The Season 3 premiere of The Mandalorian featured one of our absolute favorites.
If you haven’t watched the Season 3 premiere of The Mandalorian, stop right now and go do watch it. We’ll wait. Go on.
Ok, you good? I hope so, because there will be spoilers for The Mandalorian going forward.
If you didn’t watch The Book of Boba Fett — or just forgot what happened — our favorite little green munchkin Grogu (although he’s always going to be Baby Yoda to us) gave up Jedi training and reunited with his (and the internet’s) favorite Mandalorian dad, Din Djarin (played by Pedro Pascal).
Ok, so it’s likely not Babu Frik — instead just another member of the Anzellan species — but man it was amazing to see anything that reminds us of our little droid mechanic back on the screen. Since Mando is using the Anzellans (yes, plural! There were many!) to try and repair the IG-11 unit that we got to know and love during Season 1, it stands to reason that we will see them at least one more time.
The internet LOVED the re-appearance of our favorite little critters.
The general answer for some would be probably, with 2015’s Star Wars: The Force Awakens rocket launching the galaxy back for five movies (so far), plenty of television shows (so far) and little doodads like that Baby Yoda/Studio Ghibli collab.
The over-saturation that has plagued the Marvel Cinematic Universe of late seems to be creeping itself into the Skywalker saga, with last year’s The Book of Boba Fett basically an honorary season of The Mandalorian that some folks seemed to accidentally skip over.
If you’re lost, all hell broke loose for Pedro Pascal’s Din Djarin (er, the Mandalorian) when he took his helmet off to say goodbye to Baby Yoda (…Grogu) at the end of The Mandalorian‘s second season.
The challenge for The Mandalorian going forward might also be its appeal.
Disney/Lucasfilm
We’re going to get a loosely threaded grand narrative, as Djarin has to go find a magic bath on his ransacked home planet to get back in good graces with his people. However, there’s now also space pirates chasing after him for something that happens in season three’s first episode. Taika Waititi’s IG-11 robot might not be dead. Little Babu Friks and Salacious B. Crumbs show up. Star Wars Carl Weathers is still doing Star Wars Carl Weathers things. Apparently Star Wars has Lake Placid-sized crocodile turtles now, too.
The unnecessary business of plot threads’ past and the delightful dorkiness of serialized Star Wars storytelling will come to blows with this latest Mandalorian season, and which side of this approach wins out will be critical to whatever future these live-action television shows have.
Disney will undoubtedly want the Lucasfilm fanfare back in theaters sooner than later, and with so many television shows in development, it begs the question: will people ever tire of watching this at home?
The easiest remedy is letting The Mandalorian be itself and keep grander narratives on the back burner, which thankfully happens in spurts during the third season’s first go-around.
Disney/Lucasfilm
If you’ve watched this latest episode, then you know that Mando and Baby Yoda have the general goal this season to get to the remnants of Mandalore and save Mando’s helmet-removing butt by washing him in their holy pools. This, apparently, is the way for redemption. It’s all a little extra, but then again, if the helmet removal is that big of a deal, then so be it.
The new wrinkle looks to be space pirates, led by the plant-based pirate king Gorian Shard. Shard looks like if someone crossed Boss Nass from The Phantom Menace with Old Gregg from The Mighty Boosh. Shard is irate with Mando now that he’s killed a bunch of his space pirates in both a confrontation on Nevarro City (where Weathers’ Greef Karga now runs the show) and in a space battle by Shard’s big pirate ship.
So keep a tab on the most evil pirate fern in the galaxy for later in the season.
Also, we get to meet the disembodied remains of IG-11, who died in The Mandalorian‘s first season. The robot’s resurrection is now a side quest for Djarin and Grogu as they try to find all the little Babu Friks in Nevarro City some sort of memory processor thingamajig so that the little aliens can fix him to help Mando with the main mission on Mandalore (say that five times fast). Note: apparently, these little Babu Friks (Anzellans) aren’t the Babu Frik from Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. As you were.
Disney/Lucasfilm
As the episode closes, we also get a side detour to where Bo-Katan is hanging out at her big Mandalorian castle. If you’ll recall from the show’s second season, Bo-Katan was the leader of a rogue group of Mandalorians that Djarin knew from back in the day. They allow themselves to take the helmet off, which seems very logical and Djarin should’ve just teamed up with them so he could take his helmet off, too, but whatever.
In season three’s first 30 minutes, we cover a lot of ground. Those absolutely befuddled as to what’s going on will have to take a few hops back on the Star Wars game board to The Book of Boba Fett to update yourself on what’s going on. For those “in the know,” you know what you came for.
While the dialogue remains a bit stilted and the grander stakes a bit low on tread, watching Baby Yoda hug a Babu Frik and seeing Djarin zip around in his space cruiser and blast space pirates into asteroids to Ludwig Göransson’s techno-thumping score remain the kind of joys that make this show worth coming back to.
At least one episode in, The Mandalorian is doing everything it used to do. It’s become the safest bet for Lucasfilm in the Disney era, but one wonders if safety will keep this show from ever really taking some risks. If The Mandalorian is tasty Star Wars comfort food, then that’s what it should be. It just begs the question of when folks will get full on frog eggs and want more franchise divergence like Star Wars: The Last Jedi or Andor.
For now, fun adventures with Djarin and Baby Yoda will certainly scratch the itch. The more spirited and disconnected these episodes are, the better.
How late (or early) do you have to be awake for new episodes of The Mandalorian?
The highly-anticipated new season of The Mandalorian returns on Disney+ on Wednesday, March 1. Pedro Pascal returns as the titular masked bounty hunter as he sets off to wash in “the living waters beneath the mines of Mandalore” to regain his status as a Mandalorian after removing his helmet (several times) in his efforts to save his little green buddy, Grogu.
If you’re trying to remember what has happened since we last saw our Beskar-encrusted fighter and his adorable sidekick, check out our refresher.
New episodes will drop weekly on the streaming-only platform at midnight PT each Wednesday or 3 a.m. ET.
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Kyler Murray scored a touchdown on Sunday, and did a seated meditation pose, which looked really cool … but for some reason, everyone thought he was channeling Baby Yoda.
This is funny for a few reasons. First of all, wouldn’t the first thought be that it was mediation and not a popular pop culture reference?
Second: Kyler Murray has never seen any Star Wars, as you’ll see below. So yeah, it wasn’t Baby Yoda.
I’ll even throw in a third reason: One of his teammates nicknamed him Baby Yoda!
Confused? Alright, let’s break it down. Here’s the celebration, which everyone thought was Baby Yoda in Season 2 of The Mandalorian:
The conclusion here: Jones needs to show Murray a bunch of Star Wars content before then showing him The Mandalorian so Murray can do a real Baby Yoda celebration. It’s not like Murray’s busy these days or anything.
WARNING: SPOILER ALERT There are spoilers ahead in this piece. If you have not — I repeat: HAVE NOT — watched episode 8 of The Mandalorian yet, stop reading right now.
The season finale of The Mandalorian served its purpose. It was very good and put a cap on what was, overall, a pretty fantastic season. Any fan of Star Wars lore should walk away from season two satisfied.
This season had everything. It connected old characters with the new. It dug deep into the lesser-known parts of Star Wars’ lore. It finally gave us origin stories for our two main characters in Grogu (Baby Yoda) and Din Djarin (Mando).
This final episode was also good. And there are lots of things to look forward to for next season. But still, it’s easy to be left unfulfilled after it.
Let’s talk about it.
A familiar face saves the day
So, at the end of the episode, our heroes are on the edge. The droid Dark Troopers are banging on the doors of the bridge where our heros are ready to overrun them. It’s Din Djarin, Bo-Katan, Baby Yoda and the rest of the squad. If these Dark Troopers get in, they’re all cooked.
But then, out of nowhere, an X-Wing pulls up. And you know what it means in Star Wars whenever an X-Wing pulls up — it’s Luke Skywalker and he’s here to save everyone.
And he does just that. Luke begins tearing through all of the Dark Troopers and it looks absolutely incredible. It gives you mad Darth Vader in Rouge One vibes, except he’s slicing droids instead of, well, people.
It’s a pretty epic scene and one of the best showings of Luke’s skill as a Jedi that we’ve seen. It was really cool to watch.
But, also, it was just so predictable.
Luke was the easy pick
We all knew that Baby Yoda was connecting with some Jedi out in the galaxy when he channeled the force at the ruins of a temple on Tortuga. We just didn’t know who it was.
Turns out, it was Luke. This makes a ton of sense. He is supposed to be the most powerful force user in the galaxy at this point. So, of course, he’ll feel Baby Yoda’s connection.
But what makes sense isn’t always the most interesting thing. There were a number of other ways they could’ve gone with this.
This was an opportunity for an Ezra Bridger return. Or maybe even a Cal Kestis sighting. Or maybe there’s a new and exciting character out there that we don’t even know about the universe can finally tap into!
Who knows? That’s what makes this series special.
Star Wars is bigger than the Skywalkers
There are so many more interesting characters with so many fascinating backstories to tap into. In eight episodes, we’ve seen a live-action Ahsoka Tano. We found out that Boba Fett was still alive. We’ve finally gotten Dark Troopers on screen. We even found out that Grand Admiral Thrawn is still alive.
The Mandalorian isn’t afraid to tap into the nerdier minutiae of the Star Wars extended universe and bring that to a bigger audience. There was a real opportunity to do that in the finale, but instead, we just got Luke again.
For once, it’d have been nice to not know where a scenario leads. For Star Wars to just go on a completely new path. Instead, we just got Luke Skywalker. And Luke is awesome. But we’ve seen Luke in six movies now.
This damper on the ending doesn’t sully the finale or the series. It was still fantastic. Let’s just hope they extend the universe even more next season.
Chapter 13 was pretty easily the best episode of the Mandalorian yet. There’s no debating it at this point.
SPOILER ALERT: If you haven’t watched this episode yet, please do not read the rest of this post. Come back later.
We finally got some details on our tiny, green friend Baby Yoda, whose name turns out to be Grogu. But that wasn’t even a top five moment of this episode.
We also finally got our first look at a live action Jedi on the small screen. Ahsoka Tano made her debut on The Mandalorian and what a debut it was. Mando been seeking her out to have her train Baby Yoda (aka Grogu). But she won’t do it.
Wait, why won’t she train him? She’s a Jedi, right?
Well, yes and no. Tano actually left the order shortly before the end of the Clone Wars. She’s lucky she did because after she left Order 66 was executed and her master, Anakin Skywalker, turned into Darth Vader. Which is exactly why she won’t train Grogu.
Baby Yoda sees Mando as a father figure. That’s an attachment, attachments can lead to hatred which can also lead to another Vader. Ahsoka saw happen up close with her master. She’s afraid that’ll happen again.
But that’s not the most important development of this episode. It’s what comes after that reveal that has everyone shook.
Grand Admiral Thrawn — one of Star Wars most dastardly villains — is still alive. And that opens up a whole new can of worms.
Alright, slow down. Who is Grand Admiral Thrawn?
If we had a Mount Rushmore of Star Wars Villains, Thrawn would be up there along with Darth Vader, Palpatine and Darth Maul. He’s that bad.
Long story short, Thrawn was a genius strategist for the Empire before it fell. He worked with both Palpatine and Darth Vader and was the main villain in the Star Wars: Rebels animated series. He was in charge of quelling the rebellion on Lothal.
So what happened to him?
Well, the last time we saw him he was locked into a battle with the young Jedi Ezra Bridger — the main character of Star Wars Rebels.
Last time we saw them, Bridger trapped both of them on a Star Destroyer and had a fleet of Purgill (basically, giant space whales) pull the ship out into hyperspace. We had no idea where they were being transported or whether they were even alive because the ship was falling apart.
Until now, anyway. Thrawn is, apparently, still kicking.
How do we know that?
Ahsoka is looking for him. In Chapter 13, the magistrate Tano fought in the village at the end turns out to be Morgan Elsbeth. Elsbeth worked under Thrawn and, apparently, knows his current whereabouts.
Wow, that’s wild. How did Thrawn survive?
We have no idea. But it’s a big deal that he did. Because if he survived, then Ezra probably survived, too. And one of Tano’s quests is actually finding out where he is and what happened after the jump into hyperspace.
When we saw her last at the end of Star Wars: Rebels, she set out on a quest along with Sabine Wren to go find Bridger. If she can find Thrawn, then she’ll have a really good shot at finding Bridger.
Will we see Ezra Bridger in The Mandalorian?
It’s possible! And it might happen soon thanks to Baby Yoda.
Tano is sending Mando and Baby Yoda over to Tython to access the ruins of an old Jedi temple. There, she’s hoping that he’ll make a connection to the force and that another Jedi out in the universe will pick up that signal.
There’s a chance it could be Bridger! But it could also be Luke Skywalker. It could also be Cal Kestis, who is the main character from the new Star Wars: The Fallen Order video game. It could be someone else. We have no idea.
All we know is things just got really interesting here. And I can’t wait to see what happens next.
WARNING: MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD FROM CHAPTER 13 OF THE MANDALORIAN! DO NOT READ AHEAD IF YOU HAVEN’T WATCHED IT YET!
Ready?
OK!
In “Chapter 13: The Jedi” from the second season of The Mandalorian, we met — or for fans of the animated Star Wars series Clone Wars, re-met — Ahsoka Tano, who was Anakin Skywalker’s apprentice, something she alludes to in the episode.
Our hero brings Baby Yoda to the Jedi master, and she communicates with him through the Force and finds out some very important information: he once lived on Coruscant and was trained at a Jedi Temple before being hidden.
This is deeply fascinating and adds a lot more to the mystery surrounding the creature that The Mandalorian orbits around. Maybe this means he’s not a clone and there are more of his kind besides Yoda.
But you can forget about me referring to Grogu by his name. He is and will forever be Baby Yoda, and maybe he’s The Child on occasion. Others agree:
WARNING: THERE ARE THE MANDALORIAN SEASON 2 SPOILERS AHEAD!
Welcome to our fourth edition of this post, which we’re going to do every week after each episode of The Mandaorian. It’s really the most important stuff from those chapters: the Baby Yoda moments and memes that sprout out of The Child appearing on the Disney+ series.
WARNING: THERE ARE THE MANDALORIAN SEASON 2 SPOILERS AHEAD!
Welcome to our third edition of this post, which we’re going to do every week after each episode of The Mandaorian. It’s really the most important stuff from those chapters: the Baby Yoda moments and memes that sprout out of The Child appearing on the Disney+ series.
In Chapter 11: The Heiress, Baby Yoda got quite a few scenes with action. Here are some notable moments:
Helmets come off?!
This is a great scene in general: a group of Mandalorians save our hero and Baby Yoda on a boat … and they remove their helmets, which seems to shock the little one.
WARNING: THERE ARE THE MANDALORIAN SEASON 2 SPOILERS AHEAD!
It’s hard to believe there’s an actual controversy surrounding a science fiction Western-style show with a baby alien running amok, but here we are.
In “Chapter 10: The Passenger,” last week’s episode of The Mandalorian, our hero and his partner in crime, Baby Yoda AKA The Child were tasked with transporting a frog-like creature to a planet to find her husband. Along with her were her eggs that needed to be fertilized or her entire species would be extinct.
Baby Yoda takes one look at the canister of eggs and immediately thinks “DINNER,” then spends much of the episode trying — and succeeding at some points — to eat them. It came off to some fans as a very dark running gag that pushed the limits of good taste, so much so that Lucasfilm creative arts manager Phil Szostak addressed it on Twitter:
For the record, Chapter 10 of #TheMandalorian makes it clear that the Frog Lady’s eggs are unfertilized, like the chicken eggs many of us enjoy. But obviously, chickens aren’t sentient beings and the Child eating the eggs is intentionally disturbing, for comedic effect.#StarWarshttps://t.co/Js51fLpE3C
Yes, it was horrifying as Szostak pointed out in his second tweet. I know I didn’t laugh. The stakes at that moment were as high as they are in any episode of The Mandalorian — Mando needs to give safe passage to the frog and her eggs in order to continue his journey to find other Mandalorians, and Baby Yoda keeps getting in the way of that goal. Every time he ate one, I know I wanted to do exactly what Mando did: “NO!!”
— din djarin's curls ✿ mando spoilers (@sarahdjarin) November 6, 2020
There’s another point here, too, with Mando acting like the parent he needs to be in this series: Baby Yoda wasn’t doing this maliciously. He’s a child. And children do really terrible things sometimes and don’t even know they’re terrible, whether it’s through their words or actions. So I don’t think the makers of the show meant for this to be poking fun at a very sensitive situation. It’s a reminder that Baby Yoda, while adorable and bringing comic relief most weeks, is actually dangerous in some ways — remember when he nearly choked Cara Dune in Season 1? Or when he eats live frogs?
So let’s put this controversy that isn’t one to rest.
