Chapter 22: Guns for Hire

"Chapter 22: Guns for Hire" is the sixth episode of the third season of the Star Wars live action series The Mandalorian. It aired on April 5, 2023.

Use of Aurebesh

Starfighter console

As Bo-Katan Kryze's Gauntlet starfighter flies over Plazir-15, in the shot where Din Djarin says, "That's quite a fleet, there are Aurebesh symbols painted on the cockpit console, reading "UOP" and "N".

Djarin's chaincode

When Din Djarin's chain code is scanned aboard the hyperloop pod, the reaout shows lots of Aurebesh text, which is mirror-inverted because the hologram is seen from behind. It reads:

DIN ˙DJARIN GATL[illegible]
[gibberish]
[gibberish]

[gibberish]
[gibberish]
[gibberish]
[gibberish]
[gibberish]
[gibberish]
[gibberish]
[gibberish]
N ''DIN DJARIN
NL ''MANDO

P ''MANDALORE '' ' M''ANDALORE

P '' BOUNTY HUNTER

AFFILIATES UNKNOWN | FOUNDLING
SC UNKNOWN
CERTIFICATION PROVIDED BY UNDEFINED

DIN DJARIN

[gibberish]
[gibberish]

Bombardier's badge

Bombardier wears a badge that says "A" for "amnesty".

Security camera control room

The security camera monitoring room shows "CAMERA 7709-739" (on three different monitors) and "SECTOR 7G" (the numbers at the top are to blurred to decipher properly). The monitors use an alternative numeral system, consisting of dots and lines.

The name "PLAZIR" appears on a decorative monitor behind Helgait.

Plazir-15 businesses

During the chase for the rogue super battle droid, a lot of Aurebesh signs are seen:

• "JAT" (first mirror-inverted, then normal)
• "INN"
• "PREMIUM DROID RENTALS", with "D7X" underneath (the sign uses the alternative numeral format), and two illegible words over the name
• "JOANNO CAFE"
• "COO'S", which is a "BAR" (the "bar" part is seen when the crime scene is sealed off; in addition, additional text is seen on both sides of the sign; the letters on the left are too faint to decipher, but the ones on the right read "HOUSE OF TEPPANYAKI", although they are so faint that they are nearly impossible to read)
• "SPA"
• "THE ORBIT", which offers "SWAMP BATHS" and is a "NIGHTCLUB" (note that one pair of signs is upside-down; while another pair is seen upside-down and mirror-inverted).
• "OPEN" (several)
• "SWORD FISH DINER"
• "GO" (mirror-inverted)
• "CHIKEN"
• "EF MUM" (mirror-inverted)
• "K:O [illegible text]"
• "[illegible name] ART"
• "BANK" (upside-down)
• "PEW" (sideways)
• "DANCE LOUNGE" (additional letters are glimpsed over the words, indicating that they are part of a longer name; however, we only see the bottom of the characters, making the full name impossible to decipher)
• "[illegible words] SPEED", "PARTS", "SERVICE" (the "speed" part can first be seen on one version of the sign in the shot where the super battle droid hurls a crate at Djarin and Bo-Katan, while the rest can be seen on an alternative version of the sign in the shot where Djarin says, "Keep going!"; note that the second sign is only seen from behind, therefore the characters are mirror-inverted)
• "SHARK ZONE", which offers "[two illegible words] FOOD"
  • Over the entrance, the word "ARCADE" is painted
  • Between them, there is a holographic sign that is lying sideways, although the letters that can be deciphered have no meaning
• "DI[obscured]"
• "HADES DOG", which is an "APOCALYPSE RACEWAY"
  • The first sign shows "apocalypse raceway" as mirror-inverted, and shows the word "THAN" underneath.
  • The second sign, the one over the entrance, shows "Hades Dog" as mirror-inverted
  • A third sign shows "Hades Dog" as mirror-inverted, while the word "APOCALY" [sic] is displayed next to it in normal letters
  • The fourth sign merely says "apocalypse"
• "THANKS FOR COMING"
• "MOON CAKE"
• "JOHO LJL CASSIDG"
• "[illegible] LAW [image begins]EAR9" (the number 9 is written in the alternative form)
• "[image begins]ED", "PARTS", "SERVICE" (mirror-inverted)
• "DIVE B[image ends]" (mirror-inverted and upside-down)
• "DON'T WALK" (note that the apostrophe has a strange design and looks more like a cross between the punctuation mark and the Aurebesh letter D)
• "FLAMING LIZARD"
• "DONG[image ends]"
• "GRAY SCOOTERS", which offer "NEW AND USED QUALITY" (note that since the two holographic sign go around in a circle, some of the characters are seen from behind and are therefore mirror-inverted;
• "POP[the last symbol is indecipherable]", in green on the far left of the screen in the shot where Bo-Katan says, ""Let me do the talking in there")
• "[illegible word] D" (on a green, brownish and white sign in the same shot)
• "[obscured]EFRESHMENTS" (presumably "refreshments")
• The signage inside the club that Djarin and Bo-Katan enter, says "THE RESISTOR". The name is also printed on the bottles of Nepenthé that the droids are drinking.

The remaining signs are too far away or too obscured to decipher.

Crime scene barricade tape

The holographic barricade tape at the crime scene says "CAUTION" in Aurebesh, and "CHESS KO" (Huttese for "careful", as in "be careful"; as heard in dialogue between young Anakin Skywalker and his arch rival Sebulba in Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace) in Outer Rim Basic.

Spark pads

The spark pads are labeled "THE RESISTOR" and "2311 PLAZIR 86". The pads use alternative numerals.

Droid lockers

The lockers where the malfunctioning droids are kept are labeled "B", "C", "D", "F", "G", "H", "I", "J", "K" and "L" (presumably, "A" and "E" are off-screen).

Lab tech's console

The lab tech's console, which uses alternative numerals, carries the labels "BAY 0", "S", "NAV 0", "CON" and "K /CK". A monitor shows a three-tiered circular list of alternative numerals, which are too many to list.

Technician's monitor

First read-out

When the lab tech analyzes the sub-particles, the first readout says:

	500* NM PWO	SCOPE ACTIVE_
	2048* X 1516* Y
		ZOOM LEVELS 100x 200x 300x 1900Z 2400X 4800X
		CONTROLS [gibberish]
		SAG 34	NAGA 241
		NIJHGAS37F
[various letter and number combinations]
COME VERY IMPORTANT AND RELEVANT GRAPHS			[illegible]

^*The numbers then keep switching to different numerals.

The monitor then zooms in on the perpetrator's chain code, which makes no sense when translated, and some oof the characters are mirror-inverted.

Examining the results

The monitor is then seen from behind as the technician examines the result, flipping through several different mirror-inverted texts. Most of it is illegible or gibberish; however, one of the headlines on the right hand side says "TECHNO UNI."; a clue to the perpetrator's Separatist ties. Another headline says "LOREM IPS[illegible]"; a reference to Lorem ipsum, a filler text commonly used as mock-content when testing a given page layout or font. Lorem ipsum consists of badly garbled Latin, based on sections 1.10.32 and 1.10.33 of De finibus bonorum et malorum ("On the ends of good and evil"), a philosophical work by the Roman philosopher Cicero. Lorem ipsum is often used when previewing the layout of a document, as the use of more understandable text could easily distract the user from the layout being examined.^[1] A third headline says "VERY CREATI." [sic].

Second readout

The screen then settles the following readout (note that some of it is only seen in mirror-inverted form from behind the screen), which is a combination of serious text, gibberish, Lorem Ipsum, a quote from the film Back to the Future, a Norwegian paragraph about the Norwegian Forest cat, humorous filler text, lyrics from the Norwegian national anthem "Ja, vi elsker dette landet" (English: "Yes, we love this country"), and a paragraph about various types of meat.

First column

The first column reads:

CODE DECIPHERED

TASK TIME : 06: 48: 11
CLIENTS : 4
STATUS : COMPLETED
FRAMES : TOO MANY
QUEUE : WAITING TO START

CODE DECIPHERED

[zoomed in chain code,
merely gibberish]

SEARCH COMPLETE
[numbers]

Middle column

The middle column reads:

[numbers, most of them very faint]

TECHNO UNION
12345678

[Lorem Ipsum text]	PNENT SCRE ROADS? WHERE WE ARE GOING WE DONT [sic] NEED ROADS THIS IS JUST SAMPLE TEXT WE WILL HAVE TO EXCHANGE ONCE SETTLED........ TEXT AND WHAT NOT HEY AND A VERY LONG WORD DISCOMMUNICATION TEXT DECRYPTION IN BIG LETTERS FOR THE [illegible] OUT THIS [illegible] NOT EVEN[illegible] DO WITH, H[illegible] NUMBERS
GRSROBO JA VI ELSKER DETTE LANDET SOM DET STIGER FREM FURET VAER BIT** [sic] OVER VANNET MED DET** [sic] TUSEN HJEM ELSKER, ELSKER DET A** [sic] TENKER PAA VAR FAR OG MOR NOW I DONT [sic] REMEM [sic] ANYMORE OF T[illegible] [illegible] DOESNT [sic] HERE TO [illegible] O TAKE DOWN ANOBOTS [sic] AND HEAR	[lorem ipsum]

[illegible]

Third column

The third column reads:

AFET
DEN NORSKE SKOGKATTEN ER ET
PERFEKT HUSDYR FOR EN MIDDELS
AKTIV FAMILIE. HVIS DU GIR DEN ET
INNEN

DORS^* [sic] KLATRETRE OG MYE
KJAERLIGHET KAN DERE HA EN GOD
VENN I MANGE AAR. [two words from Lorem Ipsum]
[three words from Lorem Ipsum]

BRISKET SPARE

RIBS RIBEYE FAT
CK KEVIN SHANK SHOULD
TRI-TIP HAM PROSCIUTTO
KIELBASA. SPARE RIBS
VENISON BRISKET FLANK
MEAT

LOAF SIRLOIN CORNED BEEF FLANK
SALAMI BEEF. TURDUCKEN SALAMI
BILTONG FILET MIGNON, BEEF RIBS
BRESAOLA SHANK SAUSAGE
LEBERKAS SHANKLE SPARE RIBS PORK
BELLY PORK LOIN TAIL T-BONE.
FRANKFURTER SHORT RIBS CAPICOLA
PORK LOIN.

ADAM WAS HERE ASWELL [sic] AND HE
SUGGESTED ALL OF THIS TO ME. SO
THANKS ADAM

STAR WARS AND MORE OF THAT BUT
[illegible/paragraph ends]

[illegible]

Comments and translation

• Some of the text is a form of Lorem Ipsum.^[2]
• "Roads? Where we're going, we don't need roads." is a quote from the 1985 science fiction film Back to the Future, spoken by Doc Brown. This hidden Easter egg seems to be a nod to Christopher Lloyd, who plays Doc Brown in the movie, and Helgait in the episode; the technician's analysis reveals that Helgait is the perpetrator.
• One paragraph is written in Norwegian:

Transcription	English translation[3]
Den norske skogkatten er et perfekt husdyr for en middels aktiv familie. Hvis du gir den et innen dors* [sic] klatretre og mye kjaerlighet kan dere ha en god venn i mange aar.	The Norwegian Forest cat is a perfect pet animal for a moderately active family. If you give it an in door [sic] climbing tree and lots of love, you can have a good friend for many years.

^*Note that "innendors" (spelled "innendørs" in Norwegian), the Norwegian word for "indoor", has errounosly been split into two words.

• The paragraph is a direct transcript from a page about the Norwegian Skogkatt on the Norwegian Anicura website (a series of European animal clinics) website.^[4]
• One paragraph consists of lyrics from the Norwegian national anthem, "Ja vi elsker dette landet" ("Yes, we love this country"),^[5] although there are some misspellings:

Transcription	Correct lyrics[6]	English translation[5]
Ja vi elsker dette landet som det stiger frem furet vaer bit [sic] over vannet med det [sic] tusen hjem elsker, elsker det a [sic] tenker paa var far og mor	Ja, vi elsker dette landet, som det stiger frem, furet, værbitt over vannet, med de tusen hjem, elsker, elsker det og tenker på vår far og mor	Yes we love this country, as it rises forth, rugged, weathered over the water, with the thousand homes, love it, love it and think of our father and mother

Followed by

Parts of the readout is then replaced with some illegible words, followed by a mostly alphabetical list of words mostly from the real world:

DATABASE	SLAP COMP AND TEMP	FINAL COMP
ALPHA	[numbers]	[numbers]
BETA	[numbers]	[numbers]
CHARLIE	[numbers]	[numbers]
DELTA	[numbers]	[numbers]
ECHO	[numbers]	[numbers]
FOXTROT	[numbers]	[numbers]
GOLF	[numbers]	[numbers]
HOTEL	[numbers]	[numbers]
INDIA	[numbers]	[numbers]
JULIET	[numbers]	[numbers]
KILO	[numbers]	[numbers]
LIMA	[numbers]	[numbers]
NOVEMBER	[numbers]	[numbers]
OSCAR	[numbers]	[numbers]
PAPA	[numbers]	[numbers]
QUEBEC	[numbers]	[numbers]
ROMEO	[numbers]	[numbers]
SIERRA	[numbers]	[numbers]
TANGO	[numbers]	[numbers]
UNIFORM	[numbers]	[numbers]
VICTOR	[numbers]	[numbers]
WHISKEY	[numbers]	[numbers]
X-RAY	[numbers]	[numbers]
YANKEE	[numbers]	[numbers]
ZULU	[numbers]	[numbers]
THALAST	[numbers]	[numbers]
TWO	[numbers]	[numbers]

There is another list next to it, but almost every word is too blurred to read. The only bits that can be deciphered are the headline ("SPECIFICATIONS") two of the last words ("WHY NOT"), a handful of numbers, three Aurebesh apostrophes and an Aurebesh exclamation point.

Final readout

The final readout says:

[obscured]IPHERED [obscured]K TIME : 06: 48: 11 [obscured]TS : 4 [illegible]: COMPLETED [illegible] : TOO MANY [illegible] : WAITING TO START	A L L I A N S E N
[obscured]DE DECHIPHERED!	COMPLETING IMAGE: 1006 1005 NOW IM [sic] LITERALLY JUST TYPING
		THIS MEANS NOTHING HOPWEVER [sic], FANS MAY INTERPRET THE HELL OUT OF IT. WTF ISC [mirror-inverted]
			INFORMATION ROADS? WHERE WE ARE GOING WE DONT [sic] NEED ROADS

• "Allliansen" is Norwegian for "the alliance";^[3] seemingly a nod to the Rebel Alliance from the original trilogy.
• The quote from Back to the Future appears again, at the end.

End credits concept art

A piece of concept art in the end credits shows the landing field three, where "BAY FDY" and "BAY FDM3" (the latter is seen upside-down; note that the M is rotated 45 degrees).

The concept art of the security camera control room depicts four monitors with Aurebesh text; the writing on the first two is mirrored, while the last two screens are normal. The top of all four monitors says "[illegible word] INSTRUCTIONS". The bottom of two of the screens shows five Aurebesh words, the fourth of which reads "TO"; the rest is too blurred to decipher properly.

Another illustration shows a group of super battle droids outside the domed city on Plazir-15, where "LOREM" (another reference to "Lorem ipsum") is painted on a building, while "URE[image ends]" is printed on a container. The letters are written in an alternative font used in the comic War of the Bounty Hunters – Jabba the Hutt 1.

The next illustration Din Djarin depicts Din Djarin firing upon a rogue super battle droid in the peacekeeping zone. In the background, there is an upside-down sign with the rather risque name "LUST ALLEY".

See also

 "Chapter 22: Guns for Hire" on Wookieepedia

References

↑ Lorem Ipsum. lipsum.com. Retrieved on April 7, 2023. ↑ Annonsetest eonbit. TV2. Archived from the original on March 6, 2017. This web page contains a form of Lorem Ipsum that includes many of the words seen on the readout; for example, the first paragpraph opens with "Integer nac placerat eros. Quisque eu mi ante"; "Fusce aliquam leo vel quam volutpat sit amet ornare dolor ultrices."; the words set in bold are found on the page.) ↑ 3.0 3.1 Translated by Nightlily, a native speaker of Norwegian ↑ Norsk skogkatt. Anicura. Archived from the original on April 7, 2023. “Den norske skogkatten er et perfekt husdyr for en middels aktiv familie. Hvis du gir den et innendørs klatretre og mye kjærlighet kan dere ha en god venn i mange år.” ↑ 5.0 5.1 What is the national anthem of Norway, and what are the lyrics in English?. Classic FM (February 4, 2022). Archived from the original on July 5, 2022. “Norway's official national anthem is 'Ja, vi elsker dette landet' ('Yes, we love this country') (...) It has been in use since the mid-1860s, but wasn’t officially recognised as the nation’s national anthem until just a few years ago in 2019. (...) Yes, we love this country as it rises forth, rugged, weathered, over the water, with the thousands of homes, — love, love it and think of our father and mother” ↑ Ja, vi elsker dette landet. Genius. Archived from the original on October 23, 2022. “ Ja, vi elsker dette landet, som det stiger frem, furet, værbitt over vannet, med de tusen hjem, — elsker, elsker det og tenker på vår far og mor”