It’s honestly sad what has happened to this series. The Mandalorian has divulged into nothing more than a nostalgia-baiting, clickbaiting parody series of show that once offered fresh, creative, and nuanced ideas and characters.
You can’t convince me The Mandalorian isn’t a parody when it literally has Lizzo and Jack Black dressed up as royal alien versions of themselves.
I won’t make this article too long as I just don’t have anything new to say about the sad state Disney has corrupted The Mandalorian into, but I will point out how bad the nostalgia-baiting and cringy writing has become.
This show has pretty much been given the Marvel Phase 4 treatment as all of the serious, gritty, nuanced, and emotional storytelling beats and characters have been replaced with goofy, overdramatized, and downright parody versions of themselves.
Just like how Thor, Ant-Man, and Hulk have all been transformed into cartoonish depictions of the characters they once portrayed in the early phases, Mando, Grogu, Bo-Katan, and the very world of The Mandalorian has been treated as a cow’s utter by the Disney hierarchy as they are constantly getting milked for more merchandise sales and commercial deals. Though, this shouldn’t be too surprising as Disney is behind both creative studios.
Still, the nostalgia-baiting is out of control…even by Disney’s standards.
(Disney/Lucasfilm-The Mandalorian-Season 3, Episode 6: “Guns For Hire”)
Whether its cameos from animated characters (Ahsoka Tano, Zeb, Bo-Katan), prequel era fan favorites (B1 battle droids, B2 battle droids, Count Dooku references, Jar-Jar Binks actor, Naboo starfighter), or the appearances from the legendary OG Trilogy characters (Luke Skywalker, R2D2, Boba Fett), The Mandalorian has been pretty heavily influenced by nostalgia-cameos.
So, it would be wrong of me to complain about seeing a B2 battle droid bolting across a screen like Usain Bolt in one scene yet say nothing when Ahsoka Tano and Luke Skywalker come out of nowhere. Thus, I’m not entirely against the use of nostalgia cameos, but I am against the use of said cameos to solely get eyeballs on the product.
Unlike the cameos from this season, the first two seasons of The Mandalorian used the legacy character cameos to further add to the story as both Luke Skywalkers and Ahsoka had vital roles in the story of Mando and Grogu (ie: they were the Jedi that accepted Grogu back into the Jedi Order).
However, as I said, the newest cameos, such as the battle droids, Zeb, and Count Dooku references, serve no other purpose than to attract fans into a live-action game of Where’s Waldo?, which has unfortunately taken over the once-ingenuitive writing process of this series.
(Disney/Lucasfilm-The Mandalorian-Season 2, Episode 5: “The Jedi”)
Nevertheless, all of this nostalgia-baiting has been superseded by the unbridled streamlining of the show as not only have huge corporations and companies (ex: Google) altered the natural storytelling of the show by insisting on using Mando-themed products, but Disney has also used the show to parodize some of the key elements of Star Wars through celebrity cameos and over-the-top comedy, sets, and “side quests”.
Everything about Episode 6 proves my point as Jack Black and Lizzo, two very prominent and well-known celebrities, were shoehorned into the plot to attract mainstream viewers to watch and journalist to write sycophantic articles, while the goofy side quests serve no other purpose than to draw out the show’s runtime.
Seriously, why did this week’s episode of The Mandalorian spend almost 35-40 minutes sending Mando and Bo-Katan on a buddy-cop fetch quest riddled with goofy tropes, parody depictions of once intimidating elements (ex: battle droids), and 4th-wall breaking celebrity appearances (ex: Jack Black and Lizzo)? The showrunners realize there’s only two more episodes left to compete this season’s story and character arcs, right? I guess not.
Now, I will say that some of the bits in the latest episode was funny (especially Mando getting absolutely bodied by the B2 battle droid), but that was the kind of content I’d expect from Spaceballs (an actual parody of Star Wars) and Mel Brooks.
(Disney/Lucasfilm-The Mandalorian-Season 3, Episode 6: “Guns For Hire”)
Not the flagship show of the Star Wars brand.
Images Source: Featured Image: (Disney/Lucasfilm) (The Mandalorian Season 3, Episode 5: “Guns For Hire”)
In Text Image 1: (Disney/Lucasfilm) (The Mandalorian Season 2, Episode 5: “The Jedi”)
In Text Image 2: (Disney/Lucasfilm) (The Mandalorian Season 3, Episode 6: “Guns For Hire”)
In Text Image 3: (Disney/Lucasfilm) (The Mandalorian Season 3, Episode 6: “Guns For Hire”)
