with the Mandolorian subtly trying not to acknowledge them either
It’s interesting that this narrative has picked up so much steam considering how it has little basis in the text.
- The Mandalorian depicts a galaxy about twenty-five years prior to TFA, where the ruling power is the New Republic (the one mentioned and briefly seen in TFA). It’s implied to not have a fantastic grip on things.
- There’s an Imperial Remnant who explicitly mention “order” and are working on cloning/growing force sensitive lifeforms, very reminiscent of the jar of Snokes in TROS and Palpatine’s efforts to clone himself.
- Luke appears to be perusing the galaxy to rebuild his new Jedi Order, and seems quite sure of himself and his abilities, so I doubt he’ll take it well when all of that gets burned down (twice the pride, double the fall!).
- Grogu has used Force healing, a power only seen otherwise in TROS.
- Cobb Vanth is from the Aftermath novels, which were written explicitly as part of the “Journey to Star Wars: The Force Awakens” publishing effort
- The dropships from the Boba Fett intro episode are clearly supposed to be a precursor to the First Order dropships.
- Operation Cinder is from Battlefront 2 (and the Shattered Empire comics, which were also Journey to TFA material), which has a campaign expansion which takes place during the sequel era.
And they didn’t have to do this. Favreau, Filoni and co. could’ve decided to focus entirely on the low-level, grimy underworld stuff to avoid having to acknowledge the wider timeline whatsoever, but they didn’t. They decided to bring in Grogu, the Force, the New Republic, the Imperial Remnant, cloning, Luke, Cobb Vanth, and so on.
Edit: I do agree that there’s absolutely no way Grogu is going to die during the destruction of Luke’s temple though. Honestly, I don’t know why everyone just assumed that immediately - there’s about nineteen years in between Mando Season 2 and the temple getting blown up; Ben Solo is still only four years old when Luke takes Grogu. There’s zero chance of Grogu, the merchandising overlord, remaining absent for the entire rest of the show.