These days, everyone and their mother loves Pedro Pascal. The entertainer has become the world’s Science Fiction Dad due to his parental characters and general affability with all of his young co-stars off-screen, but this is not all it’s cracked up to be. Joel Miller on The Last of Us and Din Djarin on The Mandalorian may have young wards, but they repeatedly show they are not entirely fathers of the year.
To begin with, a truly effective father would not put young people into so many repeatedly dangerous situations or leave them alone when adventuring about. To be fair, Joel is traumatized by the loss of his biological daughter (and Djarin likely has spent so much time on his own he does not know what he is doing), so there is a bit of wiggle room for each at first, but as time goes on, you’d think they’d grasp the concept a little more. On The Last of Us, Joel and Ellie are thought to have traveled for about a year and Jon Favreau has said the first two seasons of The Mandalorian take place over many years. This gives plenty of time to adjust, so there’s really no excuse for Grogu wandering off alone into some ice caves with evil spiders or Joel not immediately snatching porn from Ellie.
As well, when it comes to being a parent different from ones this writer has heard about, one key thing you need is empathy. Children often confide in those who raise them about the dark moments in their lives before anyone else. When someone tells you about their pain and strain, you need to treat it with care and concern and should be horrified to see any sort of indifference if the roles were reversed. This makes Djarin’s remark about this being the way after Bo-Katan tells him about her father’s death in a recent episode all the more infuriating, although given he was raised by a terrorist cult, this again provides for some wiggle room.
What will happen in the future remains to be seen. We do know there is improvement for Joel in the video game sequel to The Last of Us, which will likely show up in the show’s second season, and while Djarin is an original character with no pre-established lore The Mandalorian is drawing from, Jon Favreau has said the work is based on his own experiences as a parent and all the messy growth which comes with the role. So, here’s hoping the character is a little more coordinated and caring about Grogu later on.