Disney's most successful weapon in the streaming wars is failing miserably, as more than halfway through season three of The Mandalorian, the beloved Star Wars series is still struggling to find its footing, following too many poorly developed plot threads with no apparent overarching goal and no justification for continued existence, leaving viewers increasingly unsatisfied and leading to drastically decreasing viewership as the season continues.
Fans waited years for the return of Mando (Pedro Pascal) and Baby Yoda *ahem* Din Djarin and Grogu - seriously, no one will ever call either of them by their real names no matter what, the internet has made it so - though no one is happy with the favorite duo either. It's clear that The Mandalorian is suffering immensely due to problems that could've easily been avoided and blunders that never should've been permitted, posing a bigger threat to Din and Grogu than Moff Gideon ever was. Let's look at all problems plaguing our heroes in season three and if The Mandalorian has lost The Way.
The Season Is Aimless
The clearest sign that The Mandalorian doesn't know where it's going is its sheer lack of anything to drive the story forward. The overarching goal of returning Grogu to his kind that gave purpose to Mando's journeys across the galaxy for the first two seasons has been accomplished, even though that was quickly undone and ended up pointless. Mando spent the first episode doing all these little things like rebuilding IG-11, which didn't lead to anything, and explained nothing as to why Grogu was still with his space daddy after being inducted into Luke Skywalker's New Jedi Order.
Mando was set to redeem himself by bathing in the holy Living Waters in the cursed mines of Mandalore, which was presumably the plot of the entire season, but that was achieved within the second episode. The third episode repeated the mistake of The Book of Boba Fett and focused on different characters entirely unrelated to our characters to try redeeming those sequels just a little bit - and still no goal or villain in sight. All the way until over halfway through the season at episode five, we finally have some focus on our characters' motivations and a dramatic set-up of the return of Mando's and Grogu's arch-nemesis. Still, it's too little, too late. While having Bo-Katan (Katee Sachhoff) set off to untie the scattered Mandalorian tribes is a significant turn for the series, it only sidelines Mando, and the return of Gideon (Giancarlo Esposito) isn't exactly game-changing, as he's been there since the beginning. Most viewers have already written off the show, and even though Mando and Baby Yoda used to be the talk of the town on the internet and off, The Mandalorian simply isn't as big a deal anymore.
The Carano Controversy Didn't Help
Before season two had even finished airing, fans knew that the season finale would be the last we would see of the former MMA fighter turned-actress Gina Carano in Star Wars. Playing the Rebellion shock trooper and New Republic ranger Cara Dune, Carano was a fan favorite until she posted a controversial post on her social media, which led to her contract with Lucasfilm being unjustly canceled because she was misrepresented. Regardless of any position on the controversy, Carano's sudden exit from The Mandalorian only hurt the show, having a very negative impact, especially since Carano was one of the few actors in the show without a helmet over their face constantly, bringing some much visible emotion and a much-needed counter-view to Mando's whole worldview. Her character was set to have her own show in Rangers of the New Republic, which is, for all intents and purposes canceled and never happening, so fans were treated to season three's mishandling of the character's absence, which only left a lot of fans confused and disappointed.
The Book of Boba Fett Threw Off Everything
The biggest culprit behind The Mandalorian's being majorly off-track is last year's The Book of Boba Fett. The highly-anticipated return of the classic Mandalorian bounty hunter was a massive disappointment for fans who had been waiting over forty years for the comeback of the decade, but unfortunately, one decision ruined both The Book of Boba Fett and The Mandalorian. It included Mando's and Grogu's story in Boba's. Include is a nice way of putting it, really, as Mando's show was more suddenly and inexplicably shoe-horned into Boba's show, where two whole episodes out of the seven barely featured the crime-lord and instead focused exclusively on Mando and Grogu, so that The Book of Boba Fett essentially became season 2.5 of The Mandalorian.
And even though fans were delighted to see Mando and Grogu back together again, this backfired majorly for The Mandalorian. Not many watched The Book of Boba Fett in the first place, and returning to The Mandalorian many fans were confused to see the iconic duo reunited without any kind of explanation offered. It reeks of lazy writing, undoing all the progression of the last two seasons, laying bare that the show made the same mistake the sequels made, not having a plan.
There's still some hope left with the remainder of season three still to be aired, and we can only hope that The Mandalorian and our favorite duo somehow manage to once again find The Way.