Plus, if he stays with Luke, he likely dies at the hands of Ben Solo. This keeps him alive for future stories into the sequel era and beyond
That would have been a fine end if it was the end of the show, but Grogu is a HUGE part of the reason the show was so popular to begin with. Doing the show without Grogu would cost them a significant part of their audience, a lot of whom were never Star Wars fans to begin with.
Can someone summarize (or point to a video summary of) the Mandalorian plot developments that happened in Boba Fett? I gave up on it after one extremely uninteresting episode, and nothing I’ve heard has made me regret that decision.
From the Wikipedia summaries of the two TBoBF episodes which were fundamentally The Mandalorian episodes:
Episode 5:
After Din Djarin tracks and kills a bounty, he delivers the bounty’s head for directions to a Mandalorian hideout. There, he finds the Armorer and Paz Vizsla, survivors of their tribe of Mandalorian warriors, who inspect the Darksaber that he won from Moff Gideon.[b] The Armorer explains that whoever wins the Darksaber in combat can become the ruler of Mandalore, though their civilization was destroyed by the Empire. The Armorer turns Djarin’s beskar spear into a gift for his former charge, Grogu. Vizsla, a descendant of the Darksaber’s creator, Tarre Vizsla, challenges Djarin to a duel for the saber. Djarin defeats Vizsla but reveals that he previously broke their tribe’s code by removing his helmet. Rejected by the tribe, Djarin takes a commercial transport to meet Peli Motto on Tatooine, who has an old N-1 starfighter to replace his previous ship, the Razor Crest .[d] Working together they fix and modify the starship and Djarin takes it for a test flight. Upon his return, Fennec Shand arrives and asks Djarin to assist Boba Fett in the upcoming war. He agrees, but only after he visits a friend.
Episode 6:
Djarin flies to a forested world to visit Grogu, and is greeted by R2-D2 and Ahsoka Tano. Tano convinces Djarin that his presence will hinder Grogu, so he returns to Tatooine after asking Tano to deliver the gift—a beskar chain mail tunic—to the youngling. Jedi Master Luke Skywalker has begun training Grogu, his first student, to use the Force. Skywalker helps the youngling remember his home, the Jedi Temple on Coruscant, where he saw many Jedi killed during Order 66. Fett and his allies discuss their manpower shortage, and Djarin travels to Freetown to enlist Vanth and his people. After Djarin leaves, hired gun Cad Bane arrives on behalf of the Pykes to order the town to be neutral in the upcoming war. Following a standoff, Bane shoots both the marshal and his deputy. Two Pykes later bomb the Sanctuary in Mos Espa. Skywalker, bearing Djarin’s gift, gives a choice to Grogu: take the chain mail and stop his training, or take Yoda’s lightsaber and be trained as a Jedi.
Summary points:
- Din Djarin has been rejected by the remnant of the fundamentalist Mandalorian clan which raised him, due to having removed his helmet
- He still has the Darksaber
- He now has a modified N-1 Naboo starfighter (the class used by the Naboo armed forces in The Phantom Menace), to replace the destroyed Razor Crest
- Grogu chose to reunite with Din, rather than continue his training with Luke
I can understand why you gave up on Boba Fett, but if you’re interested in the Mandalorian, it’s probably worth it to watch just those episodes of Boba Fett that deal with the Mandalorian. They’re of a fundamentally different character than the rest of the Boba Fett series. People joke about these episodes being the Mandalorian Season 2.5, but that’s actually pretty accurate.
Grogu ditches Luke, choosing Mando over becoming a Jedi. They blast away together on a ship into season 3.
In the Star Wars universe choosing space buccaneer over Jedi is always the right decision.
Heck, even Jon Favreau (executive producer of both shows) apparently made that joke.
Hokey religions and ancient weapons are no match for a good blaster at your side, kid.
I’m curious about that shot of a bunch of Jedi in the trailer. Maybe we’ll finally get the backstory on how Grogu escaped the purge and what he was doing in the first episode.
Yeah, that’s 100% a flashback scene.
If memory serves, there was a similar scene in the episode of The Book of Boba Fett that featured Grogu and Luke; Luke helped Grogu remember being in the Jedi Temple on Coruscant during Order 66, and the vision that Grogu experienced included adult Jedi helping to defend him (and other younglings, I think).
Jedi order: “Join us, and you’ll have to forgo attachment to family, friends, and loved ones, but you’ll get to become a badass warrior.”
Kid: “Hm, that’s a tough one.”
Mandalorian: “Eh, join us, and you can stay with your loved ones and still become a badass warrior.”
Kid: “Keep your lightsabre; I’m keeping the beskar chainmail.”
Here’s the scene (link is queued up to it):
It would be like taking BJ and the Bear and cutting the ape. The short one.