The Mandalorian takes place five years after Return of the Jedi and contains many details that place the original Star Wars trilogy in a new light. The series draws on the iconography of the original movies, relying on the viewer's knowledge of iconic characters like Boba Fett and Yoda to create interest and tension. The Mandalorian's story also helps to fill in the gaps between Episodes VI and VII of the Skywalker saga. At the same time, it provides additional context and nuance which can make it hard to view the original trilogy in the same way.
The first season of The Mandalorian tells a smaller, more ground-level story than the sweeping Star Wars movies. The title character is a bounty hunter who abandons his mission and travels across the galaxy trying to protect a young child, whose name is eventually to be Grogu. The first season revisits classic Star Wars locations like Tatooine and explores the culture of the Mandalorian people. While mostly telling its own story, the first season still helps to expand the Star Wars universe, transforming Boba Fett from a cool-looking but flat character into the product of a complex culture. The quest to protect Grogu leads the protagonist - whose name is later revealed to be Din Djarin - on a trek across the edges of a galaxy that is depicted as more chaotic and complicated than the original movies could reveal.
In its second season, The Mandalorian sought to expand its world much more, introducing characters like Ahsoka Tano and Bo-Katan who could serve as protagonists in future Star Wars series on Disney+. It also brought back characters from the original character like Boba Fett and Luke Skywalker. In doing so, The Mandalorian helped to establish the new, broader Star Wars universe and how it differed from the previous Expanded Universe continuity.
Much of The Mandalorian's use of characters and settings from the original series plays on nostalgia for the Star Wars of the 1970s and 80s, as well as more recent entries like the Clone Wars animated series. At the same time, re-watching the original trilogy with The Mandalorian in mind results in certain oddities. Some moments and characters have different meanings when viewed with the added context provided by the streaming series. The Mandalorian provides a different perspective on everything from the earliest moments of A New Hope to the triumphant victory in Return of the Jedi.
The Mandalorian Reframes The Empire's Defeat
The conclusion of Return of the Jedi suggests that, with the apparent deaths of Emperor Palpatine and Darth Vader and the destruction of the second Death Star, the Empire has been destroyed and that the galaxy will now be free. However, the story ends before really providing an idea of what that freedom looks like. The movies never truly detail the political structure that the Rebellion was fighting to establish after their victory, and the chaotic world of the sequel trilogy and Disney+ series suggests that they did not sufficiently plan for this. The Mandalorian shows the consequences of this uncertainty by portraying the post-Empire world as a chaotic place, and one that allows some elements of the Empire to return to power.
The starring Mandalorian, Din Djarin, frequently runs up against groups of armed people that served in the war between the Empire and Rebellion. This includes allies like Cara Dune as well as many of the series' antagonists. It turns out that having large groups of trained and armed ex-soldiers around without a means of employment creates instability. Despite the destruction of the head of the Empire, many of its local strongmen remain in power, with figures like Moff Gideon and Werner Herzog's The Client relying on the old edifices of Imperial power. Gideon even wants to use his power to bring back the Empire, to help bring order to the power vacuum.
This context makes the Rebel victory at the end of Return of the Jedi not quite as satisfying. While The Mandalorian doesn't portray the Empire in a positive light, it does suggest that its demise is less total than the original would suggest and that there may be drawbacks to the end of Star Wars' evil Empire. While the conclusion of Return of the Jedi isn't totally hollow, in the light of The Mandalorian it looks more like the beginning of a new struggle rather than a happy ending.
The Mandalorian Changes Boba Fett's Story (& ROTJ Death)
In the original Star Wars trilogy, Boba Fett is killed in Return of the Jedi, kicked into the mouth of a sarlacc and presumably digested. It is an ignominious end to the fabled bounty hunter, but fitting for a character who was only a tertiary villain in the original films. However, Boba Fett's distinctive armor and stoic demeanor made him a fan favorite, with plenty of Extended Universe material fleshing out both his life and that of the Mandalorian race.
Boba Fett's appearance in the second season of The Mandalorian suggests that he survived the sarlacc in what is an example of retroactive continuity or a "retcon." This version of Boba Fett is a more heroic character, helping Din fight Imperial troopers in order to get his armor back. Unlike in the original trilogy - where Fett maintains the Mandalorian code of never removing his armor - in The Mandalorian he's more casual about following tradition. Instead of being motivated by religious rites, Boba Fett cherishes the Beskar armor because it came from his father Jango. Boba Fett's aged appearance without his helmet also gives the character a greater sense of vulnerability and humanity than in the original film.
Knowing about Boba Fett's backstory and personality, both from The Mandalorian and the prequel trilogy, makes his appearance in the original trilogy strange in retrospect. Boba Fett's presence in the original movies is underwhelming compared to his cultural footprint: all he does is follow Han Solo in Empire and act as an ineffective bodyguard for Jabba in Jedi. The Mandalorian repositions Boba Fett as a deeper and more important character than suggested in the first trilogy. The upcoming Book of Boba Fett spin-off series could explain how he survived the sarlacc pit, as well as further explore his character.
The Mandalorian's Tusken Raider Changes Alter A New Hope
In A New Hope, Tusken Raiders are portrayed as a violent, barbaric people who are simply antagonists to the humans. They attack Luke Skywalker after he earlier cautioned about their dangers at night. This is deepened by the Tusken Raiders' role in Attack of the Clones, where they kidnap Shimi Skywalker and are subsequently "slaughtered like animals" by Anakin.
The Mandalorian provides a more detailed and nuanced depiction of the Raiders. In the second season premiere, Din and Cobb Vanth team up with a group of Tusken Raiders to battle the Krayt Dragon. The Tuskens are shown to care for each others' safety and work out strategy and tactics. Rather than simply being monsters, they are at least somewhat sentient creatures with their own culture and families. This detail is a positive change in comparison with the original trilogy, where the Tusken Raiders are uncomfortably reminiscent of racial stereotypes. It does, however, make the cruder depictions of the Raiders in the original movies uncomfortable. It is a bit more difficult to celebrate the rise of the New Republic in Return of the Jedi if it is lead by people who are eager to dismiss the humanity of groups like the Raiders.
The Mandalorian Impacts How Luke Is Seen In The Original Trilogy
One of the most talked-about moments in The Mandalorian is the appearance of Luke Skywalker at the end of the second season, with CGI used to insert the image of a young Mark Hammill into the contemporary show. Luke dispatches a battalion of elite Dark Troopers, then takes Grogu with him to be trained as a Jedi. This moment suggests that Luke has continued to grow in strength since the end of Return of the Jedi, and is working to rebuild the Jedi order.
Luke's character arc in the original Star Wars trilogy saw him grow from a young moisture farmer to a Jedi warrior capable of defeating his father. In the climactic battle of Return of the Jedi, he abandons his anger and hatred and spares Darth Vader's life, thus demonstrating that he understands the ways of the Force. His appearance in The Mandalorian complicates this character arc. He is evidently much more powerful by the time of The Mandalorian than he was five years earlier, taking out a whole group of Dark Troopers after one such soldier had taken Din and his allies to their limits. The new Luke is also still willing to use violence to help uphold what's good, which doesn't precisely contradict his actions at the end of Jedi but does make them seem a little less significant.
The return of the original trilogy's protagonist as an all-powerful Jedi warrior pleased fans who were upset about Luke's depiction in The Last Jedi, but arguably misses the point of his character arc in the original trilogy, which was about achieving spiritual harmony and transcendence more than brute combat strength. As with the story of the Rebels' fight against the Empire, The Mandalorian establishes that Luke's growth didn't end at the end of The Last Jedi, which makes it hard to view his moment of triumph there in the same way.
Why Mandalorian's Retcons & Changes Are Good For The Original Trilogy
The changes to continuity made in The Mandalorian fundamentally change the meaning of the original trilogy. Minor characters like Boba Fett and the Tusken Raiders take on new emotional resonance because they have been developed more in supplemental Star Wars stories like the Disney+ series. The climactic moments at the series' end also play differently knowing that they are not the end of the stories of Luke Skywalker and the Empire, but rather a significant chapter in a much longer narrative.
The Mandalorian also presents a more complex, ground-level depiction of the Star Wars universe. It becomes easier to see the reasons people would support the Empire and the shortcomings in the Rebellion's plans for a New Republic. The Mandalorian is still fundamentally a story of good against evil, with a likable rag-tag group defending an innocent child from the empire who would exploit him, but it does provide some context that makes the moral sweep of the original trilogy a little less convincing. In doing so, it helps to make the Star Wars universe more complex and interesting.
The original trilogy is definitely a weirder watch after the release of The Mandalorian. But George Lucas always intended Star Wars to be a living, changing franchise. By starting the series at Episode IV, he created the feeling of coming in during the middle of an old science fiction serial. So by making the closure of Return of the Jedi less neat, and deepening the Star Wars universe, The Mandalorian helps to bring the original trilogy back to its roots as the world's biggest, never-ending, and still very weird space opera.
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The Mandalorian's Retcons Makes The Original Trilogy A Weird Watch - Screen Rant
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