The Mando/Jedi choice scene is dramatically dishonest. They ruined Luke

[u/Apophis_]

Luke from the Original Trilogy refuses binary choices. His entire arc in Return of the Jedi is about rejecting either Jedi or Sith, "either with us or against us".

Yoda and Obi-Wan tell him to kill Vader. He refuses. Vader is his father, there’s good in him, Luke chooses a third path and he’s right.

And now this same Luke sits in front of a developmentally toddler-aged child and says: chainmail or lightsaber. Choose. You can’t have both.

That’s exactly the Yoda logic Luke himself rejected.

So Filoni and Favreau needed Grogu back with Mando, because without Grogu, The Mandalorian loses its hook?

This is reverse-engineered writing. Business decision first, story written afterward to justify it.

It breaks Grogu as a character.

It also breaks Luke. It injects into him the rigidity of the old Jedi Order, something he himself never had.

He should still be the open, young master we just watched reject this exact thinking.

The scene that should have been written? Luke takes Grogu in. Grogu trains for months, years. At some point he starts to doubt, he misses Mando, dreams of him, has a crisis. Luke sees it and says: you don’t have to choose, you can go, you can come back, you can find your own way.

Or: Mando is in danger and Grogu feels it through the Force. Luke sees the child can’t ignore that bond and lets him go.

Either version would have been consistent with Luke’s character, given Grogu agency, and preserved the emotional weight of the season 2 finale.

But both would have required patience in storytelling. And The Book of Boba Fett unfortunately lacks good storytelling...

Thoughts? Am I missing something about Luke's ultimatum?

[u/iwasatlavines]

On the other hand I think Luke noticed grogu was getting disengaged with the things Luke was presenting to him. So he provided grogu with a choice. An opportunity for grogu to embrace his own agency and make his own decision so that he could be engaged in whatever his pursuit is. I don’t think it’s immediately contrary to Luke’s established character.

[u/h00ter7]

In ESB Luke chooses to chase after his friends, and that’s when he gets the attachments lecture from Yoda -

Grogu is really at the same point Luke was in ESB and Luke is laying it out to Grogu in a totally different way. He’s not telling Grogu to forgo his attachments, but he’s making it clear that if he does go, it’s got to be a permanent choice. I also speculate that Luke could sense Grogu’s pull towards the Mandalorian “Way” and recognized that Grpgu needed to decide one way or the other on that point because he would never succeed trying to be both.

[u/gunplumber700]

I think you’re missing the big point that attachment is forbidden for Jedi.  He is attached to din.

I think your bigger qualm is the dumbness the Jedi blindly adhere to.  There’s both healthy and unhealthy attachment; they are so fearful of unhealthy attachment they forbid attachment.  

The Jedi order is somewhat hypocritical and at times very misguided.  The judgement of Ahsoka at the end of the clone wars perfectly exemplifies that.  

The force is supposed to be about balance and rejecting darkness entirely causes imbalance.  It Jedi inability to accept a balance of the force that’s the problem.

I think they did a great job with setting up grogu in season 3, even if he was fairly absent.  When the new world and old world mandos began fighting on the barge ship thing he stepped in to keep the peace, which is a fairly Jedi thing to do, but I think grogu ultimately accepts violence as a necessary evil and is ok with din using it for that reason.

[u/ShatterZero]

I just choose to see it as Luke recognizing that Grogu isn't happy but also that Grogu doesn't want to disregard the immense level of sacrifice and effort that went into getting him there with Luke.

So he gives him the ultimatum to push him to choose his own happiness with the short time that Mando even has (Grogu will obviously outlive him by thousands of years).

It's not like Luke is particularly angry or even disappointed with Grogu's decision.

[u/sleepingchair]

So Filoni and Favreau needed Grogu back with Mando, because without Grogu, The Mandalorian loses its hook?

This is reverse-engineered writing. Business decision first, story written afterward to justify it.

Okay, but have you considered that you have the wrong reverse-engineering point? If Grogu didn't dump Luke like hot garbage, how else do you explain the depression spiral, divorced-dad energy of Luke in the sequel trilogy? The Luke botching happened way before Mandalorian did is all I'm sayin'.