Din Djarin is the most unlikely surrogate father the galaxy has ever seen. First introduced in season one of The Mandalorian, clad in Beskar steel, there have been few figures as formidable in Star Wars, or as chrome-covered.
After the addition of a certain little green guy, though, Din’s gruff exterior melts away to reveal an incredibly complex character, someone who yearns for acceptance, companionship, and family ⏤ a family he lost years before taking up the Mandalorian Creed or putting on his iconic armor. A family massacred by Separatist droids.
So why does Din Djarin, aka the Mandalorian, hate droids? Well, they slaughtered his village and murdered his parents. That’s a pretty good reason to hate just about anything, especially if you need a tragic backstory.
Those darn “clankers” would have killed Din, too, if it weren’t for the Mandalorian warriors who came to the rescue, inspiring him to join their ranks and walk The Way of the Mandalore.
Din’s detest for all droids didn’t falter after that encounter, either. In the first episode of the series, he refuses to board a speeder with a droid pilot. Later, he runs into an IG-series assassin droid, who he promptly blasts in the head. He doesn’t even let droids do the maintenance on his ship.
It isn’t until the same IG droid Din put a hole through, IG-11, is reprogrammed that the feared bounty hunter begins to trust mechanical life forms ⏤ so much so, in fact, that when his back is against the wall, Din allows IG-11 to remove his helmet and heal his wounds.
That storyline comes to a climactic head when IG-11 sacrifices himself to save Din and his bounty-hunting crew during the final moments of the first season. In that way, it all comes full circle for Din, as his hatred eventually turns into acceptance.
With the events of The Book of Boba Fett clearly setting up some interesting story elements for The Mandalorian’s third season, we’ll see how long Din plays nicely.