In late 2019, the first live-action Star Wars TV show arrived in the form of The Mandalorian. It ushered in a wave of programming set in a galaxy far, far away that’s exclusively streamable with a Disney+ subscription, but the Pedro Pascal-led series is still arguably the most well-known of the bunch. After all, Din Djarin and Grogu are making the jump to the big screen in next year’s The Mandalorian & Grogu, the first upcoming Star Wars movie since The Rise of Skywalker. However, one fan has made a critique about The Mandalorian that I’d never thought about, though I don’t agree with it… for the most part.
This take comes from X user @JacobYLow, who was responding to a post that share the top-rated episodes of Star Wars TV shows on IMDB. The Mandalorian’s “The Rescue,” i.e. the Season 2 finale, was tied with Andor’s “Who Are You?” with a 9.8 score, and the Andor episodes “Welcome to the Rebellion” and “One Way Out” followed with 9.7 and 9.5, respectively. Low described this ranking as “wild” and claimed that “almost all the problems with the Mandoverse can be traced” to “The Rescue,” saying:
No, the problem isn’t CGI Luke, it’s Luke appearing out of nowhere as a deus ex machina. Yes, the Book of Boba Fett was far worse and made the disastrous decision to undo E8, but that decision shows they were never committed to the split to begin with.
Ok, I will agree that Luke Skywalker managing to find Moff Gideon’s ship was convoluted, even if it does just boil down to pinpointing Grogu’s location with the Force. However, it was established in “The Believer” that Din and Grogu had gone to Tython for the latter to find other Jedi on Ahsoka Tano’s suggestion. With Luke technically being the only Jedi around during this era (at least in title), it only made sense for him to show up, as he’d be the one training Grogu in his Jedi Academy.
Now, do I think it was annoying that The Book of Boba Fett almost immediately undid Grogu embarking on this Jedi path? Yes, I absolutely do, and it’s part of my larger issues with the miniseries turning into The Mandalorian Season 2.5. But going back strictly to The Mandalorian, I can’t fully get behind this next statement:
S2 E8 also marks the end when the show stopped being an adventure-of-the-week vibes-based show, and became a story-driven show (and that story isn’t very compelling).
This is a bit of a stretch. Yes, The Mandalorian did have those ‘adventure of the week’ vibes in those first two seasons, and they felt stronger in Season 1. But Season 2 still had an overarching story before “The Return” aired. Din Djarin was traveling around the universe trying to find Grogu’s “people,” and that brought him into contact with characters like Boba Fett, Bo-Katan Kryze and Ahsoka Tano. Luke Skywalker’s arrival in the Season 2 finale only added yet another connective thread between this show and the wider Star Wars universe.
So while I don’t think that “The Return” is on the same level of quality as the aforementioned Andor episodes, I’m not going to agree that Luke Skywalker’s appearance was what caused The Mandalorian to dip in quality. I still enjoyed Season 3 for the most part, and I’m looking forward to The Mandalorian & Grogu hitting theaters on May 22, 2026.