⭐️ 📝 [Analysis] The Incredible Significance of IG-11

Recently, I was listening to the Mandalorian’s Soundtrack and I noticed one particular track named “Reprogram” which referred to, of course, IG-11, but while I listened to it, I realized something. I noticed how IG-11 was not a droid anymore, I heard the flutes, I heard the Mandalorian’s motif remixed slightly, and in that moment, I realized the IG-11 mirrors Din Dijarin to an alarming degree.

We settle on Episode one of the Mandalorian where both IG-11 and Din have met together at a crossing road, both of them going for the same bounty, which is Grogu. Din looks on IG as he approaches the settlement housing the Child, and the first thing we hear is him reciting the “guild code” saying: “Sub paragraph 16 of the bondsman guild protocol waiver compels you to immediately produce said asset”. IG then wastes no time and blasts a whole right through the first Nikto between him and the gate. A bit later on, Mando gets down on ground level where he and the droid come to a compromise and work as a team, blasting their way to the gateway where the child rests. However, they become pinned down. IG states that he is going to activate self-destruct because of his programming prohibiting him of being captured. Din and IG finally take care of all the hostiles and proceed to Grogu’s location, where IG, ready to kill Grogu reasons “The commision was quite specific. The asset was to be terminated.” This is where Din shoots IG, mesmerized at Grogu for his appearance.

The first thing we notice about IG is the strict programming he lives by, going precisely as instructed by the guild’s guidelines, ready to kill anyone or do anything to do his job and execute his mission, even ready to kill himself. This reminds me of Mando’s strict rules that he follows, never taking his helmet off and living by his creed no matter what. However, this is what makes him like IG: a mindless being that allows his creed or programming to dictate his path or actions instead of himself. However, Din has an instant and visible change of heart when he looks on Grogu, which is the exact opposite of what he is. Din is covered in armor, has weapons literally on his body, whereas Grogu is completely defenseless and vulnerable. Instead of doing what he is told for once, he spared Grogu, letting him live. This is the start of Din breaking out of his own programming, and beginning to think for himself.

IG’s path also starts, but in the arms of Kuil who nurses the droid back to health and gives him a different purpose, one IG is completely forien to which is to nurse and protect. Kuil sows love into IG-11 giving him as passionate a desire to serve as his willingness was to kill. Like IG, Din does similarly. Though his time with Grogu, he is transformed into someone who loves, someone who wants to protect at all costs instead of killing, and interestingly, when Din is faced with this new change of character, he is hostile and weary of him. However, I think that Din’s reaction to IG’s change reflects Din’s personal turmoil with himself, breaking off from his way of life and becoming a different person with different priorities. Din is scared of IG not because of who he once was, but because of what he has become. He doesn’t want to believe that someone can change that much so fast. Its out of the range of possibility. How could someone who had previously been so strong in their way of life suddenly stop and become a caretaker? It indeed took IG a long time to fully reach his level of tact, learning to hold steady cups, since he had previously only known destruction, but he was transformed into something else entirely.

However, the most interesting and complex scene comes next, principally because of all we have just read so far. IG is allowed to take Din’s helmet off. When IG lifts Din’s helmet, we see who the Mandalorian is, he’s a human, a human who can die, a human who is vulnerable, dying. IG doesn’t say anything regarding Din’s appearance, which to me is a really great touch, and instead does his best to heal Din the best he can. Remember that, all Din’s life, he had thought of droids as violent and mindless, very possibly, unchangeable. But in this moment, he realizes that they can change, that they are more than their original programming. I wonder if Din realized that he and IG weren’t so different in that moment.

For me, IG-11 has changed the way I viewed Din Djarin. I can’t believe I noticed this similarity in the first place, because I had certainly never heard anyone talk about it. I hope it gave you a different way of looking at the Mandalorian and I hope you enjoyed. This was a short little essay and I had a lot of fun writing this one to y’all. I’m glad you stayed until the end. Thank you, my friend. And May the Force Be Forever With You.