Tag: Disney Plus

The Mandalorian’s Season 3 finale saved the entire season by getting back to basics

Season 3 was a journey, but they stuck the landing.

The third season of The Mandalorian wrapped on Wednesday, and it was exactly what the franchise needed. As a whole, Season 3 has had its ups and downs with some meandering storylines and wondering where things would go.

WARNING: Spoilers for the season finale of The Mandalorian follow. Continue at your own risk.

Well worry no more. Showrunners Dave Filoni and Jon Favreau stuck the landing in the final episode, getting back to what made The Mandalorian such a hit to begin with.

We had so much Grogu and Din Djarin screen time, impressive fight scenes and high stakes moments. After last week’s episode, fans were prepared for the worst: Another heartbreaking finale. The titular Mandalorian, Din Djarin, had been captured by Moff Gideon (Giancarlo Esposito), Bo-Katan (Katee Sackhoff) and the rest of the Mandalorians looked trapped and sweet baby Grogu was stressed by the proceedings while still moving about in his IG-12 ride.

For the first time in the show’s history, we got a finale that didn’t crush our entire spirit. Din Djarin, Bo-Katan and Grogu all traded fight assists, helping each other defeat (for now) Gideon and reclaim Mandalore. We saw Grogu employ skills learned from both his helmeted dad and from his days with Luke Skywalker, and we got a very Guardians of the Galaxy/Groot moment as our little green buddy used the Force to save the trio from deadly flames.

But most importantly, we got an official family happy ending for Djarin and the newly-adopted Din Grogu (we also learned that Din was his family name all along).

Of course, it wasn’t a perfect episode. The destruction of the dark saber seemed anti-climactic (all that anguish over something we lost so quickly?), and concerns about trying to connect the dots to the final trilogy that received mixed reviews.

While solo episodes like those that followed former Imperial officers on questionable searches or trips to meet Lizzo, Jack Black and Christopher Lloyd were hit or miss for many, this return to the formula down the back-half of the season helped close things on a high note.

We also now have an idea what we will see in Season 4 as Din Djarin will have to take his new apprentice and son Din Grogu on journeys to learn the way of the guild. Sign me up for Din family adventures.

Disney+ needs to drop episodes on Friday night or spoiler problems will ruin ‘Star Wars’, ‘Marvel’ shows

Disney+ is going to have a major problem if they don’t change the time they’re dropping shows.

The season finale of The Mandalorian dropped early Friday morning, and once again, the internet is a minefield of major spoilers. This isn’t the first time I’ve railed against people being selfish by tweeting out major plot points before the majority of the audience has had a chance to even wake up, but I now realize though that asking people to change their individual behavior is like asking Baby Yoda to stop eating unfertilized eggs. They simply can’t and won’t.

So, like many things, we need to work towards systemic change and that’s to get Disney to start dropping their new shows at a more reasonable viewing time.

Right now, Mandalorian episodes drop at 3am on Friday morning.  No one but the most dedicated fans are prioritizing early morning viewings. Still, it’s enough people that spoilers leak on line, and worst of all, start trending on social media.  Just take a glance at Twitter’s trends bar, which is impossible to ignore. All the muting in the world isn’t going to fix the platform itself littering the right rail of their desktop experience with Star Wars related trends. Now, I know people will say, just stay off social media, but that’s not doable, especially through the course of the entire season.

All Disney needs to do to fix this is spoiler problem to drop episodes on Friday nights, so people at least have a fighting chance to experience the show without knowing every little thing in advance.

Plus, there’s a major added benefit to dropping episodes at a time when more people are likely to engage in live viewing. Like HBO did with Game of Thrones, we could again experience the joy of a collective viewing experience. Right now, sports are really the only thing we all watch together and at the same time. The Mandalorian could have been the next big collective viewing phenomenon, but alas, it didn’t work out that.

It could be that Disney is afraid of their streaming service crashing if too many people try to access an episode at the same time. To that, I respectfully urge them to get their technical act together because I don’t want to have to be dealing with this mess when The Falcon and Winter Solider drops.

There’s a massive slate of Marvel and Star Wars shows coming that the platform announced just earlier this month. Many of them have been working under the cover of secrecy to keep plot points from leaking out. The element of surprise is huge, and Disney is risking blowing those massive reveals because they drop the episode in the middle of the night. Because of that, gifs are going to be flooding the internet long before most people actually see it, ruining all the careful planning that went into the making of the show.

Please, Disney+,  just drop episodes on Friday night! People will log on, they will watch and they will all tweet about how good it was, how bad it was or how surprising it was. And, best of all, they’ll be doing it together.

The Mandalorian: Everything you need to know about Moff Gideon’s mysterious Darksaber

Wow, this thing has a lot of history.

There are spoilers from this point on, but if you haven’t seen season 1 of The Mandalorian and are planning on watching season 2, what are you doing? Go get that done.

When we last left Baby Yoda and Mando, they’d beaten Moff Gideon by blowing up his ship and leaving him in the wreckage. They flew off into the galaxy on their quest to find the perfect home for our young, green, adorable friend as they escaped the clutches of the empire.

But, of course, that wasn’t the end of Gideon. He had a trump card, as all villains do. The final season of season 1 was him cutting a hole through the scraps of his ship with this mysterious lightsaber looking thing.

That, my friends, is the Darksaber. And it’ll probably play a pretty pivotal role in this upcoming season.

Whoa, whoa whoa. Slow down. The Darksaber?

Yup. It’s the mysterious, black lightsaber that Moff Gideon is holding in that scene.

Wow so that’s a lightsaber?

Absolutely. And it’s probably the coolest looking one you’ve ever seen.

If you’re not a fan of the extended Star Wars universe outside of the movies, you probably didn’t know about it. But it has more history behind it than any lightsaber you’ve seen before.

So where did it come from?

Alright, here’s the breakdown. The legend of the Darksaber goes back thousands of years in Star Wars lore to the time of Tarre Vizsla — the first Mandalorian Jedi Knight.

It was unlike any lightsaber before or after his time because of its flat blade and dark energy.

THERE WAS A MANDALORIAN JEDI?!?

Yes, that’s right. And after he passed, the Jedi Order kept the saber in their temple for safe keeping because of how special it was.

That is, until members of his clan — house Vizsla — snuck in and stole it. From there, they passed it down from generation to generation of Mandalorian leaders. It was a weapon used for unification. Whoever wielded was seen as the sole leader of Mandalore.

Here’s a quick breakdown from Mandalorian warrior Fenn Rau.

So this isn’t the first time we’re seeing this thing?

Absolutely not. It’s appeared in the animated Star Wars: The Clone Wars series as well as Star Wars Rebels.

Some users have been force wielders like Tarre Viszla and some haven’t. Big names like Darth Maul and Sabine Wren have used it in the past. Wren was the one who discovered it on Dathomir — Maul’s home planet — after it went missing for a time.

She used it to help drive the empire away from Mandalore and unite the planet before giving it to Bo-Katan Kryze, making her the true leader of Mandalore. Kryze was the last person we saw with the saber before Gideon.

So how did Gideon get it then?

That, we don’t know. And that’s what we’re probably going to find out this season. The events of Rebels are from before Rogue One and A New Hope. The Mandalorian is set in a time period after The Return of the Jedi. 

Basically, there’s a lot of time between then for a lot to happen.

So, Mando has to get this thing right?

That would be so cool to see! But we really just don’t know yet. Who knows? Maybe Baby Yoda wields it at some point.

We just have to wait and see.

I can’t wait.

Join the club.

The best fan theories and rumors ahead of ‘The Mandalorian’ Season 2

The best fan theories and rumors ahead of ‘The Mandalorian’ Season 2

6 questions about ‘The Mandalorian’ Season 2

The Star Wars franchise series is back and we have questions.

Kansas State Wildcats vs Florida A&M Rattlers: Tipoff Time, TV Channel, How to Watch on ESPN+

Watch NCAA Basketball Live Online.

Tonight we have exclusive NCAA Basketball action on ESPN+ with Kansas State (4-2) taking on Florida A&M (0-5) at the Bramlage Coliseum in Manhattan, Kansas. Last time K-State hosted a game at the Coliseum, fans watched their team struggle against Arkansas-Pine Bluff, a team ranked 339th (out of 353).

Kansas State Wildcats vs Florida A&M Rattlers

When: Monday, December 2nd

Tipoff: 7 p.m. ET

Venue: Bramlage Coliseum in Manhattan, Kansas

Live Stream: ESPN+ Stream College Basketball all season on ESPN+ for only $4.99 a month, Sign up now!

The Rattlers are coming into this game as one of the worst teams in college hoops with a record of 0-5 with all of their losses coming by double digits. They will be looking to upset K-State and hand them their third loss of the season, which could very well happen.

While K-State will try to get back on track tonight after a couple of losses against in the Fort Myers tournament. They were exposed by Pittsburgh and Bradley, both handing Kansas State their first two losses back-to-back of the season.

You can stream NCAA basketball all year with ESPN+ and they are offering a bundle deal right now as well as a Cyber Monday deal today only.

Disney+ / Hulu / ESPN+ bundle available

Disney+  has a Cyber Monday deal today only where you’ll be able to save $10 on your first year of Disney+. Disney’s new standalone streaming service from Disney. It features almost 500 movies and over 7,500 episodes of television, per Disney. They

Plus, if you love sports, the Disney+ / Hulu / ESPN+ deal is a ton of great content and live sports programming

We recommend interesting sports viewing and streaming opportunities. If you sign up to a service by clicking one of the links, we may earn a referral fee.

Disney+ vs. Netflix: Which is the best streaming service?

Breaking down everything you need to know about the Disney+ vs. Netflix debate, including which one is better for sports fans.

Today, Disney+ launched to the delight of people who love Star Wars, Marvel, and anyone with small children. Disney’s new standalone streaming service gives users access to pretty much their entire back catalog, along with National Geographic, as well as the aforementioned blockbuster series they’ve purchased.

It’s also got a lot of people asking: How does it compare to the existing streaming services?

In this article we’ll look at the Disney+ vs. Netflix debate. We’ll look at what each offers, and compare price and interface. We’ll give a final verdict for people out there, and have a special analysis for sports fans.

Let’s get to it.

Which has better offerings?

Right now, by a nose, we have to give it to Netflix. Netflix has spent aggressively on original content, and has also invested in a lot of classic films

Disney+ comes out of the gate in second place, already surpassing Hulu. It’s got the Disney back catalogue, as well as everything from the Marvel cinematic universe, Star Wars, and National Geographic. This does leave blind spots — any movies that are older and outside of a few major franchises are basically going to be kids’ movies, and their TV offerings can’t get close to Netflix yet. But this is a strong start.

As for other things out there: Hulu is a fine option. It’s got some interesting TV shows and gets TV offerings much quicker than Netflix does. And as we’ll share in a second, you can actually get it with Disney+, which may be the best way to go.

Price?

Disney+ is available for $6.99 a month to start, with an annual option for $69.99. This is considerably less than Netflix’s current cost of $12.99 a month, and will be the difference maker for a lot of people.

And Disney+ also came over the top with another option: You can have Disney+, Hulu, AND ESPN+ all for $12.99. I already pay for ESPN+ (you can read our review of ESPN+ here), so for me, this option is a no-brainer.

Ease of use?

We haven’t had too much time to play around with Disney+ yet, but the format seems intuitive and nice to use. Netflix has had years to perfect the way they share content with you, and their search option works great, but Netflix also has an annoying feature where it auto-loads previews and starts playing video when you’re just trying to browse, which drives me nuts.

So I guess we’ll give it to Disney+ for now.

Final verdict

If you have to choose between one, I think I give the slight edge to Disney+, with a big caveat — if you don’t have small children and aren’t a huge comic book film fan, you might be frustrated with what they offer at first. Netflix has more original programming, and much better TV offerings. Hulu I don’t think compares to either, but as a tack-on to Disney+, might well be worth it.

Plus, if you love sports, the Disney+ / Hulu / ESPN+ deal is a ton of great content and live sports programming for the same cost you’re paying for Netflix now.

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