‘The Mandalorian’ Season 2: Fans Love That the Armor’s Fate Wasn’t Too Predictable
The Mandalorian recently premiered its second season on Disney+, and it gave Star Wars fans plenty to talk about. Along with having a great opening plotline and some celebrity guest appearances, it also featured a somewhat surprise ending. It will take a lot for this season to live up to the first season, but so far it’s off to a great start.
Let’s take a look back at what happened and why it’s a good thing that Mando didn’t let one character keep some Mandalorian armor he’d happened upon.
What happened in the season two premiere of ‘The Mandalorian?’
The second season premiere opens with Mando attempting to complete a simple (but not easy) mission: return the Child (better known to the internet as Baby Yoda) to the Jedi. His first task is to find another Mandalorian who can help him with this. He travels to a seedy sporting event: a fight between two Gamorreans.
Star Wars fans will recognize this species as the pig-like creatures who served as guards on Jabba the Hutt’s sail barge in The Return of the Jedi.
After dispatching some nefarious characters, Mando learns that there’s been a fellow Mandalorian spotted on Tatooine. He travels there and meets a man named Cobb Vanth (played by Timothy Olyphant) who is serving as the marshal of a remote outpost called Mos Pelgo.
Vanth tells Mando he’s not actually a Mandalorian, which angers our hero. Before the two can duel, the town is torn apart by a massive subterranean monster known as a krayt dragon. They make a deal: if Mando helps Vanth destroy the best, he can keep the armor.
The two recruit the Tusken Raiders and the townspeople of Mos Pelgo and eventually kill the beast. Mando and Vanth shake hands as allies and Vanth hands over the armor. As Mando is leaving the planet, we see a mysterious man watching him go.
The man is played by Temuera Morrison, the actor who portrayed Jango Fett in the Star Wars prequels and the voice of Boba Fett in the remastered original trilogy.
The significance of Cobb Vanth’s Mandalorian armor
Vanth informs Mando that he bought the armor he’s wearing from Jawas in the desert. Most Star Wars fans understand who the armor most likely belonged to: none other than Boba Fett. According to Wookieepedia, in Return of the Jedi, Fett is sent to his presumed demise at the bottom of the Sarlacc pit outside Jabba the Hutt’s sail barge.
He’s been brought back to life in numerous expanded universe materials (books and comics now referred to as “Star Wars Legends” and considered non-canon). Many fans speculated that he’d be brought back specifically for this series.
Why it’s great that Mando didn’t return the armor
Because Mando and Vanth had made an alliance, it seemed as if he’d let his new friend keep the armor. He didn’t, and the show is better off for it. There are two main reasons why it’s a good thing Mando kept the armor:
- It’s consistent with the character. Mando lives by a strict code. No non-Mandalorian is allowed to wear this armor. While he bends somewhat to allow Vanth to use it to keep his town safe, he has an ethos to live up to.
- It opens up the possibility of a Mando vs. Fett showdown. It’s unclear if the mysterious figure at the end of the episode is Boba Fett, but it’s highly likely. That means he’ll follow Mando in pursuit of his armor and opens up a world of possibilities.
It may have seemed impossible for this show to top its first season, but bringing back one of the franchise’s most beloved villains may just do the trick.
