Pedro Pascal plays the titular Mandalorian bounty hunter in Disney+'s insanely popular new Star Wars series, but just by watching the first four episodes, you'd never know. Here we are half way through the first season, and we still haven't seen the Mandalorian take off his helmet. That's because this series has established a rule unknown in any previous Star Wars property: Mandalorians cannot remove their helmets in front of any other person. If they do, they are no longer considered a Mandalorian.
Of course, this rule is new, as far as Star Wars fans know. In previous canon and non-cannon entries in the franchise Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Star Wars Rebels, Mandalorians freely removed their helmets whenever they needed to. But, it appears something changed between the events of Revenge of the Sith and the end of the original series. During this time, the Mandalorians appear to have suffered some sort of devastating loss to their clans, forcing them into hiding, and leading them to keep their helmets on at all times.
While the helmet rule hasn't been fully explained, we do know that it is considered disgusting for a Mandalorian to remove their helmet at any time in front of another person. The Mandalorian armorer asks our protagonist in an early episode whether he's ever taken his helmet off, with a negative connotation. But, in Episode Four, these helmet rules get outlined a little more fully. Omera, a woman Mando meets in a small fishing village in Episode Four, takes an interest in the masked hero. When she asks the last time he removed his helmet in front of other people, he tells her that it was when he was a child.
But, throughout the series, this idea of the Mandalorian keeping his helmet on at all times has led to some pretty natural confusion for anyone watching. Fans have wondered how the Mandalorian eats. Is it through some sort of helmet feeding system? Is our guy shoving burgers under the helmet? Episode Four at least answered this question, revealing that he does take his helmet off to eat in private. Which might not be the most exciting answer—helmet smoothie system would have been cool—but probably the most practical.
Otherwise, this whole helmet rule remains a mystery in this era of the Star Wars universe. But, we can count on likely learning more about this in the second half of the series. That's because The Mandalorian is co-executive produced by Dave Filoni, who created both The Clone Wars and Rebels Star Wars series. Considering he knows full-well that Mandalorians once freely took off their helmets, he will certainly provide an answer for why this is no longer acceptable. Until then, we can enjoy the adorable face of non-helmeted Baby Yoda.
