#if pre vizsla has one hater it's me

[impossibleprincess35]

Politely and respectfully, I speak calmly into the void:

In the conversation about Satine's pride leading to the Shadow Collective and Maul gaining ground in Mandalore, I must disagree. Satine's pride had nothing to do with it because so long as Pre Vizsla and his quest for power was a factor, Mandalore was doomed.

Maul and the Shadow Collective didn't scope out the galaxy and find a flaw (re: pacifism) in Mandalore and go, "Oh, hey, there's our opportunity to infiltrate."

Pre Vizsla and Death Watch manufactured a plan in which they opened up the pathways and allowed Maul and the Shadow Collective to flood Sundari and stage a scene to undermine Satine's rule.

(I could write for hours about my thoughts on parallels between the attack on Sundari and the real life insurrection on the U.S. Capitol on 1/6/21, but I'll spare you all.)

Pre Vizsla committed acts of treason and endangered his own people, caring about nothing other than his goal of obtaining the seat of power with the weak justification that he would restore Mandalore to its warrior past. Bodies are dropping, people are being traumatized, and he's orchestrated these things - and he had to orchestrate them because otherwise, Mandalore was peaceful and safe.

And it wasn't just one event.

You had the attack on Sundari, but also the Peace Park bombing, and the incident on Concordia when he tried to kill Satine and Obi-Wan; and here's the thing about that, Obi-Wan was a visiting Jedi Master/General of the Grand Army of the Republic. Maybe the Republic would have turned a blind eye to Satine's death, but Obi-Wan's? Republic forces could have been on the ground in days with a full scale invasion. Such prowess! Much strategy! Wow.

Keep in mind, Pre thought he was going to double-cross Maul, throw him and his brother in a prison cell, and sit around victorious in the Grand Salon as if he had earned the throne through real merit. Had he been a real warrior and worthy of leading Mandalore, he would have achieved the seat of power through honorable means; but his pride led him to seek an alliance with shady crime syndicates and a fucking Sith, which was never going to work out in his favor.

And in the long run, what kind of ruler would Pre Vizsla have been if he hadn't been beheaded by Maul? His entire rise to power was built on deception. He would have become an absolute nightmare, wielding fear and the Darksaber, but not towards "enemies" in the galaxy, but towards his own people and those closest to him in an attempt to keep his power.

And what happens when Pre dies? Death Watch crumbles. The schism is profound and no one immediately rises up to carry on the work and keep the faction together and operational. Because what was the work? It was never really about restoring Mandalore to some glorified past. It was about Pre Vizsla's quest for power. Not even Bo-Katan honors the ways of their warrior past when Pre is bested in a duel for the Darksaber. Because it's never been about their warrior ways, so much as it was about Pre wanting the throne. (This paragraph is complete conjecture, but it's what I think and I'll die on this hill.)

Was Satine prideful at times? Yes, but blaming her for the fall of Mandalore is tantamount to finding no fault in Pre Vizsla's never-ending efforts to create conflict where there was none, all so that he could sit upon the throne for a few days until Maul rightly rocked his shit.

[impossibleprincess35]

OMG I HAVE FOUND MY PEOPLE. YES.

The ardent Death Watch defenders/Satine Kryze haters give me massive Proud Boys/Three Percenters/alt right sorta vibes.

Like, you know Pre Vizsla, if he was real, had a "come and take it"/Molon Labe decal somewhere on his Tesla Truck (I was gonna say Hummer but that's a dated reference now).

I am sorry, but each time I see Star Wars fan complains that Satine destroyed Mandalore culture, I imagine OP as some kind of caricatural American Dude with shotgun, shouting: FUCKING LIBS DESTROY OUR AMERICAN CULTURE WITH THEIR GUN LAWS!

[impossibleprincess35]

Asphodel | ch 44

[Excerpt:]

Pre let go of her disheveled locks and forcefully shoved her back into the wall of the cell, shouting, “You made us weak! You disgrace our name!”

Her eyes opened just in time to close again as her shoulder blades hit the transparisteel surface and she cried out in anguish, “No! You have forfeited our safety and our peace!”

With a wild look on his face, he breathed heavily and argued, “It is a peaceful slavery you have sanctioned!”

“There can be no peace without freedom, and you have sacrificed them both in the name of your tyrannical greed!” Satine screamed as she clenched her fists and stepped towards him.

Vizsla’s face turned an inflamed shade of crimson, and for a moment, he wondered if having Bo-Katan do the honors of silencing Satine for an eternity was worth the wait. The kal in his boot was crying out to be drawn, to carve the breath from her throat against its blade, but he managed to stop himself. It was imperative that his plan be followed as he had intended, and he would not give in to his base instincts.

The former Duchess of Mandalore would die soon enough.

For now, she was livid like a diseased animal trapped within a cage, and he took pleasure in knowing that her diplomacy was disappearing as her humanity was stripped from her.

She would waste away in here, driven mad by the isolation and tortured by the knowledge that she could do nothing to stop him; and if she somehow proved to have a stronger constitution than he believed, he was certain that witnessing her sister murder her son would push her over the edge.

--

Chapter 44 is up, the third part of the Shades of Reason/Lawless arc.