Moff Gideon Makes The Oldest 'Star Wars' Joke Canon

The Mandalorian has its finger on the pulse when it comes to the Star Wars fandom. Even avid collectors of the old Kenner toys can tell that the team behind the show did their homework when it comes to both the universe itself and the merchandise that has become so beloved. And one of the longest coveted Star Wars toys of all is the lightsaber. Even before owning any toy modeled after the lightsaber, many kids have picked up alternatives such as baseball bats or even sticks, swinging them around and pretending that they are Jedi partaking in lightsaber duels. The lightsaber itself has seen many permutations, whether it be the color of the blade, the design of the hilt, or the number of blades coming out of the hilt.

Currently, one of the more popular permutations on the screen is the Darksaber. Fans of the animated shows know how far this weapon traveled before it came into the possession of Moff Gideon. In last week's episode, "Chapter 14: The Tragedy" (SPOILERS for that episode), Moff Gideon captures Grogu and sees him Force choking stormtroopers. Impressed with this raw and dark display of telekinetic combat, Gideon shows Grogu the Darksaber. He then tells Grogu, "You're not ready to play with such things. Liable to put an eye out."

This is kind of funny in hindsight, given that the watchdog organization World Against Toys Causing Harm has deemed a new Darksaber toy somewhat dangerous (as we previously reported here). But what is also funny, as Screen Rant points out, is that this plays into one of the oldest jokes in Star Wars. Think back to the very first film, when Ben Kenobi gives Luke Skywalker his father's lightsaber. There is actually a production still from the making of this scene in which Luke appears to be holding the hilt in such a way that, if ignited, the blade would go right through his face. This has become the fodder of many hilarious memes. It feels especially relevant now, given that we are in the season when A Christmas Story, the film in which a kid is told "You'll shoot your eye out!" if he gets a BB gun, will probably be airing again and again, more times than is necessary. (As you can probably tell, I do not really like the film, and I do not understand why TBS thinks it is a good idea to air it on repeat for 24 hours.)

Getting a lightsaber blade in the eye is not something new to Star Wars. In canon, we saw Maul blind Kanan Jarrus in the Star Wars Rebels episode "Twilight of the Apprentice." Long before that, in 2008's The Force Unleashed video game (which is considered Legends), we saw Starkiller do the same to Jedi Master Rahm Kota. It seems to be a signature move for characters portrayed by Sam Witwer.

The inclusion of Gideon's line is a nice way to inject humor into the show even when there is doom and gloom. The series is no stranger to these types of meta jokes. In the season 1 finale, we saw a couple of stormtroopers trying to shoot at an object just for fun, and they missed with every single shot. This tickled many fans who have made fun of the troopers in general for not being able to shoot main characters in the films very often. The Mandalorian knows how to balance drama and comedy in a way that works and does not feel too jarring. Let's see what more the show has in store for us.

Written By Steven Shinder

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