In The Mandalorian season 2, episode 7, “The Believer,” Bill Burr’s Migs Mayfeld makes a comment to Din Djarin about the planet Mandalore being destroyed. “If you're born on Mandalore you believe one thing,” he says, discussing the frivolous nature of war, “if you're born on Alderaan you believe something else. But guess what? Neither one of them exist anymore.” But is that true?
The fate of Alderaan is well documented. Having long been a center for galactic culture and politics, as well as a bastion for some of the Rebellion’s most powerful allies, Emperor Palpatine and Grand Moff Tarkin decided to make an example of the planet, destroying it in the first proper display of the Death Star’s apocalyptic power. Mandalore’s fate, however, isn’t as thoroughly known. Was it similarly actually destroyed by the time of The Mandalorian?
In a word, no, but Mayfeld also isn’t wrong in his statement. Even before the days of the Empire, Mandalore had become a desolate and inhospitable world. Centuries of galactic conflicts and civil wars had left the surface of the planet scorched and barren, barely capable of supporting life at all. In order to survive, the Mandalorians constructed great domed cities across the surface of Mandalore, where artificial climates and protective walls allowed for life to continue in a microcosmic sense.
When the Empire rose, Mandalore faced many years of harsh oppression. The planet was exploited for its wealth of valuable beskar, and proud warrior tradition of the Mandalorians was appropriated into the Emperor’s insidious military machine. Eventually, the clans snapped, gathering their remaining strength behind Bo-Katan Kryze and defiantly opposing Imperial rule. The result was catastrophic – the Great Purge, which sought to wipe out the remaining Mandalorian warriors and plunder any remaining resources from their once mighty world.
So truthfully, Mayfeld is correct. Mandalore does not exist as it once was, and though the planet itself has yet to be seen in the New Republic era, it’s safe to assume that the Purge left it even more broken and barren than before. That doesn’t mean it will stay that way forever though. Bo-Katan’s return in The Mandalorian announced a plan to retake Mandalore, presumably gathering might by uniting the remaining coverts to strike back against the Imperials who laid waste to its culture and riches.
That mission may not be easy though. While it seems unlikely that the Imperial remnant has any remaining presence on such a desolate world, it’s possible that garrisons remain to mine beskar from the planet’s interior. To fight them, Bo-Katan would need to reassert herself as Mandalore, and for that she’ll need the Darksaber. Din Djarin himself has expressed concern that their home world is cursed, and others like him may feel the same. To truly bring Mandalore back from the brink of destruction, it will take a united effort. Perhaps such a campaign lies in the future for The Mandalorian.