Spoiler Alert If you haven’t seen the latest episode of The Book of Boba Fett, the following article contains some plot details. Be sure to check the episode out before reading this article if that’s an issue.
If you’re a gun owner and take commercial flights, you’ve run into what Din Djarin (the main character from The Mandalorian) did in the latest episode of The Book of Boba Fett: a prohibition of guns on civilian transports like aircraft. Fortunately, the New Republic seems to have the equivalent of the Firearms Owner Protection Act, so he was able to take his weapons along, but only in his checked baggage.
On top of being relatable, this moment gave the show’s writers a chance to show us all of Mando’s weapons, including one we hadn’t seen before.
At first glimpse, it looks like some sort of concealed carry blaster, one that serves as a BUG, or backup gun. But once he places it in a secure cargo bin in front of the security droid, we get a better look:
Most of these weapons are things we’ve seen before in The Mandalorian. There’s his main sidearm, which appears to be a dressed up Bergmann 1896 (h/t to my son, Noah, for that catch). He’s also got a small knife, a vibroblade (a Mandalorian’s answer to the lightsaber), flamethrower cartridges, “Whistling Birds” (the little dart-like things), and more.
After this glimpse, he then adds the Darksaber and some bombs from his belt, but at that point his head gets in the way of the little pistol next to the vibroblade.
Fans of obscure World War II weapons will know what this is right away: the FP-45 Liberator. Built in secret by General Motors, the Liberator was designed to be cheap and disposable. Why? Because allied aircraft were going to dump them all over Nazi-occupied territory. Normally, you wouldn’t want to put more weapons in enemy territory, but these were meant to be found and used by civilians.
If you were a French (or maybe even a German) citizen happened upon one, they’d have a single shot .45 ACP blaster. Extra rounds came with it that could be stored in the grip.
The Liberator also came with a small dowel rod to extract spent cases and illustrated comic book-like instructions. Such a crude weapon definitely wouldn’t be useful all by itself against the might of the Wehrmacht, but if you were smart enough to catch one of them alone, you might find the opportunity to trade a round of .45 for a Mauser 98K, MP40, or, toward the end of the war in some areas, a Sturmgewehr 44 as seen in the staged photo below:
We know that at least one Liberator was used to kill a Nazi, and that there were thousands in circulation, but their overall their direct impact was limited.
A good bit of the reason more Nazis weren’t killed with them was Charles de Gaulle. He convinced allies to dump the idea (often quite literally into the sea) because he didn’t want France to be armed after the war, as this could hurt his push for political power. This likely caused more American and British troops to die in the war.
The main thing Liberator pistols actually accomplished was to hurt the morale of Nazi troops and their collaborators in occupied European countries. Just knowing that any citizen could come up at any moment and deliver a “trade offer” you can’t refuse adds to stress and fear. It didn’t take too many Liberator drops to accomplish that.
Even today, the basic concept of the Liberator continues to strike fear into the hearts of would-be tyrants. Hysterics over “ghost guns”, including the first somewhat useable 3D-printed gun that was named after the original Liberator, is almost identical to the fears Nazi soldiers and de Gaulle had. An armed populace doesn’t frighten good people much, but politicians who want to impose their will on a population (and the voters who support them) can’t stand the idea that they, too, might one day be extended a “trade offer.”
Circling back to The Book of Boba Fett, it’s good to see that the people behind the newest Star Wars series were willing to throw this little Easter egg into the episode. It shows that there are real gun people involved in the production, and that at least one of them was a big enough fan of the Nazi-killing concept to include it.
The only question now is whether we’ll get to see how it performs as a blaster on screen.
I spotted that when I saw the episode with my son last night. Great episode.
If you follow the Oleg Volk link back to his page, Miss April, the model in that pic, demonstrates she has more than a passing knowledge of that era with her comments… š
I’ve watched all of the episodes so far and am not really impressed although ep 5 with the Mandalorian was OK. I keep hoping it will get better. I really liked Mando.
Give it a chance to develop. I like how Ep5 cut back to Mando and the change in his status with the Order. I think he’s going to form an association of some sort with Boba Fett as Mando’s own story arc progresses toward an eventual restoration of Mandalor.
FWIW, Jon Favreau surprised us all after directing the holiday comedy Elf to take the lead with Iron Man and the first several MCU films (before passing the torch to the also-successful Kevin Feige). Then Favreau pushed J.J. Abrams, Rian Johnson, and Kathleen Kennedy out of the room to take the reins back for the fans with The Mandalorian.
J.J. ABRAMS: “We can’t satisfy the Original Trilogy fans while appealing to a new, younger audience.”
JON FAVREAU: “Hold my blue milk…”
Given that ‘The Book OF Boba Fett’ and ‘The Mandalorian’ take place a long long time ago in a galaxy far far away… that was a heck of a flight to air drop that FP-45 Liberator all the way from WWII.
Ottawa, Canada is way more closer. Please feel free (see what I did there?) to drop any remaining surplus Liberators over the Freedom Trucker Rally happening there now. That oughta push the idiot manchild in charge even further into hiding. Thanks in advance.
At a local motorcycle event, there was a one-off grunge cafe racer styled bike with two replica 125% scale copies of Liberator pistols, with LED lights inside, mounted up front for use as headlights. I snickered when I saw that, remembering who originally manufactured them for the war effort. The owner of the bike said that no one under the age of mid fifties to sixties knows what they are.
I prefer the noisy cricket.
Screw Disney they destroyed Star Wars
What are you talking about!!!???? They fixed star wars. Star wars was dripping with archetypal heroine qualities and patriarchal toxic masculinity. Heteronormative white patriarchy are the problem here. So they got a woman and a black man to play the leads, while subtlying killing off the old guard (Luke, Hans, Leia, etc) which represented the past, and all the things that are bad in the world. – #progressivism. Luke, a Jedi Master and Hero of the universe, was reduced to a alien milking coward hiding on a island, hiding on a lone planet, hiding in a remote system in the universe. When provided a “calling” to be a hero, he threw the lightsaber over his shoulder and said that the power he wielded was bad. Nobody should have that power – #equality. Rather than write a script where the knowledge of the past is conserved and past on to his nephew, a script was written Luke didn’t like the ideas his nephew had, thus tried to kill him in his sleep. This is because the progressive left isn’t interested, at all, in conserving anything from the old geezer white heteronormative patriarchy. Later Luke projects himself from his safe space to confront the villain (which is really the hero) and then dies. #SoSadButGood
Meanwhile, Hans, a great man dripping in white privilege qualities from the first trilogy, was written to be a piece of garbage. He popped out a boy with Leia, and then ran away, abandoning his family. And good too! Because we are tired of old white guys, and their stories of toxic masculinity. The only one not too beat up in the script, was leia. #BelieveWomen. She singlehandedly raised her son and lead the rebellion, all by herself. #strongwomen.
The entire theme of the last star wars trilogy is to ignore and destroy the old, conserve none of it, and embrace hope and change into the future (#progressivism). For the old ways to step aside and the new woke ideas to consume the old, and open up a great and new future for the next generation. The entire three movies, symbolically represent this.
Black male lead? Lol the “woke” turned the Finn character into a comedy relief bufoon.
You attribute too much to Star Wars. It was originally intended to be a space opera multimedia franchise (spanning generations of success and failure, of hero’s and villains, of winner and looser and quitter, of child and boy and girl and men and women, of changing norms and rise of challenge and defeat), the franchise has achieved that. It is nothing more or less, just that.
I remember as a kid when hero’s used to be hero’s in comic books and movies. Things were safe when the hero’s showed up, the bad guys vanquished, and you knew it was going to be ok.
In today’s comics and movies when the hero’s show up, its a crap shoot that anyone is going to be safe when they are done cursing their way through what ever the event is while taking time out to have sex with their same-sex or opposite sex partner. Now they are only sometimes a hero, or a deeply flawed person, or a foul mouthed alcoholic violent idiot, or gay or all of these sometimes and many more and lots of other things other than ‘heros’, and somehow for some reason its become critically important to only be nice to their selves while being critically judgemental of everyone else even though they are the problem or a part of it. It used to be when a hero screwed up they felt bad for it and took responsibility, now they just blame everyone else. And all of them have a self-serving excuse for their bad behavior or what they do or do not do they want to use to escape responsibility for their bad actions. And now in the end we are left with the still continuing ‘bad guy’ threat lurking someplace so the franchise of self-indulgent writers can continue to put more on the screen.
It was Kathleen Kennedy who destroyed Star Wars with her intersectional feminism.
John Favreau with The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett has saved Star Wars.
Kennedy’s film contributions have be de-canonized and she is about to have her employment terminated for the massive financial disasters she caused. The House of Mouse has declared the fans are to be respected and profits are to override virtue signaling.
I agree with you about the Sequel Trilogy’s problems, but for different reasons. They just didn’t give the Star Wars universe the grit that it always had, and they needed not only Favreau, but Dave Filoni to get it right.
Fortunately, Star Wars: Rebels gave writers the flexibility to get rid of Episodes 7-9 and start with a clean slate.
Fun quasi-fact about the Liberator pistol: It is the only mass-produced firearm that took longer to use than to build.
Testing indicated the average time to load, cock and fire the Liberator was 10 seconds. At the peak of production, the GM/Guide Lamp plant in Anderson, Indiana was assembling them at around 6 seconds per unit.
The more you know….(multi-hued star flies across the screen…)
My last comment is awaiting approval, so I’ll try this again by filtering out what I think was the trigger word.
Fun quasi-fact about the Liberator pistol: It is the only mass-produced firearm that took longer to use than to build.
Testing indicated the average time to load, charge and fire the Liberator was 10 seconds. At the peak of production, the GM/Guide Lamp plant in Anderson, Indiana was assembling them at around 6 seconds per unit.
Yeah I caught that. Bobo’s fairly awful without Mondo and Ming Na. Since my son pays for it we watch it(along with the deranged Peacemaker). I highly recommend “Nobody” on HBO MAX. Hyper violent & full of mayhem. Major John Wick vibe…
Plus a really big ONE on “Nobody”
No one “needs” a liberator. The majority, including a perceived non-decent majority, should have rule over minorities, and keep them in line. And part of keeping them is line, is keeping them disarmed. Democracy is a great thing. The majority vote, and then everyone else does whatever they want. There are no “rights.” There are no guaranteed freedoms. There are just votes, and falling in line or getting punished. #Democracy! And that is the way it should be. Guns are going to do nothing but cause problems and instability. It’s better everyone be dominated over by the whims of the ruling majority and sacrifice whatever they need to for the collective. #Progressivm #TheGreaterGood. Make tomorrow great, by doing what you are told. #Democrats
I’m all for a new political party called the Borge.
“Iām all for a new political party called the Borge.”
The Borg Queen was kinda hot… š
https://www.artstation.com/artwork/zqK84
They trap you in with their good looks then they nano probe you.
The Victor Borge party.
Gotta be honest, I haven’t watched an episode of Mandalorian or any of the others since Disney got rid of Gina Carino for thinking independently. We were really liking it, but I can’t bring myself to support any of it anymore.
Gina may be returning. Watch OverlordDVD channel on YouTube.
I will definitely look into that. Your above comment about them de-canonizing Kennedy’s contributions is a bright star in my book if it’s true. Now they need to re-canonize my “legends” books and I’ll be happy.
The first and last time I’ve went to a theater was Mary Poppins.
Madorialin
Is that about weir wolves and vampires, and does it star Chuck Norris ?
I get what you’re saying, but she had a lot of chances to chill out and stop bringing trouble down on the studio. Disney is a business, and has to make money. If one’s politics (be they right or left) cause their employer too much heartburn and financial problems, nobody is going to decide they like controversial politics over money. Freedom of speech protects us from government action, but doesn’t protect us from all consequences one’s speech may have in the private sector.
I wouldn’t have canned her if it was my decision, but I’m not about to stop watching over it.
Too bad that Pedro Pascal is a piece of shit.
And they were dropping them off behind enemy and not chambered in the enemies pistol calibers.
You know why that was? Because 9mm couldn’t rubber tree plant little engine that couldn’t, that’s why.
No sirree Bob, they chambered it in .45acp because you only got one chance with that gunm.
Hi Point. The modern liberator. If it runs out or jambs then it heavy enough to use as a club to bludgeoned them to death. I swear.
You’ve got a point.
The whole Star Wars phenomena lost me when Luke walked into a bar and Jim Henson’s Muppets were playing musical instruments.
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