The Mandalorian

"Heya....Papi, when I grow up I'm gonna be a Jedi that wears 
a helmet just like you."

 

The Mandalorian is a run away success. It tells the story the fans wanted to see. The return of Luke Skywalker at the end of Season 2 was a moving and emotional experience. It was like the return of a member of the family who was sorely missed, was away indefinitely then suddenly came home unexpectedly. There's no producer, director or writer who has thus far not contributed to the success of Star Wars. Its not as if there was an infallible formula to apply for achieving success and greatness therefore there's no need to dwell on the negative. The trilogies after the Return of the Jedi were epic and deserve the accolades due to them. They are an important part of the learning curve that the franchise needed to preserve George Lucas' legacy. If anything, what the Mandalorian should show executives at Disney is that increased creativity, experimentation led by strong writers, producers and directors is the key to success where spin-offs are concerned that can later be taken to the big screen. Star Wars enjoys the fact that props, sets and so on can be shared between different productions lowering costs while exploring different aspects of the Star Wars universe through multiple spin-offs. These spin-offs can come from different time periods, such as the High Republic and other eras, some can be for more adult audiences others for younger audiences, it can come from different perspectives driven by writing and directing talents and from very different kinds of creators. There can even be action series told around a story that has a focus on being informative about the Star Wars universe, about the different alien races, the history, technology, the ships, how light-sabers are built, and so on that often require separate research because very little about them is covered in the series and movies. The gems, like the Mandalorian will shine brightly and naturally point the direction the franchise should take and will gain further financing to do more. Assuming what the audience wants and limiting excursions to this can easily lead to audience fatigue and lack of success. 

The direction Star Wars has taken with the Mandalorian under the stewardship of Jon Favreau, Dave Filoni and Peyton Reed is inspiring and truly feels like a revival of the franchise. The introduction of Grogu and the father and son relationship he develops with Din Djarin was a stroke of genius. The story was simple but well told, believable and magical. It gave the fans the kind of closure they needed that was inexplicably denied them from the Phantom Menace to the Rise of Skywalker. The pressure to manufacture a story for Grogu and Djarin was cleverly played down by their involvement in solving the problems of other personalities and people they encountered on their journey together. This too was done well.

The challenge will be how to transition Grogu from baby yoda into a  teenager as he evolves into a formidable Jedi since this will not only involve character development but also the visuals and appearance used to show an older Grogu will need to be appealing to the audience. The manner in which Ashoka Tano's character was painstakingly developed in Clone Wars as Anakin's padawan ideally should be applied to Grogu as this helps the audience to continue to develop an affinity for him, the way they have for her and Luke Skywalker as they were there throughout the journey. There are many improvements brought to the series. One of these, to name a few, is an emphasis on the fact that a light-saber can be blocked and deflected by Beskar. This brings increased range and dynamics to the fights between Jedi's and other martial artists. During Ashoka's duel with the Magistrate portrayed by Diana Lee Inosanto, Ashoka's lightsaber is struck from her hand. It would be nice to see how Jedi duel in situations where they have been unhanded of their weapon. The fighting talent brought on the show seen in Diana Lee Inosanto, Gina Carano, Ming-Na Wen and Sasha Banks demonstrates the level of seriousness being placed on the quality of brawls and there is certainly an elevation in the quality of how these are being portrayed on the Mandalorian. There are so many unique fighting styles used by Jedi, and thus far no producer or director has thought to stage fights in a manner that educates an audience in the styles a Jedi has chosen to master. For instance not everyone generally knows that Master Yoda's fighting style was Ataru or Form 4 or why he chose it as his main style, they just see him jumping around acrobatically. For instance, it will be useful during Grogu's training if clips of Yoda's brawl with Sidius gained from security footage are played back for Grogu, with Luke narrating Yoda's style, precision, use of the Force, potential flaws and asking Grogu to critique what Master Yoda did right and did wrong during the confrontation, then after this critique clips are shown of Luke and Grogu re-creating the duel to arrive at a different outcome. Grogu's ability to flawlessly execute Master Yoda's moves in that fight including Luke conjuring Force lightning and Grogu's ability to withstand or redirect it would be nice to see. This can be delivered by switching scenes back and forth between him and Yoda while in combat. It would be an interesting visual the audience can relate to and will show how far he has developed during his training. During a fight a Jedi may have to change fighting styles to defeat an opponent and finding ways to alert the audience to changes in form can be entertaining. Teaching the audience about this kind of Jedi lore on a consistent basis is generally missing from Star Wars, which can only make it less interesting.  

Pedro Pascal was the prefect choice to portray Djarin. Thus far the casting has really been on point. Its also great to see how seamlessly characters from  Clone Wars are being transitioned to live action in the Mandalorian through Katee Sackhoff as Bo Katan and Rosario Dawson as Ahsoka Tano, the uncanny likeness makes it seem as if they were born to portray these characters. 

The respect for Jedi skills is seen in the episodes with Ashoka Tano. It is also seen in how Luke dispenses of the Dark Troopers. This is on point. A light-saber is a sacred Jedi weapon, ideally no Jim and Jack should be able to turn it on easily or use it without the the potential for self injury, after all it is designed to cut through anything and from kyber crystals that respond to a force user.    

Much later, when Grogu is sufficiently grown, explaining how he survived Kylo's destruction of Luke's Jedi Temple and where he was during recent Star Wars installments should not be difficult to explain as there is sufficient scope for Grogu to have been on other missions as was the case with the teams seen in Rogue One. He could very well have continued to grow and lead Luke's Jedi Temple in secret on a remote planet outside the reach of Kylo or in a busy city where they have blended in with the inhabitants, while occasionally conducting missions which included finding force sensitive children (some very much like baby Grogu) across the galaxy, bringing them in and training them as Luke and Djarin did for him, having survived two traumatic attempts to sack the Jedi, he could very well make this his life mission. Luke's Jedi Temple could have continued to flourish through Grogu while Luke remained with the ashes of the fallen Temple acting as a decoy on Ahch-To to draw attention away from this fact (if anything, the Temple on Ahch-To may have been a decoy from the very start). Protecting the new Jedi Temple could be a very good reason why Grogu could not possibly risk being brought out into the open and to Kylo's attention. The events of order 66 would have taught Luke to always have emergency measures in place for the Temple to ensure the safety of the Jedi should it face a similar internal crisis. There is plenty of rich story telling that can be done here of Grogu's adventures as well as that of other force users he was being trained with by Luke. Luke could have been aware of where he was hidden and what role he was playing. He can eventually be seamlessly integrated into everything that went on during that period as a powerful Jedi who had gone underground and taken the Temple with him, but who was fully aware of all the events taking place during that period. For instance, in future when Grogu is grown, during one of his missions the series could quite aptly have a scene where he asks Luke, how Rey's training on Ahch-To is coming along.

The CGI or deep fake used to bring a young Luke back to life only seemed to fail because the audience knew it could not be real and was consequently looking for visual flaws in the facial image, there was little or no room for suspension of disbelief for there to be no controversy. It had to be Luke in that moment, even if Sebastian Stan does take over later in the series, which is the kind of continuity that pays homage to a younger Mark Hamill and it may be prudent for once to listen to the fans before the opportunity to bring in Sebastian is lost forever. Technically, morally and fan-wise for that particular scene it could not really have been anyone else, but Mark Hamill, even if it required CGI to accomplish . If there are flash forwards of an older Grogu in Rey's time for instance, Mark Hamill would reprise the Luke Skywalker role, its unlikely Grogu's tale can be told without many of these.  

Its easy to imagine in the Adventures of Grogu and company, that as he undergoes training and lives out adventures of his own, there will come a time, when against his Master's wishes he decides he has to leave to save someone like Djarin, the way Luke left to face Vader. He then temporarily leaves Luke's  Jedi Temple to rescue Djarin taking a small team of friends who were in training with him, who have formed too close a bond to let him go it alone.

When Luke receives Grogu from Djarin, everyone is wondering where they have gone. Where else could they have gone other than to Luke's new Jedi Temple, where he has already begun the work of rebuilding the Jedi Order and where survivors from across the galaxy are regrouping outside the watchful eye of the new Empire under Darth Sidius? When Luke arrives there with Grogu it is supposed to be to a glorious place of light and hope, where there are many survivors as it is an expression of Luke restoring balance to the Force that was destroyed by the tragic events following order 66. He consequently fulfilled his role as the chosen one that Qui Gon Jinn thought would be achieved by Anakin. The reveal of the new Temple flourishing with new padawans and survivors in a kind of budding Jedi paradise risen from the ashes would be just as important and epic a reveal as Luke's rescue of Grogu, otherwise what the heck was it all for? Wasn't this the whole purpose of the chosen one on which Star Wars Jedi lore is based? When he arrives at the new Jedi Temple with Grogu, this process of rebuilding is a new chapter in the life of the Jedi Order and allows the epic tale to come full circle. This seems to be the logical narrative. 

There is a huge gaping arch concerning Luke's life, where he was and what he did between when he is seen in Return of the Jedi and resurfaces in the Last Jedi. The hesitance to find a story to tell in live action is understandable. The Mandalorian has shown that a part of this story can be told in live action through the eyes and perspective of Grogu in the hands of Favreau and Feloni . Let's hope the opportunity to do this is not lost. 

Having survived order 66, Luke would hatch a plan for what to do should such a tragedy ever be faced again and this is how he and Grogu and most of the Temple's members would escape unscathed the second time the Temple is sacked, this time by Kylo. Even as Kylo and his Knights of Ren saw the Temple burning with all its Jedi within it, the reality is that nearly all the members could have escaped to safety, for example, in tunnels and caves beneath the Temple to ships waiting to ferry them away to a new location already prepared in case of this eventuality simply because the former complacency and false sense of security in the old Order is gone and they now had plans in place to counter such a crisis. The Adventures of Grogu after his time with Djarin seem ideally centred around his training, applying what he has been taught in missions, locating Force sensitive children around the galaxy as well as Jedi who are now in hiding and bringing them back to the new Temple, in addition to any missions Luke would require him to undertake. 

 Grogu survived Kylo's wrath towards him, against the Temple and its students, and saw to the rebuilding of Luke's Jedi Temple to where, hidden away on a remote planet or in the outskirts of a bustling city concealed in plain sight, it flourished. Its not hard to imagine that Kylo, with whom he was trained is a nemesis foremost in his mind. Its not hard to imagine, in a scene from the future, Grogu passionately asking for Luke to give him permission to enter the foray and confront Kylo because he feels Rey, having just began her training is not ready to face a highly skilled Jedi Knight like Kylo, and Luke just as passionately telling him they cannot bring him into the open. They cannot risk everything they have built thus far and the lives of the many Jedi now flourishing in the new Temple. 

This would set up the narrative for a monumental battle between Grogu and Kylo. Even if Kylo has returned to the light side of the force, this would not hold back Grogu's need to confront him for the lives he took and for turning against them. This tragedy had traumatized him twice and both times he was not in a position to confront his detractors. Now in his youth, young, intelligent, powerful and skillful, tutored by a Jedi legend like Luke his need to seek justice would be inevitable and his ruthlessness toward anyone who harms or endangers younglings would be beyond restraint, even though he may learn to masterfully hide his emotions as is the Jedi way. This confrontation could be built up over several seasons and would make good story telling. 

Watch these reactions to the end of Season 2 of the Mandalorian.

If you were toddler when Star Wars a New Hope first 

came to cinemas you can relate to these reactions. It pays to

sometimes listen to the audience's advice.