#maybe its time for a different mandalor

[lady-charinette]

I dont think the Mandalorians would do that, but imagine after months of living with them, there's dismay and resentment beginning to bubble beneath the surface.

Grogu is force sensitive and allowed to use his training against the other Foundlings who don't have the same advantages. The others of course see it as unfair, if he's training to be a Mandalorian he should follow their ways to a "T".

Din tries to defend his kid by saying he can't help being force sensitive, everyone in the covert had different abilities, Grogu was no different.

Din begins fighting with some of the other Mandalorians bc one of them either touched his kid too roughly or teased Grogu for being different.

Imagine a fight breaking out and the climax coming when all the Mandalorians watch on as Din holds this speech: he thought being a Mandalorian wasn't just about wearing the armor and swearing the creed, he thought it was about people who are different finding a place where they can coexist together. They were already small in numbers, did they want to lose their tribe over differences that held them all together in the first place?

I just wanna see protective daddy Din duking it out with other Mandalorians for daring to tease or belittle his little green son and questioning everything about the Mandalorians and their old ways please😭

[thegreenlizard]

Mand’alor Kenobi (Duke Kryze)

Obi-Wan leaves the Jedi, marries Satine, gets widowed and ends up as Duke Kryze.

Two alternative endings:

1) Jango Fett resurfaces and returns to Mandalore; or

2) After the war, Cody and his brothers receive an offer for repatriation from the Duke.

Obi-Wan leaves the order for Satine���and for Mandalore, ravaged by a civil war that never truly stops.

During his mission to Mandalore, Obi-Wan not only keeps Satine alive but is invaluable in consolidating her power. However, the hostilities never truly cease, the political situation is a powder keg, and at the conclusion of the Jedis’ mission, Satine sees how it’s Obi-Wan who’s holding the tenuous peace together. She asks him to stay and he leaves the order—not only for Satine, but for Mandalore and her people whom he feels the conclusion of their mission leaves hanging.

In the following months, everybody is running ragged trying to keep Mandalore together. Having already proved his worth as a negotiator/mediator, Obi-Wan quickly rises to a lynchpin position in the new government. Despite his background as a Jedi, his actions during the clan wars have earned him the respect of the more traditional warrior clans and he’s seen as a more moderate option to Satine’s extremism. Tl;dr: instead of treating Obi-Wan as arm candy, Satine puts him to work and inadvertently puts a lot of political power in his hands. What can you say? Sizeable and/or politically influential fraction of Mandalore’s population/clans likes Obi-Wan better than Satine—or perhaps, finds Satine more palatable with a warrior partner.

To prevent her fragile and fractious government from splintering further (and to put an end to the talk about republic agents), Satine and Obi-Wan decide to make their relationship official and marry. Half of it is because they truly care for each other, but half of it is to consolidate the political power and marry the separate factions within their government together. They have irreconcilable differences of opinion when it comes to politics, but they both want what’s best for the people and that’s a unified leadership that’s not fighting with itself. So they have screaming matches in private, but pull together in public.

Stuff happens, Death Watch kills Satine (with or without the involvement of the Sith)—and New Mandalorians/Sundari/Mandalore unites behind the widowed Duke Kryze.

SO: That’s either a plot or a setup for the erstwhile Mand’alor Vhett to resurface, with or without an army of clones, a galactic war, the return of the Sith, and perhaps a political marriage that may finally unite Mandalore.

Perhaps:

- Obi-Wan grieves his wife, he truly does. But in the aftermath, he hardly has the time. And in retrospect, he has to wonder if half of the reason why achieving compromise always seemed like an uphill battle wasn’t because he spent half of his time fighting Satine and trying to moderate her extremism to something more palatable to the clans.

- In the aftermath, Obi-Wan may or may not finally succeed in putting down the Kyr’tsad and winning the Darksaber, which may or may not go a long way in convincing the remaining traditionalist and Kyr’tsad clans to get in line.

- Any Sith coming to take a piece of Mandalore or its Duke may find they’ve bitten off more than they can chew.

- Korkie Kryze may or may not be Satine and Obi-Wan’s son. Or maybe he is Satine’s baby nephew—Obi-Wan and Satine may still end up adopting him, depending on who else is left.

- Bo-Katan Kryze may or may not survive Kyr’tsad, but regardless, a Death Watch lieutenant is not going to be accepted by the people. She may get a seat in Obi-Wan’s council to placate Kyr’tsad loyalists, but she has no shot at getting the rule. Tbh, Obi-Wan would absolutely be the type to adopt his late wife’s feral terrorist little sister.

- Obi-Wan ends up adopting a full squad of feral murder children, in a true Mandalorian fashion.

- Jinn may or may not be alive; Anakin may or may not be his apprentice or have taken refuge on Naboo after his death; Obi-Wan may or may not be carrying a grudge towards the Sith for killing the man who raised him. And then killed his wife.

- The idea of marriage is probably actually first put forward by the clans who dislike Satine but find Obi-Wan acceptable. That would be a compromise solution: they’d accept Satine’s rule, but with the moderating influence of Obi-Wan as her husband.

- Actually, wasn’t “Ben” a nickname that Obi-Wan was originally given by Satine? He might then go by “Ben Kryze” after his marriage.

- Mand’alor is the sole ruler → before and during the Clan Wars, Obi-Wan is titled the duke. After he’s unified Mandalore under one sole government, he’s the Mand’alor.

- Timeline fuckery: instead of 15, Obi-Wan and Satine are ~20, early 20s. Young, but not teenagers. Satine may be a few years older.

- Jango may think he’s coming to Mandalore to oust the hu’tuun Duchess’s Jetii widow, only to find said widow to be a) the most mandokarla verd he has ever met, and b) more widely supported than he himself ever was. There’s no ousting the Duke now and if Jango were to kill him, he would only succeed in making him a martyr and uniting Mandalore further in avenging him. Jango… deals with these revelations. Well—he tries.

ALTERNATIVELY: After the war, Marshal Commander Cody and his brothers receive an unexpected offer of repatriation from Duke Kryze of Mandalore, who was tragically widowed during the war.

And perhaps:

- The offer may or may not be unexpected: if the Sith decided to go after Mandalore, there’s no saying what the Mandalorians might have discovered and whether their Mand’alor might have taken a proactive approach to the threat.

- The second dark sabre wielding Jedi Mand’alor might be something of stuff of legends—or nightmares—in the republic space/among the clones.

- Jango Fett might not have wanted the clones, but apparently this Duke Kryze does. If he is to be believed, Fett might have been the vode’s dar’buir, but according to Mandalorian law, there is no such thing as a dar’ad. Whether Jango Fett ever called them his sons or not, the mere fact of consciously partaking in their creation is enough to make them recognised as such in Mandalorian space.

- And so, here in Cody’s hands is an offer of citizenship for all of his vode; colourful pamphlets about various welfare and retraining programs; and apparently, a seat in the Duke’s council for the aliit’alor Vhett.

- Cody is torn between crying from relief (an end to the indeterminate arguments in the senate between citizenship and decommissioning?) and justified suspicion (a no-strings offer of home and sentient rights for all of his brothers? Too good to be true).

- Mandalore’s famous warriors have been decimated first in the clan wars and then in the galaxy wide conflict, which has left Mandalore in a more precarious position than may outwardly seem. The offer is not purely altruistic (Mandalore would be gaining an army of millions), even if Obi-Wan does also see it as justice. To Cody who’s been waiting for the other shoe to drop, this feels like relief. This, he can understand. What’s honestly more confusing is the Duke rushing to explain that acting in defence of Mandalore is something that’s expected from every citizen, not just the vode. Moreover, if someone can not or chooses not to fight, they are not forced to do so, simply expected to do their part in another way.

- And if the clones want to ply their trade as mercenaries? Well, it’s a time honoured profession on Mandalore—of course they may. As it happens, in the aftermath of a galactic war, there’s no end of work for hired guns. This may… upset the struggling republic. Any vode that decide to seek work in republic space keep their buckets tightly on as they may or may not be recognised as sentient, still—and other Mandalorians do so in support. Not all of them may *like* the clones, but treating other mandalorians as lost property? Not cool.

- Culturally, I would absolutely see Mandalorians as the sort of a culture that would not only think that their children are their future, but also that their people are their strength. The republic might see millions of vode as mouths to feed and bodies to house. But Mandalore? They see millions of trained warriors the republic doesn’t seem to want anymore and think “the greatest prize in the galaxy, up for grabs”.

- If Obi-Wan went on the offensive, he could declare that the vode are citizens of Mandalore by birth and the republic better stop treating Mandalorian warriors as expendable slaves or else. He can’t, of course. But it doesn’t stop him from wanting to.

- If Jango Fett dies as in canon, Obi-Wan’s family of adorable murder children might or might not include Boba. If the kids don’t kill each other, Obi-Wan will go down in history as Mand’alor the Unifier. This sort of adopting the offspring of your slain enemies is not ethically unproblematic btw, but on the other hand, I could see how the practice might fit in the Mandalorian culture.

About politics & war:

- Point of contention: Satine wants to exile the traditionalists to Concordia, there to fight each other to extinction in a pointless battle for dominance (canon, what the fuck?). Obi-Wan wants to unite Manda’yaim, not divide it further. This point alone, if he manages it, would win him points over Satine. So: instead of all traditionalists exiled, Obi-Wan manages to wrangle a shaky alliance of New Mandalorians and moderate traditionalists. Not necessarily the same bunch as Haat Mando’ade though there might be overlap.

- Satine, meanwhile, would be happy to import agricultural products from Concordia to the biodomes of Sundari. That’s a mess from an economic and food security standpoint. Again I ask: canon, what the fuck? You exile the unwanted parts of your population and then rely on them for food production? That’s not actually a realistic plot point, maybe scrap it and write something that provides actual political tension that doesn’t make caricatures of any sides/characters.

- Actually, the New Mandalorian policies in the preceding years are probably a large influence in the development of the extremism of Kyr’tsad. (Canon—wtf, I might be tempted to terrorism if my government unilaterally exiled large fractions of the population?)

- During the clone wars, Kyr’tsad still allies with Dooku and the Sith. The civil war, which had been on a slow simmer, boils over again. In the fighting, Satine is assassinated. Obi-Wan is not only the best but practically the only option to succeed her and keep the precarious alliance of New Mandalorians and moderate traditionalists together.

- It’s a long and a bloody fight against enemies both at home and in the shadows; fought with guns, with diplomacy, with fixing the deep divides in their society, and hunting the shadows fuelling the flames. Obi-Wan proves himself the same military genius and negotiator as he did in canon. He’s decisive, ruthless and compassionate.

- And eventually, he manages to defeat the leader of Kyr’tsad in single combat, wrangle the warring clans to the negotiation table, hunt the Sith, and unite Mandalore. And that’s how the Mandalorian civil wars and the Clone Wars tie together at the end there, and how Obi-Wan emerges from those wars: with united but weakened Mandalore, a dead wife, and a couple of orphaned foundlings. Victorious, but grieving. The erin on his armour long since painted over with black and gold (which he has earned many times over now, avenging his wife and his people). While the rest of the galaxy is reeling from the aftermath of the war, the republic shaken to its foundations, the separatists defeated but but still seceding, the weakened republic unable to hold onto CIS territories.

- This is the man Marshal Commander Cody meets. This Mand’alor, who seemed to have emerged from the funeral pyre of his wife in the image of the legends of old, reforging the Mandalorian empire anew. But still: just a man, victorious but grieving; with a core of beskar, but a heart so full of light it makes Cody’s teeth ache. Cody: Himself one expendable clone among millions, defying his fate and rising to lead armies to victory or ruin. And yet, a man fresh out of a war that has decimated his brothers and broken his faith in the galaxy.

[lux-ishii]

Storytelling Analysis (I guess?) I shared this thought with Dinbo Server but thought why not elaborate further? Personally, I think this frame is the moment Bo-Katan realized Din is her ride-or-die (or even a crush). They were specifically arguing about going to the mines, where her stance was that it was just a waste of time and they should get back. However, Din insists on going there without her. What Bo does? A total 180 turn saying she will take him there.

So Bo gives him a trip not only to the mines but also to her own past as a Mandalorian Princess. Specifically mentioning her father, for the first time ever, something she hasn't done in The Clone Wars or even Rebels, where she has been treated with all the honors her Clan once had, as they referred to her "Lady Bo-Katan Kryze" when brief history facts were dropped at unaware Ezra.

DO YOU SEE WHO LOOKS AT HER WHEN SHE MENTIONS HER FATHER LOOKING AT HER PROUDLY? All I'm gonna say is that Cinematic Design regarding storytelling this season is INSANE. Each frame, move, pose, and EVERYTHING has its purpose in the further symbolism of how things develop.

Later in this scene, Bo is really sarcastic about the whole ceremony referring to it as "Such a heart-warming spectacle", which Din mistakenly takes as her mocking her father.

We all know what happens next, but something always felt odd about it to me.

The thing is... Bo barely said anything, just that he made her take The Creed she later broke. So where does the "interesting" part comes from? Of course, Din might be curious to meet someone who ruled Mandalore in its glory, but I think the root of it goes back to the Mandalorian culture, and what Din himself experiences:

You see, the best measure to judge Bo's father is to look at her. And it's safe to say Din IS impressed by her, not only in skills but also with her personality. If he hated her and didn't care about her he would never take her to his covert. In a recent episode, they highlighted how secretive they are about their place, it was almost sacred not to reveal the location. Yet he took her there, despite her different beliefs.

So I think Din is saying that, because he admires Bo as a warrior, and she is the result of how her father raised her. It means her father was a great person Din himself could learn from. It's quite important knowing, that Din is the father to Grogu now, so how he will raise him, depends on who Grogu will become. Bo later revealed even more admiration for her father, calling him great. (Or even comparing Din to him when Grogu had his first fight.) THIS IS NOT A COINCIDENCE, BELIEVE ME.

Din goes as far as showing the biggest form of respect he knows to this man who not only raised someone like Bo, but also died like a warrior.

However, the whole thing leaves Bo-Katan... puzzled?

She really doesn't know what to say, how to respond, until Din leaves her behind with Grogu.

OK HEAR ME OUT

I know she kinda was harsh to Grogu here, BUT it's the same kind of response someone would say if they were caught blushing. You see, I think Bo's (and maybe Din's too) emotions were SO strong Grogu could feel them in the force. He knows what's going on, and Bo was caught red-handed. Now look at this:

"They loved watching the princess recite the Mandalorian tenets as her father looked on proudly." Bo definitely was touched by his devotion to the creed. It sparked something in her, and she did exchange a proud look towards Din with Grogu. The devil is in the details, Bo was now in the position her father once was, which we know of because of her previous confession. It all was in a way foreshadowed to us.

Leter, without thinking Bo jumps to save Din's life again, which led her to discover a mythosaur. This is only my opinion, but I do think the storytelling between them is written really well this season, and it may be the best relationship build-up in Star Wars live-action media in years depending on how they will go with it later.

Going as far as doing psychological parallels between Din and Bo's father, something we as humans do and look for unsubcounciouslly in our romantic interests (the reason why Daddy Issues are such a big problem if the father figure was absent/bad) means that now everything matters like I said in the beginning. Frames, moves, words... it's all part of the bigger picture. The Mandalorian Writers really do build up whatever is happening between them. It's not out of the bat, I've rewatched Season 2 to see how Bo and Din interacted there, and the natural progression of turning distrust to trust was there. They have both been thru a lot, and it really feels like together, they will be stronger.

[direwolfrules]

I have one Rebels AU idea where it's basically just Heroes of Mandalore goes differently and Ezra winds up riding the Mythosaur. Because I saw that scene in Mando and immediately remembered that Ezra's good at connecting to animals.

I don't know, maybe a combination of Sabine deleted all the data on the Duchess in this universe + Thrawn seeing Mandalore as a perfect way to trap some Rebels.

Alrich got moved like two weeks before the prison raid, he's being held in Sundari for a big spectacle of an execution. Tiber's got a whole parade planned, maybe a festival if the damn bangcorn vendor gets over their beef with the uj cake salesman.

Anyway, the main conflict of this alternate arc is they have to sneak into Sundari to free Alrich before he gets executed. The team gets led through a series of caves by Bo-Katan's weird nephew and his weird friends, who apparently use these tunnels to smuggle Force-sensitive children to safety.

They camp at the cavern with the Living Waters to plan their next moves, and that's when some Imperial Supercommandos show up. Thrawn had figured out the rebels would be using the mines by intensive study of Lady Bo-Katan's previous assaults on Sundari and local geography.

It's a fearsome battle, and just when the rebels think they might get the upper hand several squads of stormtroopers show up. They're losing ground and being forced to the shore of the Lake of the Living Waters. It honestly seems like they're about to die there, especially since the troopers won't stop coming. It's utterly hopeless.

Until Ezra senses a presence.

It's old and powerful in a way he's never really felt before. It's not as old as the Bendu, and a thousand times more...feral. It's huge and hungry and even though it isn't sentient Ezra can almost feel it reach back through the Force and scrutinize him.

Ursa and Bo-Katan are both about to yell at the jetii boy to stop standing around and get back to killing Imps when the ground starts to shake. In the center of the lake water rushes as something emerges from the depths. Something large.

The mythosaur roars as it lunges with deceptive speed, and an entire squad of stormtroopers disappears down its gullet. This repeats until all the Imperials are dead. With its hunger sated the mythosaur descends back down into the depths, though not before giving Ezra an affectionate lick.

Everyone is just sort of in a state of shock for the rest of the mission except for Ezra, who has no idea what a mythosaur is or that he just became the hero of prophecy for like three Mandalorian religions. No, he's more flustered about how he utterly embarrassed himself in front of Sabine's father.

They almost get cornered again by Imperial troops while leaving. That's when Ezra summons the mythosaur again and winds up riding it to victory, which is. A lot. Apparently, the mythosaur likes killing for the Jedi boy.

It isn't until later, when they're all having a victory feast that someone explains it to him. Ezra doesn't want to be a Mandalorian and he certainly doesn't want to be a Mandalorian prophecy boy, thank you very much. Kanan's trying to figure out how to tell Hera the latest news without sounding insane. Sabine's trying not drown herself in the cask of ne'tra gal after her mother took her aside and told her to "marry that boy", which lends itself to the hilarious realization that apparently Ursa just thought Sabine and Ezra were dating this whole time.

[vvitchering]

Everyone talking about their opinions re: Din's possession of the darksaber and his development (or lack therefore) and I wanna talk to so

Ever since he got the darksaber at the end of s2 I've been firmly in on the side of "Din should be Mand'alor", which was a topic the fandom seemed pretty evenly split over. A lot of people got hung up on his personal distaste for leadership and while I understand and see that I STILL think he was the best possible choice to be the new leader. And imo the show spent a ton of time reinforcing that!

Din IS a great leader, whether he likes it or not. He's calm under pressure, he's a fantastic negotiator, he's well versed in the ways of many different ways of life and cultures, and he's honorable yet flexible, I could go on and on. I also think narratively, at least as far as we got in mando s1-2 and tbobf, he was being set up as someone who could be the bridge between the more traditional mandalorians he was raised with and the rest of the scattered clans.

Din's personal journey was so fascinating. At least until S3 dropped the ball, it seemed like we were heading into a really interesting exploration of Din as a symbol of growth and change. His growth from a relatively sheltered personal existence to one that was shaped by all of his new experiences in protecting and raising Grogu and meeting all kinds of new people was one that I thought foreshadowed his becoming a great leader for his people.

There was so much room at the end of S2 to explore Din's changing relationship with his faith and Creed. Even the developments within tbobf added some really potentially amazing facets to that with the possibility of redemption existing within an old Mandalorian legend.

His journey to Mandalore should have been the bulk of S3, continuing with the adventure-of-the-week format, but peppering in more Mandalorian culture as Din learns more about himself and begins teaching Grogu about his adoptive culture. I've never been in favor of Din giving up his devotion to his Creed, but I have been thinking a lot about him altering his relationship with it and I think a tight focus on his struggle with figuring out this new perspective in light of everything that has happened to him so far would have been really emotionally rewarding.

And to wrap that all up with his eventual arrival on Mandalore could have been beautiful and epic. Finding the planet ravaged but not inhospitable to life, wandering the ruins of the city, and then finding his way into the mines to the Living Waters. Finding not a dark dank cavern with a museum plaque, but a sanctuary protected and preserved from the bombing of the surface by the sacred metal in its very foundation.

He walks into this beautiful place at the end of his journey, redemption for his sins right there within reach, and he reflects on what it means to be Mandalorian. Not the definition he was always taught, but what is means to HIM. What it will mean for his son. What it will mean for his scattered people.

And he does go through with the ritual bathing. He recites the Creed just as he did as a child, he walks into the water, and he doesn't feel much different for it. There's no big a-ha moment, no bright light shining down on him, no mythosaurs dragging him down, it's all a little underwhelming after all he's been through.

But as he's floating there, much more dressed down than he ended up being in the show, letting his vision adjust to being without the helmet, he notices there's murals all along the walls. The history of his people all laid out in brilliant color. Stories he's never heard, victories and defeats, heroes and villains, war and peace. His people were once mighty. They could be again.

And maybe he's STILL on the fence about it all, even after this experience. And it's not until he's drying off and watching Grogu splash in the shallow water that he realizes it's not about whether he wants to do it or not. Just as it wasn't really a choice to save Grogu from his fate, it's not really a choice to save his people. To revive their culture and their planet and bring everyone home again.

JUST imagine his speech that he gives to his covert but in the context of bringing their children home to live and play under their own system's sun.

The thing about Din is, from the get-go, he's a protector. He's a guardian, he's a caretaker, he can't help but want to help. A season devoted to further exploring his relationship with being Mandalorian and how that translates to his eventual decision to lead his people would have been sooooo so so good. I am literally always thinking about this and all the lost potential. He wouldn't even have had to STAY Mand'alor for this to work. He could have accomplished what he set out to do and then quietly stepped down and left the politics to someone else (NOT Bo-Katan, I still don't see any reason why she should be allowed anywhere near the throne after how much of her own fault it was the planet was lost in the first place, especially since she's clearly not interested in confronting or even admitting her guilt)

Like. Literally every fan theory I've seen about what S3 could have been is 100x better than what we've gotten. I have to believe its intentional sabotage at this point because no other explanation makes sense. This could have been an absolutely AMAZING season if it had followed up on any of the plot points it spent two and a half seasons establishing.

):

anyway id love to hear your theories and what you would have done with this season given the chance! Tell me your thoughts!!!!

[mrbubblyurchin]

Adapting Republic Commando into canon

Yes. I am doing this for fun.

RC was written for the EU, so I thought it could be fun to try to adapt some of its story into the current canon. In fact, there are only a few issues that need to be solved for this to work! Let’s begin.

1- Twi’Leks and Humans can breed

This was a rule that took place in Legends, but obviously we known Kanan and Hera had Jacen in Canon, which means there is now no reason as to why Atin and Laseema cannot.

2- CSF

In the EU, the CSF were pretty popular as the police force more than the Coruscant Guard. I figured that this doesn’t change anything in particular, maybe just that Kal says he prefers working with the CSF over the CG because he has Obrim in the CSF

3- Mandalore

So, obviously Mandalore from the EU and Mandalore from the Clone Wars are… different. Well I have a solution to this. The clones were created in 32 BBY, which was during the Phantom Menace. AKA, after Obi-Wan met Satine, well, after Sabine’s well established rule, she created Mandalore as pacifists. But, for the sake of this universe, a group of Mandalorians went to form their own ‘Mandalore’ on Kyrimorut to adhere to their more traditional Mandalorian values. Jango ruled this new Mandalore for a short time, explaining why Shysa wanted his heir, and why Shysa eventually becomes a Mandalorian ruler. This place would still be Mandalore to them, but it would be separate from the actual Mandalore of the Clone Wars Series.

Kyrimorut= New Mandalore= From Republic Commando

Mandalore= Actual Mandalore= From The Clone Wars

4- Spaarti Clones

So obviously the Spaarti Clones bred by Palps don’t exist in canon. So we are changing them to the most recent batch of clone troopers shipped off Kamino at the end of the war. Maybe still made with second generation Jango DNA. Instead of investigating the Spaarti clones, maybe Besany can find something related to Order 66. Which brings me to my next point…

5- Order 66

This is the biggest issue of canonization within the series. Because in the EU, there were no inhibitor chips. The clones just followed orders. So… what does that do here? Well… there are a few solutions.

Solution One is that they didn’t listen. The Nulls are already incredibly deviant when it comes to orders, so not a real problem there. Omega Squad is iffy, because they weren’t around any Jedi when it happened, but they knew they were going to meet up with Etain, who was a known Jedi. I could see Darman still fighting the chip, but not really for Niner, Atin, or Corr. Fi doesn’t matter since he isn’t wearing his trooper armor, and therefore doesn’t receive Order 66.

Solution Two is better. And it’s that Besany discovered the inhibitor chips based on the same report made by Rex that Ahsoka watched. She managed to access Anakin’s database or whatever cause Jaing tech skills for the win. While she did not discover the purpose of the chips or anything, she discovered they were there, and Kal hated having those chips inside his boys’ heads, and had them be removed as soon as possible in secret. Not to protect the Jedi, but just because Kal didn’t want the Kaminoans to be able to control his sons in any way. Then, when Order 66 rolled around, none of them obeyed.

So, yeah. That’s my idea on adapting RC into canon. Thank you for reading!

[constantlymisspelled]

Tarre Vizsla - Fan Canon

It’s of no coincidence to me that the Modern Star Wars lore would have us believe that Manda’lor Vizsla’s time occurs 1051 BBY as it simply proves that they haven’t even bothered to open a wiki article on Mandalorians to fact-check themselves.

At the time of 1051 BBY, old Star Wars lore had claimed that as the era of Manda’lor the Uniter, who had saved their home from being completely destroyed by the suspected biological weapon, the water based Blue Shadow Virus. Considering how much of Mandalore was destroyed at that time, and that in the era of Manda’lor the Uniter, the Republic had recovered from the virus and had begun to heal, the fact Mandalore was so targeted creates the notion that the virus was some kind of ill-fated bio weapon. The truth of that is unknown, but what is known is that the time of 1051 BBY was a bad time to be a Mandalorian. Only a tenth of the population survived, and that is the conservative estimate. Even if one removes Manda’lor the Uniter, the existence of the Blue Shadow Virus at this time (which is a canon occurrence in the Clone Wars as well) weakens the idea of Manda’lor Vizsla occurring so late in history, so they must be from an earlier time.

Skip back to the era of the Sacking of the Jedi Temple, and you have a whole new problem. Tarre Vizsla can’t have existed before this time, simply because the wars leading up to the Sacking were between the Republic, and both Mandalore, and the Sith (with Mandalore being the focus of the Republic, and the Sith the focus of the Jedi - roughly speaking, although conflict was had between all factions during this tremulous period) and that creates issues, with Manda’lor Vizsla being both a Mandalorian and a Jedi. Considering that is literally what they are best known for being.

That puts them occurring at a time before 1051 BBY, but after 3760 BBY, and that is a great deal of time to cover.

But why must Tarre Vizsla have existed before 1051, you ask? Well… you see, the Republic and the Jedi committed this terrible war crime called ‘orbitally bombarding a currently peaceful populace that you had a standing truce with out of fear that they might, perhaps, maybe, feel like attacking you first.’ Great job, guys, now the Mandalorians can never forgive, and never forget. If they weren’t going to attack you before, well they sure are now!

Mind you, the Mandalorians of the Crusades and Neo Crusades and perhaps even earlier, had been pretty fucked up, but the point of Manda’lor the Uniter was that they fixed a great deal of that. As should have Tarre Vizsla, if they were born before this event - which, they had to have been, to even exist wearing armour. That means the Republic and the Jedi annihalated a currently unarmed, peaceable culture out of their own fear for actions that the living, at that time (1000 years difference between the events of Knights of the Old Republic games and the destruction of Mandalore - that is a long ass time, even for generational memory) hadn’t even witnessed.

So, between 3000-1000 BBY… that’s well over 2000 years that Tarre Vizsla could have existed in. Hell, there were multiple orders of Mandalorian Jedi in that time, surely they were a part of at least one of them. Additionally, the darksabre was donated, by old Clan Vizsla, to the Temple, after Tarre died.

That means, considering that no other mention of the darksabre in Mandalorian history exists outside of Tarre Vizsla, with the next wielder literally being Tor Vizsla, the creator of modern Death Watch himself, that means that the Jedi Temple was broken into after the Dral Haran (the burning of Mandalore and its once arable worlds) and frankly, as much as I find considering someone leader by right of fancy sword, I can not blame the Vizslas for stealing it back.

Not after such a betrayal. I’m sure Tarre Vizsla is furious that their weapon is now ‘the sign of Kings,’ but I don’t think they mind that it was robbed from the Temple. Nothing justifies the near eradication of a people out of fear. That’s the point. It is even the point of Jaster Mereel’s break from the ideals of the Mandalorians of old. This concept is what the Clan Wars are about - why should a Jedi relic decide the Mandalorian future.

Now, that doesn’t mean that modern Mandalorians aren’t ill-informed - they probably are. Many Mandalorians have probably been grasping at straws to justify their existence and way of life to each other after the Dral Haran. That doesn’t mean we can ignore that it is a lie. The darksabre isn’t the sign of kings, the leadership is.

[any additional thoughts on this topic? Feel free to spam me down below, or link me to someone who has discussed it before. I think it’s a major hole in much of the writing, but that’s just my nerd ass talking.]

[fractaldunes]

Had a really weird dream (or series of dreams?). It started off where a mutual made an oc server and i joined it and they had themed the channels around different colors like in one of their stories. And there was a purple pit.

Then i was in this sort of roblox-like obby course jumping between flat platforms over a death pit of sky. Everything was pale pink and blue and there were textures on the walls of catoonish character illustrations i couldnt make out.

Then after enough time through that, i found myself in a new dream(?) where i was in public school. We were stories high in a skyscraper. I was walking down the hall along the windows and for some reason there was a door outside along them. I watched someone open the door, walk through, and fall to their deaths it was very distressing. Then around the corner apparantly someone else had died and the witness to that argued with me over what just happened (suicide or homicide) not knowing abt the other death. Then three administrators took us in to talk to us. They were three tall shadowy weirdos. The tallest one then somehow got on about this story.

There was a little boy and little girl found abandoned in like a crate in soviet russia. Then they decided to do experiments on them by feeding them bugs and stuff(????). And he said he was the sister.

Then i found myself in the woods amongst a series of buildings i was staying at. There was where i slept, a well, and this sort of wilderness-shelter looking place. I tried to get water out of the well (i remember being excited about getting to crack a thin layer of ice on the water) but i wasnt lining up this complicated rig to drop the bucket very well. So i ended up going to the shelter to use that complicated rig to instead try and drop the bucket into this deep fire pit i wanted to exist(??). But the light in there was just from some random person watching cameras on a tablet. They waved at me and i left them alone. Then i tried to drop it into the slot next to that, but it was where id insert a unique engine for a strange car from another dream (i called it something zero). Then the area around me got a lot nicer (carpet, drywall, looking like a nasa control room).

Then somehow (maybe i wandered into it?) i found myself in a library. It was split between four colors (red, blue, green, yellow) and everybody there was studying at tables together. I was just looking around and climbing. I think my mutual from earlier was there. Then after a while this voice over the intercom (think an intimidating ai like shodan or glados) came on and started to like berate me or whatever. Then i found a series of books by one of my favorite review youtubers (i remember his first name was like a real name but the last name was just Mandalore like his yt name). And i really wanted to check the first one out so i kept bothering the ai and its presence (who i had cornered) and denanded that he check this out for me. Then after a bit i woke up in the yellow section of the library to a text from my brother reading "i updated the code for you" or something. So i got up and explored. And i eventually dropped down into the obby from the beginning and triggered a chase sequence that i finished before i even knew what was chasing me. And i escaped into the starting platform (now made of static) and won. And then i got to see the ai guy and it was a roblox character in a suit with only one appendage on his right side and some darth vader shit going on. Then i woke up.

And this isnt even mentioning my trip to Target with my friend Jordan that happened at some point. Or the dwarf trying to use a time gun to assassinate another dwarf in the past but the other dwarf had a rabbit-shaped thing that nullified it so that he saw him coming and the would-be assassin died.

[vatrpg]

Vat: A Bit of Game Dev History

So, This post is SORTA filler, not gonna lie. I'm finishing up the (admittedly simple version of the) biome map, which when it's finished is when the world-building can REALLY take off. There's definitely some more mechanical stuff I can talk about but I'm taking it easy this afternoon so I'll probably save that for some time soon. Vat isn't the first TTRPG I've worked on. I mean, nothing I've ever worked on was anything other than a solo project anyways, so that point is sorta nil. However, Vat is the first one I've actually turned into something cohesive and started to talk about with other people. One of the first iterations, I think I called it Fodder, was probably the origin point of the overall military focus of Vat. It kept elements of worldbuilding that I enjoy, such as hardsuits and body modifications, but it was more... grounded, and significantly less developed. There wasn't really an overall setting I was developing. I also worked on one that had players be individual members of some sort of mech or tank crew. This one had some worldbuilding, players were fucked up mutated humans, but it didn't go very far. I still kept the vision and am using it in Vat, though! One of the "Squad Archetypes" is the Vehicle Crew, where you have to fill the various positions of the vehicles to use them. All of these ideas had elements of wargaming, mainly in movement and using miniatures at its core, but Vat is when I decided to draw the focus just a little bit away from the individual and put it on the group. I've always had a fascination with teamwork in games, specifically in players controlling a team. Some video games went this route, such as... what was the Mandalore Gaming video, Star Wars Republic Commando. That type of thing. I think one of the first Rainbow Sixes had a similar idea, and the games that are like X-Com also inspired it. Not to mention wargaming in general. I wanted to take that a different direction, though. Make it, well, multiplayer. When I was first figuring out the setting of Vat, I wanted to have players be henchmen for supervillains and the like. I have a general plan of still doing this, actually! Maybe making a fictitious version of Bor that exists within the setting of Foramen that's akin to the Marvel or DC universes. A setting within the setting that has superheroes and supervillains. That'll definitely be WAY down the line, though. Anyways, that's all for now! More posts probably coming next week at the earliest, I have a fairly packed schedule over the next few days.

[mandalorianchronicles]

Who should be Mand'alor?

I'd like to begin with one vital point.

Din having the Darksaber doesn't make him Mand'alor. If I have to make this an automatic message from my blog every week, so help me. Please, I'm begging you - go watch Rebels if you don't believe me. That isn't how the Darksaber works. That's NEVER how the Darksaber worked. It was passed down person to person in the Vizsla family line for generations. Sometimes a Mand'alor had it. In legends, if you defeated a Mand'alor in combat, you could become the new Mand'alor. But the Darksaber didn't always get won from one Mand'alor to another Mand'alor. It's a heirloom of House Vizsla more than a Mand'alor sceptor. Here's a recap of how many times the Darksaber changed hands from The Great Clan Wars (which Jango Fett and Bo-Katan's father fought in) to the present timeline: 1)Tor Vizsla (who founded Death Watch) had the Darksaber *while* Jastor Mereel was Mand'alor. It was entrusted to 2)Pre Vizsla after Tor died. Pre was immediately defeated by 3)Maul in battle. 4)Sabine found it and learned to use it. It was taken by 5)Gar Saxon, and then she won it back from him in battle. 6)Sabine, as its rightful owner, entrusted it to 7)Bo-Katan, who accepted it only after the rest of the clans united to follow her lead to defeat the Empire. When the Purge happened, 8)Gideon took it (he most certainly did not win it from her in single combat). 9)Din won it in battle from Gideon. He could decide to keep it or to give it up. He wanted to entrust it to Bo-Katan once more, but Bo would not accept it again because some of her people have come to think that the *only* way to be its rightful owner is to win it in combat. Bo wielded it again to defend Din, but chose to return it to him, even though one could argue she had a claim to it. In summary, out of the last 8 different people to wield the Darksaber, only Bo-Katan has been an actual Mand'alor.

Also, I'd like to remind the fan base that Din doesn't have to become Mand'alor just because he's the main character. I'm not saying that he couldn't or that he shouldn't, though, I'd honestly prefer he didn't, at this point. If he becomes Mand'alor, he's pretty much going to be tied up in rebuilding and reconstruction efforts forever. Can you imagine Din Djarin in Greef's shoes? Me neither. Din Djarin's shebs are not suited for a throne, but maybe that's just me. I could see him as more of a Protector, like Fenn Rau. They were comprised of Mandalorians from all clans. I think Grogu would also be suited to that role.

Bo-Katan is a natural leader, which we have seen time and time again in TCW, Rebels, and The Mandalorian. The repeated failures of the Mandalorians to throw off the yoke of the Empire were not because of her failures as a leader. Rebellions are not always successful, but those who survive the aftermath can rebuild. Bo-Katan had kept faith in her people and the dream of restoring their civilization. When the last of her followers lost faith in that cause, it all but extinguished her hope.

But then Din Djarin came strolling down her halls and asked to join her. She bitterly told him there was nothing to join. She was alone. But when he needed help, she came without hesitation. And then when her home was destroyed, he offered her a place in his home and with his people. She soon realized that - though their beliefs were very orthodox - these Mandalorians still believed in a restored Mandalore. And as effortlessly as she always has, she became a leader among them.

Bo-Katan's failures have never been due to her inability to lead...but rather because of the insurmountable odds that have been against them all from the beginning. But here and now, in the breath of space between Empire and First Order, the Mandalorians have a chance to rebuild and gain strength once more. They have an opportunity to remake themselves into something better than what they were - hopefully, even do away with the archaic system of feudal clans and shoguns and create a new, sustainable system of government that can pave the way for future generations of warriors and non-warriors alike.

[purplefangirl42]

Clonetober- Day 7

Prompt: “Patience . . . is not something I’m known for.”/time loop/bodyguard AU

Prompt list by @ladysongmaster Divider by djarrex

Tags/Warnings: Captain Rex x OC (Lena Orim), Nobility/Bodyguard AU

Rex read over the information on his datapad for the fifth time, wanting to make sure he had everything memorized. He didn’t want to mess this job up. Senator Organa was counting on him to make sure the person he was guarding made it through the conference safely, and he intended to do just that.

“You look nervous,” Cody said from where he sat across the table. “This isn’t anything different than what you’ve done before. Remember the Duchess from Mandalore?”

“That was different,” Rex said, putting down the datapad. “There were more of us and there were two Jedi on board. This time, it’s just going to be me.”

“You’ll be fine,” Cody said reassuringly. “Also, I hear she’s really nice. Maybe you’ll make a new friend.”

Rex shook his head in disbelief. Making friends with his charge was not his goal. Keeping her alive and out of danger was. Senator Organa had told him there were many people that wanted her gone, including Count Dooku himself. When Rex had asked why she wasn’t put under a higher amount of security, he hadn’t gotten a straight answer.

The comm on his wrist beeped, telling him that it was time for him to go. He gave Cody a wave as he walked away and pulled his helmet onto his head. Rex could feel his heart thrumming in his ears as he approached Senator Organa’s office, every nerve in his body on edge. He took a deep breath and pressed the button beside the door.

“Come in,” said a voice from inside.

Rex opened the door and entered the office, his eyes searching the room for its occupants. He could see Senator Organa sitting behind his desk. Across from him sat a woman with very long hair cascading down her back, part of it braided in complicated sections at the top of her head and the rest hanging loose. She turned to look at him when he entered and he was struck. 

She was beautiful. A few loose tendrils of dark blonde hair curled at the sides of her head, framing her pale face. When she smiled in greeting, her gray eyes crinkled at the corners and it almost seemed like she radiated light. 

“Ah, Captain Rex,” Senator Organa said in greeting. “Just in time. This is my friend, your companion for the next little while.”

The woman stood from her chair and walked in his direction, holding out her hand for him to shake. Her smile from before hadn’t faded, bright as ever as she introduced herself.

“Lady Lena of House Orim,” she said. “Pleased to meet you, Captain Rex.”

Rex reached out and shook her offered hand. Now that she was standing closer, he could see how tiny she was. Much like Senators Chuchi and Amidala, she was significantly smaller than him, the top of her head barely above his shoulder. Even her hand seemed tiny clasped in his.

“I heard you and I are going to be spending some time together,” she said. “Since Bail insists on me having a shadow.”

“I only want you to be safe, Lena. The conference won’t have the security needed. Captain Rex is very capable and will be able to keep you from harm.”

Lena rolled her eyes at the Senator and gave Rex an apologetic look.

“I’m sure you have much better things to do with your time, so I apologize for you being made to do this.”

“It’s no problem, ma’am,” Rex said. “I have my orders, and I will follow them.”

Rex saw the smile on Lena’s face diminish before she seemed to get control over whatever negative thought she had and it returned, albeit a bit less bright. She turned away from him and returned to the chair she had left earlier, retrieving a small bag from where it hung over the back. 

“I will see you when I return, Bail. Try not to worry too much.”

Lena gestured for Rex to follow her out into the hallway. He took a place a short distance behind her and started to follow her, but she waved him forward to walk beside her. With a small amount of hesitation, he stepped up to where she wanted him and they continued their trek down the hallway.

“I hope we’ll be able to get to know each other on this trip,” Lena said. “I haven’t had the chance to travel far from Alderaan in recent years, so I’m afraid my social circle is a bit small.”

Rex thought back to Cody’s words about him making a new friend. He had to laugh a little at the idea of a noble lady of Alderaan becoming his friend. It didn’t seem high on the list of possibilities. 

“I’m not sure how good of company I will be for you ma’am,” he said. “We don’t exactly walk common life paths.”

“That’s okay, I like a little variety in my life. I’m sure we’ll get along just perfectly.”

Rex had never heard the word variety used in reference to clones. Usually they were grouped together as a single entity, despite their efforts to make themselves as individual as possible. Perhaps she was his chance for a little variety as well.

A/N: Hope you enjoyed this! Please reblog, like, and comment! This one was a little shorter because I think I would like to turn this into a one-shot or mini-series in the future!

[jedimastre-archive]

To address the anonymous I recently got I first want to say, you're okay, asking me a genuine question isn't hate nor would I consider anyone asking me why I don't like something as hate. I am always open to having a discussion and explaining why I do or don't like something so long as you remain open minded and not push me to think otherwise. In my opinion, hate asks usually contain malicious intent to them or accusatory wording, even sometimes name calling. You do not fall under this category.

Now the question you asked is: Why do I not ship Obi-Wan and Satine?

Unfortunately it's many things but the main answer to this question is because I feel their relationship has more substance as it is, a deep and caring friendship than it would be as a romantic one. One of the most underrated things I've felt in recent years is just how profound and impactful friendship can be, how platonic relationships can be just as moving and interesting as romantic ones. And this is no different. I'll never say my Obi-Wan didn't love her, but she is a pillar to his development into the man he is today and that is how I enjoy envisioning them.

Another part of this is the way the show portrayed their relationship, in combination with it feeling forced and low-key like they just wanted a romantic interest for the sake of a romantic interest. I wish they had put more focus mainly on the issues of Mandalore and its people.

Lastly and a more sensitive one is the fandom. I feel that a lot of the time I am being pressured to ship them. I am in no way saying someone is but it feels more like peer pressure than anything. I don't respond well to pressure at all so my usual reaction to that sort of situation is to just avoid the topic all together.

It has made me sad though that I feel because I feel this way that a lot of people feel they cannot interact with me or at least that is what it feels like. I know I'll one day find a mun who would want to explore their dynamic with me and who knows maybe my opinion will change but for now that is just as it is.

I hope in the future people here feel more comfortable and know that asking questions is fine, inquiring about a particular muns interests is also fine. ♥️

[burnwater13]

When Grogu first met Bo-Katan, he wasn’t sure if he liked her or not. Then, as he got to know her, he decided that he really didn’t like her. But then, as the galaxy would have it, he got to know her more, and he finally decided that under certain specific circumstances he actually kind of like her. But those circumstances were very specific.

First, he had to be in trouble. Well, not him. Din Djarin, his Mandalorian, had to be in trouble. Then the trouble had to be the kind that Grogu couldn’t fix on his own. Finally, the ‘Princess’ had to trust Grogu to do the right thing. She couldn’t just go running off on her own like she was the boss of everyone. She wasn’t his boss. She was just his friend, when it worked out well for both of them and not at any other time. 

As Grogu heard himself think that, he shook his head and knew he was being kind of unfair. Not everyone you met was going to be your new best friend. Sure, Din Djarin made a lot of friends. Grogu appreciated that and he’s talked, written, thought about it all before. But Grogu had learned to be picky about his friends. 

When the Imps wanted you for your blood, you couldn’t trust just anyone. You had to think about who they were and what motivated them and if your needs and their needs were in conflict. Sometimes they might coincide but other times they might be opposed. That was the problem with Bo-Katan. Grogu felt like she enjoyed being the person other people opposed. She liked to fight. 

Grogu did not like to fight. He liked peace. Not necessarily with quiet because peace was nice all on its own. He didn’t see Bo-Katan enjoying peace at all. When they found her sitting on that throne in Kalevala, she hadn’t been peaceful. She’d been pouting. He sensed that she wanted to fight but also seemed bored with fighting. He didn’t like that. Do or don’t do, but pouting was not tolerated in the Jedi Temple. 

Plus, why was she just sitting there? She had a ship. She had skills. She knew people. She could have helped Luke and Ahsoka. She could have checked on the other Mandalorian planets to see if they needed help. She could have just gone back to Mandalore herself and checked the place out to see if what she had been told was even remotely true. But she didn’t. 

Grogu didn’t know why pouting was part of her way. Before she had seemed really bossy and a bit of a know it all. But she hadn’t known everything so why pretend? He didn’t understand that either. If Din Djarin faces a set back he just figured out a different way to solve the problem. If the first way didn’t work he tried a second way and a third way and which ever way would work for him. 

Grogu wondered if it was the princess thing. Maybe people had given her whatever she wanted because she was a Princess and when she wasn’t a princess anymore it stopped working. He’s met people like that at the Jedi Temple. They just had to have their way and if anyone said no, they had a temper tantrum. He won’t name names but he’d bet you’d know who he was thinking about.

Well, things had changed and being a princess wasn’t all it was cracked up to be and now Bo-Katan had to figure out who she was and what she believed in. Which meant that everyone who knew back then was in for a surprise, as were the people who met her later and the ones who had met her a few minutes ago. 

Maybe that was the problem with having her as a friend… too many surprises. Would she help? Would she change the rules in the middle of the game? Would she be all huffy about the things you didn’t know about Mandalorian culture? Would she pretend that Mandalorians only had one culture?

It was clear to Grogu that there were as many Mandalorian cultures and creeds and ways as there were Mandalorians and maybe that was the problem Bo-Katan struggled with. She didn’t know who she was any more because who she had been hadn’t worked out the way she hoped it would. 

Din Djarin would always be a foundling, but he would also always be a Mandalorian. He saw no conflict between the two. He made space for the differences between the people he knew once he understood them. It probably wasn’t easy on him. But he didn’t complain to Grogu about it. Grogu didn’t even know if all those times that he wore his helmet and things hadn’t gone his way, if Din had been pouting or not. Din just said “This is the Way” and carried on. 

Maybe that’s what Bo-Katan needed to do. Accept the reality in front of her, chart a new course and say “This is the Way” and then make it so. How hard could that be? At least she had friends who would help her no matter who she was on any given day. That was a good thing. Right?

[rebelsofshield]

Star Wars The Mandalorian: “Chapter 18: The Mines of Mandalore” - Review

A slow to start episode of The Mandalorian, eventually finds its footing with strong visuals and a solid performance by Katee Sackhoff

Din Djarin sets out on his plan to cleanse himself in the subterranean waters of Mandalore, but first must make a pit stop to pick up a droid that can sense if the atmosphere is safe for himself and his young companion.

Look, I love Amy Sederis. She’s maybe one of the most charming actresses in Hollywood. But I’m losing my enthusiasm for Pelli Motto. As fun as our goofy little mechanic has been, Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni have been writing pretty much the same material for her for four seasons now if you count The Book of Boba Fett. If we are going to have the same comedic character play a recurring role in our show, then at least give them some new jokes or gags.

Anyways, point being, my investment in the first act of “The Mines of Mandalore” was pretty minimal. Din bartering with Pelli over a droid that cameo’d in A New Hope so he can test the toxicity levels of a planet that he needs to go to for a quest is pretty much the exact encapsulation of everything that Favreau’s storytelling has struggled with over the last few years. It’s not offensively bad, but it’s aggressively uninteresting.

Luckily, once Din arrives on Mandalore things start to take a turn for the better. It’s hard to overstate just how great this season looks. While The Mandalorian rarely struggled with the sort of bland or ugly production that plagued shows like The Book of Boba Fett or Obi-Wan Kenobi, this season marks a clear uptick in its cinematic scope and scale. Characters feel much more a part of their environments and these alien landscapes and the various creatures and droids that inhabit them are rendered with fantastic detail and effects. As soon as Din and Grogu descend into the mines only to fend off subterranean goblins and a truly creepy cybernetic, vampiric spider (?), “The Mines of Mandalore” start to feel like the sort of enjoyable pulp that I turn to this series for. It also helps that Rachel Morrison certainly directs the hell out of this episode. She gives the environment an aesthetic that feels not unlike a dark 80s fantasy adventure epic mixed with unnerving creature designs that feel not that far removed from Phil Tippet’s claymation horror masterpiece, Mad God.

It’s also a fun twist that Grogu has to escape on his own and drag Bo-Katan Kryze along to rescue his capture adopted father. As much as I would have liked to see Bo-Katan positioned as more of a seasonal antagonist, it is nice to see her, Grogu, and Din unite as their own group. Katee Sackhoff is a great actress and she brings a level of lived in familiarity to this cynical former Mandalorian ruler that really shines through. Whether it’s her surprising comfort with Grogu and his attachment to the Force (as she puts it she’s fought alongside Jedi for good in the past) or her subtle jabs and frustrations with Din’s differing perspective on Mandalorian culture or history, Sackhoff’s Bo-Katan is one of the more interesting characters that The Mandalorian is playing with right now and Favreau would be smart to keep her around as much as possible. And this is all before she slices up the formerly mentioned cybernetic vampire spider with the Darksaber.

It’s also appreciated that we don’t spend too much more time spinning our wheels on Din’s mission to cleanse himself of his transgressions. By episode’s end he has been submerged (maybe more so than he bargained for) in the waters of Mandalore’s mines, but in the process has discovered something even more intriguing. There’s a living Mythosaur in the planets murky depths. The sacred beast of Mandalorian culture lives and with it hope for the planet;s (and maybe the show’s) future.

Score: B

[ahaura]

lb for mando s3e1

anyway i still think its fucking stupid that the armorer declared din no longer mand on account of him taking of his helmet ONE TIME to say goodbye to HIS SON

DIN AND BABY TO THE RESCUEEEEEEEEEEE

i understand that the armorer is coming at this from like. having her entire people wiped out but the fact that din has to convince her that he CAN be redeemed is so silly like lil baby grogu TELL HER TELL YOUR DAD IS A MANDALORIAN

GROGU WANTING TO CUDDLE WAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH I GONNA CRY

grogu making the spinny chair spin my boy <3

yes im ignoring half the plot for my frog son what about it

i might be night picking but something about this feels so...wooden? idk maybe im just not feeling it

DIN? WANTING A DROID TO COME WITH HIM? CRAZEE

something something remember when anakin built threepio something something din choosing a droid that he can trust not with just his own life but his child's idk idk but i SEE it

oh my god that's probably straight out of din's nightmares like that nursery droid turned back into a killer trying to kill his son and all he can do is shoot and do nothing but it takes a metal bust of greef karga is to kill it. it never ends huh

GROGU GRABBING THE LIL DROIDSMITH AHAHAHAHAHAH

rip to karga trying to hire mando but no dice

IM SOBBING IM CRYING DIN IS TEACHING GROGU ABOUT WHAT IS TO BE A MANDALORIAN BECAUSES THATS HIS SON THAT HIS FAMILY AND ITS TRADITION WAAAAAAAAAAAAH

"you killed 4 of my brothers in cold blood" arent you like. a pirate. who also probably kills people. hes a bounty hunter what do you expect

"your cult gave up on us long before the purge" PRETTY SURE HE WAS A FUCKING CHILD? BITCH?

bo katan is soooooo funny "YOU are the reason our people fractured" pretty sure it started long before that like there was infighting there was civil war there was exile and THEN the empire decided to bomb mandalore and kill mandalorians en masse like there are multiple factors that contribute to the fracturing of the mandalorian people and the splintering of its culture but like. din isnt one of them lmao?????? but she is also a product of the horror that was the decimation of mandalore shes no different from the armorer on that front but what they DONT know is that there are supposed to be UNIVERSAL MANDALORIAN TENETS that BOND THEM TOGETHER in spite of OTHER DIFFERENCES because they have survived for thousands of years by DOING SO like i want to shake everyone in this show by the shoulders like in eu/legends lore even when separated by star systems and species and language mandalorians are supposed to be able to recognize each other by armor and speak mando'a and have the same 7 mando tenets (i think its 7 i'll have to check) its how theyve survived across countless years and obviously thats harder in practice especially after the civil war and the purge and what have you but you like. god i feel like a chihuahua trying to bite a chew toy to death

rip 2 bo katan for wallowing in her castle probably one of the few unscathed remnants of mandalorian architecture and engineering lounging on her throne doing absolutely nothing even when din says "ive come to join you" like i get it but...

anyway that was ep1 i dont really care about the plot im just here for fun and baby grogu and tin can man and i thought it was a bit wooden of an episode idk if thats me and my lack of enthusiasm but it didnt seem to have a lot of spark/love to it

ANYWAY

[professorscrooge]

This AU has stuffed my brain with enough Thoughts™ to finally make a Tumblr account.

So, thoughts, specifically, re: Mando archaeologists coming in to look at the statues, particularly thinking about the timescale this idea exists on and its implications:

I agree on all your points about a New Mando archaeologist being able to identify things just fine, but think I’d go a step further of anyone contemporary would identify the symbols better than any of their predecessors across the centuries, as they would be the closest to the actual timeframe they were painted in. Ancient symbols they wouldn't be able to identify would most likely be the ones that have fallen out of favour by the time of the Clone Wars and the Clones themselves painting them (before being Terracotta’d). The ones the Clones saw/replicated are most likely the most popular ones of the current era amongst the True Mandos, regardless of age, which likely makes them the most recognisable to a current New Mandalorian (which can be both a good and a bad thing depending upon their feeling about what might earn or reflect upon those symbols).

This leads me into my second thought, that being the incongruity of the statues' age vs the symbols they have on them. Star Wars has ridiculously long timeframes for the relative stagnancy its tech/culture has across the different eras, but we can still extrapolate reasonably that there would be cultural shifts over thousands of years – languages have changed or shifted, been created and lost over much shorter timeframes in the real world, nevermind cultural symbols and dress codes etc. especially on the military front, where uniforms can change multiple times throughout a singular conflict as the participants adapt. The Mandalorians are one of the few cultures where we see some of this change in their many appearances due to popularity and distinctiveness; Crusader armour to Neo Crusader, for example (which I bet annoys historians due to the emphasis on depersonalisation likely resulting in a loss in understanding of the armour designs that came before, but I digress). All this means, they might have symbols that are ‘only’ a few centuries or decades old, which then calls into question wtf are they doing on a statue that is seemingly far, far older.

e.g. "Those are Jaig Eyes, a memorial tradition stemming from Jaig's Last Stand at the 3rd Battle of Mimban."

 "Oh, interesting, interesting" excited/bored junior Jedi on archivist duty writes down "When was that?"

"730 years ago, which makes this statue utterly impossible."

 Logically, this then stems into two options for the archaeologist: either a) the statues are a far younger fraud, or b) the statues are the origin of the symbol as they predate the believed origin (as in potentially a very, very big historical/cultural discovery that probably throws a whole load of academic discourse into a tizzy).

 (Point b) could actually be evolved into a Bootstrap Paradox where that actually did legit happen on one of them from a previous expedition – can you imagine a shocked post-revival Ahsoka seeing her facial markings not just on many of the 501st around her like the Siege of Mandalore, but also on some random Mandalorian because, oops, accidentally inspired history, and maybe a conspiracy theory or two).

 This then also leads into; what do they actually make of them? (Yes, I have way too many thoughts about this, I’m so sorry). We generally have the vibe of the Clones have inherited lots of bits and pieces of Mando-ness, but that they also don’t necessarily understand all of what they do know. So, you have frustrations of “That’s a recognisable symbol of [Insert here] but it’s supposed to be painted on a vambrace, not on the helmet!” (he just thought it looked cool), “These three are apparently married, but they didn’t adapt the symbol into a triad??” (they just thought it was a symbol of closeness as batchmates, and had no idea it had further connotations or polyamorous adaptations), “That one’s just got Sandwich written on his head!!!” (it’s his name, yes he picked it). This seeming randomness that makes it even harder to glean the purpose of the symbols that are used correctly as they make assumptions, e.g. Jaig Eyes are something we know are a relatively big deal, and Rex is the only person there with them in all likelihood, and is obviously a commander of some sort – so, did he take ownership of those, give them to himself, and ban others from using them because they wanted to be important and unique? Or maybe he did earn them rightfully, and that’s why he’s a commander? And the Archaeologist just doesn’t know and has to second-guess things more than they should need to, because they’re not following the rules everywhere, they don't know what to make of it where they are.

 They also despair over the armour itself, because it’s clearly mass-manufactured and militaristic in bent, which should narrow it down to a historical period (as more uniform styles seems to be less common across Mandalorian history than more individualistic ones, though we’re missing big periods and I’m gonna assume on some being for animation budget vs comic artist reasons), but it’s completely unknown. The advantage of mass-manufacturing is more examples are likely to survive to a modern era intact, but this is completely new, and not just the result of an artist reusing a base mould or something because every statue is unique. They can probably put together a ranking system based on some of the extra pieces Clones added to their armour (and things like Kama and Pauldrons will presumably be recognisable) but it doesn’t match any known organisation, and implies either very small delineations, or perhaps this being a small part of a very large group.

Basically, by the end of their examination, the archaeologist is absolutely tearing their hair/lekku/horns out and very much needs an offered cup of tea and someone to yell at because none of this makes any sense.

Finally, at the end of all this when they make their reports, is when Politics might get involved. Because there are various angles you can take for these statues to be Historically Significant to Mandalore. But they’re not on Mandalore, they’re in the Jedi Temple, and suddenly we’re at a British Museum situation of ownership (sorta). Neither the Jedi nor the Archaeologist want to move the statues due to the Vibes they give off, but would be very easy to write a politician/just a Mando with an axe to grind against the Republic (pick a reason, there’s loads – this is where you could insert Jaster or Jango, with added weirdness if this is post-Galidraan and this might bring the question of reparations on the table, idk, exact things I have no idea on) who finds out about them to launch a campaign of having them ‘returned’ (as we’ve seen what lengths they went to when retrieving the Darksaber, this would likely be a Thing). And the Jedi probably don’t have much control over something as big of a Political deal like that, it’s presumably up to the Senate; who I bet would first off send a dozen art valuators and insurers down there to try and value them, and then procrastinate and bureaucratise for half a century and be reluctant to give things up because it’s Mandalore, and the Republic is still kinda scared of them after the many centuries of warfare. (The valuers also get lost constantly on the way to the army because this is a Jedi Temple, and if it doesn’t want you to find your way, you won’t).

 Apologies, long post, and I have no idea if I’m butting in or necroposting or what etiquette here is really, just too many thoughts in a small brain. I have a half-written fic based on the previous posts of this AU and discovering this addition today got me thinking again.

Thought- in the terracotta warriors thing, you mentioned that the Jedi archeologists brought in a specialist in mando iconography to try and work out what’s going on with the 501sts symbols- what if that outside specialist is jaster mereel? Could be pre becoming the mand’alor, could be just his side job, but either way he spends a few years studying it all and getting used to being the only mando in a base camp full of Jedi, makes friends, has academic discussions and disagreements, steals someone’s holopad to try and use the link to the Jedi archives to read all the things on tarre visla, gets into an actual argument, reconciles with agreeing to help with a historical reenactment of a Jedi mandolorian war, gets Madame nu’s comm number, introduces his new son to his comm bff who argues historical nitpicks with him, brings jango to the next summer at the site, clones react to jango somehow and/or there’s a few tubies in there who look distractingly like jango and/or someone has their helmet off and jango has a breakdown over it looking like a family member? And so on and so on

Context: Sleeping Soldiers AU

See, I don't really subscribe to the "halfway to archaeologist!Jaster" fanon. I'm especially reticent to engage with the Jocasta ship, honestly.

But... okay, here's the thing. It does feel pretty incongruous with how I've written Jaster thus far. I can believe him having like. A 'classical' education. Not actually tutored like a noble, but that he sought out the same subjects as an adult to make sure he understood how to rule once he started having a proper political angle. He's a history nerd in the way that a particularly political/philosophical aristocrat of the 18th century would have been.

Military history, philosophical history, political and even some arts... but not actually in an archaeological sense.

(Also, it raises my hackles because it's one of those things that feels like it's heavily associated with the whole "True Mandos Were Best Mandos" crowd.)

It also really depends on the era! Tarre makes more sense than Jaster, just because of the timescale! The soldiers are millennia buried by the time Jaster is born! That said, even Tarre is a few millennia late but... makes more sense than Jaster.

Most likely, there are historians and archaeologists coming by every few centuries, as new generations encounter the issue, and older analyses are lost in the depths of the archives. Frequency tapers off after a few millennia, but... by the time Jaster is around?

It's 100% a New Mandalorian with an art history doctorate. (With a military symbolism specialty, in this case.)

It's probably not a New Mando if it's an Early On moment, but it probably is a New Mando if the Jedi start getting Weird Vibes and investigating the soldiers in the decades leading up to the Prequels.

Would the New Mandalorians know more than the traditionalists? Not necessarily. Would they know less? Actually, no.

I firmly believe that the New Mandalorians are taught about their histories in a "German kids learn about WWII atrocities, going on field trips to historic sites of said horrors, so their teachers can stress that they don't repeat the mistakes of the past" kind of way. I imagine the New Mandos would have plenty of research and records in regards to actual history, with plenty of museums and such. Part of maintaining pacifism is ensuring that the coming generations understand what led them to pacifism in the first place.

Is this thousands of years in the past, and thus difficult to research? Yes, but the traditionalists would have that same problem.

More of them, even. If the New Mandos have been around for seven hundred years, like Legends claims, then the traditionalists have probably have lost a lot of history through various battles and bombings, while the New Mandalorians, while not entirely escaping large scale destruction and such attacks, are much more likely to have protected and maintained their sites, simply by not courting war as a matter of culture. The traditionalists, meanwhile, would have had a much stronger emotional and cultural attachment to legends and themes, though I'll admit those are probably prone to revisionism, much like real-world folklore and mythology.

As @atagotiak put it:

Ehhhh. The traditionalists do care about legends and history and stuff. Often in an idealized way, sure. But you could argue that they’d have more reason than new mandos to be into these stories. Which, to be clear, isn’t like, saying that Jaster is definitely a part-time historian or anything like that. It’s just I don’t think one side would have an advantage over another. (edited)

So the New Mandos and Trad Mandos are probably on an even playing ground, insofar as skill and resources and knowledge go.

But by Jaster's time, the Jedi would have more reason to think the New Mandos would cooperate. No real downside to asking them when it comes to knowledge/skill, and an upside in terms of 'not getting shot when asking.'

As Tia said:

And even if we assume Jaster is a big history nerd and would be receptive to the Jedi (and tbh there’s even less indication of the latter) there’s no reason to think the Jedi would know that.

So yeah, when the soldiers start having Vibes And The Force Becomes Suspiciously Active on that level... New Mando archaeologist, definitely.