#also the only way I could get really good references of Sabine armor

[grimdarkqueen]

WIP

[whatapunk]

Sooo... I finally decided to start my Kanan/ex-girlfriend fic that I've been writing in my head for weeks. I haven't written fanfiction (or anything fun) in a very long time so this took some real motivation (and unconditional love for Kanan/Kanera).

It is set at the very beginning of Season 2, when the Spectres have joined Phoenix Crew and Kanan is looking for anything to distract him from the formalities of military life. "Anything" including his ex-girlfriend Rhia Denley, current member of Phoenix Crew. This fic will reflect the battle between my love for Kanera and my need to write about Kanan’s love life in general in the only way I see fitting: through a love triangle!

This is just a taste for the first bit, but I hope to keep going!

Title: Endings

Fandom: Star Wars Rebels

Relationship: Kanan Jarrus/Hera Syndulla; Kanan Jarrus/female OC

Rating: t for now, m in future chapters (I'm guessing) for language and some non-explicit intimacy

Word Count: 1688

Chapter 1

Everywhere people walked, trotted, and ran into and out of Kanan’s line of vision. They criss-crossed in every single direction, yet everyone managed to stay out of each other’s way for the most part. It was suffocating, Kanan thought. So many people, faces, ranks and titles. He’d only been working aboard the Liberator for a few standard weeks (long enough, in his opinion), but he’d already given up on trying to remember the ranking system, let alone the specific rank of each rebel. He’d taken to walking behind Hera any time they were aboard the vessel, and when she saluted someone, he, begrudgingly, did the same. Otherwise, he stayed aboard Ghost as often as he could.

Hera was in front of him now, and the kids- Zeb, Sabine, and Ezra- followed close by. Kanan felt bad; she’d been explaining what she wanted to do differently the next time they were on a similar “cargo-thieving” mission as the one they’d just returned from, and he’d all but started ignoring her. It was entirely his fault, he felt. He couldn’t hear himself think over all of the people in the bay and the intercom that seemed to always be seeking out someone.

Hera could sense that Kanan wasn’t really paying attention, but she was mostly talking to herself right now. She always felt better when she could explain things out loud, even if it was only to herself.

“Well I thought the mission went pretty well,” Ezra spoke up, shaking Hera out of her thoughts. Turns out one of them was listening.

“It’s not that it didn’t go well, Ezra,” Hera added, gently. “I’m just saying there’s always room for improvement.”

Several droids, each carrying a large crate, crossed in front of the Spectres, forcing Hera to stop abruptly and Kanan, who was so focused on watching everything else, bumped into her.

“This place is a madhouse. Why do we need to talk to Sato? Didn’t he just watch everything that just happened? Wasn’t he there?” Kanan said, letting more frustration than was warranted slip out. He frowned and Hera turned and matched the look.

“Kanan, it’s standard protocol to debrief with our commanding officer after…”

Kanan checked out at “protocol.” It seemed like these kinds of things were all Hera talked about these days. He hadn’t felt so restricted in years, nor had he felt like he had to compete for Hera’s attention (more than normal) in years. She was still talking when something caught Kanan’s eye and pulled his gaze and his feet to an abrupt stop.

A glimpse of red, he thought, the kind of which he hadn’t seen in years. Seven of them, to be exact.

A glimpse was all it was though. His eyes searched for where it had come from, but there were easily a hundred personnel in any given direction. Five stacks of crates rose and floated by, presumably carried by five people eclipsed on the other side of them. They formed a wall as they passed that effectively obstructed his view of the crowd of people in which he thought he spotted the red hair.

“Kanan?” Hera touched his arm, and his attention returned to her.

“What are you doing?” He glanced back over the sea of people, not ready to admit he hadn’t seen anything.

“I thought I saw....” Kanan trailed off, searching… searching…

“Who do you know in Phoenix Cell?” Hera asked, disbelief and a joking edge surrounding her words. That got Kanan to look at her, his usual smirk back on his face. Hera thought briefly how she hadn’t seen such a face lately, and then the thought was passed up by a million others.

“No one, that I know of,” he said, giving Hera a smile and walking back over to the others who waited, confused. Just as he was ready to get his mind back on the Spectres and whatever mundane, soul-crushing aspect of Phoenix Cell awaited him, there it was again- a flash of the most unique and memorable shade of red Kanan had ever seen. Only this time it wasn’t just a flash, and it was connected to the head and body of one of the people who had just set down one of the large stacks of crates. Kanan stared at the woman, mouth starting to fall open, and almost let her return to the crowd, lost, before he forced a single word onto his tongue.

“Rhia?!” *** Rhia Denley grunted as her arms lifted a crate over her head and locked it into the stack that rose before her. Bashi said something next to her that still wasn’t loud enough for her to hear it (she’d been telling him to speak up since she reported this morning).

“What, Bashi?” she snapped, and the Mythrol pursed his blue lips, hearing the edge in her voice.

“I was saying,” Bashi started, then remembered to amplify his voice even more, “all of the carrier droids have been checked out, so I could only get three of them. So you and I just need to move these two stacks to the drop zone on the other side of the bay where someone else’s droids will see them and grab them.” Rhia smiled, feeling guilty for snapping and also appreciative that he’d finally spoken loud enough for her to hear him.

“Gotcha. Sorry, Bash, you know this place is an echo chamber. I’m already old and hard of hearing,” she joked, giving him a punch in the arm. He smiled and nodded as he typed in directions on the last carrier droid next to them. The droid revved and began lifting the stack; only, it’s motor whined and sputtered, nearly collapsing and bringing the stack of crates tumbling. Before either Rhia or Bashi could react, the droid’s engines fully kicked in and its back thruster let out a gust of warm exhaust that sent a few bits of Rhia’s pinned-back hair flailing. She frowned, pushed the pieces behind her ears, and squatted, ready to lift her stack.

“Don’t forget,” she started, glancing sideways at Bashi who had started to bend forward to grab his crates, “lift with your knees.” She snapped upright, her stack in her arms and her legs feeling underprepared. She would have grabbed an anti-grav platform if she’d known she’d be in charge of the heavy-lifting. Bashi’s recent words floated through her mind at that thought; if droids were in short supply, everything else useful probably was too.

Rhia couldn’t really see where she was going but she was able to sneak her head out from the side of her stack and kept up with the droid in front of her. When she saw the yellow-outlined square appear under her feet, signalling a drop zone, she brought her stack to the floor again. Her legs felt shaky, reminding her she really should adhere to the volunteer fitness regimes more. She stood up and saw Bashi’s shaky stack show up right next to hers. Clearly, the Mythrol had struggled with the weight as well.

“Bashi, I think you and I had better hit the running machine more if the Rebellion gets any bigger.” He looked at her, confused. “There won’t be any droids left to save our legs,” she added, smiling. Bashi grinned, letting a quiet chuckle out, and began walking back into the crowd in the main part of the bay. Rhia began to follow when someone unfamiliar called her name, just her first name, and she looked back over her shoulder. 

“Rhia?!”

There stood a man with a small beard and ponytail, wearing green shoulder armor that extended down his right arm. He was several years older than the last time she had seen him, to be sure, but there was no doubt- the man was Kanan Jarrus.

“Kanan?” Rhia asked, just as stunned as he had been. Around them, organized chaos continued, monotonous calls came steadily over the intercom, and the group of rebels around Kanan all watched intently. However, the two of them only continued to stare. Finally, Rhia spoke first.

“You’re with Phoenix Crew?” she asked, clearly in some sort of disbelief. 

“Well… uh…” Kanan drew his hand up to rub the back of his neck. “Yeah, I guess… We’re new,” he added, gesturing to the Spectres. Rhia’s eyes went to them as he introduced them.

“This is Zeb, Ezra, Sabine, and Hera my- uh, my pilot,” he stammered when he got to Hera, and Rhia could instantly tell why.

Hera frowned ever so slightly and gave Kanan a look out of the corner of her eye at the word “pilot.” Kanan was doing the stammering thing he did when he was pretending to know what he was doing. Clearly, he knew this woman and clearly she was having an affect on him. She didn’t want to be jealous and tried to remind herself that the only reason Kanan had stumbled over what to refer to her as was because of the boundaries surrounding their relationship- boundaries she’d been the one to set. Still, the sight and sound of him now reminded her of the moment they’d met for the first time, back on Gorse all those years ago, and, frankly, she didn’t like it. 

“It’s good to meet you,” Rhia said, politely, nodding to the crew. She waited for Kanan (or anyone, really) to speak again, but they stood together in more silence that was quickly becoming awkward. Rhia was trying to think of a quick way to end the encounter when a familiar blue face popped out of the crowd behind Kanan and the others.

“Captain Denley!” Bashi called, a datapad aloft in his hands. Rhia silently thanked him with her eyes for the rescue.

“Sorry, you’ll have to excuse me,” she said, giving a final nod and beginning to walk past them. On her way she paused and placed a soft hand on Kanan’s shoulder. She spoke quietly but not so quiet that it seemed intimate.

“We should catch up,” she said, smiling. And with that she continued past and back into the throng of the bustling service bay.

[padawanblogging]

i’m procrastinating so time to write a reaction post about the Mandalorian episode The Jedi

- the makeup/montrals were not as bad as I was expecting. that said, i still wasn’t a fan of the orange-ish makeup they had her in, and wished they had let Dawson use her natural skin tone more + natural eye color. I hate the blue contacts especially since whoever designed the characters in Clone Wars preferred blue eyes to almost any other colors. Letting Dawson keep her natural eye color wouldn’t have betrayed the character or design in any way. It happened all the time to Legolas and it was fine.

- yes, i wish they had cast a different Black woman who wasn’t transphobic

- though I didn’t hate Ahsoka’s on screen presence, I think I would prefer her to be only in animated/video games/graphic novels etc in the future. I understand that they were limited in regards to the height of her horns, length of her montrals but those are things that really show and develop Ahsoka as she continues to grows. That said, if they ever get around to doing that Obi Wan series, I wouldn’t say no to Ahsoka showing up in that either because i am, if nothing else, a hypocrite.

- acting wise, I think Dawson did okay, especially when she smiled--I could really feel Ahsoka. It’s so hard with all the time jumps--the last we see Ahsoka is going into the temple after being rescued by Ezra, then she returns like Gandalf the White, then she’s here. Like what happened? How has she changed? I think it would be unreasonable to expect Ahsoka to act in Mandalorian the same way she was in season 7 or even Rebels--but I did get a lot of Rebels vibe from Dawson’s portrayal.

- i LOVE Ahsoka’s new outfit. It is so good. I love how her trousers are very similar to Darth Maul’s in The Phantom Menace. I don’t know if it was on purpose, but I liked it. 

- I love her lightsabers and that they basically recreated the badass way she drew her white lightsaber blades on the Inquisitors in Rebels here (where they like share a blade as she’s brining them apart so cool)

- I notice she did not remind people she was not a Jedi. Curious! The sadness undercutting her multiple references to the fallen Jedi order...her round about referral to Anakin. My actual heart.

- I am DYING to know what happened to Ezra. I was not expecting Ahsoka to ask about Thrawn and it sent me reeling back a bit. it’s so funny because someone in the discord is watching Rebels for the first time, and they were going, AHSOKA!? Thrawn!? and that’s literally what I’m doing right now for Mandalorian.

- keeping my finger crossed for Sabine because I’m sorry. If they can bring back THRAWN who just keeps coming back across multiple stories they can bring back Sabine and cast her voice actor to play her. 

- I get that this is about Din and a lot of people don’t want to have this be a rebels sequel but i’m just saying. Sabine is Mandalorian. And my god, Din needs some art on his armor. He needs it. 

- I’m glad we have a name I won’t remember for Baby Yoda

- the scene where Din goes to the ship and is going to bring him back to Ahsoka...my heart. He loves this little dude so much.

- I’m so excited for him to go to the Jedi temple. I’m wondering if they’ll be introducing a new Jedi character or if they’ll go for the angst factor.

- with the introduction of the dark saber, which was created by a Mandalorian Jedi, there could also be a third possibility (though I’m wondering if the Child itself isn’t more the result of that foreshadowing, especially if they decide to go the foundling path)

[reynesofcastamere]

Thrown Gauntlet[Ω]

(A/N: Sooooo....I’ve decided to start another series of fics that I will be marking with [Ω] in the titles: To disinguish them from both the main series (which I am still working on) and the [β] drabbles (which are all over the place in terms of timeline, setting, universe, etc.). Essentially a very self-indulgent AU where Savage, Maul, and Feral all get adopted by Clan Wren. This installment takes place in 20 BBY, so Ahsoka is around 16 and Maul is about 34. However. I want to state outright that the dynamic is intended to be a verrrrry slow build and that nothing romantic and/or sexual will be occurring between Maul and Ahsoka until MUCH later. If what I’ve described does not sound like your personal cup of tea, then by all means, feel free to give this fic and/or series a pass. This is getting a bit long, so to sum up: No trigger warnings, Obi-Wan is an Incurable Flirt, Rex is Flustered, and Maul is about 100% Done With Everyone’s Nonsense. Unbeta’d)  The Jedi Temple is buzzing. Not literally, of course, but Ahsoka can feel a strange vibration in the Force. Excitement, or maybe irritation? There’s definitely quite a bit more whispering amongst her fellow Jedi and the clone troopers she passes on her path to the east hangar. Master Anakin had told her to pack for a long trip, which she can only assume means they’ve been assigned another mission and he’s withholding the details so as to ‘surprise’ her appropriately. Typical Skyguy.

She spots Rex near the door, sans helmet. “Good morning, Captain.” A proper salute, quickly returned, though her tone is light. “Morning, Commander. And-er, yes, it certainly is.” He actually seems to be fidgeting a bit, and his face- “Rex, are you...blushing?” “N-no. No. Just-ah...Finished up my workout routine. Took more out of me than I expected. You know how it is; One day you’re all shiny-new and the next you feel older than General Yoda.” “Reeeeexxxx....Come on, whatever it is can’t be that bad.”

“The Clawbirds arrived about an hour ago. Captain Wren’s refusing to do much of anything until he finishes repairs on General Skywalker’s ship.” Rex caves, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly. “Master Anakin can’t be too happy about that.” Ahsoka observes, knowing just how...particular he is about his personal projects. “Should I be worried?” “Er...maybe? It’s kind of a toss-up. Depends on whether M-” He begins, before a subtler voice cuts in. “Captain, there you are. I was hoping to speak to you.” The speaker is a male Zabrak with soft golden-yellow eyes and skin, the latter of which is liberally patterned in brown markings. Unusual enough, but he’s also clad in full Mandalorian armor, helmet tucked under one arm and carrying what looks like field medic gear along with the standard jetpack and arsenal of weapons. And he’s glowing; a defined Force signature radiating Light and positive energy like a solar lamp. How-? “Medic Sergeant Wren. They are still getting along, right?” “Oh yes. He’s in a much better mood than last time. Apologies, am I interrupting?” “Thank the Maker. And no, um. Commander Tano, this is Medic Sergeant Feral Wren.” Rex looks like he’s in danger of heatstroke with how red he’s gotten. It’s not hard to see why, especially when Feral gives a smile that could melt half the ice on Bahryn. Rather than salute her, he stretches his right hand out so that they can clasp forearms briefly, a greeting from one warrior to another. “It’s a pleasure, Medic Sergeant.” She smiles back. Ahsoka can’t help it. He’s just...She’s fighting the urge to hug him like some kind of stuffed animal toy. Which is bizarre and will most definitely not be happening anytime soon. “Tano...Oh, you must be ‘Snips’. It’s almost a shame Savage volunteered to help the younglings train, we’ve both wanted to meet you for some time now.” Wait, what? “Tranyc’vod [Sunny(star-burned) brother] Anakin hasn’t been able to call as often, but he’s very proud of your accomplishments.” Feral remarks, genuinely pleased even as her head spins with the implications. Her Master has a lot of explaining to do. “Speaking of which, I’d better not keep him waiting much longer. I look forward to talking to you again, though. See you later, Captain. Maybe you should ask the Medic Sergeant about those stamina issues you’re having?” She can’t resist ribbing Rex as she departs, watching him splutter as Feral, like any good medic, starts making inquiries about his ‘condition’ while looking him over. And placing a hand on his chestplate, apparently. Huh. Maybe her friend’s obvious crush isn’t quite as one-sided as she’d thought. Ahsoka navigates her way through the semi-organized rows of ships. Even if Anakin’s presence in the Force wasn’t abnormally strong, she doesn’t need to focus to find him. Not when he’s talking loud enough to be heard across half the hangar. “-last time, it’s fine! You’re just being paranoid, as usual.” “Every ship I have been forced to borrow from you has either crashed, suffered a critical malfunction, or was confined to the scrap heap mere hours after landing. No one is setting a foot on this poorly-constructed death trap until I am absolutely certain it won’t spontaneously combust mid-flight.” And that must be Captain Wren. He sounds...irritated, to say the least.

“My ships run perfectly, thanks. Must hurt that Mando pride, knowing a Jedi is a better pilot and mechanic than you, Captain.” She’s not quite within visual range yet, but she knows her Master is smirking. “How sad that as a Jedi, you cannot recognize your own failings, General. Perhaps you should conduct a survey of your ‘victims’ instead of this poor attempt at distraction. Mir’osik adiik be’kyorla hut’uun![Dung for brains child of (a) rotten coward!]-” “Ouch. What, did one of your horns get caught in the hydraulics?” “Hilarious. Make yourself useful by grabbing a towel, or something from Kenobi’s closet. I’m coming out.” “Ah, Captain Wren. I thought the general ambience had improved. What were you saying about my clothing?” She hadn’t been aware of Master Kenobi’s presence before this. Either he’d used a secondary entrance or had been waiting for his chance to join the exchange while the captain was busy. “Kenobi.”

“Oh come now, surely you can muster a more polite greeting than that. You’ve been away so long I’ve had to listen to recordings just to remember the sound of your lovely voice.” “Perhaps I will address you with respect when you learn to stop leering at me, besom [ill-mannered lout].” “Busted. Again.” “You’re not helping, Anakin.” Ahsoka rounds a corner and-Oh. Wow. How far down do those-? She blinks a few times, just to be sure of what she’s seeing. Yep, there is a very shirtless Zabrak with the kind of muscle definition that would make scores of artists weep standing with his back to her and wiping his face off with a towel. She desperately hopes that her jaw is not hanging open as he turns his head to survey her with one vibrant yellow tourmaline eye. She honestly doesn’t know if she wants to draw closer or back away in that moment. His presence in the Force is not a benevolent, harmless light, but rather a controlled fire that sparks and issues dark threads of smoke. This...Ahsoka doesn’t understand what is going on, and it’s starting to make her uncomfortable. “The spy finally shows herself.” He remarks, assessing and dismissing her as a non-threat within the span of a few seconds, continuing to wipe off whatever type of mess had been spattered on him. “Don’t mind him, Snips. Someone shoved a shock baton up his ass years ago and the medics never found a way to pull it out. Tragic, really.” Anakin Skywalker grins, arms loosely folded across his chest and leaning against the outside of his ship. “Ahsoka, this is Maul. We’ll be working with him and his people for the forseeable future.” It clicks suddenly where she’s heard both his name and that of his group before: Captain Maul of Clan Wren and his company are the only Mandalorian supercommandos who will actually work with the Jedi Council. At least, when they’re not busy with bodyguard or mercenary jobs. Part of that involves what is referred to -with some awe and a lot of fear- as ‘running the gauntlet’, a mandatory training course for any Padawans or Knights posted to or intending to spend a considerable amount of time in the barely-civilized regions of space. It’s been suspended since the war started in earnest, but if they’re going to be sticking around for a while...Well, the implications are pretty serious. And Ahsoka has somehow managed to ogle one of the most infamous hardasses this side of the Mid Rim. Fantastic. Really. Maul disposes of the stained towel and turns to face her properly, Ahsoka’s gaze staying determinedly on his face as they grip each other’s right forearms. He doesn’t pull back after a few seconds as Feral had, hand locking in place as he seems to peer into her soul.  “I will say this once. We are not like our evaar’la vod’e[young brothers]. We are not subservient to you, and I do not accept excuses or blatant disrespect.” A pause and a slight increase in pressure, just below the threshold of inflicting pain. “Are you ready, Ahsoka Tano?” “Yes, Captain.” She answers with a certainty that she can feel in her very bones, and is rewarded with the hint of a wry smile when he lets go. Well that’s...something. Master Kenobi clears his throat pointedly. Right. Mission briefing first. Sort out her feelings later. Still, she can’t help but look forward to whatever comes next. (A/N: *cracks knuckles* Well, that’s the first installment. A little vague on the details, but I’m hoping to elaborate on what’s been hinted at here relatively soon. The name of the supercommando company comes from the Legends novel Maul:Lockdown by Joe Schreiber. And yes, for fellow Rebels fans who are reading this thing: In this AU, Sabine and Tristan get three badass Zabrak-hybrid uncles and a fair amount of adopted cousins. (Which is entirely Savage’s doing.) I do believe that Anakin is a gifted mechanic, but also couldn’t resist the running joke of ‘Skywalker’s ships/anything he tinkers with only work for him and Artoo’. Cheers!) 

[lothalsector]

The Problematic Life Of Satine Kryze (Or, Is Colonialism From The Inside Just A Culture Changing?)

I’ve spoken in the past about my mixed up Mandalore feelings. I really do like the planet- but only when it changes. Only when it is a place that actively evolves and acknowledges its own flaws. 

And it has some flaws. We see the war torn landscape, the violent tribalism, the emphasis on clan loyalty over the common good, the way years of conflict have torn the planet apart. We also see the beautiful strength of families, the emphasis put on tradition, justice, and art. It’s easy to see how people raised in the worst of Mandalore’s feuds might come to resent those traditions, while people who saw a better side of them might cling to them. This is very realistic. No traditional culture comes without its problems, and those who see those problems the closest are often the loudest critics of their own traditions. 

Satine saw Mandalore’s wars at a very young age. She was forced on the run, without her family. We don’t get many details about exactly what went down, but it doesn’t seem to have been especially pretty if the Jedi were needed to protect her. The fact that the Jedi were called in at all, on a notable anti-Jedi planet, says a lot about the direction her clan and family were going. They clearly had ties to the Republic, and were willing to forswear their own people to gain protection from... well, their own people. 

From the get-go, that’s messy as hell. 

Perhaps it’s no surprise that Satine came to resent the traditions that she saw wreck so much havoc. After all, she only saw the bloodier side of them. She only saw the flaws, and not the beauty. Again, there are comparisons to be made with people from other traditional cultures who get a short stick and end up on a crusade against their own people. It’s a complicated situation. Sure, you can’t really blame them for drawing conclusions from their own personal experience and trying to change things, but in the process they deny the experiences of others and try to impose their own worldview. Someone saying “tradition X from belief set X hurt me so I hate belief set X” is understandable but also very misguided. 

Then, somehow, Satine came to power, leading a sect of Mandalorians who shared her anti-war views. From this we can guess that she was not alone in her frustration with Mandalorian business as usual. 

There are shades of outside interference there, the Republic putting in power someone more “civilized” than the Mandalorian traditionalists. But you also can’t deny that Satine is Mandalorian. She has a Mandalorian name and a sister who is clearly a traditionally raised, traditionally minded Mandalorian. She’s not an outsider imposing her own views on the planet, she’s an insider doing so. 

And impose she does. When we see Mandalore it looks like Naboo, with flowing dresses and strange headpieces. Satine has complete reshaped her own planet into something different, and a lot of people, at least in one city, are going along with her. All the open traditionalists live on a moon, plotting their eventual revenge, but it’s a big planet, there are probably a lot more of them. But in one small spot, Mandalore has changed. It seems pretty peaceful, even happy. 

It’s complicated to talk about Satine’s rule and the power dynamics inherent in it. It becomes even more complicated when you add the element of race. 

During the Clone Wars, all Mandalorians were white. Pre Viszla was white, Satine and Bo-Katan were white. It was obvious they were going for a sort of isolated supremacist military culture vibe with old Mandalore. Sometime in the new canon this changed and a lot more Mandalorians of color were added. Since we haven’t seen of Satine’s New Mandalorians again, and all new Mandalorian characters have been more traditionally minded, this does leave the impression that Satine’s takeover has an added colonialist element (Which can’t be denied even though they are all Mandalorian. A white savior complex only has to be communicated to the audience, not the characters.) While I’m pretty sure Disney would balk at this if you suggested it and the second they figure this out they’ll make one Satine’s advisors space-Polynesian, the implication remains. 

I think a lot of people, justifiably, dislike Satine because of this. I’m not going to argue that. I dislike Satine half the time, just because she’s a complicated, messed up gal. But there are a lot of contradictions to her character and those are interesting. She’s a pacifist at all costs, a Mandalorian without a fight, who has made peace her struggle. She has eschewed her own culture and taken a new one, yet she clings to her newly created strictures of non-violence with just as much strength as a Mandalorian would cling to honor or family. 

She is, in many ways, the anti-Mandalorian. She rejected love and her family for a cause. She rejected her culture and the Mandalorian way so utterly that it almost broke the system. She threw away everything she should have been raised to believe in and made her own way, a new way, and then watched it burn around her in the same violence and unending war she originally sought to stop.

She wasn’t a colonizer coming in and trying to change things, she was a horribly misguided internal reformer who saw the worst of the system and wanted something better. 

And I think she was what Mandalore needed. Not what Mandalore needed to become, but what Mandalore needed a taste of. Every culture, every group, needs change to survive. Satine forced the Mandalorians to recognize how vulnerable they truly were, forced them to acknowledge the toll that war took. If they want to survive, they need cohesiveness, they need better cooperation with outside forces, they need to be more yielding than Satine who never compromised and broke because of it. 

Almost every Mandalorian now has lived in the aftermath of her choices, the short lived peace she brought and the long war after her failures. Bo-Katan, the new Mandalore, was intimately acquainted with her and her philosophies even if she didn’t agree with her. Sabine ironically refers to her in the name of her super-weapon, something that takes what Mandalorians hold dearest and turns it against them. Their alliances with the Jedi, their reclamation of the Dark Saber, all of these are in some way influenced by the world Satine made. 

And Sabine, perhaps, is her greatest creation. Sabine also saw how cruel Mandalorians could be to other Mandalorians. She also was forced to confront war too young and fled into the protection of a Jedi to escape her own people. But unlike Satine before her, Sabine doesn’t reject her culture, doesn’t reject her armor or her clan (even though they exiled her). She clings to it all, makes it hers again. She incorporates pieces of the rest of the universe into Mandalorian art and culture, without letting it be subsumed. And when she feels safe again, she goes home. 

She makes Mandalore better without ripping it up at the foundations. That might not seem like a high bar to reach, but so many people from difficult backgrounds and complicated pasts fail to separate the components of a complex cultural heritage. Sabine’s ability to acknowledge and seek to fix the violence and war that destroyed Mandalore and her childhood, while still loving the art and language of her people is even more admirable after seeing someone else completely abandon many of the trappings of Mandalore while trying to escape the violence that has plagued it. And perhaps it’s wishful thinking, but I do believe a large part of Sabine’s skill in navigating this obstacle course comes from growing up on stories of the monster martyr Duchess who fell at the first hurdle. 

[cienie-isengardu]

[Rebels] Heroes of Mandalore

I’ve stopped watching regularly SW: Rebels somewhere after first season, but I keep coming back for episodes about Mandalorian. The Heroes of Mandalore aren’t exception. Though most of times I wonder why the hell I still bother to do so.

To be fair, the newest episode(s) have interesting and beautiful moments, like:

new informations about mandalorian art (though I would like know more about Tojnun and the Pre-Exile Masters)

the reversed roles with Ursa (a female character; the wife & mother) is the leader & veteran warrior while her husband is the artist who, so far, did not show any combat capabilities (”My dad fights with his art”)

Bo-Katan is showed as capable warrior and leader and she is pretty good at what she is doing for past decade(s)

Sabine - and her past - once again is important part of the story

Fenn’s “show off” and in general, the evolution of his character

the ending scene of the first episode

Mandalorian for good now are visible diverse group insted of all-white TCW!version

A scene where three main female characters (all leaders & warriors in their own way) get together to discuss future of Mandalore. That alone is something pure and beautiful in so many ways, and I wouldn’t mind to get used to such scenes, really.

But though all of those points were great and fun, there is also a lot things that are, well, stupid. As in: pointless compared to the old canon/Legends. And yes, I’m biased, I know, but then again, new canon gives me time after time more reasons to be distrustful for its content. What means, I’m going to rant about Mandalorians.

The things tha pissed me off for good:

the whole Mandalorian without armor is no more than a common soldier bullshit. Seriously. You know what was great about Legends!Mando, beside how diverse they were? The armor was preciuos thing, sure, but it meant nothing, if person wearing it didn’t deserve the title of Mandalorian warrior. Just like that. Legends!Mando had saying about it: ``A warrior is more than one's armor.``

The armor is not what makes a Mandalorian. This is one of basic thing one must understands about their whole culture. Mandalorians were taught from early age to fight without it, without technology, without weapon to be strong and capable to survive if they were deprived of such things. There were even a time(s), when mandalorian ore wasn’t available to make new armours - or, like The Bounty Code mentioned: the armours were destroyed by New Mandalorian - so the warriors used other materials, like duresteel. And it was fine, no one really cared for such details. For Force’s sake, Boba Fett used durasteel armour, and even though he screwed up almost all rules of Mandalorian Code (what, btw, had only 6! conditions), he was still seen as Mando.

In short: you may deprive someone of armor, but it will not make someone less Mandalorian. Just no.

What makes the whole Sabine’s epic talk about her armour - how its part of their identity, how “it makes us, Mandalorians, who we are” is so... odd and impractical.

I’m ranting about this not only because of my bias toward New Canon, but seriously, Ezra’s question why not change armour for something different is actually smart and pragmatic thing to do - especially since the heroes planned to attack an Imperial forces who happened to have a weapon that will kill anyone with beskar’gam. This was desperate attack, to destroy weapon before imperials figure out how to increase its reach. It’s really laughable that Mandalorians didn’t change their armors for similar to those of stromtroopers what actually would minimize the threat of the superweapon in the first place, and thus, Sabine and Bo-Katan wouldn’t even be trapped later. Seriously, tactical increase of their own chances is not synonymous with change once for all their culture.

And frankly, it would be much better to see Saxon’s priceless face when he would learn that Sabine & her warriors actually adapted themselves to the new situation, that they put the survival and freedom of their nation above own pride to wear non-mandalorian armors for this mission.

What leads me to the second stupidity, the whole let a genius prodigy child to “fix” a weapon that was constructed to kill everyone Sabine loves. Like it was totally rational thing to do, sure, w h a t e v e r.

At this point, I once again lost faith in new canon. I mean, most - if not all - Legends!Mandalorians would just set weapon to self-destruct and died with knowledge that 1) weapon was destroyed and 2) enemy was killed with it. Sure, fine, Sabine is genius, she used it against Saxon - who shouldn’t be so fucking stupid in the first place. I can’t, I really can’t anymore, it was so obviously stupid thing to do, I can’t even find a proper words for that.

The third issue, much less important but still so irritating for me - the lack of mentioning Pre Vizsla, while at the same time constant talking about Satine, like she was some goddamn freedom fighter who lead Mandalore to its independence from Republic/Jedi/Empire. I’m sorry, but as much as I agree she wouldn’t like what Empire did to her people and the whole galaxy, I don’t believe she could do much about it. For the peace, she rejected oldfashioned ways of Mandalorian warriors, their culture & heritage and frankly, I don’t think her character did much in the TCW beside dying for Obi-Wan’s angsty sake.

I don’t really waited for lofty speeches in honor of Pre Vizsla, but it would be nice to see at least Bo-Katan mention him once or twice. Especially when Sabine presented her darksaber which Maul beheaded her friend / close ally (though I think her line “I am not the leader you seek” may refer to Pre, especially since she said that after seeing darksaber for the first time in a long time). Also, it would be nice to learn what happed to New Mandalorians, because I don’t think all of them became warriors or supported of Empire.

The most minor issue: calling Bo-Katan (or any mando female character) my lady? Why she couldn’t be refered as, I don’t know, a Mandalore, clan leader or something less gendered? Even if she was part of royal(?) family, such stuff aren’t important now. Sabine chose to trust Bo, not because she is sister of dead dutchess, but becase she is wise, strong and experienced leader that is already at war with Empire for more than a decade.