Mandalorian S2 Climax- Super or Sellout? (Warning

Mandalorian S2 Climax- Super or Sellout? (Warning - Massive Spoilers Ahead)

No one who knows anything about the Skywalker saga can deny the final scenes of The Mandalorian Season 2 are anything but spectacular. The arrival of the mysterious X-wing, the green lightsaber, the black-gloved hand, all build toward an exhilarating and surprising reveal.

Personally, I thought the return of Luke Skywalker in the prime of his Jedi powers was an awesome sight. My partner on the other hand? Not so much. My partner isn't a long-time Star Wars fan. She doesn't know much about the Skywalker clan and doesn't much care to find out BUT, she loves the Mandalorian and she especially loves little Grogu.

Toward the end of season two's final episode, while I was getting more and more excited as clues began to drop as to what was about to happen, my partner was becoming frustrated and confused.

"What's going on?" she asked, bewildered at the sudden and unexplained turn of events. "Who's this guy?"

At the time I was too overwhelmed with childish excitement to understand her confusion. "What?" I said. "That's Luke! Luke Skywalker! Holy fucking shit!"

But for some reason this explanation didn't seem to impress her as much as I thought it should. It wasn't until later, when I tried to see things from my partner's point of view, that I understood why she thought the end of season two was the absolute worst.

Unlike every other episode, it completely ignores new fans in favour of service to long-time followers. Writers up to that point had been very careful to provide context for Easter-eggs and call-backs, and until now it's been a lot of fun for ALL FANS. But the last scenes of season two abruptly and completely abandon new fans, no explanations, no context.

Worst of all, for viewers whose primary motivation for watching the show is the Baby-Yoda cuteness overload machine, it appears as though their favourite character has just been stolen away by a weird-looking (is that a real guy? What's wrong with his mouth?) wizard with a terrible hair-cut.

In short, while I loved the entire episode, my partner -- who adores Baby-Yoda, couldn't give two shits about Luke Skywalker, and who is now under the impression her favourite character is exiting the show -- may never watch it again.

Was the price of alienating new fans worth the payoff for long-time Star Wars stalwarts? I suppose time will tell...

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