#(armor that breaks with canderous--mandalore the PRESERVER--that is then only picked up by a broken shell of a man.)

[gothamcityneedsme]

ok.  this is me having my usual mandalorian issues lol.

shae vizla saying the mandalorian wars were driven by “greed not righteousness” is such a grotesque misreading of history and like COMPLETELY showing that she doesn’t see the inherent flaws in her own culture.

like.  one.  the mandalorians were absolutely driven by both.  greed was just a side benefit to their main focus.  they got to plunder and get tons of resources.  but that was just fueled by the violence that was their actual purpose.

before the mandalorian wars, mandalorian culture had stagnated.  they had nothing to do that felt significant.  they were at least two generations in since having the last major war to fight in (maybe a bit less--i am too lazy atm to see if mandos got involved in Exar Kun).  the mandalorians had a young generation trained and ready but who had nothing truly ‘worthy’ to fight.

soooo, they started conquering the outer rim.  still seeking challenge, they moved in until they started going toe-to-toe with the Republic.  that was a worthy challenge.  no mandalorian felt they were wrong in this.  none of the mandalorians in kotor1 or kotor2 view themselves as morally wrong for the war they caused, the people they killed--they only regret that they got their asses handed to them.  some of them were humbled by that and others just want even more war.  they either stuck to mandalorian culture as it was or swapped to the new, easier, culture of self-focused merc work, shedding the ‘honor’ component, more honestly pursuing the violence that is ultimately what mandalorians seek.

obligatory ‘yes the mandalorians were pushed by the true sith into fighting the republic as a test etc etc but that still doesnt really remove how easily their entire culture took up arms as instigators just to do what their culture had bred them to--wage war.

so yeah shae will do nothing to end the violence that fuels everything mandalorians are.  which, isn’t surprising considering the era swtor takes place in, but it’s such a glaring flaw to her (and a GOOD one tbh!! this is a good trait!) and it just really illustrates how she really is just a typical mandalorian when the chips fall.  her overall dogma is predictable, and hasn’t changed from the mandos at large.  she’s a carbon copy of the 'honor’ they had before their fall, and their desire to push for war and violence as a form of testing themselves in combat.

she really is just a return to form.