‘The Mandalorian’ Season Three: ‘This is The Way’ for Star Wars

If you’ve read my reviews, you know Star Wars is my tried and true franchise. Every Wednesday since this season of “The Mandalorian” started, I get together with another avid Star Wars fan, and we watch the latest episode.

Once the season finale ended, I felt a mix of emotions knowing that our time watching the show was over this year, but it couldn’t have ended on a better point in this new saga. I have hope for the future of Din Djarin and Grogu’s story after this season’s end.

Season Three began with Din Djarin and Grogu saving the Mandalorian covert and the Armorer, my favorite Mandalorian, telling him to purify himself in the Living Waters in the mines of Mandalore.

Din removed his helmet in the presence of others — a strict violation of his covert. I loved the emotional moment when he removed his helmet for Grogu last season. The act revealed his deep connection with Grogu, one that fans like me love watching each time the pair show up on screen.

Imagine me, sitting on my couch with my Grogu plushie, wishing I could be a surrogate parent to the little child. And I know I’m not the only fan who thinks this.

I loved how this season focused on other characters besides Grogu and Din, as much as I do mostly watch the show for them. One such character is Bo-Katan Kryze, a warrior with a tenacious past was first introduced in the “Star Wars: The Clone Wars” animated series and then appeared in “Star Wars: Rebels.”

I’ll save you the deep dive into Star Wars history, but Kryze was the leader who sacrificed her home planet of Mandalore to the Empire in favor of saving her people. She was then betrayed by the main antagonist of “The Mandalorian,” Moff Gideon, who obliterated the planet in the period known as The Purge.

Her appearance last season disrupted the flow of where I wanted the story to go. She’s an arrogant, self-righteous and aggressive warrior, or so I thought.

But after she demands Din travel to Mandalore alone and loses contact with him, something switches in her character. While Din and Bo are Mandalorians, they don’t walk the same path. She was raised to accept people seeing her without her helmet, which I understood having seen her appear in other shows.

Bo never respected Din for his choice to respect his covert. She would use othering language, telling him he was a “child of The Watch,” a cult formed before The Purge. Unlike Bo, Din was orphaned at a young age and survived through the lessons of his covert. Bo was born into Mandalorian royalty, which caused her arrogance to destroy the last remnants of their planet before the Empire took over.

These two characters tolerated each other last season. Now, they respect each other like honorable warriors. Din even called her “Lady Kryze” before battle, which made me tear up.

The only criticism I have for this season is the episode titled “Guns for Hire,” which featured Jack Black and Lizzo. While these two people are stars, they had no purpose in the narrative other than Disney trying to increase its ratings with popular names and faces.

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I will stand my ground when I say large franchises should seek out new, unknown talent instead of using familiar faces. Lizzo, I get it, we all want to play space bocce with Grogu. It sadly added nothing to the narrative.

The future of Star Wars is in good hands with Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni. I’d petition them to write the next 10 movies for the franchise, but they need to stick with series like “The Mandalorian” because it gives fans and non-fans exactly what we need — an incredible show with characters we can’t help but root for.

This season finale will make you cry; I have spoken.

Rating: 10/10

@earlgreyincense

elizonar@miamioh.edu