THE CULTURE WARS ARE A ROUT:

Throughout these adventures, Mando embodies the chivalrous ideals of manliness and fatherhood, which can be seen as typified by Joseph of Nazareth. In the New Testament, Joseph is described as a "righteous" man who kept the Jewish law and as tekton which, while often translated carpenter, is more accurately translated as an artisan, i.e., someone broadly skilled with his hands in construction and repair.  Moreover, in the Christian tradition, Joseph is thought by many theologians to be sanctified and confirmed in grace (and therefore in possession of all the virtues), specially set apart by providence for the special mission of protecting the Woman and the Christ child. After receiving a message from God warning them that Herod intended to kill the Christ child, Joseph takes Mary and Jesus into exile in Egypt where he was their guardian until it was safe to return. It has thus been fittingly argued that Joseph of Nazareth is the archetype of the chivalrous knight. In Stratford Caldecott's words, Joseph was the "mirror of chivalry" in whom "justice is combined with tenderness, strength and decisiveness with flexibility and openness to the will of God."

The Force (Star Wars' version of Providence) places in the care of the chivalrous man an innocent child with supernatural abilities and a transcendent destiny. Even though Grogu is not Mando's biological son, the Mandalorian Creed recognizes Mando as the Child's father.  To protect the Child, he must defend him from the agents of the evil tyrant who are sent to kill him--and this includes a sojourn in exile, much of which is spent in the desert.  Sound familiar?

To be clear, such symbolism in the show is not allegorical as in C.S. Lewis's Narnia books; it proceeds more in the spirit of Tolkien's mythopoeia. As an exercise in myth-making, Jon Favreau has sub-created a world and characters within the Star Wars Universe, in which (perhaps better than he knows) the rays of light from reality shine through in various ways. An element of the real is essential to sound myth-making, supplying the structure of moral reality, The Way.

The Mandalorian was orphaned as a child and set apart from Mandalorian society as an initiate in The Children of the Watch, which is reminiscent of a medieval Christian religious and military order of knights.  Very little is known about them, but we can draw inferences from what we do know. Mando's duty to keep on his helmet is an extraordinary discipline that also serves as a metaphor for observance of the precepts of The Way. These include the virtues and attendant duties of honor (he regularly abstains from dishonorable deeds), honesty (he keeps his word and tells the truth even when it hurts), industriousness and proficiency with one's hands (he maintains his ship, armor, and weapons), justice (as a bounty hunter in the lawfully organized Bounty Hunters' Guild, he vigorously enforces just contracts and laws), mercy (he executes the fundamental duty to protect the innocent from harm even if it violates the letter of a contract), generosity (he donates liberally from his earnings to his order), chastity (he declines a marriage offer as contrary to his vows), obedience to proper authority, and even penance (Mando confesses and seeks atonement for breaking the law of The Way). And, like the natural law, the precepts of the Way can be followed by anyone. In a striking (implicit) rejection of the racial essentialism of identity politics, Mando explicitly clarifies that the Way is not a matter of race but of creed.  

These are the principal virtues, not only of the chivalrous knight, but of manliness itself.  In this light, we can see that Din Djarin's moniker, Mando, is not merely a nickname but a portmanteau of "man," and "do." He is a man who performs the functions proper to men by embracing the responsibilities of fatherhood: he does what a man is supposed to do. Like many fathers in our world, Mando found himself responsible for a child when it wasn't "planned." He passes the test every man faces when confronted with the fears associated with becoming a new father: by embracing fortitude over cowardice (which, in his case, required blasting his way through a squadron of stormtroopers and scores of bounty hunters).

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