1. The FBI's Famous Cases & Criminals archive (fbi.gov/history/famous-cases) has detailed breakdowns of real fraud cases, Ponzi schemes, and confidence operations. The language they use is clinical and precise, which is perfect for getting the procedural details right.

2. The FTC Consumer Sentinel Network publishes annual reports on the most common fraud tactics in the US. Great for understanding how modern scams actually work and what makes people fall for them.

3. The Smithsonian's American Art Museum has a free digital collection of forgery case studies. If your character forges documents or art, this is gold.

4. Court Listener (courtlistener.com) is a free legal database where you can read actual court transcripts from fraud trials. Want to know how a real con artist talks under oath? This is where you find out.

5. The Internet Archive's collection of old newspaper crime sections. Search for "confidence man" or "swindle" in papers from the 1920s through 1960s and you'll find incredible real stories that would feel too dramatic for fiction.

Bonus: The Psychology of Fraud section on the Association for Psychological Science website has accessible articles about why people trust, how deception works cognitively, and what makes someone a convincing liar. Essential reading if you want your con artist characters to feel psychologically real.

Son of Lothal

[ID - Vector icon of Din and Boba’s helmets pressed together in a heart silhouette]

@swshows week: DAY 7 – Free Choice

Rex & Ahsoka + their trauma bonding

Our next retreat weekend is this coming Saturday & Sunday!

🌧️ casual, self-paced event hosted on discord (18+) 🌧️ we love a theme. this time it's RAIN & STARS! 🌧️ work on anything you like!  🌧️ sprint with other writers  🌧️ and you get a free PDF planner that I made for fun

server info & invite (we are 18+)

+ hammer

+ right pauldron

+ right glove

Prime evidence: Munin.

Anyway, that’s exactly how I read the situation in general and the verd'goten in particular. Coming-of-age ceremonies are one of the regular rituals across cultures. They serve a critical function of releasing children as an extension of their parents/guardians to becoming their own individual. It’s as important for the guardian as it is the child because otherwise boundaries are blurred and the child’s independence is regularly infringed upon. It does NOT mean that the newly independent child is instantly capable of (or expected to) perform the full range of adult functions without assistance.

To build off your reference to Basic, even after new recruits are indoctrinated to a unifying culture and assigned to their units, there is Zero expectation of competence. If you can walk, breathe, and complete instructions in a vaguely timely manner you are on the fast track to promotion. Responsibilities and expectations increase only incrementally and over time. Butterbars (freshly commissioned officers) are treated the exact same way even though they’re older and have more formal education than your average enlisted Private. Butterbars are guided (and occasionally reined in) by senior officers and senior enlisted in equal measure.

And shit, look at Ranger training. Full grown adults go through it as a leadership school and deal with extended undernourishment, injuries, and illness that will have consequences for the rest of their lives. They go into it knowing that’s what they’ll experience. It’s intentional. One of my mentors was a gritty, hyper-competent SF colonel who regarded his Ranger training highly even decades later. He said something along the lines of “I used to never get sick and after Ranger school I’m much more prone to flu and colds, but if I hadn’t done it I would never have learned my limits.” I asked him why he needed Ranger school to learn his limits– it was just a training exercise. If he was willing to do all that for a special uniform tab, what makes him think he wouldn’t do as much or more when his life was really on the line? His answer to that was basically “well everything else seems easy in comparison to Ranger”, but making everything comparatively easier doesn’t justify permanently gimping your immune system, in my eyes. Or developing eating disorders. Or permanently injuring your hips. Or becoming a cold-weather casualty and consequently being extremely sensitive to certain temperatures. All of which I’ve personally seen in Ranger grads and washed out candidates. In the name of “leadership” training.

[ID - 9 Boba Emojis: annoyed, holding a heart, wearing a cloak, peeking with helmet, heart eyes, sleeping, mood, no, and this]

Can I interest you in some Boba Fett emojis in this trying, Boba-less time?

Traits of religious cults (from Cult Recovery):

The group is focused on a living leader to whom members seem to display excessively zealous, unquestioning commitment.

Is the Armorer their leader? Possibly. She certainly behaves like an elder, and her opinion is respected. I would hesitate to call their zeal excessive, however. Her role in the Tribe seems to be to resolve conflict. Both times Paz and Din come to blows (TBOBF episode 5 spoilers), the Armorer keeps silence for a while, then works towards reconciliation. ‘How can one be a coward and choose this life?’ ‘There is only one way to return to the Creed.’ ‘This is the Way.’ Her words are few, but important. She is the definition of a leader doesn’t start fights, but they can finish them.

I do not consider the Tribe’s respect for the Armorer unhealthy.

Checklist: ❌

The group is preoccupied with bringing in new members.

No scenes of recruitment have been shown. Din’s commitment to the foundling Grogu is one-way; till Grogu is reunited with his own kind, Din is as his father. I quote almost verbatim. They make no attempt to convert the child or incorporate him into their Tribe. He’s a child.

I see Din’s group as a closed religion, far from evangelical.

Checklist: ❌

The group is preoccupied with making money.

Some confusion has arisen over Paz’s line in The Mandalorian that they could only go above ground one at a time. Nowhere does he say that Din was the only member permitted to go above ground. Indeed, as @a-aristippus has pointed out, that implication would have led to very different syntax—‘only one of us could go above ground,’ for example. 

I do not consider Din’s bounty hunting to support the Tribe a group preoccupation with making money. Neither do I consider it parentification, a one-sided burden, or (god forbid) financial abuse. The blacksmith’s forge sustains him, spiritually, with recognition (signet, anyone?) and validation when he brings his material gains to the Tribe for witnessing. They are a community in which each member has their place. 

In societies in our own history, when married women were literally not allowed to work, would you say they forced their husbands to work to support them? Why do you blame Din’s covert instead of the wider circumstances which restrict them?

Checklist: ❌

Questioning, doubt, and dissent are discouraged or even punished.

Mind-numbing techniques (such as meditation, chanting, speaking in tongues, denunciation sessions, debilitating work routines) are used to suppress doubts about the group and its leader(s).

I have put these traits together because they have the same key theme of critical thinking, a thing sadly lacking in many takes I’ve seen. Refer to the Armorer’s initial silence as Paz and Din butt heads. They air their opinions. They disagree, often violently; the other members (in the sewers, at least) stand by and watch. Opposing voices are heard. Debate to the point of blows is not silenced.

In TBOBF ep 5, Din voices what a real cult leader would have taken as a challenge to authority. He gives his interpretation of the Creed: ‘Loyalty and solidarity are the Way.’ Even though he isn’t disagreeing with the Creed itself, he is disagreeing with the Armorer, who was reluctant to forge a gift for Grogu because she thinks Jedi aren’t allowed attachments. (also incorrect, but that’s another post) Din wants her to honour their Creed with the foundling.

Note the Armorer’s response. She then asks what she should make for Grogu. She is saying, You’re right. You were right to disagree with me. I see your point. I will do as you wish.

Checklist: ❌❌

It is time to spread the love with our June 2026 Comment Bingo. Try and fill four in a row, column, or diagonal, or let all the creators out there know how much you appreciate them 🤍🩶🖤 and go for a full black-out!

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