The Mandalorian Decides Jetpacks Are Old And Busted, Introduces New Hotness

In the world of "Star Wars," Mandalorians are the embodiment of a good action figure. They don't need to be people, per se, just have a bunch of gadgets that both inform you of who they are and look cool. A flame thrower and a jetpack with a rocket launcher. Boba Fett didn't need more than that to become legendary in the minds of millions of Gen Xers back in the '80s.

Those two accessories have become synonymous with Mandalorians, and we can't say we're surprised. The helmet is rather unique and has strong iconography, and jetpacks just plain rule. You can fly with one, you can shoot missiles out of some of them — they're awesome.

But it seems like "Star Wars" is ready to move away from jetpacks. This is a bit surprising, considering they were all the rage in the first season of "The Mandalorian," with Din Djarin experiencing a triumphant moment when he acquired enough beskar to get The Armorer to make him a jetpack. But just like the Kenner company decided rocket launchers were dangerous in the hands of kids and recalled the original Boba Fett toys that included those rocket launcher, maybe Lucasfilm and Disney don't want kids pestering their parents asking for a jetpack. At the very least, the latest episode of "The Mandalorian" makes it clear that jetpacks have their limits. Out with the old, in with the new hotness.

In the latest episode of the series, amidst thrilling flashbacks to when Jar Jar Binks may have saved Grogu, we also saw yet another Mandalorian kid get kidnapped by a giant creature right outside the Mandalorians' doorsteps. Though they all rush in to save the kid from the giant pterodactyl-looking thing, none of them manage to catch it before their jetpacks run out of fuel. Turns out, Mandalorian jetpacks are just like dwarfs in "The Lord of the Rings": In the words of Gimli, they're "wasted on cross-country," but "very dangerous over short distances."

When they do eventually reach the nest of the creatures they call raptors, they rescue the kid and kill the raptor mama, but only after seeing that she was just kidnapping tiny children in order to feed her own babies — like any good parent would. Of course, the Mandalorians are selfish and violence-prone, so they just butcher the mom and leave the orphaned babies out to die alone on a cliff ... or do they?

In the final scene, we see Bo-Katan somehow fit like 10 Mandalorians and also three giant raptor babies on her ship (which is now more like a clown car), and introduces the chicks as "foundlings." It is very unlikely we'll see the birds with Mandalorian helmets and guns in the future, so it is more probable that the raptors will instead fix a major problem for the Mandalorians and replace their jetpacks.

While the idea of Mandalorians riding giant birds into battle might sound weird at first, it would actually just continue a long-standing tradition from before we ever even met a Mandalorian on the big screen.

That's right, I'm talking about Boba Fett. Ever since he was first introduced in the "Star Wars Holiday Special," the character has been riding some kind of creature as a mount. First, in animated form, it was the panna dragon. Then in "The Book of Boba Fett," he rode a massive rancor into a fight, and it was the coolest thing in that show. 

Maybe it is time to retire the jetpack. After all, they can only be used in short distances, and even then, they can be shot at and blown up. A raptor, however, is smart and can maneuver in a fight to avoid damage. Sure, "Star Wars" doesn't have the best track record with mounts — both Obi-Wan's veractyl and Luke's tauntaun were killed — but it's time we get a mount that survives for more than one episode. Plus, Grogu is going to love it, and at the end of the day, isn't that what really matters?