The Book Of Boba Fett Confirms Mandalorians Are No Match For Jawas

Minor spoilers for "The Book of Boba Fett" and "The Mandalorian" ahead.

Mandalorians are supposed to be some of the toughest warriors in the galaxy, so why do they keep getting their helmets handed to them by tiny cloaked aliens? In both "The Mandalorian" and "The Book of Boba Fett," we see the titular heroes encountering Jawas and ending up on the losing end. Both Pedro Pascal's Din Djarin and Temuera Morrison's Boba Fett have faced off against the bright-eyed little weirdos and lost, which leads me to wonder: are the Mandos all that tough? Are Jawas some kind of superbeings? Or are Jawas just Mandalorian kryptonite, the one thing they cannot fight against? (Maybe it's because they're tiny and kind of cute, like Grogu.)

In the battle between the two most famous beskar-wearing dudes in the galaxy and a bunch of rodent people in cloaks ... the winners are always going to be the Jawas. The precedent has been set.  

In season 1, episode 2 of "The Mandalorian," "The Child," Djarin comes in contact with some Off-World Jawas on the desert planet of Arvala-7. He manages to board their Sandcrawler only to discover a whole load of the little guys waiting with their rifles drawn. He ends up going backwards over the edge of the Sandcrawler and is knocked unconscious, which gives the Jawas plenty of time to find his ship, Razor Crest, and steal everything that isn't bolted down. Actually, they steal some of those things, too, leaving the Razor Crest inoperable and Djarin stranded on Arvala-7. He ends up going on a quest for an egg for the Jawas, which they trade him for parts to fix his ship. The Jawas aren't even on their home planet and they manage to beat up a Mandalorian, steal his stuff, and then make him go fetch a nice snack. 

That's right, the Mandalorian got straight-up bullied by a bunch of glowy-eyed sand-rats. 

If Djarin's treatment by the Jawas is embarrassing, then what happens to Fett is downright mortifying. After he manages to claw his way out of the Sarlacc pit and collapses upon the desert sands of Tatooine, he is beset upon by a group of roving Jawas. They strip him of his Mandalorian armor, leaving him in what amounts to his space undies. We know that he'll eventually get that armor back, but it will not be quick or easy. 

That's two of the galaxy's toughest mercs, laid out and robbed by bipedal space rats. That's gotta be embarrassing. We'll have to keep watching "The Book of Boba Fett" to see if the tally changes at all, but my credits are on the Jawas. 

New episodes of "The Book of Boba Fett" premiere on Wednesdays, streaming exclusively on Disney+.