The Mandalorian Season 3 Episode 8

38 minutes with credits, that doesn't leave much space for Boba...
Fingers crossed anyway, I want to believe.

I know Tem is working on other material, but I think this was a HUGE missed opportunity, and such disrespect. We owe ALL of this to Boba Fett. Without him, there are no Mandalorians, and they couldn’t even be bothered to pay him tribute. I’m not a hater, and I enjoyed BOBF, but this really depresses me. I’m willing to bet they are just gonna leave him on Tatooine  for a decade and then deepfake him in when they need hype. They brought him back, gave him a show, and then dropped him. This is a loss for our community and honestly, makes me question their writing.

I always had a feeling that Boba would not appear this season.

I don't understand what Rick was talking about in SWC, the ending resolving what? The outer rim stuff? Or it means there's nothing else to be done with TBOBF because everyone live in peace now?
And what on earth hurting Brendan Wayne so much, the darksaber is broken? These hints all nothing.

It was nice to see that Din Djarin can still kick ***.  Sometimes, his character gets a little overshadowed when he's in a group.  Don't know how Grogu was able to separate himself from the rest of the main group unnoticed and find him, though.  That was one of those weird "ex machina" moments.  The cute nod to Iron Man was pretty funny, with Grogu spraying him the same way Dum-E sprays Tony Stark after he crashes his suit during initial testing.

Another weird element was Axe Woves being able to use his "personal" jetpack to actually blast out of the atmosphere and into space.  I mean, seriously, what the absolute heck?  First off, that thing should've ran out of fuel way before he hit the stratosphere.  Second, that's one of those beefs I've always had with the Clone Wars, Rebels, and this series; they make it seem like these Mandalorian jet packs can go on forever.  In old school canon, they had a way, way, way more limited range than Filoni thinks they do.  I also didn't understand them sending troops down to reinforce the ground, but then getting rid of all the cruisers and frigates in orbit.  Last episode, when they showed the fleet, it looked like they had over five or six wings of Fang Fighters.  You can't tell me an Imperial light cruiser, several Imperial Gozanti Corvettes, over a dozen Kom'rk fighter/ transports, and about 30 Fang Fighters couldn't take out that meager wing of TIE Interceptor's and bombers.  I was really waiting to see an epic space battle, while the ground group did their thing.  Especially, after the accidentally leaked Lego pack from the Mandalorian series that comes out next month, of a Fang Fighter vs. a TIE Interceptor.  I figured that was supposed to be straight from this episode.  So much for that.

For a more in-depth look at what the Mandalorians had in their fleet, check out this video.  Apparently, someone actually went through and counted what was shown on screen.  It came out to 1 Light Cruiser, 5 Gozanti corvette's, 36 Fang Fighters, and 8 Kom'rk Fighter/ Transports.

https://youtu.be/XQJN5ywGB8s

It's always nice to see "Skippy the Jedi Droid" getting some love.  He's come a long way from having a "bad motivator" all those years ago.  I was honestly surprised the clones in the vats were Gideon's own clones.  That's not narcissistic at all.  Glad they shut those things down.  The battle between Bo Katan's forces and the Imperial Supercommandos was really nicely done.  Nice to see those small "anti-personnel" missiles on top of the jet packs getting used.  A few of us were just talking about those the other day and how they compared to the larger "anti-vehicle" rockets like Fett uses in his jetpack.  Once again, always cool to see those knee darts getting used, this time by Koska Reeves.  During the final battle with Moff Gideon, I was so glad to see the Dark Saber get destroyed.  To me, that was honestly the single worst story element they added to the Mandalorians mythology and lore during the Clone Wars, Rebels, and Mandalorian series.  If there was to be some "trinket," as Moff Gideon calls them, that Mandalorians would rally behind, it should have been the mask/ helmet of Mandalore the Indomitable. 

Glad Axe Woves didn't have to "go down with the ship."  However, even with Grogu protecting Djarin, Bo Katan, and himself from the flames, that entire structure should have given way beneath them after the cruiser crashed into the base.  It was one of those neat feel-good "hey, the good guys made it" moments, but definitely another "pull another 'ex machina' out of your shebs" moment.  The ending with them finally finishing Ragnar's oath ceremony was a nice touch.  I was surprised that Bo Katan didn't formally adopt him or take him as an apprentice as a way of honoring Paz Vizsla's sacrifice.  Din Djarin formally adopting Grogu, however, was a surprise and a very welcome one, at that.  Although, his name as Din Grogu makes absolutely no sense, yet again.  This ain't Star Trek, and Mandalorians aren't Bajoran's, with their surnames first.  He should be properly called Grogu Djarin.  Once again, the writers taking a perfectly awesome moment and throwing a WTF in there to completely ruin the impact of the moment.  The ceremony where they re-ignite the Forge definitely made the hairs stand up on my arms.  Very nicely done and so much fun seeing so many Mando's on screen in live action.  It was a nice symmetrical way to end that part of their story; first with a baptism of water, then a baptism of flame.

Mandalorians, side by side, igniting the spark that will light the fire, that will shine across the galaxy for all to see.  Mandalorians are stronger together.

I did like how they brought it all back full circle for Din Djarin.  Setting him up to go back to his roots as a bounty hunter, where we first found him when his series began.  Only, this time, working for the opposite faction for a change; again, the symmetry.  It was also nice seeing him now having a "home away from home" back on Nevarro.  It had a very western feel to it.  You could almost picture "The Duke" himself living there (or maybe even his grandson ).  Even IG-11 got properly fixed and a new paint job to top it all off.  Not too shabby, but it felt kind of rushed and just thrown in there.

Overall, kind of a half-and-half of a season.  This one did feel like it had a lot more "filler" episodes than the previous two seasons.  I think the Mythosaur was my biggest disappointment of the entire season.  When the Imperial Cruiser crashed into the base, I was kind of waiting for that to wake the Mythosaur and cause it to rise to the surface for the rest of the Mandalorians to see.  When that didn't happen, and you could see Grogu sense its presence, I was once again waiting for it to finally make an appearance, to no avail.  We got a quick glimpse and teased that it's back, but they never have it show up as a sign of reaffirmation for the Mandalorians re-taking and re-building their planet.  To me, that's a completely missed and wasted opportunity.  Because of that and what seemed like an over-reliance of "ex machina," I'm going to have to give this episode a 4/5 stars.

I think there's some part of the scenes are being replaced, some of them doesn't even make sense, they are forcing this plot.

Well, the result is good, everyone alive except the villain, but I don't think it's the original plot from last year shot.

And for addition, why are they showing Fennec's helmet at the intro anyway? I'm so upset.

I thought this episode was a fair if hasty conclusion to a bumpy season.

My hot takes are:
1. It ends describing precisely the kind of premise it should have been following all along--a series about a bounty hunter.
2. Is anyone else a little weirded out by the ease with which people kill defenseless clones in vats? How do we even know these clones were bad guys? (In Star Wars, we've seen plenty of clones of villains who turned out to be okay if not heroic people...)
3. This episode proves Paz Viszla did not make a tactically-sound choice. If the team had stuck together, they would have made short work of the Praetorian guards and Gideon.
4. Grogu was able to speak with Ahsoka, but not say the creed? (I don't want him to say the creed, to be frank...but it still seems inconsistent.)
5. The Dark Saber is just like a vortex of anticlimax.
6. Maybe the closing shot with the circle crop was a little too corny?

But I still thought, overall, it was entertaining to watch. It didn't feel as monumental as Season 2's finale...and R5-D4 might have turned out to be the best thing about this season, the cowardly-brave little astromech.

For the Clones in the vats, they were all clones of Gideon.  Safe to say they're all no good, if he's the one who had them created.  They're not like clones of Jango, who were already up and moving around and obviously not a threat (at least, not yet--they "did their job well") when Kenobi initially inspected them on Kamino.  Best to kill all the Gideon Clones now.

Grogu speaking with Ashoka was through the Force and not verbally.  When Djarin asks her if she can understand him, she's speaks of it being more of a connection.  I don't think he'd be able to make that kind of connection to non-Force users in order to say the Creed.  But that does beg the question, even though the species ages slowly, how long does it really take them to make verbal speech?  He obviously understands them all and even knows how to hit the verbal controls for IG-12, to make his point across.  They don't have a Star Wars equivalent of a Speak-and-Spell he can use?  Hahaha.  That would be a perfect addition for whenever he gets Mandalorian gauntlets for his tiny arms.  Incorporate a Speak-and-Spell. 

Yeah, I can't remember where that propmaker source came from either. It's something I've seen in a few places making rounds, so like any rumor I'm just being cautiously optimistic but taking it with a grain of salt. I know Skeleton Crew is at least slated for this year, so like you said, I could see it coming in December or something since Ahsoka will be in August. So... maybe we won't have to wait too long to see Boba again, but it's gonna be a painful wait regardless before we see Lord Fett in the flesh. Even though I actually like Book of Boba, if we do get second season, I hope they don't detract from Boba's story again like season 1 did by derailing into another character's story. Even if BoBF was techincally "season 2.5" of Mando, it still irks me that the title character got his show hijacked by another guy's story. Don't get me wrong, I really like Din, and if you wanna have him appear as a supporting character, that's fine, but don't make it into his show when Boba Fett's name is literally the title of the show!
...Nope, I wasn't bothered by that at all. Definitely. lol

I'm super sad that Tem feels the same way as us, he clearly loves Boba and playing Boba and he has been undermined because of **** poor writing when we all know how great of an actor he is with good writing. This Mando season Tem was relegated to a few voice lines and an off hand mention when he should have been a supporting character from the start of the season, I really hope this isn't the last we see of Boba. As time goes on and on I keep growing in my resent towards Dave Filoni, he's a  very frustrating writer and he keeps and adding his own characters into every single project. Like there was absolutely ZERO reason for Ahsoka to appear in BoBF. The disaster of including Din Djarin and excluding Boba for two ENTIRE episodes in his own show just frustrates me so much like first Din steals Boba's character traits and then his own show??? and then there's the people who are like "oh those are the best BoBF episodes" and hate on all the other episodes like we didn't get some of the greatest Star Wars content of all time (Episode 2 of BoBF was peak SW) The only reason I was interested in the Ahsoka series was the prospect of Tem appearing as a live action Captain Rex but this interview leads me to believe that Star Wars may have abandoned Tem asides from minor VA roles and off hand mentions.