STAR WARS REBELS 2.06, Brothers Of The Broken Horn

Got called a weirdo irl for the way I write my fics sooo

I am the “writes in document tabs” if anyone’s wondering

if i had a nickel for every time my favorite fictional character was the father figure to a clone bioengineered to have superpowers i would have two nickels. which isn’t a lot but it’s weird that it happened twice

we all bounce from media hyperfixation to media hyperfixation but we retain our Types of character who we consistently become obsessed with

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.

thinking about how the armorer

didn’t fight din for the darksaber after he said he’d taken off his helmet even though a) mandalorians will be cursed if an unworthy person wields it and b) she would have won easily

told din about the living waters instead of just saying there’s no way to redeem himself now that mandalore is a dead planet

let him keep his armor despite the whole “beskar belongs to mandalorians” thing

conclusion: the armorer believes din will restore mandalore in order to redeem himself in the living waters. also she is pro din for mand’alor

question for tumblr: do you guys usually make separate side blogs for each of your fandoms? cause i’ve only posted mandalorian/star wars stuff so far, but i want to post mcu thoughts as well. should i do that on my main blog or make another one?

absolutely. bo-katan’s clear prejudice against the followers of the ancient way calls into question anything she says about them. there’s little to no evidence so far that din’s beliefs are hurting anyone. any time someone says the word “cult” they really just mean “religion i don’t like”.

mandalorians can definitely be compared to different groups of people in our world. “you’re not really mandalorian because you don’t do xyz” is a lot like “you’re not really christian/progressive/muslim/american because you don’t believe xyz”. in reality, there’s no such thing as a “real” or “fake” mandalorian. (now you’ve gotten me thinking about all the parallels between prejudice against mandalorians and prejudice against people in our world... i’ll have to post about that at some point.)

yeah, could be a geographical thing. i think mandalore proper actually is in the outer rim, but i’m not sure how close it is to all the planets din’s been to. the outer rim is a big place.

i don’t think we should be quick to trust anything bo-katan says about the children of the watch.

the main thing i’m suspicious of is her claim that they’re a fringe group. maybe they were in the clone wars era, but they’re clearly the dominant mandalorian faction right now. we know this because literally everyone in the show, not just din, thinks all mandalorians never take off their helmets. that perception wouldn’t be so widespread if the helmet thing were only practiced by a small group of religious zealots. i mean, this is galaxy-wide common knowledge. it’s not just din being sheltered by a cult.

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you know my favorite thing about peli? she’s basically the only person who treats din the same way she would if he weren’t mandalorian.

she’s not afraid of him, not because she’s confident she could defend herself, but because she doesn’t assume she’ll need to. she doesn’t pester him with questions about his helmet because she doesn’t think making personal religious decisions is weird. she thinks of him as a PERSON with a PERSONALITY and an actual LIFE beyond the mandalorian bounty hunter stereotype.

like. pretty much everyone gets this “oh crap it’s a mandalorian” face the moment they see din and make a bunch of assumptions about who he is and what he wants. even if they’re not overtly racist and xenophobic, they’re still obviously uncomfortable and weirded out by his helmet. but peli? peli has zero reaction to seeing a mandalorian in her hangar. she's one of the few, if any, people who don’t initially think of din as The Other. it’s nice to see.

armorer: *gives din a jetpack* when you have healed, you will begin your drills. until you know it, it will not listen to your commands

din: i understand

also din: *uses the jetpack like ten minutes later to singlehandedly blow up a spaceship while on a head injury*

Weep for yourself, my man You’ll never be what is in your heart Weep, little lion man You’re not as brave as you were at the start

Song: Little Lion Man by Mumford and Sons