Mandalorian’s N-1 Starfighter Has A Deeper Tatooine Link Than You Realize
Mos Eisley mechanic Peli Motto promised Din Djarin a replacement for the Razor Fist, and she delivered. She offered him the frame of a Naboo N1 Starfighter, one that needed a great deal of work before it was ready to fly, and Din Djarin even replaced the astromech slot with a small storage unit for Grogu. But The Book of Boba Fett studiously avoided answering (or, in truth, even asking) an important question; it never explained why a starfighter from the waterworld of Naboo had found itself junked on the desert planet of Tatooine.
A hint at an answer can be found in E.K. Johnston’s Padmé trilogy, which reveals that there was a deeper relationship between Naboo and Tatooine than anybody realized. When Padmé Amidala stepped down as Queen of Naboo, preparing to begin her political career, she also launched a side project to free the slaves of Tatooine. She had never forgotten the slave boy she encountered on that planet, and she particularly wanted to see his mother freed. Padmé and her agents continued to operate on Tatooine for over a decade, meaning there was a secret link between the two worlds. As a former queen of Naboo, Padmé would have certainly had access to royal starfighters, so this may even have been used by one of her agents.
Din Djarin stands rather separate from the main Star Wars saga. So far, his main ties are via nods to the Jedi Purge and the survival of Boba Fett. This Naboo N-1 Starfighter is a much more subtle connection, drawing the narrative threads of the entire galaxy closer together. It hints that Tatooine had more connections to the wider galaxy than most viewers realize, in this case to Naboo. Given these clearly didn’t exist in Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace – Captain Panaka was hardly familiar with Tatooine, after all – it makes sense that they came about because of Padmé’s visit to the world.
