The Mandalorian Season 3's Biggest Moment Was Inevitable
This post contains spoilers for the season 3 finale of "The Mandalorian."
Hope has always been at the core of "Star Wars." One need look no further for the proof than the adventures of lovable tin can himbo Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal) and his adopted little green son, the newly-renamed Din Grogu, on "The Mandalorian." When the show began, Djarin was a ruthless bounty hunter living out of his spaceship and accepting any job that paid. However, by the end of the season 3 finale, he had found a way to make a more honorable livelihood, secured a comfortable homestead for Grogu and himself, and helped unite Mandalore's myriad tribes against their shared enemy.
Hope is similarly at the heart of Bo-Katan Kryze's (Katee Sackhoff) journey on the show. Despite the exiled Mandalore ruler's completely justified wariness of Djarin and the extremist cult from which he hails, a close encounter with a presumed-extinct mythosaur was enough to convince Bo-Katan to extend an olive branch to the Children of the Watch. Much to her pleasant surprise, The Armorer (Emily Swallow) returned the courtesy, allowing them to unify their respective followers against Moff Gideon (Giancarlo Esposito) and his Imperial forces without asking them to compromise or change their individual beliefs and cultures. (If only convincing real-world religious fundamentalists to respect others and join them in resisting fascists were so simple.)
That's not to suggest the Mandalorians' victory came without sacrifice, be it the death of their kin (RIP Paz Vizsla) or the destruction of the Darksaber, aka the very heirloom Bo-Katan spent years fighting to recover in order to secure her claim to the Mandalore throne. But as inevitable and necessary as the weapon's dismantling was for both Bo-Katan and the Mandalorian people, the way it was destroyed was, admittedly, a tad confusing at a passing glance.
So much for the 'indestructible' blade
Moff Gideon was the architect of so much of Bo-Katan's pain and suffering, so it was only right that she be the one to duel him while wielding the Darksaber in the "Mandalorian" season 3 finale. Less expected, though, was Gideon's impromptu crushing of the legendary Mandalore blade's hilt mid-battle, and while Bo-Katan was holding it no less. Naturally, fans were quick to take to sites like Reddit after the episode to discuss this surprising turn of events, including whether the Darksaber might yet be reforged (assuming its Kyber crystal is still intact) and how Gideon even broke the weapon in the first place.
While the Darksaber's future remains up in the air (much like that of Gideon), the question of how it was shattered is a bit more complicated. The blade has supposedly been around for over a thousand years, and, like all Mandalore "trinkets" (as Gideon mockingly calls them after wrecking the Darksaber), was made of beskar. Even with his beskar super-suit's hydraulic-powered gloves, Gideon theoretically shouldn't have been able to crush the Darksaber's hilt with his hand the way he did. Indeed, as we saw throughout the season 3 finale, beskar items are virtually indestructible, even when pitted against themselves. At most, they send sparks flying, like when Djarin went full "John Wick" on a hallway of Gideon's beskar-plated Dark Troopers.
It's plausible (maybe even likely, given the confusion among fans) that "The Mandalorian" showrunner Jon Favreau and executive producer Dave Filoni will eventually offer a canonical explanation for how Gideon achieved the not-so-impossible ... but they don't need to. Sure, it may read as a "plot hole" and perhaps the show's creatives merely overlooked some key details while crafting an otherwise clear-cut, action-packed season finale. Then again, perhaps they didn't.
Wars (and weapons) not make one great
If "The Mandalorian" has proven anything, it's that the Darksaber is more trouble than it's worth. Poor Djarin, in true himbo form, nearly lopped his own head off every time he used it. Moreover, superstitions surrounding the weapon led to Bo-Katan being blamed for Mandalore's downfall after she accepted the blade from Sabine Wren on "Star Wars Rebels" (rather than winning it in combat per tradition), further fracturing the Mandalorian people in the wake of the Great Purge. Just as those superstitions about Mandalore being "cursed" obviously proved to be nonsense, it doesn't take a huge leap to assume the Darksaber itself was never "indestructible" as legend would have one believe, either.
As we saw over the course of "The Mandalorian" season 3, it was Bo-Katan's willingness to play ball with the Children of the Watch and find a middle ground between them and the other Mandalorians that ultimately paved the way to Mandalore's salvation, not her regaining the Darksaber. Likewise, it was imperative that Bo-Katan find a way to defeat Moff Gideon without it, lest she find herself trapped in the same toxic cycle of staking her qualities as a leader on having the snazziest weapon in her arsenal. "Wars not make one great," as Yoda famously observed in "The Empire Strikes Back," and that goes double for objects designed to inflict harm upon others.
In that sense, Gideon accidentally did Bo-Katan a solid by demolishing the Darksaber. Undeniably cool-looking the blade may be, the Mandalorian people are better off without having to lug around the weapon's baggage. Call it cheesy all you like, but the ultimate takeaway here — that hope is stronger than any material weapon — is as "Star Wars" as it gets.
"The Mandalorian" is streaming on Disney+.