The Mandalorian's Hero's Quest, Part 1

Inspired by a post Joseph Campbell Foundation and my own thoughts as I started re-watching the series. I decided to run Din Djarin, The Mandalorian, through Campbell’s Hero’s Quest. Other scholars will have slightly different names for these stages and their order, but this is what I learned a long time ago in a college far, far away.

The Hero’s Quest, AKA, the Hero’s Journey, AKA the Monomyth is a structure that Campbell created as he found commonalities in all of the world’s mythology. The structure persists today because some writers have studied the Monomyth and lean on it as a guide for their writing, where other writers incidentally incorporate it because the structure, motifs, and themes are so woven into western story telling. If you have an interest in both The Mandalorian and the Hero’s Quest, you may find the following engaging. Feel free to drop a comment or an idea of your own, below. As this got rather long quickly, I’m publishing it in parts, starting with Departure.

I. Departure
A. Call to Adventure:
The hero receives a formal invitation (think Hogswarts letter) or an informal invitation to begin a quest. Some heroes attempt to refuse, but will eventually accept.

The Mandalorian, Mando, or Din Djarin accepts the bounty on the child from the Imperials;

However, this isn’t complete, as just finding the child is not enough or going to lead to the true Ultimate Boon. The call comes from The Child (Grogu) when Din Djarin saves him from the droid, IG-11. Grogu calls back to Din’s own beginning with his tribe of Mandalorians when he was a foundling.

B. Supernatural Aid--Guide:
Although the hero is ultimately the one who must face the challenges, he/she generally does not do so alone. In most stories, the hero will have a guide, someone who is wise in the ways of the world, and someone who will offer the hero guidance and wisdom as he/she progresses through the journey. In addition to the guide, the hero will often have some kind of a talisman, some symbolic item that offers power or strength to the hero. Most heroes also have companions on their journey. The companions can serve a variety of functions. They may offer balance for the hero, they may help the hero in battle, they may help the hero learn valuable lessons.

Though Mando seems to seek many guides along his way, his first is Kuiil, the Ugnaught mechanic, moisture farmer, and blurrg wrangler. Kuiil is a good guide as he has experienced indentured servitude to the Empire and thus has some insight into how they work. As the remnants of the Empire become Mando’s primary antagonist, this is good insight.

However, we don’t see Kuiil give particular advise on the Empire. His primary guidance is literal, how to find Grogu in Chapter 1, and in how to do things beyond the Mandalorian rigidity that has served Din so far. First, he insists that Din learn to ride a bluurg and not depend on a mechanical conveyance. This was uncomfortable for Din and somewhat painful, but he mastered it. Second, Kuiil shows Din a “way” beyond the narrow tenants of his religion. When told to put down his rifle and talk to the Jawas who had stripped Din’s ship, The Razor Crest, Din counters with “weapons are my religion.” Din puts down his rifle and blaster pistol (though still holds and uses his flame thrower). He then experiences success through negotiation and questing, something that is important to Din’s heroic development. They’re not just video game side quests; they are moments where Din expands his powers, knowledge, or mentality in order to be a better hero. In “Chapter 2: The Child”, Din’s perception of his bounty, Grogu, is significantly altered when he experiences the supernatural (Grogu using the force to levitate the Mud Horn monster.)

Being pragmatic, though, is what Kuiil teaches Din in this moment. This emerges as a key theme in the series, where the rigid tenants of Din’s off-shoot clan of Mandalorians is successfully challenged by necessity (removing his helmet in “Chapter 15 :The Believer” ) and contact with others, especially more mainstream Mandalorians (“Chapter 11: The Heiress”). Beyond pragmatism, though, is love; Din compromises the strict tenants for the sake of Grogu, exemplified when Din finally shows his face to The Child in “Chapter 16: The Rescue”. (Unmasking also has some powerful meaning in the Star Wars stories.)

C. Companions:
Din does not initially keep companions with him, but does ally himself with others during his cycle of quests. His only companion at the Departure phase is Grogu, with whom he forms the Sacred Bond.

Din encounters another type of strength and mixed morality in Cara Dune, the former Rebel shock trooper.

Din encounters Toro Calican and Fennec Shand as companion and quarry, respectively. However, as the episode and series unfold, these roles change.

Many other companions come into Din’s life. However, only Grogu is his initial companion.

D. Supernatural Aid
This is somewhat unclear to me. Whereas Luke Skywalker clearly had The Force within him on his quest, we don’t see a clear supernatural force for Din. Perhaps his uncanny gunslinging qualifies?

E. Talisman
Clearly, it’s initially the Beskar armor Din wears.

Supplementing this are the many weapons that are a part of the armor.

Later, he aquires the Beskar spear, but this is not part of his Departure phase.


F. Crossing the First Threshold and Threshold Guardians
I always find this first threshold debatable. For instance, when does Luke Skywalker take his first step into the world of the quest/adventure? Is it when he follows R2-D2 into the desert wastes? Is it when Aunt Beru and Uncle Owen are killed? Is it when he enters the cantina at Mos Eisley spaceport? I’ve tended to argue for the last one, because the first threshold marks a point where the hero takes a clear step forward into the unknown. The hero is of two worlds: the known, home world and the outer world where the quest must take place. The cantina scene is Luke making a conscious decision to cross into the unknown with his guide (Obi-wan) and talisman (lightsaber), but without two companions, C-3PO and R2-D2. The establishing shot takes great care to show us how alien and possibly evil this place is, including a shot of a stereotypically devilish alien. He encounters threshold guardians, the criminals at the bar, who would have stopped him had Luke not been properly equipped with his guide, Obi-wan.

For Din, he crosses his first threshold when he blasts IG-11 and saves Grogu in “Chapter 1: The Mandalorian”. This is fitting, as the hero should probably start his or her journey at the beginning of the story. This also qualifies because Din had to break with a tenant of the Bounty Hunter’s Guild, which forbids the slaying of another hunter (“Bounty Hunter Code”). This will begin Din on a path that breaks other rules of the guild, essentially creating ethical violations in the name of morality, such as asking what will happen to Grogu after he’s already turned him over to the Imperial client, and then more boldly when he attacks the client and his Stormtroopers to reclaim Grogu (“Chapter 3: The Sin”). Indeed, the episode title is a double meaning: is the sin turning in Grogu in the first place, or is it Din violating the rules of his guild? Perhaps both. Retribution, or the attempt at retribution, is swift, as the entire guild turns against Din and tries to take Grogu.

(More to come!)

My books

Works Cited
“Bounty Hunter Code.” Wookieepedia, Fandom. starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Bounty_Hunte....
Bucher, John. “The Mandalorian and Dangerous Origins.” Joseph Campbell Foundation: a Network of Information—a Community of Individuals. https://www.jcf.org/the-mandalorian-a...
Favreau, Jon, creator. The Mandalorian. Disney+, 2019-2020.