Five years ago, many Star Wars fans signed up for Disney+ with something specific in mind. A major selling point was the fact that a new series was coming out that featured someone like fan favorite Boba Fett. Whatever fans thought of the first episode, everything was changed by the sight of wrinkles on a green scalp and outsized ears.
Here are 5 highlights of genius storytelling beats in The Mandalorian.
1. The Mythosaur
In the Season 3 episode "The Mines of Mandalore," Din Djarin and Bo-Katan Kryze make a journey to the underworld of Mandalore. For Din, this is a redemption arc and a ritual returning since he grew up on Mandalore's moon, Concordia. He is journeying to the heart of his society while also witnessing the horrific devastation of Mandalore itself. There is so much that is destroyed and desecrated that compassion passes between the two warriors who have often been at odds with each other.
Within the mines, they find the Living Waters, and Bo-Katan speaks of the public spectacle of taking the tenets as a member of the royal family. There is no theatricality in the way that Din recites the words while wading into the pool. It fulfills his mandate and forever forges in his heart "the words of the Creed." And then he walks the way of the Mand'alor off a shelf and nearly drowns.
The moment when Kryze rescues him from the depths is striking enough, but as they escape the Waters, we see a mythosaur who is very much alive. We can't help but remember that The Armorer foretold "the mythosaur rising up to herald a new age of Mandalore." In the blink of a mythosaur's eyes, the stakes change, and the audience feels it.
2. "That is his name."
Season 2 took us through another quest to find Jedi. We, as fans, know who can be found at the end of one such journey, and we are on tenterhooks waiting for a Skywalker to answer the call of "Baby Yoda." Instead of Luke's green lightsaber, we see Ahsoka Tano's paired sabers as she makes her way through the mist to Morgan Elsbeth.
The Jedi who comes to this little family is not a herald of the New Republic but a Jedi who served the Old Republic. At that point, as someone who had not watched much of The Clone Wars, I was less emotionally invested in Anakin Skywalker's apprentice's appearance.
Ahsoka empowers Din to give Grogu a safe place for expression of his powers, but her refusal to train someone who has such a tendency towards attachment speaks to the guilt that she still carries. This one episode tells us a great deal in very few words.
3. The clan of two
The signs were there from the beginning that Djarin and Grogu were meant to be found family. The Armorer declared them to be a clan of two long after we started melting at the paternal nature of Djarin's treatment of the kid. Things aren't that formal, however, until the end of Season 3.
Grogu's status as a foundling matches that of his father figure, and this makes for a complicated emotional journey through the second season. I don't think anyone denies what a Dad Din Djarin is when he removes his helmet and sends his ward to train with the Jedi who has just arrived. Nor is it surprising when Grogu feels allegiance to Djarin and returns from his training.
In Season 3's "Chapter 24: The Return," Grogu is unable to take the Creed as he still communicates without words. The Armorer reminds Din Djarin that Grogu, as a foundling, is far from his parents. Djarin finally solemnizes the devotion they have to each other and says, "Then I will adopt him as my own." The Armorer approves of this with an equally solemn, "This is the Way." The Child who did not have a name one season ago has a family name and is apprenticed as Din Grogu. Other characters have scenes that follow, but this is the season's high point.
4. IG-11's turn
Someone must have conceived of IG-11 as what would happen if you gave an owner's manual sentience and called it a personality. The droid is self-sabotaging as a matter of heavily documented policy, and I looked forward to a series in which Din Djarin had to constantly talk his bounty droid companion out of self-destructing. And then I saw the bounty and knew I wanted him to be the next casualty in Chapter 1's battles.
In the finale of Season 1, he returns as a protective figure. It's hilarious that he is as obsessed with the rules of protection as his vocation as a hunter, and his decision to protect The Child is great. All good stories hinge on a what-if question, and the change from assassin to nurse is an example of that.
5. Fett up
Season 3 shows us the renaissance of Mandalorian society and the ambitions of those who would participate in it, but the groundwork for this was properly laid, starting with the reintroduction of Boba Fett in Season 2's episode, "The Tragedy."
The central event of the episode is Grogu reaching out to Jedi on Tython, but this is complicated when Fennec Shand arrives. First, we see the Slave 1 circling the site of the temple, and then, as Grogu meditates on the seeing stone, a hooded figure approaches. Temeura Morrison reveals his face and his heritage as "a simple man making his way through the galaxy, like father before ."
A good component of storytelling is what might be called a "teeter." It is a balance of warring elements that could produce disastrous results but prevent disaster because of how the people involved compromise. Such is the situation with Fett and Din. Fett has grown and been tempered by the years since Return of the Jedi, and this is how he comes to be a Jedi-protector in return for Jango Fett's armor. We couldn't help but get excited to explore more of that story.