Redemption Or A Death Sentence: Star Wars Reveals Just How Important The Mandalorian’s Redemption Plot Really Was

Despite the controversy surrounding the redemption plot of Pedro Pascal’s Din Djarin in The Mandalorian, Star Wars has proved its importance with one hidden and devastating detail. Din’s quest for redemption was no doubt one of the most critiqued parts of The Mandalorian season 3, with many viewers hoping his character’s arc of questioning the Mandalorian helmet rule in The Mandalorian season 2 would continue on. Instead, Din did everything he possibly could to earn his redemption in the eyes of his tribe in season 3, nearly dying twice in his desperate efforts.

This decision only became even more criticized when the Armorer allowed Katee Sackhoff’s Bo-Katan Kryze to “walk both worlds,” as Din wasn’t allowed to do the same. It was the Armorer who excommunicated Din from his Mandalorian tribe and sent him on such a perilous quest in the first place, which only built more frustration among viewers who already had their hopes of Din’s helmet-less character arc continuing on. Star Wars, however, has kept one detail hidden that reveals just how important this redemptive arc is for Din, and it has devastating repercussions for his character post-season 2.

Din Djarin’s Shunning Is Described As A “Death Sentence”

In The Book of Boba Fett Junior Novel by Joe Schreiber, the moment of Din’s excommunication from his Mandalorian tribe by the Armorer is described in devastating detail. Din “felt his chest tighten at [the Armorer’s] pronouncement” of him no longer being a Mandalorian, a feeling reflected in the way he nearly chokes out his response in The Book of Boba Fett. More upsetting, however, is what follows, when Din’s narrative reveals the “declaration hung over him like a death sentence.”

For Din, then, this moment was much more than a simple slap on the wrist for breaking the tribe’s rule. This was a death sentence, ripping away the only identity Din had ever been able to cling to after losing everything he knew and loved on his homeworld of Aq Vetina as a child. At the point this is uttered, he also had nothing else to his name, with Grogu having gone with Luke Skywalker to train as a Jedi and the ship he considered home having been destroyed many months before.

Breaking The Creed Was Worse To Din Than Death

Din considered breaking the Creed to be worse than death, as proven by his past actions in The Mandalorian – particularly in the season 1 finale. He preferred having a warrior’s death to removing his helmet and being saved, leading him to send Cara Dune and Greef Karga away with Grogu before pulling a blaster on IG-11 for trying to remove his helmet. If it weren’t for IG-11’s loophole of him not being a living thing, Din very likely could have died in the cantina on Nevarro, proving his fierce dedication to upholding the Creed at all costs.

This, then, proves two more important things about Din and The Mandalorian as a whole. First, it shows just how much Din cares about Grogu, as he was willing to face the one thing he considered to be worse than death to save him: breaking the Creed. Second, it emphasizes the importance of Din earning redemption after being shunned by his tribe, as it felt to Din like receiving the worst kind of death sentence.

Din, then, needed to be redeemed in The Mandalorian season 3. This plot was more than just a cop-out of the show’s inability to get Pedro into Din’s suit long enough to sustain his season 2 arc. Rather, the redemption plot was quite literally Din trying to save his own life, as it was the one chance Din had to reverse his death sentence and be reborn again in the eyes of the Mandalorians. Whether this helmet rule continues to stand in The Mandalorian season 4 or not, Din’s redemption in season 3 was of the utmost importance, as he needed to find a way to come back from what felt to him like certain death.