The Mandalorian The Mando Armor/Gadget Thread

I speculated about that in the past. But if the sword was able to cut through beskar it would have to cause damage to a lightsaber blade in a similar fashion as a cortosis blade would in the EU. But this does not appear to be the case that the Darksaber is in anyway stronger than a regular regular lightsaber. But they could always change canon.



I will say only in the very capable hands of a full trained Force wielder, like Maul the weapon was used to its full potential from "The Lawless" blocking Sidious' deadly and powerful strikes to wiping out battle droids and Magnaguards to Clones alike in SOD.

In the recent Lightsaber book released, it is interesting that the darksaber is listed among the Dark Side weapons. Also the black crystal is installed in a Savi's Workshop , the blade will illuminate red, just like it would with a red kyber crystal. These could be clues.

 

I think what you propose is kinda more along the lines of the Sith Lignan Lightsabers. But there is never any visual or otherwise representation that the darksaber being hotter, or better than a regular lightsaber in either cutting power or speed. Lightsabers are often pointed visually at the tip as well, or presented as narrower(Rebels).

As an ancient weapon, perhaps swords in this slashing and hacking style were more common way back when, and/or perhaps the black colored crystals were too?! Although crystals in canon are supposedly colorless unless you go to Galaxy's Edge,lol.

At this point I more propose that the darksaber was simply modeled on the Mandalorian beskar sword called the Beskad by its maker:

https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Beskad

Which I guess makes sense being that the darksaber was originally a vibro-sword, since Lucas made objections of them despite their electricity(similar to the electro staff) being able to stop lightsabers. Also on TCW Mando armor could never stop lightsaber strikes or blaster fire anyhow.

And who knows maybe the kyber crystal has this weird color and sound because of the reaction to the metal of the hilt in which it was contained could be made of beskar. But I do think the weapon is a dark side weapon. Maul could've turned blade red but instead chose to leave it as was. He also suspiciously retired the weapon in Season 7. If he was gonna make new doublebladed lightsaber I think it would've made more to combine the darksaber with his lightsaber or even use half of Savage's. The use of Ventress' yellow lightsaber hilt is perplexing, but thats another story.

Savage's lightsaber also had a unique sound to it and there really was not an explanation to that.


And looking at Dark Bane's proposed saber-staff you can see the same shape blade:

 

Oh no... it just dawned on me that the Holiday Special gun was in the Razor Crest...

 

So I just assumed that Mandalorian armor being saber-proof was an invention of the Mandalorian. But a recent comment got me thinking. In footage cut from Attack of the Clones, Mace slices Jango a few more times. Interestingly, it doesn't seem to phase Jango, nor is the damage apparent in the final film (that could just be a result of it being deleted early on).

So if Jango's armor really was deflecting the lightsaber, it puts the scene into a new context that Jango had no choice but to go for the neck, since it was the only area that wasn't armored.

So I'd be interested if Lucas was the one who envisioned the armor as impenetrable. Though this was not originally the case as evident from Return of the Jedi storyboards.

Also, it's my understanding that Mando having a beskar jetpack is unique to Mando. Seems like most other interpretations have the jetpack as being a liability to being sliced open.

 

No. Physically (meaning abiding by the laws of physics and material science), even though X substance (darksaber) can cut Y substance (beskar), while Z substance (lightsaber) cannot cut Y substance (beskar) it doesn’t necessarily follow that X substance (darksaber) can cut Z substance (lightsaber). The lightsaber might simply have properties that don’t allow for the darksaber to break it. As perhaps the darksaber was explicitly made to cut beskar, and not lightsaber plasma.

 

That makes no sense, as both saber blades are made of plasma, which is why neither can cut or break the other, unless you have evidence otherwise. There is nothing to suggest that the Darksaber has an added increase in strength and resistance to cut through Beskar.

And I never said anything about breaking a lightsaber blade, but if the darksaber's blade was so powerful to cut through mm's of Beskar armor plating as some of you suggest, if it it would indeed cause damage to a regular lightsaber blade as it would be significantly more powerful blade and simply not made of the same properties.

As shown on this show, lightsabers cannot cut through Beskar even when wielded by a Force user by powerful hacks and slashing - although a thrust might indeed penetrate it - which we have yet to see. Usually the tips of the lightsaber are regarded as the hottest in any case.



Now a possibility could be that Darksaber with its thinner blade could also be part vibro-sword inside which can increase a certain cutting power via ultrasonic vibrations which can explain that tunning fork noises it makes when it connects with an object. But canon vibro-blades arent effective against beskar nor lightsabers like the old EU often had. We see a mando vibro-knife cause no damage to the armor on this show in the first season. Whether or not Mando blades are made of Beskar or durasteel, it probably doesnt matter since both metals were very strong and combined with vibro-tech, very dangerous. But the knives were useless against Beskar. best they could hope to do is penerate areas where there is no armor.

Being that the Darksaber is more of a pointed blade and a shorter blade, it looks like it was designed to penetrate unprotected areas of Mandalorians, as in between the plates and gapes of the bodyarmor. And possibly to be incorporate the use of a shield possibly.


According to Dave Filoni I remember reading that the Darksaber is not as strong or as good as a standard lightsaber , especially when in the hands of a trained lightsaber using warrior. Its why its style/design was limited. However even Sabine defeats the darksaber wielding Gar Saxon while she used Ezra's lightsaber.

 

I saw some video on youtube today when it's said the reason they choosed a beskar spear for mando is because Pedro Pascal got very good with spears since his days playing Oberyn Martell in GOT !

 

And I very much doubt he'll refuse to wear his helmet during this particular spear duel.

 

Let’s just hope he doesn’t meet the same fate as Oberyn Martell...

 

We also saw Din using wooden spears quite expertly in this past episode.

 

When Djarin was repairing his armor in Season 1, you can see under the metal plates there is circuitry.

 

Well its interesting.

My thinking currently is that there is some kinda unsaid energy field being produced under the armor that makes for all the enemy blaster fire to connect to the charged metal plates rather than hitting all the exposed areas of the body of which there is too many for the armor to be really practical. So far only the "heavy infantry" Mandalorian from Season 1(Paz Vizsla) looked to be wearing full body armor of more practical or atleast better protected kind.

But there is some oddities with Djarin plot armor aside, that he's able to take lethal hits from a Mudhorn with only the armor getting dented but no broken bones or internal bleeding, and was able to survive lethal fall landing on his back from off the Jawa crawler but yet an E-Web gun blowing up near him had enough concussive force to almost finally kill him. The interesting thing about the mudhorn was that it dented up his beskar armor, so blunt objects like say hammers or such might be able to dent and smash up the metal plates and perhaps kill the user underneath.

 

There might not be as much impact absorption/dispersion technology in the helmet since its probably jammed with comfort and HUD/Comms features. Heck, most Mandos wear exterior scanners on their helmets, probably because the helmet is so jammed pack with other stuff.

 

I hope din adds some colour for season 3.

 

Maybe the armor is magnetically sealed, like the trash compactor hatch.

 

Will you forget it? I already tried it.

 

I think this was done to set up Din for the upcoming showdown with Gideon. If Din were to showdown with Gideon and look like a staff-master you just know Star Wars fans would howl about it being contrived. However, having already shown him to be proficient with the weapon it will make sense that he can handle Gideon in the upcoming episode. That’s my guess as to why they made a point of showing some spear action in chapter 15.

I've made a similar proposal elswhere. Seeing all the electronics behind the breastplate (and dont forget the pauldron) made me think there were quite a few things going on that haven’t been explored. One of the most likely, imho, would have to be a way to explain the relatively modest amount of armor covering Mandalorians. Compare that with the overwhelming likelihood of this armor being hit and it is virtually certain something is dragging the shots towars the armor. In all probability the suit's onboard computer quickly determines where the shot is likely to land and then charges the plate necessary to pull the from a vulnerable area.* So instead of taking a shot to the stomach the shots angles to the breast plate. Or whatever.

It is odd that Disney has decided to do away with codpieces for some reason. If I were to go into combat the first piece of armor I would make sure to have to a codpiece! It would also fill in a conspicuous gap in the armor. As it is they sort of assume that the thigh plates will cover this region but if it were my junk on the line I would want as much coverage as possible..... otoh, I suppose if this theory above is correct I suppose I wouldn’t want to attract shots to my crotch. Scratch that. I am VERY sure I wouldn’t want to attract shots to my crotch.

*- before someone calls BS on this keep in mind that parts of this technology already exist. Israel’s missile defense umbrella quickly identifies where a threat is coming from, where it is going, and if it is likely to hit an area with people or fall into an uninhabited region. If the missile will threaten lives the system fires to destroy the threat—if it will fall in a uninhabited area the system just lets it fall on its own. Granted this isn’t a system you can put into a suit and we can’t yet redirect incoming fire. But the Israeli trophy system has managed to mount this system in vehicles, so it isn’t exactly unimaginable what the Mandalorian armor can do.

These are not really similar injuries. The EWeb exploding would have a similar effect as large the caliber artillery shells exploding did in WWII. These shells created such a concussive force that it fatally damaged internal organs but generally did no damage externally. The EWeb did the exact same thing and that is why the armor had no protective effect whereas greater distance would have helped.

OTOH, when falling from a great height a good portion of the damage comes from tensing up and making yourself more prone to injury. This is why there are so many stories of unconcious people falling from a height and walking away relatively unscathed whereas people awake, and falling, hurt themsekves much worse. When Din falls from the Sand Crawler he is clearly relaxed from having been knocked out. This is a good thing. Also, the ground he falls on was slightly muddy. It means that the soil would have displaced some of the force of his landing and acted as a cushion (modestly).

So neither of these examples really strike me as plot armor. Now the Mudhorn not caving in his chest? Yea, you have a good point there. The only thing that makes sense is if the Mandalorian suit electronic suite could disperse concentrated impact force. This would make a ton of sense since getting hit while wearing beskar would potentially hurt like wearing a bullet proof vest. If the impact were dispersed, however, that would make getting hit the minor affair it seems to be in the series.

EDIT: it occurs to me that there is an array of other things the Mandalorian technology may have that others lack. For example, the small thing that looks like a vent at the back of Mandalorian helmets may be a sensor... or maybe just a vent... or both. It would be a great spot to put a rear facing sensor to detect threats. It would be why Din reacted so quickly to things like Winta sneaking up in him in chapter 4.

 

That's not a guess. It's a certainty. They showed Din expertly using wooden spears in The Believer because he's going to be expertly using a beskar spear in the finale. Without even a shadow of a doubt.