Star Wars Explained is our ongoing series where we delve into the latest Star Wars shows, movies, trailers, and news stories to divine the franchise’s future. This entry examines The Mandalorian Chapter 18 and the massive Mythosaur that lurks below the Mines of Mandalore.
Two weeks into season three and The Mandalorian reveals that Din Djarin’s Living Waters redemption is but a stop along the greater narrative to reclaim Mandalore after the Imperial purge. In Chapter 18, the series already plants us on the homeworld. While it’s severely ravaged and populated with an array of deathtraps, it’s not the poisoned planet The Armorer led Djarin to believe. There is potential on these shores, and nothing represents that more than the great beast awoken during this week’s climax.
Djarin, of course, gets in quite the pickle the moment he and Grogu touch down. After clashing with some Morlock-looking Alamites, Djarin realizes Mandalore’s air is breathable. Venturing below the ruins of Sundari, Mandalore’s capital city, Djarin, and Grogu spot a Mandalorian helmet buried under a heap of dirt. When Djarin attempts to retrieve it, he’s pulled into a pit trap and taken prisoner by a cyborg creature that doesn’t look too dissimilar from Revenge of the Sith‘s General Grievous.
With Mando in distress, Grogu retreats to their N-1 Starfighter and hightails it back to Bo-Katan Kryze’s lonely castle. Clearly, the kid is not the nearly helpless baby we met way back in the first episode. His time with Luke Skywalker in The Book of Boba Fett as well as the many months roaming the galaxy as the cub to Djarin’s bounty-hunting lone wolf, has honed his skills. He hasn’t said a word yet, but he can communicate enough to drag Kryze to Mandalore, a planet she had seemingly given up on during the last episode.
Kryze makes quick work out of the cyborg and gets Djarin on his feet. While she doesn’t believe the Living Waters will do much for Djarin, Kryze happily stands by as he disrobes (almost, the helmet has got to stay on, obvi) and wades into the murky pool. As Djarin makes his pledge to remain faithful to the Creed, something horrendous pulls him down under Like, come on, Djarin, you’re really showing your ass this week.
Once again, it’s Kryze to the rescue as she propels herself into the Living Waters, and we witness how it’s no tiny pool. She finds Djarin anchored to the bottom. Using the full force of her jetpack, she rockets Djarin to the surface but not before coming face-to-face with the legendary Mythosaur. The encounter will certainly leave the former Mandalorian ruler contemplating a serious comeback.
We’ve heard about these mythological Mandalorian beasts before but have never seen one. The Mythosaur skull first appeared in the Star Wars franchise in the Empire Strikes Back as the sigil on Boba Fett’s shoulder. Most, including Bo-Katan Kryze, believed the creature to be a fiction, the stuff of bedtime stories.
In those tales, set ages back, the early Mandalorian warriors tamed the massive beasts and rode them into battle. While no one has seen one in hundreds of years, it is believed that when the Mythosaur returns, it will “herald a new age of Mandalore.” The Armorer spoke these words recently in The Book of Boba Fett. If anything signals a new age, it’s The Mandalorian series itself, so we shouldn’t be too shocked to see the big beastie.
When the Ugnaught Kuiil taught Djarin to ride the blurrgs in The Mandalorian Chapter 2, he encouraged the Mandalorian by stating how his ancestors conquered the Mythosaurs. Since the show’s start, showrunners Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni have positioned the iconic monster to the forefront of our imaginations. Maybe they’ve always planned to bring the Mythosaur to life; maybe they haven’t. It doesn’t really matter.
What does matter is that the Mythosaur is here now, and it didn’t reveal itself to Din Djarin. Nope. Instead, the Mythosaur only came out and gazed upon Bo-Katan Kryze. It also happened during an incredibly low point, where she would rather mope around her castle than motivate her soldiers to fight for a cause. Heck, she even allowed Djarin to wander around the cosmos wielding the Darksaber, another legendary object with great importance to Mandalorian lore.
Comically, whenever Djarin whips out the Darksaber in combat, he struggles to swing it with precision. Oftentimes, the Darksaber weighs too heavy in his hands, and it clangs and drags on the floor. In The Mandalorian Chapter 18, Bo-Katan Kryze snatches up the blade and easily commands its action against the cyborg. Seeing her manipulate the Darksaber with such deadly dexterity certainly sparked excitement for any longtime Star Wars: The Clone Wars or Rebels watchers. Once upon a time, Mandalore was hers to rule, but the Great Purge pulled her from power.
With the Empire in shambles, it’s her time to retake the throne. All Bo-Katan Kryze requires is a little nudge. The Mythosaur is that nudge.
With the beast as fact, not legend, Kryze could find some of that blind faith Din Djarin is constantly walking around with. The Mandalorian Chapter 18’s final shot leaves us to imagine Kryze’s expression below her helmet. When she saw the Mythosaur underwater, she gasped. Up on the surface, she’s panting heavily. Her entire worldview just got rocked. A war for the Mandalorian realm is coming.
The Mandalorian Chapter 17 is now streaming on Disney+
Related Topics: Star Wars, Star Wars Explained, The Mandalorian
