Spoiler alert: this post is totally going to have spoilers for the Mandalorian Season 3 finale.
This post is a discussion of the Darksaber's fate. I'm writing this because a lot of folks on Twitter seem like they maybe didn't understand this season taken as a whole and this aspect of the finale in particular.
So. We've watched Bo Katan struggle to claim the Darksaber -- and with it, the right to lead her people -- for the past two seasons. She was the rightful ruler by blood, and she was without question the only Mandalorian leader with any possible hope of uniting her people, but without the symbology of the Darksaber, she was always going to remain, as the Armorer put it, "A cautionary tale."
Some folks just weren't going to believe.
But was this really The Way? Or was this season really about how leadership of an entire people shouldn't revolve around the ownership of a single magic sword?
Din Djarin laid this out in detail in the season's penultimate episode. He didn't know anything about the Darksaber, nor did he care about it. Everything he'd learned of it, he'd learned either from Bo or from the Armorer. The Darksaber literally meant nothing to him.
He followed Bo because he believed in her vision of a united Mandalore.
Even the Armorer, the most orthodox of all of the covert Mandalorians, came to see that Bo's vision was the correct one. That Mandalorians would never survive and thrive until they set aside their differences and became one people.
Thus, the Darksaber had become a symbol of the Old Mandalore. The Mandalore that tore itself apart in petty squabbles, that was literally led by whomever could best the most rivals in single combat.
In fact, this was NOT the Way. We were never watching an Arthurian Legend unfold; we were watching a people evolve to a more rational form of government.
Let the past die. Kill it if you have to.
None of our heroes was ever going to beat Moff Gideon one-on-one. Din couldn't; Grogu couldn't; Paz Visla couldn't; the Armorer couldn't; Bo Katan couldn't. That was the whole point, the very theme of this final episode.
The job was too big for any one person. They had to do it together.
Gideon didn't understand that, and indeed, this is why he lost. He's been working his own angles the entire time, trying to clone more of himself to the detriment of the larger Imperial remnant. The Empire -- together -- could have crushed the Mandalorians. Instead, the Mandalorians -- together -- crushed Gideon by himself.
The Darksaber was emblematic of this. With the Darksaber, Gideon could have made it even more about himself. But when he crushes the saber, he frees Bo Katan to now make the fight about the entirety of her people.
Friends, the sword was always just a sword. Regardless of who held it, Bo was right that the Mandalorians were always stronger together. They needed to find a way to become one people.
Finally, it's worth pointing out that Grogu is no longer a Jedi. He has become a Mandalorian apprentice. So the Jedi were never going to help him find his own kyber crystal. Thus, if Grogu is ever to have a lightsaber of his own, he's going to need to find a spare kyber crystal somewhere, and well, now we know where there's one just sort of laying around.
Which is to say that if you've been hoping that Grogu will someday wield the Darksaber -- and who isn't? -- then they needed to explain how and why he was able to reforge the sword to fit his own height.
Now they've gotten that done.
Some good points. I didn't like a lot of the season but that was pretty good for what is probably the series finale with a movie or two in the future. I was surprised they didn't have a cookie scene or anything to help set up the Ahsoka series. I think in that we'll start to see Grand Admiral Thrawn doing the opposite of Moff Gideon and bringing together the Remnants. And then somehow I suppose that'll lead us to the First Order.
ReplyDeleteI think it's just as well if Din Grogu doesn't get a lightsaber or darksaber; I always thought Yoda looked pretty silly with the lightsaber.
I seem to have enjoyed the season as a whole more than a lot of folks, and I especially loved these last two episodes.
DeleteFWIW, I very much doubt that this is the end for The Mandalorian. That show is making money for Disney, so why cut it? Rather, I think they'll just reboot the concept back to basics and build something new. Which is a GREAT idea.
A lot of times when showrunners pitch shows, they pitch the first 2-3 seasons as a single storyarc. That's what we saw here, with a strong, pre-planned ending to this first mega-arc.
The story itself has always been very Dungeons & Dragons. Din goes on quests, gets magic armor, an apprentice wizard side-kick, a magic sword, etc. In that sense, the first season felt like a level 3-5 adventure, season two was levels 6-8, and this season saw Din complete his D&D 1E name-level "stronghold quest," meaning that he's now level 9 or 10.
Conceptually, D&D is about local adventures, then regional adventures, then national/kingdom-level adventures, then epic, world-spanning/plane-hopping adventures. We see that structure here. Din's world-view has slowly expanded over the course of the series, to the point that he should soon be adventuring on a regional basis, trying to save not just locales like Nevaro or Mandalore but actually the entirety of the Outer Rim itself.
Eventually, he'll get to the Luke Skywalker/Ashoka Tano level of working at the Galatic Level. But he's not there yet.