#death watch mandalorians

[fellthemarvelous]

Please try to remember the Death Watch are terrorists.

"We are the Death Watch. Our people were warriors. Strong. Feared! Now they're ruled by the New Mandalorians who think that being a pacifist is a good thing. They've given away our honor and tradition for peace. Duchess Satine and her corrupt leadership are crushing our souls, destroying our identity. That is our struggle." -Pre Vizsla

Maul met the Death Watch and their shared hatred for Obi-Wan and Satine is what destroyed Mandalore.

Read Pre Vizsla's speech here closely. Like so close.

Satine Kryze is not to blame for the destruction of Mandalore.

The Death Watch ARE EXTREMISTS!!!!

They used violence and death to take down an unarmed woman.

Satine Kryze did not cause Mandalore's downfall.

Maul and the Death Watch did, and they did so with cruelty because they made Obi-Wan watch helplessly as Maul murdered her.

She chose to LIVE IN PEACE because it is the right of people to live in peace. She didn't illegally obtain power. The other Houses entrusted her with Mandalore's safety.

It was the terrorist minority that had a problem with her. Satine refused to bow to terrorists.

Because war is not natural. War is not fun. War is pain and loss and a man-made creation of mass destruction.

Satine was so strong in her convictions that entire star systems made her the leader of their council of neutral systems because she was able to give her citizens the access to the peaceful life they deserved. She refused to let Mandalore's legacy become one remembered only for its bloodshed and violence. She knew she would probably end up being killed for her beliefs, but she stood up to every single person who told her that picking a side was the only way to peace when she and Mandalore were already living proof that it was possible to do that without Republic interference.

She died refusing to give in to all the men who tried to scare her into joining their side, and when she died on the blade of the darksaber after it fell into the hands of the angriest being in the galaxy, she still died with love and conviction in her heart. Her final words were not "avenge me". Her final words were "I've loved you always. I always will."

The other Mandalorians were right to trust her, not because she used fear and power to intimidate but rather love and compassion to give Mandalore the tools it needed to thrive.

I saw someone try to say that she didn't do pacifism correctly and I just...

She carried a deactivator, not a blaster. She defended herself even though she chose to carry a weapon only meant to neutralize. Her guards existed to neutralize threats. Not kill them.

What does it say about a person who thinks Satine deserved her fate because she refused to arm herself instead of looking at the person who murdered her? What does it say about yourself if you think a person deserves to die because they refused to arm themselves with a lethal weapon in the first place?

Excuse me???

Not to get political, but Death Watch and MAGA are basically the same. Spoiled brats who believed they should have inherited the throne based on blood rather than qualifications, and really mad to know they are in the minority of people who don't want peace.

A bunch of men repeatedly trying to kill the woman who has proven time and time again that hope is stronger than fear.

She proved that it's possible to live peacefully if people would learn to just stop fucking killing each other, and she is not wrong for choosing to give that small bit of comfort to the others who survived the Mandalorian civil war.

The people chose her because they trusted her to take care of them. And she did. For almost 20 years. She cared about what the people wanted and she chose to give them exactly that for as long as she could.

She didn't make them forget their history. She reminded them that they don't have to live the same way for the rest of their lives. It's okay to put down the weapons and it's okay to want peace. That's not a weakness at all. It takes strength maintain a light like that for as long as she did.

[theresistanceneverquits]

Once again thinking about how Bo Katan had the audacity to pull the “my sister’s dead :(” card after she spent most of her life as second-in-command of a terrorist group whose sole goal was to assassinate Satine.

[lillththesuccubus]

Din Dijarin watching Bo Katan beat the living shit out of Axe Woves Like:

[mearchy]

I really love Jaster Mereel, the most “fine then I’ll do it myself” guy of all time. Like, after he killed his corrupt superior UHC style and got exiled for it he could’ve been on that vigilante shit. And he did come back ready for a fight- but not with a battalion, or another assassination. With a fucking entire new system of living and governing contained in a codex he wrote himself, based on ancient laws he wanted to resurrect. By all accounts he wasn’t even in academia or government before that moment, he was a cop. And the best part is he fucking managed to create a majorly consequential schism in Mandalorian society purely on the strength of having actually really good ideas in that big-ass academic magnum opus he spite-wrote. That’s some Protestant reformation shit!!!! I wonder if someone said to him during his sentencing like “you can’t just make up your own laws because you disagree with the ones we have” and he said oh word?? Insane, I love him.

[evaarade]

"Mandalorians didn't want to change, Satine merely forced them to"

Except, no she didn't and and yeah they did.

Here's the thing, we are told that the majority of the people wanted the change and were New Mandalorians, we are told that the only people who weren't were a small minority that had been exiled for causing a damaging war on the planet and population

And it was That minority that kick started Mandalore falling, that brought wars back to Mandalore, that took over via trickery and deception because the majority were Happy with Satine so the only way that said minority could take over was by making her seem incompetent and convinced the population of exactly that

Mandalore was a tragedy in the Clone wars because people WANTED to change, they were HAPPY with the change that Satine brought, but because an Extremist Minority didn't like it so they all Suffered

George Lucas said that the Prequels were a story about how a democracy fell, and I see The Clone Wars Mandalorians as another chapter of that, but this time it wasn't because of the civilian inaction, it was because while the people did Everything Right, they suffered under things out of their control and an Extremist Minority used propaganda and staged attacks to take over at the first chance they had.

[shellshooked]

rebel generals of the twilight squadron

[2stepadmiral]

Maybe sort of a hot take? Satine Kryze was a terrible leader and kind of a petty tyrant. Like, look at what she actually did and how she did it and what the consequences were:

She committed effective cultural genocide against her own people by eviscerating a millennia-old culture/creed/tradition/religion, removing the at least 80% of it that she didn’t like and demanded that everyone else adapt it

Those who refused to relinquish their ancestral ways were exiled from their homeworld and even robbed of their cultural identity when she claimed that anyone who still practiced the warrior ways were not true Mandalorians

By enforcing this ‘my way or the highway’ policy, she created the environment where Pre Vizsla could form Death Watch and recruit all the followers he had out of the disillusioned she had branded as outcasts

By enforcing her strict pacifism, she disarmed her people and even her security forces, leaving the planet defenseless against both Death Watch and the Shadow Collective (imagine if the Yuuzhan Vong had invaded during this period)

Publicly belittled and insulted a high profile General in the Grand Army of the Republic/ Master and Council member of the Jedi Order in front of a number of Senators and her courtiers because he dared to point out that the Separatists might not let her remain neutral

Publicly stated that she didn’t want Jedi security present when traveling with a retinue of Republic Senators in the midst of a terrorism crisis that she was the main target of, in front of a number of people who would have been put at risk had she gotten her way

When Obi Wan pointed out that the Senators and likely her courtiers had requested Jedi security due to concerns for their own safety that she had disregarded, rather than acknowledging her thoughtlessness, she again insulted Obi-Wan and provoked an argument that she aggravated into a bickering session while Obi Wan tried and gradually failed at keeping civil

She seceded her world from the Republic rather than allow the slightest impression that she endorsed the Clone War (never mind that Alderaan and Naboo were prominent members of the Senate that opposed war and actively worked to end it peacefully and quickly without seceding), which forfeited the government aid Mandalore needed to survive in its damaged state and led directly to Prime Minister Almec having to use the black market just to keep the people fed

And in the end, all she accomplished was a maybe fifteen-twenty year period of relative peace before civil war broke out again, Maul took charge, the Empire forced fifteen years of relative obedience, and ultimately the planet was bombed and the Mandalorian people were decimated. The role of a good ruler or leader is to do what is best for your people, even if it’s contrary to your own preferences or interests, and Satine consistently made her own beliefs the order of the day, enforced from the top down. Had she moderated her approach, maybe tried to redirect the warrior tendencies into galactic peacekeeping, or advocated for a warrior second, hardworking builder/farmer/pilot/tradesmen helping to rebuild Mandalore first (sort of what Boba Fett did as Mand’a’lor in the EU), despite her personal disdain for violence and warfare, she could have been one of the greatest Mandalorian leaders who affected real change. Instead, she allowed her personal priorities to be the priorities of her regime and the guiding principle of her tyranny.

[hedonistbyheart]

The blindfold stays on.

I’m too in love with the idea of the Armorer being a Zabrak to let it go, but I cannot settle on what kind, so now she’s got nightsister colorings and nightbrother horns🤷‍♀️

[sandwrrm]

some colorful mandos ✌️

[writerbuddha]

Before Satine Kryze, Mandalore was what the entire galaxy was in the Sith-era, when societies and cultures were based on the principle of "the strong preys on the weak." Old Mandalore and the Zygerrian Slave Empire share the same mentality: Vizsla asserts, "only the strongest shall rule," and Miraj asserts, "The weak deserve nothing more than to kneel before the strong." This is why both the Death Watch and the re-established Zygerrian Slave Empire were so ready to ally themselves with the Sith Lords. They both thrived when the Sith ruled the known universe - they were, too, empires of darkness.

And they were both, one way or another, ended by the Jedi Order. Satine was protected by the Jedi Knights, thus, she was able to re-organize her planet as a peaceful and symbiotic society, and the Zygerrian Slave Empire was destroyed by the Jedi Knights. This is why both the Death Watch and the re-established Zygerrian Slave Empire hate the Jedi Knights - they cultivated light.

[fellthemarvelous]

It's a crime that we haven't seen live action Obi-Wan in Mandalorian armor.

[weepingstars07]

Death Watch Jango and Sith Concubine Obi Wan Au

Also known as another au i can’t be bothered writing but would love to read

So instead of Jango being found by Jaster, Death Watch manage to catch up to him while the True Mandalorians go in guns blazing and rescue Arla.

Jango and Arla are kind of role swapped with Jango as Tor’s adoptive son, favourite assassin and all round punching bag.

Arla on the other hand is adopted by Jaster and believes her little brother burnt to death in the fields of their own family farm. This and the murder of her parents leads to serious anger issues that lead on to a level of violence that puts her slightly at odds with the true Mandalorians. This isn’t to say they hate each other though, she still considers Jaster her father and jaster consider her his daughter. Arla does eventually end up splitting ways with them going off to find her own way in the galaxy.

This world’s Obi wan never escaped Bandomeer and ended up sold further into slavery until Darth Plagueis finds and buys him for Sheev ( i dont think the timeline works out but oh well, wibbly wobbly timey wimey).

Plagueis predicts that Palpatine and Obi wan will be the Chosen one’s parents. (The force actually meant parental figures but sith have never been very good listeners). Obi Wan as a stewjoni is able to get pregnant but has only had miscarriages and still births much to Palpatine’s endless frustration. Eventually he decides Plagueis must have been mocking him and this is only reinforced when he finds a small slave boy named Anakin with the force presence of twin suns. He decides this boy must be the true chosen one and makes him his apprentice. He does not realise how close his concubine and Apprentice become other the years until it’s too late. Anakin does still consider Palpatine a fatherly figure to him but in an an even more twisted way than canon while Obi wan is still his BrotherDad figure.

Obi Wan and Jango meet when they’re both about 18 or 19, after Tor teams up with Palpatine (or more accurately gets himself manipulated into becoming Palpatine’s puppet). Obi wan is used by Palpatine to keep any eye on his Mandalore project which is quite frustrating to him as it means being seperated from anakin.

The boys end up forming a strange sort of bond when realising how badly treated the other his. Its not until Jango is handed the prototype for a clone army made in his image under sith/mandalorian control that he decides enough is enough. In the dead of night he steals the prototype, who he names Boba, from the Kaminoan labs and knocks Obi Wan out and steals him too.

Jango decides that he’s going to stop the cloning project before he has an army of enslaved ade on his hands, maybe kill Tor and then run off into the sunset with Obi Wan and their new child.

Obi Wan’s reaction is along the lines of ‘wtf, your going to get us both killed’ but as the concept of freedom comes closer and closer he agrees on the condition they figure out how to steal Anakin too, difficult because Obi Wan doesn’t actually know what facility they are usually held in.

With a plan now prepared the two set out to conquer evil and live out their happy ever after on some tropical paradise far away from the mandalorians or Sith.

However they what they don’t realise is that be some will of the force the first planet they land on they accidentally bump into a Jedi shadow. Maybe its Tholme or Feemor or someone completely unknown but they are pretty quick to notice Obi Wan looks a lot like the Initiate that disappeared a few year ago become of Yoda’s (however well intended) meddling. This sparks a Jedi manhunt to find this lost soul who they believe has been enslaved by a Mandalorian.

Jaster and the True Mandalorians are running around the galaxy trying to get more info on this army that Tor is apparently building. Arla is reunited with them and agrees to help out.

And …. Thats all I’ve got for now.

[bojangos]

the nite owl and her owlets, c. ~35BBY

slapped some colors on this doodle for my 'arla fett is the original nite owl' headcanon. yes that is baby bo-katan and baby ursa wren.

arla is not as nice of a teacher as this makes her seem, rip. also the year might be off i can't do math lmao

[auxxrat]

woke up angry because they put ANYONE BUT Boba on the Mando throne.

I love Bo-Katan, MORE than the next person probably. BUT PLEASE DAVE FILONI. I LOVE SATINE TOO BUT PLEASE. Both of them have reasons as to why they aren’t fit to rule Mandalore, but Boba shows us time and time again that he could singlehandedly take back the entire planet.

And the disrespect Bo-Katan gives him?? Crazy, crazy propaganda and its crazy that SHE out of all people would listen to it. And giving Bo-Katan the right of being their leader after giving it up SO EASILY?(listen, I know she was in a tough situation but you think even the mando’s would take that personally and say hey not u but maybe IM wrong on that), you would think the mando’s would SEE that as unfit and disrespectful, seeming all that happened afterwords.

It would NOT be crazy, at least in legends, to say that the people would PRAY for Jango’s return. You think they aren’t gonna see Boba and drop to the ground with the Mandalorian throne in their hands? It’s his birth right DIRECTLY, Jango is a DIRECT descendant of Cassus Fett and a bloodline that has been Mandalorian for centuries— this makes Boba and the clones direct descendants too— THAT IS THEIR CLAIM. It’s literally their BIRTH RIGHT, and keeping the clones away from their culture is even more disrespectful than Boba not claiming whats his.

AND the watering down of Death Watch is crazy, I KNOW I aways bring this up but it makes me mad. I do not CARE if they are just the children of the watch, they are clearly still a rouge fraction that believes in the old Death Watch ways. Boba knows the stories, what they have done to his father has been with him since he was BORN, he deserved at LEAST a 1v1 vs Paz instead of that weak death (it was kinda cool but when you consider a VIZSLA?? Going down?? Yeah cooler death even if you hate them). Its even more important that Din knows what they’ve done, or at least the armorer admitting and telling the story of what happened on THAT day.

This was literally just a yapping sesh because I’m salty about Boba not reclaiming what’s RIGHTFULLY his, or any of the clones for that matter. All in all, Boba should be sitting on that throne not in some trash bin on Tatooine.

THE MANDALORIAN PEOPLE YEARN FOR THE FETTS!!! THEY YEARN FOR THE DAY JANGO COMES BACK AND SAVES THEM !!!

[bookatans]

This is probably going to be a very long post but the more I think about the rise (and subsequent fall) of the New Mandalorians, the more that I get wrapped up in not only the colonialism committed by Satine and the movement, how it began in such a horrifyingly understated way, but also how it paved the way for Mandalore to be destroyed thanks to the almost-complete erasure of their culture.

First of all, Canon verse deciding to remove the True Mandalorians (and placing the "Old" Mandalorians in a similar, though less prominent position) feels particularly underhanded and paints everything in a black and white manner. Satine: a sympathetic character who is the only one standing against Death Watch, the last shred of peace left for Mandalorians to cling to. Which. Last standing? Yes, definitely. But not the only one.

A war where Death Watch and the New Mandalorians were the major players, only to have Death Watch defeated – even with the assistance of the Jedi keeping Satine alive – makes little sense from a technical standpoint. Is it impossible? Probably not. All sorts of things can happen in history, pure dumb luck makes every difference, but it's unlikely. A party which seeks peace is not going to survive against another ultra violent, volatile party that's pissed off at you because you want to erase the culture that they so deeply value.

Which, yeah I don't buy it. Even with the Republic stepping in later on, it's fishy. But for the sake of my sanity, I'm mostly focusing on Legends, because the more you try to create a coherent timeline (seriously, how is Clone Batch Math easier than this?) for the Mandalorian Civil Wars, the harder it is not to give up entirely.

Anyways. Satine did not survive years of conflict due to mere smarts and perseverance, and did not end the war by being charismatic and having good people skills. She was the LEAST THREATENING PARTY in a three-party war, hunkering down with her Jedi protectors and playing politician while the actual warriors in the conflict weakened one another and – for the True Mandalorians – were wiped out.

True Mandalorians. Death Watch. New Mandalorians.

So, okay. The approximate dates of the beginning and end of the Mandalorian Civil Wars don't necessarily make sense with Satine’s age. She'd have been slightly younger, and Canon seems to have a tendency to just wave their hand in the general direction of a time period and deflect onto another topic.

Which, you know what? Fine. I can work with that without having to think too hard about the dates. It kills me not to delve into it further, but. No. It's not like Disney's gonna pay me to fix their broken timeline.

(But if I had to, I'd shift Jaster's death to 47BBY instead of 52BBY, and push the Battle of Galidraan a year back to 43BBY, and—)

Here's what's important to remember, though:

- There are two Mandalorian Civil Wars. The first being True Mandalorians vs Death Watch. The second being the much shorter, and quickly solved Death Watch vs the New Mandalorians.

- The massacre of the True Mandalorians happened shortly before the beginning of the second civil war.

- The True Mandalorians had already been dealing with Death Watch for years, and they were winning. Death Watch wasn't just on the run, they were weak, they had to resort to TRICKING THE JEDI into killing the True Mandalorians for them.

Who wasn't weak? The New Mandalorians, the people that actively choose to turn their back on a culture that had survived for centuries. And yes, Death Watch remained even after the True Mandalorians fell. Tor Vizsla targeted Satine and the New Mandalorians viciously after that, there was even more destruction, but it wasn't with the severity with which he'd prosecuted the True Mandalorians.

Here's what happened next: Jango Fett escaped his enslavement. He hunted down Tor Vizsla, and he killed him. Whatever strength Death Watch had regained in those few years didn't matter, because the second their leader was gone they were certainly left unorganized and at a disadvantage.

Giving the New Mandalorians the opening they needed to cement in people's minds to their beliefs and convince the House and Clan leaders that abandoning their old ways was the solution. After all, how much more of Mandalore was left to destroy? How many more had to be lost?

With the public's approval and the Republic’s help, Satine Kryze and the New Mandalorians scavenged the corpse of Mandalore, and they took what they deemed fit, left the rest to rot and – given time – be erased completely.

What's worse is that Satine's activism and speeches made it sound like that made sense (because, to Satine, it did make sense); abandon what Mandalore once was because that's the reason we've been destroyed, isn't it? (Not entirely untrue.) And these people, whose world had been ravaged, who's clans and families had wrecked everything with in-fighting, were tired and desperate enough that they listened.

Actually, here's what's really worse — Satine got LUCKY! The first time! It should not have ended like that. But because she got lucky, because it worked once, she tried to do the exact same thing when the entire galaxy went to war. And she ignored the suffering of people whom she should have known empathy towards, who were going through the very same torment she experienced as a child. Because her position of superiority where peace is the only answer was so ingrained in her beliefs, because she was ARROGANT.

And because peace was the only answer, because she'd disavowed any sense of warrior culture from her people, Satine had as much a hand in dooming Mandalore as everyone who went in with the worst intentions. Does it matter that it was doomed regardless, because Maul was the great evil that came to destroy them? No. Maul was just the most convenient means to an end the resurrected Death Watch could find, but if not him it would have been anyone — anything – else.

I do feel for her. She had to experience her father's death so young and step into a role he'd left behind, didn't get a proper chance to grieve because she had to be strong for everyone else who was grieving. She gave up the possibility of love for duty. Satine was a good leader, I won't argue that, and she was the last stand between Mandalore and total annihilation, but she was also deeply flawed.

[kastalor]

reference sheet for my nightsister mando! weird enby lesbian who ended up with death watch as a kid but it's all okay because they end up dating Rook Kast and they get to be catastrophes together!!