As usual, here is my written Mando S3E5 review. I found this episode of The Mandalorian enjoyable from start to finish, though, I still don’t like those pirates.

As always, I will be attempting to keep this as SPOILER Free as possible. However, I do wish to get into the spoilers specifically this week and how they relate to a rumor we shared not along ago, which I’d guess is now debunked. I will however mark that section with story spoilers for those who wish to avoid.

The Pirate

The focus this week feels more on the Mandalorians as a whole rather than specifically Dinn, Grogu, or Bo-Katan. That being said, this is yet another week where we don’t spend much time with the development of Dinn’s character. That could become a worrying trend for Season 3 if things do not change. However, at the same time perhaps we are seeing the beginnings of some leadership qualities in Dinn. For now though, he still has no interest in taking on any kind of leadership role. Bo-Katan on the other hand, will always be tempted by these possibilities. Perhaps, there really is a conflict coming eventually between Dinn and Bo-Katan, but it’s still possible to go another way entirely.

A lot of Episode 5 deals with Navarro, and Pirates as you’d guess from the title. Unless you haven’t watched any of Season 3, then I’m sure you can guess which pirates the title refers to and why we are back on Navarro. That’s right, Davy Broccoli has returned to cause mayhem. However, it is now clear that these pirates are only a temporary, secondary antagonist to what is really going on in the Galaxy. As bad guys go, I have to say, I didn’t hate the pirates this week as much as I did in the earlier episodes. They were less Pirates of the Caribbean. However, there is still too much aquatic in their design and Davy Broccoli (Gorian Shard) is still awful looking as space pirates go. I’ll get into those guys more during the spoiler section.

Rangers of the New Republic

I got the feeling this week that we are getting glimpses into what Rangers of the New Republic was supposed to be before that show got canned. At the time it was canned, Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy said that the stories from that show would be woven into other MandoVerse shows such as Mandalorian, Ahsoka and others. If I’m right, then a Rangers show may have been quite fun and I can see where it could fit into this universe. Oh well?

However, for now the real story happening in Mando S3 is the rise of the Mandalorians. At the same time, there is a growing threat which the Republic seems ill equipped to handle. If there is a conflict brewing, it therefore feels like the New Republic simply won’t be able to get involved. There are also some hints this week that could tease some Mando vs Mando action in the weeks to come. However I don’t want to get into that here. I’m sure Kyle Malone and I will get into all of that speculation on this week’s The Cantina. Which we are having to record a day later this week as both myself and Kyle were just too busy with life and work yesterday. Feel free to catch last week’s show Here.

Gripes?

There’s always a few gripes, or very rarely there is not, I mean I am a critic. This week, it’s extra’s for me. We needed a lot more extra’s at times. For a start, I feel like we should see there are more in the Mandalorian settlement than those who can be called on as warriors, the younger ones for example. All we needed was a few smaller people in helmets that are not part of a strike team that’s assembled.

However, even more jarring is the amount of residents we seem to have on Navarro. Without spoiling there is a scene where Greef Karga talks to the people of Navarro and frankly it looks like there are only 30-40 people there. Even some CGI people in the caves towards the background would have helped sell that for me. As it is, it looks like the entire of Navarro constitutes about 50 people living in that big town.

It felt like this took place in a backwater village instead of a town that would likely have thousands of residents living in it. It also seems like that one town is literally the only place in Navarro that’s been settled. It’s not a major gripe. However, a few more extra’s and some crowd in the distance (CGI) even would have done the job for me. The only other thing as sad above is that I still don’t like the marine influences on the pirates because they don’t live in a bloody boat. However, there’s nothing here I can’t get over.

RELATED: Mando S3E3 Review: Surprising In A Good Way

Overall I enjoyed Episode 5 and there are 1-2 very good moments to throw into the mix. Plus still plenty of mystery building, which I like. If Season 2 was the end of the return Grogu plot, then Season 3 feels like the beginning of the Mandalore plot. So far so good. I’m intrigued to find out more. Not the best episode by a long shot, but pretty decent. Same grade as last week for me.

GRADE: B-

As always, let me know what you thought of my Mando S3E5 review. Also feel free to leave your own Mando S3E5 review in the usual spot below.

WARNING! Mando S3E5 SPOILERS BELOW!

Aside from my Mando S3E5 review, I also wanted to discuss a previous rumor we shared, which I’d say was debunked pretty strongly this week. You can find that previous article Here. This was a rumor that claimed the pirates we’ve met in Mando Season 3 would go on to be antagonists within Skeleton Crew. Gorian shard as their leader was speculated to also show up, though to be fair to the outlet who made this claim, they were speculating on Shard but had heard pirates were somehow involved.

I think what happened then is the outlet starts to speculate wildly. Therefore, the lines are blurred between what they heard and the jigsaw they’ve started to build in their mind. Unless we have a really bad fake death moment, It seems that Gorian Shard, aka Davy Broccoli himself, is very much dead. And frankly, I’m happy he’s dead and would never like to see him return.

I just wanted to point this out for our readers. It does seem like the rumor cannot fit with the events we just witnessed. However, remember the outlet who reported this still has a strong hit rate. Perhaps some pirates are involved in Skeleton Crew? Just seems like it won’t be Gorian’s crew.

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