ok now that ive stopped SCREAMING can we talk about how this episode, the Believer, was about dinās development and realizing what it means to be a mandalorian outside the armor? heās been taught his entire life that the Way is stored in the practices and the armor because their culture was stolen from them, but there are other things that make him Mandalorian - his clan, his foundling, his prowess as a warrior with or without armor even when heās outnumbered. sure it started with bo-katan to show that yes there are other possibilities, but this situation is about him realizing heās not just someone who owes everything to the people who saved him and swore a Creed, he IS a Mandalorian, no matter if the planetās people are scattered forever or not. and him beginning to realize that with Boba is definitely significant bc Boba has a similar story - not sure what they are gonna canonize re: Jango, but Boba is a clone and mostly grew up alone and had to really realize and find his culture on his own without his clan or any guide and i think now Din is having to do the same.
also i say this because we canonically have other Mandalorians whose lives dont rely SO MUCH on the armor who grapple with their identity in this way - Sabine being the biggest one. Her clan is the Ghost crew, but she also has her Mandalorian clan, and she definitely goes back and forth on if she feels like a true Mandalorian or not and we saw her really self determine what that means. Even Satine, who never wears the armor, struggled against OTHER Mandalorians to determine what SHE believed a Mandalorian should be - again, itās all about identity. For Satine, it was a struggle between her beliefs of what she thinks Mandalore could be, and her actual clan, her sister, going against her as well.
anyway thereās a lot of textual precedent for Din to have this internal journey!
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