"Have you ever removed your helmet?"
--The Armorer, The Mandalorian (season one, episode three)
"Seems to me like your rules start to change when you get desperate. I mean, look at ya. You said you couldn't take your helmet off, and now you got a stormtrooper one on, so what's the rule? Is it that you can't take off your Mando helmet, or you can't show your face? 'Cause there is a difference."
--Mayfield, The Mandalorian (season two, episode seven)
The Mandalorian is far from being a Game of Thrones, Westworld, or WandaVision when it comes to its conceptual depth, but, like all things, it brushes up against explicitly philosophical issues and truths at some points because it is impossible not to. One of its biggest and only abstract subjects is the way some individuals respond to social norms and conditioning, namely the rule of the titular Mandalorian Din Djarin's clan that its members need to always keep their faces covered in front of others. The inherently arbitrary nature of social norms that are not purely rooted in rationalistic awareness is intentionally or unintentionally put on display, as is the fact that most people will never challenge these norms unless a personal trial prompts them to reevaluate their beliefs.
Din Djarin repeatedly keeps his face hidden from both the child he rescued and enemies and allies alike until late in the second season of the series. In fact, he is shocked to first find others wearing Mandalorian armor, such as Bo-Katan, casually showing their faces without any reluctance or objection. It seems to have never occurred to him that the helmet custom he was taught was nothing more than that: a random, pointless custom that not every Mandalorian follows, approves of, or needs. For all of his combat ability and technological familiarity, he is slow to look to reason for illumination of truths and ideas. He is at first content to make assumptions about himself, Mandalorian culture, and the supposed moral ramifications of that culture.
The show's emphasis on what Din Djarin initially thinks is an inherent part of being a Mandalorian--keeping his helmet on at all times when in the presence of living things--gives way to his recognition that being a Mandalorian or wearing the armor has nothing to do with arbitrary expectations. Din Djarin does not simply think about the matter and quickly realize that there is no logical connection between wearing a helmet and being Mandalorian by birth or by honorary induction, which was always a possibility for him, but he instead begins to shift this part of his worldview when he meets Bo-Katan and her fellow Mandalorians, seeing that they take their helmets off regularly.
Then Grogu is abducted. When circumstances force him to choose between doing all that he can to rescue his companion Grogu and refusing to remove his helmet in front of other people or aliens, he chooses to sacrifice an irrational tradition (irrational when thought of as being part of what makes someone worthy of wearing the armor, that is) for the sake of a being he has come to love deeply. Since most people are not particularly competent or eager to think rationally about philosophical issues and worldviews until a personal crisis makes it seem emotionally helpful to do so, this is the kind of situation that is likely to penetrate the apathy and stupidity of the typical non-rationalist.
Still, Din Djarin does eventually shed conformance to a pointless expectation for the sake of something that has more substance than petty cultural norms. It just takes circumstances with high personal and moral stakes for him to consider doing so. Thankfully, no one needs to wait for situations that might or might not happen to identify the irrationality of beliefs held to because of social conditioning. For those who will not just look to reason on their own, trials and shifting circumstances might trigger a new willingness to consult reason and abandon the folly of arbitrary, assumed, or unprovable beliefs. For every person, the process of aligning one's worldview with the necessary truths of reason will have penetrating, omnipresent ramifications, no matter what exactly might need to be tossed aside.
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