#I'm throwing rocks at a hornet's nest by tagging this but y'know what I like those odds

[screechthemighty]

Okay I'm gonna get this off my chest for the five people who follow me for Star Wars content and then go back to Trigun Hell to soothe my pain but like

It's not, necessarily, that Din gave up the Darksaber. I know and agree that Din doesn't want that kind of leadership role, at least not long-term. Personally when I wrote him as having been Mandalore in that one fic, I was very much picturing it as a short-term thing where he got the job done and peace'd out the second he wasn't needed anymore. He definitely isn't looking to be in charge of anything for longer than strictly necessary. So that's not the issue. THE ACTUAL ISSUE is threefold (and under a cut for length, obvi).

One: Twice now the writing has thrown something at Din that could lead to really interesting plotting and done nothing with it.

Seriously, both of the potentially interesting develops of the s2 finale are just out the damn window. He loses Grogu, he gets him back in 1.5 episodes in ANOTHER GUY'S SHOW, the separation doesn't amount to anything for EITHER character. He gets the Darksaber, a chance for him to really connect with his culture, reclaim it for his people AND himself, even if he doesn't stay in the role long-term (because again, I don't think he would!!). Din Djarin's faith in the Creed and his adherence to it, even when he had to break it for legitimate reasons is one of his primary character traits, and him reuniting the Mandalorian people and bringing them home would've been SUCH a good story for him, ESPECIALLY when he's demonstrated all the right traits of a Mandalorian on top of great diplomatic skills and a unique ability to bring disparate people together (HE EVEN DID IT THIS EPISODE). But no, he just. Gives it to Bo-Katan? After NOT giving it to Paz when that was ALSO a chance for him to get rid of it?? If the end goal was to not be a leader, why not Paz?? Because...

Two: The writing is now fully centering around Bo-Katan

Okay, I'll admit bias here: I've had beef with the Kryze clan ever since the writing ruined Mandalorians in The Clone Wars back in the day. I also never finished Clone Wars and never watched Rebels because Echo's "death" bummed me out so bad that I stopped caring about the animated side of Star Wars. But you wanna look me in the eyes, dangle a show about one of my favorite father-son duos in front of me, and then yank it all away to be about...BO-KATAN'S journey?? After she spent Clone Wars a terrorist? After she was so horrifically rude to Din last season and spent the first chunk of her episodes in this season just blatantly not giving a shit about HER OWN CULTURE?? She's had a what, two episode heel-face turn that served less as a humbling rediscovery of herself and more as a reaffirmation of how special and perfect she is??? It's insulting. So much of the writing is just shoving her back into the forefront as being the Manda's Specialist Princess, right down to the Armorer giving her a special pass to break their interpretation of the Creed for her and throwing out that "walks both paths" bullshit. And SPEAKING OF how rude she was to Din!!!

Three: Okay this is. This is racist-flavored, I'm sorry, this is just blatantly flavored like racism I'm sorry I hate to have to say this but -

Disclaimer I am, myself, white, so I'm LESS of an authority on this than a lot of other people, but like. The context of Din giving up the Darksaber made it actually worse than I was thinking when I first saw that spoiler. That rat bastard Woves saying that Din isn't real Mandalorian in part because of his bloodlines, that he SHOULDN'T carry the Darksaber because of that, and then the writing having Din reaffirm that by giving up the Darksaber WITHIN THE CONTEXT OF HAVING HIS HERITAGE QUESTIONED, is. That's gross!!! I'm sorry, that's really freaking gross. That's nasty. They couldn't even give him the dignity of giving it up because he genuinely doesn't want it. They had to throw out there that no, actually, he HAS to give it back, because a bunch of purists within the Mandalorians will never take him seriously, they will ONLY take our perfect pure-blooded princess seriously. Did seriously NO ONE see how that comes across?? Did no one see how icky that is?? And I'm super pressed about this one because I was willing to give them the benefit of the doubt, okay, but no, they're just back to doubling down on "Din is in a cult and it's bad" with their WHOLE chests. I hate it. I hate it here. I miss Andor.

tl;dr it's not that I think Din should've been Mandalore forever, it's that the context around why he gave up the Darksaber is shit. They could've done this any other way, but no. No! They chose the worst way. Seriously, I miss Andor so bad.