Question For Vidders: How Do You Get The Clips For Your Fanvids? I’ve Had An Idea For A Mandalorian

unpopular opinion but chapter 9 is definitely the weakest episode of the show. it’s not bad but in comparison to the rest of the show it’s subpar. plot-wise it’s just a rehash of chapter 2 (fighting a big sand monster in return for getting back something valuable) and chapter 4 (arming the villagers) but without adding the same emotional weight or new insight into din’s character.

most of it just seems irrelevant. it was definitely too long in proportion to its importance — really the only point of the episode was to introduce boba and cobb for later episodes. i wish the main conflict had been around boba’s armor rather than the fight with the krayt dragon because that was actually relevant to later themes in the season, while the krayt dragon was just like... big scary monster. that’s it. you could substitute any other antagonist and it wouldn’t change anything. i felt similarly about din - this was the first episode in the show where some of his lines and actions felt like something anyone would do or say. there were just a lot of things in this episode that i didn’t feel like there was strong reasoning behind their inclusion.

Best of (worst in) me

twi | ins

just realized “din djarin needs a hug” is a popular tag on ao3 but “din djarin gets a hug” isn’t :(

someone give the poor man a hug

I think both the show and Din himself associates removing his helmet with death. maybe not always literal death (in ch8 he would rather die with his helmet on than live and take it off), but there’s a sense that he would meet a permanent and irrevocable spiritual end of some kind, something he won’t be allowed to come back from. I think in his mind he pictures it as a singularly traumatic event where nothing that happens after will matter, because whether he lives or dies, he won’t be a Mandalorian any longer. This would be the bookend moment to losing his parents as a child, which is the day he STARTED being a Mandalorian. It’s a very cinematic, very easy way of thinking about his life.

But that doesn’t happen! IG-11 removes his helmet and he has to keep on living as a Mandalorian. That transgression is a bit easier to rationalise if he’s being incredibly literal about the Creed (IG isn’t technically “a living thing”, as he says), which I don’t think Din is normally prone to doing, but it’s enough to keep the panic about losing his identity under control. In ch15 though, he shows his face to a bunch of Imperials and then has to put his helmet back on and keep being a Mandalorian, which would normally be a plain and simple End Of My Life event. but in that moment he puts his helmet back on anyway and keeps fighting, because being a Mandalorian means protecting the kid more than it means hiding himself from other people.

The common interpretation I see of this sequence of events is that Din is learning there’s more than one way of being a Mando, reinforced by his contact with Bo and Boba. And I suppose you can make that case, but for me personally I think it’s much more interesting to understand it as Din having to confront a deep contradiction in his own beliefs, which is whether to prioritise his armour and his own self, or his duty to those he loves. Din’s ties to his mando-hood have always been based in his larger community, but in the show itself he’s framed as a perpetual loner, a singular individual unit in a vast galaxy that is unconcerned with his well-being or his beliefs. And Grogu is presented as the first time he has to confront the idea that he is more than himself and his responsibilities, that he has to take care of himself for other people, and that his principles need to accommodate for that shift in priorities. It doesn’t mean he suddenly has this moment of clarity where he thinks “oh god, I’ve been living by this set of rules my entire life and they don’t actually matter”; it’s moreso “I am finally in a place in my life where I have to make real compromises, and I would rather compromise my own personal safety and comfort than my relationship with my own son.”

Which is such a great arc for him to go through!!!! It isn’t a phoenix-rising-from-the-ashes moment, nor a ledge-i-can’t-come-back-from moment. It’s a continual and subtle shift in his beliefs that he has to consciously attend to and confront every single day. Din has to practice being a Mandalorian for Grogu, which is different from being a Mandalorian for himself or his covert.

Din’s covert could conceivably be the direct legacy of the true mandalorians and i can make it make sense without even being that convoluted: an essay

you will try.

Upcoming comic alert!!

“Ask him about the job on Alzoc III.”

“I did what I had to.”

“Oh, but you liked it. You see, I know what you really are.”

A mando prequel story!!!

Aiming to start posting it by the end of February or in March!

the debtor

rating: g (word count 598)

https://archiveofourown.org/works/32755144

The Mandalorian watches her do the dishes sometimes. Omera isn’t sure why; she wonders for a while if he’s just lonely, but he never speaks or announces his presence. She figures it out when he joins her at the washbasin one day and picks up a bowl.

“Have you been trying to learn how to wash dishes this whole time?” she asks with a smile, handing him a soapy rag.

He tenses.

“I’m not making fun of you,” she clarifies. “It’s—” Sweet. “Appreciated.”

“I don’t have dishes on the Razor Crest,” the Mandalorian says after a moment. “Mostly I eat ration bars.”

“You must be sick of them by now.” Ration bars have all of the nutrients and none of the taste of real food; Omera can’t imagine eating them on a regular basis.

“They suit my purposes.”

He really doesn’t like empathy, does he. She hands him a wet plate and starts scrubbing at the next one. They work in silence for a while, scrubbing the dishes with soap and then setting them aside to rinse later. Eventually, the stack of dirty dishes she’s already run water over dries up, so they rinse off the soapy dishes and set them aside to dry in the sun before getting the dirty ones wet again. Omera picks up her scrub brush and starts on a cup.

“You’ve been very kind to me,” the Mandalorian says, breaking the silence.

She inclines her head. It’s hard to keep a smile from her face, hearing the way this hardened warrior shyly shapes politeness. “You’re my guest.”

“I know my presence is—hard for you. I take up space. And I frighten the children.”

“You don’t,” Omera says, though she’s not sure which part she’s responding to, taking up space or frightening the children. He doesn’t really do either. Only Winta was ever afraid of him, and that faded quickly. The Mandalorian is stiff around children, like he’s afraid he’ll break them if he makes the slightest move, but he is always gentle. No one in the village fears him anymore. And he takes up little space, so little that sometimes she wishes he’d take up more.

“I owe you.”

Is that why you learned how to wash dishes? “You don’t,” she repeats. “Besides, this is your payment for helping us with the raiders, remember? You asked for lodging.”

The Mandalorian’s head tilts toward her before turning back to the washbasin. “You’ve given me more than lodging.”

Not much, she thinks. Just extra bedding and warm food and an ear to listen on occasion. She wonders what his life has been like, that such basic kindness is a luxury. “Hasn’t anyone ever done something for you just to be nice? Without expecting anything in return?”

The Mandalorian’s head scythes towards her, his chest rising and falling sharply. Omera meets his gaze. The question hangs between them: too forward, probably, but she can’t take it back now. She doesn’t bother disguising the mingled nervousness and curiosity on her face, though she does hide the sympathy. She knows he wouldn’t appreciate it.

“Once,” he says.

She hesitates, wondering if he wants her to ask further questions. He doesn’t seem like the sort of person who likes to talk about his past, but sometimes—

“It’s why I swore the Creed,” he says before she can work out a response. His head slants away from her, staring at the last plate in his hands. “I will never be able to repay that debt.”

The Mandalorian sets the plate out to dry and ducks out of the hut.

questions about the children of the watch:

why do they never speak in mando’a?

why are they the only type of mandalorian that the average person has heard of?

how are they connected to death watch?

if they’re a split-off group from death watch, how did they transform from a terrorist group into a religion?

and how did it go from a race to a creed?

why doesn’t din recognize bo-katan’s name or know what the darksaber is?

do the other members of din’s tribe know as little about mandalorian history as he does? if not, are they intentionally concealing information from him? and if so, is that unique to him or something that happens to all foundlings?

is “the watch” death watch, or is it something else?

how many coverts are there?

what are the specific tenets of the way?

when were the children of the watch founded?

are there children of the watch who actually call themselves that, or is it a term only used by non-believers?

food for thought.

as the general of the 7th sky corps, obi-wan commands 16 legions, including the 501st. in fact, as the high general of a sector army (4 corps including the 7th sky corps), and the high general of the third systems army (4 sector armies), he is not one, not two, but three levels of command above anakin. the only person higher than obi-wan is palpatine

(to put into perspective: anakin commands 9,216 men. obi-wan commands 294,612)

so funny to me that in 7 seasons of clone wars it is literally never brought up that obi-wan is anakin's commanding officer