Warning: SPOILERS ahead of The Mandalorian season 2, episode 2, "Chapter 10 - The Passenger."
Two seasons in, The Mandalorian has already proven more successful at something than the Star Wars sequels — great space battles. Space battles have long captured the imaginations of Star Wars fans, with the trench run in Star Wars, the battle of Hoth in The Empire Strikes Back, and the Battle of Endor in Return of the Jedi. Star Wars is known for using space battles to push the boundaries of technology and storytelling, providing thrills while also moving the plot forward.
Likely due to a combination of budget constraints and story scope, the space battles in The Mandalorian have embraced the smaller scale, even intimate approach of the Star Wars original trilogy, something that's mostly lacking in Disney's sequel trilogy, which tends to prefer high octane action and spectacle. Season 1, episode 5, for example, opens with Din Djarin and the Razor Crest trying to shake another bounty hunter in a smaller, more nimble ship. Without any other ships, or objects of any kind in the area, the dogfight takes on a classic cat and mouse chase seen in a number of original and prequel films, but not in the sequels.
When Din Djarin departs Tatooine with Frog Lady and her eggs in season 2, episode 2, we get another great encounter as he's confronted by two New Republic X-Wings. Djarin attempts to dodge the pilots’ questions before diving toward the ice planet Maldo Kreis. The sequence only lasts a few minutes, but it captures the ingenuity and freshness that has fueled The Mandalorian’s takeoff as an addition to the Star Wars galaxy and leaves the space battles of the sequels in the dust. While sequel battles like Finn and Poe’s mission at the beginning of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker leaned on speed and spectacle The Mandalorian simplifies things with just two X-Wings chasing Mando’s Razor Crest and not even firing a shot. The sequence even dials back the score, relying instead on the sound effects of the ships themselves to establish the mood.
Stepping away from the sequels’ bigger-is-better philosophy, this cat-and-mouse game feels organic and easy to follow. Similarly, the battle avoids the sequel trap of invulnerability by establishing the weaknesses of the Razor Crest and the fragility of the ship’s cargo. The battle surely nods to the nostalgia of X-wings and the Death Star trench run, but avoids feeling derivative by introducing daring maneuvers like Mando’s freefall and backward slide across the snow at the sequence’s finish. While the sequels attempted similar sequences, such as the Falcon's escape from Jakku in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, even that chase goes too over-the-top in a way that starts to lose the audiences in its own noise, contrasted against the simple intensity of Mand0's ice canyon flight.
The sequence also advances the story and adds key world-building elements. The context of the X-Wing pilots’ orders for Mando to broadcast a signature gives insight into the state of the fledgling New Republic and how it maintains order, something the sequels neglected entirely across three movies. Mando’s stunts make for great entertainment, but also develop his character. The episode comes full circle at the end when his ship is attacked by ice spiders, but the X-Wing pilots eventually find him and help ward off the waves of the spiders, revealing they know about his actions to help capture criminals and prevent the death of a New Republic officer back in season 1.
Space battles are naturally a core component of a franchise titled Star Wars, and The Mandalorian has carved out its place in the saga in large part on its innovative chase and battle sequences. Where the sequel trilogy was often caught up in raising the stakes to escalate tension, the space battles of The Mandalorian add excitement by stripping it down to more intimate and vulnerable explorations of the cockpit, while ensuring that those sequences serve the story.