#the very deliberate choice to capitalize Mandalorian and Jedi but not christian lol

[vashti-lives]

My unpopular and uninteresting mandalorian season 3 opinion is that Bo Katan is fun and I don't hate the thought of a Din/Bo romance. Its not my favorite but I actually prefer it over the show writers clinging so tightly to the status quo, which is what they did for all of season 2 and what it looked like they were going to keep doing for season 3. I suspect it won't happen, but I wouldn't be mad if it did.

My unpopular but potentially more interesting hot take is that I don't think the Children of the Watch's actual behavior shows many signs of actual destructive cult shit and people's reaction to them as if they were a harmful cult is purely based on a) the line of a character who is clearly unreliable and has an axe to grind* and b) all the aesthetics that make them uncomfortable.

*and again I like Bo Katan, but she's not an unbiased source here.

When you look at their actual behavior? The first thing that happens is that Din shows up with a baby Jedi, the Armorer recognizes him as Jedi, and tasks Din with returning him to his people EVEN THOUGH the Jedi have been at odds with the Mandalorians for centuries. They must return him to his people, it is the morally correct thing to do, and they believe this SO MUCH that they straight up sacrifice everything to make it happen. They could just commit a little light cultural genocide and say, oh the Jedi are gone so he's a Mandalorian now. But they don't! Some of them straight up die to help a child OF THEIR ENEMY. I can tell you right now that fundie christians would fucking never. Even Paz Visla, who is constantly clashing with Din, is on board with helping the baby.

And yeah, the whole exile thing once Din removes his helmet sucks, and is definitely the closest they get to really negative cult-y behavior but even that kind of falls apart under a closer look. Like, even after Din is considered apostate he is allowed 1) to keep his ENTIRE SUIT of beskar armor even though it both has SIGNIFICANT religious value AND actual monetary value 2) KEEP THE FUCKING DARKSABER and 3) to take a fucking-- again beskar-- CHAIN MAIL BABY ONESIE for Grogu even though as far as they know Grogu is a Jedi now. Plus the task the armorer gives to Din is so easy its literally accomplished in one episode. I kinda low key think she knew the mines were accessible already and only said they weren't as a test.

Then once he left he was pretty clearly still in contact with them because the covert in season 3 is really obviously not located where Din shows up in BoBF. Like... this is not how being shunned from the group looks in fundie christian circles.

Once Din completes the task and proves it he's back in, no questions asked, no recriminations, no guilt trips. Not only that but Bo Katan is welcomed as well even though we know that previously the armorer knew of her and did not like or respect her. Bo Katan completed the ritual and that alone was enough. And yeah, she's in a vulnerable place right now that might make this sketchy but the invitation is extremely straightforward, includes immediately the fact that she can leave at any time, there's no reason to believe they know about the night owls leaving her, and they absolutely don't know her home has just been blown up.

They are absolutely pretty fanatical and aren't perfect by any means but I think a lot of the really negative impression people in fandom have about them is not actually supported by their actions in the show. This is a group of people that have been deeply traumatized by genocide and are reacting to it in perhaps unhealthy but honestly very logical ways. The DnD alignment chart has its issues but its hard not to see them as really hardcore lawful good here.

Also, although there's less textual evidence for this, I very strongly believe that they are a splinter group from Death Watch that left for moral and religious reasons, probably including rejecting the practice of kidnapping and indoctrinating children. (And I don't know how much of the legends backstory they're going to keep for Bo Katan but uh... yeah not an unbiased source of information about Children of the Watch IMO.)

Also I am aware that there are fundamentalist religious groups that aren't christian but since most of the fandom is western/American that's what I see people pull from the most and Children of the Watch are one million percent more ethical and less hypocritical than even the most mainline of evangelical christians are, let alone the ultra fundie groups.