The Mandalorian did Bo-Katan and the Darksaber dirty

There’s a version of The MandalorianBo-Katan kryze is the Mandalorian of season 3. Din Djarin was not. Katee Sackhoff’s deposed warrior princess bears the season’s clearest arc, going from one of many exiled Mandalorians to the leader of a reborn Mandalore, leading her once-divided people in a united campaign to restore their homeworld. Problem is. The Mandalorian kept undermining her every step of the way — making her a leader, sure, but an extremely uninspiring one.

When we’re first reunited with Bo-Katan in “The Apostate,” the third-season premiere of The MandalorianBo-Katan finds herself in an embarrassing situation. She’s taken up bitter residence in an abandoned castle, where Din Djarin learns that her crew of (secular) Mandalorian followers has abandoned her to work as bounty hunters after they learned that she did not defeat Moff Gideon in combat, and that Din wields the Darksaber.

Bo-Katan is now being branded as a traitor for having surrendered to Moff Gideon during the Night of a Thousand Tears. The Empire was attempting to eradicate Mandalore at the time and Gideon had her hand over the Darksaber while offering mercy. (He lied.) This only gets worse when you consider the character’s Clone WarsDarth maul used her, along with fellow Mandalorian Pre Vizsla to briefly seize Mandalore’s throne and Darksaber.

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Bo-Katan is still haunted by that blade. She challenges Axe woves, her former co-worker, for the leadership of her clan. After winning, Axe undermines Bo-Katan by telling her that she can’t be leader without her Darksaber. So Din awards it to her on a technicality, since she saved Din from a monster that defeated him in the season’s second episode.

It’s an underwhelming resolution to a huge ideological conflict, basically coming down to who has a better understanding of the Monopoly rules. Doubly so when, for almost no reason at all, The Armorer decides that her cult’s strict creed allows it to partner with heretical Mandalorians for the purpose of retaking Mandalore, and that Bo-Katan has “walked both worlds” after diving into the Living Waters to save Din and keeping her helmet on for a few days.

All told, it’s such a flippant way to handle a character that has such a deep history running across multiple Star Wars series. What’s worse is that The Mandalorian also doesn’t satisfy Bo-Katan’s primary conflict on This is what you should do: Moff. Gideon is the best fighter in this show. He destroys Darksaber and wins all of her fights.Moff Gideon is the best fighter in every fight, and he destroys Darksaber (which was surprisingly not a big deal afterward?

The Mandalorian’s season 3 finale ends on a triumphant note with all the Mandalorians united under Bo-Katan, but because of all this, it feels like a hollow victory. Over three seasonsThe Mandalorian’s writers continually stressed the various creeds, prophecies, and beliefs of the Mandalorian people, and when Bo-Katan takes her place as the fulfillment of all these things, it’s only еликие дуиUnder those rules. This is a bad idea! Bo-Katan’s journey on paper is real heroic epic stuff, the kind of thing worthy of The Mandalorian’s flowery language about adding one’s name to “the Song.” It’s triumph over sustained tragedy, a people’s victory represented in one of their most storied citizens. Her story deserved its own show, not an underdeveloped subplot in another guy’s journey.