The Mandalorian 2.8 Review - 6 Ups And 3 Downs From Chapter 16
3. Din Duelling Gideon
Lucasfilm
Yeah we all knew it was coming, but it definitely lived up to the hype.
Din makes his way to rescue Grogu and who else is there but Moff Gideon? I LOVE the exchange the two share here. Gideon looks like he's going to bargain with Din; he can have Grogu so long as Gideon gets to keep his Darksaber, as in Gideon's own words, he has all he needs from the Child.
It's great to see that Din doesn't care about the Saber at all. He isn't drawn to the power it brings and just wants to rescue his space wizard son.
Of course, Gideon takes the opportunity to double cross Din, leading to the duel with the Beskar spear and the sequence overall is really clever. It's not a duel we're really used to and seeing Gideon wield that thing like a maniac as opposed to a master swordsman exemplifies what makes this confrontation so great: neither Din nor Gideon are used to wielding either of these weapons, which leads to a frantic struggle and not an elegant duel to the death.
WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well.
In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.
