Another thing that I love about Bo-Karen not getting her glowy stick? When you look at the terms of the deal between her and Din and how it couldn’t be followed through...it is such a great, backhanded narrative payback to how she treated Din during their “deal” in Chapter 11: The Heiress.
In that chapter, she presented the deal as “Help me get these stolen weapons off this Imperial ship so I can retake our planet and I’ll tell you where to find a Jedi for your baby”. (And I always thought that was a remarkably steep price for such simple information, but I digress). But we all know Bo-Karen changed the terms right after Din was successful in securing the weapons and forced him to help her take that whole ship.
And when Din goes back to her in the last chapter (whhhyyyy, show writers...but again, not gonna digress), she reiterates 3 things to him: 1.) She really wants that glowy stick to rule Mandalore and she still doesn’t have it, 2.) Moff Gideon is nigh impossible to find and so she herself has still not found him, and 3.) She really wants that glowy stick to rule Mandalore and she still doesn’t have it.
Din responds to what she says with basically “This thing again? Yeah fine, whatever-just help me get my baby back and you can have whatever you want. I just want my baby.”
And though Din is utterly uninterested in both her pursuit of her glowy stick and its supposed importance in ruling a planet that he says is basically a haunted graveyard...
...Din neither changes the terms of the deal nor goes back on his word. He keeps true. With his son back in his arms, he goes to give Bo-Karen back her glowy stick. He tries and tries and tries and I absolutely love that exchange. I rewind it over and over. Bo-Karen’s face is golden and delicious; Moff Gideon’s entire shit-eating grin is classic; Baby Yoda just chillin’, tired and content, against his daddy’s chest after so long is gorgeous; and even Din’s exasperated-as-hell “I yield” and “Just take it” are hot as hell.
I love it so much.
The writers could’ve gone another route by having Din somehow trick Bo-Karen once he had his son back, but of course that’s...not in line with Din’s character. He is a man of empathy, compassion, and generosity and also a man of honor, integrity and mercy (for god’s sake, he even spared Moff Gideon himself after everything). So of course he wouldn’t try to do to Bo-Karen what she did to him-and especially not with the stakes of the mission being so high as rescuing and liberating his only child.
He honored his deal and so honored his Creed as the Mandalorian he is.
And it’s not Din’s character that prevented Bo-Karen from winning her glowy stick, but the story line that supposedly demands that the glowy stick be won in combat to even work for its new owner.
So Bo-Karen double-crossed Din but he still got what he wanted-the name and location of the Jedi that could help him. Then, Din took the higher road and did not double cross her, but she was unable to get what she wanted-the dark saber.
I have no idea what’s going to happen in Season 3, but this time around the narrative handed her her own ass without sacrificing Din’s character and I absolutely love it.
