Since her very first appearance, the Armorer has been a mysterious character on Disney+’s The Mandalorian. When the penultimate episode of the show’s third season was titled “The Spies,” fans immediately began to theorize that the Armorer, the very person who had led the Tribe for some time, was the titular spy. That turned out not to be true, as no spy was uncovered among the Mandalorians, and it even seems like they may have been going for something more like the Biblical usage of the word. But you’re right to be suspicious of the Armorer all the same, because she’s basically a Dark Souls NPC–some of the most notoriously treacherous characters in gaming.
While The Mandalorian itself hardly has Dark Souls vibes, everything about the Armorer seems to. When Mando finds her, she’s working in a secretive underground forgery in the sewers. As far as we can tell as viewers, the Armorer never leaves this space until it’s time to migrate to a new hideout for the Children of the Watch. She just lives down there in the sewer, endlessly hammering away at Beskar, like so many other NPCs you encounter in FromSoft games, from Andre the Smith in Dark Souls to Elden Ring’s Gideon Ofnir (not to mention that her helmet bears a striking resemblance to Gideon’s).
She’s also a high-ranking member of the Tribe, the sect of the Children of the Watch, an orthodox sect of Mandalorian culture and religion. Obscure factions, or covenants, that have their own rules and advantages are a staple of games like Dark Souls, Demon’s Souls, and Elden Ring especially. These factions often require that you keep a particular item equipped at all times to get their advantages. For Din Djarin to stay a part of the Watch, he can never take off his helmet in the presence of others.
The Armorer doesn’t sound like any other Mandalorians, and she doesn’t really sound like any other Star Wars characters, either. While plenty of other Star Wars characters sport British accents, none of the other Mandalorians do. More importantly, though, her helmet gives her an especially hollow-sounding voice, which she’s always using to say cryptic things that have multiple interpretations at best. Her way of speaking is uniquely stilted compared to everyone around her.
And finally, when Mando does break his covenant with the Children of the Watch by taking off his helmet a couple of times in Season 2, he goes to the Armorer for advice. What does the Armorer do? She gives him a quest. It’s not a simple fetch quest, either. She gives him a quest that she fully believes is impossible to accomplish. The only way for him to absolve himself of his sins is to bathe in the Living Waters of Mandalore and recite a very specific set of words. Of course, he does it, because video game quests can always be fulfilled, but in the fiction of the show, it shouldn’t have been possible.
Oftentimes, NPCs in FromSoft games will betray you–often enough that it’s something you can expect. Patches is notorious for doing so in almost every FromSoft game. Mild-mannered Pate in Dark Souls 2 comes to mind, as does the aforementioned Gideon in Elden Ring. It’s often a matter of circumstance that causes them to betray you–they have their own agenda, and aren’t doing it just to be cruel to you.
Of course, if you haven’t played any FromSoft games, why would you expect that the Armorer might be a mole or turncoat? For all the same reasons: This faceless character dictates ancient rules and impossible quests to a character who we know and trust and who is often just trying to do his best to protect his small green son. The Armorer is, even in Star Wars terms, pretty odd. Ultimately, she dropped on Mandalore with the rest of the Tribe and brought the hammer down on stormtroopers instead of on Beskar steel, proving herself an ally through and through. But if you were expecting her to turn at any moment–it wasn’t just you.
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