Who Was Din Djarin’s Teacher? A 40-Year-Old Star Wars Story May Hold the Answer
Someone had to teach Mando the way.
Considering how much time we’ve spent with Din Djarin, it’s shocking how little we know about him. In the Mandalorian Season 3 finale alone, we discovered we’ve been calling him by the wrong name this whole time. His first name is Djarin, and his family name is Din, not the other way around as we assumed.
In that same scene, we learned something else new about Djarin. It turns out he wasn’t just raised by the Mandalorian culture as a whole, but by one particular teacher. Now he’s taking on a similar role with his newly adopted son, Din Grogu.
But just who could this teacher be? The answer may lie in a 40-year-old comic that stars one of the first Mandalorians Star Wars fans ever met.
Tobbi Dala sacrifices his life in Star Wars #69.
In the non-canon comic Star Wars #69, published in 1982, Princess Leia is captured by the Empire and brought to the City of Bone, an amusement park transformed into an Imperial outpost. To escape, she joins forces with a pair of Mandalorians working to keep their planet from getting completely overrun: Tobbi Dala and Fenn Shysa.
Dala, the elder of the two, sacrifices himself and is never seen again. But the date of his demise was well after when Din Djarin was rescued (19 years before the Battle of Yavin) and well before The Mandalorian began (five years after the battle), so he could still have been present in Djarin’s life. Raising Djarin would just be one more selfless adventure in a life apparently full of them, while his off-screen loss would explain why he’s never seen on the Disney+ show.
Fenn Shysa and Leia Organa mourn Tobbi’s death.
Granted, the world Tobbi Dala inhabited is nothing like the one in The Mandalorian, but he was one of the first Mandalorians shown to sacrifice themselves for the greater good, which gives him a place in Star Wars history. If any unknown Mando is dredged up from the depths of canon to be Din Djarin’s teacher, it should be him. He’s even seen speaking in what feels like a Southern drawl, which makes him the perfect fit for a space western like The Mandalorian.
