The Mandalorian season 2 finale

I suddenly got super into the Mandalorian right before season 2 finished airing. I liked the show from the start, but I didn't get properly obsessed with it until the second to last episode of season 2. And then it was over an episode later. Argh!

I like the Star Wars universe, but I don't love it. I struggle to pay attention when I watch the films. If I watch in release order I usually make it through "A New Hope", and then I completely lose interest. The Mandalorian was great, but I didn't pay super close attention here either. But when S02E07 came around, something clicked. I rewatched everything, and fell totally in love with the Mandalorian character, the look and feel of the show, his relationship with the child, the armour, the soundtrack, and loads more! I devoured tons of articles about it, read discussions, watched videos, listened to podcasts, rewatched all the previous episodes and loved it even more. Now I have to wait a whole year until I get more content. Bummer. Managed to love it for a whole week. 

I think I have exhausted my SO's interest in the topic at this point, so I here I am to write my first blog post in over three years, lol. 

The ending was amazing, confusing, and a little bit... I dunno, I have conflicted feelings. 

The good:

Mando vs. the dark trooper. I jumped in my seat. 

Mando vs the dark saber / Moff Gideon. Awesome fight. Short, but intense.

Mando walking back in with Moff Gideon, holding the dark saber. That looked badass. The implication that he now has some right to "rule" Mandalore? Never been a big fan of crazy "rights to the throne" type plots, but I love the idea of our hero being saddled with that intense responsibility, and the dilemma that he can't just give it away easily. 

Mando and Grogu parting ways. It was so, so sad. I loved how he slowly took the helmet off to not scare Grogu, to show him there's a real face under there. Grogu touching his face. Din probably hasn't had anyone touch his face since he was a kid. My heart hurts for their father and son relationship. Sat there sniffing for a bit afterwards. I would have loved for him to stay with Din somehow. But he does need training. 

The good, but bordering on conflicted:

Luke Skywalker showing up to get Grogu. It makes total sense that if someone reaches out through the force to get help from a Jedi, it would be Luke showing up. If he didn't show up, it would be similar to those scenarios where I'm always thinking "where's Superman in all this" when something dramatically earth threatening happens in a DC universe story that doesn't have Superman in it. 

However, I feel like the story loses some of its original, fresh feeling when you start involving the jedi / the movie cast. The Jedi are very overpowered, as shown here. But again, Luke was the most logical choice. 

The conflicted:

This season has been going a bit overboard with the nerdy fan service, ever so slightly. 

I am not a fan of using CGI or deepfakes to recreate the faces of actors. The technology isn't good enough yet. While it looks good, you can tell it's not real, and it's really off putting. I find it a lot easier to deal with the puppets, because they're actually there. This face was kind of just floating there a bit. I wish they would have just cast somebody who looks a bit like Mark Hamill did. It wouldn't have been so obviously him when he took the hood off, but at least the face would have been real. 

Then, it's the implication that Mando might not be the main character next season? What's that about? I do love Boba Fett in this. But it's Mando that I fell in love with. I'm crossing my fingers that this "Book of Boba Fett" thing means a spin-off, or a one time movie before we get season 3. Though I'm not too sure that's the case with the ending we just got for Mando and Grogu. It felt like an end of show kind of ending. But... What happens to Mando? As an end of story, it was great, but there was no proper ending for Mando. What's his purpose now? What happens with the saber? It makes sense with the way this was set up that this was "The book of Din Djarin", then we get "the book of Boba Fett". But I really, really do not want that. I want more of this Mandalorian. 

The unanswered:

• Who had Grogu in the first place? Who were powerful enough to steal him from the empire, and what were they doing with him? If the empire wanted his blood, did these unknown guys want the same things?
• What did they need his blood for? Are they trying to create Jedis? And why did they seem to change their minds on whether they wanted him alive, or to kill him?
• What's going to happen to Grogu now that he's with Luke? Didn't Kylo Ren kill all his students? That must be, what, 17-ish years in the future? I have seen some people theorize that Grogu will have left before then, but will he be mature enough to finish his training in that short time?