#Fenn Shysa

[marmota-b]

Justice for Fenn Shysa!

Well, that may be too strong a wording, but, seriously, Fenn Shysa deserves a lot more respect than he seems to get these days. Turns out I have a lot of thoughts and feelings on the subject, but the thing is, they're based on canon. (Legends canon, but considering how little new Disney canon ended up giving us, that still is where most Mandalorian discourse is happening to begin with.)

Fic writers (at least on AO3) who are into Mandalorians seem to love, love, love Jaster Mereel. They seem to think Jaster Mereel would have fixed everything, if only he had lived. There is an image of Jaster Mereel people have built up, and which they love, and hold up as a metric of what a good Mandalorian and Mand'alor is like.

I love it myself, but. But. Most of it is pure fanon.

Fenn Shysa's accomplishments aren't. Fenn Shysa is canonically great. Where are all the Fenn Shysa fics?!

Fenn Shysa, who incidentally has a lot in common with Jaster, actually did fix everything.

And it's a very interesting comparison to make because the two actually do have a lot in common, on a superficial level. They're both Mand'alors who started out as policemen, and don't come from a big established clan. But it seems to me that they took very different lessons from their experiences, and as far as I can see Shysa comes out the better from the comparison. Mereel, heralded as the reformer, by all appearances (including what lessons Jango seems to have taken from him) still doubled down on certain hardwired Mandalorian stock responses. Shysa moved on from them. Shysa overcame the biggest Mandalorian shortcomings.

(As far as I can see, the only thing Jaster might canonically have over him is taking in a ward (did he ever actually adopt Jango?) when Shysa remained without any family. Considering the truly hard times Shysa lived in, considering he spent a good deal of his adult years as a guerrilla fighter desperately trying to save people from the Empire, I can't find it in myself to hold it against him.)

And it's also interesting for a Mandalorian fan inclined to draw never-stated conclusions to compare them just by how they present. To look at Jaster Mereel, and look at Fenn Shysa, and see one wearing the colour of justice, and the other the colour of duty. Neither is necessarily wrong, of course, but in-universe, it probably does say something about them. We first meet Jaster fighting a civil war, bent on eliminating his opponents; we first meet Shysa freeing enslaved people. Their reasons for fighting differ considerably. And so do the results of their actions.

And it's the actions where Shysa shines. Where it's Shysa who is the real reformer.

Fenn Shysa actually united Mandalore. If you draw conclusions from the shifting canons the exact same way you do with Jaster, Fenn Shysa actually managed to work with all the factions and gain their respect: the fact that he was an undisputed Mand'alor after the fall of the Empire is Legends canon, not just fandom speculation of what the situation was and could have been.

Based purely on actual established canon events, Fenn Shysa was just about the best Mand'alor ever. Not flawless, of course, but better than most Mandalorians, able to rise above their common failings that have kept dooming them all throughout their history. He did not hold grudges, he wasn't isolationist, he wasn't inseparably married to the idea of warrior glory, while still maintaining warrior honour and a certain sort of proud independence. But he was not too proud to ask the Rebel Alliance / New Republic for help when Mandalore was attacked and overwhelmed - and not too proud to work with them. He also forgave and helped his enemies when it turned out they may have had somewhat justifiable reasons for their attempts at conquest, and immediately offered them Mandalorian help in reclaiming their own home. (Isn't one of the biggest failings of the Mando'ade how much they hold grudges, dooming any attempts at fruitful collaboration through old blood feuds and petty disagreements?) And he worked with the nascent New Republic, yet without giving in an inch of Mandalorian independence. He united the things the various factions wanted: he was an honourable warrior upholding the Supercommando Codex, he achieved peace within the system and peace with the Republic, and he gave rabid traditionalist Mandalorians actual wars to fight in which Mandalorians could prove their mettle before the Galaxy - just not destructive wars of conquest. It's not like the GFFA is short on villainous factions to try and stop.

It's Tobbi Dala who touches on it out loud in the comics, not Shysa specifically, but he obviously echoes Shysa's ideals: Their highest purpose as warriors is to protect. That's what the Resol'nare say, nothing else. Shysa started out, in the Clone Wars, as more or less a mercenary, like Jaster, but I think, outside of situations when he did have to be pragmatic about things like making a living, he outgrew it into something even greater.

Fenn Shysa may not have written a neat manifesto, but I bet he actually lived it. He was the best Mand'alor Mandalore had had in ages. Fenn Shysa was exactly the Mand'alor the Mando'ade needed, when they most needed him. He revived their spirit and their purpose after centuries of strife and defeats.

More respect for Fenn Shysa, please. Much, much more.

(I guess the unquestioning love of Jaster at Shysa's expense is excellent proof of the truth of that one Mandalorian saying: "He who writes, remains." 🙄)

[mandalorianhistorian]

I know that Mandalorians and Jedi don't exactly get along, but are there any EU Mandos that were sympathetic to the Jedi Order, or at least potentially saw them as allies rather than enemies?

We have a few examples from kotor all the way up to legacy of the force

( a lot of the Jedi they do befriend don’t really follow the code fully so it makes sense they do get along)

Wellll the first most obvious one is revan of course ( I still think revan is Mando but that’s a whole other can of worms) revan and canderous working together from the beginning of kotor and the mentions of it in kotor 2 is brilliant ( I will not mention the dam novel it’s insulting to the game) (kotor 1+2)

In the mandalorian wars we also have zayne carrick he got taken into the mandalorian ranks which wasn’t the best situation but he did befriend a mandalorian family (mandalorian wars comic series)

In swtor we have shae vizla and torian if you play republic side (being a Mando though is the best in swtor)

Well obviously we can count etain and bardan aswell and all the surviving Jedi that joined clan skirata (republic commando)

You can also count fenn shysa with leia Han and Luke and the rebel alliance

And durning the vong war boba and his mandalorians fought beside a Jedi in secret

Well obviously Jaina solo with boba fett mirta gev and bevin and Medrit and their daughter and her children so Jaina kinda wins lol she got a whole load of mandos she worked and talked with lol (sintas kinda counts) (legacy of the force)

I may have missed a few pls correct me if I have

(Sorry this took a while was trying to remember who worked with the mandos)

[canuckianhawkbi]

Mando season 3 is here and I have polls so:

(Canon poll here)

[verpineshatterrifle]

i hc fenn shysa as an untrained force sensitive mainly bc that makes him asking if bardan would sow his wild oats all across mandalore a billion times funnier

(but also because... people listen to fenn...)

the whole situation also reaches new heights of comedy if you're an aroace bardan truther

[archeo-starwars]

ALIENS IN THE EMPIRE: Part I, Star Wars Insider # 96 online supplement written by Abel G. Pena & Rich Handley (page 5)

[ice-6caydesqueen]

If they bait and switch and make bo manda’lore I will scream in rage

Fenn shysa get your ass over here we got a death watch bitch trying to take your title

Armorer girl I love you but wtf din is your adika

[cienie-isengardu]

[legends-expo]

Panel Announcement: Make Mine Marvel Writers Abel Peña, Jason Fry and Michael Kogge take a look back at the original Star Wars Marvel comics! This panel will be on Sunday.

Get your tickets now, and join us on September 9th & 10th in Burbank, CA! https://www.eventbrite.com/e/legends-consortium-2023-tickets-541786186067

[yaswb]

Mandalorians! This scene from the original Star Wars Marvel Comic Series was part of a story arc that has a very special place in my childhood memories, as the German “Krieg der Sterne” album series stopped its run mid arc and left us with a cliffhanger (The infamous “Chidho in carbonite” scene). Memories are fuzzy but I think it was only a couple of months away from ROTJ’s release and so the comics became a little less interesting anyway. The story would eventually be picked up later by a rebranded comic album line now named “Star Wars” [sic!] with a lower print run but by that time Star Wars started to fade into obscurity already and I never saw any of these comics at that time and only learned about their existence a couple of ears ago. Back then I had a sense that the comic series was not “canonical” without even knowing what that exactly means but with the lack of multimedia and little access to anything Star Wars, these comics and the action figures were all we had when there was currently no movie to watch in the theater.

Anyhow, this is also the moment after almost a decade, where I finally unpacked these comic packs with Fenn Shysa and Tobbi Dala, to side them with the recent comic colored Boba Fett, and boy what an improvement today’s figures are over the ones from the time of this comic pack. When I bought them a decade ago I thought they were still kind of cool but now they feel just weird and are extremely challenging to pose, let alone have them hold their weapons in a meaningful way. The Boba Fett figure on the other hand is great to pose, which is particularly supported by the improved range of the elbow joints. Lots of figures unpacked today, many figures still left to be unpacked. Stay tuned

[where-is-my-sanity-daaaave]

Is it Shysa Time? I guess it's Shysa Time. (I don't know who drew this)

[marmota-b]

Yay, another chapter done! I finally, finally dragged all the necessary sentences out of Boba.

[ice-6caydesqueen]

Fenn shysa current manda’lor after the empire and before the vong war

Fun fact he kissed leia at one point

[verpineshatterrifle]

the secret to having fun with star wars is embracing that sometimes, its bad, and thats ok

[magnetarbeam]

I'm not interested in the ship either - mostly I'm just surprised - but are there people out there that have actually written Bo-Katan/Spar? Is that a thing that exists?

For the ship asks, Spar!!

My NOTP for them 

Fenn Shysa/Spar. I just can't. Spar deserves better. They can be friends, Shysa can have a weird crush that fucks with his perceptions of boundaries, but like. IDK I don't see the appeal.

OH WAIT

Also Bo-Katan/Spar. I forgot that exists.

My BROTP for them

I wanna say Corr. IDK I just think they'd get along.

My OTP for them 

SparMij. It's SparMij. Of course it's SparMij they own my brain.

My second choice pairing for them 

Jango/Spar. I know it squicks some people but I think it's fascinating. They're both so fucked up.

My fluffy pairing for them

hm. hmhmhm. Fuck. Spar with any of the other Alphas I think.

My angsty pairing for them 

Spar/Gar Saxon. This is a warning for a WIP btw. One friend referred to it as "Romeo and Juliet but Worse"

My favorite poly ship for them 

Fordo/Seventeen/Spar. 10/10. Though Spar/Mij/Jango is also very good.

My weirdest pairing for them

Tarre Vizsla. IDK time travel is the best option I have here that I haven't used yet.

[mandalorianhistorian]

After witnessing what Dave Filoni has done, one thing is for certain: Fenn Shysa is a better Mand’alor than Bo-Katan Kryze will ever be.

Absolutely fenn is better than her and would whoop her ass if he saw her in person

(I don’t believe bo Katan has the right to hold such a position either way being apart of death watch which many mandalorians despise)