The Mandalorian - Season 2 Review!

 Alright! With the recent finishing up today of The Mandalorian (Season 2), it's time for a review, because content is content, and we're being starved of it in 2020. I need something to review and this is the best thing we've gotten all year. 

This season is hard to get a vibe on. On one hand, the first half is paced extremely slowly and follows the same basic formula - Mando needs information, so he goes on a quest, meets up with a side character (Cobb Vanth, Frog Lady, Bo-Katan, Ahsoka), and then goes on his way. It's a little videogame quest. But, at least we got to see fan-favorite characters! That was really nice. 

The last half of the season is action-packed. Stuff gets moving and it doesn't stop. Hearts are broken, friendships forged, and cameos filmed. So, without further ado, let's dive in, episode by episode. And this will be featuring some massive spoilers for the later episodes, so read with caution.

Chapter 9: The Marshal

Seeing Boba Fett's armor again was a fanboy dream.

Chapter 9: The Marshal ranks among some of the finest Star Wars content. I loved absolutely everything about this episode - The length, 52 minutes, makes it feel like an actual movie, the title character Cobb Vanth was excellent in every scene he was in, and just seeing the Boba Fett armor in live-action again felt like a fan dream come true. The flashback of Cobb Vanth liberating his town was sheer epicness, the additions to the lore of Tatooine, and the adorable Baby Yoda scenes. 

This episode also makes good use of the series' excellent VFX. It looks just as good as a movie. The same goes for the action, which, in a weird way, was a lot more exciting than the Sequels' lightsaber bat swinging. And knowing that this episode was directed by Jon Favreau, one of the best working directors, just made every shot a bit better. And the musical score in this episode! Ludwig Göransson outdid himself here. And Boba Fett armor! That was dope to see.

This takes my pick for the "Most Skywalker Saga" feeling. This episode fits perfectly into the Skywalker Saga - Tatooine and Boba Fett armor bring us full circle from Return of the Jedi.  It was the perfect way to break us back into the world of The Mandalorian and tied into the larger Star Wars universe as well. 10/10 episode. 

Chapter 10: The Passenger

Cinematically dope shots, but not much else. 

Unfortunately, my favorite episode was followed by my least favorite episode - The Passenger. Directed by Peyton Reed (Ant-Man), this episode was very lacking in substance. Basically, Mando picks up a random frog lady, gets his ship wrecked by New Republic X-Wings, and then fights some spiders. That's literally it. 

Also, Baby Yoda controversially ate a bunch of embryos. I thought it was pretty funny, but some people on the internet (And some people I watched it with) were horrified by his apparent genocide. This episode suffers heavily from being the first part of a video game plot in which Mando meets a person, does a menial task with them for information, and then goes on his way to the next person. It was predictable, basically. There was not a lot going on here. 

This was a solid 5/10 episode for me. I liked some of the shots that they had, there were some genuinely scary moments from huge spiders, and it's always nice to see Dave Filoni's X-wing pilot character.

Chapter 11: The Heiress

This was everything I wanted from a live-action Clone Wars character. 

After a lackluster episode, The Mandalorian took a step in the right direction, if a very short step. Seriously, this episode was only 33 minutes long. I wanted more. 

This episode is basically the most basic of basic Mandalorian plots - He goes to a new planet, gets some information, meets a new person with more information, and then does a task for them to obtain that information. But you know what makes this episode better? Bo-Katan. That's right, Bo-Katan Kyrze, the character from The Clone Wars and Star Wars Rebels shows up here in live-action! And she looks absolutely dope! 

Wasn't a huge fan of the Mon Calamari planet, but whatever.

Just seeing Bo-Katan in live-action (Played by the voice actress, no less!) was enough for me to make this a good episode. The costume designers outdid themselves here, it looked incredible. And the action scenes here were pretty cool. And I was really glad how they finally resolved the "I won't take off my helmet" issue. Prior to The Mandalorian, every Mandalorian character we saw had taken off their helmet. This episode explains that only overly zealous religious Mandalorians do that. I dug that explanation. It fit well into the Star Wars lore established in The Clone Wars.

And then the episode references the Darksaber and built up to Bo-Katan telling Mando that he should look for Ahsoka Tano, which absolutely freaked every Star Wars fan out. Finally, those people who wrote The Clone Wars off as a kid show will have no clue what's going on, and will be forced to reconsider! Outstanding move.

8/10.

Chapter 12: The Seige

I like these characters. 

After such an exciting cliff hanger and some good reasoning, going into The Seige was kind of a mixed bag. I knew that Ahsoka would appear in the episode after this since Chapter 13 would be directed by Dave Filoni, the mastermind behind turning every Star Wars TV show into The Tano Saga. But on the other hand, I was pretty excited for the return of Greef Karga and Cara Dune, but expected the episode to be heavy filler, much like Chapter 10. 

So, imagine my delight when The Seige actually set up future plot threads by way of a cloning facility for Moff Gideon and harvesting Midichlorians. That was awesome. And this episode was directed by Carl Weathers, who actually plays Greef Karga, so I thought that was nice. 

The Seige shined in the return of fan-favorite characters and adorable Baby Yoda scenes. Baby Yoda had some of his best moments in this season via stealing macarons, which you yourself can have for the low, low price of $50!  

In terms of plot, The Seige was very basic Mandalorian. His ship was damaged so he had it patched up, but to get it patched up, he did a favor for Greef Karga, which turned out to be blowing up an old Imperial facility. It was totally fine and had some exciting set pieces. Solid episode. 7/10. 

Chapter 13: The Jedi

I have a lot of mixed feelings about The Jedi. On one hand, it was super nice to see Ahsoka in live-action and find out a bit more about Baby Yoda. On the other hand, I wasn't particularly happy with either of the results. Let's start with Ahsoka. Unlike Bo-Katan, Ahsoka doesn't do a lot of Ahsoka-y things in this episode. Every action scene with her is shot more like a slasher movie, which I guess would be a cool character introduction for those who never saw the Clone Wars, but for us long term fans, Ahsoka doesn't kill people. I mean, she was slicing people in half! That's not the way of the Jedi!

I also wasn't a huge fan of the design. Something about her was "off." For one thing, her montrals (The striped white things to the layman) were too far apart and not long enough. As a togruta gets older, their montrals get longer, and her design in the episode shows her montrals as too short and a bit too wide. And the stripes were too thin. I get that it was to allow the actress to do stunts more easily, but it really, really bugged me. And the creases were an awful design choice. 

And maybe another thing that didn't endear this Ahsoka to me was how she had human proportions. Cartoon characters often have huge eyes, so this tv-movie adaptation was pretty rough. And the voice. Sometimes she would sound good, but cartoons have to give their characters distinct voices. Rosario Dawson did not sound like Ashley Eckstein at all. Sometimes she would, but it wasn't consistent. I do give her full marks for the facial movements and fighting skills. They nailed those.  I also liked Ahsoka refusing to train Baby Yoda for fear of him turning to the Dark Side as Anakin (The best of them) did. I thought that was nice. 

And the cinematography in this episode, while leading to some great shots via director Dave Filoni, did not do Ahsoka any favors. The entire episode is a dark and murky brown/tan/grey, which made her skin seem off-color and the stripes look green, which just bugged me. And the lighting did not do her once awesome whitesabers any favors. 

And as for Baby Yoda, knowing that he's just another Order 66 survivor was somewhat disappointing. Doesn't that mean he started training when he was, like, 20? Wouldn't that be equivalent to a six-month-old, or is Baby Yoda actually 50 and stuck inside a baby's body? And I am so over Order 66 survivors... Ahsoka, Kanan, Baby Yoda, Cal Kestis (You could even count Chirrut)... they keep making things after Order 66 but have the main characters be Jedi! It's a cliche at this point. 

Baby Yoda's name is Grogu. It is... acceptable.

 I did like a lot of things about the episode, though! I thought the Grand Admiral Thrawn reference was way more exciting than another Moff Gideon set up. I thought that the final fight between Ahsoka and what's her face was pretty exciting (Even if we never saw if she retrieved her second whitesaber from the water). I thought the Star Wars public torture was cool. I kind of wish that this took place on an established planet. It would've made it a lot more interesting for this to be Coruscant or Geonosis. I'd even settle for Naboo. And a return to Mustafar or Bespin would be dope. This episode was a 7/10.

Chapter 14: The Tragedy

I could watch the Darksaber move all day. It looks very cool.

After a mildly disappointing but still satisfying episode, I was 99% sure this episode would be filler. Based on how long it took Mando to get to a Jedi, it should've been at least another four episodes to get the Jedi Temple. I was pleasantly surprised when they arrive at the Jedi Temple during the first few moments of the episode. That was a refreshing break from the previous pace. 

The basic plot of this episode was that Grogu sits on the Jedi Temple stone and contacts a bunch of Jedi while Mando meets up with Boba Fett and fights some stormtroopers. There's not a lot going on here, honestly. The runtime is only 32 minutes. But the episode delivers so much in that time. 

For starters, the return of Boba Fett. The minute I saw the Slave I in the sky, I was freaking out. I had a huge fanboy grin on my face for the entire episode after that. And then Boba Fett actually does stuff here! I've never gotten why Boba Fett was so popular consider how he was just a silent cameo in Episodes V and VI, but I get it now that he's actually done something cool. Everything he did was epic. 

This episode gives us some of the most brutal and violent Star Wars action we've ever seen. For 10 minutes we get Boba Fett absolutely demolishing stormtroopers with his staff. I mean, their armor is chipping and flying off. He was stabbing dudes, blowing up dudes, ooh. It was nice. And smartly choreographed. 

The score for this scene was beautiful.

And then the Razorcrest blew up, which, surprisingly, made me feel sad for the loss of his ship. I realized how the ship felt like its own character, and even without seeing his face, you can feel what Mando is feeling as he went through the ashes of his ship. 

My only complaint about this episode was that it reminded me of a fan film. The single location on a hill, Boba Fett (Who always returns in fan films), stormtroopers... it felt like a very well funded fan film. 

10/10.

Chapter 15: The Believer

After the build-up in the last episode, I assumed this would be an inconsequential episode, standalone and entirely about busting Migs Mayfield from jail, much like season one's prison break episode right before the finale. It was a pleasant surprise to find that they bust him out before the title card even shows up. Maybe the first half of season two threw the pacing off for me so hard I'm surprised Chapter 14 and 15 didn't take up an entire season.

I liked this episode. I have barely any criticisms. It was a good length (36 minutes), had some good ensemble action going on via Boba Fett, Fennec Shand, and Cara Dune, and had some surprising tension. It wasn't even the action scenes that were tense (Although they were thoroughly enjoyable), it was the quiet discussions between characters that made it tense. I dug that. 

My one criticism is around Bill Burr's Migs Mayfield character. I liked him for the majority of this episode, but his rants about Mando's "Religious fanaticism" kind of bothered me. It felt genuinely real. I don't know a lot about Bill Burr, but something tells me his comedic style is overly cynical. 

When he took off the helmet, it really hits hard that he's just trying to get his son back, and not his ward.

The main villain of this episode is Joe Chill, I mean Van Hess, who was Migs Mayfield's superior during his time in the Empire. It was a surprising amount of depth added for a relatively minor guest character. This episode also didn't feature Grogu, which was mildly disappointing. 

I liked this episode, but it wasn't my favorite. There wasn't anything particularly neat nor was there anything particularly bad about it. The standout to me was Boba Fett emitting a seismic charge, just like the one from Attack of the Clones. And I liked Boba Fett's clean armor, even if it looked somewhat wrong without being chipped. I also loved Pedro Pascal's acting when he was out of the Mando armor. He acted like he was still in it, and it felt real. 

8/10

Chapter 16: The Rescue

And now we come to my favorite episode of the show. I wasn't sure how they were going to wrap up the retrieval of Grogu in one episode, but then they did it. And I loved it. In terms of plot, this episode has a lot of cool moments - A fight between Mando and some Dark Troopers, Bo-Katan's return, some extremely tense negotiation scenes with Moff Gideon, some Darksaber CGI (Always cool to see the Darksaber in live-action), and the return of a fan-favorite character.

But without diving into that reveal, let's talk about the other stuff. I loved every scene with Moff Gideon. There were some extremely tense negotiation scenes and a very interesting lightsaber duel with Mando. Mando and Gideon fight, but I noticed that Moff Gideon was basically just swinging the Darksaber at Mando like it was a baseball bat - because he has no classical lightsaber training like established Jedi or Sith do. Mando, a highly-skilled bounty hunter, however, knows how to use his beskar spear as a proper weapon. So I loved the attention to detail.

But let's talk about the cameo. The stakes were high - All the heroes cornered, about to be destroyed by the Dark Troopers, you are ready for the big Jedi reveal. I was banking on Ezra, Luke, or Mace Windu. Then we see the X-Wing fly in and I basically died of fanboy hype. We get a totally dope scene of the Jedi absolutely demolishing the Dark Troopers, hiding his face until the last possible second in which we see a de-aged Mark Hamill, returning as Luke Skywalker! A Luke who does heroic things, no less! 

Everything done with Luke was amazing. Even the oft-complained about CGI de-aging, or deepfake, or whatever mind trickery they used to make Mark Hamill young again, was amazing. Everything about him was perfect, and we even got a cameo from R2. I legit almost cried just from seeing Luke. I don't even know why! It's just a fictional character appearing, I shouldn't be so attached! It's not the way of the Jedi. Maybe my complaint about the CGI is that it seemed a bit stiff. I get the feeling the stunt double stood completely still to let the CGI team get the best effects possible, but something feels off upon a closer look. It's no big deal, however. 

And then Luke took Grogu away to train. I'm not going to lie, I was crying. Mando took off his helmet, let Grogu touch his face, see what his dad looks like... if Pedro Pascal had shed a tear while filming, we all would've been crying. It would've broken us. But it's nice to have a hero who doesn't cry. Grogu left... I'm still devastated. It was an extremely fulfilling finale, the type that destroys you while giving you the feels. 

And then the post-credit scene has Boba Fett taking over Jabba's Palace from a Bib Fortuna who... really let himself go, with "The Book of Boba Fett" coming in December 2021. It's unclear whether or not that's a spin-off Disney+ show or The Mandalorian Season 3 will focus on Boba Fett. 

This finale was amazing. 10/10. 

Overall, I give this season an 8/10. "Though it has plotting issues and a formulaic layout, The Mandalorian (Season 2) is able to shake them mid-season and give us the Star Wars content we deserve."

It's been fun, Mando. See you next year.