The Mandalorian: Why No One In The Galaxy Knows About The Jedi

Forum 3 years ago

The Mandalorian: Why No One In The Galaxy Knows About The Jedi

With The Mandalorian’s second season rapidly approaching, one question has left fans wondering: why do the Mandalorians, and the Star Wars galaxy at large, seem to have all but forgotten the Jedi? In the Armorer’s conversation with Mando at the end of season 1 – a conversation which overlays the season 2 trailer – she references the Jedi as “sorcerers” from "the songs of eons past,” despite the fact that the Jedi led the Grand Army of the Republic in a galaxy-sweeping war less than 30 years earlier. So why did everyone suddenly forget about the Jedi?

This isn’t the first time Star Wars characters in the post-Clone Wars era seem strangely ignorant about the Jedi. All the way back in the original Star Wars, Han Solo seems skeptical of the Force and dismisses the Jedi as an old “hokey religion,” despite having lived through the Clone Wars and served in the Imperial Navy for several years. To an extent, these discrepancies can be attributed to the subtle retconning of a franchise that has grown and changed dramatically over the course of more than 40 years. But could there also be an in-canon explanation for the collective fugue of Star Wars’ denizens?

One of the biggest reasons could be Emperor Palpatine, who, in his campaign to erase the Jedi on a galactic scale, certainly did his best to wipe them from the public consciousness as well. The Order 66 purge and destruction of ancient Jedi sites and artifacts is clearly seen in Star Wars: Rebels, Rogue One and elsewhere. It’s also likely that Sidious actively smeared and attempted to eradicate the very memory of the Jedi through propaganda, misinformation, and controlled education.

Still, that doesn’t explain how characters who were alive to see the final days of the Republic could have simply forgotten the Jedi existed. Din Djarin himself was orphaned because of Separatist attacks during the Clone Wars, and wherever there were Separatists, there were also Jedi. It’s possible that he was so young at the time that he didn’t fully understand the circumstances. It’s also possible that he was raised so far out in the Outer Rim that stories of the Jedi were already a matter of myth. But even that doesn’t quite seem to justify the level of ignorance from both Mando and the Armorer, specifically because Star Wars has shown multiple times that even in the farthest reaches of the galaxy, the Jedi are well known (even by a very young Anakin in The Phantom Menace).

Another possible explanation is tied to the small clan of Mandalorians to which Din and the Armorer belong. Their particular group is distinct from other canonical depictions of Mandalorians in several ways, the most prominent being their refusal to remove their helmets. There’s no reference of this code anywhere else in Star Wars, and as late as the events of Rebels – set less than a decade before The Mandalorian – the people of Mandalore seem fine showing their faces. Most likely, this is a result of the Great Purge that saw the empire wage genocide on the Mandolarians, somewhere between the end of Rebels and the fall of the Empire.

However, it's also possible Mando’s particular clan might have always been more remote, and therefore more removed from the history of Mandolore and recent galactic history in general. The season 1 finale would seem to indicate otherwise, but still a lot unknown about Mando's upbringing and the details of what happened on Mandalore. If Din's clan was always a more remote group, it could explain why he and the Armorer both seem uneducated about the Jedi and their long, storied history of conflict with Mandalore, so it would make sense that a remote group would only be aware of their history from stories and legends.

Still, this doesn’t fully justify the way Din, the Armorer and others talk about the Jedi. A further explanation of Din and his clan’s past – which season 2 will hopefully provide – could shine a bit more light into why such recent history has been forgotten. With a hunt for the Jedi seemingly at the core of season 2, including the likely appearance of Ahsoka Tano, fans will hopefully get some better explanations when The Mandalorian returns on October 30th.