Full spoilers follow for The Book of Boba Fett Chapter 5 and The Mandalorian Season 2.
There’s just something about Mandalorian armor that commands respect, and now thanks to the ever-expanding Star Wars canon we know more than ever about the Mandalorians and their armor.
Din Djarin, a.k.a. The Mandalorian almost never takes his helmet off… But other Mandos in the Star Wars galaxy seem to do it all the time.
And now in The Book of Boba Fett Chapter 5, The Mandalorian Armorer just informed Din that he is no longer a Mando at all because he took his helmet off to find sweet Li’l Baby Grogu in The Mandalorian Season 2 and later to say goodbye to the little fella as famed Padawan-protector Luke Skywalker took him away to his fledgling Jedi temple.
So what gives? Why does Mando get a bum deal just because he wanted to look at his foundling with his own eyes? We’d be honored if you’d join us while we break this thing down.
There’s just something about Mandalorian armor that commands respect, and now thanks to the ever-expanding universe that is the Star Wars canon we know more than ever about the Mandalorians and their armor.
The Mandalorian series has done a pretty thorough job explaining why Din Djarin never shows anyone his face: Just like his weapons, it’s all part of his religion. At the end of Season 1, after getting his bell rung by Moff Gideon in the final shootout on Nevarro, Mando tells IG-11 the following:
“No living thing has seen me without my helmet since I swore the creed.”
Cara Dune asks if he’ll be killed for taking the helmet off, but Djarin says no, it’s just that he can never put it back on again.
Din Djarin wasn’t born on Mandalore, but he was taken in by its people, and specifically by the Death Watch. That makes him a Child of the Watch, which Bo-Katan describes in “The Heiress” as “a cult of religious zealots that broke away from Mandalorian society … Their goal was to reestablish the ancient way.”
The Children of the Watch seems to be the post-Empire evolution of the group of Mandalorian terrorists once known as the Death Watch. Most of what we know about the Death Watch comes from The Clone Wars series.
The Death Watch survived The Great Purge by sequestering on the Mandalorian moon Concordia, the group’s home and headquarters after their exile following the Mandalorian Civil War more than 40 years before the Battle of Yavin. There, they gathered resources and trained foundlings and waited for their time to shine.
During The Clone Wars, a native Mandalorian named Pre Viszla led The Death Watch, and wielded the Darksaber. The Death Watch are also the ones we saw rescue a young Din Djarin in Season 1’s flashbacks. And now thanks to The Armorer, we know that The Children of the Watch also hid out on Concordia as The Empire laid waste to Mandalore in The Great Purge and The Night of A Thousand Tears.
Quick note: Pre Viszla is the predecessor of Paz Viszla, the heavy trooper Mandalorian who helped Din Djarin escape the shootout on Nevarro in Mandalorian Season 1. And this Tarre Viszla, who constructed the Darksaber as described by The Armorer? That’s right, Tarre, Pre and Paz Viszla all hail from the same Mandalorian family line.
Anyway, In The Clone Wars episodes featuring the Death Watch, we begin to see Mandalorians who play it more fast and loose with the whole helmet rule. Pre Viszla removes his helmet in almost every scene he’s in. The same could be said for Bo-Katan, who, while she doesn’t mention it in “The Duchess,” was a one-time member of the Death Watch. Sabine Wren from Rebels, Sabine Wren’s mom, Gar Saxon, Prime Minister Almec… basically, most of the Mandalorians featured in either The Clone Wars or Rebels casually pop their helmets off all the time.
When you examine the canon, the difference between the Mandalorians is pretty clear. Religious Mandalorians like Din Djarin prove their devotion to the creed by never removing their helmets. And native Mandalorians are the ones you see removing their helmets. And that’s not to say native Mandalorians can’t also keep the creed.
We’re not forgetting Jango Fett. According to The Clone Wars, Jango wasn’t Mandalorian at all -- he was just a bounty hunter who acquired the armor. The Mandalorian Season 2 addressed this pretty directly, with Boba Fett explaining to Din Djarin that his father Jango was indeed a Mandalorian foundling and he even had his chain code paired with the armor Boba inherited from him.
So Boba Fett may indeed be a real Mandalorian (or an unaltered clone of one, anyway) but that doesn’t mean he has any patience for Din Djarin’s religious piety. When Garsa Fwip asks him if he’d like his helmet cleaned in The Book of Boba Fett’s premiere, he did it without hesitation and when it was returned it was full of New Republic credits. Boba may have Mando DNA, but at the end of the day, he’s more concerned with securing the bag than anyone’s religion.
Control of Mandalore changed hands more than once during the Clone Wars and again with the rise of the Empire -- but a tragic event called The Great Purge truly changed everything. We’ve heard The Great Purge referenced multiple times in The Mandalorian but viewers finally got a look at this event in The Book of Boba Fett Chapter 5.
Taking place sometime after the Battle of Yavin and before the events of The Mandalorian, The Great Purge was an event that culled the number of Mandalorians in the galaxy to a precious few. The efforts of the Imperial warlord Moff Gideon during The Great Purge seems to have wiped much of Mandalorian culture from the galaxy.
It seems that part of the Purge involved the Empire poisoning Mandalore in order to make it inhospitable, or at least spreading rumors that they did. In “The Heiress,” Bo-Katan implies that this may be more an effort to keep the surviving Mandalorians separated than something that actually happened, though Mando -- for now anyway -- buys into the idea that the planet is a place of death.
This is the way.
For even more on The Mandalorian, be sure to check out every celebrity cameo and character on the show so far, or catch up on when The Mandalorian takes place in the Star Wars timeline.
Continue reading...
There’s just something about Mandalorian armor that commands respect, and now thanks to the ever-expanding Star Wars canon we know more than ever about the Mandalorians and their armor.
Din Djarin, a.k.a. The Mandalorian almost never takes his helmet off… But other Mandos in the Star Wars galaxy seem to do it all the time.
And now in The Book of Boba Fett Chapter 5, The Mandalorian Armorer just informed Din that he is no longer a Mando at all because he took his helmet off to find sweet Li’l Baby Grogu in The Mandalorian Season 2 and later to say goodbye to the little fella as famed Padawan-protector Luke Skywalker took him away to his fledgling Jedi temple.
So what gives? Why does Mando get a bum deal just because he wanted to look at his foundling with his own eyes? We’d be honored if you’d join us while we break this thing down.
The Mandalorian’s Helmet and His Religion
There’s just something about Mandalorian armor that commands respect, and now thanks to the ever-expanding universe that is the Star Wars canon we know more than ever about the Mandalorians and their armor.
The Mandalorian series has done a pretty thorough job explaining why Din Djarin never shows anyone his face: Just like his weapons, it’s all part of his religion. At the end of Season 1, after getting his bell rung by Moff Gideon in the final shootout on Nevarro, Mando tells IG-11 the following:
“No living thing has seen me without my helmet since I swore the creed.”
Cara Dune asks if he’ll be killed for taking the helmet off, but Djarin says no, it’s just that he can never put it back on again.
What Is the Death Watch?
Din Djarin wasn’t born on Mandalore, but he was taken in by its people, and specifically by the Death Watch. That makes him a Child of the Watch, which Bo-Katan describes in “The Heiress” as “a cult of religious zealots that broke away from Mandalorian society … Their goal was to reestablish the ancient way.”
The Children of the Watch seems to be the post-Empire evolution of the group of Mandalorian terrorists once known as the Death Watch. Most of what we know about the Death Watch comes from The Clone Wars series.
The Death Watch survived The Great Purge by sequestering on the Mandalorian moon Concordia, the group’s home and headquarters after their exile following the Mandalorian Civil War more than 40 years before the Battle of Yavin. There, they gathered resources and trained foundlings and waited for their time to shine.
During The Clone Wars, a native Mandalorian named Pre Viszla led The Death Watch, and wielded the Darksaber. The Death Watch are also the ones we saw rescue a young Din Djarin in Season 1’s flashbacks. And now thanks to The Armorer, we know that The Children of the Watch also hid out on Concordia as The Empire laid waste to Mandalore in The Great Purge and The Night of A Thousand Tears.
Quick note: Pre Viszla is the predecessor of Paz Viszla, the heavy trooper Mandalorian who helped Din Djarin escape the shootout on Nevarro in Mandalorian Season 1. And this Tarre Viszla, who constructed the Darksaber as described by The Armorer? That’s right, Tarre, Pre and Paz Viszla all hail from the same Mandalorian family line.
Anyway, In The Clone Wars episodes featuring the Death Watch, we begin to see Mandalorians who play it more fast and loose with the whole helmet rule. Pre Viszla removes his helmet in almost every scene he’s in. The same could be said for Bo-Katan, who, while she doesn’t mention it in “The Duchess,” was a one-time member of the Death Watch. Sabine Wren from Rebels, Sabine Wren’s mom, Gar Saxon, Prime Minister Almec… basically, most of the Mandalorians featured in either The Clone Wars or Rebels casually pop their helmets off all the time.
When you examine the canon, the difference between the Mandalorians is pretty clear. Religious Mandalorians like Din Djarin prove their devotion to the creed by never removing their helmets. And native Mandalorians are the ones you see removing their helmets. And that’s not to say native Mandalorians can’t also keep the creed.
Is Jango Fett a Mandalorian?
We’re not forgetting Jango Fett. According to The Clone Wars, Jango wasn’t Mandalorian at all -- he was just a bounty hunter who acquired the armor. The Mandalorian Season 2 addressed this pretty directly, with Boba Fett explaining to Din Djarin that his father Jango was indeed a Mandalorian foundling and he even had his chain code paired with the armor Boba inherited from him.
So Boba Fett may indeed be a real Mandalorian (or an unaltered clone of one, anyway) but that doesn’t mean he has any patience for Din Djarin’s religious piety. When Garsa Fwip asks him if he’d like his helmet cleaned in The Book of Boba Fett’s premiere, he did it without hesitation and when it was returned it was full of New Republic credits. Boba may have Mando DNA, but at the end of the day, he’s more concerned with securing the bag than anyone’s religion.
The Great Purge
Control of Mandalore changed hands more than once during the Clone Wars and again with the rise of the Empire -- but a tragic event called The Great Purge truly changed everything. We’ve heard The Great Purge referenced multiple times in The Mandalorian but viewers finally got a look at this event in The Book of Boba Fett Chapter 5.
Taking place sometime after the Battle of Yavin and before the events of The Mandalorian, The Great Purge was an event that culled the number of Mandalorians in the galaxy to a precious few. The efforts of the Imperial warlord Moff Gideon during The Great Purge seems to have wiped much of Mandalorian culture from the galaxy.
It seems that part of the Purge involved the Empire poisoning Mandalore in order to make it inhospitable, or at least spreading rumors that they did. In “The Heiress,” Bo-Katan implies that this may be more an effort to keep the surviving Mandalorians separated than something that actually happened, though Mando -- for now anyway -- buys into the idea that the planet is a place of death.
This is the way.
For even more on The Mandalorian, be sure to check out every celebrity cameo and character on the show so far, or catch up on when The Mandalorian takes place in the Star Wars timeline.
Continue reading...