The second season of The Mandalorian is considered by many to be the best of the series with a balance of the straightforward genre storytelling of season one and the introduction of some very important connections to the large Star Wars universe, including some major character appearances. One of the things that I love about the show is how all-inclusive it is, bringing elements of everything from the Original Trilogy, prequels and animation. Compare that to J.J. Abrams who reportedly so disdained the Prequels that he wanted to blow up Coruscant in The Force Awakens. In fact, The Mandalorian even embraces the Sequels and does some groundwork to set them up. Season two also really explores what it means to be a Mandalorian, introducing Din and Grogu to others who consider themselves Mandos but who do not necessarily subscribe to the fundamentalist creed of Din's community. This puts Djarin into several situations where his Mandalorian ideology is challenged, leading to some interesting character exploration.
Much as in season one, The Mandalorian season two is oddly-paced with perhaps only half of the episodes being directly tied into the main plot of Din Djarin's assigned mission to bring Grogu back to the Jedi. The rest of the season is filled with lots of side missions which often makes the larger story feel like a video game. Din is frequently tasked with fetchquests in which he needs to accomplish a specific thing to bring him closer to his larger goal of finding more Mandalorians and ultimately a Jedi.
That's not to say that those episodes aren't thoroughly enjoyable including meeting important characters in Chapter 9 "The Marshall" and Chapter 11, "The Heiress" or a near survival horror episode in Chapter 10, "The Passenger," which finds Mando and Grogu crashing on a spider-infested ice planet. The Carl Weather's directed, "The Siege" is nothing short of an incredible distillation of kinetic Star Wars action. Episode 9, "The Believer," brings back season one character and former Imperial, Miggs Mayfeld and sends them into an Imperial base where they each have to contend with their changing beliefs in a great character-centric episode.
A notable character brought in from animation is Bo Katan, who was featured in both The Clone Wars and Rebels. She is played here by Battlestar Galactica's Katee Sackhoff, who also voiced her in animation. Once a scion of a great Mandalorian house, she is now leading a small group of warriors who are attempting to mount a resistance to the Imperial Remnant and ultimately resettle Mandalore. She is after Moff Giddeon who it was revealed possesses the Darksaber, which Katan hopes she can use to rally the surviving Mandalorians. Much like the other Mandalorians we have met in animation, her group does not follow The Creed in the same way as the Armorer's community, and they are fairly open and freely remove their helmets. They refer to Din's covert as "Children of the Watch," which actually fills in some gaps in the timeline.
Back during the Clone Wars era, the planet of Mandalore was ruled by a progressive, pacifist leader who had sought to lead the planet away from the centuries of warfare which had nearly destroyed their world. Indeed, the Mandalorians were confined to dome cities as the rest of the planet was effectively a wasteland. A conservative and militaristic group called Death Watch had opposed the leadership and sought to return Mandalore to its violent roots. Bo Katan was introduced as a member of this group and through several arcs of The Clone Wars we saw a struggle for the planet which culminated in which Maul (in his crimelord era) and Death Watch took control of Mandalore only to have it liberated by a Republic force aligned with Bo Katan.
The Children of the Watch are therefore an even more zealous offshoot of Death Watch that interpret The Creed in a very literal way with strict rules about their usage of armor and their interactions with outsiders. Most of them like Din are converts to The Creed with no connection to Mandalore whatsoever. Indeed, someone like Bo Katan can certainly make a more convincing argument that she is a "real" Mandalorian than Din, since she was born and raised on the planet and steeped in its culture.
The other "Mandalorian" that Din and Grogu meet this season is Boba Fett, Star Wars' original Mandalorian character. The term Mandalorian was first used internally at Lucasfilm to describe the armor designed for this character, originally described as having been made of "Mandalorian steel.' the term Beskar was created in the 1990's in one of the old EU novels. Boba first appeared in animation in a segment of the Star Wars Holiday Special (You can watch this much of the special on Disney Plus as "The Faithful Wookie" and he later appeared in a small roles in The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. He is revealed in Attack of the Clones to have been cloned from Jango Fett, the donor from which the Republic's clone army was created. Early in season two, Din acquires Boba's armor in an adventure on Tattooine, where Boba had seemingly met his demise in Jedi.
We are reintroduced to the character in the Robert Rodriguez-directed Chapter 14 "The Tragedy" where we learn Fett has teamed up with season one character Fennec Shand and has tracked Mando to Tython in order to reclaim his armor. This leads to a really kick-ass battle between a re-armored Boba and a squad of stormtroopers. This sequence fulfills a long-standing wish if Star Wars fans to see Boba Fett go HAM and the episode does not disappoint. Later, we learn that Boba's "father" Jango Fett had been a foundling much like Din and Grogu and had at some point followed The Creed. When Grogu is kidnapped and Mando's ship destroyed, Boba pledges to assist in getting him back, kicking off an epic bromance that carries on into The Book of Boba Fett. Throughout the season, we see Din getting more and more comfortable with other Mandalorians who do not necessarily share his interpretation of The Creed.
Season two also serves as the live action debut for another major Star Wars character from animation, Ahsoka Tano who had served as Anakin Skywalker's Padawan during the Clone Wars and has developed over several projects into one of Star Wars' most beloved and interesting characters. Din is lead to her by Bo Katan, a frequent ally of hers during the Clone Wars and beyond. Ahsoka's episode "The Jedi" has a strong Japanese influence in its music and design and is seemingly inspired by the great Studio Ghibli movie Princess Mononoke, which also features a formerly pastoral land which has been blighted by a cruel mistress intent on stripping it down for weapons and industry and who is opposed by a supernatural opponent who strikes from the forest. The early designs for Ahsoka's character were directly based on Princess Mononoke so this brings her origins full circle.
While Din's goal is to bring Grogu to a Jedi for training, Ahsoka due to her complicated relationship with the order (and we later learn her frustrations attempting to train her own apprentice) declines to train Grogu, referring Din to a Jedi site where Grogu may be able to make contact with a surviving Jedi. Regardless, the two team up in order to take down the villainous Morgan Elspeth and we learn Ahsoka's true mission is to track down, Grand Admiral Thrawn, a towering figure from Star Wars old Expanded Universe who was seemingly lost at the end of Rebels.
The season comes to a close as Din gathers his new Mandalorian allies on a mission to rescue Grogu from Giddeon's cruiser. Mando battles everything from a Darksaber-wielding Giddeon to a squad of Darktroopers, battle droids cherrypicked from the videogame side of the old EU. Djarin defeats Giddeon and therefore earns the Darksaber which puts him into conflict Bo Katan. As our main characters are trapped on the cruiser's bridge about to be assaulted by Darktroopers, noneother than Luke Skywalker arrives to save them, having tracked Grogu from the Jedi site on Tython.
While Luke's extended fight with the Darktroopers is impressive (again seeing a full-on post Return of the Jedi Luke at the height of his power is another thing fans have been wanting to see forever) and he really makes quick work of the droid squadron in a sequence that mirrors Vader's corridor fight at the end of Rogue One. Of course, he is conveniently hooded during this sequence and only reveals his face for a brief sequence at the very end of the episode. The process to recreate a young Mark Hamil produces mixed results just on the wrong side of the Uncanny Valley. As I understand it, it is some combination of AI de-aging, a look-a-like stand-in, and some kind of performance capture from Hamil himself. Honestly, having Mark Hamil there in his Jedi costume, seems to have more to do with publicity and fanservice than anything that actually contributed meaningfully to the performance. Simply using the look-a-like actor would have honestly been less distracting. Or just cast Sebastian Stan, you cowards!
The series ends on a heartbreaking note as Grogu goes off with Luke to be trained as a Jedi, leaving Mando behind, having broken the rules of his covert twice this season by removing his helmet both times for Grogu and which will ultimately put him into an inevitable conflict with his community. Also, I have never disliked Luke more than in this moment in which he tales Grogu away from Din.
It seems like the arc they are establishing for the New Republic-era Luke is that he has failed to learn from the failures of the old Jedi order and the Jedi's emotional stupidity which has so failed his father. He has a little of the old order's arrogant dickishness. I think this is all pretty consistent with where he ends up in the Sequel Trilogy, so I like it. It should be noted that the Luke Skywalker of the old Expanded Universe made very different choices and actively broke with this element of the order and allowed the Jedi in his New Jedi Order to have healthy romantic and family attachments.
Look, I just want a scene in one of these Mandoverse projects in which Din and Luke bond over both being in creepy cults.
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