Thread by @jackmjenkins

1. :: ahem ::

A #StarWars/#TheMandalorian theory (observation?) I've wanted to a float for a while:

Per canon, Mandalorian armor was created as a reaction to Jedi, with whom the Mandalorians fought wars.

But here's what goes unsaid: The Mandalorian-Jedi War was a *holy war.*

2. It's well attested that the Jedi belong to a religion.

Luke Skywalker was explicit about this in The Last Jedi, when he referred to "the Jedi religion" and "sacred Jedi texts."

Also, George Lucas has stated The Force was meant to be religious. billmoyers.com/content/mythol…

3. We also know the Mandalorians are religious — with multiple sects(!), as evidenced in the new show.

The Expanded Universe era had a LOT to say about their faith, but most of that material was relegated to "Legends" once Disney bought the franchise.

HOWEVER…

4. …The Disney-backed Star Wars show Rebels brought back some of that history, noting that the Jedi and the Mandalorians fought a war and that Mandalorian armor was created as "a reaction to the Jedi … people that had abilities they didn't understand."
web.archive.org/web/2017022000…

5. #TheMandalorian (re?)introduced the concept of weaponry as *key* to the Mandalorian faith.

As Din Djarin put it, "I'm a Mandalorian. Weapons are part of my religion."

Again: those weapons were created *in response to Jedi,* but war dominated their culture beforehand, so…

6. It seems obvious that the Jedi, with their mind-bending powers but relatively minimal approach to weaponry, were perceived as an *inherent threat to the Mandalorian religious worldview* — a faith that centered themselves as the greatest warriors of all.

7. The Jedi, in turn, responded as Jedi do: by very calmly and even-minded-ly committing massive acts of war.

The result was the desolation of Mandalore, the Mandalorians' home planet, and a hard pivot to pacifism — as shown in the shows Clone Wars and Rebels.

8. QED: While both Mandalorian and Jedi religion has undergone *a lot* of change over the years (w/breakaway groups, etc), evidence suggests their original conflict — which led to the creation of Mandalorian armor, and, in turn, stormtrooper armor, etc. — was a MASSIVE holy war.

9. (Also it's crazy to think about how far-reaching the influence of that religious conflict was. Republic soldiers during the Clone Wars were all being led by Jedi while wearing Mandalorian-inspired armor, stormtroopers were still rocking it after the Jedi were decimated, etc.)

10. Just another example of Star Wars being extremely, intensely, unabashedly religious without spending a lot of time *talking* about religion.

(Which, despite popular religio-political narratives to the contrary, is how a lot of religious people encounter religion, tbh.)

11. To put a finer point on it: contemporary western discourse often codes "religious" as "going to worship a lot and vocalizing about your god/gods/beliefs in public often."

Religion, however, often works very, very differently than that — which is why so many miss it.