The Mandalorian season 3 finale has been released, and the series is again one of the most popular on Disney+. To be honest, I’m not shocked by this. The last few years have shown that Star Wars projects are consistently popular on streaming. Many people enjoy watching The Mandalorian with their families, and that’s what makes the experience better.
Even I do it, and it’s a really nice feeling to know that it’s another Wednesday and it’s time to chill together with parents, siblings, etc. watching Mando and just having fun. With the release of the season 3 finale of The Mandalorian, let’s quickly recap the entire season and talk about final thoughts on the series so far.
[Warning: Spoilers from The Mandalorian season 3 and the finale are below!]
Season 3 tells a very different story from previous seasons
The first two seasons of The Mandalorian were really fun to watch. There were serious moments, of course, but many episodes were well-written stories that you could dive into and explore. There were many filler episodes, but they always had something to offer. It was great for an entertaining story, great characters or fast-paced action without having to mix it up with Mando’s (Pedro Pascal) main mission: to find Grogu’s people.
If you have watched The Book of Boba Fett then you know that Grogu left Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) to reunite with Din. But in season 3 of The Mandalorian, they seemed to focus on Din and Grogu’s relationship less, because of the Mandalore arc. That being said, this was a really good decision.
Mandalore is a very important world in Star Wars lore. Whenever it’s mentioned or shown, people know it’s a big deal. The same is true of this series. We don’t know much about what happened between Star Wars: Return of the Jedi and Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Mando really fills in those gaps.
After a really great premiere episode of season 3, we learned that Din wants to help the Mandalorians reclaim their world. To do so, he must bathe in the Living Waters of Mandalore. But, was “redeeming” himself in these waters really worth it, especially everything that happened afterward?
Din Djarin & Bo-Katan work to reunite the Mandalorians and get back their home world
One of the highlights has been the redemption of Din Djarin in the eyes of his fellow Mandalorians. Once the helmet was removed, according to this faction of their religion, he could no longer follow their Way. Fortunately, Bo-Katan (Katee Sackhoff) helped him find the Living Waters of Mandalore. Thanks to this and the discovery that the legendary Mythosaur is real, she too began to follow the Way and joined other Mandalorians.
She and Din worked together to help the people. One of their missions was to help the people of Nevarro when the pirate Gorian Shard (Nonso Anozie) attacked the city of High Magistrate Greef Karga (Carl Weathers). As we later learned, this was all Moff Gideon’s (Giancarlo Esposito) plan to weaken neutral systems. It was a good mission that allowed a group of Mandalorians led by The Armorer (Emily Swallow) to accept Din Djarin and Bo-Katan in their group for good.
Thanks to Greef Karga’s generous offer, every Mandalorian there got his own piece of land and a new home. But they then decided that it’s finally time to reclaim Mandalore and restore its splendor. To do so, The Armorer said that Bo-Katan is their leader because she walks both worlds (Mandalorians who wear helmets all the time, and those who don’t). Now all she and Din have to do is gather other Mandalorians, including Koska Reeves (Mercedes Varnado), Axe Woves (Simon Kassianides), and others.
After this great “reunion” of the Mandalorians, everyone decides that reclaiming Mandalore was now or never. They all go there, but none of them expected what they find there.
The Mandalorian season 3 finale was a little disappointing
When the Mandalorians arrive on Mandalore, they learn that there are still some survivors of The Night of a Thousand Tears. They lead our group of heroes to the Great Forge of Mandalore, where armor was forged in the old days. However, one big surprise awaits them there – Stormtroopers in Beskar armor. Moff Gideon has built his new army to be strong, agile, and almost invincible – much like Mandalorians. They have the same weapons and even jetpacks. After defeating these Stormtroopers, it comes to light that Gideon has also built a special armor for himself. He kidnaps Din and gives orders to kill the others.
Thanks to Paz Vizsla (Tait Fletcher), who stayed and helped them escape, they make an escape. Unfortunately, during a battle with Praetorian guards, Vizsla is killed. It was a really sad thing to watch. I had great sympathy for him, from the first moment he decided to support Din.
With the grand finale split into two episodes, The Mandalorian season 3 finale had to live up to fans’ expectations. The most important thing was to have an effective closure of each story arc, which was relevant to the entire main plot of the season, which is more or less what we got. There’s a big battle between the Mandalorian army and the Stormtroopers, reminiscent of the Mandalorian Civil Wars. In the end, Din and Bo-Katan, along with Grogu, fight Gideon.
Thankfully, tho not surprisingly, our heroes survive, and Din finally officially adopted Grogu as his son, naming him Din Grogu. The last scene we see is Din living with Grogu on Nevarro, along with Karga and the rebuilt IG-11 (Taika Waititi), who is now a Marshal.
Final thoughts on The Mandalorian season 3
As a whole, season 3 was a really nice piece of adventure storytelling. We were able to see different worlds, learn about new cultures, and see new monsters. Basically, it was everything you would expect from Star Wars.
But the finale was a combination of too fast and too short. What I expected was to learn more about the Gideon clones that were in these tubes and about the grand plan called “Project Necromancer.” Instead, we got a huge ending that should’ve been kept for the series finale, and it wasn’t all that good. But I’m hoping that by the time we get a Dave Filoni film that wraps up the Mandoverse, there will be some more clarification about certain things.
This season was, in my opinion, better than season 2 and almost as good as season 1. After the season 3 finale, I doubt there will be a major story arc in a forth season unless Moff Gideon somehow returns.
The Mandalorian is available to stream on Disney+. Have you watched the season 3 finale episode already? What do you expect to see in season 4? Let us know on Twitter or our Discord channel.
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