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"When one chooses to walk the Way of the Mandalore, you are both hunter and prey."
The Armorer

Star Wars: The Mandalorian, more commonly known and marketed as The Mandalorian, is a Space Western series set in the Star Wars universe, and the first live-action television series in the history of the franchise. It is created by Jon Favreau, executive produced by Favreau, Dave Filoni, Kathleen Kennedy, Colin Wilson, and Rick Famuyiwanote , and co-executive produced by Karen Gilchrist. Directors for the first three seasons include Favreau, Filoni, Famuyiwa, Deborah Chow, Bryce Dallas Howard, Taika Waititi, Peyton Reed, Carl Weathers, Robert Rodriguez, Rachel Morrison, Lee Isaac Chung, and Peter Ramsey.

Set five years after the fall of the Galactic Empire, the show follows a Mandalorian Bounty Hunter (Pedro Pascal) operating in the lawless Outer Rim, as he works to support his clan's hidden enclave. Known simply as "Mandalorian" or "Mando" to most, his name is later revealed to be Din Djarin. After accepting a shady job from a group of Imperial holdouts, he is shocked to discover that his target is a strange alien infant with supernatural powers.

Despite some initial reluctance, the bounty hunter ultimately decides to go on the run and safeguard the innocent child from the sinister forces hunting it. But soon enough, he realizes that protecting this child will be far more complicated than it first seems, and that the Imperials hunting it are more than your average remnant...

The show began airing exclusively on Disney+ as the platform's launch day flagship on November 12, 2019. The show finished releasing its third season for streaming on said platform in April 2023.

During the second season in December 2020, it was announced that three spinoffs of the series had been ordered: The Book of Boba Fett note , Ahsoka note , and Rangers of the New Republic, with the intention to have them eventually come together for a crossover event. However, on May 22, 2021, Lucasfilm announced that Rangers was "no longer in active development", followed by a statement from Kathleen Kennedy that they would try to work some of its story into future Mandalorian episodes instead. In April 2023, it was officially announced that Filoni would be directing the aforementioned crossover as a feature-length theatrical release, serving as a conclusion for these interconnected stories. In January 2024, a separate film titled The Mandalorian & Grogu directed by Favreau was announced.

On May 4, 2020 ("Star Wars Day", as in "May the Fourth be with you"), Disney+ launched a behind-the-scenes documentary series titled Disney Gallery, covering the making of The Mandalorian and its spin-offs.

Previews: Trailer, Trailer 2, Special Look, Season 2 Trailer Season 2 Recap Sizzle, Season 3 Teaser, Season 3 Trailer


The Mandalorian provides examples of:

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    Tropes #-M 
  • 24-Hour Armor:
    • As part of the Tribe's adherence to the ancient tenets of Mandalorian culture, they never remove their armor or helmets in front of others, even if it means not eating or bathing for extended periods of time. And if necessary, they will resort to violence to prevent the removal of their helmets. In season 2, Djarin meets Bo-Katan and her crew; since they are not part of his extreme fundamentalist group, they obviously do not adhere to this rule and casually take off their helmets, causing Djarin to have a mini Freak Out and a No True Scotsman attitude towards them before the situation is explained more.
    • For all their antipathy towards the Children of the Watch for keeping their helmets on, Bo-Katan and her Night Owls are never seen out of the rest of their armor and usually have their helmets close by. Even when she's lounging around a castle, depressed and expecting neither to fight enemies nor entertain guests, she's in the full suit with her helmet on an arm of the throne. As she temporarily joins the Watch in season 3, she starts keeping her helmet on at all times as well, up until the Armorer tells her to remove it because she "walks both worlds."
  • Absurdly Spacious Sewer: The Mandalorians in Nevarro hide in wide, well-lit sewers. Compounded by the fact that a backwater town in the middle of desert has any sewer at all. Justified trope in that the sewers were obviously improved by the Mandalorians specifically to serve as their living area and hiding place, with stairs, lighting, and other features not generally found in a sewer. Further justified since "The Redemption" reveals that part of their function is to contain, divert and allow transit via lava flows.
  • Actor Allusion:
    • Once again a Giancarlo Esposito character realizes too late that he's in close proximity to an explosive device and shouts a Big "NO!" before it goes off in Chapter 8. This time, however, he survives the explosion with his face intact. But the second time this happens, however, he's not so lucky. Chapter 24 sees Gideon being cooked off in the explosion caused by the crashing of the cruiser. He defiantly screams in anger as he is engulfed by the flames. Not even his Powered Armor is enough to protect him from the blast.
    • Former MMA star Gina Carano plays a character who, at one point, is making her living by competing in basically mixed martial arts fighting in the local bar.
    • Chapter 11 introduces us to Koska Reeves, played by WWE Superstar Sasha Banks, who takes a page right out of her actress's playbook with a jetpack-assisted DDT in Chapter 16.
    • The Mandalorian acquires a beskar spear in Chapter 13, a weapon that former wushu student Pedro Pascal should know how to use.
  • Aerith and Bob: In addition to the usual fantastical Star Wars names, we also have the real but unusual Cara (albeit short for "Carasynthia"), Gideon, and the very mundane-sounding "Mayfeld".
  • The Aesthetics of Technology: Both of the Mandalorian's primary weapons have a distinctly 1890s look to them. His blaster is based on a Bergmann 1894. His rifle is a trapdoor action using removable cartridges with brass fittings, a removable scope, and a butt in the style popular at the time.
  • Against My Religion: When asked to drop his weapon during parley, the Mandalorian objects in a deadpan that, "I'm a Mandalorian. Weapons are part of my religion." He relents in the interest of smooth negotiations. He tries using the line again in The Book of Boba Fett, and in Seaon 3 a planet that normally forbids armed persons in the city permits Din and Bo-Katan, because the planet's laws also enshrine respect and tolerance of differing cultures and religions, ergo Mandalorians can be armed because weapons and armor are intrinsic to their culture. Far more seriously, the Mandalorians have several different sects of varying "devoutness" in terms of "wearing armor," the one the protagonist belongs to is so orthodox it is forbidden for him to remove his helmet around any living being. Din is forced to do so for a few reasons, and has to complete a ritual to redeem himself in the eyes of his variation of Creed.
  • Aggressive Negotiations:
    • Djarin tries to use his flamethrower to get the Jawas to see things his way in the second episode, after they insult his attempt at speaking their language.
    • Subverted in the fifth episode, where the trainee's first instinct is to fight his way across Tusken territory, whereas Djarin successfully negotiates passage.
    • The Mandalorian once again uses his flamethrower to get everyone's attention when Marshal Cobb Vanth is arguing with the Sandpeople in chapter 9. For once, it works.
  • The Alleged Car:
    • In the first part of the first episode, Djarin hires a taxi speeder that is falling apart and backfiring even as it pulls up. This is because hiring a sleek new taxi would require putting up with a droid pilot, which he is not down for.
    • Djarin's Razor Crest is noted to be old as hell (pre-Imperial, by his own admission), and, unlike the Millennium Falcon, not secretly a super-badass ship with custom parts (though it is competent enough in a dogfight). In "The Prisoner", it's used because it's so old that it's unregistered on Imperial or New Republic systems, allowing it to be used as a blind spot for a prison break. The droid piloting it that episode complains that it's woefully inefficient and has numerous power-leaks. Being stripped by Jawas and welded back together again in the middle of nowhere in chapter 2 probably did it no favors.
    • In the season 2 episode "The Passenger", the Razor Crest is left in even worse shape than it's ever been after crashing on an uninhabited ice world and being attacked by a giant spider-like creature. With no means to seal the hull breaches and his ability to affect other repairs limited, Djarin is forced to take off with only the cockpit pressurized, one engine sputtering, and the hangar door flapping open.
    • Season 2 episode "The Heiress" has Djarin paying a Mon Calamari dock worker to repair the Razor Crest while he's off on his mission. The results of the repair leave the Razor Crest looking like a hodgepodge of scrap metal barely held together by duct tape and netting, but still in more flightworthy shape than it was before.
      Dock Worker: Fix it? Nah. But I can make it fly.
  • All There in the Manual: Going by this recipe from the Star Wars: Galactic Baking cookbook, the cookie sandwiches that Grogu stole in Chapter 12 are blue because they used blue butter, which of course is made from the blue milk of Banthas.
  • And the Adventure Continues: Season 3 ends with Din Djarin and Grogu settling down in a house on Nevarro, with Din being a Bounty Hunter employed by the New Republic. Essentially, he now gets to return to his old role from back in Season 1 in going on random adventures as he wishes with Grogu in tow in future seasons, just with a place to actually call home.
  • Anti-Climactic Unmasking:
    • After spending the entire first season just being called "Mandalorian" or "Mando", Moff Gideon reveals the character's real name, Din Djarin, completely in passing. (Admittedly it had been spoiled by pre-release materials already.)
    • The Mandalorians make a very big deal of never letting anyone see their faces without their helmets after they get their first armor. When the helmet finally comes off in the last episode of the first season, it's... Pedro Pascal. What else would anyone have suspected? (Even if you don't know the actor or recognize his name in the credits, it was already shown in several flashbacks that he was an ordinary-looking human child, so there wasn't even any question if he could be some kind of alien.)
  • Arc Welding: Starting in season two, characters from previous Star Wars Expanded Universe media begin to appear and continue their story arcs. The two biggest shows pulled from are The Clone Wars and Rebels.
  • Arc Words: "This is the Way."
  • Armor Is Useless:
    • Averted hard with the titular character. The armor he starts with is of notably lower quality, covered with damage and able to be scratched with a normal knife or torn apart by animal jaws, but in the first fight of the show he gets shot in the chest by a blaster and hardly seems to notice. He gradually replaces his armor piece by piece with proper beskar, which can take a blaster shot with barely a mark (though he notes it probably wouldn't have withstood Fennec Shand's rifle shot at closer range). According to the art book, Djarin's pre-beskar-windfall armor was partially sourced from scavenged stormtrooper gear. No wonder it fell to pieces!
    • In the first episode's big battle, IG-11's armor plating can shrug off small arms blaster fire, but is vulnerable to the E-Web heavy cannon that the Nikto mercs bring in and Djarin's point-blank blaster shot goes clean through his head.
    • As is normal for the franchise, this trope is played straight with the Imperial Stormtroopers, who usually go down in one hit despite wearing armor (although Djarin will usually Double Tap them to make sure they stay down). Stormtrooper armor also shatters like cheap ceramic when hit by The Armorer's hammer or Boba Fett's gaffi stick. Later in season two, Djarin has to wear some transport trooper armor on an infiltration mission and is obviously caught off-guard by how shoddy it is; he instinctively tries to use his right pauldron to block an enemy attack, only for the blow to completely shatter said pauldron.
    • Averted again in the season two premiere. A suit of Mandalorian Armor (heavily implied, and later revealed to be, Boba Fett's) allows the Marshal to take on an entire gang of thugs who took over the town.
    • Averted in Episode 11 when Djarin charges up a corridor into withering blaster fire including a repeating blaster. He is knocked down because he was being buffeted by the sheer volume of repeating blaster fire but his armor protects him long enough to deliver two grenades.
    • Episode 13 shows that beskar is strong enough to withstand a lightsaber. No wonder everyone wants Djarin's suit.
    • Taken to new levels in the Season 2 finale. After demonstrating that the Dark Troopers are strong enough to open blast doors with their bare hands, one grabs Djarin and starts punching him in the face. The wall behind it dents and breaks, but the helmet isn't even scratched. For that matter, whatever the Dark Troopers are made of effortlessly shrugs off everything Djarin brings to bear on them (excepting his disintegrator rifle, which was presumably destroyed with the Razor Crest, or his beskar spear, which pierces them nicely)... but can't stand against the Absurd Cutting Power of a lightsaber.
    • Zig-Zagged in the Season 3 finale. The Phase 4 Dark Troopers have beskar armor and gadgets which put them on par with the Mandalorians (especially against the group that came to reclaim Mandalore), and both sides are shown shrugging off blasterfire in the penultimate episode. In the finale proper, once the Mandalorians regroup, they seem to have a much easier time punching through the Dark Trooper armor with the same weapons as before, while the Dark Troopers are no more capable at piercing the beskar of the Mandalorians. If one is being charitable, reinforcements and focused fire could account for this change.
  • Artificial Gravity: True to the trope, even when the Mandalorian's ship has lost all power, the gravity generators keep working until he can restart the engines.
  • Ascended Meme:
    • When Fennec Shand is shooting at the title character and Toro Calican, the Mandalorian notes that she has high ground.
    • "Chapter 6: The Prisoner" and "Chapter 8: Redemption" both reference the Imperial stormtroopers' notoriously terrible aim. The former also throws in some mocking towards Gungans, the species of the infamous Jar-Jar Binks.
    • The container used to hold and carry the beskar in the first few episodes was based on an ice cream maker, in reference to a invokedMemetic Bystander in The Empire Strikes Back who was carrying one as he escaped Cloud City.
    • When asked why Djarin should trust him, Greef replies, "Because I'm your only hope."
  • Ask a Stupid Question...: In "The Siege", Carson Teva identifies Cara Dune as a native of Alderaan and asks her if she lost anyone during the war. Cara bluntly replies that she lost everyone.
  • Aspect Ratio Switch: The series as a whole has a default aspect ratio of 2.39:1, but Season 2 Episode 1 expands the frame to 16:9 for the fight with the Krayt dragon.
  • Awesome, but Impractical:
    • Djarin has a hidden flamethrower in one of his gauntlets. It's very deadly, but he has successfully defeated only one enemy with it. The rest of the time it's either been used as an intimidation factor against giant beasts or Jawas, and often he only deploys it when he's already in the middle of getting his ass kicked. He uses it twice against the giant spiders. While both times it looks admittedly cool, it doesn't seem to help a whole lot, mostly because they're just too numerous.
    • Djarin's rifle (referred to as an Amban phase-pulse blaster in some places) is capable of disintegrating organic lifeforms, making fights ridiculously one-sided. Unfortunately, it's cumbersome and ill-suited for close-quarters combat (electrified bayonet notwithstanding), it can only fire one shot at a time, and it eats up an entire energy cell per shot. Its absurdly overpowered nature is also a poor choice for a Bounty Hunter, since he can't bring in a bounty dead or alive if they've been completely disintegrated. The Mandalorian chooses to leave it behind more often than not, relying on his blaster pistol and other weapons instead.
    • The Darksaber, despite being a lightsaber with all of the power that entails, is extremely unwieldy for him due to never being trained to use that type of weapon. One of the first times Din uses it (during his A Day in the Limelight episode in The Book of Boba Fett), he accidentally burns a gouge in his leg that leaves him limping. While he could probably become proficient with it eventually if he trains with it, he's only willing to break it out as a last resort because of how easily it could kill or maim himself or people he doesn't want to hurt. This is a pretty consistent issue for non-Force sensitives wielding lightsabers, as the weapons and the kyber crystals inside are connected to the Force, vaguely "alive" in a manner of speaking. They tend to require at least a remedial understanding of the Light Side, the Dark Side, Jedi teachings and a calm and stable mind to be used safely (which he rarely is when he's desperate enough to ignite the blade), and unfortunately for him the only person left in the galaxy who knows any of this is too busy to teach Din any kind of proper lightsaber techniques. Notably though, this is only proven to be impractical for most of the main cast due to lack of knowledge. When Bo-Katan Kryze gets a hold of it once again, they use it effortlessly and it returns to its badass status.
  • Back for the Dead: Poor hapless Bib Fortuna reappears in the second season finale... for all of about a minute before being shot dead.
  • Badass Adorable: The Child is acknowledged by everyone who meets him to be criminally cute. He can also pick up a beast roughly analogous to a rhinoceros, but bigger, with the power of his mind.
  • Badass and Child Duo: Overlapping with Badass and Baby. The Mandalorian gets paired with an infant of Yoda's species, and the two contend with the dangers of Arvala-7.
  • Badass Cape:
    • Djarin switches out the traditional Mando jetpack for a fashionably ragged cape. The end of the official trailer even features the cape unfurling to reveal the show's title. When he does receive a jetpack of his own in the Season 1 finale, he goes on to wear both the cape and the jetpack at the same time, with the cape fluttering dramatically behind him while he flies yet somehow never catching on fire.
    • Luke Skywalker mows down a hallway of enemies with his cloak flapping behind him, like his father before him.
  • Bad Guy Bar:
    • Djarin grabs his latest bounty in one in the Batman Cold Open.
    • Greef Karga runs his business out of another on Nevarro, mostly frequented by bounty hunters looking for work.
    • The bar at the black market port on Trask is another example.
  • Bait-and-Switch Gunshot:
    • The climax of the first episode is an extreme close-up of Djarin's face as the blaster is being fired, giving the impression that IG-11 succeeded in executing the Child. It's in the very next shot, as IG-11's body hits the floor, that we realize Djarin killed the bounty hunter droid before the baby could be harmed.
    • The fourth episode similarly ends with another bounty hunter lining up a scope with the Child, then the sound of a blaster and the villagers and Djarin reacting. Then the bounty hunter crumples to the ground, revealing Cara Dune shot him in the back first.
    • Used again in episode 6, with a slight twist: it initially looks like the Child reflected the gunshot with the Force, but it turns out the Mandalorian shot the droid in the back.
  • Base on Wheels: Jawa sandcrawlers were always implied to be such, but here we see it really is a fortress, complete with holes for them to stick their heads out of to shoot at invaders or drop junk on them. After an arduous attempted one-man Storming the Castle scene, the Mandalorian gets stunned and thrown off the top, and he's forced to admit it's impregnable. (The one the stormtroopers destroyed in A New Hope was probably thwarted by them having an army.)
  • Batman Cold Open: The first episode opens on one of the Mandalorian's typical bounty runs, which he handles with cool and casual ease, before moving onto the actual first arc of the show, involving taking a mysterious job for a surviving group of Imperials...
  • Bayonet Ya: Djarin's rifle has a sort of fork bayonet. The twist is that it's not sharp and stabby, but rather carries an electrical charge and functions as a sort of taser.
  • Better to Die than Be Killed: The Imperial transport captain in Chapter 11 kills himself with an electric Suicide Pill to avoid facing Moff Gideon's wrath for failing him. Karmically flipped around in Chapter 16, when Gideon finds his own back against the wall and tries to shoot himself to avoid being taken into the custody of the New Republic... only to get knocked out.
  • Big Bad: The first two seasons have Moff Gideon, the leader of the Imperial remnants after the Child.
  • Big Damn Heroes:
    • At the end of season 2's "The Tragedy", Boba Fett appears via jetpack after retrieving his armor and, using his skill with a blaster and the full capabilities of his suit, singlehandedly wipes out the Stormtrooper platoon that was managing to overwhelm Djarin and Fennec Shand through sheer numbers.
    • At the end of the season 2 finale, right when all hope seems lost, Luke Skywalker and R2-D2 show up out of nowhere to save the day. Luke proceeds to defeat Gideon's entire platoon of Dark Troopers singlehandedly.
  • Big "NO!": Another bounty hunter says this right before Djarin blows up his ship with him in it.
  • Bittersweet Ending: The storyline of seasons one and two ends this way. Djarin succeeds in his quest, Grogu is theoretically safe with Luke Skywalker, Moff Gideon is brought to justice, and the Mandalorians have a Mand'alor again. But Kuiil and IG-11 are dead, the Razor Crest has been destroyed, Gideon's superiors are still out there, a conflict with Bo-Katan over the Darksaber seems inevitable, Boba Fett is poised to pick up where Jabba the Hutt left off, Grogu doesn't seem happy to be leaving at all, and Djarin is more alone than ever, with his Covert gone and his chances of ever seeing Grogu again slim. Plus, we know Grogu won't have a bright future at Luke's Jedi temple if he stays there.
  • Bizarre Alien Biology: The Mandalorian's first bounty in the series is a fish-guy being bullied by a bunch of thugs who say that his musk glands will fetch a good price. He later tries to play the "I'm an alien with weird biological needs" card as an excuse to get to use the toilet on his ship. ("It might take a while because I'm molting!") He's probably making most of it up so he can look for a way to escape.
  • Bizarre Alien Reproduction: While a couple of frog aliens having eggs that need to be fertilized separately isn't that bizarre, as it occurs in the real world, having the offspring from said fertilization hatch and grow to the size of its parents' hands in less than a few days certainly is. This suggests a very quick reproduction cycle.
  • Black Comedy: The show contains a decent amount of this, usually with unnamed characters (mostly enemies) getting offed in disturbing yet humorous ways. A particularly noteworthy example occurs in the Season 2 episode "The Passenger". A Running Gag in the episode has the Child become fixated on the unfertilized eggs of the frog-like passenger that Djarin is escorting. He scarfs down several of them over the course of the episode, despite all the trouble Djarin and the mother go through to protect them.
  • Black Swords Are Better: The Darksaber, despite its unique look, is stated by Moff Gideon to be more or less a typical lightsaber in terms of its abilities. However, the myth and legends associated with the Darksaber, and its association with the Vizsla lineage, makes it a symbol of Mandalorian rulership.
  • Blessed with Suck: Djarin's beskar armor. It offers resistance against blasters and lightsabers, and is incredibly durable. It's also incredibly rare and expensive, easy to spot when unpainted, and it has enough gaps to give him trouble if he gets shot or if someone has bladed weaponry. All of this means that almost every single unscrupulous character Djarin runs into tries to double-cross him in some way to steal his armor and make a fortune.
  • Bling of War: A full suit of Mandalorian beskar armor shines silvery-bright — and the Armorer points out to the Mandalorian that he's making himself stand out very much by upgrading this way. Considering the number of times he's vulnerable to stray shots, it's really less fashion and more cold function. This stands in contrast to other Mandalorians, who usually paint the armor in some fashion to personalize it and make it less distinctive, even if it is obvious at a glance that it's beskar from the design. Boba Fett's armor has a drab (and heavily chipped) paint job (until refurbished, of course), while Bo-Katan's armor is painted with a colorful and stylized design evoking the image of a predator.
  • Body Horror: Fennec Shand manages to survive being shot in the stomach with the help of Boba Fett, but has to have all the organs in her midsection replaced with cybernetics to do so.
  • Bottle Episode: "The Prisoner". Most of the episode takes place in a single location, a Republic prison transport (and most of the rest takes place on the Mandalorian's ship).
  • Brick Joke: The unlucky Mythrol that Djarin catches in the very first episode turns up again halfway through season two; turns out, it was actually Greef Karga himself who hired Djarin to bring him in, as the Mythrol was his accountant who tried to embezzle funds from him and is now doing clerical work for Greef as a form of community service.
  • Bring It:
    • From the end of the second trailer.
      Imperial: Mandalorian, look outside. They are waiting for you.
      The Mandalorian: Yeah? Good.
    • At the initial negotiation in Episode 1 when things get tense.
      Stormtrooper: We have you four to one.
      The Mandalorian: I like those odds.
  • Broken Pedestal: In Chapter 11, Djarin finally meets another group of Mandalorians... and in doing so learns that not only is his clan viewed as a fundamentalist cult, but the Mandalorian group present is not nearly as noble and honorable as he expected them to be, with Bo-Katan repeatedly changing the terms of their deal without consulting him and exploiting the fact that he has no other way to find a Jedi.
  • The Bus Came Back:
    • From Star Wars in general:
      • Boba Fett himself is revealed to be alive in Episode 9, and makes a full return in Episode 14 to reclaim his armor.
      • Bo-Katan Kryze returns after her most recent appearance in The Clone Wars, and Rebels revealing she survived the Great Purge and is working towards finding Moff Gideon. She's later recruited in Chapter 16 to help save Grogu.
      • Ahsoka Tano reappears following Ezra's rescuing of her in Rebels and the final season of The Clone Wars, searching for Grand Admiral Thrawn.
      • Luke Skywalker himself comes in to rescue Djarin and his allies from the Dark Troopers in Chapter 16, bringing R2-D2 along with him. This is only a year after his last appearance in The Rise of Skywalker, but his first appearance as a young man in live action since Return of the Jedi.
    • From the show itself:
      • The Mythrol whom Djarin captured in Episode 1 returns in Episode 12, spending his time paying off his debt by working for Greef.
      • Fennec Shand, who was last seen in Episode 5, is revealed to have survived thanks to Boba Fett himself.
      • Koska Reeves, a member of Bo-Katan's Night Owls, is recruited alongside her leader to help rescue Grogu.
      • Mayfeld, who was captured and imprisoned in Episode 6, is brought back in Episode 15 to help rescue Grogu.
  • Call-Back:
    • Given that it's made out of something rare (which is implied to have become rarer still since the Empire did something called the Great Purge against the Mandalorians), Mandalorian armor is sacred; Djarin earns a pauldron not for completing his most recent job but just for bringing back a sufficient amount of the beskar.
    • The Mandalorian tradition of adopting outsiders is referenced; the Mandalorian himself is a foundling.
    • The Mandalorian appears to have been a child at the time of the Clone Wars. Flashbacks in Chapter 3 show his village being destroyed by B2 Super Battle Droids and a droid gunship.
    • The Child is fifty years old because he is the same species as Yoda. Since Yoda stated he was 900 years old, it makes sense that the babies take time to mature.
    • Episode 7 reveals the name of Cara's homeworld: Alderaan.
    • The last episode of Season 1 ends with a whopper: Moff Gideon cutting his way out of his wrecked TIE fighter... with the freaking Darksaber no less.
    • Episode 9 features Cobb Vanth wearing a set of armor that once belonged to Boba Fett, as the Aftermath series depicted him doing.
    • Ahsoka Tano's appearance in season two picks up where her last chronological appearance left off; she is still searching for Grand Admiral Thrawn and, presumably, Ezra Bridger by extension. Sabine Wren is notably not with her at the moment, despite leaving to aid Ahsoka in her hunt at the end of Rebels.
    • Chapter 15 reveals that Mayfeld served in the Empire during Operation: Cinder, a major event in Star Wars Battlefront II (2017).
  • The Cameo: A few Tatooine droids from the movies appear in the Mos Eisley cantina in "The Gunslinger". EV-9D9 (from Jabba's palace in Return of the Jedi) is now running the bar, while R5-D4 (the astromech that Luke almost buys from the Jawas instead of R2 in A New Hope) appears as an extra.
  • Canon Immigrant:
    • In Chapter 8, an Incinerator Stormtrooper appears. These made their debut in The Force Unleashed.
    • Dark Troopers appear in season 2, having first appeared in the video game Dark Forces.
    • The Jedi who evacuated Grogu from Coruscant during Order 66 is Kelleran Beq, who originally debuted as the host of the Star Wars Kids game show Star Wars: Jedi Temple Challenge.
  • Captain Obvious: There are a few of these. One of the best moments is the droid Zero during the prison break; "It seems comms are no longer functioning. Therefore, you cannot hear me."
  • Casting Gag: Cobb Vanth first appeared in the Aftermath novels, whose author stated that he was based on the character Raylan Givens from Justified. When he finally makes a live-action appearance in this show, he is played by Timothy Olyphant — the actor who portrayed Givens.
  • The Cavalry:
    • Episode 3 has the Mandalorian be bailed out by the Mandalorians of his enclave, who proceed to rout the horde of other bounty hunters that had been chasing him.
    • Episode 11 has Djarin rescued by Bo-Katan and her Mandalorians, twice.
    • Episode 16 has Luke Skywalker himself, arriving to cut down the Dark Troopers after having sensed Grogu's message from Tython.
    • In Episode 18, Bo-katan saves Din a third time, from a cyborg that was trying to harvest his blood.
  • Character Catchphrase:
    • Kuiil's is "I have spoken", meaning that he's said all he's going to say on a particular topic and isn't going to waste time on any further debate. As of Season 3, this particular phrase extends to all Ugnaughts Din talks with (to Bo-Katan's bewilderment).
    • The Mandalorians have one of their own in a similar vein, saying "This is the Way" whenever they reach a resolution in a conversation about their culture.
    • The Mandalorian uses "I can bring you in warm, or I can bring you in cold" in the first episode. In the fifth one, another bounty hunter uses it against him, much to his annoyance. He doesn't kill the other hunter because he stole his line, but he does bring it up before pulling the trigger so it probably was extra motivation.
  • Chekhov's Gun:
    • The beskar ingots that Greef Karga received as his cut from the job and shows the Mandalorian in Chapter 3 after completing the assignment save his life at the end when Djarin shoots him in the chest.
    • In the fourth episode of season 2, Djarin, Cara, Greef, and the Mythrol — their landspeeder driver — enter an Imperial base to destroy it. As they enter through the garage, the Mythrol points at an armored speeder under a tarp and says: "Look, it's a mint Trexler Marauder!" Nice job hanging that lampshade on Chekhov's Gun, Mythrol. (Yes, they later use it to escape with. And it does have mounted guns on it, which come in handy.)
    • When he meets Ahsoka, Djarin manages to deflect a blow from her lightsaber with his beskar armor, and it is later affirmed that even the strongest of lightsabers cannot cut through pure beskar. This fact not only means the Magistrate with her beskar spear can put up a fight against Ahsoka, it also ends up saving Din's life when Moff Gideon tries to cut him down from behind with the Darksaber in the season two finale.
  • Chekhov's Skill: In "Chapter 1", IG-11 has a self-destruct protocol as part of his programming in order to prevent capture. He uses it in "Chapter 8" to clear out a score of stormtroopers while taking his life in the process.
  • Chronically Crashed Car: Djarin doesn't have the best luck keeping the Razor Crest intact and flying. It gets stripped for parts by Jawas in Episode 2, crashes into a glacier in Chapter 10, crashes into the ocean and has to be fished out with a crane in Chapter 11, and then in Chapter 14 it finally gets destroyed completely by a turbolaser salvo from an Imperial cruiser.
  • Cliffhanger: Two in a row. Chapter 7 ends with the Djarin, Cara, and Greef trying to take cover from a large regiment of stormtroopers led by Moff Gideon while some scout troopers capture the Child after attacking Kuiil. The episode immediately afterwards ends when it's revealed that Moff Gideon survived the crash of his TIE Fighter, and is currently in possession of the Darksaber.
  • The Coats Are Off: Immediately before her dramatic duel with the Magistrate, Ahsoka Tano sheds her cloak in a manner highly reminiscent of Obi-Wan Kenobi's trademark pre-fight move.
  • The Comically Serious: The Mandalorian is a stoic, Proud Warrior Race Guy but he still has trouble riding a blurrg, speaking Jawa, caring for a baby solo, or socializing with anyone who's not Mandalorian.
  • Concept Art Gallery: The end credits, of all things, serve as this, scrolling through multiple pieces of concept art the staff put together in pre-production to hash out the story beats and visuals of the latest episode.
  • Conlang: The Tusken Raiders use a sign language. A hearing person on the team who knew sign language mentioned that a deaf person should be consulted. That person became Troy Kotsur. He developed the language, and he also played the lead Tusken Raider.
  • Continuity Nod:
    • Mandalorian armor is made of beskar steel, a rare and valuable metal that is mined from their moon of Concordia.
    • Blurrgs first appeared in Ewoks: The Battle for Endor and later appeared in The Clone Wars, ridden by the Twi'lek resistance on Ryloth.
    • A blurrg abruptly pops up in the Mandalorian's scope before attacking him in a shot that's framed identically to Luke Skywalker being ambushed by Tusken Raiders in A New Hope.
    • Once again, a Mandalorian warrior finds himself on the receiving end of a beatdown from a rhino-like alien, though this time his gun is not enough to take it down.
    • Attack of the Clones gets another nod when Boba Fett, in response to being asked if he's Mandalorian, says that he is "just a simple man making his way through the galaxy" (paraphrasing Jango Fett's "I'm just a simple man trying to make his way through the universe"). He then adds, "Like my father before me".
    • In the season two finale, Luke Skywalker cuts his way through a bunch of Dark Troopers in a way that deliberately mirrors Darth Vader's hallway massacre in Rogue One. It's also reminiscent of Anakin's wading through the Trade Federation's battle droids on Mustafar in Revenge of the Sith.
    • While both the new and old expanded universe made heavy mention of vibroblade weapons, and they have technically appeared on screen before, this is the first time we've seen the vibrating effect in action.
    • Some of the Mandalorian's armor pieces in his first set come from various Imperial troopers. For example, there are the gauntlets and pauldron of the shore troopers in Rogue One.
    • A white, bucket-shaped object like the one carried by a fleeing Cloud City citizen in The Empire Strikes Back is shown here to be a secure lockbox and carrying-case called a "camtono".
    • A loth-cat makes its first live-action appearance in "The Sanctuary".
    • Except for the Cold Open, the fifth episode takes place entirely on Tatooine.
    • The docking bay in episode 5 is staffed by Pit Droids, and implied to be the same ones employed by Ody Mandrell (themselves inspired by The Three Stooges).
    • In episode 6, the prison warden is wearing the same egg-shaped helmet as the rebel soldiers on the Tantive IV.
    • Cara Dune's opponent in the prize fighting ring is an Iridonian Zabrak.
    • The Mandalorian warriors that rescued a child Din from the battle droids destroying his village are clearly identifiable as related to Death Watch, thanks to the mark of Clan Vizsla on their shoulder pauldrons.
    • The Mandalorian's first bounty in Chapter 1 mentions "Life Day", the fictional holiday around which the infamous holiday special is based.
    • The yellow and red Rodian disintegrated in "The Sin" has been confirmed to be Chussido, one of the Cloud Riders from Solo.
    • Cobb Vanth's speeder is built out of one of the engines of Anakin's pod racer or a similar model.
    • The Empire operates a Gozanti class cruiser,note  a ship type first seen in a background shot of The Phantom Menace and utilized heavily in the animated series.
    • The teacher droid's lesson is essentially a giant series of these in terms of the stellar layout of the galaxy, among other things it mentions the Akkadese Maelstrom around Kessel, and the roving capitals of the New Republic being in the Hosnian system.
    • When Boba Fett is being pursued by TIE fighters in Chapter 15, he uses one of the blue seismic charges that his father Jango used against Obi-Wan Kenobi in Attack of the Clones, complete with the same effect of all sound cutting out completely before the explosion.
    • One of the prisoners on Chapter 6 is an Ardennian like Rio from Solo.
    • The Slave I makes the same distinctive engine noise it made on Attack of the Clones, which was also modified into the DVD and later releases of The Empire Strikes Back.
    • While adventuring underground to search for Din, Bo-Katan relates to Grogu that the Mandalorians and the Jedi fought side by side once, referencing to her past alliances with Ahsoka Tano, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Kanan Jarrus, and Ezra Bridger.
  • Contract on the Hitman: After the title character rescues The Child from the Imperial Remnant he delivered him to earlier in the episode "The Sin", all the bounty hunters on Nevarro come after him on the way to his ship. The Bounty Hunter's Guild puts a bounty on Djarin's head, which at least one character will try to collect on per episode until the end of the season, when the head of the Guild, Greef Karga, basically pardons him when the Child saves his life.
  • Convection, Schmonvection: In Chapter 8, Din and his allies ride down a lava canal on Nevarro in a metal gondola. Despite the lava melting the pole the droid gondolier uses to push them off, and IG-11's legs, none of the humans in the boat so much as break a sweat.
  • Cool Starship:
    • The Razor Crest, a Razor Crest class starship, is pretty damn cool. Even when beat to hell, it outclasses the starships of other bounty hunters and even has an on-board carbon-freeze facility (clearly the process has been perfected since The Empire Strikes Back).
    • By the time of The Book of Boba Fett, Razor Crest is replaced with a shiny N1 Naboo starfighter, with some improvements made by Peli .
  • Covers Always Lie:
    • The Mondays after the individual premieres of Chapters 9-15 saw Lucasfilm unveil posters usually displaying their most prominent supporting characters (e.g., Cobb Vanth for "The Marshal", Frog Lady for "The Passenger", and the Nite Owls for "The Heiress"). However, "The Siege" received a poster of Moff Gideon, who didn't appear until the end, as opposed to Greef Karga or Cara Dune, who both received their own posters before Season 2 premiered. Later, "The Believer" received a poster of Fennec Shand, who didn't contribute much to the plot aside from shooting some Stormtroopers, instead of Migs Mayfeld, who appeared in fewer total episodes than Fennec had.
    • Season 3 saw Disney+ update the show's thumbnail to a picture of Din wielding the Darksaber in an adventurous pose. This failed to prepare viewers for a three-episode span in which he doesn't draw it at all, followed by an episode in which gives it to Bo-Katan without a fight.
  • Creative Closing Credits: The first part of each episode's credits is played against a backdrop of paintings depicting key moments from that episode.
  • Creator Cameo:
    • Co-director Taika Waititi voices IG-11.
    • Showrunner Jon Favreau voices the "Heavy Infantry Mandalorian" Paz Vizsla, presumably a relative of his Clone Wars character, Pre Vizsla.
    • The three X-Wing pilots at the end of "The Prisoner" are played by directors Dave Filoninote , Rick Famuyiwa, and Deborah Chow. Filoni's character makes another appearance in the season two episode "The Passenger". All three reappear in "The Pirate".
  • Cryptic Background Reference: The Great Purge. The Empire went after the Mandalorians, forcing them into hiding while looting their beskar. When this happened and how complete it was is currently unknown, though the overall timeline suggests that it was some time between A New Hope and Return of the Jedi. Season 2 shows there are other Mandalorians active, including Bo-Katan Kryze, and Boba Fett states that the Empire "glassed" Mandalore, though how many Mandalorians of which sub-sects survived and how thoroughly Mandalore is "glassed" remain unknown. Season 3 reveals that the planet is habitable, if not exactly in the best state.
  • Cult: The Mandalorians of the covert on Nevarro are something of a benign cult, in many ways more like a small tribe of refugees, mostly made up of survivors and foundlings brought into the fold during the Clone Wars. The first season portrays them heroically, flying to the rescue when the Empire lays siege to the town. Highly secretive, they consider themselves the Last of Their Kind and ascribe religious trappings to their weapons, armor, and the rare alloy known as beskar steel. They also never remove their armor in front of anyone, including each other, especially their helmets. The second season reveals that other surviving Mandalorians may consider sects like Djarin's to be religious extremists — Bo-Katan calls them the Children of the Watch (suggesting a possible connection with Death Watch), and she and her followers freely unmask in public and, at least in Bo-Katan's case, are far more pragmatic about abiding by the terms of their deals.
  • Culture Clash:
    • An internal one between Djarin and the other Mandalorians in Chapter 11. He is not happy to see them take off their helmets, accusing them of being Mandalorian pretenders, while they are surprised yet bemused to realise that he's from a fundamentalist offshoot of their culture. Owing to their subsequent untrustworthy behavior, he doesn't move much past an Enemy Mine arrangement.
    • Another internal one in Chapter 14, when he meets Boba Fett. The latter was not reared among Mandalorians, and evidently never swore any creeds to them, but is quite insistent on being entitled to his father's old armor which Djarin got from Cobb Vanth. Granted, Djarin accepts this unorthodox connection to the culture pretty easily. The fact that Boba's father, Jango Fett, was a Foundling like Din himself may have helped.
    • Numerous external examples; between Djarin and non-Mandalorians; between New Republic pilots and skeptical Outer Rim residents; between the Sand People, Jawas, and the settlers on Tatooine; and so on.
    • This forms the backbone of the latter half of Season 3. Bo-Katan first joins the Covert, and is given express permission by the Armorer to wear and remove her helmet as she wishes. Then she is able to regain command of her legion of Mandalorians (plus quite a few more) from Season 2, and brings them back to the Covert to unify them. To say the tension between the two groups is thick would be an understatement.
  • Culture Shock: When he finally encounters another clan of Mandalorians, Djarin is dismayed to learn that they view his covert as an extreme fundamentalist cult, and that many other Mandalorians don't do stuff like wearing full combat armor at all times in public. Later, he meets the much-more-polite Boba Fett, who was never directly reared in the Mandalorian culture after his father was killed fighting the Jedi.
  • Curb-Stomp Battle:
    • In Chapter 3, it's made perfectly clear that a ragtag group of bounty hunters who've probably never worked together as a group are absolutely no match for a team of Mandalorians who act as a unit, support each other, work the terrain to their advantage, and fight using infantry tactics.
    • In Chapter 8, the Armorer gives a No Holds Barred Beat Down to five Stormtroopers, using only her forge hammer and tongs.
    • In Chapter 13, Ahsoka Tano absolutely massacres the Calodan city guards. Djarin doesn't even have to do anything except dispatch the two guards ordered to go on an execution spree and stand by the gate to stop Lang from interfering, and when he tries to pull an I Surrender, Suckers Djarin guns him down instantly.
    • In Episode 14, Boba Fett gets his armor back and proceeds to single-handedly rout the stormtroopers who had pinned Fennec and Djarin.
    • Episode 16, the Season 2 finale. On one side: an entire platoon of Dark Troopers, the latest and most advanced model of battle droid. Not the joke enemies seen in previous outings: just one of them nearly killed Djarin earlier, and they're strong, resilient, and patient enough to punch their way through a steel door if it stands between them and their objective. On the other side? Luke freakin' Skywalker. Poor droids don't stand a chance.
    • Chapter 23, Paz Viszla vs three Praetorean Guards. Exhausted from holding the line for the rest of the Mandalorians, and without his main weapon due to overheating he does not last very long and is killed in short, brutal order.
  • Cute as a Bouncing Betty: The Armorer makes "whistling birds" using some of the excess beskar the Mandalorian brought in as reward for bringing in the Child. Coming from a conversation about signet animals and reserving some whistling birds for the foundlings, you'd expect something innocuous, but the Armorer soon makes clear they're a weapon: micro-missiles that automatically seek out and kill nearby enemies, which make a whistling sound as they fly.
  • Damned by Faint Praise: When Din Djarin refuses pay in Imperial Credits, the most Greef Karga can say in their defense is that "they still spend". He doesn't say where or for how much longer.
  • Dark and Troubled Past: Mayfeld was an Imperial soldier during Operation Cinder, serving under the command of the sociopathic Valin Hess. He watched in horror as the population of the planet he was stationed on was pointlessly slaughtered just because the Emperor said so, while the rest of his squad was butchered in the fighting with him as the Sole Survivor. After all that, it really isn't that surprising that he went AWOL and became a selfish, cynical criminal.
  • Darkest Hour: By the end of Chapter 14, Baby Grogu has been captured and then is shown using his Force powers to choke and bodyslam stormtroopers under Moff Gideon's approving eye on the Imperial Remnant cruiser, and Djarin's ship, the Razor Crest, has been obliterated by Orbital Bombardment.
  • A Day in the Limelight: The series takes numerous "background" species and characters of the Worldbuilding of the films (particularly the original trilogy) that saw little use in them and makes them center stage for one or several episodes, often using them for awesome action setpieces. It includes IG droids (IG-11), Tusken raiders, Krayt Dragons, Boba Fett himself, and more.
  • Decapitation Presentation: In a slightly less gruesome and more symbolic variation, one of the bars (the Mos Eisley Cantina) that Djarin walks past is decorated with a line of (presumably empty) Stormtrooper helmets impaled on spikes.
  • Deconstruction:
    • A minor one for the kind of Bounty Hunter that Boba Fett and his invokedcountless imitators pioneered. In Legends, bounty hunting was usually shown to be a glamorous, high-risk/high-reward job full of danger and excitement, with high-profile hunters chasing after even more high-profile targets for bounties that ran in the thousands of credits or more. When meeting with Greef Karga to collect on his bounty, the title character's reward is barely enough to pay for fuel, and the vast majority of targets Greef has to offer him are all petty criminals and bail jumpers. Even the best job Karga can offer him in Chapter 3 is a noble's son on the run... who is also a bail jumper. This isn't due to a lack of bounties, it's just that not everyone is willing to go through the official Bounty Hunter guilds.
    • Toro Calican just wants to be seen as a cool bounty hunter but his naïveté and inexperience make him completely unprepared to deal with a far more experienced and deadly target. Fennec Shand would have killed him several times if not for the Mandalorian. Toro also attempts to go after the Mandalorian's bounty and takes the Child hostage, so he could make a name for himself. All with disastrous consequences.
    • The latter part of Season 2 has some deconstruction of the fan opinion embodied in the Rooting for the Empire trope. Chapter 15 makes you root for the Empire a bit... and them reminds the viewership that they are malignant, tyrannical, terroristic, and murderous when an Imperial officer casually and callously talks about meatgrinding troops and committing terrorist acts to destabilize the New Republic. In Chapter 16, they even put in-universe the usually silly fan claim that the Rebels "murdered millions on the Death Stars" and dismissal of the billions that were obliterated on Alderaan by the first one, showing it for all its Moral Myopia, and how it's not funny at all in-universe to those in the Alderaanian Diaspora.
  • Dehumanization: Former imperials are given a new lease on life thanks to the Amnesty Program... where they're segregated from the rest of the population in their own housing (good housing, though) and are stripped of their names. They can only refer to themselves and others in the program by their assigned designation, a letter and a pair of numbers. The scientist working for Moff Gideon in the first season returns as L52 in the third. While they're all grateful that they have a decent opportunity to participate in the New Republic and don't have to flee to the edges of the galaxy (they actually live in decent conditions on Coruscant itself), the fact that they're heavily restricted and dehumanized in this way has predictable results.
  • Dodge by Braking: Djarin pulls this on a bounty hunter who attacks him in space in the Cold Open of "The Gunslinger". Bo-Katan does it, too, in a dog fight against imperials in the third season. It's a Mandalorian thing.
  • Does This Remind You of Anything?: A persecuted group driven into seclusion adopts strange religious practices, then maintains and requires those practices even after the extreme persecution has ended... are we talking about Mandalorians hiding from the Empire or are we talking about Jews and Muslims hiding from the Catholic monarchs of Spain?
  • A Dog Named "Dog": If the italics in the subtitles are any indication, Din's ship is a Razor Crest-class ship named Razor Crest.
  • Doomed Hometown:
    • Flashbacks in the first, third, and eighth episodes show that when the title character was a child, his village was destroyed by Separatist droids during the Clone Wars.
    • Retroactively revealed to be the case for Cara Dune, when it's revealed her homeworld was Alderaan.
    • This was supposed to be the case of Mandalore after the great Purge done by the Empire, with most Mandalorians believing their home planet is cursed. In season 3, Din discovers that its atmosphere is breathable again. Mandalore might be completely ravaged and all of its cities destroyed, but this discovery bring hope again for the Mandalorians to rebuild.
  • Doom Troops:
    • When the true Big Bad, Moff Gideon, finally shows up, he does so with an army lead by a squad of Death Troopers who turn the bar into Swiss cheese with no warning. He is not messing around.
    • In the second season, Gideon is revealed to have Dark Troopers at his disposal, black battle droids stylized after stormtroopers, painted black, and equipped with jet boots.
    • As of the third season, Gideon goes as far as to get several Pretorian Guards under his command. They manage to kill Paz Vizsla, one of the strongest Mandalorians, without breaking a sweat.
    • The stormtroopers should be an example of the trope, but they're stormtroopers and the show typically takes them about as seriously as the rest of the franchise does.
  • Door-Closes Ending: The season 2 ends with the elevator doors closing on Din watching the child being taken away by Luke.
  • Dragon Ascendant: Played for Laughs in the season two finale when we learn that Bib Fortuna has taken control of Jabba the Hutt's palace after Jabba's death in Return of the Jedi. His court is pathetically tiny compared to Jabba's and he's gained so much weight he can barely move on his own. Oh, and he only holds onto the throne for about a minute before Boba Fett arrives to kill him and take it for himself.
  • Dramatic Half-Hour: All episodes so far have been between 31 and 46 minutes including credits (most under 40 minutes), making it either a long half-hour or a short Dramatic Hour Long.
  • Dramatic Irony: Unlike the audience, Djarin doesn't recognize the Child's species and has little idea why the Imperials are so desperate to get their hands on him. In parts of the galaxy, including his, "the Force" is just a myth that not a lot of people have even heard about. The Empire spent a long time expunging knowledge of the Jedi as well; most of the younger generation don't know them at all (like how Luke didn't way back in A New Hope) and many who do thought they were weird martial artists or "sorcerers".
  • Dramatic Unmask: Zig-zagged: in Chapter 4, Omera slowly moves to unmask the Mandalorian while persuading him to stay on Sorgan, but he gently stops her hands and states that he doesn't belong in the peaceful village. Technically not an unmasking, but very dramatic! In later episodes, he does unmask and everyone involved recognizes what a sacrifice that is, as it's central to his religion.
  • Driving Question:
    • What are the Imperial Remnant's plans for the Child? Why is the "Way" of the Mandalorian's tribe different from what we've seen of other Mandalorians so far? What is the Great Purge and what happened to Bo-Katan's Resistance? And just who is the Mandalorian?
    • The final episode of Season 1 answers, or otherwise heavily implies the answers to the last two. The Mandalorian's name is Din Djarin. As for Bo-Katan's resistance, after Djarin causes his TIE to crash, Moff Gideon is revealed to have survived and escapes his now upside-down wreck of a ship by cutting out the side of the cockpit with the Darksaber, last seen in the hands of Bo-Katan as she rallied the clans against the Empire. We don't yet know how he got his hands on the Darksaber, but Season 2 reveals that Bo-Katan has spent the years since trying to find him and retrieve it.
    • Season 2 also reveals that the Mandalorian's tribe are actually an offshoot, known as the Children of the Watch, who are seen as a cult and largely dismissed out-of-hand by other Mandalorians for their beliefs.
    • Season 2 reveals that the Remnant was looking for candidates with a high midichlorian count and the Child was it. If you've seen The Rise of Skywalker, you'd know why. Case in point: Snoke's theme is heard during the scene.
  • Elite Mooks:
    • Mandalorian Commandos show up in the third season, providing a serious threat to the Mandalorian regulars.
    • Then, to top that, Praetorians show up and brutally kill Pax Vizsla with weapons that can pierce Mandalorian Steel.
  • Enemy Mine: Towards the end of season two, Djarin is forced to seek out the aid of Mayfeld, since a former imperial sharpshooter will be of great help rescuing Grogu from an Imperial Remnant. Initially the team-up is fraught with tension, but by the end of Chapter 15 the two have come to understand and respect each other, no longer considering themselves enemies.
  • Ennio Morricone Pastiche: The theme song.
  • Establishing Character Moment: The Cold Open serves as one for the title character on a typical bounty run. He demolishes some goons threatening his quarry in a brutal (but not sadistic) manner, gives his target a choice of coming in "warm or cold", and completely blows off the quarry's attempts at making small talk or bargaining for his freedom before casually freezing him in carbonite. A secondary moment comes at the end of the first episode when he shoots IG-11 to protect the Child, showing that despite his amoral ruthlessness, he's not all bad deep down.
  • Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep":
    • For much of the series, the titular character is only referred to as the Mandalorian, or more informally "Mando", and that's when he isn't simply getting the Hey, You! treatment. It's eventually revealed that his name is Din Djarin.
    • There are currently three other characters that are only known by their description — the Client, the Armorer, and the Child. As of Episode 13, the Child's name has been revealed to be Grogu.
    • Luke is only ever referred to as the Jedi, to the point that he's credited as such in the closing credits of the second season finale.
  • Everyone Has Standards:
    • Paz Vizsla nearly comes to blows with the title character for accepting payment in Imperial-stamped stolen beskar, viewing it as a disgrace to their culture and the memory of those who were murdered by the Empire. The Armorer resolves the argument by pointing out that at least the beskar is now back in Mandalorian hands, and that Djarin displayed plenty of courage in retrieving it.
    • When Djarin comes across the remains of the Mandalorian Covert's armour in Chapter 8, he angrily asks Greef if this is the work of him and his bounty hunters after their confrontation in Chapter 3. Karga is aghast, pointing out that the men who attacked him and the Child were mercs, who got the hell out of dodge not long after he escaped, since there's no money in picking a fight with a clan of Mandalorians.
      Greef Karga: They're mercenaries, not zealots!
    • Djarin is in a standoff against Boba Fett and Fennec Shand, two very dangerous people with scores to settle. When Imperial stormtroopers arrive, everyone immediately turns their attention to defeating them, and Boba Fett is dismayed to realize the Empire is back in force.
  • Evil vs. Evil: From the point of view in most people in the Mid and Outer Rims, the cold war between the New Republic and Imperial Remnant is this; they're all just Coreworlder colonizers pushing their way into Rimmer land and trying to control and exploit the Rims while repressing their native peoples. As observed by Mayfeld, to the average person in the galaxy far far away, the only real difference between the Republic and Empire is what kind of uniform the stormtroopers are wearing as they stomp on people. At best, one can say that the Republic is merely corrupt and incompetent rather than actively malicious like some of the Remnant factions are.
  • Exact Words:
    • Episode 9: Djarin uses this on Gor Koresh when the latter is captured while trying to escape. Koresh promises to tell him where another Mandalorian is if Djarin doesn't kill him, and Djarin promises, "You won't die by my hand." After getting the info from Koresh, Djarin then leaves him to be devoured by the local urban wildlife.
    • Episode 13: Ahsoka offers Djarin the beskar spear the Magistrate promised as payment. Djarin tells Ahsoka he did not complete the task the Magistrate gave him, which was to kill her, and thus has not earned the promised payment. Not only did Djarin not explicitly agree to the job in the first place, he made no effort to kill her at all. Ahsoka still hands him the spear, saying it belongs in the hands of a Mandalorian. Djarin and the Magistrate bears elaboration: he's allowed into the town in the first place because of his beskar armor and status as a licensed bounty hunter. The Magistrate immediately has him brought to her and offers him the beskar spear in exchange for killing the troublesome Jedi. Since Djarin is looking for the Jedi specifically as a potential teacher for the Child, he appears to take the job, but only asks "Where can I find this Jedi?" thus never exactly agreeing to kill the Jedi in exchange for payment. Djarin leaves the town with the Magistrate thinking her problem is solved (since she's just sicced a Mandalorian on a Jedi), Djarin leaves thinking he only has to find the Jedi, hand the Child over, and his problems are solved. The reality turns out to be a mite more complicated.
    • Chapter 14: Boba Fett offers a deal to Djarin to receive Fett's armor in exchange for Grogu's safety, but Moff Gideon's forces interrupt before the deal is explicitly agreed to. By the end of the episode Fett has his armor back (retrieved from the Razor Crest before its untimely demise), but since the Child has been kidnapped, he vows to help retrieve Grogu to hold up his end of the bargain.
  • The Faceless: The Mandalorian and his tribe never remove their helmets in public, as part of their code.
  • Fake Shemp: Scheduling conflicts with Pedro Pascal's other projects, and his physical incapability to wear Mandalorian armor for a complete day of shooting, resulted in a nondescript amount of the Mandalorian's scenes — including every one from Chapter 4: "Sanctuary" — actually consisting of one of the credited doubles — mostly Brendan Wayne or Lateef Crowder — with Pascal's voice performance dubbed in.
  • Fantasy Counterpart Culture:
    • The Mandalorians retain many of the Celtic and Pacific Islander influences that Legends used to develop their culture (Proud Warrior Race mentality, known for being very religious, history of being oppressed by colonial powers and of internal sectarian conflict, etc.) but have also had some extra touches mixed in from Jewish and Japanese cultures:
      • The Mandalorian tribe bears some resemblance to pre-20th century European Jews. Left stateless by the Empire's purge of their homeworld (c.f. the Roman sack of Judea), they exist in an insular society alongside the rest of the planet's inhabitants, valued for their skills (fighting in this case) but much mistrusted and periodically massacred. They are divided into different sects with different levels of devoutness. They have disagreements on whether membership in their group is based on creed or blood. Their religious beliefs are simply called "The Way", a direct translation of halakha (Jewish law). A Mandalorian tablet found by Din in Season 3 is a Mando'a translation of a passage from Exodus. They have rituals centered on "living waters" from a specific source. They have an enemy who wishes to exterminate them while also appropriating bits of their culture and declaring himself the rightful successor to their people. Jon Favreau has Russian-Jewish ancestry on his mother's side (resulting in him becoming Jewish as well).
      • The different sects of Mandalorians roughly correspond to different sects of Jews. Din's faction has distinctive headgear that they wear at all times, similar to Orthodox Jews. Bo-Katan's faction has similar headgear but only wears it for certain events, similar to Reform Jews. Boba Fett has Mandalorian ancestry and retains some cultural trappings but otherwise doesn't identify with the community or participate in the religion, similar to Secular Jews.
      • The series in general draws heavily on Samurai tropes, emphasizing the Mandalorians having a strong warrior code of honor and treating their armor as being similar in importance to a samurai's swords, with their forging a sacred rite. Given some of the other qualities ascribed to them and the way Mandalorian religion and history was typically portrayed in Legends, as noted above, one could potentially describe them as the Ainu or Ryukyuans to the Jedi's Yamato Japanese.
    • The Tusken Raiders are again used similarly to Native Americans in Westerns, though the Mandalorian treats them with more respect, pointing out that they were there first and bartering passage through their land using a Signed Language.
  • Fantasy Metals: Beskar steel. Originally mined on Concordia, the moon of Mandalore, it is both incredibly valuable as bullion and can be forged into extremely durable armor capable of withstanding direct blaster strikes and lightsaber blades. During the Imperial "purge" of the Mandalorians, much of the remaining beskar was seized by the Empire and is seen by the surviving Mandalorians as the equivalent of Nazi Gold. Djarin's reward from the Client for retrieving the Child is a lockbox full of beskar ingots, which the Armorer forges into new armor for him. It repeatedly saves his life while remaining unblemished.
  • Fantastic Racism:
    • The Mandalorian doesn't like to work with droids, and isn't keen on bargaining with the Jawas either. The droid thing is at least understandable given his background, and he somewhat get over it once he's interacted with a given friendly droid more than once. He's still not overly fond of most droids by season 3, especially old separatist battle droids.
    • When the Mandalorian is on Tatooine, he's shown to treat the Tuskens with respect in contrast to how the locals (who view them as murderous raiders) do. In contrast the Tuskens despise the settlers for being intruders on their planet who are stealing valuable water.
    • "Mando" seems to double as a term of respect and a term of disgust depending on who's saying it and how. Given the amount of times the Mandalorians switched sides during the Clone Wars and the years following it topped off with jealously of their skills and their less than stellar social skills, is anyone really surprised?
    • Bo-Katan and her crew are downright hateful towards Boba Fett for being both a clone and the son of the outcast Jango Fett.
  • Fictional Currency: Comes up prominently at the beginning of the first episode. Due to the collapse of the Empire, reduced to a handful of warlords out on the galactic fringe, Imperial Credits aren't considered a very reliable currency anymore. It doesn't seem the fledgling New Republic has been able to fully step up to fill the void, at least not in the Outer Rim. Karga gives the Mandalorian a choice between full pay in Imperial Credits or half pay in a local currency called "Calamari Flan": he grudgingly accepts half pay rather than accept Imperial Credits.
  • First-Episode Twist: The Mandalorian's bounty is a baby from the same species as Yoda.
  • Five-Man Band: Even though we never see all five together at once, the characters fit the roles of the traditional Five-Man Band.
    • In Season One:
      • The Leader: Din Djarin.
      • The Lancer: Cara, who follows his lead.
      • The Smart Guy: Kuiil is a gifted tech, with the experience of three human lifetimes.
      • The Big Guy: Bounty droid IG-11.
      • The Heart: The Armourer defuses conflicts, offers sound advice, and is moral center of the Mandalorian covert, and therefore of Djarin's group as well.
    • Come Season Two, the lineup has shifted a bit, though again not all of these characters are present at the same place at the same time:
    • The Season Two Finale features a proper Five-Man Band, though most of them are actually women:
      • The Leader: Din Djarin, as always. It is his show, after all.
      • The Lancer: Bo-Katan, who strategizes their main assault and leads the distraction force.
      • The Smart Guy: Koska, though she doesn't have much to do in that department in a smash-and-grab raid, still knows her way around Imperial warship systems.
      • The Big Guy: Cara Dune, as the largest of the crew wielding the biggest gun and being the most willing to go hand-to-hand.
      • The Heart: Fennec, though significantly more badass than usual for the role.
  • Flight Is the Final Power: Djarin is a trained warrior with multiple weapons, but is inexperienced with something referred to as "the rising phoenix." Towards the end of Season One, the Armorer presents him with the rising phoenix: a Mandalorian jetpack, which he uses to engage Moff Gideon's TIE-fighter.
  • Foreshadowing:
    • The Mandalorian's client specified his target in the first episode should preferably be taken alive, while IG-11's contract specified "dead", indicating that they were hired by different parties.
    • During Chapter 13, Morgan Elsbeth's people are said to have been wiped out during the Clone Wars. Ahsoka will later reveal Elsbeth's people were the Nightsisters, and Ahsoka was referring to the Dathomir massacre carried out by General Grievous.
    • During his meeting with the Shadow Council, Moff Gideon expresses skepticism that Grand Admiral Thrawn is still out there, claiming, "Secrets are my stock-in-trade. I hear whispers from one end of the galaxy to another, and never a word of Thrawn." This turns out to be setting up a major plot point in Ahsoka: namely, that Thrawn is actually in a different galaxy.
  • Forging Scene:
    • The Armorer forges a new pauldron for the title character on being presented with an ingot of beskar steel. It happens again in Chapter 3 where she forges a chestpiece for him.
    • In Season 3 she forges a tiny chest plate for Grogu, while explaining him that is a tradition for the Mandalorians to keep a piece of beskar for their foundlings.
  • Freeze-Frame Bonus: Some fan reactors saw an R2 unit in the X-Wing coming to the heroes' rescue.
  • Gatling Good:
    • The thugs the Mandalorian faces in the first episode use an E-WEB heavy cannon mounted on a hover platform. The Mandalorian manages to turn it on them.
    • During the ultimate battle of episode 3, the formerly-antagonistic Mandalorian in heavy armor fights alongside the Tribe to save the protagonist; using a rotary blaster cannon to eliminate swaths of mercenaries.
    • The E-WEB comes back in episode 8, with Gideon using it to threaten the good guys. Before they can fire it, Djarin gets his hands on it and uses it against the Stormtroopers — just like he did with the Nikto in episode 1 — but ultimately it comes back to bite him when Gideon shoots the gun's massive power cell, causing an explosion that nearly takes Djarin out for good.
    • Gideon's troops really love the E-WEB, which also turns up briefly in Chapter 14. One giant, heavy boulder quickly makes short work of it.
  • Gambit Pile Up: Things are starting to head this way in season two; The Imperial Remnant is trying to track down the Child for their experiments, Bo-Katan and her Nite Owls are trying to retrieve the Darksaber from Moff Gideon, Grand Admiral Thrawn is apparently back in action, Ahsoka Tano is hunting Thrawn, Boba Fett and Fennec Shand are searching for Boba's armor, the New Republic are trying to secure their power base in the Outer Rim, the inhabitants of the Rim are resisting their attempts to settle the region, and Djarin's quest to find someone who can train the Child has placed him smack dab in the middle of the whole mess.
  • Gangland Driveby: Two troopers, just minding their own business in town, looking through a Jawa's junk for sale, barely get a chance to react before a speederbike piloted by IG-11 rips past, blasters blazing. They fall to the ground dead, leaving the Jawa looking back and forth at the two bodies in confusion.
  • Genre Roulette:
    • "Chapter 4: Sanctuary":
      • While the show is mostly a space western, the attack on the backwater village feels like something out of The Lord of the Rings. The raid, carried out by a gang seemingly composed entirely of Klatoonians, looks more like an orc attack than anything you would see in sci-fi. The blaster shots and walker being destroyed contrasts with the screaming raiders and the leader carrying a blaster based on a sawn-off Winchester 1887.
      • It's also the classic The Magnificent Seven Samurai plot in which desperate villagers hire an experienced warrior to save their town from recurring bandit raids, and the warrior does so by training the people themselves to fight.
      • Djarin's pursuit by the AT-ST in the woods, meanwhile, is framed very much like a chase from a dragon or some kind of horror movie monster.
    • "Chapter 6: The Prisoner" takes place entirely in space and mostly on a pristine-looking ship, in contrast to the usual gritty towns. It's much more heavily sci-fi classic with a dash of horror thrown in.
    • "Chapter 10: The Passenger" also leans more sci-fi and less western, mostly since they land on an ice planet and are attacked by vicious monsters.
    • "Chapter 13: The Jedi" shifts toward a Feudal Japanese Samurai/Ninja flick feel, with the town looking like a small Japanese town and the Magistrate's home having a version of a koi pond with what looks like oversized Bonsai trees. This makes the scenery more fitting for Ahsoka, who as a quick Jedi favoring ambush takes notes straight from Kurosawa movies. And when Ahsoka faces down with the Magistrate, Elsbeth fights with a traditional Spearmaiden style historically used by female Samurai. Just in the case the subtlety is lost by episode's end, the celebration after the Magistrate is taken care of is a cover of the series' main theme played with traditional Japanese instruments.
    • "Chapter 22: Guns for Hire" switches towards a CSI investigative drama/buddy cop feel as Din and Bo-Katan try to solve the mystery of malfunctioning and hostile droids. The episode hits on quite a few similar beats; gathering information from dismissive or hostile locals, a Good Cop/Bad Cop interrogation, finding one member of the antagonistic force early on and needing to take care of them, and an extended period in a "morgue" investigating the body of one of the victims, leading to a last-minute breakthrough in the case that takes them to the true culprit.
  • Giant Spider: Djarin, the Child, and their passenger crash-land in an ice cave in Season 2, then discover a nest of giant spiders in said cave. They range in size from tiny to 30+ feet tall. Luckily for arachnophobic fans, they look more like squid with spidery legs (still scary) than most versions of the trope.
  • Gory Discretion Shot:
    • At the beginning of the first episode, the camera angle changes just before an unfortunate Quarren mook is bisected by a closing door. All we see is the lower half of his body fall to the floor.
    • Subverted at the end of the first episode. The blaster fire reflected on the Mandalorian's helmet seems like one of these for IG-11 killing the Child. In actuality, it's the Mandalorian shooting IG-11.
  • Greater-Scope Villain: Moff Gideon and most of the other Imperial Remnant factions encountered answer to Grand Admiral Thrawn, but Thrawn is busy preparing his big comeback to the galaxy meaning the threat he poses is more distant.
  • Grin of Rage: Miggs Mayfeld does this right before he shoots his former commanding officer in the chest for hand-waving the order that killed Mayfeld's entire unit.
    Hess: To the Empire.
    [Mayfeld grins like he's thinking "this fuckin' guy" and pulls out his blaster]
  • Guns Akimbo:
    • Justified with IG-11, who is built so it can both shoot and aim in two different directions at the same time.
    • Mayfeld triple-wields with a third blaster on a mechanical arm on his back.
    • In the season 2 episode "The Heiress", Bo-Katan dual-wields a pair of blaster pistols when saving Djarin from the Quarrens and when assaulting the Imperial cruiser. She later repeats this in "The Rescue".
  • Half-Arc Season: The series follows this format. Roughly half of the episodes are episodic, character-driven adventures, while the other half advances the ongoing Myth Arc with the Child being hunted by the Imperial Remnant led by Moff Gideon.
  • Half the Man He Used to Be: A Quarren mook at the opening scene has this happen, courtesy of the cantina's irising mechanical door the titular character shoots the controls of.
  • Handy Cuffs: While he's otherwise a highly-skilled bounty hunter, Mando doesn't seem to realize that it's much more effective to cuff people's hands behind them.
  • Hard-Work Montage: When he finally gets his ship parts back from the Jawas, the Mandalorian gripes that he still needs a full maintenance facility to repair the damage. Or they can just knuckle down and have a montage of Building Is Welding.
  • Head-in-the-Sand Management: The New Republic's military is fully aware that something bad is brewing between the various Imperial Remnant factions in the Outer Rim, but the Republic leadership is more concerned with building up their infrastructure and maintaining power in the Core, feeling they just don't have the resources or time for the Mid and Outer Rim. Thrawn is taking full advantage of this to prepare his forces right under the Republic's nose.
  • "Hell, Yes!" Moment: Team Mando is trapped on the bridge of Moff Gideon's cruiser, Dark Troopers pounding on the blast doors. A single X-Wing flies past the windows and lands, and we see a black cloaked figure get out. Then Luke Skywalker activates his lightsaber and starts tearing through the Dark Troopers like they were made of tissue paper.
  • Heroic Sacrifice: Paz Vizsla realizes that the Mandalore away team will never make it to safety unless Gideon's away team is held off, so he blocks their escape route and holds the line while they flee. He proceeds to take down a whole squad of stormtroopers singlehanded before being finished off by Praetorians.
  • Heroic Suicide: IG-11 chooses to self-destruct and take out a whole squad of Stormtroopers so that Djarin and his friends can escape.
  • Hey, That's My Line!: Chapter 5 begins with a bounty hunter telling the Mandalorian "I can bring you in warm, or I can bring you in cold," which the Mandalorian used to threaten his own bounty in Episode 1. The Mandalorian turns the tables on him and then uses this phrase as a Bond One-Liner before blowing the guy away.
  • He's Back!: Boba Fett has spent several years as a drifter on Tatooine. As of Chapter 14, he's got his ship and his armor back and he's as badass as ever, routing several squads of stormtroopers and destroying two transports with one missile.
  • Hidden Agenda Villain: Moff Gideon for the first two and a half seasons. Beyond wanting Grogu, we know next-to-nothing about any of his goals or motives until Chapter 23.
  • Hidden Depths:
    • The Mandalorian. In the first episode alone, he acknowledges the request of Kuiil, the Ugnaught rancher, to learn how to ride a blurrg, possibly because Kuiil makes a reference to his ancestors' legendary history of riding mythosaurs. He also doesn't want to kill the baby alien at the end of the episode.
    • Chapter 5 reveals that he is at least reasonably fluent in Tusken Sign Language, when he successfully negotiates with a pair of Sand People for passage through their territory.
  • Hollywood Tactics:
    • Subverted; IG-11 tries to apply this doctrine when assaulting the mercenary compound in episode 1. He's able to blow away all the mooks out in the open in the courtyard easily, but is promptly locked out of the base, flanked by rooftop snipers, and pinned down by a turret as a consequence. The Mandalorian is clearly pissed at the droid's recklessness throughout the scene.
    • Although the show does a sterling job at lampshading and averting this trope, we still have a moment in episode 3 where the Mandalorian enclave fly to the protagonist's rescue on jetpacks. Although the ability to fly can seriously boost your mobility, there is zero cover or concealment in the air. Actively engaging in a firefight from on high gives every enemy on the battlefield a clear line of sight to gun you down. Ultimately downplayed, wearing armor practically immune to the small arms wielded by the bounty hunters makes it a much more viable tactic than it first appears.
    • Also subverted in Episode 4, where the Mandalorian and Cara Dune tell the villagers to stick behind their barricades and make use of a trap to lure in the AT-ST, rather than having it be a full-on brawl. The Klatooinian raiders however, play it straight, charging right at the barricades and being gunned down by the villagers without any effort to seek cover. However, they were expecting to receive cover fire from the AT-ST, and had the advantage until it was taken down.
  • Homage: Continuing the tradition of Star Wars taking inspiration from classic samurai cinema, The Mandalorian — particularly the dynamic between Djarin and the Child — draws heavily from Lone Wolf and Cub.
  • Homage Shot:
    • The Mandalorian and the Child's first meeting has them reaching to each other until their fingertips nearly touch, emulating E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial's iconic image, though in a long-shot instead of a close-up.
    • The Jawas ramming their Sandcrawler against a rock to try to squeeze the Mandalorian is straight from the tank chase in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, although mirrored.
    • Paz Vizsla using his jetpack to fly alongside the Mandalorian's ship and saluting him is framed to reference the shot of Cliff Secord flying alongside a passenger plane and saluting the passengers in The Rocketeer. Although Paz doesn't accidentally shut off his jetpack.
    • The flashback of child Djarin (in a red garment) being found and rescued by a Mandalorian, references the symbolic Schindler's List image of an adult hand grasping a child's red-sleeved hand, although the child implied in the Schindler image wasn't saved in the film.
    • The flying Raptor becoming ensnared and pulled under in the jaws of the giant gator is like the scene of the Pteranodon caught by the Mosasaur in Jurassic World, only without a human victim included.
  • How the Mighty Have Fallen: By the time of the show, the Galactic Empire, who once ruled most of the galaxy with an iron fist, have been completely removed from power and much of the show is spent demonstrating this. Several of their former rank-and-file soldiers and officers have been imprisoned and/or executed for their crimes by the New Republic, others are reduced to lording over a planet or two and thus becoming high-priority targets for New Republic forces, Imperial Stormtrooper helmets are impaled on wooden pikes or the subject of anti-Empire graffiti and even those who are still free are still reduced to operating with limited equipment and working with whatever they have to hand. A major part of Gideon's Imperial Remnant's plans is to get back into power at any cost.
  • Human Popsicle: The Mandalorian makes delivery of several figures frozen in carbonite for hibernation, in the same manner as Han Solo when Boba Fett delivered him to Jabba.
  • Hypocrite:
    • Bo-Katan mocks Djarin for supposedly being a part of an extremist Mandalorian splinter faction, despite the fact she helped found the splinter faction that possibly gave rise to Djarin's, and Djarin's group is transparently dedicated to honoring their roots compared to Death Watch's terrorism.
    • In a rather stunning example of just how indoctrinated Imperials are, an imperial pilot accuses the rebellion of killing millions on the Death Stars, and almost in the same breath claims that destroying Alderaan (to make a point mind you) was a move to "rid the galaxy of terrorism." This lends little credence to the pilot's earlier claim to not have a death wish, considering he knows full well who he's talking to. No one in-universe or out is at all surprised when Cara Dune practices her pistol marksmanship on his face.
  • Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: Almost every episode is named "The [single-word noun]".
  • I Like Those Odds:
    • When the Mandalorian is meeting with the Client, he almost gets into a fight with the Client's Stormtrooper escort. One trooper says that they have the Mandalorian outnumbered four to one. He responds with this trope, verbatim.
    • In Chapter 21, the Mandalorian is facing off against a pirate light cruiser and its compliment of fighters. Greef Karga tells Mando that they have him outnumbered ten-to-one, and Mando responds with this trope, verbatim, again.
  • Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy:
    • Referenced when the Mandalorian is introduced to a former Imperial sharpshooter. He immediately comments that this isn't an impressive claim at all before said sharpshooter angrily retorts that "I wasn't a stormtrooper, wiseass."
    • Demonstrated when the Scout Troopers who have just captured the Child try to pass the time by shooting at a piece of debris a few feet away from them... and both missing horribly. Shortly after this they are killed by IG-11, whom they also completely fail to hit with their blasters despite the tall droid standing a couple feet away from them.
    • Almost unbelievably subverted by these very same troopers moments before, when they manage to kill Kuiil and his blurrg while moving at high speed, skid to a halt, scoop the Child off the ground and roar back off towards town, all in a matter of seconds.
      • Which is attributed to the weapons on the speeders, which have a track record of being accurate. The scout troopers are trying to fire on the debris using hand-held blasters, which they then shake and listen to as if the weapons were broken. Careful listening will show that there are the sounds of parts moving loosely in the weapons, which is never a good thing in a professional piece of equipment. Perhaps the tools were to blame the whole time?
      • Zigzagged overall. Most heroic characters don't get hit due to Plot Armor. Djarin gets hit quite often... after he gets his beskar armor, which is mostly immune to blaster fire anyway.
    • Averted with the guards in "The Jedi". These soldiers appear to behave professionally and have good trigger discipline. They'd probably be extremely effective were it not for the nature of their opponents.
    • Also averted with the Dark Troopers; it looks like a good 80% to 90% of their shots are dead-on headshots. It's just that this is ineffective against a Mandalorian with a beskar helmet, or a Jedi who can dodge or deflect blaster fire.
  • Inconsistent Episode Lengths: The episodes last as long as it takes to tell the story, ranging from 25 to 47 minutes. The short episodes in the middle are mostly adventure-of-the-week, while the plot-heavy episodes are longer.
  • Innocent Bystander Series: The series takes place outside the Myth Arc of the Skywalker Saga, focusing on a Bounty Hunter who minds his own business in the post-Galactic Civil War underworld.
  • Internal Reveal: Though the audience already knew Moff Gideon survived crashing his TIE in the season 1 finale, Djarin and the other characters don't learn that he's still around until four episodes into season 2.
  • Ironic Echo: In Chapter 15, Djarin gets to turn Gideon's "You have something I want" lines against him in regards to the Child and getting him back.
  • Irony: Djarin kills IG-11 in the first episode when he threatens to kill the Child. Later a reprogrammed IG-11 performs a Heroic Sacrifice in the eighth episode in order to save the Child.
  • I Surrender, Suckers:
    • In Chapter 13, Lang tries to win his Mexican Standoff with Djarin by pretending to surrender, only to pull his sidearm. Unfortunately for him, Djarin is quicker on the draw.
    • In Chapter 16, Moff Gideon, now alone after the heroes have killed his henchmen and taken control of his ship, holds Grogu hostage with the Darksaber. He pretends to have gotten everything he needs and claims he will let Djarin take Grogu and leave peacefully... then tries to cut him down from behind when Djarin turns away from him. Thankfully, Gideon seems unaware that lightsabers can't cut through beskar, and his blade just bounces off Djarin's armor.
  • It Began with a Twist of Fate: The first episode gives us a glimpse of the Mandalorian's life as a bounty hunter, living paycheck to paycheck until he takes up an especially curious job that ends up turning everything inside out.
  • "It" Is Dehumanizing: In "The Reckoning" Moff Gideon, who views Grogu only as a subject to experiment on, delivers a speech where he refers to the infant as "it". In "The Believer" Din Djarin repeats the speech back to him word-for-word, but pointedly changes every "it" to "he" to emphasise that Grogu is a living being in his own right.
  • I Want You to Meet an Old Friend of Mine:
    • Pedro Pascal and Emily Swallow previously met first through the New York theater district, and again on the set of The Mentalist.
    • Ming-Na Wen, Titus Welliver, Simon Kassianides, Katy M. O'Brien, Thomas E. Sullivan, and Brendan Wayne all previously portrayed recurring characters in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.. Chapters in which the Mandalorian interacts with either Fennec Shand or Axe Woves reunited Wayne with either Wen or Kassianides. Both shows have Molly Pinto as their casting director.
  • Jabba Table Manners: This trope could easily be renamed "Jawa Table Manners." When presented with a rare mudhorn egg they consider a delicacy, they just chop it open and eat it raw in a gaggle, covering their fingers in the sticky yolk.
  • Jerk with a Heart of Gold: The Mandalorian himself, seeing that, despite how callous and ruthless he can get, he refuses to let IG-11 kill the baby at the end of the first episode, despite the fact that his own commission would still allow him to collect a smaller fee upon presenting proof of death. He later ends up turning his back on the Bounty Hunter's Guild in order to save the child from its Imperial captors, despite being fully-aware that this would draw a massive target on his back.
  • Killer Rabbit: Jawas are surprisingly tough customers. The Mandalorian tries to fight them, but their Sandcrawler is surprisingly hard to penetrate and when he finally does, they overwhelm him with numbers and weapons that ignore armor, so he is forced to negotiate instead.
  • Klingon Promotion: In the Season 2 finale, Boba Fett assumes control of Jabba the Hutt's remaining assets by shooting Bib Fortuna as he sits on the former master's throne.
  • Knight of Cerebus: Moff Gideon. When he shows up Kuiil and the Client are killed and the Child is captured. His men also apparently wiped out the Mandalorian Enclave in the sewers, which causes Djarin to suffer a breakdown when he sees the aftermath of the massacre. He is also the first villain in the show to seriously injure Djarin, to the point he actually thought he was going to die.
  • Laser-Guided Karma:
    • Two Scout Troopers get a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown by the Child's "nurse droid" minutes after punching the Child in order to try to get him to stop making noise.
    • As of Chapter 24, Gideon himself meets his demise this way. He ordered the bombardment of Mandalore during the Empire's heyday; so he gets a taste of his own medicine when Axe Woves directs a falling cruiser straight into his base of operations.
  • Late-Arrival Spoiler: Hopefully The Book of Boba Fett was not the start of your live-action Star Wars TV experience because it contains some massive spoilers for this show. At the same time, The Book of Boba Fett Season 1 is required watching before Season 3 of The Mandalorian.
  • Lawful Pushover: In Chapter 12, Carson Teva reveals to Cara Dune that the New Republic is very aware that something bad is brewing in the Outer Rim, but they're having enough trouble as it is securing the Core Worlds and Mid-Rim that they can't really crackdown on warlords like Moff Gideon without local support. And given that nobody in the Outer Rim really takes the New Republic seriously, it's leading into a Self-Fulfilling Prophecy where the Republic can't help or stop criminals because they aren't able to build up or enforce the infrastructure the area needs.
  • LEGO Genetics: Averted. The reason Moff Gideon wants the Child is because he's trying to see if he can imbue normal people with Force powers through blood and organ transplants from a Force-wielder. His efforts so far, however, have all failed thanks to the bodies of his test subjects rejecting what little of the Child's blood Dr. Pershing was able to harvest before Djarin saved him.
  • Loophole Abuse:
    • Din Djarin would rather die than let any living being see his face and break his vow to the clan, but in the last episode of Season 1 he's obviously dying of a terrible head wound that needs to be healed. So what's the solution? IG-11, a droid, points out he's not a "living thing" and proceeds to remove Djarin's helmet and apply Bacta spray to save his life. Either Djarin is too weak to stop it, or he considers that a good enough loophole to keep going.
    • He does it again in Season 3. When Axe Woves points out that Bo-katan cannot just expect to rule the Mandalorians again without the Darksaber and that he won't accept Din either, Din decides to give Bo-katan the sword back without the need to fight her, by exploiting the technicalities of how he lost the Darksaber. He explains that he lost the sword while fighting a cyborg creature on Mandalore, and that Bo-Katan killed the creature with the Darksaber and rescued him. After several confused looks, Axe and his comrades accept the explanation.
  • MacGuffin: The Darksaber, once again. By itself, it is a lightsaber, with all the attributes as a weapon that this entails, just with a peculiar blade color and shape. But its history and cultural connotations make it a sought-after symbol of ruling power in Mandalorian civilization. Moff Gideon details as such when he explains to Din just what kind of Xanatos Gambit he pulled with making Din defeat him and claim the Darksaber instead of Bo-katan.
  • Made of Indestructium: Djarin's beskar armor can take a lot of punishment and doesn't even get dented, from blaster fire of all sorts to lightsaber blades and punches from Dark Troopers.
  • The Magnificent Seven Samurai: Episode four "Sanctuary" is this trope, including bandits raiding a peaceful village, a Training the Peaceful Villagers montage (complete with spear drills), a temptation to give up the life of the wandering warrior and settle down with a local beauty, and the warriors deciding they don't belong and moving on at the end. The creators are even caught offhandedly referring to it as "the Seven Samurai episode" in Disney Gallery.
  • Merchandise-Driven: Seemingly defied. Status Quo Is God is averted faster than toymakers can act:
    • Likely the most obvious example is The Child. The Child was revealed in the series premiere November of 2019 but because of maintaining the reveal of the character, no toys were released until May of the next year.
    • The Mandalorian's original armor only exists for a few episodes and his second set of armor is upgraded before it can ever receive a toy. Not that most fans could even find the original figure as it was off shelves before the series aired.
    • Before the $300+ Razor Crest toy was released, the ship goes through many struggles and is modified and destroyed, along with Djarin's signature Disruptor Rifle, which had a $100+ NERF gun in the works.
  • Mexican Standoff: Chapter 13 climaxes with one between Djarin and Lang, the Magistrate's right-hand man. Lang tries to pretend to surrender to get a shot in, but Djarin is quicker on the draw and guns him down.
  • Mid-Season Twist: The third episode has the Mandalorian winding up with a bounty on his head, and at odds with the rest of his guild.
  • Moral Myopia: With a hefty dose of Self-Serving Memory. Every major character from the Imperial Remnant up to and including Moff Gideon himself can't shut up about how the galaxy is worse off without the Empire and the Rebel Alliance were dangerous terrorists and the New Republic are a bunch of posers. Because evidently, in their eyes fighting back against an oppressive dictatorship makes you a scummy terrorist while bringing order to the galaxy justifies literally anything. One pilot's rant to Cara Dune about how the galaxy cheered for the destruction of the Death Stars, the planet-kabooming superweapon that destroyed her homeworld and its successor, pretty much boils down to, "But what about our losses?!"
  • Mood Whiplash: Bo-Katan goes through one of these across Chapters 18 and 19. In the former, she's cocky and dismissive of the living waters and the ritual that Din is about to go through. The episode ends with her going after Din after he falls into the water and her seeing the mythosaur up close and personal, causing her to enter a Thousand-Yard Stare across episodes and being more serious about Din's ritual as they return to her ship. She even recites their catchphrase regularly after being in the water.
  • Mook Horror Show:
    • In "The Prisoner", after Malk's crew betrays him, the Mandalorian takes out two of them this way. While Burg, the Devaronian gives him a decent fight due to being The Brute and uniquely suited to countering Djarin's arsenal, Xi'an and Mayfeld are taken out by Djarin shrugging off their weapons until he gets close enough to subdue them and approaching the latter in a hallway with flickering lights like something out of a horror movie, only to turn around at the last second and scream in terror when they find that find Djarin has flanked them so they couldn't fight back.
    • Ahsoka Tano battling Morgan Elsbeth's henchmen is a downright terrifying Perspective Flip that shows what it's like being a normal Mook going up against a Jedi; Ahsoka is portrayed like a vengeful, unstoppable wraith that sweeps through the area, ruthlessly cutting down anybody who dares stand in her path.
    • After finally getting his armor back, Boba Fett decides to show some hapless stormtroopers why he's considered one of the greatest bounty hunters to ever live, slaughtering almost the entire platoon single-handed and then going the extra mile of blowing the survivors out of the sky when they try to retreat.
    • In Chapter 16, Luke Skywalker practically wades through the previously indestructible Dark Troopers in the hallway of Gideon's ship without even breaking stride, like his father before him.
  • Myth Arc:
    • While the series is episodic in nature, the ongoing storyline that permeates the series is getting the Child back to his species, or to someone who can properly take care of him, where he can be safe from the various factions that wish to use him for their own nefarious plans.
    • Starting with Season 3, rebuilding Mandalore.
  • Mythology Gag:
    • The rifle used by the Mandalorian is almost identical to the stun rod used by Boba Fett in The Star Wars Holiday Special. The special is directly acknowledged when the Mythrol tells the Mandalorian that he's heading home for Life Day (which is apparently not just a Wookiee holiday).
    • Additionally, the fact the rifle is capable of vaporizing its targets is a nod to Vader's orders of "no disintegrations" when hiring the bounty hunters in The Empire Strikes Back.
    • The Mandalorian's assault on the Jawa Sandcrawler references the frustrating platforming of the Sandcrawler level of Super Star Wars. The Jawas also attempt to crush Djarin between the Sandcrawler and the rock wall, just like Vogel to Indiana Jones in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.
    • Djarin's backstory as being orphaned when a war reaches his hometown is largely a reference to Jango's backstory in the Jango Fett: Open Seasons comic. A young Din is also carried away by his Death Watch savior in the same way young Jango was carried away by Jaster.
    • Also perhaps as a reference to the same comic, The Mandalorian introduces a tradition in old Mandalorian culture where one cannot remove their helmet in the presence of others lest they be excommunicated. In Open Seasons, Jaster is always seen wearing his helmet even when others has theirs off, until his dying moments, when Jango takes it off.
    • When the Mandalorian visits the Bad Guy Bar in Mos Eisley, the bartender is a droid. Either the casino's under new management or Wuher relaxed his policy on droids.
      • The droid itself is a refugee from Jabba's Palace. It is the same one that ordered R2-D2's "reconditioning" in Return of the Jedi. This suggests the change of ownership wasn't peaceful.
    • After a mercenary is mentioned to be the best ex-Imperial sharpshooter, Djarin makes a crack about that not being hard, to which Mayfeld defensively responds he was not a stormtrooper.
      • Later, a pair of Scout Troopers try shooting at a stationary can out of boredom, and they both repeatedly miss. After a few shots they start smacking their own weapons in annoyance.
    • Djarin grudgingly forced to transport the blurrgs on his ship recalls a bit in Star Wars (Marvel 2015) comics when Han Solo was grudgingly forced to transport nerfs on the Falcon. At least the blurrgs didn't appear to suffer messy motion-sickness issues like the nerfs did.
    • The first season finale features an appearance from an Incinerator Stormtrooper, a class of enemy originally created for the now-decanonized Star Wars: The Force Unleashed video game.
    • In "The Marshal", the group's tactics for dealing with the massive Krayt Dragon are identical to those used in the Legends video game Knights of the Old Republic, planting mines and then luring the beast out into the ambush. Unfortunately, it doesn't work in this instance because the thing is tough enough to survive the blast.
    • Chapter 13 prominently features a pair of assassin droids serving as bodyguards to the Magistrate, which are stated be HK-87 models, in a clear nod to HK-47 from the aforementioned Knights of the Old Republic. The droids in question even look like taller, slimmer, more advanced versions of HK-47.
    • The piece of music that plays during the final scene of Chapter 13 is titled "Ahsoka Lives", named after the famous fan-movement/hashtag following Ahsoka's Uncertain Doom following the second season finale of Rebels — a fan movement so strong that Dave Filoni backpedaled on his initial decision for Ahsoka to not appear again and return towards the end of the series alive and well.
    • Chapter 15 has Mayfeld complain that he can't see with the stormtrooper helmet on, like Luke did in A New Hope. He also complains the armor smells, which hearkens to a more obscure part of the franchise: in the Star Wars Radio Dramas, Han snarkily asks if the guy Luke took his disguise from bathed once in a while because Han says the suit he took smells like the guy lived in it.
    • An Imperial pilot in Chapter 16 provides a Perspective Flip on the destruction of the Death Star, calling out how many millions of blameless soldiers and workers died when it was blown up. While it hasn't come up a lot in the new canon, a major theme in Luke Skywalker and the Shadows of Mindor was the guilt and shellshock Luke felt over that very subject. More humorously, it also mirrors the famous Death Star debate in Clerks.
    • Chapter 16 also uses Ion Cannons very much like the X-Wing Series: Firing blue bolts (instead of red or green for Rebel or Imperial lasers) and disabling the target. Many an X-Wing mission involved using Ion Cannons to disable priority targets, often Lambda-class shuttles.
    • The second season finale has a deliberate homage to Darth Vader's infamous hallway massacreperformed, appropriately enough, by his own son, Luke.
    • Boba Fett is revealed to have found the heavily wounded Fennec on Tatooine and nursed her back to health, not unlike what Dengar did for Boba himself upon discovering that the latter had survived his trip down the Sarlacc's gullet in The Bounty Hunter Wars.

    Tropes N-Z 
  • Nameless Narrative: Downplayed and eventually subverted entirely, but as part of its throwback to Spaghetti Western movies of old, the show would refer to characters primarily by their titles or roles, rather than their names. The first episode gives us the Mandalorian, the Mythrol, the Razor Crest (the name of the model of ship, rather than a proper name like the Millenium Falcon), the Client, and the Child. Some of these would eventually receive proper names down the line; others do not.
    • The Mandalorian is revealed to be Din Djarin.
    • The Child is Grogu.note 
  • Nazi Gold: The Imperial equivalent is revealed to the Mandalorian as his down payment: an ingot of beskar steel stamped with the Imperial logo. Since Imperial credits are garbage these days, giving him an ingot of precious metal is more practical. However, the logo indicates that it's something the Imperials stole from the Mandalorians during "the Great Purge", and it's of both cultural and practical value to them. This makes the payment irresistible to the pragmatic Mandalorians but it also makes it morally repugnant as the beskar was stolen from their murdered kin.
  • Never Found the Body: Invoked — "The Siege" involves Djarin, Karga, and Dune destroying an Imperial base that's still on Nevarro. While there, they find a hologram recording mentioning Moff Gideon and assume that it's an old one, but it was actually only from three days ago, revealing to them that Gideon is still alive following the crash of his TIE fighter in the Season 1 finale. All of them legitimately thought that he'd died in the crash and didn't bother checking to see if he really had been. This isn't really a shock to the audience, though, since we saw that Gideon survived and saw a live transmission from him in the previous episode, to boot.
  • Never Trust a Trailer:
    • The first Official Trailer seemed to imply that the series would be a grim and gritty, even horrific take on the Star Wars universe, what with the ominous music, oppressive editing, and Stormtrooper helmets on pikes being one of the first images we see. No mention of Grogu was ever made, and certainly none of the more lighthearted, high adventure stuff.
    • The trailer and the poster for Season 3 imply that the Darksaber will become a major part of Din's arsenal, showing him brandishing it alongside his blaster. In reality, he only uses it a handful of times (clumsily) due to its Awesome, but Impractical nature mentioned at the top of the page and gets rid of it by giving it back to Bo-Katan the second he can think of an excuse that satisfies the Night Owl's traditionalist outlook on "earning" the blade.
  • Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: The are a few times Djarin becomes his own worst enemy.
    • It's because Djarin panicked and broke comm silence during the confrontation with Gideon that the Scout Troopers were able to shoot Kuiil and capture the Child.
    • If he hadn't tried to run away from the X-Wing patrol, he wouldn't have crashed on the ice planet and destroyed half his ship. And almost get eaten by spiders. Though he might have gotten arrested.
  • No Body Left Behind: Anyone shot by the Mandalorian's disruptor rifle is instantly disintegrated, with nothing but a few scraps of clothing left behind. He has to reload it after every shot, which is one reason he didn't bust it out during the shootout with IG-11, but it's a hell of a sniper rifle.
  • No Honor Among Thieves:
    • Most of the other bounty hunters, mercenaries, and crooks the Mandalorian encounters try to kill him, rob him, or otherwise betray him.
    • Members of the Bounty Hunter's Guild view each other as competition as only the one who brings in the bounty gets paid. This is normally kept in check by the Guild by giving out bounty "pucks" to the hunters, and only the hunter with the puck can pursue/claim the bounty (though they can voluntarily team up). However, due to the incredible value of the Child bounty, as well as the fact that it came directly from the client instead of through usual Guild channels, numerous hunters attempt to claim it, with one group even attempting to steal it from Djarin. Later, after Djarin betrays the Guild by rescuing the Child, nearly every member of the Guild turns out to hunt him down.
    • "The Prisoner" has three separate betrayals. First, the Mandalorian's teammates lock him in a prison ship cell after they rescue the titular prisoner. Second, the prisoner chooses to leave all of his rescuers behind in favor of trying to escape on his own. Third, after paying him for the mission the fixer who arranged it tries to have the Mandalorian killed.
  • No Name Given: In keeping with the Spaghetti Western theme, the titular protagonist spends most of the first season unnamed, being referred to as "Mando" or simply getting a "Hey, You!" reception. Likewise, the Child is not given any sort of name, until halfway through season two. In both cases, there's no big, dramatic reveal of their names, nor are said names really important to the plot.
  • No OSHA Compliance:
    • Iris doorways like the one seen in the first episode's cold open are apparently sharp enough and can close hard enough to bisect human-size beings.
    • The lack of guard rails in Imperial facilities is still a common problem.
  • Normal Fish in a Tiny Pond:
    • The raiders' AT-ST in Episode 4. Compared to other Imperial tech, an AT-ST isn't crazy powerful, but if all you're planning to do with it is plunder one small unarmed village, it'll make you practically unbeatable.
    • Similarly, Moff Gideon's TIE fighter in Episode 8. In a dogfight against other space superiority fighters, it's a barebones fighter heavily reliant on its flitting maneuverability (hard-countered by the wide field of fire an X-wing can output) and sheer numbers. Against enemies on foot with only small arms, it's an aerial terror, and even its thin hull is enough to No-Sell small-arms fire.
    • One set of badly beat-up Mandalorian armor and weaponry is enough to run a whole gang of thugs with blasters out of a small town.
    • Moff Gideon in a nutshell really. He wasn't in charge of a particularly large contingent of the Empire and only has a light cruiser for a mobile command base. Compared to, say, Moff Tarkin, who was in charge of the Empire's crowing achievement the Death Star and had Star Destroyers to spare chasing down the plans, he doesn't have many resources. In a galaxy recovering from war and dealing with a single Ragtag Bunch of Misfits he's an imposing problem even Boba Fett doesn't want to straight up fight. Chapter 23 would show this is something of a show. He has more resources and allies than first shown and only uses so much as to not draw to much attention to himself in front of the galactic republic.
    • The entire cast may be made up of a bunch of badasses but Episode 16 shows just why a Jedi Master was the one who took down the Empire. Djarin nearly died fighting a single Dark Trooper and everyone is expecting an entire squad of them to be their Last Stand. And then Luke Skywalker shows up and tears through the entire platoon without breaking a sweat while the main team is left watching in shock at how easily he's tearing them apart.
  • No True Scotsman:
    • Due to being raised in a traditionalist and secretive commune that strictly adheres to the ancient ways of Mandalore, our hero is more than a little shocked when he meets Bo-Katan and members of her clan, who are decidedly more casual in attitude. Djarin is so dismayed by how they casually disregard ancient customs like always wearing helmets in public that he can just barely refrain from declaring them traitors to the Mandalorian Way, even though Bo-Katan was once acknowledged as the Mandalore. To be fair to Djarin, he'd encountered people wearing looted Mandalorian armor just a few episodes ago, so it was probably on his mind.
    • Later flipped around with Boba Fett, who does not consider himself as a Mandalorian despite being the son of Jango Fett, but is accepted as one by Djarin when he learns that Jango was a foundling and Boba his son — not to mention how very Mandalorian Boba acts!
    • Bo-Katan also falls under this trope, and accuses Boba of not being a true Mandalorian.note 
  • No Transhumanism Allowed: Subverted. The series mentions "strandcasting," that is the process of creating organisms gene by gene from the ground up. That's about as transhuman as it gets. It seems that there must be some sort of downside that makes this sort of thing less common.
  • "Not So Different" Remark: In Chapter 15, Mayfeld points out to Djarin that it wasn't that long ago on a galactic scale that Mandalore was a brutal, expansionist government just like the Galactic Empire. He goes on to say that he and Djarin are themselves not so different, remarking that for all of Djarin's talk of tradition and following the Way, he is awfully willing to reinterpret said traditions in the name of doing what he has to, just like Mayfeld. Of course, protecting foundlings is a central Mandalorian tradition, and Djarin himself has certainly never committed Imperial genocide, so it falls a little flat — especially when Mayfeld himself explosively evaluates the Imperial Remnants as unforgivable later in the episode.
  • Not So Stoic: After the Tribe slaughters most of the bounty hunter guild to cover Djarin's escape in episode three, one of them uses his jetpack to fly up to the Razor Crest's window to give him a salute as he leaves. Djarin's response is an admiring, "I gotta get me one of those."
  • Offscreen Teleportation: In Chapter 6, The Mandalorian slowly closes in on Mayfeld from behind; seemingly vanishing and reappearing in the flickering lights. Mayfeld suddenly turns and the camera swings around to see that Djarin has just reappeared right behind him.
  • Oh, Crap!: Moff Gideon's expression changes from smug (Those Dark Troopers of mine will rescue me), to confusion (Who's flying in on an X-wing? Why'd my troops stop banging on the door?), to concern (Wait, who is this dude?), to abject horror (Oh, no, not him!) as Luke freaking Skywalker arrives and cuts through his opposition as if they were made of butter.
  • Once a Season: The Mandalorian removing his helmet in full view of the camera. In Chapter 8, he removes it so IG-11 can heal him with a bacta spray. During the events of Chapter 15, Djarin has to pass a facial scan; unlike the previous example, his helmet actually stays off for several minutes. Somewhat subverted in that he incongruously does it again in the very next episode, to say goodbye to Grogu.
    • Subverted in season 3 - Din Djarin's helmet stays firmly on for the entirety of the season.
  • One-Man Army:
    • In Chapter 14, Boba Fett singlehandedly wipes out a platoon of Stormtroopers (who were managing to overwhelm Djarin and Fennec Shand through sheer numbers) using his skill with a blaster and the full capabilities of his suit.
    • In Chapter 16, the Mandalorian has a great deal of difficulty dealing with just one Phase Three Dark Trooper and would have been killed if he had not been wearing his beskar armor. When Luke Skywalker shows up a few minutes later, Luke is able to quickly cut through all the remaining Dark Troopers with ease, and does not even break a sweat doing so.
    • In Chapter 23, Paz Vizsla takes on what feels like a entire battalion of Super Commandos to buy time for Bo-Katan and the other Mandalorians to escape. It takes three elite Praetorian Guards to finally put the big man down.
  • O.O.C. Is Serious Business:
    • In Chapter 15, it's a mark as to how far Djarin is willing to go to find Grogu, that he not only willingly changes out of his beskar armor to don a stormtrooper uniform as a disguise, he then willingly unmasks himself in order to access the computer database, in a room full of Imperials, and in front of Mayfeld, a man whom he had a generally low opinion of due to his criminal background. No wonder that chapter is called "The Believer"; there's nothing Djarin believes in more than protecting his foundling.
    • Spending most of his presence in the series being a despicable Smug Snake, Gideon visibly loses composure when a lone X-Wing shows up at his cruiser, recognizing its occupant as the man who took down the Empire itself; Luke Skywalker. His composure further deteriorates as Luke effortlessly tears his way through the Dark Troopers, to the point Gideon attempts a murder-suicide on everyone on the bridge.
  • Our Cryptids Are Different: The Mythosaur in Season 3 is treated in the manner of a cryptid. Only one person alive has seen one: Bo-Katan Kryze, and it is the cause of her rekindled faith in the Mandalorian Creed. The Armorer is inclined to believe Bo-Katan actually did see one, despite having no evidence to that effect and having believed that the Mythosaur was merely a cultural myth. The Armorer is aware of Bo-katan's cynicism towards the Way, yet Bo now upholds the faith among the Children of the Watch.
  • Our Founder: After his Heroic Sacrifice in the season one finale, IG-11 gets a statue erected in Nevarro in his honor, which is visible in subsequent visits to the town.
  • The Paragon Always Rebels: The first three episodes have pointed out how of every bounty hunter in the Guild, our eponymous Mandalorian is the best at the job. Chapter 3 shows us how, because of his conscience, he chooses to throw all that away to save the Child who saved his life.
  • Pardon My Klingon:
    • The characters seem to use the phrase "dank ferrik" a lot. It's the series' go-to when they want to have a character swear on family-friendly Disney+. It seems to be the equivalent of "Goddammit", and even has the emphasis on the same syllables.
    • Cara Dune's "Son of a mudscuffer!" line uttered in Chapter 16 is quite the fancy way of saying "Son of a bitch!"
  • Perpetual Poverty: The Mandalorian is always hustling for money from his next job, using whatever cash he gets to pay for his spaceship's massive upkeep and fuel costs, to help support the foundlings of his Mandalorian tribe, and ultimately to support himself and the Child while they're on the run. While all the Mandalorians of the tribe wear some amount of armor made of expensive beskar steel, the beskar armor is of such cultural importance to them that selling their beskar is anathema to them, and they otherwise seem to live an austere existence underground.
  • Pet the Dog: During The Stinger for Season 2, while Fennec Shand is in the midst of effortlessly disposing of Bib Fortuna's court, she takes a moment to shoot the chain off of his Twi'lek slave girl. Then she gives a "Get out of here" nod. The girl wastes no time taking Fennec up on it.
  • Pilgrimage: Mandalore is not the literal homeland of all Mandalorians, but it is the most culturally important place, similar to how Mecca is for Muslims. After Din breaks a religious prohibition, he is told he can atone for it with a pilgrimage to the Living Waters on Mandalore, and a baptism when he gets there. In "Chapter 17: The Apostate", he does exactly that.
  • Pistol-Whipping: The Mandalorian disposes of a couple stormtroopers this way, in an extreme example of Armor Is Useless; they go down to the barrel of a very light gun across the helmet.
  • Pocket Protector: Greef Karga survives being shot in the chest thanks to the beskar ingot he's carrying inside his coat.
  • Poorly Disguised Pilot:
    • Boba Fett becomes a deuteragonist in the second half of Season 2 to help establish where his character is at at this point in the series, then leaves to pursue his own agenda. The Stinger of Chapter 16 ends with the set-up for The Book of Boba Fett and the announcement of the show itself.
    • Ahsoka Tano is introduced in Chapter 13 with a new actress; while she provides some key information for the main plot, the episode is largely A Day in the Limelight for her and establishes a quest that she's on (to find Grand Admiral Thrawn) that has no relevance to the Mandalorian. Sure enough, the series Ahsoka was announced shortly after the episode premiered.
  • Powered Armor: Nearly all armor in Star Wars is "powered" to some extent, usually with built-in comlinks, vision enhancement, and so on, but the focus on Mandalorians brings this to the fore. Early in the series, we see Din's damaged non-beskar chestplate as a lot of tech stuff in it, but what exactly it does is left unexplained. Mandalorian armor has all kinds of gadgets and gizmos included. In Season 3, we see that some Mandalorians, like Bo-Katan and Paz Vizsla, have an energy shield buckler built into their left bracer for added defense. Most notably, Moff Gideon's beskar Phase 4 Dark Trooper armor has very loud whirring sounds when he moves; this, combined with his performance in his fight with Din and Bo-Katan, indicate the armor is massively enhancing his physical strength.
  • Precision F-Strike: The Mandalorian, like the rest of the Star Wars, is not big on using swear words, yet it drops one of the most explicit (albeit quite butchered) ones ever in Season 3 from an Anzellan who absolutely hates being hugged by Grogu.
    Anzellan: Bad baby, no squeezy! I'm out, motherfucker.
  • Promoted to Opening Titles: There is no "opening titles" per se, but Pedro Pascal (portraying Din Djarin) is joined by Katee Sackhoff (portraying and reprising Bo-katan Kryze) in main starring roles in the end credits in Season 3.
  • The Prophecy: There's one attached to the Darksaber. If ever a Mandalorian leader takes it by gift instead of winning it in combat, Mandalore will be destroyed and its people scattered. However, the saber will eventually be claimed by the Mythosaur who will lead the Mandalorians home again. The first part seems to have been fulfilled by Bo-Katan Kryze.
  • Proud Warrior Race Guy: The Mandalorians of "the Tribe" that the protagonist hails from have an extreme devotion to preserving the ancient warrior ways of their culture, to the point they consider having their helmets removed a grave insult, the Mandalorian refuses to be acknowledged for what he believes is a dishonorable kill, and the lot of them are willing to engage in all manner of Honor Before Reason behavior for the sake of their warrior code.
  • Psycho Knife Nut: Xi'an, a Twi'lek criminal who is shown to be vicious and psychotic and lethally efficient with knives.
  • Put on a Bus: In the third season premiere "The Apostate", Greef Karga mentions that Cara Dune was recruited by Special Forces for bringing in Moff Gideon in "The Rescue" which is why she's no longer on Nevarro or the show in general.
  • Railing Kill: The Mandalorian is absolutely in love with this trope. (Both the series and the eponymous character.) In the shootout at the end of the first episode a ton of Nikto mooks get shot off buildings with a roar, and while climbing the sandcrawler in the second, the Mandalorian yanks a few Jawas poking him with tasers out the window.
  • Reconstruction: In the same vein as Rogue One, The Mandalorian reconstructs the non-force villains of Star Wars, showing how well-earned their reputation for brutality and dread are from the perspective of normal people:
    • Far from the incompetent Cannon Fodder with laughably shoddy accuracy from the movies, the Remnant Stormtroopers work well and efficiently together, nearly cornering the Mandalorian.
    • An AT-ST, the original Chicken Walker that got beat up by the Ewoks, is the trump card of Klatoonian raiders. Both the Mandalorian and Cara Dune consider fleeing a better option than fighting it without proper weapons, and only reluctantly agree to fight it. It takes a high-risk strategy and the near-sacrifice of Cara Dune to bring one down.
    • The Separatist droids, even the Elite Mook B2 models, only existed to be cut down by any competent Jedi and Clone Troopers. Here we see them deployed against a civilian target, where they were a very effective terror weapon. The Mandalorian's Doomed Hometown was burned down in one such raid and he still has nightmares and flashbacks about them.
    • In previous outings, bounty hunters focused much more on exotic weaponry and mind games, and were not very efficient.note  The Guild seen here have their act together, using proper tactics and straightforward weaponry to get the job done.
    • TIE fighters are the expendable star fighter of the Empire. They normally have to mob the heroes in at least sizable numbers to be considered a threat. Just like the AT-ST, when the heroes are pitted against one without the aid of their own starship, any anti-air ordnance to speak of, and not even any adequate cover, it's treated as near-certain death. The three heroes unloading their blasters at the single fighter, including with Cara's rapid-firing BFG, struggle to even land a hit on the fast-moving ship, let alone do significant damage. The Mandalorian has to use his brand-new jetpack to get high enough to snag it with a grapple and cling to the hull, at which point he is able to slap some explosive charges on the wing to bring it down.
    • Jedi are not unstoppable superpowered badasses able to overcome any obstacle with literally just a wave of their hand. However, against forces not trained and equipped specifically to deal with their unique skill sets, they absolutely are one-being armies capable of carving through foes that give even the badassest of Badass Normals a hard time. Both Ahsoka and Luke Skywalker demonstrate this against the Magistrate's thugs and Moff Gideon's Dark Troopers respectively.
  • Recovery Sequence: The voiced-over montage of Kuiil repairing, reprogramming, and re-training IG-11 in Chapter 7.
  • Red Eyes, Take Warning:
    • Flashbacks to The Mandalorian's past reveals Separatist Super Battle Droids gunning his entire town down while sporting glowing red eyes.
    • The AT-ST seen attacking the village in Chapter 4 sports two red-glowing viewports, giving this impression.
    • The Dark Troopers also have glowing red eyes.
  • The Remnant: Moff Gideon's Imperial Remnant faction serves as the main antagonists of Season 1.
  • Removable Turret Gun: In the Season 1 finale. When the group fends of Moff Gideon's small army after IG-11 enters the fray, Djarin runs up to a small platform for an E-Web heavy cannon and rips it off its stand to make use of it.
  • Reports of My Death Were Greatly Exaggerated:
    • In the first-season finale, after Djarin identifies the Imperial officer that has them cornered in the cantina as Moff Gideon, Cara Dune exclaims that can't be since Moff Gideon was supposed to have been captured by the New Republic and executed for the war crimes he committed during the Galactic Civil War. Obviously, this is not so, since he is standing outside with small army of Imperial loyalists.
    • Chapter 9 ends with a Wham Shot of a very much alive Boba Fett, who obviously survived falling into the Sarlacc in Return of the Jedi.
  • Right Hand Versus Left Hand: The Mandalorian gets a contract from the Client saying "alive, preferably" while a bunch of other bounty hunters apparently only got the "dead" memo. So a whole bunch of bounty hunters from the same guild start fighting each other and Djarin for it. It seems The Client went behind Dr. Pershing's back and demanded the Child's extermination; according to overheard dialogue whoever Pershing is working for wanted the kid definitely alive. This may be why Moff Gideon, whom Pershing is presumably working for, is so willing to have the client murdered following his falling for the good guys' ruse.
  • Running Gag:
    • The Child following the Mandalorian around or pushing random buttons in the cockpit even when he's been told not to.
    • People seeing the Child and not knowing what the hell he is.
    • The Mandalorian will attempt to use his flamethrower against a foe, only for it to fail. He's occasionally able to use it effectively, but it's guaranteed to not work at least once.
    • The Child's insatiable hunger and often disturbingly carnivorous diet.
    • Bad things happening to the Razor Crest, reaching its peak in Chapter 14.
  • Sacred Hospitality: Djarin's host, the old ugnaught Kuiil, repeatedly helps him at significant cost in time and effort, but rejects all reward, saying that it was his duty because Djarin was his guest. That, and Kuiil had a good feeling that Djarin may end up cleaning house on the brigands in the area as a side effect of his job.
  • Samurai Cowboy: Star Wars has always taken heavy influence from Jidaigeki films and Classic Westerns, but this series really leans into both, as one can probably guess from this very page. The main protagonist is effectively a gunslinging ronin. Practically lampshaded by the climax of Chapter 13, which pointedly and dramatically juxtaposes an Akira Kurosawa-influenced samurai duel with a Sergio Leone-style Mexican stand-off.
  • Scarred Equipment:
    • Most of the Mandalorian's armor is old, covered in scratches and dents from blaster fire. His helmet is pristine, as it is made of beskar steel, but unfortunately his clan doesn't have enough beskar to give him an entire set of armor. In the first episode when he earns a pauldron of beskar steel he is happy to discard his old one for it. He's later able to upgrade to an entire suit of beskar armor.
    • The stormtroopers working for the Client don't have either the time or resources to keep their white armor pristine, and look like they've been on the losing end of multiple battles.
    • After 20+ years, including time spent inside a Sarlacc, Boba Fett's already-battered armor was far from pristine. It's still shown to be functionally effective, however. Chapter 15 sees it receive a new paintjob, making it look even better than it did during The Empire Strikes Back.
  • Scenery Porn: Nearly every episode is just beautiful to look at, even the scarred landscapes. Some scenes are staged like paintings.
  • Schrödinger's Canon:
    • Beskar, or "Mandalorian Iron", was half the reason Mandalorians were so fearsome in the Legends continuity, giving them armor which could resist even lightsaber strikes (which is also confirmed in season 2). Some of the first words spoken to the Mandalorian in the series are to ask if his armor is genuine beskar steel. Many Mandalorians in Legends had to make do with armor made from conventional materials, as true Mandalorian iron became increasingly difficult to come by. This also observes true Mando'a, the Mandalorian language.
    • Mythosaurs were first introduced in Legends before being re-canonized here.
    • The mythrol in the first episode tells the Mandalorian that he's heading home to visit his family for Life Day.
    • A more compact carbonite freezing device than Bespin's large industrial facility is shown. Though not the portable, arm-mounted version from The Old Republic MMO, a staple of the Bounty Hunter's campaign to prevent every capture mission from being an escort mission, it's small enough to fit on a fairly diminutive ship.
    • Djarin's rifle bears a striking resemblance in performance to the Tenloss DXR-6 Disruptor Rifle from the Dark Forces Saga, being slow-firing (in the show because it has to be manually loaded with shells, in the game because it had to charge up to full power), scoped for exceptional long-range accuracy, and being a One-Hit Kill Disintegrator Ray.
    • Cara mentions mopping up "Imperial warlords" after the Battle of Endor. In Legends, Imperial Warlords of a surprisingly wide variety of stripes were the antagonists pretty much up until the New Jedi Order.
    • The E-Web Repeating Blaster was first seen in The Empire Strikes Back, named in Legends, and has its name spoken in the new canon here.
    • Incinerator Stormtroopers from The Force Unleashed are re-canonized in Chapter 8.
    • The Mandalorians shown in the series follow the Legends concept of the Resol'nare pretty closely. They (or at least the sect Djarin belongs to) wear Mandalorian armor (to the point of not removing their helmets around others). They defend themselves, each other, and their family (the Central Theme of the show is the Mandalorian protecting the Child). Raising children, especially foundlings, in the ways of Mandalorian culture are repeatedly stressed as very important. And the Mandalorian himself is out in the galaxy specifically to bring in money to support the Tribe. The two tenets of Resol'nare that are not alluded to are speaking Mando'a and answering the call of Mand'alor, though the Armorer could be seen as the closest thing to Mand'alor the Tribe knows of, and when she speaks, everyone else shuts up and listens. The concept itself is heavily hinted at, as the Armorer offhandedly alludes to somebody named Mandalore the Great, while Bo-Katan mentions restoring the true Mandalore to power as one of her goals.
    • They're way too big to make serviceable lightsaber crystals without a lot of work, but Krayt Dragon Pearls are confirmed to exist.
    • In "The Siege," the Mythrol crew member is commanded a few times to "slice" things in the Imperial base. "Slicing" is Star Wars Legends vernacular for "hacking."
    • Chapter 14 finally recanonizes Jango Fett's old Legends backstory; as confirmed by Boba Fett and his chain code, Jango was indeed the foundling of Jaster Mareel and fought against Deathwatch in the Mandalorian Civil War, with the implication that his overall history is broadly the same as it was Legends. For that matter, Boba Fett surviving the sarlacc was first established in Legends.
    • Dark Troopers, originally from the Dark Forces Saga, appear in Chapter 14. Ironically, Chapter 16 refers to them as "Phase 3", in which the Dark Troopers are fully droids. In Dark Forces, Phase 1 and 2 Dark Troopers were droids, while Phase 3 was a suit of Powered Armor the architect of the project uses to fight you in a boss battle.
    • In "The Convert," Elia says: "Taungsdays, am I right?". In Legends, Taungs were the original indigenous inhabitants of the world that would become Coruscant, but eventually migrated from there to form — appropriately enough — the Mandalorian culture, under Taung leader Mandalore the First.
    • The cloning technology Moff Gideon uses to make his Phase 4 Dark Troopers is markedly different from the Kaminoan design, but does bear a marked similarity to descriptions of Spaarti cylinders. Each tank is freestanding with a cover plate on top, tubes and pipes to feed nutrient solutions to the growing clones, and control panels near them. While the time frame is a little unclear, they also seem to be able to produce full-grown clones very quickly with a full set of skills, like Spaarti cylinders and flash-learning. Though no ysalamiri are present to facilitate this rapid growth while staving off clone madness, which would appear to be observed false.
  • Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: In Chapter 15, Djarin ends up taking off his helmet in public to deal with an Imperial facial scanner, all in the name of rescuing the Child. A sympathetic Mayfeld responds by (though he had other reasons to do so) killing all the Imperials who saw Djain's face and swearing himself to silence. In gratitude, Djarin and Cara agree to do some rulebending and let Mayfeld go free.
  • Self-Destruct Mechanism: In Chapter 1, IG-11 repeatedly threatens to self-destruct as a means of protecting himself from capture (this is forbidden by its programming). Near the end, it finally does so to help Djarin and the Child escape, taking out many Stormtroopers in the process.
  • Self Stitching: The Mandalorian shows he's Not So Stoic as he tries to Heal It With Fire.
  • Sequel Escalation: The first season was a relatively standalone work with an original cast and very few connections to the Star Wars universe aside from Tatooine and brief nods to the Imperial warlords and the New Republic. The second season on the other hand not only includes the Jedi homeworld of Tython and other new locations but cameos from existing characters such as Cobb Vanth, Boba Fett, Bo-Katan Kryze, Ahsoka Tano, Dark Troopers, and even Luke Skywalker.
  • Series Fauxnale: The third season finale serves as this as the Big Bad of the series, Moff Gideon is finally killed, Bo-Katan starts her new path as leader of the reunited Mandalorian people and Din Djarin adopts Grogu as his son before settling down in their new home provided by Karga. He offers his services to the new republic as an And the Adventure Continues open ending.
  • Settling the Frontier: The show is almost entirely set in the Space Western equivalent of such a setting, the Outer Rim. The frontier is even more lawless and untamed than it was during the Empire's reign, and a running theme throughout the series is the clashes between the New Republic and natives of the Rim; the former is trying to bring some semblance of law and order to the area, while the latter continually reject their attempts to civilize them and mostly regard them as a joke.
  • Shout-Out:
  • Significant Wardrobe Shift: After getting his bounty from the Empire, the Mandalorian is given a nearly-full suit of beskar armor (chestpiece, both armguards, a second pauldron, and the right thighguard), adding on to the one pauldron that he was given in the first episode and the helmet he has initially.
  • Silence Is Golden: The title character rarely speaks and many of the episodes have long stretches of minimal to nonexistent dialogue, with the character development and storytelling told through visuals rather than words. In particular, the second and third episodes have almost no dialogue for the first ten minutes of their runtime.
  • Sink or Swim Fatherhood: While the Mandalorian takes responsibility for the Child and interacts comfortably with him, he clearly doesn't know how to care for a child solo without the benefit of a whole covert on hand, and other people with childcare experience notice. Over time Djarin learns from experience that there's no point in trying to keep the Child out of the way and, as of season 2, takes the Child with him wherever he goes.
  • Sir Not-Appearing-in-This-Trailer:
    • In Season 1, The Child was completely absent from all pre-release marketing in order to preserve the surprise of a new character of Yoda's species being introduced, even if said character is at the core of the show's narrative. Some shots with The Child in them were even digitally-edited to remove the character's presence from the ads.
    • In Season 2, Lucasfilm opted to hide all of the most notable cameos — Cobb Vanth, Boba Fett, Bo-Katan Kryze, Ahsoka Tano, and of course Luke Skywalker — in the marketing, in spite of several of them getting out to movie reporters months in advance. (Indeed, the trailers contained no content at all from the second half of the season.) This is in contrast to how they approached marketing Star Wars Rebels, where many of the show's cameos were revealed through the trailers.
  • Space Cold War: Following the end of the Galactic Civil War, the galaxy is divided between the New Republic and Imperial Remnant, and while the two are ostensibly in a sort of peace, in practice the they are battling viciously for control of space, with the Republic having seized the Core, the various Remnant factions controlling much of the Outer Rim, and the Mid Rim increasingly divided between them. As the series progresses, the Cloak and Dagger conflict between the Republic and Imperials increasingly takes center stage, with the Mandalorians and their allies caught in the middle.
  • Space Fighter: Both X-wings and TIE fighters make appearances during the course of the series.
  • Space Jews: Mandalorians are this mixed with Proud Warrior Race. The amount of parallels with real-life history is astounding - specifically, they're pretty much mid-twentieth century Jews who were nearly wiped out in The Purge (World War II in case for Jews). To hammer the point home, the Beskar ingots that Din Djarin is paid with for the recovery of Grogu are stamped with the Imperial insignia, mirroring Jewish gold that was melted down by Nazi Germany and cast into bars with swastikas stamped on them.
  • Space Pirates: An arc villain faction in the third season. Pirate King Gorian Shard has some sort of mossy leafy beard growth reminiscent of Captain Blackbeard, wears a space-styled pirate longcoat, and has a vaguely pegleg-esque gimp assisted by a crutch. A bridge officer on his pirate ship is a character design cross of an ugnaught and Mr. Smee. And his pirate ship has "broadside" arrays of guns. They're actually less pirates and more privateers working for the Imperial Remnant to cause havoc in the Outer Rim and undermine the New Republic's efforts to expand there.
  • Space Western: The show is the tale of a Bounty Hunter and Gunslinger drifting across the outer reaches of civilization, crossing paths with all manner of outlaws. Said bounty hunter also has a Spacecraft and a laser gun, and travels to all manner of alien planets Along Time Ago In A Galaxy Far Far Away.
  • Spaghetti Western: In addition to being influenced by classic Westerns, the show also is inspired by the works of Sergio Leone such as a protagonist who is (almost) always referred to by his nickname, Mexican Standoff, the desert setting, and seedy locales.
  • Special Guest: Every other episode features a celebrity/other famous actor in a side role:
    • Brian Posehn plays the skiff driver in Chapter 1.
    • Amy Sedaris as Peli Motto, the hangar proprietor who becomes an ally to Djarin when he has adventures on Tatooine.
    • Ming-Na Wen as Fennec Shand, the bounty hunter whom Djarin and Toro hunt down in Chapter 5.
    • Adam Pally and Jason Sudeikis are the two Scout Troopers who take the Child at the end of Chapter 7 and the start of Chapter 8.
    • John Leguizamo as Gor Koresh, the Abyssin from the Cold Opening of Chapter 9.
    • A whole slew of celebrities are cast for Chapter 22: Jack Black and Lizzo as the royal duo of Captain Bombardier and The Duchess of Plazir-15 respectively, plus Christopher Lloyd as Helgait, a Separatist commissioner monitoring the droid activity.
  • Starring Special Effects: Grogu is a puppet, and the entire plot of the show revolves around him.
  • Stealth Pun:
    • Mayfeld says the Razor Crest "looks like a Canto Bight slot machine," in reference to its condition. Given that Canto Bight is presented as infamously wealthy in The Last Jedi, this probably is a way of saying the ship is (jury) rigged.
    • In Season 3, Dr. Pershing's given name is revealed to be "Penn", and in the same episode he's shown working a tedious desk job after joining the New Republic — in other words, he's a pen-pusher.
  • Stereotype Flip: Previous live-action entries in the franchise have treated Tatooine's Sand People as Always Chaotic Evil (the EU portrayal has been more complex Depending on the Writer). Chapter 5 instead regards them something like Native Americans in The Wild West. Djarin describes them as wanting all outsiders off what they see as their planet and in the meantime to stay away from the territory they've staked out. He addresses a pair he and Toro Calican encounter with the respect due an equal, and trades with them for permission to cross their land. Chapter 9 further expands on this by establishing that several violent incidents between the Tusken Raiders and the people of Mos Pelgo are the results of misunderstandings rather than active malice from either side, and forges a tentative peace with the two factions coming together to solve a problem threatening them both.
  • Still Fighting the Civil War: The antagonist of Chapter 22 turns out to be an aging former Separatist who seems to believe he's still fighting the Clone Wars despite the fact that they ended decades ago, ranting that he didn't bow to the Republic or the Empire and thus certainly won't bow to the New Republic nor the Imperial Remnant.
  • The Stinger:
    • In the end credits of Chapter 5, we see the shins of Boba Fett approaching Fennec Shand's body.
    • Season 2 ends with one, in which Boba Fett and Fennec Shand storm Jabba the Hutt's former palace on Tatooine to kill Bib Fortuna and assume control.
  • Suicide as Comedy: The IG-11 droid keeps trying to self-destruct the second things look bad, because it's programmed to never be captured in case company secrets are discovered.
  • Suicide Attack: IG-11 self-destructs, taking out the nearby Stormtroopers to help Djarin and The Child escape by doing so.
  • Suicide Pill: The Imperial Captain from Chapter 11 uses a futuristic one to kill himself once Djarin and Bo-Katan's team take control of his ship, choosing to die rather than be interrogated by them or, worse, report his failure back to Moff Gideon.
  • Super-Soldier: Moff Gideon may be creating these and he wants the Child's blood for the project.
  • Supporting Protagonist: Din's story takes a back seat for much of the third season in favor of Bo-Katan stepping forward to reclaim Mandalore and its throne.
  • Surprisingly Realistic Outcome:
    • The Mandalorian visits the infamous Chalmun's Cantina in the original Wretched Hive... and instead of it bristling with scoundrels and criminals, as usual, it's basically empty, with only a few other patrons there and the droid bartender calmly wiping the place down. Hey, even the most nefarious Bad Guy Bar isn't always jumping, it has slow hours like any other restaurant.
    • After latching onto Moff Gideon's TIE fighter from the outside while in flight, the Mando tries to plant a grenade—which is immediately sucked out of his hand by the high-velocity winds.
  • Taking You with Me: When Djarin and Bo-Katan's squad manage to take near-total control of the Imperial transport in Chapter 11, the Captain calls Moff Gideon and requests back-up. Gideon instead orders them to crash their ship into the ocean and take the Mandalorians with them. The Captain proceeds to shoot his pilots and try to do exactly that, because he would rather die than face whatever torture Gideon would subject him to for failing.
  • Tall Poppy Syndrome: Due to the Mandalorian's near-flawless job performance, almost everyone in the Guild seem to be unable to make a name for themselves—breeding very understandable resentment (not helped by Greef's open favoritism). It was almost inevitable that the moment Djarin chooses to forego his Guild loyalties for the Child that every one of them would happily turn their guns on him. That said, this didn't end well for them.
  • Teeth-Clenched Teamwork:
    • Anytime that Din has to work with droids, which he hates due to a traumatic incident in his past, it goes like this.
    • In season three, the Mandalorians begin working to reunify and mend old sectarian divisions in the name of retaking Mandalore. This begins with the Children of the Watch and Nite Owls, two groups that — to put it mildly — disagree strongly on many tenets of the Mandalorian Way (the Children are hardcore traditionalists, while the Nite Owls are descended from group that abandoned much of the faith, with both viewing the other as radicals). Needless to say, there ends up being a lot of headbutting.
  • Team Mom: The Armorer, for her clan of Mandalorians. When Djarin and Paz Vizsla start fighting, she just sits quietly, letting them get it out of their system, before speaking up calmly to remind everyone of what makes them a family. In Season 3, she also deftly defuses tension during the initial meeting of the Nite Owl and Children of the Watch tribes.
  • Tempting Fate: In Chapter 7, Greef tells the Mandalorian "Trust me. Nothing can go wrong," right before a flying venomous monstrosity swoops out of the night from behind him and attacks.
  • Timmy in a Well: In Chapter 18 it is Din who is put in the "well" when he is captured by a scavenger while exploring Mandalore. Grogu tries to rescue Din himself but can't manage it, and Din tells him to get Bo-katan (who's moping in her castle in another planet in-system). Grogu manages to escape and then fly Din's N1 (with the aid of R5-D4) to Bo-katan. Bonus points for the scene occurring in a well-like sewer, that is accessed via flying down on jetpack.
  • Token Good Teammate: The Mandalorian, while among Ranzar's crew.
  • Too Clever by Half: Fennec tells the newbie bounty hunter how much Djarin is worth and asks him to free her so they can bring him in together. The newbie doesn't trust her and shoots her for it, knowing that she will probably try to kill him when he frees her. He then decides to take the Child hostage and bring Djarin in himself. It gets him killed.
  • Tracking Device: "Tracking Fobs" are standard-issue equipment for bounty hunters. Each one is somehow capable of homing on a target from at least several miles away with great accuracy as long as they've been programmed with enough data, called the "chain code,"note  and returning the fob is the customary way of saying the hunter has released his bounty to someone else's custody. The fact that the client doesn't give the Mandalorian a full chain code indicates the job is really sketchy.
  • Tragic Backstory:
    • The Mandalorian was originally a foundling who was adopted by Mandalorians with Clan Vizsla insignias after his village of Aq Vetina, including his parents, was wiped out by a Separatist droid army during the Clone Wars.
    • Cara Dune is a native of Alderaan who joined a Rebel cell after the Empire destroyed her home world with the Death Star.
    • The Child (real name Grogu) was a youngling who trained at the Jedi Temple on Coruscant until it was razed by the Empire, at which point he was hidden and spent the next several decades scared and alone until he was found by the Mandalorian.
  • Training the Peaceful Villagers: The plot of Chapter 4. The Mandalorian gets guilted into helping some krill farmers defend themselves against a band of Klatooinian raiders, and he pulls Cara Dune in to help.
  • Troubling Unchildlike Behavior: The Child misinterprets a friendly arm-wrestling match between Djarin and Cara, and Force-chokes her, thinking he's protecting his surrogate dad. Granted, the Child's intent probably wasn't malicious (especially given the Razor Crest' recent "guests"), but it's still scary to see considering he's a powerful Force user who hasn't yet been taught the difference between right and wrong, or how to distinguish a game from real harm.
  • True Companions: By the end of season 1, Djarin, Cara, Greef, and even IG-11 have become this, a profound rarity for men and women in their profession. It's especially the case for Djarin and Cara.
  • Underestimating Badassery:
    • People just don't seem to understand that Mandalorians are as a culture obsessed with being awesome warriors. That they keep on picking on any of them is a mystery, but the Children of the Watch (Din and his family) take it a step further by making it into a religion.
    • In the third season, Grogu goes to Bo-Katan for help rescuing Din. When she easily fights her way through some mooks, he's surprised, and she just rolls her eyes and asks "You didn't think your dad was the only Mandalorian, did you?"
    • As of Chapter 23, Gideon points out that the Imperial remnant managed to learn a lot from the Mandalorians, even going as far as to augment their troops with beskar plating. Not to mention Gideon's own jet-black Powered Armor.
  • Used Future:
    • As the quote from Jon Favreau on the quotes page shows, the look and feel of this series is a deliberate Call-Back to the dingy, dirty Tatooine of A New Hope.
    • The once pristine white armors of the Stormtroopers look visibly used and worn, with the collapse of the Empire preventing them from being replaced.
    • The Mandalorian's ship, the Razor Crest, is a clear nod back the Crystal Spires and Togas aesthetic of the prequel trilogy and is said to have been built around that time. Being that old, however, means it's seen its fair share of wear and tear with several external plates apparently missing, and scratches all over its once chrome exterior. It's not faring much better internally, either, as Zero describes most of its systems as being deficient compared to what they could be if the ship were adequately serviced.
    • In Episode 6, the dimly-lit, somewhat dilapidated space station belonging to Ran and his crew is visually contrasted by the bright and pristine-looking interior of the New Republic prison ship.
  • Vibroweapon: Vibroweapons have long been a mainstay of Star Wars (and loads of other sci-fi), mostly in the Legends continuity. We see them here for the first time in live-action, complete with visual effects to actually make the blade look like it's vibrating.
  • Victor Steals Insignia: Ahsoka takes Din Djarin's pauldron, bearing his mudhorn sigil, as proof that she defeated him. Though, in reality, they are faking his death because they are working together.
  • Villainous Rescue: In "The Believer", when the Imperial transport full of rhydonium that Djarin and Mayfeld hijacked is about to be destroyed by pirates, a group of TIE Fighters and stormtroopers come to stop them. It's very effectively played for dissonance.
    Mayfeld: Never thought you'd be happy to see stormtroopers.
  • Wasteland Elder:
    • In season one, the weathered-looking Ugnaught farmer Kuiil lives in an isolated desert, serves as a source of wisdom, and takes it upon himself to keep the people of the area safe from bounty hunters. However, it's hard to tell for sure if he fits the role since the rest of his community remains offscreen.
    • In the season two premier (and Star Wars: The Aftermath Trilogy, which the episode adapts in Broad Strokes), Cobb Vanth is a gray-haired resident of an impoverished Tatooine village who finds Boba Fett's armor and uses it to protect the people of his village, becoming their shot-caller and self-appointed marshal.
  • We ARE Struggling Together:
    • Even after the devastation of Mandalore by the Empire, the various Mandalorian sects, tribes, and factions still struggle deeply to unify due the lingering bad blood of centuries of sectarian strife.
    • Grand Admiral Thrawn and Captain Pellaeon are trying to unite the numerous Imperial Remnant factions under one banner to take on the New Republic. This is easier said than done, as each Remnant faction has their own agendas and ideas on how things should be done. Some are loyal to the cause, others disagree with Thrawn's methods (or openly question these in Gideon's case), more others want to take power themselves, and remaining others still don't care about Thrawn's plans at all and are just exploiting the Shadow Council to get resources for their own ends.
  • Weird Currency: The series introduces Calamari Flan, which is a currency of jelly-like blue and white disks.
  • Wham Episode:
    • "The Reckoning". Moff Gideon's Scout Troopers intercept and kill Kuiil, capturing the Child.
    • "The Jedi". Djarin finally meets with a Jedi — Ahsoka Tano — and she reveals the Child's name to be Grogu. However, she declines to train Grogu, possibly because she senses he could end up like Anakin due to his emotional attachment to Djarin... and because she's on her own quest for Grand Admiral Thrawn.
    • "The Tragedy". Djarin and Grogu finally reach Tython and presumably contact a Jedi, only to be ambushed by Boba Fett and a still-alive Fennec Shand, as well as Moff Gideon's forces. Grogu is captured by Dark Troopers in the ensuing chaos, and Djarin is forced to team up with Boba, Shand, and Mayfeld to stage a rescue.
    • "The Spies". We finally get some scope of Thrawn, Gideon, and the Imperial Remnant's plans, while the Mandalorians begin retaking Mandalore, only to be ambushed by Gideon who had secretly set up his base there. Paz is killed by Gideon's forces, while Din is captured and the Mandalorians now find themselves battling an enemy that has the element of surprise and access to all their ancestral weapons.
  • Wham Line:
    • In the eighth episode, as Moff Gideon does his Evil Gloating, he reveals Cara's origins (she's from Alderaan). Immediately after that, he reveals the Mandalorian's real name, Din Djarin.
    • Later on, the Armorer states that the Child is from a race of mighty sorcerers whom the Mandalorians once did battle with: The Jedi. This is also the first live-action mention of the Mandalorians and the Jedi being old foes.
    • This exchange:
      The Mandalorian: Who have you given fobs to?
      Greef Karga: [raises arms to encompass the bar] All of them. All of them!
    • At the end of Chapter 11, Djarin finally gets directions to a Jedi when Bo-Katan casually tells him where he can find Ahsoka Tano.
    • Near the end of Chapter 13, Ahsoka herself drops one when she asks Morgan Elsbeth where her master, Grand Admiral Thrawn, is.
  • Wham Shot:
    • The first episode builds up to a mysterious fifty-year old bounty that is heavily protected and requires all of both Djarin and IG-11's skill, firepower, and luck to get to. Nobody (in-universe or out) was expecting it to be an infant of Yoda's species.
    • The fifth episode seemingly ends on a mostly-high note as Djarin manages to save the Child and his caretaker and takes off. Then the shot cuts to a mysterious armored individual approaching Fennec's corpse...
    • The seventh episode ends with Kuiil lying dead, as the Scout Troopers who have just captured the Child speed away in the background, while Djarin, Greef, and Cara are cornered by the newly introduced Moff Gideon and his army of Death Troopers.
    • Much of the plot of the eighth episode has Djarin and his party fighting their way out of Moff Gideon's ambush. They make their way to his tribe's sewer hideout only to find a pile of badly damaged and discarded helmets. The hideout had been discovered and purged by Gideon's men, leaving only the Armorer to tend to the remains and salvage whatever she can.
    • The eighth episode ends with Moff Gideon cutting himself out of the TIE Fighter wreckage... with the Darksaber. This is even more noteworthy because until this reveal the story had been self-contained and largely seperated from the larger story arcs of the universe. From this moment onwards The Mandalorian begins building connections to a bigger story.
    • The ninth episode ends with the Mandalorian riding off into the sunset... while Boba Fett watches his speeder trail off with his old armor in tow.
    • The ending of Chapter 12. After Moff Gideon is informed that Djarin's ship is being tracked, we get a shot of his latest project — an entire platoon of Phase Three Dark Troopers.
    • A couple of minutes into Chapter 14 we get one of the Slave I approaching Tython. There is also Boba Fett donning his Mandalorian armor for the first time onscreen in thirty-seven years.
    • Episode 16 has one of a lone X-Wing approaching Gideon's cruiser, followed quickly by Luke Skywalker emerging to cut down Gideon's Dark Troopers.
    • The Stinger of Chapter 16 features Bib Fortuna, Jabba the Hutt's former majordomo, having taken over the criminal empire. Then Boba Fett and Fennec Shand arrive to depose him, with Boba taking his place on the throne.
    • Chapter 21 ends on the note of Carson Teva discovering the remains of the floating Lambda shuttle (which was supposed to bring Gideon to the trial). During the scanning, he finds a major piece of evidence - the piece of beskar armor, to be precise.
    • Episode 23 has the Mandalorians ambushed by an unknown faction wielding beskar-mixed armor in Mandalore's underground, which they with some effort repel and chase down... only to stop as they suddenly find themselves at the edge of an entire Imperial base. Cue them being ambushed by Moff Gideon's forces.
  • What a Piece of Junk: Mando is about function over form, and his ship shows it. It's a very old ship, predating the Empire, and certainly isn't a lot to look at but it serves him quite well, even if he's not exactly focused on keeping it pristine. After just a few episodes on the run, the Razor Crest is really banged up. It can handle okay, but it's still suffering.
  • What the Hell, Hero?: Paz Vizsla berates the Mandalorian for taking a job from the Empire after what they did to the Mandalorians during the Great Purge. The Armorer speaks in his defense, however, pointing out that the Empire is gone and that the beskar he brought back to them matters more.
  • What You Are in the Dark: Season 1 Episode 3, "The Sin", is all about this. The Mandalorian has given the bounty over to the imperial remnants, is now fully kitted out with beskar armor, and is set to continue on with his next job, with everyone praising him for his performance... but decides to go back and rescue the kid anyway because he knows whatever the Empire is intending to do, it can't be good. He also owes the kid one for saving his life against the mudhorn.
  • The Worf Effect:
    • Oddly this trope applies to a weapon instead of a character. The Mandalorian's flamethrower gauntlet is deadly as heck but only gets used successfully twice, against one stormtrooper and one prison-barge droid. Every other time he uses it it's to demonstrate how outclassed he is, like Burg just shrugging it off, it being deflected during a tussle, or large creatures being intimidated but not overly hurt.
    • In Chapter 16, a lone Dark Trooper gives Djarin the fight for his life unlike any foe we've seen thus far. Minutes later, the entire Dark Trooper platoon is savaged by one Luke Skywalker.
  • Would Hurt a Child: In Chapter 8, after the stormtroopers successfully capture the child, they have no problems hitting the bag they have him stored in if he makes noise.
  • Wouldn't Hurt a Child: When the Mandalorian learns his quarry is not only a child, but the people he's working for are intent on killing him, he double-crosses them, running off with the kid. He spends the rest of the first season protecting the Child, becoming a surrogate father to him.
  • Wrestler in All of Us:
    • In "The Marshall", a Gamorrean gladiator in a ring styled after a boxing or pro wrestling ring attempts to enter the fight against the Mandalorian by performing a diving splash over the top rope. He simply steps aside and the Gamorrean smashes into a convenient bench.
    • Koska Reeves is played by Sasha Banks, so her fighting style incorporates jetpack-augmented moves like dropkicks and diving knee strikes.
  • Wretched Hive: The Mandalorian travels to the original on Tatooine in Episode 5, seeking a bounty. With Jabba dead and the Imperials clearly not welcome any more, it's less wretched than it used to be; the local bartender says there just aren't any bounty hunting jobs near here as a result. Fortunately, there are plenty of other crapholes in the galaxy to fill Mos Eisley's place.
  • You Have Failed Me: Moff Gideon may just rival Darth Vader himself in terms of this trope. The very first thing we see him do is have his Death Troopers shoot through the Client and his men for falling for an obvious trick, and he subsequently follows that up by shooting an officer for interrupting him. In season 2, he orders the crew of an Imperial transport in danger of being captured to crash into the ocean to kill their captors, in a tone that obviously suggests he will make them wish they were dead if they fail to do so.
  • You No Take Candle: The Jawas in Episode 2 hoot and holler at the Mandalorian when he tries to speak to them in their language, saying he sounds like a Wookiee. Subtitles show that the Mandalorian is using correct grammar, but it's a very simple sentence and it takes him some effort to put it together, hence their mockery.
  • Younger Than They Look: According to the internal chronology, Boba Fett is in his early forties, yet he looks much older (Temuera Morrison being nearly 60). A rough life as a bounty hunter, plus spending some time in a Sarlacc's stomach, will do that to you.
  • Your Princess Is in Another Castle!: In chapter thirteen, Djarin finally tracks down a Jedi in the form of Ahsoka Tano... but she refuses to train the Child, as his emotional attachment to Djarin makes her fear that her tutelage would just lead him down the same dark path as her own master, Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader. However, she does give Djarin directions to a place where he may truly be able to complete his quest and find someone who will train the Child; Tython, the possible ancestral home of the Jedi.

"Being a Mandalorian is not just learning about how to fight. You also have to know how to navigate the galaxy, because you never know where you might be headed next."

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Din vs Dark Trooper

Both Din and the Dark Trooper have trouble hurting each other through their armor.

How well does it match the trope?

5 (11 votes)

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Main / NoSell

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