The same way many Americans know what the Liberty Bell looks like without knowing it’s entire history. Mando was probably a teenager when Mandalore was united under the dark saber. Perhaps he would see it as a symbol of Mandalore rather than know it’s Jedi significance.
Made me cringe.
They have shown vibro-blades already. Mando’s own knife was one, and the Trandoshans had vibro-axes.
He led an attack on Mandalore that he called the Night Of 1000 Tears. He basically destroyed the Mandalorians and stole the darksabre.
I know it was supposed to be funny and maybe someday I could watch it and laugh, but I SCREAMED at my tv “YOU FUCK FACE!” in front of my kid. The kid was mildly traumatized by the other remaining Mandalorian’s taking out of the storm troops. That was a little graphic, but also pretty awesome.
It definitely felt like a Taika joint.
I don’t know shit about EU and didn’t get more than a few episodes into Rebels, but I thought that black light saber was cool and dangerous so even us not in the know picked up on it being not just a regular normal thing.
I wasn’t looking forward to another season, however much I enjoyed this one, of them running from bounty hunters and all that. Going from system to system looking for yodas? While probably also dodging bounty hunters and Giancarlo? A subtle difference that I can get behind.
“C’mon baby, do the magic hand thing!”
To which Baby Yoda responds by waving at him. 
Yeah I completely forgot about the Darksaber stuff from Rebels. That’s definitely what that was.
My reading of the canon is that the Jedi angle to Darksaber’s history ends about a thousand years ago. After that, it’s just the weapon of the Manda’lor (the leader of the Mandalorians).
I’m sure the “elementary school history” version of its tale is entirely about Mandalor. Scary sorcerers that were opponents of Mandalor as often as allies need not be mentioned.
Loved the last episode and the whole season. I hope this convinces Disney that “small scale” stories, just about the fates of individuals rather than of governments and galaxies, can be just as compelling, when executed well. The Star Wars universe is big enough for many such stories – I’d love to see them give Joss Whedon the chance to do the kind of Firefly-esque smuggler/spacer story he’s probably been dreaming of for decades.
I play Star Wars: The Old Republic, an MMO based in the SW universe. The Mandalorian felt like an adventure from that game–and that’s a good thing. SWTOR is fantastic at immersive storytelling, and allows you to play not just Jedi and Sith, but bounty hunters, smugglers, Imperial Agents, and other “smaller” characters, each with their own compelling story. I agree with you that the Star Wars universe is huge and lived-in and has room for tons of interesting stories about people who aren’t Skywalkers.
I agree. Pity it’s never going to happen. The Mouse is all about the bucks, and small, intimate series on Netflix or Disney+ don’t make the scratch a badly written, badly acted, abysmally directed trilogy of movies does.
I hope what they learned is to put people in charge that know what the fuck they are doing. The Mandalorian isn’t a success because its a small scale story, its a success because its damn good.
If Star Wars became a franchise of Disney+ series and the occasional made-for-streaming movie, I’d be supremely happily. As long as they’re as good as the TV stuff they’ve already put out (Resistance notwithstanding).
IIUC, The Clone Wars and Rebels animated series are supposed to be Disney-era canon and in continuity with The Mandalorian. However, the portrayal of Mandalorians in each of the three series is wildly inconsistent with the others.
Here’s my headcanon/fanwank attempt at reconciling them:
Centuries (millennia?) ago, the Mandalorians were a warrior culture known and feared throughout the Galaxy. They frequently came into conflict with the Old Republic and the Jedi Order. However, over time, they were defeated, not necessarily so much militarily as culturally. During the long peace of the Old Republic, a culture built entirely on war just wasn’t viable.
The Mandalorians settled down on the planet Mandalore and gradually became a primarily agricultural society. By the time of the Clone Wars, the clan structure, while it still existed, had been weakened, and Mandalore was ruled by a Duchess.
In response, militant Traditionalists formed a terrorist organization, the Death Watch, to undermine the new sociopolitical order and to try to re-establish the old ways. However, like many “traditionalist” terrorists, members of the Death Watch often didn’t actually know all that much about the “old ways” they were trying to bring back, and picked and chose the cool parts (jet packs!) while ignoring the more difficult and problematic aspects (you can’t ever remove your helmet in the presence of another living creature, Mandalorians reproduce primarily if not exclusively by adopting “foundlings” aka war orphans).
Meanwhile, a splinter faction of ultra-traditionalist Radicals didn’t just include those difficult and problematic elements of “the Way”, they emphasized them. They didn’t get much immediate traction, and were a fringe of a fringe, but the successive traumas of the Clone Wars, the fall of the Old Republic, and the rise of the Empire changed that.
A decade after the Clone Wars, the Death Watch essentially won. The Modernist political structure disintegrated along with the Old Republic, and the clan leaders reclaimed power. Most of them followed some form of the Death Watch’s ideology, adopting the cool bits of the Way (rule by clan elders, a warrior ethos, jet packs!) and ignoring the inconvenient bits. Some clans, though, adopted the Radical approach to the Way.
The Imperial Security Bureau interfered in Mandalorian clan politics, in part to divide and conquer, and in part to gather intelligence on the Mandalorian political and cultural leadership. ISB Agent Gideon oversaw these operations, which culminated in the “Night of 1000 Tears”, when the ISB and Imperial Stormtroopers purged Mandalore of clan leaders, Beskarsteelsmiths, other social/political/cultural leaders, and basically anyone who was wearing Mandalorian battle armor. ISB Agent Gideon captured a Mandalorian cultural artifact, the Dark Saber, during the Purge, and for his efforts was promoted to Moff.
Most “Mandalorians” were just farmers trying to get by, and most of them just kept their heads down during the Purge, got on with farming, and tried to survive. Some Traditionalists fled to the Fringe and the Outer Rim, and made their way as bounty hunters and mercenaries. Some Radicals also managed to flee, establishing “Coverts” on planets in the Fringe and Outer Rim, and tried to maintain “the Way” while surviving as bounty hunters and mercenaries.
The Empire mostly ignored the surviving Mandalorians as long as they just worked as individual free-lancers; it was only when they discovered a functional Mandalorian “covert”/colony that could serve as a point of organized resistance that the Empire would act against them. To survive, the Coverts adopted a policy of only allowing their people to go out and act as individuals, and to conceal the existence of their Coverts, which they continued even after the fall of the Empire and the establishment of the New Republic, since Imperial Remnants continued to persecute them and the Republic were traditional enemies.
You worked out a more detailed backstory than I have gotten around to, but this is generally the way I was thinking about it. In fact, I can see the events of “Rebels” prompting the Imperial crack-down; a newly “nationalistic,” united, and militaristic Mandalore would have to be brought to heel, so Gideon comes in and shows them the Empire’s way of dealing with too-proud societies. He takes the Darksaber as a final act of humiliation/subjugation of what’s left of Mandalore, and the more radical sects of Mandalore disperse and go into hiding.
To an extent, the Mandalorians as portrayed in the series seem inspired by Sikhism. Their cultures are both militant out of necessity, born out of oppression and persecution, and a constant need to defend oneself against outsiders. Not everyone who is born of Mandalore accepts the creed, just as not every Sikh undergoes baptism. A Mandalorian who comes of age forsakes his given name, much like a baptized Sikh adopts the surname Singh/Kaur in place of their own. The Mandalorian creed obliges them to carry weapons and never remove their helmet in the presence of another, just as a Sikh is obliged to carry a knife, wear a turban and carry a comb to protect their unshorn hair and beard, and wear an undergarment so he is never unprepared for battle.
It may just be coincidence, but it wouldn’t surprise me if Favreau & company had intentionally done it that way.
… is likely any of the writers on any of the loosely related projects ever have. 
Honestly I think they’ll toss out a fan service bit like the Darksaber bit but great concern about staying Disney SW universe internally consistent between the cartoons and the television show? Not getting that sense. Not in a corporate environment that had the last three movies in the same universe!
Dave Filoni was the creator and show runner of Clone Wars, Rebels and executive producer of The Mandalorian, I imagine the differences between the mandalorians on each show are intended.