just his Force-sensitive blood. It was a cool concept, a sliver of found family in the big scary universe. Like I said in the other post, Din Djarin is famous for not knowing he's in a Star Wars show. I liked that and wanted to keep it going. I really didn't need all the other stuff.
I intend to pretend season 3 never happened, that after reuniting the story just launched directly into the movie, which I like better after watching season 3 because it was so NOT season 3. The movie was mid, but at least Din Djarin felt like Din Djarin and Grogu felt like Grogu. It reminded me of season 1. And that's encouraging. They could easily have said "Season 3 is most recent in people's minds so let's build off that," but they didn't - they continued to build off the ending of course, but the tone was more in line with season 1. Fingers crossed that if there's ever more, it sticks to the stuff that made The Mandalorian good and unique, and not this loquacious superhero movie bullshit.
Of course I barely know anything about Star Wars. Maybe everyone else thought this was all so so good. Or maybe they'd say, "well, Fizz, gotta sell toys to the kids." Neither are good excuses to me. Companies can worry about selling toys, but I won't. And even in the action/sci-fi genre, I still think good stories are good stories and bad stories are bad stories. There's a huge range in between, but while a story that is just action can be good entertainment, it can't be a good story because there is hardly any story there.
Long live season 1-2 Din Djarin and Grogu, I seriously love you though.
Venting years too late because I can't help myself after watching the Mandalorian and Grogu movie.
Super duper long and incoherent as per usual but in sum: the movie made me remember The Mandalorian existed so I picked up where I left off (end of season 2) and watched the Mando eps of The Book of Boba Fett. They sucked! Had all the worst traits of a Marvel movie and barely a glimpse of the best traits of The Mandalorian. Also Boba Fett, what Boba Fett? I feel sorry for his fans. But sorrier for me, the person with no interest in Boba Fett who had to sit through this shit anyway for the essential viewing of the reunion of Din Djarin and Grogu... Lit makes me so mad
I'm not a big Star Wars fan. I love the original trilogy - he characters and set designs are awesome, and it's a fun story. I watched the prequels with indifference. (But I crushed on Qui-Gon.) Never bothered with any of the other material, but I knew some of it because I had a brother who did. Watched the sequels with Rey and Kylo, liked the first one, the latter two were forgettable.
The only reason I watched The Mandalorian is because of baby yoda. Even then it was just to see what that was about. He's cute, but not cute enough to carry the show, especially since he's rarely seen in season 1. Season 1 of The Mandalorian is pretty janky tbh. A lot of complaints I had about TM&G movie are present here too: weird pacing, lots of very convenient timing, and some pretty basic plots. The worst part was the finale, which was simultaneously too fast and packed with action, and too slow and boring. The scene where they get in the lava river boat and the droid starts saying it must self-destruct and Din's all no no you don't need to do that but then everyone just watches as it does and sails peacefully out of the cave with the same blank expressions they had going in.......... yah that scene kind of sums it up. And then they say their goodbyes right then and there, no one's tired I guess, no need for a hotel or to treat our wounds, and Din and Grogu are seen flying away while Cara and Greef Karga are still walking through the desert lmao. Like "Well that was a fun day at the amusement park, catch you guys later!"
That being said, despite its weaknesses I ended up really liking the show. There was not enough baby yoda, but that was probably a blessing. Shows with kids nearly always fall into one of two traps, sometimes both at once: the kids are so sickeningly cute that they kill the show, or so annoyingly precocious that they kill the show. It's amazing that writers, with their great imaginations, have such a block when it comes to writing children despite the fact that we were all children once. Adults feel more comfortable writing about bounty hunters than kids.
But The Mandalorian avoided that by not overplaying baby yoda in the first season. He was there, he was cute, but he appeared each episode for like a second here, two seconds there. I definitely wanted more, especially when Cara was like "You'll break his little heart," in ep 5 or something when Din floats leaving him in the peaceful farm world. Baby yoda seemed attached to Din from day one which is not how children work. Attachment can exist that fast, but in the sense of "this is what feels safe in the moment," not a level that will break his heart if separated. Baby yoda had gone through a whole bunch of separations and trauma. That he'd become attached to Din Djarin as the first person who cared about him and looked after him with consistency and no ulterior motive is just right. But even for little kids, that takes time, and more if they've been through trauma. So this was just too early, or too underdeveloped for me. By season 2 I believed completely that baby yoda loved Din (and vice versa).
Howeeeeeever like I said it was probably a blessing in disguise because lack of interaction meant baby yoda couldn't become annoying. And as for the show itself, I enjoyed getting to know the Mandalorian lifestyle. The Armorer was particularly cool. I liked being steeped in Star Wars aesthetic. The stories, while not earth-shaking, ranged from fine to good, and managed to always be fun. I wasn't bored.
And I really came to like Din Djarin. He was just so not a Marvel superhero. He spoke rarely. He didn't have a chip on his shoulder. When his tone bit, it made sense. He didn't appear to be trying to entertain, or be cool. He was there to do a job. He admired good, honest people. He had prejudices, but was open-minded (kinda too open-minded... like he hates droids until someone says "but you shouldn't"... and he thinks Mandalorians who take off their helmets are apostates until one of them says "but what if not..." then he's mad for like five minutes and immediately gets over it :P). I just really liked him, he was refreshing, it was nice to watch a show where the main character could SHUT UP for two minutes straight.
Like it felt like he had a distinct personality. And he was dynamic. Significantly more dynamic than a lot of characters in action/superhero-type stories. He changes through season 1 and keeps changing in season 2. When, in the season 2 finale, he takes off his helmet in front of an enemy, it felt like he'd earned that. He'd reached a point in his character arc where he believably could do that for Grogu. To me he was what made the show work and it would not have worked, at least for me, if he'd been constantly quipping one-liners like ever Marvel superhero, or being all shiny and heroic like Cap or Superman (alright so Din is both shiny and heroic. you get what i mean i hope)
So I took the cute baby bait, but I stayed for the hard-working, goal-oriented, soft-hearted and soft-spoken title character. There a couple things I wish were different - I think Din should have been good with animals from the start, rather than learning the technique from Kuiil, because it would have hinted at his soft side before baby yoda entered the scene. [ETA: Scratch this. I rewatched the scene and actually, altho Kuiil pushes him on and advises Mando to remove his helmet, he doesn't actually teach him to be gentle with the blurrg - Din does that on his own when his other attempts weren't working. So it seems he is naturally good with animals like I had wanted, and just isn't accustomed to having something to be gentle with anymore, which is perfect.] And I think Grogu should not have been able to use the Force as much as he did in season 1. It wasn't a lot, but in season 2 they scaled it back, and emphasized how while Grogu had been trained, he needed more, which would have made more sense if Grogu hadn't already been tossing monsters around in season 1. But not a big deal on the whole, just some hindsight things.
Season 2 got rid of all the jankiness and was really solid. I enjoyed it from start to finish. We got more Grogu without overdoing it. Old characters returned, but it felt less like they were returning just for the sake of returning than it had in season 1, when there was less to work with. Even Mayfield, who I expected to hate (either because he was too annoying or too not annoying), ended up being a win for me. I loved his reaction to Din removing his helmet, how he helped him, and how he gave in to his emotions and shot the Imperial guy. I was sad to see him go! Totally shocked myself with that.
And the separation of Din and Grogu was perfect. I did have a couple issues around it: first why the hell did Din just give Grogu to a random guy all dressed in black just because he said he was a jedi? At least get his name and address! And since Din knows all that later, what happened, did Luke send him a postcard? lol. There was at least time for names. But way worse was Din taking off his helmet in front of ALL the others: Luke, Bo-Katan, Cara, the other Mandalorians whose names I can never remember. And Moff Gideon was there too, though I think he was KO'd. Since Luke had made short work of all the baddies, was there really no place Din and Grogu could have gone to have their moment in private? Hell, all Din had to do was ask everyone to turn around for a sec and I bet they would have! Yeh so that really bothered me.
BUUUUT the separation ITSELF was perfect. Din removing his helmet to show Grogu his face. Grogu touching it and that likely being the first time anyone touched him since he was a child. I suppose the droid in season 1 did, but anyway, someone who cared about him touching him...
So ended season 2 on a high point. I was super excited for season 3. Of course, years went by and I forgot about it. I only remembered it existed because of the movie. So I went to watch season 3 and what's this? Din and Grogu are reunited already??? Huh, don't they have a reunion story?!
Well, of course, they do, and that's the reason for this post. The reunion happens in The Book of Boba Fett. Which I was not going to watch, even though it's very short. I did rather like Boba Fett and Shand's team up when they appeared in The Mandalorian though, so I did think that if I liked the episodes with Din and Grogu in The Book of Boba Fett, I might watch the rest.
Well my dudes, I did not like the episodes with Din and Grogu in The Book of Boba Fett. :P
The first one was fine. Din being a dork over a spaceship. He was too verbose in my opinion, but I chalked it up to boys and their toys, so it was okay. (I really did question the spaceship choice tho. Yeah it's fast, but the Razor Crest wasn't just a vehicle for Din, it was his home. I mean we had to look at the toilet all the time. Where's he gonna keep his weapons now? Yeah he lost most of his arsenal when the Razor Crest got blown up but wouldn't he be planning to restock bit by bit... This new ship is smaaaaaaaall.)
The scenes with Grogu learning the Force were okay. Sometimes they were quite pretty and jedi-ish. I didn't hate them and sometimes likes them. Luke's double is pretty convincing but also kinda uncanny valley. The voice was tough, it just didn't feel like it matched up. I definitely got the sense that the characters weren't actually talking to each other in real time, but recording stuff separately and passing it around and recording other stuff. That's not just this part but all the Boba Fett episodes I watched, and sometimes in The Mandalorian too. It is what's happening (like Pedro Pascal is not the guy in the suit most of the time), and in a Star Wars kind of story it's only to be expected, but it's a bummer that it's so obvious to me when in season 1 and 2 I didn't notice it that much.
I liked Ahsoka better than Luke. Somehow Rosario Dawson pulls off the kinda stilted dialogue pretty well. Other characters could have really put me off with some of her lines, but damn she is a good actress.
I wanted to like Luke giving Grogu a choice between becoming a jedi or going back to Din. But it's just so unclear how able Grogu is to make such choices. Since the crux of the issue appeared to be his attachment to Din, then I expected that in order to make the choice, Grogu would have to be led by his heart. But then Luke outlines all this practical stuff for him: if he stays he'll join the school and master his powers, but Din will grow old without him, etc. It's not bad stuff to say, it just means that Grogu is not actually choosing with just what his heart wants, but taking practical stuff into consideration. Did he pick Din because he wanted to pick Din, or because he wanted to have more time with Din and figured he could pick up being a jedi later? I mean of course it's the former, but the point is we didn't need all the extra stuff if the goal was for Grogu to pick Din because Din was first in his heart.
From there it was all downhill. The last episode was SO full of glib one-liners I just wanted to bang my head into a wall. It felt like a Marvel movie. There was constant planning that no one needed to hear, lots of standing around planning, lots of repeated dialogue. Boba Fett tells Din to leave, Din says no I'm a Mandalorian, Boba Fett asks Din to leave, and Din again says no. Why did this happen twice? In the SAME CONVERSATION???
And then the much awaited reunion between Din and Grogu happens during battle. Not bad on its own, but BAD. Their interactions were sweet, no complaints there (even tho Grogu jumping smack into Din's breastplate is pretty silly-looking). But first of all it was set up horribly: Boba Fett had just asked Din to look after the others while he went to get help, so what does Din do? He jumps on Motto's ride which is going away from danger???
Also I just feel like Din's reaction was wrong. That he should have been concerned as to how Grogu got to him and why. Of course he can't really deal with that in the middle of a fight, and maybe it comes up in season 3, which I haven't watched yet, because I was too pissed off by these Boba Fett eps. But at least I think he should have been more surprised initially. Idk. It didn't work for me. Their reunion moment itself was cute but that was just a couple seconds of the overall scene.
And the rest of the episode was a disaster. Dumb characters with dumb characters designs, making dumb comments that totally undermined any actual tension. I loved Motto in The Mandalorian but god did I want her to GO THE FUCK AWAY. Fennec was boring. Boba Fett was boring.
And Grogu immediately used his powers not once but TWICE. It should have been once against the Rancor. Why did he need to cut down the droid too? I feel like this is gonna be a problem in season 3: Grogu being obviously more powerful than Din and it coming across like he just lets Din fight so daddy can hold onto his pride. I love Grogu saving Din but let's not be ridiculous ok. Some day Grogu will be the one saving Din all the time. That day doesn't need to be TODAY.
There is an upside. He went from struggling to catch a frog with the Force to upsetting both a killer droid and a Rancor. We've seen him do that stuff before, while with Din. So the takeaway is perhaps that Grogu is powerful because he's with Din, aka someone he cares about. He struggles to use the Force in a class setting because of his past trauma. Whether he SHOULD be using the Force, now that he's without training, I have no idea, but it's interesting.
But badly handled. Don't give him both the droid and the Rancor just YET. Let us, the audience, grow into that at least.
Also Din was so neutered this ep. Boba Fett too but I don't care about him. First of all he had the Darksaber, which supposedly can cut through anything except pure beskar, but the first time he uses it in battle (excluding against Moff Gideon) it can't cut through the stupid droids' force field??? They're just some dumb droids!?!?!?!?! I don't know the lore, maybe that is a real Star Wars thing. But even if it is, this is the FIRST time we see Din wielding the Darksaber in battle, we should get to be impressed by it.
At least I THINK so! I'm not even sure anymore. If you say "This sword can cut through anything but pure beskar," but you really mean it can't cut through anything, just most things, idk, maybe say that instead? Oooor react to the fact that it can't cut through the forcefield even tho it seems like it should be able to? Din is just kinda mildly frustrated. I know the Darksaber goes back to Bo-Katan so it seems like they should make GOOD use of Din's limited time with it. This came across like the writer of the episode was not up to date on the Darksaber's story in The Mandalorian and just thought it was a cool-looking sword. Which, again, maybe it is???? What do I know!
Most of the battle Din and Boba Fett were just casually jogging around, like middle schoolers in phys ed class, shooting like they can't see the enemies directly in front of them, and talking CONSTANTLY in the heat of battle. Din Djarin, the chatterbox? EXCUSE ME? When he said something about "Our kinetic weapons don't work and our velocity is too fast" or whatever I just about lost my mind. I haaaaaate when characters inform other characters who already know stuff of stuff that they already know. If it's useful for the audience to know then ok sure, but this wasn't for the audience to use, it was to impress us with their very fancy but absolutely empty warrior jargon. Gag me. Like again that's a Marvel movie. That is Disney ruining Star Wars right there.
The colors were wrong, the dialogue was wrong, the story was dull, on and on and on, I swear this episode did NOTHING RIGHT except two seconds of sweetness between Din and Grogu. (Ok and the ending where they zip off like lightning because Grogu is a speed demon.)
And it just bothers me SO much that the reunion happened NOT in The Mandalorian show. They made me go find The Book of Boba Fett to watch their reunion. What the actual fuck. I wouldn't mind Din showing up in Boba Fett as part of the BOBA FETT story. If the ep were good, I'd watch it, and who knows, maybe I'd decide to watch Boba Fett now. If it were bad, I wouldn't watch and wouldn't care about missing out because it wouldn't have an impact on the show I do like.
But since VERY SIGNIFICANT Mandalorian plot stuff happens in Boba Fett, not watching it because it sucks is not an option. It was the reunion of Din and Grogu!!! What Mando fan isn't going to watch that??? Putting into Boba Fett screeeeeams "please watch Boba Fett!" but it was also the end of the show??? it didn't continue after that! And there were only a few episodes preceding it, meaning Book of Boba Fett was more like "A couple episodes about Boba Fett and then it's the Mandalorian season 2.5." If I were a Boba Fett fan I'd be pissed off for reals.
It's just so dumb and cash-grabby. Worst of all, it bodes horribly for season 3 of Mando. I heard it wasn't great compared to season 2 so I guess I'll see what I think of it soon. I haven't watched it even though it came out years ago now - I think I mentioned I lost track of this show in the years between seasons. I've never liked the modern way of making a show and then going years between seasons and sometimes never wrapping anything up at all. It just makes everything feel so unreliable and so much harder to get invested in. Genuinely it's shocking to me that I got invested in The Mandalorion at all - I pretty much don't watch TV these days and if I do it's reruns of old stuff. I just don't trust modern TV shows period.
But that brings me to the movie. It's so lucky that I didn't know anything about The Mandalorian And Grogu before I saw the movie poster. If I'd read the articles saying that the movie was replacing season 4 and was meant to wrap up the story, my expectations would have been sky high. Since I knew none of that and had forgotten more or less everything that happened in the show, I went in pretty open-minded and just enjoyed it. As I said in my review, it's a pretty whatever story, I didn't love the movie and don't particularly want to see it again. But I had fun watching it at least.
But now that I know there isn't a season 4 and at best I guess we'll see Din and Grogu in future movies like this one... Idk. It feels like a crappy way to continue a successful series. Or end it. I don't even know anymore. It's definitely NOT how I wanted Din and Grogu to end. I don't mind Grogu becoming a Mandalorian apprentice, I am surprised he's not a jedi, but I think it'd be cool if he became both at once, so I suppose that's the story I'd like to see for Grogu.
But even then I don't really know, because where does that leave Din Djarin? He's going to die before Grogu is even a teen (I mean I don't know when his species reaches adulthood, but he's still like a young child at 50, Yoda lied to 900 or whatever, and Din's not old but not young either so he's only got a few decades left...).
I care about Din and Grogu so I'd really like to see their story treated with care. In Boba Fett it felt like dangling meat for fans which is a terrible sign. And if the rumors about season 3 are true, added to the pretty mid movie we just got, then I guess the era of The Mandalorian is really over, and that's such a bummer because did it ever really start? the whole series is only a handful of episodes. I get this stuff is expensive but I thought that was the point of Disney making it. I suppose Disney is both the problem and the solution.
Season 1 was good and Season 2 was great. But season 2 ended with a separation. At the very least, I hoped to love the reunion and have a solid sense of what was in store for Din and Grogu in the future when the series ended. I'll hold out till I finish season 3, but based on the movie, I do think that's not going to work out for me. If the movie is where Din and Grogu are going to wind up as "static" characters appearing only now and then, then that really feels like a let down. Two characters who were pretty dynamic, pretty unusual in their world - the running joke is that Din Djarin doesn't know he's in a Star Wars show - just stopping where they are as if frozen in time. What a bummer.
But at least in the movie Din wasn't the fucking chatterbox he was in Boba Fett. He felt to me like Din Djarin. And Grogu felt like Grogu - slightly more powerful and confident than in season 1, but in a good way, a "he's growing up" way. If that hadn't been the case, I wouldn't have been able to enjoy the movie.
So maaaybe if we see them again, it'll be half-way decent. I really do hope we see them again and that it manages to bring back how much I enjoyed The Mandalorian show, which was so unexpected for me. I hope I never have to watch another episode of The Book of Boba Fett.
Anyway wouldn't it be funny if Din dies and Grogu becomes Darth Grogu. Lol
“The clear, hard eyes were dimmed for a moment, and the firm lips were shaking. For the one and only time I caught a glimpse of a great heart as well as of a great brain. All my years of humble but single-minded service culminated in that moment of revelation.”
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