The Mandalorian (Disney+)

To give a bit more context, and I'm going full spoilers here so if you're in this thread and haven't seen the finale leave now.

I mostly enjoyed the last episode a lot. It was exciting, tense, and had some great scenes like Mando's fight against the one Dark Trooper. I also like the stuff with Gianarlo and the conflict brewing between Mando and the Mandalore Princess intrigued me. Characters being rigidly beholden to their traditions and beliefs is good Star Wars content. Then Luke showed up to do fan-service and I had mixed feelings. On the one hand, there was something exciting about his arrival and the action is certainly well-done, but it's also such a transparent piece of fan-service. And once again, EVERYTHING in this fucking universe comes back to the Skywalkers. Now, it doesn't totally come out of nowhere given Baby Yoda had been in contact with a Jedi, but all the same, the smallness of the world is disappointing. It also completely decenters The Mandalorian, who is the person I'm actually invested in. I love Luke because Star Wars and all, but I've also spent two seasons investing in this character and to discard him in the finale for a legacy character really undermines its own star. It's kinda like how in wrestling veterans like The Rock will show up for a Wrestlemania payday while shafting the guys who bust their ass all year. I have nostalgia, sure, but I also care about these younger guys and they're who I'm rooting for.

Nonetheless, the story at hand means it isn't totally unreasonable to have Luke show up. But then he takes off his hood and it's this weird CGI mannequin that looks fine in static but weird as shit once he talks. And the filmmakers clearly knew it looked kinda wack because they cut around his face as much as they can. So a scene that really needed a human warmth to make sense of Mando giving away his child to some weirdo in a robe he's never met before becomes all the more creepy and unnatural. And I walk away from the finale having no idea what the show wants me to feel about Baby Yoda going with Luke, but I know that I don't like it. I have to assume Baby Yoda is gonna come back, because his story ending with "And then Luke took him away until he was presumably slaughtered by Kylo Ren" is not exactly very satisfying. And the real shame is Pedro Pascal performs the goodbye incredibly well, good enough to make you weep. But the scene on the whole is just so damn awkward that the season ends in this strangely alienating way. And that sucks all the more because virtually ever episode of season 2 ended with "Sorry Mario, but your Princess is in another castle" and that puts a lot of weight on the destination. And that destination was shit so it taints the whole journey.

But the cherry on top was that fucking awful post-credits teaser, so transparently an ad right down to having the title and release date for this new spin-off. And isn't that just the most depressing thing. The Mandalorian was a cool little show which had fun in the Star Wars universe, but now that it's popular it gets to be a vessel for the brand. What a shame.

I don't really expect anyone to actually come out and say that the Sequel Trilogy isn't cannon anymore.  That's just me letting my fanboy flag fly.  I agree that The Force Awakens was highly well received upon it's release, and even the following two films have their fans.  What's far more likely is that they'll simply ignore them for the foreseeable future.  In regard to Luke's Jedi Academy, that's pretty easy to do.  The Sequels were very light on details about exactly what happened and when.  There was no new version of Order 66 to indicate that any students not at the school were hunted down that I recall, or even any attempt to chase down those who may have chosen to escape rather than attack the Knights of Ren.  

We've got plenty going on to keep things action packed in the timeframe The Mandalorian, Ahsoka, and Book of Boba Fett are taking place in.  We've got Grand Admiral Thrawn, Imperial cloning experiments, the establishing of New Mandalore, and the Outer Rim being brought to heel by Boba Fett & Fenick.  Who has time to worry about what's happening twenty years down the line?

I thought we already knew that.  I only saw the last two Sequel films once each, but I seem to recall a scene in one of them revealing that Rey's father was a clone of Palpatine.  

I would describe watching these two seasons as "fun," but not a whole lot more? Like, Baby Yoda was a treasure and despite my crapping on fan service, some of it is very fun. But some of it is an f-ing joke. I'll save time and bring up my most hated example. Early in season 1 there was like a 5 minute scene with two Stormtroopers COMPLETELY devoted to the joke that they have bad aim. And to boot, it had cameos for some reason. Wow, hilarious. It was worse than Abrams' red shirt jokes every 5 minutes. And think of this. They give us that scene, completely crapping on the enemy, then in season 2 there is a large action piece where we are expected to take them seriously as an enemy? Remember that raid on the ship? Why should I worry about the good guys' well-being when they're facing a fucking joke? A literal joke. That they made.

And this is a good segue for why I've never really gotten into the show, and it's that every episode is the same. Every episode is "Sure, I'll help you Mando. But help me fight oppression first?" And then almost every episode has the "I'm sorry, your princess is in another castle" ending.

Yep.  I just did some checking to make sure I wasn't just remembering it wrong.  The details were glossed over in the movie, but addressed in more detail for the novelization.  Rey's father was one of the many clones created by the Sith cultists for The Emperor to transfer his spirit into.  That particular clone had no sensitivity to The Force, and so was deemed unsuitable for Palpatine, but still had potential for producing an heir.

lol.

At least we got Jodie Comer’s Rey’s mom. They could always bring her back.

Wyldstaar will correct me and say, “she eventually becomes a Jedi”, but they don’t have to introduce her as one right away.

Mara Jade. Luke’s wife in the EU.

I also gave up before then.

It was certainly kind of Doomsday to vindicate Kevin Smith on the show like this. What a great guy!

screenrant.com/star-wars-mandalorian-death-star-casualties-theory-canon/

I hated how small they kept making the universe in the movies... And mando did the same thing just a different timeline, but dang I think they did it well. I'm eating my words, but they are somewhat expanding the universe in their own way. Hopefully the addition of the extended universe breathes some life into it.

Rosario is gonna have to learn to use swords though, her moves were atrocious. If ya gonna wield a saber you gotta make it look good.