Some of the characters who've popped up in Disney+'s Mandalorian are simply callbacks
to early Star Wars movies.
Some, on the other hand, answer decades-old questions — while others just bring up more
questions than the show may even have time to answer.
Pedro Pascal's Mandalorian — or "Mando" as head of the Bounty Hunters' Guild Greef
Karga calls him — is a walking collection of mysteries and callbacks to older Star Wars
lore.
There's his rifle, which we see him using early against the beast that tries to drag
his ship underwater in Chapter 1 and later to disintegrate Jawas and rival bounty hunters.
It's the same weapon Boba Fett is armed with during his animated introduction in the Star
Wars Holiday Special, though we never see Fett armed with it in the films.
We don't know a lot about the Mandalorian people yet, save for what we've gathered from
scenes with the mysterious Armorer and other Mandalorian survivors — but the very presence
of Mando — foundling or not — tempts us to hope we'll get to see more of this fictional
culture, and maybe some answers to some more basic questions.
For instance, will we ever see Mando without his helmet?
"So what happens if you take that thing off?
They come after you and kill you?"
"No.
You just can't ever put it back on again."
Plot-wise, the goggled, long-snouted character who calls the Mandalorian a ride early in
Chapter 1 doesn't do all that much.
He calls Mando a droid-driven speeder, Mando passes on the droid, and the alien calls him
another speeder that's literally falling apart and driven by famous funny nerd Brian Posehn.
But the goggled flutist has more meaning not only as far as Star Wars lore is concerned,
but the ancient narrative roots The Mandalorian is tapping into.
More involved Star Wars fans will recognize the flutist as an alien called a Kubaz — it's
a Kubaz in A New Hope who stalks the heroes around Mos Eisley and turns them in to the
Imperial Storm Troopers.
But he's more than just an Easter egg.
When discussing the advice George Lucas gave him, Mandalorian creator Jon Favreau revealed
that Lucas reminded him to think about ancient stories of heroism.
Lucas was heavily influenced by the writing of Joseph Campbell, whose book The Hero with
a Thousand Faces breaks down the commonalities among heroic tales in different cultures.
In light of this, the flutist Kubaz seems like a clear reflection of Lucas' advice,
as the scene is reminiscent of the myth of the River Styx.
In ancient Greek myth, Styx was a river crossed by the newly dead by way of the ferryman Charon,
but the passage cost a coin — like the one Mando tosses to the Kubaz.
A Kubaz sniper later appears in Chapter 4, attempting to assassinate Baby Yoda, which
— regardless as to whether this is the same Kubaz flutist or not — further reinforces
the whole "Kubaz as an agent of death" idea.
That's some pretty literary stuff, Favreau!
There are a couple of interesting things going on with "The Client," the cold Imperial who
hires the Mandalorian to bring him "the asset," and who reacts with such a brimming undertone
of threat when Mando dares to ask him what will happen to the asset once he has it.
For starters, there's the surprising but perfect casting choice of Werner Herzog.
While Herzog has acted before, he's best known as an acclaimed director of existential art
films and think-y documentaries.
Even setting aside the casting choice, the Client tells us a lot about the post-Imperial
Star Wars world while at the same time leading to some interesting questions.
The Client is presumably someone who wielded a good deal of power in the Empire before
its fall.
In spite of the Empire's defeat in Return of the Jedi, the Client has significant resources
and influence — at least enough to operate without too much concern.
He's managed to keep a loyal band of stormtroopers by his side, as well as some kind of intelligence
network.
Clearly, the Empire is not as dead as the Death Star.
If Kuiil — the alien farmer in The Mandalorian's first two chapters who helps Mando find the
asset and get back home — looks familiar to you, there are a few reasons why that might
be the case.
Sure, it could be because you recognize the facial similarities to Nick Nolte, who voices
the elderly farmer — but it might also be that you remember one of the diminutive races
we meet in 1980's The Empire Strikes Back.
Kuiil is an Ugnaught, a race seen in Bespin's floating Cloud City.
They're the guys working the machines when Han Solo is frozen in carbonite, and they're
the ones playing catch with C-3PO's golden head when Chewbacca saves it and the rest
of the droid from being scrapped.
When the Mandalorian offers Kuiil a place aboard his ship at the end of Chapter 2, the
farmer tells the bounty hunter he is honored, but that he long worked to free himself from
the labor of others.
Could it be that Kuiil was one of the workers we see in Cloud City?
It's possible.
We have spoken.
Baby Yoda.
Can you believe it?
It's too frickin' cute.
"Stop touching things."
Chapter 1 of The Mandalorian ends with the huge reveal that the asset — Mando's target
and apparently the target of every single member of the Bounty Hunter's Guild — is
an infant member of whatever species the late Jedi Master Yoda hails from.
We're not being lazy here.
No one knows much about Yoda's species and George Lucas kept it unnamed on purpose.
But the baby's presence and Mando's affection for it has some huge implications for the
Star Wars mythos.
For one thing, the way the infant saves Mando from the horned beast in Chapter 2 tells us
Yoda's species is even more attuned with the Force than we ever imagined.
Its age leads us to a lot of questions — at 50 years old, Baby Yoda would have been alive
during the era of the prequel films.
Could it be that it was hidden just before the Empire came to power?
Did Yoda know about the baby?
Not to mention, who was guarding Baby Yoda in the first place?
Who was paying for all the men that the Mandalorian and IG-11 had to kill to get to it?
And, more importantly, why were they guarding it?
In Chapter 4 we meet, a former shock trooper for the Rebellion.
Mando takes note of Cara as soon as he arrives on Sorgan, worrying she's there to kill him
and take Baby Yoda to whatever horrific fate the last remnants of the Empire have in store
for him.
Cara notices Mando too, makes similar assumptions about him, and the two mercenaries enjoy a
fairly brutal melee before making peace — and throwing back some soup together.
"Want some soup?"
After their fight, Cara tells Mando she became a mercenary after the fall of the Empire.
She describes being relegated to duties she couldn't stomach like protecting delegates
and suppressing riots once her role of shock trooper was over, at which point she became
a gun for hire.
We don't know a lot of details about Cara's character yet, but what little we know — and
what we see from her — tells us a lot.
More than anything, we know Cara has a strong moral compass.
Cara's the first mercenary character we meet who we know for sure harbors loyalties to
the Rebellion.
As much as she expresses doubts, she refuses to abandon the farming village and even saves
Baby Yoda's life.
The fact that she assumed Mando "had a fob" on her means she's on the outs with the Guild.
Perhaps, like Mando, Cara chose conscience over duty, and that's what has her in hiding.
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