As The Mandalorian: Chapter 18 — The Mines of Mandalore goes along, Din Djarin gives Lady Bo-Katan Kryze a response that is as profound as any of the many voices crying out in the vast Star Wars franchise.
The Mandalorian season 3 scene where the response happened
Din (Pedro Pascal, Brendan Wayne, Lateef Crowder) tells Bo-Katan (Katee Sackhoff) in that he sticks with the Children of the Watch because the fundamentalist cult holds Mandalorians together.
“I honestly think that it’s adorable that you actually believe these children’s stories. But there is nothing magic about the waters,” Bo-Katan asks Din in the episode.
Din straightaway has a response.
“Without the Creed, what are we? What do we stand for? Our people are scattered like stars in the galaxy.”
“The Creed is how we survived,” he says.
The argument seems to resonate with Bo-Katan. Or at least made her appreciate why Din, like The Armorer (Emily Swallow) and adherents to the Creed, says, “This is the way” and carries it out. (And Bo-Katan runs with the Children of the Watch later in the season. She seemed to appreciate at least the belonging and connection it provided her.)
Din’s response in The Mandalorian and Joseph Campbell’s Power of Myth
Din’s argument very much reflects scholar Joseph Campbell‘s philosophy as he expressed it in the PBS production Joseph Campbell and The Power of Myth.
In an interview with journalist Bill Moyers (which resulted in a book), Campbell talks about how mythology, which accompanies societies, binds them together.
I covered a virtual reality conference five years ago. Lisa Joy, the co-creator of the Westworld show, was the conference’s keynote speaker. She said that our identities are the stories we tell each other. That seems to be quite similar to Campbell’s power-of-myth view, and it makes me wonder if many filmmakers and other storytellers have such a perspective.
The circle is now complete
Also, as Star Wars creator George Lucas publicly said, Campbell influenced the franchise that Din Djarin is a part of. Thus, Din’s response to Bo-Katan brings Star Wars full circle regarding the mythologist. (Or rather, since Star Wars is still being produced, it’s an along-the-way sort of thing!)
