The Mandalorian is a deep well full of great little characters and very weird guys. There’s the family that Mando saves and reunites in the second episode of season two, there’s Nick Noltes Kuiil, and even Grogu himself.
The first episode of Season 3 added to that deep bank of weirdos with the hulking Gorian Shard, a space pirate who looks like Treebeard and Davy Jones are about to have a child. He might only be a few seconds into the episode, but we can glean a lot from his brief appearance, including the fact that we want to see him lose to Din Djarin a lot more often.
[Ed. note: This story contains spoilers for The Mandalorian season 3, episode 1.]
Gorian Shard is a newly created character for The Mandalorian and therefore a character we know next to nothing about – a relative rarity in the increasingly familiar Star Wars galaxy. Gorian is apparently a reasonably well-known space pirate, as everyone seems willing to share his name as a status symbol, and we know he commands a crew of hundreds, if not thousands, thanks to the fleet of fighters and the massive starship under his control.
But what do we really know about Gorian? We know Gorian is loyal to his crew, even to the truly stupid ones who die over arguments over where to drink the newly gentrified Nevarro and where not. That is the mark of a truly great leader. We also know he’s a committed investor in community spaces, like the saloon he apparently loaned money to Greef Karga to open, which Karga later dishonestly turned into a school.
While none of these really justify the quality of the person he seems to keep in his service, or make him seem particularly smart or competent (in a good way), they do give us a little insight into this very goofy looking new character.
Speaking of silly looking, one thing we don’t know about Gorian is what exactly he is. There’s no indication of what planet he’s from or what race he’s from, but he looks a bit like a sentient Christmas tree, which doesn’t convey much.
Perhaps most importantly, despite all of these facts, Gorian Shard could just as well be a loser. When he briefly threatens Mando and Grogu, the two simply whizz past him and straight into hyperspace, encountering some Purrgil along the way. If there is any justice in the universe, Gorian will find a new way to appear in a few more episodes of the show, failing to fully capture or fight Mando each time.
Everyone loves a big villain buffoon. By Boris and Natascha in Rocky and Bullwinkle to Wile E. Coyote Looney TunesWatching someone fail disastrously in every attempt to seduce our heroes is a regular part of Saturday morning adventure show fun The Mandalorian is so good at grasping. So it’s only fitting that Mando now has his own version of it in Gorian Shard.