Din Djarin-Knight Protector of Mandalore
I LOVE THIS STORY ARC SO MUCH!! There were so many hints leading up to this!
Unlike a bunch of the pissy Star Wars fans out there, I am loving season 3. Has there been a few epsiodes that were rough? Sure, but third seasons tend to have that issue as they are setting up for the next story arc after the arcs/characters of the first two seasons have been established/completed.
I want to start this by addressing this concept that the title “The Mandalorian” somehow meant that Din was the only Mandalorian that would ever appear in the show or that he’s somehow less of an important character.
The title isn’t referring to him being the “only Mandalorian” but to the fact that he is, in essence, a pure Mandalorian. There have been a lot of hints to this but as Season 3 is unfolding we see that it is Din’s pureness of belief in The Way and what the Creed means to Mandalorians that is providing the guiding light and central focus for the rebirth of Mandalore and Mandalorians as a people.
Anyone ever notice that his armor is THE ONLY armor that hasn’t been decorated/personlized in some fashion or another. His armor is a showcase of pure refined Beskar. He feels no need to add to it, change it or in anyone make it something other than what it is, a statement of the core of Mandalorian power, their strength and what has always set them apart as people. Beskar is a visual symbol of Mandalore, and Din’s character is the personification of what a Mandalorian walking the Way should be.
But let’s talk about his character development throughout the show. In the beginning, he was a cold bounty hunter. His sole purpose was to accept bounties, capture his targets and offer his earnings back to his covert. He has always been humble and honorable and even though he has no biological links to Mandalore, nor has he ever seen the homeworld his loyalty to his covert never wavered.
Then he met Grogu, and something changed, he saw in Grogu an orphan like himself, a child in danger and he did what his covert had taught him to do, put the needs of a foundling ahead of everything else, even the strict command of never removing one’s helmet.
Once exiled, he could have just taken left the covert, but instead he took extreme risks, doing what no one thought could be done and bathing in the Living Waters; and in doing so, didn’t just redeem himself but allowed a small sliver of hope to shine into both Bo Katan and The Armorer, two powerful woman with competing idealogies who both have the same wish. To reclaim their homeworld.
And here is where Din becomes more than just a bounty hunter. Din IS the reason that the Mandalorians are gathering together. His deep understanding of what the Creed means without all the animosities the rest of the Mandalorians feel is providing a very, very, tenuous bridge between the warring factions. They feel and see in him what they all have aspired to be but have allowed hate, ideologies, division and pain to twist and turn into distrust, disgust and betrayal.
Unlike most, if not all, the other adult Mandalorians in the show, Din has no first hand experience of the divisions between the factions. He was a child when everything happened and he has no physical ties to the planet. His beliefs run deeper, they run to the philosophy of what makes a Mandalorian truly a Mandalorian. The Way. The Creed. We saw that Bo Katan has become disillusioned over time. Her scoffing at Din’s need to bathe in the Living Waters, her bitter recitation of the writings from the plague, her cynicism. It all collided with Din’s core belief in the very things she had benefitted from in her position as a member of the royal family. Her own history on both sides of the fight; as a fanatic, then as a leader fighting to save the people she had on many levels betrayed, had destroyed her ability to have any hope at all.
Yet Din’s single minded focus on redemption changed that. The greeting of the Armorer, who allowed her to stay and didn’t immediately set the whole covert against her, then finally the Armorer’s words of “You have walked in both worlds..” gave Bo Katan a new energy, a new focus.
And all of this because of Din.
If it hadn’t been for Din’s quest to return Grogu home, he never would have met Bo Katan, never have been exposed to Mandalorians outside of the covert. He wouldn’t have expanded both his world view, and hers, which allowed them to trust each other.
Their trust impacted the Armorer, and as we’re now seeing, is spreading through all the other Mandalorians as well.
It is not that Din is “no longer a main character” as people are complaining about. It is that his story has grown larger, his world bigger and his path greater.
And as we saw in this last episode, his pledge of loyalty, the words he used. Those are the traits that the Mandalorians respond to.
Din is no longer an introverted, cold bounty hunter helping a hidden covert of Mandalorians survive on the fringes of society. He is now the right hand to both Bo Katan and the Armorer, he is the thread that is holding the factions together.
He is the symbol of Mandalorian honor and courage.
And that, that is a much greater role than he ever held in the first season of the show.
