Mandalorian’s Gorian Shard is a terrible pirate but a great character

MandalorianThere are many great characters, and some very strange guys. There’s the family that Mando saves and reunites in the second season’s second episode, there’s Nick Nolte’s Kuiil, and there’s even Grogu himself.

Season 3’s first episode featured the incredible Gorian Shard. He is a space pirate and looks exactly like Treebeard or Davy Jones. He may only be in the episode for a few seconds, but there’s plenty we can glean from his brief appearance, including the fact that we want to see him lose to Din Djarin a lot more often.

[Ed. note: This story contains spoilers for The Mandalorian season 3, episode 1.]

Gorian Shard was a new character. Mandalorian and therefore a character we know almost nothing about — a relative rarity in the increasingly familiar Star Wars galaxy. Gorian seems to have some status as a space pirate. Everyone seems to love his name and it is a status symbol. We also know that he has a fleet of fighters under his command and a massive spaceship.

We don’t know much about Gorian. Gorian shows loyalty to his team, even those who are dumb and die trying to decide where they can drink Nevarro. That’s the sign of a truly great leader. We also know that he’s a committed investor in community spaces, like the saloon he apparently lent Greef Karga money to open, which Karga later dishonestly turned into a school.

Although none of them really justifies the person he appears to be keeping, nor does it make him appear smarter or more competent (in an admirable way), these do provide some insight into his very strange-looking character.

Lucasfilm

Speaking of silly-looking, one thing we don’t know about Gorian is what exactly he is. There’s no indication of what planet he hails from, or what race he is, but he does look a little bit like a sentient Christmas tree, which doesn’t clarify much.

Most importantly of all, Gorian Shard appears to be just a loser, despite these facts. Grogu and Mando are briefly threatened by Gorian Shard, but they just buzz past him, and then fly off to hyperspace. They also meet a purrgil. If there’s any justice in the universe Gorian will find a new way to show up in a few more episodes of the show, failing completely to capture or fight Mando every single time.

A great, villainous buffoon is something everyone loves. Boris, Natasha and all the rest. Rocky and BullwinkleWile E.Coyote Looney Tunes, watching someone fail catastrophically at their every attempt to ensnare our heroes is a staple of the Saturday-morning-adventure-show fun that MandalorianCapture is his forte. So it’s only fitting that Mando may now have his own version of that in Gorian Shard.