Decoding the Mystery of the Mythosaur in ‘The Mandalorian’

On planet Mandalore, there’s no shortage of things that can kill you! Hell, this guy will ice you just for looking at his surrogate baby funny! There are also harsh deserts, nasty animals, and some particularly murderous inhabitants. But no creature of Mandalore is as deadly, as feared, and as mythologized as the Mandalorian mythosaur! It’s got myth in the NAME. This dinosaur thingy is quite literally the stuff of legends! Why? Because they have all gone extinct.

Or at least that’s what we thought …

The mythosaur, king of the animal kingdom of yore

The mythosaur was said to have existed long before the Mandalorian cataclysm, which reduced the once lush jungles of the Outer Rim planet to a barren and dusty wasteland, like my sock drawer. The mythosaur actually predates the Mandalorian cataclysm by centuries. Perhaps even millennia! According to ancient history, the mines of Mandalore were once the lair of the mythosaurs. Taking a page out of Lord of the Rings, the Mandalorians once dug too greedily and too deeply in their pursuit of mythirl—I mean, beskar. They’re basically the same thing: a mystical, nigh-impenetrable metal.

Now, one might think that the Mandalorians would have been destroyed by the mythosaurs just like many dwarfs were destroyed after uncovering the demonic balrogs in in their own mines. But one would be WRONG. A Mandalorian named Mandalore the Great actually took a page out of A Song of Ice and Fire and TAMED these Jurassic Park-looking monstrosities on some Targaryen king shit. Well done. To symbolize the power and might of Mandalore’s people, the Mandalorians adopted a mythosaur skull emblem. The symbol adorns pieces of Mandalorian armor and other traditional items. The mythosaur axe, a Mandalorian melee weapon, was named after the creature.

In the modern era

While Madalorian songs of the ancient past foretold of a mythosaur that would rise up and usher in a new era of greatness for Mandalore, the big lizard is widely believed to be extinct. However, this all changed when Din Djarin, baby Grogu, and Bo-Katan Kryze discovered a mythosaur who had decided to take a page out of the Avatar the Last Airbender book and cosplay as Aang—I mean, survive as the last known member of his race.

The creature was discovered in the Living Waters, a water-filled mine that resides underneath the city of Sundari on Mandalore. A plaque on the wall of the ceremonial chamber informs the reader that the Living Waters “date back to the age of the first Mandalore.” A really long time ago. As such, the Living Waters are sacred, and any Mandalorian who removed their helmet and wishes to seek atonement could find redemption in the waters themselves. But redemption ain’t the only thing lurking in these waters! Turns out there’s some Steven Spielberg-sized lizards in there, too!

(featured image: Disney+)