The Mandalorian's protagonist walks a fine line between good and evil. Sooner or later, however, everyone in the Star Wars universe chooses sides.

The Star Wars universe doesn't normally deal in moral gray areas. Even nuanced efforts like Andor draw a reasonably firm line between heroes and villains. While they may shade their characters with relatable emotions -- and even dark compromises like Luthen Rael's -- they make no bones about which characters are on which side. That's been a part of Star Wars from the beginning and remains an essential component of its DNA.

Star Wars: The Mandalorian made its mark by defying that convention, at least to an extent. The title character is neither Jedi nor Sith, nor any of their various friends and allies. He walks his own path -- an overt nod to the spaghetti Westerns that helped inspire Star Wars -- and as such his moral compass is less clear than most characters in the franchise. Nonetheless, he remains a protagonist, and as the series makes ready for its third season, it has long since answered which side of the hero/villain divide he falls on.

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Mando is part of a long Star Wars tradition of characters who initially stay neutral in the series' galactic conflict. It starts with Han Solo in Star Wars Episode IV -- A New Hope, who makes it clear he's only in it for the money and takes two more movies to finally shake free of his mercenary proclivities. Lando Calrissian is another example, as is Boba Fett and Benicio del Toro's DJ in Star Wars: Episode VIII -- The Last Jedi. All of them find their position untenable and eventually reveal themselves to be either utter blackhearts or stalwart heroes after all. (Though in some cases -- most notably Anakin Skywalker's -- they change sides.)

The Mandalorian's Din Djarin appears to be cut from a different cloth, at least to begin with. He's a bounty hunter like Boba Fett, and he doesn't care much who hires him or why. He adheres to a separate code, dictated by his clan and expressed by his signature catchphrase, "This is the way." It provides him with a firm code of ethics, though it's neither wholly good nor entirely evil. Like the gunslingers of classic Westerns, his code is designed to ensure long-term survival.

It changes in Season 1, Episode 3, "The Sin." Having turned Baby Grogu over to his thoroughly evil ex-Imperial client, he expresses regret and returns to liberate his former charge. In the process, he takes on the baby as a surrogate father, which forms The Mandalorian's primary relationship. Further acts of overt heroism -- barely clothed by his code -- follow in due course. That includes Season 1, Episode 4, "Sanctuary," which finds him aiding a village against bandits in the manner of Seven Samurai, and Season 2, Episode 1, "The Marshall," in which he aids several varieties of Tatooine locals in the slaying of a krayt dragon. Like Han and Lando, Din has a heart of gold beneath his mercenary exterior.

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Within that dynamic, Mando's standing in the Star Wars universe itself becomes irrelevant. The New Republic may consider him a dubious figure and he may still take jobs from sinister sources, but the audience remains firmly in his corner. His interactions with Force users like Luke Skywalker and Ahsoka Tano confirm the trend, as does his opposition to ex-Imperials like Moff Gideon.

This is hardly new in the Star Wars universe, though The Mandalorian succeeds admirably in transforming the machinations of The Force into something new. Mando is a different kind of figure, and he may be responsible for some of the saga's most important growth and development. While he may be an outlaw in the galactic sense, he stays true to the franchise's older trope: sooner or later, everyone in this galaxy chooses a side. The Mandalorian makes no bones about which one its protagonist is on.

Season 3 of Star Wars: The Mandalorian will begin streaming on Disney+ in March 2023.

A native Californian, Robert Vaux has spent over 20 years as a professional film and television critic: working for such outlets as Collider, Mania.com and The Sci-Fi Movie Page. His favorite superhero is Nightcrawler and his lucky numbers are 4, 9, 14, 16, 36, and 40.