Starfish35

Lol. Maybe not, but I have been assuming “Home” would be in the title somewhere.

I’m partway through “Ambush”, and I just have to say this is making so much more sense than the last time I tried to watch it. A few years ago, when Clone Wars was on Netflix, I tried to start watching, but I hadn’t seen any of the prequels at that point, or even the Clone Wars movie. I was so totally lost!!! At that point, I think I still had a vague idea that the clones were the enemy, and I couldn’t figure out why Yoda was running around with these Stormtrooper-looking guys. 😂🤦🏻‍♀️ It’s amazing what a little context will do. 😄

I’m up through “Supply Lines” in the chronological episode order that @Dani linked on the last page (thank you again!). I’m enjoying it so far. As I mentioned before, this Anakin is far more tolerable than the Hayden Christensen version. Ahsoka has only appeared in the Clone Wars movie, and I was prepared to find her annoying, but so far I don’t mind her...we’ll see if that changes. My only complaint so far is the overly affected accent that the voice actor for Obi Wan Kenobi is using. It’s making it hard for me to take the character seriously, but hopefully I’ll get used to it. It’s still jarring to see the Republic using what I’m used to thinking of as Imperial starships. It’s just this instinctive “oh no!” reaction when they show up and then I remember “oh wait....” 😂

I guess I don’t understand this assumption. I mean, yes, having the second Steve in the other timeline creates problems; I’ve always said so. But I’ve never understood the assumption (not just here; I’ve seen it several other places as well) that main timeline Steve would lie and deceive Peggy about the whole thing.

Ok, well I watched Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones. Mostly bearable except for the Padme/Anakin romance. (Seriously, I knew people said it was bad, but it really is bad. 😬) Then I decided to jump into Clone Wars (following the chronological order linked on the last page). Is it weird that within ten minutes I already like animated!Anakin worlds more than live action!Anakin? Or is that normal? 😂

So since we’ve apparently got at least a year before any new Mandalorian content, I’m beginning the catch-up on my Star Wars viewing, starting with the prequels, which I have never watched before. I’ve only seen the original trilogy, The Force Awakens, and Rogue One, so this will be an adventure. 😄 I’m primarily interested in getting to Clone Wars/Rebels, but I understand that I need to watch the first two prequels before Clone Wars. Soooooo.....here we go! 😳😂

I was thinking about signing up for HBOMax just to watch this, but now I’m glad I didn’t, based on what I’m reading. I absolutely loved the first movie, and I’m so disappointed that this one turned out this way. And I’m discouraged that so many of the reviews seem to have no problem at all with the issue of Steve and Diana hijacking this unknown man’s body. It’s just disturbing, and as others have pointed out, seems to have been completely unnecessary for the plot. 😕 It’s also really damaged my faith in Patty Jenkins. I’ll definitely be approaching WW3 with caution.

First.....huge sigh of relief over them being confirmed to be separate series. 😄 ETA: Never mind....I didn’t see that it had already been quoted. Sorry! 🤦🏻‍♀️ I think the EW article is still running with the earlier assumption that a Season 3 premiere date had been announced. But since it has been clarified that “the next chapter” actually refers to the Boba Fett series, not the Mandalorian S3, I think it’s safe to say that we don’t actually have any idea when it will air. For all we know, it could actually air before The Book of Boba Fett, even though it doesn’t start filming until afterwards. As for Grogu, yeah, now that I know the show isn’t shifting focus from Din to Boba, I’m going to assume Grogu will also be back. Not sure how they’ll explain that yet, but I think he will be. But I’m assuming S3 will also focus more on Mandalorian politics and the whole Dark Saber thing. The Dark Saber might be Din’s new quest.

From TVLine’s Matt Mitovich: The Mandalorian: 12 Burning Questions Coming Out of Season 2 Finale — Including, 'Is [ Spoiler ] Gone Forever?' (This is not the recap that was posted earlier)

I don’t want to belabor this, because I truly do not know what to think. But. Would they have lied? They’ve said there will be a Season 3, and I don’t think that’s in dispute. I think I’ve heard that it’s been confirmed that Pedro Pascal will be in it, and that wouldn’t be a lie either if he showed up a few times during the season. But....the fact that as of the time of this post there has been no official press release confirming the spin-off (to the best of my knowledge anyway) is making me increasingly nervous. Even if it was kept out of the earlier announcements in order to be a surprise, I would still have expected them to make an official announcement after the episode was released today. There may be reasons for that; I don’t know. 🤷🏻‍♀️ But the one obvious reason that comes to mind is that it’s not actually a new series. 😢

Thoughts not related to the post-credits scene: I agree that the lack of a reunion scene between Din and Grogu was a disappointment. The goodbye scene had me in tears, but....it still felt like we needed to see that earlier scene. My feeling though is that they didn’t do it because if they had, that would have been the natural place for Din to take off his helmet, and they wanted it to be on the bridge. But...still. I was totally shocked by them bringing in Luke. I figured characters from the original trilogy would be off limits, but I underestimated their commitment to a totally integrated universe. As soon as I saw the green lightsaber I knew who it was, but I didn’t realize until the end credits that it was a digitally de-aged Mark Hamill (or rather, Mark Hamill’s face pasted on another actor). My thoughts were like.....”oh wow, they really did bring in Luke? I wonder who they cast? Is it going to be Sebastian Stan after all? No, that’s not him, but wow, props for finding an actor who does look uncannily like Mark Hamill.” (In my defense, it was 4:00 am but still! 🤦🏻‍♀️) The fight between Din and Gideon was no less awesome for the fact that we knew it was coming since Din got that beskar spear. I also loved the squad of women mowing down stormtroopers.....I would watch that spin-off. 😄 I’m intrigued by what this means for Din going forward, since he has the Darksaber now. I was kind of hoping that he would end up getting it, but I figured he wouldn’t since Bo-Katan is a character brought over from Clone Wars/Rebels. Poor little Grogu looked kind of out of it when Din first brought him to the bridge, but he started perking up when the x-wing showed up. It was clear to me that he sensed Luke coming for him. But awwwww....Din and Grogu saying goodbye really did have me in tears.

I’ve been looking around, and it looks to me like there is far from a consensus regarding the meaning of the “Book of Boba Fett”. Many have no doubt that it’s a spin-off announcement; other sites, such as TVLine, seem to believe that it is announcing that Season 3 will be focused on Boba Fett rather than on Din Djarin and Grogu. I’ve been going back and forth on it since watching this morning, but I’m not prepared to definitely stake out a position on either side. I would certainly prefer Option 1, but a few things have me unsettled. If it’s a true spinoff, why wasn’t it announced at the same time as the others? Why the secrecy? If it had been titled anything but “The Book of...”. All the episodes of this show are “chapters”, so it could indicate the ending of one book, and the beginning of another, with the chapter count starting over with the first episode of season three. The fact that it is announced to premiere at the same time as The Mandalorian Season 3 was previously announced to premiere. That may not mean anything at all? Or it may mean that “The Book of Boba Fett” IS in fact (the subtitle for) The Mandalorian Season 3. In any case, hopefully it won’t be too long before we get some clarity on the subject. 🤷🏻‍♀️

I was thrilled with it all the way up until the post credits scene, at which point I went......”Wait what?” 🤯 I also read it as that it was the end of the Din & Grogu Mandalorian show and was becoming the Boba & Fennec Mandalorian show. But if others think it was just for a spin-off, I’ll take a deep breath and try to relax. 🥺 I’m not even able to process the rest of it because of that shock right now, except that apparently Din is now king of Mandalore? Hahaha I was kinda hoping for that, but I didn’t think it would really happen. ETA: TVLine’s Matt Mitovich is also asking in his recap whether that post-credits scene means the show is changing course.

I wonder whether Falcon and the Winter Soldier will confirm either theory, or whether they’ll just leave it. I can mostly live with the branching timeline theory, even if it wouldn’t have been my preferred ending for Steve. (Although the issue of the other Steve really does cause some problems there. I have not yet been able to work out a completely satisfactory resolution to that issue. 😕) I just simply cannot deal with the whole closed time loop theory. It just absolutely does not work for me, both in its logic regarding what was stated in the movie itself and its implications for the characters. 🤯

That’s adorable 🥰