Din Djarin returns to Tatooine looking for a new ship, just as Boba is looking for muscle against the Pykes.
Tropes:
- Ace Custom: Once Peli and Din are finished with the N-1 Starfighter, it has been heavily upgraded and customized, now sporting a bare metal finish with gold highlights, bigger guns and what appears to be a rear seat replacing the droid port.
- The Alleged Car: Peli Motto sells Din on an N-1 Starfighter in less-than-spaceworthy condition. She's quick to point out, however, that she does have all the parts, he just arrived sooner than she expected after receiving her message about finding him a new ship.
- All There in the Script: The ring world featured in the episode is called Glavis
in the audio description available on Disney+. - Ancestral Weapon: Paz Vizsla views the Darksaber as rightfully his, as it was forged in ages past by his ancestor Tarre Vizsla. He challenges Din to a duel for the weapon, and briefly gets ahold of it, but Din overpowers him and takes the Darksaber back.
- Apocalypse Wow: The destruction of Mandalore, referred to as "The Night of a Thousand Tears", is showcased as the Empire bombarding the planet's settlement's with TIE bombers, then sending in KX and probe droids to sift through the ruins to finish off any survivors. The destruction is truly a sight to behold.
- Atrocity Montage: The Armorer recounts to Din Djarin "the Night of a Thousand Tears" — the Imperial genocide of the Mandalorians that followed the end of Star Wars Rebels. This is depicted in a series of flashbacks of TIE Bombers carpet-bombing the cities of the planet Mandalore as it darkens the skies followed by Viper probe droids to sift for survivors in the ruins and KX-series security droids to hunt and execute them.
- Awesome, but Impractical:
- The Darksaber. Sure, it's powerful enough to cut through anything (save beskar), but that includes the wielder. It now makes a lot of sense why lightsabers aren't very popular as weapons, as they take years of practice and talent to use properly, especially for a non-Force sensitive.
- Downplayed with the N-1 Starfighter, which Din is on the fence about: aside from it being in pieces when he gets to Tatooine, he doesn't like that it's a starfighter instead of a courier ship like the Razor Crest (the logical problem for a Bounty Hunter being that it lacks in carrying capacity, limiting his ability to take "capture alive" contracts). The test flight sells him on it anyway.
- Blocking Stops All Damage: Prominently averted; Din's spar with the Armorer shows that even blocking her strikes takes a lot out of him. Paz's arm-mounted shield only takes a couple hits from the Darksaber before failing. Keeping with The Mandalorian, it is consistently shown that whenever the Darksaber hits beskar on their bodies, there are little to no scratches visible.
- Break Out the Museum Piece: Peli's replacement for the destroyed Razor Crest is an antique Naboo N-1 starfighter, which she explicitly notes is from the Galactic Republic era, meaning it's an unregistered pre-Empire vessel just like the Crest was.
- Brick Joke:
- Din gets "pulled over" by the Space Police again. The same X-Wings, even.
- On the flight to Tatooine, a Rodian child waves at Din. As he's flying his new ship, he flies past the passenger ship carrying the same child and gives him a nod.
- The Bus Came Back:
- After disappearing for the entirety of the second season of The Mandalorian, the Armorer and Paz return, having made their home in the substrata of the ring world. They're all that survived of the Nevarro covert.
- Tatooinian mechanic Peli Motto and New Republic Captain Carson Teva also return from second-season episodes of The Mandalorian.
- Buzzing the Deck: Din shows off his N-1 by strafing closely around a Star Liner Cruiser transport and hugging its hull as it is departing Tatooine. Naturally, this causes the authorities to show up in response.
- Call-Back:
- Just like in the Cold Opening of his self-titled series, Din cuts someone in half while bounty hunting. This time it's his mark that ends up being bisected. In both scenes his quarry denies being the person he's looking for, even when presented with a hologram of their face.
- Din tells the Armorer and Paz how he acquired the beskar spear and Darksaber during season 2 of The Mandalorian.
- Din didn't catch that Ahsoka never said she was a Jedi; having quit the Order before the Jedi Purge, she doesn't identify as such. He still, obliviously, calls her a Jedi. (Star Wars has never properly established a generic term for a non-Jedi lightsider, unlike the term "dark Jedi" for generic darksiders.)
- Din didn't like using the beskar spear even in situations that called for having a melee weapon and didn't carry it on his person until the Razor Crest was destroyed. Here we learn that beskar isn't used for weapons by Mandalorians and the Armorer barely has to say anything before he asks her to smelt it for something else.
- The Armorer gives an accurate, if vague, retelling of how Bo-Katan came to possess the Darksaber, as shown in Star Wars Rebels. She also repeats the origin story of the blade and its creator, Mandalorian Jedi Knight Tarre Vizsla from the same show, with the added revelation that the hilt is made of Beskar.
- Din is kicked out of the Children of the Watch by the Armorer for having removed his helmet in front of others in "The Believer" and "The Rescue".
- When asked to surrender his weapons before boarding the starliner, Din Djarin repeats his line from season 1 of The Mandalorian: "I'm a Mandalorian. Weapons are part of my religion." The porter droid is unmoved, and Din reluctantly removes and checks his gear.
- Carson Teva recognizes Din's voice and brings up the Razor Crest being involved in an incident with Imperial Remnants on Nevarro. Once again, Din bolts to avoid questions he can't answer. Unlike last time, however, he is in a modernized Naboo starfighter with a booster engine so powerful that Teva's inexperienced wingman mistakes it for a hyperspace jump.
- Casual Interstellar Travel: Din is able to get a flight to Tatooine and it's implied they're daily. The interior of the ship is like a more spacious commercial airliner.
- Category Traitor: The Armorer kicks Din out of the Children of the Watch following him being forced to admit to having removed his helmet in front of others in "The Believer" and "The Rescue". Paz Vizla calls him "apostate". Din appears to have returned to the Watch hoping it wouldn't come up. At least they let him keep his armor.
- Continuity Nod:
- Din makes similar observations about the weight of the Darksaber as Sabine did when she wielded it, though even more pronounced. The Armorer likewise gives advice on wielding it that matches what Kanan told Sabine.
- Imperial KX-series enforcer droids, first seen in Rogue One, are seen in the flashback to "The Night of a Thousand Tears" hunting down any Mandalorians that survived the initial saturation bombing of their homeworld.
- A womp rat is found skulking around Peli's hangar preying on droids, and another one scampers away in Beggar's Canyon when Din comes flying through in the rebuilt starfighter. These are the same creatures that Luke Skywalker once claimed that he could bulls-eye from his T-16 Skyhopper while preparing for the attack on the first Death Star.
- The cryogenic density combustion booster the Jawas bring to Din and Peli is a smaller version of the piece Han Solo used to try to hold the walls of the Death Star's Garbage Compactor apart.
- After the ship is fixed, Din takes his new N-1 Starfighter on a test run through Beggar's Canyon, through the very same route Anakin Skywalker once passed through during the Boonta Eve Classic Podrace decades ago. The camera shots of the old racetrack are even from the same angles as back then, and they never fixed the barricade that Anakin drove through nearly 40 years previously.
- Cool Starship: Peli reveals she's dug up a Naboo starfighter to replace Din's lost Razor Crest. He's not happy at first but once they've finished modifying it, he takes it for a test run and is very impressed at how well it handles.
- Cower Power: As Peli is chasing the womp rat, the pit droids aren't of much help, all three cowering behind her or the other droids.
- A Day in the Limelight: The episode is effectively an episode of The Mandalorian set between Seasons 2 and 3, with Boba only being mentioned and Fennec only showing up to connect the series' plot at the very end.
- Decapitation Presentation: Din delivers Kaba Baiz's head to his employer, though he doesn't actually unpack it, merely recommending they put it on ice.
- Discard and Draw: Din gives up the beskar spear to be melted down, but keeps the Darksaber, even after being exiled.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?:
- On the flight to Tatooine, Din briefly locks gazes with the Rodian child in the seat in front of him. He then looks down to the recently forged beskar gift for Grogu. The way the bundle is wrapped with long ties (like ears) resembles the foundling, which is emphasized when he tenderly stokes the fabric.
- Peli praising the qualities of the N-1 starfighter to Din sounds very much like a used cars dealer trying to sell a vintage vehicle. And their arguments over the exhaust manifold make her sound like a gearhead wanting to remove the anti-pollution gear from a street rod to make it go faster.
- The Jawas explaining to Din and Peli that they crimped off a part from the underside of a Pyke ship sounds an awful lot like thieves stealing the catalytic converter off a car.
- Din takes his shiny new ship for a joyride, including swooping near a passenger ship and between its structures. He immediately gets pulled over by New Republic police, essentially acting as space traffic cops, for reckless driving. Carson Teva, the leader of the wingpair, also declines to pursue Din when he bolts, his sublight drive being so overpowered that his wingman briefly mistakes it for a hyperjump. In real life, many police departments have adopted "no chase" policies for safety reasons.
- Double Entendre: Peli makes a couple.
- "You're gonna evacuate your exhaust manifold, if you know what I mean."
- She also makes reference to how the speed of the N-1 will "tighten the old evacuation port".
- Double-Meaning Title: In a meta sense, the Mandalorian returns to Disney+. In a storytelling sense, the Mandalorian returns to people he hasn't seen since before he began meeting Mandalorians from other tribes.
- Dynamic Entry: Din makes a brief one of these when he arrives at Peli's hangar, blasting a rodent-like creature (implied to be a womp rat) that's been marauding around the area preying on droids and currently has Motto herself by the leg. She then promptly lampshades it once free.
- Easily Forgiven: Averted pretty hard with Din. Despite removing his helmet being necessary to get Grogu to the Jedi, and having won the Darksaber along the way, he's exiled for having broken the Creed.
- The Easy Way or the Hard Way: Done by both sides in the Action Prologue. Kaba Baiz points out that his men have Din surrounded but he's willing to discuss other options, clearly hoping that this bounty hunter will take a bribe to leave him alone. Din of course gives him the only two options available.
- Electronic Speech Impediment: The RX droid Din retrieves his luggage from in the Tatooine spaceport has a stutter that its counterpart on the ringworld lacks. It may be indicative of the more Used Future state of Tatooine, as contrasted to the technologically advanced artificial ringworld.
- Empathic Weapon: Training with the Darksaber, Din finds it becoming abnormally heavy and difficult to swing, which the Armorer attributes to him not using it properly — he's unconsciously fighting against the blade by trying to wield it with his physical strength alone, and he won't get any better with it until he learns how to work with it and not against it. When Paz Viszla picks it up, he has the same problem, arguably to an even worse degree given that he's a physically larger and stronger man than Din.
- Exposition Dump: The Armorer tells Din the history of the Darksaber and its association with the fall of Mandalore for the first half of the episode.
- Extended Disarming: Din is forced to pack his considerable arsenal in a storage bin for his flight, much to his annoyance, including going so far as to uncoil his grappling hook. He marks a hesitant pause upon dropping the Darksaber, which is an absolutely priceless artifact, but finally puts it in the case too. Then, inverted — he's just as annoyed when he gets off the flight and realizes he has to put all of that gear back on. We even spot a piece he hasn't been shown using yet: a little snub-barrel holdout blaster.
- Fell Off the Back of a Truck: Peli gets her parts by giving Jawas a list and waiting for them to deliver, then lets them root around in her dumpster as payment. As Din discovers later (and has experienced personally in the past), the Jawas are perfectly willing to steal the parts if necessary.
- Five-Second Foreshadowing: At the Klatoonian meat-packing facility, a figure appears behind a translucent curtain — clearly wearing Mandalorian armor and carrying a spear on his back. It's pretty easy to guess that this is Din Djarin before he emerges.
- Foreshadowing: The Armorer says that Bo-Katan Kryze was a "cautionary tale" in that she believed she could rule Mandalore by right of blood alone and had not earned ownership of the Darksaber. Paz Viszla believes that the Darksaber belongs to him by right of blood (as it was created by his ancestor, the Mandalorian Jedi Tarre Viszla), and while he attempts to win it from Din the legitimate way in single combat, he ultimately proves to be unworthy of it.
- Forging Scene: The Armorer melts the head of the beskar spear in order to forge what's implied to be a beskar chainmail for Grogu.
- Funny Background Event: R5-D4 breaks down, emitting a plume of smoke while Mando and Peli converse over ship parts.
- Gory Discretion Shot: Din hacking off Kaba Baiz's head happens offscreen, with just the sound of the Darksaber and some thumps to indicate what he's doing. When he emerges from the office, the head is completely wrapped in a sack and stays there until Din hands it over to his employer.
- Half the Man He Used to Be: Din cuts Kaba Baiz in half with the Darksaber, then promptly takes it up to eleven by decapitating him post-mortem in order to have something to turn in for the bounty.
- Hard-Work Montage: Din, Peli, and her droid crew rebuilding and pimping out the N-1 starfighter. It comes with quite a bit of Techno Babble. Comes with a catchy soundtrack entry with a lot of theme song motifs played around with.
- Hesitation Equals Dishonesty: When asked if he's ever removed his helmet, Din hesitates to answer, making it obvious he did and only encouraging the Armorer to press until he admits it.
- Honor Before Reason: Once again, all the Mandalorians seen in the episode fall to this:
- Din admits that he's taken his helmet off and accepts the consequences, even though he could've lied and gotten away with it, or attempted to explain the extenuating circumstances.
- The Armorer casts Din out for removing his helmet, even though it's literally just herself and Paz without him. She does give him a way to come back, but it's an Impossible Task Din has no expectation of fulfilling.
- For that matter, Paz Viszla's challenge to Din over the Darksaber carries with it the risk of either one of them dying or a Mutual Kill (to the detriment of their already-minuscule covert). However, seeing that the Darksaber is likely one of the few remaining relics of Clan Viszla, he probably sees it as his duty to do so.
- How Do I Shot Web?: Din shows the perils of wielding something like the Darksaber when you're not a Force user. He has trouble even wielding it like a regular sword because of its Empathic Weapon nature, and ends up giving himself a nasty burn for the trouble.
- Hyperspeed Escape: Din escapes the New Republic patrol by activating the sublight booster on his Naboo starfighter, accelerating so fast that the junior X-Wing pilot at first thinks he jumped to hyperspace, but is confused because he didn't pick up a power spike in the ship's hyperdrive engine. Carson Teva, inured veteran, figures immediately that it's a souped-up sublight engine.
- Impossible Task: Din is told he can redeem his sin of removing his helmet in the living waters beneath the mines of Mandalore. Din points out that the mines were destroyed. "This is the Way," the Armorer responds. Then again, Bo-Katan felt that Mandalore could be returned to its former glory, so Din's assessment may not be entirely accurate.
- In-Camera Effects: The Oner in which Din takes the elevator up to the bar and goes back down shows off the capabilities of the ILM StageCraft volume. Instead of building a working elevator, the crew can build a one-level set and animate the entire background to simulate the elevator going to different floors.
- Internal Reveal: Din tells the Armorer that he has, in fact, removed his helmet, which makes him a Persona Non Grata among the Children of the Watch.
- Interspecies Romance: Peli tells Din that she dated a Jawa once; apparently they're very furry. A few seconds later, one of two Jawas that enters the hangar propositions her, but she politely turns him down.
- It's a Small World, After All: Din just happens to bump into New Republic Captain Carson Teva again, in orbit above Tatooine during his first joyride in his new ship.
- Let's Fight Like Gentlemen: When Paz Vizsla challenges Din Djarin for ownership of the Darksaber, both men remove their jet packs and stick to blades only. The Armorer acts as referee, and makes sure to stop the duel before either warrior kills the other.
- Loophole Abuse: The Armorer tells Din that weapons made from beskar can pierce beskar armor, so they have to be melted down because they are a threat to Mandalorians. The Darksaber doesn't count as such, because only its hilt is made from beskar. The Armorer's hammer and tongs (which are obviously beskar too since they can block the Darksaber) are also exempt from this rule because they are forging tools and not actual weapons — even though she's fond of using them as bludgeons, which wouldn't count as piercing weapons, either.
- Man Bites Man: One of the Klatoonian goons of Kaba Baiz bites Din Djarin in the hand at the start of their fight, making him drop his blaster.
- Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: The Armorer believes that Bo-Katan Kryze taking up the Darksaber without winning it in battle cursed Mandalore to fall. Realistically, the Children of the Watch have an unusually mystical take on Mandalorian culture and the Mandalorians' history as a Proud Warrior Race. Bo-Katan openly siding with the Rebels were probably sufficient grounds for the Empire to come after the Mandalorians all on their own.
- Mythology Gag:
- The Armorer references the Mythosaur when talking of the return of the Mandalorian prophecy. She also says it only exists in Legends.
- When Din tries to board the commercial starliner, he's stopped by an RX-droid running security.
- A BD Unit is seen at Peli's spaceport. After being attacked by a womp rat, it limps around just like BD-1 did after it was attacked by a bog rat.
- Din uses a very familiar adjective to describe his new ride:Din: ... Wizard.
- Din also is given an old N-1 Starfighter to use by Peli. Unlike the usual N-1s, however, this one has been given some very custom modifications to make it extremely speedy and powerful, albeit not very durable, almost exactly like the Experimental N-1 from Star Wars Starfighter.
- Din's response on first seeing the N-1 matches Luke's when he first glimpsed the Millennium Falcon, both calling the ships "...a pile of junk." And like Han, Peli starts a retort back with a "...she doesn't look like much, but..."
- When powering up the N-1 for the first time, the engine start sequence and sounds are just like those of a podracer.
- The shots of Din swooping around the various sensor and transmission towers of the commercial liner in his N-1 are framed identically to how Anakin flew over the Trade Federation battleship during the Battle of Naboo.
- R5 droids seem to have a tendency to break down on Tatooine. Peli's did, just as it did when Uncle Owen nearly purchased it from the Jawas. That particular R-5 unit may in fact be the very same one because it has scorch marks around its motivator access panel.
- Nice to the Waiter:
- Din offers Kaba Baiz's workers all the credits on their dead boss's desk if they let him pass in peace, an offer they take up after a bit of hesitation.
- Later, he tips the two Jawas fetching parts for his new starfighter, despite Peli complaining that he's spoiling them.
- Noodle Incident: Peli apparently dated a Jawa at some point.Peli: They're quite furry. Very furry.
- No OSHA Compliance: The substrata of the Ring World Planet has catwalks with no guardrails, allowing anyone who trips to literally fall into space. Din only survives because of his jetpack.
- Not Helping Your Case: Peli trying to sell Mando on a Naboo starfighter is constantly undercut by every single part she hasn't attached or that falls off. Nevertheless, she still convinces him that it'll be worth the investment if she helps him repair it.
- Not the Intended Use: Beskar is meant for armor, not weapons, because the latter can pierce the former. In other words, beskar weapons represent an existential threat to the beskar-armored Mandalorians, and so can't be allowed to exist. Din offers the beskar spear to be melted down into armor. The Darksaber's beskar hilt makes it the sole exception to this rule, presumably due to its symbolic connotations and/or the fact that the beskar itself isn't being weaponized, just acting as a casing. The lightsaber housed within can clash with beskar, but not overcome it directly.
- The Oner: From the moment Din takes the elevator, arrives at the bar, discusses with his employer (with an Orbital Shot around the table), departs through the same elevator and till he exits it, all of this is one uninterrupted continuous shot with the camera following him.
- Out of Focus: Boba doesn't appear at all in this episode and Fennec only comes in the final moment to hire Din.
- Persona Non Grata: For breaking his Creed, Din is banished from the Children of the Watch and would only be allowed back if he ritually cleanses in the waters beneath the mines of Mandalore, an impossible task given the belief that all the mines were destroyed.
- Pet the Dog:
- Despite violating his oath, The Armorer allows Din to keep his armor, the Darksaber, and his gift for Grogu.
- Din tips the Jawas after learning that they robbed a Pyke spice train to get one of the parts for his ship. Peli complains that he's "spoiling them".
- Carson Teva is amused when Din uses a sublight booster to escape and doesn't bother reporting him. This is because the paperwork would be a hassle and it's implied Teva has some awareness of Din's involvement in Moff Gideon's capture.
- Possession Implies Mastery: Averted. Just because Din has the Darksaber doesn't mean he's had the extensive training needed to wield a laser-sword that can cut through almost anything but doesn't have any weight to it other than the hilt. He does know how to use regular melee weapons, but this is a whole other level of difficulty and danger. During the opening brawl one of his opponents knocks him backwards and he accidentally slashes his own thigh with it (thankfully, just a light grazing wound).
- Racial Face Blindness: Kaba Baiz tries to use this against Din when the Mandalorian asks for him by name by claiming to not be him. Din shows that he sees through the ruse by showing the bounty puck's hologram, which has Baiz's face. Even if you can't tell Klatooinians apart, Baiz sports quite distinct piercings.
- Red Herring: When told to store his weapons in a cargo container before boarding the Starliner, Din also parts with the Darksaber, with an Implied Death Threat to the droid in charge that he knows what should be in that container. One would reasonably expect a special artifact like the Darksaber to be pilfered once he arrives in Tattooine, but it (and all of Din's weapons) arrive unmolested.
- The Reveal: The Armorer reveals the legend of a curse placed upon the Darksaber that states if someone who is unworthy is given the blade, they would lead Mandalore to ruins. Bo-Katan was given this weapon, and the Empire responded by destroying Mandalore. This would likely explain why Bo-Katan is unable to gain the respect of the surviving houses, and also explains why she refused Din's offer of the Darksaber after Din defeated Moff Gideon in combat.
- Ring World Planet: Din's latest bounty lives on one. The Covert has also made it their new home. In an amusing scene, Din, while training on a catwalk in the substrata of the ring, very nearly falls into space when he loses his balance. The ring seems to be smaller than an Orbital or a Halo; it may be around the same size as Elysium, so the atmosphere must be held in with force fields. However, shadows move over its surface in regular intervals to produce its day-night cycle like the vastly larger Ringworld. The episode doesn't show us the source of the ring's illumination, but it's too small to surround a sun like the Ringworld, so it must have some kind of artificial fusion generator or otherwise be collecting and reflecting the light from a nearby star.
- Rodents of Unusual Size: One womp rat is caught preying on droids in Peli's hangar in Mos Eisley, and another is seen scampering away in fright as Din comes flying through Beggar's Canyon in the rebuilt starfighter. Since they don't appear to be two meters in size, they're probably juveniles compared to the ones that Luke said he used to bulls-eye in his T-16.
- Scenery Porn: After Din collects his bounty, we get a couple minutes showing the ring world and how the sun passes over it.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: When the New Republic pilots start asking about his contact with the Imperial Remnant, Din hits the booster and leaves them in the dust.
- Shout-Out:
- While the ring world shown is based off of Larry Niven's Ringworld book, a variety of camera angles showing it off bring to mind similar scenes shot of the titular Halo rings. Especially the vertical shot of the Ringworld at the end with Din, a warrior fully clad in armor, walking on its surface.
- The final scene of the destruction of Mandalore, with probe droids hovering above the ruins and KX-series security droids (from Rogue One) on the ground looks eerily like the "Future War" sequences from the Terminator movies.
- Peli being seized by a predator and pulled behind some crates while she struggles to hang on, with only her head visible, is very reminiscent of the velociraptor attack of a loading dock worker at the beginning of Jurassic Park, though in this case it's Played for Laughs.
- Silly Animal Sound: On Tatooine, there's a pterosaur-like critter which... crows exactly like a rooster in the morning. This is done at the end of the Hard-Work Montage, showing that Din, Peli and her pit droids have spent the entire night restoring the N-1 Starfighter, which they then roll out into the light of the rising twin suns for a flight test.
- Slaughterhouse Fight: Done for the Action Prologue.
- Slice of Life: The sequence where Din travels from the ring world to Tatooine, including curious children in a nearby seat, and having to put away all of his weapons to clear customs and hoping they're still there on the other end, calling to mind real life air travel. It's used to contrast his former badass travels in the Razor Crest where he could travel wherever he wanted in style, hence the need to replace it with the N-1.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome:
- When we left Din and Bo-Katan during the Season 2 finale of The Mandalorian, the question of whether Din is now actually the rightful leader of Mandalore (and how Bo-Katan and her crew will take that) was left hanging. It turns out (unlike most examples of The Hero's Journey) that just because Din is saddled with the symbolic Darksaber doesn't mean he's actually going to accept the responsibility of uniting Mandalore. Furthermore, with Grogu gone, he simply fell back into the bounty-hunting life — albeit it is shown to be clearly not healthy for him, either physically or emotionally. He also goes back to the Children of the Watch despite learning that other Mandalorians shun them as a creepy fundamentalist cult, because despite everything he still considers them his people — there's not many other places he can go.
- Din burns his leg with the Darksaber during the opening fight, much like Sabine nearly cut off her hand at the wrist when she first trained with it. It hasn't been that long since he first took it from Gideon, so he hasn't had much time to train — and being non-Force-sensitive, he doesn't have the same knack for it that Luke, Rey and Ezra had when they first used a lightsaber. For that matter, he doesn't have the benefit of two Jedi teaching him as Sabine did. Given that it can cut through metal just like a modern lightsaber, Din is extremely fortunate to end up with a relatively minor wound.
- Din gets to display why different cultures have had wildly different armors in history; the enemy you're fighting has weapons that land in certain ways? You develop armor that counters those weapons. In a world of blasters, armor that covers your front and rear is fine, because you'll mostly be facing or running from enemies with blasters. Introduce things like the Darksaber and suddenly you're looking at different angles of attack. So Din gets a really bad burn on his leg that leaves him with a limp.
- Din also falls off one of the No OSHA Compliance catwalks in the substratum of the Ring World, but since he's wearing his jetpack, he's able to fly right back to the catwalk and resume training. This becomes a Let's Get Dangerous! moment when he fights Paz Viszla, since both of them remove their jetpacks and set them aside, allowing Destination Defenestration of sorts in their duel for the Darksaber. Neither of them actually fall off, though Din gets tossed onto a nearby platform that's hard to see and momentarily gives the impression that he's headed for space before it's clear that he landed on solid metal.
- Like real-world commercial airliners, the starliner Din takes to Tatooine has a strict "no weapons allowed" policy, forcing Din to surrender and check his arsenal of weapons to a porter droid before boarding. He gets to keep his jetpack, though.
- Takes One to Kill One: Only beskar blades can pierce beskar armor, making Din's beskar spear a threat to all Mandalorians. The Armorer melts it down into a gift for Grogu.
- Technobabble: Tons of it between Peli and Din, mostly from the former, while discussing the N-1.
- That's an Order!: Played for laughs when Peli's droids refuse to take on the womp rat, to Peli's annoyance as droids aren't supposed to disobey orders.
- Traitor Shot: Even though we can't see his face, the way Paz Vizsla's head turns to follow the Darksaber as the Armourer hands it back makes it unsurprising when he later challenges Din over its ownership.
- Trunk Shot: During the Extended Disarming scene, we get a lower viewpoint shot from the inside of the case where Din is putting his weapons, just as he's hesitating from adding the Darksaber to the lot.
- Uncomfortable Elevator Moment: As Din takes an elevator to reach his employer, an alien sharing the ride gives the wounded Mandalorian — bristling with weapons and carrying a severed head in a sack — an awkward glance before promptly looking away.
- Variations on a Theme Song: The title card combines the theme songs to this show and The Mandalorian.
- What a Piece of Junk: Djarin's initial assessment of the antique Naboo starfighter Peli has found. He's changed his opinion by the end, though, after they've fixed it up.
