A podcast I listen to had a little aside about the relevance of the Mandolorian character in the world today that I thought was interesting. I'm also surprised I missed it while watching the show myself.
The aside came in the context of a discussion about masculinity in the world today. The podcast host talked about the Mandolorian character being a new and interesting take on masculinity that we don’t always see in popular culture. He described the character as "a refugee soldier from a religious cult, who can never remove his armor, breaks his creed to protect a sacred child and to ferry it homeward."
I especially thought the allegory of masculinity is interesting. I mean, we have this lone-wolf badass warrior guy that takes on this very nurturing role with baby Yoda. He's literally wearing armor he can't take off, yet he does in moments where he's most vulnerable. He's fighting inner demons. He's constantly negotiating conflict, betrayal, and needing help with different father figures. He's most successful when he accepts women as equals and forms mutually beneficial partnerships. I'm sure there are other interesting examples too.
Maybe I'm overthinking it, but there's an absence of good male role models in popular culture, so I think it's worth noting when a new and interesting take on masculinity emerges. And I might be wrong too because I didn't watch the series through this lens, so I'm open to objections or counter interpretations. If anybody wants to steal this idea to run with it on a think piece for Vox or something go ahead. I'd be curious to hear people's thoughts too.
The original podcast I was listening to that sparked the thought was the Conspirituality Podcast.
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