Editor’s Note: The following contains minor spoilers from Season 3 Episode 2 of The Mandalorian.Ever since the first episode ofThe Mandalorianaired on Disney+, the Armorer (Emily Swallow) has been one of the most intriguing characters. We don’t know much - if anything at all - about her, only that she’s the one who leads Din Djarin’s (Pedro Pascal) covert. She is the guardian of the Mandalorian lore and traditions for the Children of the Watch, forges badass armors for the foundlings and even teaches Din how to wield the Darksaber. But, as intriguing as she is in the present, many fans have been questioning her past, and whether she could have been on the wrong side of history all this time.
For a brief, but significant moment in time, theDeath Watch, a Mandalorian group of fanatics, was led by none other than former Sith Lord Darth Maul (Sam Witwer), and he even got to rule Mandalore as the owner of the Darksaber before his downfall at the very end of the Clone Wars. During that period, his followers donned horned and stylized helmets, easily setting them apart in the battlefield. As the Death Watch sect lived on through the Children of the Watch, the question has to be asked: can the Armorer be a former Maul loyalist?
Who Were the Mandalorians That Served Under Maul?
It’s not clear when the Death Watch was created, but we first met them back in animation seriesThe Clone Wars, when Obi-Wan Kenobi (James Arnold Taylor) went to the moon of Concordia to try and settle a crisis that would eventually start another Mandalorian civil war. Back then, the group was led by Pre Vizsla (Jon Favreau), a descendant of legendary Mandalorian hero and Jedi, Tarre Vizsla. Not only did he have the right last name, but he also had the Darksaber, so Mandalorians who were more concerned about traditions naturally flocked to his side.
Another member of the Death Watch wasan old acquaintance of ours, Bo-Katan Kryze(Katee Sackhoff) herself. Still a teenager, she was already one of Pre Vizsla’s top lieutenants, specially because she was the younger sister of Duchess Satine Kryze (Anna Graves), leader of the pacifist regime known as the New Mandalorians. When Bo-Katan spoke to Din Djarin about the splendor of Mandalorian civilization in Episode 2, she was talking about her sister, who didn’t rule as Mand’alor, but rather as Duchess in a democratic government - no Darksaber involved.
Satine was also a former lover of Obi-Wan Kenobi, which led Maul to Mandalore as a way to try and get his revenge on the Jedi Master. The former Sith Lord defeated Pre Vizsla in combat and claimed the Darksaber, along with the title of Mand’alor. He also killed Satine in front of Kenobi, leading Bo-Katan to break from the Death Watch and create her own insurgent group, the Night Owls. She claimed that she could never accept an outsider as ruler of Mandalore, and, while that may seem confusing due to the fact that foundlings are literally beings who are non-Mandalorians initially, she was actually talking about Maul never having taken the Creed and, thus, not being a Mandalorian.
For most of Death Watch, though, that didn’t matter. He defeatedthe previous owner of the Darksaber, and that gave him legitimacy to rule as Mand’alor despite being an outsider. Maul loyalists then painted their armor red and black and added horns to their helmets as a way of distinguishing themselves from other Mandalorian factions. At the end ofThe Clone Wars, Maul is defeated, and his followers are arrested by Bo-Katan’s forces, with the aid of former Jedi Ahsoka Tano (Ashley Eckstein). Unfortunately, years later, the Empire would unleash destruction upon Mandalore inthe Night of a Thousand Tears, and Mandalorians would be scattered to the four winds, like stars in the galaxy. All because, according to the Armorer, Bo-Katan didn’t win the Darksaber, so her rule was cursed.
RELATED:What Is Going On With the Jedi and Mandalorians?
What if the Armorer Is a Maul Loyalist?
This idea that the Armorer could have been a Maul loyalist in the past makes the round on the internet since Season 1. The horns on her helmet are an obvious give-away, even though they are aligned in a different pattern than that of Maul’s Super Commandos. The Mandalorians that followed him did that out of an extreme devotion to the Creed, disregarding the fact that Maul himself never took it, he only won the Darksaber in combat. The Armorer’s words to Din inThe Book of Boba Fettmay also hint that she did in fact follow Maul, then. Some fans have even gone so far as bet she is Rook Kast (Vanessa Marshall), who served as one of his Super Commandos during the Siege of Mandalore in the Clone Wars, but there’s currently no evidence to support that.
Ever since Bo-Katan’s introduction inThe Mandalorian, the series appears to have been setting up a conflict between her and Din Djarin, her distrust of the Children of the Watch being clear from the start. That was aggravated when Djarin defeated Moff Gideon (Giancarlo Esposito) in combat and won the Darksaber. But this week’s episode also shows that they do have some “dynamic duo” qualities if acting together (meaning mostly Bo-Katan rescuing Din when he gets into trouble, of course), and Din’s devotion to the Creed seems to have touched Bo-Katan.
Instead, what could very well happen is another key character taking the post of main antagonist to Din in the future,maybe beyond Season 3, and that’s the Armorer herself. They both distrust each other’s views, with the Armorer going so far as putting the blame of Mandalore’s destruction on Bo-Katan’s shoulders and describing her as a “cautionary tale”, since her family didn’t have the Creed as the basis for their rule of Mandalore. They have yet to meet one another, but that seems like a matter of time, by now.
For Din, the choice may be a difficult one: he owes Bo-Katan loyalty for her saving his life so many times and respects her and her family as Mandalorians,but he was also raised as a Child of the Watch, so, despite the Armorer scolding and expelling him from her covert for removing his helmet, he still seeks her approval and guidance whenever possible. It’s not clear, though, how the Armorer feels about him. Din was responsible for exposing of their covert in Nevarro back in Season 1, and there’s plenty of animosity between him and one of her top followers, Paz Vizsla (Jon Favreau). There’s a pattern to be noticed here, with the good guys often staying on Bo-Katan’s side (despite her past sins) and the bad ones remaining by the Armorer’s as religious zealots. Yet another Mandalorian civil war could very well be on the horizon.
