The ending of the most recent episode of The Mandalorian, Season 3 Episode 5 “The Pirate,” might be one of the most mind-numbingly stupid endings the show has produced.
The episode ends with Captain Carson Teva seemingly on a routine patrol discovering an incapacitated or derelict Lambda shuttle that he eventually realizes was a prison transport shuttle for Moff Gideon.
As Teva investigates the ship’s wreckage he realizes Gideon has seemingly escaped, but as he attempts to discover who might have freed Gideon he discovers a piece of beskar armor. Teva says, “It’s a fragment of beskar alloy.”
A Lieutenant Reed, who has been communicating with Teva and was the one who informed him that the shuttle was more than likely Gideon’s transport, responds, “Wait, are you saying that Moff Gideon was taken by… Mandalorians?”
The ending is obviously trying to imply that Mandalorians were involved in the extraction of Moff Gideon from the prison transport ship. And that’s definitely a possibility, but the fact that it’s not only shocking to the New Republic that Mandalorians would be aiding him, but they automatically jump to the conclusion that it’s Mandalorians is what is so excruciatingly stupid.
First off, the show and The Book of Boba Fett previously told us that the Empire savagely attacked Mandalore. In The Book of Boba Fett Chapter 5, The Armorer recounts, “All this talk of the Empire, and they lasted less than 30 years. Mandalorians have existed 10,000.”
She would later state, “Had our sect not be cloistered on the moon of Concordia, we would have not survived the Great Purge.” As Imperial bombers are shown attacking Mandalore, the Armorer continues, “Those born of Mandalore strayed away from the path. Eventually the Imperial interlopers destroyed all that we knew and loved in the Night of a Thousand Tears.”
Given Imperial forces massacred Mandalore, one would think that New Republic officers might suspect that Imperial remnants such as Moff Gideon might also have access to beskar.
One can argue the Armorer says they destroyed the planet with the implication they did not mine the planet for its resources specifically the beskar ore, but then this takes us back to Star Wars Rebels, where it’s shown that the Galactic Empire was working Clan Saxon to control the planet.
Tristan Wren clearly states in “The Legacy of Mandalore”, “[Gar Saxon is] the Emperor’s Hand, the acting ruler and Governor of Mandalore.” It’s quite hard to imagine the Empire wasn’t extracting resources from Mandalore especially something as valuable as beskar given how they extracted the kyber crystals from Jedha in Rogue One.
To this point in “Heroes of Mandalore” Saxon’s brother, Tiber, has managed to recreate a weapon called The Duchess originally created by Sabine Wren while attending an Imperial Academy established on the planet. The weapon is used to target Mandalorians and their beskar armor.
In “Heroes of Mandalore: Part 2” Tiber Saxon explains how the weapon works to Grand Admiral Thrawn, “The Arc Generator’s energy pulse is drawn to the beskar alloy in the Mandalorians’ armor, superheating it, and instantly vaporizing the target. All the while doing no harm to our Imperial stormtroopers.”
Clearly Saxon was using beskar to test the weapon to ensure it would target Mandalorian armor. Something he forgets to do when Sabine Wren reprograms it to target Stormtrooper armor. Wren eventually destroys the weapon and wipes the data on how to recreate it. Nevertheless, the Empire was clearly using beskar to test this weapon.
Aside from this, in the first season of The Mandalorian, we, as the audience, are shown Imperial troops negotiating with the Children of the Watch and promising to provide beskar in exchange for a work.
It’s hard to imagine that if these Imperial remnants are using beskar to work with Mandalorians that the New Republic surely would have encountered other Imperial remnants that had also stockpiled the ore.
Secondly, as showcased above, Clan Saxon was working with the Galactic Empire. It should not be a surprise to a veteran of the war between the Rebel Alliance and the Galactic Empire like Captain Teva that Mandalorians would be aiding an Imperial given the planet had been occupied by the Empire and multiple Mandalorian puppets ruled the planet.
Thirdly, Bo-Katan even relays in the first episode of Season 3 that the Mandalorians who previously allied with her have since abandoned her and are now working as mercenaries. Given we know the Empire still seems to be well-funded it’s not out of the realm of possibility that Gideon and his Imperial forces hired Mandalorian mercenaries to free him.
As a fourth point, the whole piece of beskar appears to be a plant. We know beskar armor can block a lightsaber and depending on which version of Star Wars you are watching it also deflects blaster shots.
That begs the question of what kind of weapon used by the New Republic pilots and guards on the transport ship chipped this piece of beskar.
Regardless, the stupidity of this ending proves the people working on this show and most importantly Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni have no clue what they are doing.
Not only do they not know what they are doing, but there does not appear to be anyone on their creative team asking simple questions that could easily solve these glaringly stupid problems that continue to surface in nearly every episode of the show.