#meta: mando'a

[starwarsanthropology]

Fuck Canon Tiingilar

i hate the canon tiingilar recipe with my whole heart. Look at this (original source Galaxy's Edge cookbook). This is supposed to be "blisteringly spicy Mandalorian stew or casserole"? This is a mild chicken curry.

It sounds good, but it's not the rich, spicy, flavor-packed mandalorian stew of my dreams.

Let's start by breaking down the etymology of tiingilar.

Tiingilar is broken into 3 parts: Tiin, gi, and lar.

Tiin is an underived form of tiin'la, or coarse.

Gi is the word for fish.

Lar is a bit up in the air; it could be related to laar, for sing (which anyone who's seen someone bite into something spicier than they can handle can understand), or galar, for spill/pour (makes sense for stew), or even olar for "here", which I suppouse could be extrapolated to mean "whatever is here" for a stew which has flexible ingredients.

But the really important bits are the "tiin" and the "gi"! The first chunk of tiingilar means "coarse/rough fish(y)".

The other food word we have with "gi" in it from canon mando'a is "gihaal", (which, hilariously, breaks down into fish-breath), a pungent fishmeal. It's long lasting and stable which means its probably a staple ration food. It sounds like it'd put most people off at first, but given mandalorian tastes prioritize strong flavors (draluram), possibly including pungent flavors, and "richly nourishing" foods (yaiyai) it's probably a pretty common ingredient.

Guess what fishmeal is! A very high protein (typically 50-60%, but up to 70% for some varieties!), nutritionally dense, and coarsely textured! It's used in any cuisines; some is processed for human consumption but I cannot find any sources that use it in food except in research aiming to combat malnutrition (shout out to researchers at the Abeokuta University of Agriculture for being the best resource about fishmeal in food!). Although we can't know that gihaal would be the same as our version of fishmeal (which is normally processed from whole fish), I think that we can assume that mando'ade woudn't be skimping on the inclusion of bone, which include a lot of valuable nutrients, and would make it coarse.

So, gihaal is a pungent, likely coarse fishmeal that is a staple nutritional supplement in, at minimum, field cookery. It would make nutritionally-dense, protein packed, and strongly flavored base for tiingilar. Makes sense linguistically and practically for mandalorians to build their cooking around nutritionally valuable and shelf-stable rations.

Which brings me to the mandalorian values in food! Draluram (bright mouth: intense, bold flavors), heturam (spicy as in heat burning in the mouth), hetikleyc (spicy as in sinus burn), and yai'yai (richly nourishing, which I personally take to mean both nutritionally dense and satiating) are the 4 canon words that express the priorities in mandalorian cuisine.

These values fit in with the inclusion of gihaal as a base for tiingilar, adding yai'yai if not draluram, but where's my spice? Where's my layers of spice, the sharp sinus burn that makes your eyes water and the creeping warmth that leaves you panting and the bright heat and the numbing and tingling sensation at your lips?

Definitely not in that yellow curry recipe.

The inclusion of ginger and cinnamon (from garam masala) are both nice, but think bigger and broader! Obviously, we don't have mandalorian herbs, but add spice with chilies, cayenne, ginger, horseradish, mustard seeds, sichuan pepper! Bring out warming spices like cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, star anise! Highlight the different elements of spice and warmth and flavor with enthusiasm and delight!

As for draluram, I think the pungent flavor of fish is a nice, bold addition to something for a unique flavor, but let's not forget other players. Aliums like garlic and onions are always lovely, but what about citrus? If mandalorians have behot, what's stopping you from adding in citrus juice or peel or some kaffir lime leaves? What about strong bitter flavors from vegetables you choose, like mustard greens or kale, or the rich savory taste of browned meats if you want more protein in your dish?

Yai'yai, we have a good base of protein and fat and nutritional content from the fishmeal, but why not build it out? Add sugar, both to balance flavors and because energy is energy and mandalorians certainly like their sweets. Fats and oils, other meats and proteins, vegetables and carbs. Add nuts, peanut butter, sesame for added bulk and another element of flavour. I want to see an end product that sticks to your ribs, that makes me skip seconds on not because I don't want more, but because I'm full on one serving.

Back to the etymology. Mild chicken curry is not tiin, nor does it have gi. It's fairly yai'yai, got decent draluram, negligible heturam, and no hetikleyc.

Tiingilar with a gihaal base (in irl cooking, any kind of fish base) and heavier seasoning to add multiple kinds of heat would fit all of those categories so much better.

So I guess in the end, I'm saying I don't have an idea of tiingilar as any one recipe, but tiingilar as a general dish that leans into mandalorian food culture and the literal meaning of the word. Maybe it's little gritty and somewhat fishy, but it's a rich and spicy and flavorful meal you can make with whatever on hand as long as you have a handful of staples.

Sources:

Adegoke, Bakare & Adeola, Abiodun & Otesile, Ibijoke & Adewale, Obadina & Afolabi, Wasiu & Adegunwa, Mojisola & Akerele, Rachael & Bamgbose, Olaoluwa & Alamu, Emmanuel. (2020). Nutritional, Texture, and Sensory Properties of composite biscuits produced from breadfruit and wheat flours enriched with edible fish meal. Food Science & Nutrition. 8. 1-21. 10.1002/fsn3.1919.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fish_meal

https://mandocreator.com/tools/dictionary/index.html# for mando'a translations and definitions

https://www.reddit.com/r/Mandalorian/comments/mp1x7o/recipe_for_tiingilar_medium_heat_add_garlic/ for the recipe

[booklindworm]

Mando'a Dialects in- and out-of-universe

Outgame (irl) there are several different versions of Mandoʻa: The Shadows of the Empire Soundtrack version (Notron Cant), the Republic Commando Soundtrack version (Jesse Harlin's text), the Old Republic version (as seen in SWtOR or KotOR), the Republic Commando Novels version (Karen Traviss' version), the Mandoa.org version (their forum members made up a lot of extra vocabulary), several different tumblr versions, and the Disney version (as in the TV-series Star Wars Rebels). They all have distinctive similarities (the Notron Cant is an exception), but unfortunately, they also all somewhat differ. Since Karen Traviss published her Mandoʻa version online, complete with a dictionary, the Mandoa.org version and most tumblr versions are based on her version. Her version in turn is vaguely based on Jesse Harlin's version-the first Mandoʻa on file, so to say. I myself see them as different dialects or development stages of the same language.

See, Karen Traviss' Mandoʻa and also most of Mandoa.org's Mandoʻa uses Basic (i.e. English) grammar with a Mandalorian vocabulary, so I call that version Soldiers' Pidgin. It's obviously (ingame) a creole language that came into existence after the Mandalorian diaspora. It is this Soldiers' Pidgin that Kal Skirata taught his children (the Nulls) and possibly also the language that the Alphas taught other, younger clones (e.g. the CC class or the ARC-troopers) as a "secret" language to hide from the Kaminoans. If it was used by the clones in such a way, the GAR should have its own dialect. The different internet versions of Mandoʻa all seem to be based on Karen Traviss' dictionary, so I see them as different dialects of the Soldiers' Pidgin. The same reasoning can be applied to Disney's Mandoʻa.

The language of Vode An, Graʻtua Cuun, Darasuum Kote, etc. on the other hand uses a grammar that differs from Basic. It is an older form of Mandoʻa, probably the Mandoʻa spoken on Mandaʻyaim before the Excision - seven-hundred years ago. It's a lot more interesting (for me, at least). I propose calling it Classic Mandoʻa. It has its own grammar; it has a similar vocabulary as Soldiers' Pidgin, but with distinct and sometimes varying pronunciations (sometimes depending on the rhyme or rhythm of the song); it has a lot of epitaphs and kennings and references and can have very flowery phrasing. It's used, in or around the time of Palpatine's Empire, predominantly in older songs and poems. An irl-equivalent could be Shakespearean English.

We can probably view the (archaic) tOR version as vaguely translated into modern Mandoʻa (Soldiers' Pidgin, probably) since there is exactly no way that the language changes so little in over 3000 years. I also propose that the Basic back then has very few similarities to the Basic that's spoken during the Skywalker Wars.

Missing is a sort of current, modern version of Classic Mandoʻa. I think that is (sadly) very realistic. A society that is so broken up by something like orbital bombardment would likely, over the centuries, develop several different creole versions and try to keep their original language as unchanged as possible, leading to exactly the combination described above.

Here are some other people's thoughts:

[ranahan]

Which format is better? The appendix will contain every single instance of a particular morpheme grouped by morpheme, so does adding more examples clarify anything or just clutter up things?

[bolithesenate]

Hear me out

shereshoy = yolo

[ranahan]

I like this a lot, actually.

The only addition I would have is that the “Basic as standard for government work” would make most sense to me as not something Satine set, but as something that’s inherited from the post-Dral’Han caretaker government set by the Galactic Republic. And of course, it’s a thorny issue that every Mandalorian government since then has had to grapple with. Try to switch completely to Mando’a? Republic throws a fit. Keep Basic? Mandos accuse you of being a Republic puppet. Damned if you do and damned if you don’t kind of a thing.

And that would also explain why it gets so much hate: it is seen by certain factions as representative of the wider problem of Republic overreach and meddling on Mandalore. That’s also why the New Mandalorians in general get a lot of hate and “they are not Mandalorians” arguments, because they chose to try to work with the system to mitigate damage. But their government is still a descendant of the much-hated Republic caretaker government of the Dral’Han aftermath.

I like the idea of popular fanons being in-universe propaganda a lot, actually.

@atagotiak and I were talking about the whole “Satine bans Mando’a” thing, which is fairly popular, but afaik not canonically supported, given that she speaks Mando’a on the show and doesn’t seem to judge anyone who does speak it, and Doylistically that’s just because the show couldn’t really build an entire conlang for the Mandalorian episodes, but…

My vote is that she doesn’t deliberately suppress it, but does choose to set Basic as the standard for official work and schooling, which is questionable but not the same thing. It’s not deliberately wiping out the language as fanon sometimes portrays, just one of those awkward confluences of her behavior looking Really Shitty in the context of New Mandalore.* We also have no idea when Mando’a started declining in use; it’s entirely plausible that some planets or parts of planets had already been phasing it out naturally during the various civil wars.

From a character perspective, she could justify it to herself and her people as sensible for the purposes of interstellar trade and negotiation, since Basic is the Lingua Franca. It’s entirely possible that she expects parents to teach their children Mando’a, or that most schools offered remedial lessons in Mando’a for kids whose parents aren’t invested in teaching them…

All of which is fine and dandy, but here’s the part that I’m really invested in:

Death Watch and other traditionalists spread claims that it’s deliberate, enforced language suppression to vilify her (e.g. they claim she’s engaging in book burnings and banning teachers from speaking it at all to their students), and to make it easier to turn more isolated Mandalorian communities to their own side.

(This is the perspective I was using in that Jangobi divorce thing, that Jango heard the propaganda side and went “that sounds entirely plausible” and hasn’t had time to fact-check.)

* Given the nature of Mandalore’s political history and various other elements, I’m very reticent to apply modern terminology that’s based in real-world colonialist history, given that Satine is Mandalorian herself, and that Mandalore was an imperial, colonialist power for much of its history.

[ranahan]

Politeness in Mando’a

Different languages have different politeness strategies. Polite expressions like “please” and “thank you” are very idiosyncratic. You have to learn the correct way to use them in a particular language, because their usage relies on cultural context, not semantic meaning.

I headcanon that Mando’a generally uses these expressions less than Basic does. In Mando’a, you say gedet’ye, ba’gedet’ye, vor entye, etc. when you mean it, not as filler words—they’re rarer, but more empathetic than their Basic counterparts. So mandos can come off as brusque/impolite when they speak Basic; aruetiise as overly conscientious/groveling/unctuous when they speak Mando’a. Can you tell I just love some delicious culture clash?

Here are some of my headcanons about some mando expressions:

gedet’ye

please, I beg you, would you be so kind (polite request—rarer and more empathetic than English “please”)

thank you, please (polite acknowledgment)

yes please, yes thank you, much obliged (in response to questions)

excuse me, pardon

pardon, say again, come again (a request to repeat information—informal, not military)

English doesn’t have a compact expression between “please” and “I beg you”, but that’s the space I headcanon gedet’ye occupies. It’s more empathetic than “please”, but not quite so groveling as “I beg you”. Something like “would you be so kind”, perhaps?

I’m a fan of the idea that vor entye—especially the full version—is taken quite literally. So aruetiise, who have only learned a few polite phrases and not their contexts, can and will go around putting themselves in debt to every jack and jones, much to the consternation and humour of mandos. Natives use either the shortened form vor’e (for informal expressions of gratitude) or gedet’ye (in contexts where English could use either thank you or please: would you like more shig? yes, please/thank you). Gedet’ye is a polite request, but when someone fulfills your request (or teacup) before you can voice it, you can also use gedet’ye to acknowledge the action posthumously—like English thanks! If vor entye/vor’e is too much, use gedet’ye instead.

In situations where you’d ask for someone’s attention with “excuse me” or ask them to make way with the same, gedet’ye also works.

When you ask someone to repeat what they just said, English uses “sorry, I didn’t catch that” (implication: please repeat it). Mando’a uses “gedet’ye” (implication: the thing I’m asking for is what you just said).

ba’gedet’ye

you're welcome (acknowledgement of thanks)

here you are, there you are, there you go (when handing something over to someone)

be my guest, you're welcome, go ahead, that's all right, it’s okay, it’s fine (permission to do something)

OK then, well then, fine (sarcastic)

hello (when answering the phone)

what? (ironic expression of puzzlement, somewhat like English “hello?”)

please, be so kind, go ahead, you're welcome to... (to soften a command or invite your audience to do something, "ba'gedet'ye, ke'sheber", please be seated)

If you’re confused by some of these senses, consider that the expectation is that the first person asks for something/says “gedet’ye” and the second person replies with “ba’gedet’ye”. Gedet’ye is a polite request, so ba’gedet’ye can be understood as granting the request. The sarcasm comes from the fact that nobody asked. You’re essentially commenting aloud on somebody forgetting their manners. “You’re welcome” (implication: not that you asked), or “fine, be that way” (implication: it’s actually not fine but I’ll let it slide for now).

When answering a phone or a comm, the call itself is understood as a request to answer. In this context, ba’gedet’ye can be understood as “please, go ahead (and talk)”. The ironic what? is somewhat like the ironic use of English hello, an ironic expression of puzzlement. Sort of “please, go ahead… (and explain to me what you were just thinking)”.

The last sense, issuing a polite command, is somewhat formal in tone. In practice it’s a nice way to tell someone that your job requires you to be polite, but you better do what you’re told or you won't like the consequences. Again, the implication is that you’re not really asking, but replying to an implied request for permission even if no such thing was actually asked.

[ranahan]

Random headcanon:

I see fics where mando characters (like Jango) denigrate the tea of other characters (like Jaster, or Obi-Wan) as “leaf water”. But like… shig is *the* drink in Mandalorian culture. Yeah, people drink caf, but it’s still the secondary option.

Tea is served anywhere and everywhere. Business deal? Negotiation? Getting to know someone? Welcoming guests? Tea.

Coffee may also be served, but it may be an afterthought and of a considerably worse quality than the tea (the equivalent of stale bagged tea next to the coffee service)

Coffee is called ne’tra behot or ne’tra shig. Actually, most non-alcoholic fancy drinks are called something-shig, because it’s just that ubiquitous it’s almost a synonym for a drink.

In Mando’a, it’s a shig’ud, not coffee break, and shig’yaim, not café.

tldr: Calling shig “leaf water” would be the equivalent of calling coffee “bean juice” in English—it makes the character calling it that seem eccentric more than the character drinking it. Or else marks them out as someone who grew outside of the Mandalorian space where caf is more common than shig.

[antianakin]

Hey! 👋 Just wanted to send in a message and say thanks for reblogging my post to leave some of your thoughts on it. I hope you didn’t mind the tag. 😅 Half the time Tumblr breaks links to other blogs for me, so I just thought tagging would be easier. I also apologize if it felt like I was calling you out or something about giving points on pro jedi to anti jedi fans?? 😭 It’s probably just my anxiety, but I still just wanted to clarify in case my words bothered you. I was more just kinda speaking in general to pro jedi fans as a whole.

I definitely agree with your thoughts looking back on it now that the anon might’ve been genuine in the sense they weren’t trolling, but it was clear they just wanted to be told they were right. They didn’t genuinely want to debate. I kinda sometimes look for the best in people even if it’s not there. 🤦‍♀️😂 But yeah… it IS frustrating to have asks open related to answering SW meta posts or fic questions and then just see a kinda benevolently condescending anti/critical jedi ask in there like that.

Getting all the thoughts out helped me cool off from my rage at that YouTube commenter that called Leia a “brat” though for not forgiving Anakin, at least. It’s the little things in life, I suppose. 😌💖😂

I hope you’re doing good! 👍 I do genuinely love hearing your SW takes, whether on Anakin or Jedi or clone stuff in general. I feel like you’re a lot more objective than others can be about Anakin, if that makes sense?? And also just about the clones in general too and your thoughts they might not want to be seen as mandalorians (at least I think I recall you saying that before in a post?), because they’re clones and brothers in arms first and foremost. I personally like the idea of them having mandoa just because I feel like it’s something that would be taught and passed down from the genetic tree of Jango. But I DEFINITELY appreciate the idea that Jango might’ve not been as deified by clones as people believe. 😭 I’m not saying he was the devil, but at the end of the day he plucked out a kid from the thousands he left behind from being his clones, and called it a day.

I wasn't bothered at all, my firmer more negative opinions aren't going to be for everyone! I'm consistently surprised at how many people DO seem to appreciate anything I have to say on the topic, negative or otherwise. I've said this before, but I made this blog as a space for me to express more negative things and I figured that would be kind-of a turn off for people. I'm glad that it's ended up apparently being at least somewhat enjoyable to other people.

It's incredibly funny to hear myself described as "objective" about Anakin given, well, everything. I'm NOT objective about him, obviously, I'm decidedly biased against him. I HAVE tried to approach his character as objectively as I can sometimes if people have asked me to, but I don't like him much and that does color the way I interact with Star Wars and stories he's involved in. People who love Anakin, even if they're extremely pro Jedi at the same time, will often interpret things VERY differently from how I would specifically because they're more inclined to be sympathetic to him and believe the best of him in a way I just can't most of the time.

For the clones, while I've definitely expressed the opinion that they wouldn't want to be considered Mandos before, that's one of my more bitter opinions, one I tend to feel when I'm more annoyed at the whole Mandoclone concept. If I were trying to be more objective about it, I feel less like they wouldn't WANT to be considered Mandos and simply that they AREN'T Mandos. There's never any real indication that the clones feel a connection to that culture aside from like... two little designs on the helmets that could just as easily be explained away in other ways. They never actually speak Mando'a, they never talk about Jango at all, and they don't seem to show a desire to interact with the Mandos when they have the opportunity (Cody and Rex are both around during the Duchess on Mandalore arc, Rex goes to Mandalore with Ahsoka, and Rex/Gregor/Wolffe meet Sabine). Aside from the two tiniest little designs, there's never a single indication that these people ever felt any connection to being Mandalorian at all.

And I personally just find it really boring to just make the clones MandoLite and base their entire culture around one that already exists rather than recognizing that they've got a radically different kind of upbringing that would have caused some VERY different values and traditions from Mandos. They've got their own canonical slang, they've traveling all the time and could be picking up any number of different traditions from the people on different planets (language, food, maybe art and songs and dances and games). I think Mandoclone headcanons often treat the clones as a monolith instead of recognizing that they're individual people in the process of creating their own extremely unique culture. I think the clones deserve more fun and interesting headcanons than just turning them into MandoLite.

[ranahan]

And cooking food on your armour plates would ruin the tempering and put grease all over you. I prefer to think of these explanations as folk etymologies.

I’m convinced that Traviss is repeating the Latin testa “pot > skull > head” etymology here (apparently she knows Latin), and derived the standard word for a helmet (buy’ce) from soldier’s slang of calling a helmet a bucket (buyca). I did the exact same thing in a previous conlang of mine because I thought I was being clever.

The word for a pint (buy’ce gal, “pint of ale”) comes then from a metaphorical use of buy’ce, rather like doing that same thing in the other direction. Mandalorian pint (“contents of a helmet”) then seems to be larger than UK or US pint, maybe something like Scottish joug (about three UK pints).

P.s. I’ve respelled fierfek as vhervhek in Mando’a.

I also want to point out that Mando’a is like, not gendered. At all.

The word for mother? Buir.

The word for father? Buir. Literally translates simply to ‘parent’

Same for ‘child’. Ad. Means simply ‘child’. No gender attached.

Same for ‘spouse’. No gendered term, simply ‘riduur’. Literally means ‘spouse’

On the other hand, there are like six different words for spicy food and like forty insults and eight different terms for gunfire.

[warsamongthestars]

Emerie was (one of many) wasted original characters for TBBshow, y'know?

Like...

... I don't feel for her. Yeah, it seems like she's set up to be Omega's parallel, and yeah, there was lead up to her declaration of being a clone (more so than whatever fucking lead up S1 had for its finale).

But uh...

What, exactly, is special about her as a character?

Significant personality? No. Even TBBshow's variant of the BBs had Personality for Days. She's got the Overlogical Persona, and only when the Camera was on her for an episode did she decide that she needed the morals of Omega... Frankly, she would've done better being kept an antagonist. ... Hemlock has personality, Rampart has Personality--though I'd argue that they both have the SAME Personality, just in Different Roles (Talk about copypasting your own stuff). ... Infact, she's practically a Tech Copy, that's how little personality they bothered to give her.

Aesthetic? Pff. No. She's caught the Star Wars (and let's face it, most Sci-fantasy shows, video games, media, most of the action genre... most of the adventure genre... you fuckin name it) "Pretty Woman Disease". She's meant to look sexy with very minimum masculine traits. ... Which means she's dull as hell to look at, because there's nothing to catch the eye beyond Barbie Doll. Personally, if I want a barbie doll character, I can just go out and buy Barbie. She's got no freckles, no scars, no significant body phenotype, she only partially looks like a clone (and frankly if they had given her more of a Fett Clone appearance, so like muscles and tallness and strong jaw, that would've given her a damn good eye-catching appearance. ) ( Plus, I like a lady who looks like she can turn my spine into a pretzel. ) She's got no significant armor (Personally I would've loved if she was CX02, because that would've given her Something. )

Her name is Mando'a. "Emuurir'Kar" probably means "Joy" (Emuurir means Enjoyment so...) Which, is a start... But uh, name how many old OCs we all have out there, whose names ended up being Nightshade or Twilight or Rei. You can have a good name, but if there's nothing to back it up... well, its just a title.

I don't see any fanart running around about her... Do you? No fan headcannons, no significant fanfics... That pretty much tells us how the audience thought of her. Which means, it Didn't. Even my headcanons don't really include her, because she's just, not, impactful. At all.

Plot Impact? None that couldn't be done by anyone else. Which isn't just her fault, its one of the many faults of the show itself.

She's just... Not.

Now.

How would I fix her, with the TBBshow plot as it stands?

Easy.

First Draft... Replace Hemlock with Emerie. Make her the fifth enhanced clone, and the missing CT-9902, and make her the CX-02 clone. She didn't just serve the Empire, she served the Republic doing the same thing. She's named joy both out of irony and out of the fact that she "does her duty with fulfillment".

She stayed as Nala Se's former assistant, but when the opportunity came to become the master, she took it. She was the head of project Necromancer, up until Hunter put a spear into her gut.

This Emerie gets S1 foreshadowing with the dead and experimentation on clones.

The mention of the fifth enhanced clone gets small beats of silent drama, which will tell the audience that meeting this character would not be a good thing.

Second Draft. Emerie is an entirely new character placement, and actually gets placed on Crosshair's elite squad in S1. He has no idea who the fuck this is, as they never sleep in the same quarters.

She has the same armor type, though not coloring, as CX-02.

Come S1 Finale, she picks Crosshair up from the platform, and finally removes her helmet, showing her off to be a Lady and a Medic.

S2, they're kept apart, until the end, where Emerie shows how tired she is of serving the "greater good", and being the Medic in a meta-narrative sense, allows her to save Tech as well.

S3, and the Bad Batch are eventually united by the end as a complete Squad.

Third Draft She's actually been with Clone Force 99 all along, but has to stay on Kamino for half the missions because she's Nala Se's main assistant. This would go on to be the reason why she wouldn't have appeared in TCWshow during main scenes with Nala Se (such as the Conspiracy Arc), but also why she wouldn't have appeared on Anaxes.

And she just follows the adventures as a brand new character, with her own set of armor and abilities.

As for personality quirks... Think, exaggerated Mad Scientist with Supervillian attachment--after all, she's been around too many Kaminonians, but she's also apart of the Super Duper Awesome Squad. You think, at first, she's going to be like Tech... but instead she's more emotive, more prone to supervillian-like behavior (maniacal laughter, dramatic scenes, chewing the scenary), sometimes even overhonesty. She's the Stan to Tech's Ford, the Doofensmirtz's to Hunter's platypus, the giggly bitch to Wrecker's rambunctious laughter. She absolutely delights in small torments, (provided it doesn't actually hurt anyone--she is still a medic after all), and she has a loud aggravated sigh when she isn't allowed to handle the rocket launcher.

( ... I may or may not have thought about this a bit. )

She's only called Emerie by the RCs because she once had a mission with Boss's crew.

What her new name would be, I have no fuckin idea, but it will not be Patches. (I have run into too many medic OCs called Patches, Patches is a dull name now to me. )

Anyway.

I don't like how TBBshow handles Emerie Karr. Frankly, its also pretty indicative on how Star Wars, post OG, handles a lot of its women characters... But my rage is pretty centered on TBBshow right now.

So, Emerie.

[ranahan]

Mando’a lexember, anyone?

If you’re not familiar, Lexember is a conlanging event where, for every day of December, participants post a new lexeme (word) in their conlang.

Would anyone else be interested in doing a Mando’a lexember? If I maybe threw together prompts with examples from canon? I’d probably reuse previous lexember prompts, find examples in the canon lexicon, and write a short blurb about how it works in Mando’a, so anybody could participate, no previous conlanging experience needed, just some linguistic creativity.

[saggitary]

Back with a lil TTTBU meta, here is all the mando'a words and phrases I've either found or I've made up for this fic! Let me know if you want a Togruti one as well for what I've found/made up!

(FYI some of this might be made up I honestly can't remember but like 99% is found from dictionaries online)

Words

aliit - family

ade - children

alor'ad - captain

al'verde - commander

dema'golka - monster

dini'la - insane

jetii - Jedi

naak - peace

ori'vod - older sibling

tebec - ammunition

vod - sibling (gender neutral)

vode - siblings (plural)

vod'ika - younger sibling

vor'e - thanks

Now onto the swears!

bantha-osik - bantha-shit

di'kut - idiot

haar'chack - damnit

haran - hell (literal, cosmic destruction)

jagyc - dick

kriff - general swear similar to fuck (I don't think this is actually mando'a however it pops up a lot so I am putting it hear)

mir'osik - smart shit

mir'sheb - smart ass

osik - shit

osik'la - shitty

osik'ika - little shit

osik'tengaara - shitshow

shab - fuck

shaba - fucking

shaba shebs - fucking ass

shaba'osik - fucking shit

shabbed - fucked

shabuir - motherfucker

sheb/shebs - ass

shebs'palon - asshole

Now with the sayings/sentences

This is where some things get a bit odd with me trying to sort out what words we have in the mando'a dictionary as well as congregations and configuration so they might not be 100% accurate!

ni'pel - I yield

osik’serim - shit aim

Sooran bic - suck it

Ni su’cuyi, gar kyr’adyc, ni partayli, gar darasuum - I’m still alive, but you are dead. I remember you, so you are eternal (Daily remembrance of those passed on)

ori’buyce, kih’kovid - all helmet, no head

Copaani mirshmure’cye, mir’shebs - are you looking for a smack in the face smartasses

Aalar’gar jate - you feeling good?

Kriffing jetti bal'val jaro - Kriffing Jedi and their death wish

Ja'hailir gar'joha vod - Watch your language brother

Aliit ori’shya tal’din - family is more than blood

nutenni te shab’laam - shut the fuck up

Rangi an’be vala - To hell with all of them

Vore entye - Thank you

Ba’gedet’ye - you're welcome

shab'rud bal mar'eyir dayn - fuck around and find out

Ni ori'haat bah've Maker al'verde ni'mav kyr'amur gar nearest meh'gar vurel nari'ibac tug'yc - I swear to the Maker commander I will kill you myself if you ever do that again

Ash nas'nuhoy'laam ba'te dush'eso be'te haav - Someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed

-

There will def be more to come and I will likely need to make an updated one in a while but here we go for now!

tags! @snarkyfina @jarchvast-likearchvistbutthevast @bees-flowers

[ranahan]

I believe the root is bes, not besk.

Otherwise, I think you’re spot on. For a spacefaring civilisation, the prototypical metal would be steel, not iron. And that’s how I chose to define it in my dictionary: it means metal in general, but also specifically steel.

Beskar

The Mando’a word for Mandalorian Iron is Beskar. It translates to Iron/Heart, or translated a bit more poetically Heart of the Iron or Iron of the Heart

But I take umbrage with the root of Iron, Besk. More specifically it doesn’t make sense as meaning Iron at all. You see Beskar is known and famous to be incredibly difficult to work and basically useless if you mess it up while preparing. It’s also super dense (which is theoretically why it stands up to lightsabers, but my opinions on that osik a whole other post).

I’m not sure how much you know about Iron in its pure form, but it’s not a very useful metal. Especially for weapons and armor. It’s brittle or crumbly at worst and a softer metal at best. Iron is a major component of another metal though, steel. Steel is an alloy containing predominantly iron and carbon, but for really good steels you need impurities (this isn’t a bad word among metalworkers and it shouldn’t be in Mando’a either). Molybdenum, Chromium, and nickel being the most common impurities. They make the steel denser, harder, and better looking.

So Beskar shouldn’t be iron but instead a steel-like substance. Probably infused with trace amount of whatever it is that makes cortosis and the handful of other lightsaber resistant materials (which is probably a crystalline substance but I digress).

But back to Besk. It’s usage makes me wonder if it perhaps is mistranslated as iron but should actually be metal. At least in common usage (using it as iron or steel makes sense poetically). 

But what do people associate with the Mandalorians. Armor (which should not be Beskar’gam but Besk’gam), specifically Mandalorian armor (which should be Beskar’gam). Beskar’gam, not Mandalorian iron, but Mandalorian Steel. Mandalorian Steel is an alloy, it joins together metals to create a better metal. Just like the Mando’ade do with people.

Beskar: lit. metal/heart. Mandalorian Steel

special thanks to @izzyovercoffee for putting up with my metalworking rant and encouraging me to make this post

[wearethewitches]

Gith/Tir'su language essay

So. So, I had need of the Gith language for fic purposes and realised that the dictionary is woefully lacking, so here is my extremely amateur analysis of what phrases we do have (and how the current translations lack depth, in their meta explanations).

Example, to underpin one of my main theories that words turn positive and negative using 'k :

shka'keth "asshole".

shkath zai "for honor." used as a greeting

First of all, I'll start with the word for honour. Take away zai and you're left with "shkath". Now, going by Githyanki culture, honour is one of those big deal things and behaviours are rigid, etc., so using the "shka" start to the word for both honour & asshole? Doesn't fit.

You know what would fit, to replace a normal insult in our culture that means someone with unreputable behaviour, etc., etc.,? Coward. Or honourless. (Because we do actually have a word for coward, which is not surprising. But I'm going for cultural vibes here, so honourless works better.)

So, my theory: "shkath" is the root word for honour. "shka'keth" is the negative - honourless. A coward, in other words. Like in Mando'a, I'd imagine there's a boatload of worser insults than being called the petty equivalent asshole that gets the Gith going in terms of offence, from both insulter and insultee.

To support my supposition, and second theory that the phraseology is backwards:

Vlaakith'ka sivim hrath krash'ht. "Only in Vlaakith may we find light."

Ignore the latter half right now. We're focusing on "Vlaakith'ka" and the very reasonable opinion that the translation is a negative. Why? Because "only in Vlaakith" in our language is a conditional phrase. To compare, there's this:

Vlaakith gha'g shkath zai. "For the honor of Vlaakith!"

Not a conditional, also uses our honour words. My additional theory of everything being backwards is mostly from this, because "for honour" is at the end of the sentence.

Breaking the sentence down:

Vlaakith - Vlaakith (noun)

gha'g - the (article determiner + ?)

shkath zai - for honour (again, backwards, noun + preposition)

((I have no idea what gha'g is, and my best guess is that it's "the" plus some kind of determiner. Maybe I'll figure it out later in this post, I don't know. At the moment, I'm just making basic connections and suppositions.)

Going back to Vlaakith'ka, "Only in Vlaakith":

Vlaakith'ka - Vlaakith (noun) + 'ka

My theory of 'k being a negative removes the conditional phrasing. "Only in" is inherently negative in Githyanki, and to make it a positive, removing the "only", I believe you'd only need to take away 'k.

So: Vlaakith'ka (only in Vlaakith) becomes Vlaakith'a (in Vlaakith).

Two examples of a working negative. I can't currently find any reason why there's a difference in vowel usage - Vlaakith'ka vs. shka'keth - but I

My last theory is that "is" is the root word for "being"/"person"

Examples of is in Gith words:

istik "stranger", used to refer to non-githyanki.

is'tark "coward"

ghaik "mindflayer"/"illithid"

ghustil "healer"

jhe'quith dvenzir "the termination of the frail"

jhe'stil "a superior" (to oneself).

k'chakhi "idiot"

kith'rak "captain"

hta'zith "die, creature!"

Mla'ghir "liberator"

qua'nith "psionic detector"

ra'stil "ally"

tl'a'ikith "sword spirit"

vin'isk "minion" or "underling"

zaith'isk "purifier"

Vlaakith

zerthi "Zerth's teaching", a Githzerai Zerthimon monk

This laundry list of words have one thing in common, and it's their use of is, ith, il or i as what I believe to be references to different classes of people.

Ghaik exclusively use the ik, with the exception of the word for stranger, istik. However, due to the scattered nature of the Gith words we have, I don't think it's too hard to believes that istik might actually be is'tik in the same was as "coward" is is'tark, or alternatively, ist'ik. By this line of thought, we can separate ghaik into gha'ik...

Which PROVES MY POINT, because we've previously seen the word gha'g used as an article determiner, i.e. "the", and 'k itself being used as a negative. K on it's own may therefore have a negative root in all forms. The definitive translation of Vlaakith's own name is "death", even, which may have a more cultural role in elevating "kith" words, versus k within other words.

Recall further that words are back-to-front, meaning:

Mindflayers, "ghaik", are gha'ik -> "the being [negative]", using "the" here to indicate an ultimate threat.

Strangers, "istik", are ist'ik -> "person [negative]".

Gathering the many uses of "kith" throughout the Gith dictionary brings results pertaining to positions of power, such as Vlaakith herself and the kith'rak (dragon knights), as well as variations referring weak or distinctly "other" beings, such as the frail (jhe'quith vs. jhe'stil), and psionic beings (nith).

I also believe that the phrase "hta'zith" (die, creature) is a play on the word for Githzerai Zerthimon monks, "zerthi", contracting "zerthi" and "ith" -> "zith" to refer to them in a derogatory/negative fashion.

Jhe from jhe'stil and jhe'quith may be a translation of "power"; therefore, stil is superior (il being another hierarchal translation for person/being) while quith is weak, the literal translation being "frail person". Healer, ghustil, perhaps meant to be ghu'stil is also a position of power.

Overall, the morphology of the words is distinct in regards to referencing peoples of any kind, with grammatical gender referring to class structure within Githyanki culture. Otherwise, there are very few other rules I can gather, excepting the negative role of k.

If anyone who actually has an interest would like to add to this, I would be very grateful, and if it wasn't 1am, I would genuinely have more thoughts.

[lauramkaye]

Mando'a is for Lovers, Part 1

So, you want to write a Mando romance? (Sure, we all do!) And you think conlangs are Neat and want to include Mando'a for some flavor? I cannot blame you, friend! They ARE neat! But you're getting kind of stuck because Mando'a seems to be like 80% made up of military or weapon terms and/or insults?

I AM HERE TO HELP.

But I'm gonna have to do it in multiple posts because um. I might have a lot to say and am really kind of a language nerd as it turns out.

SO this one will JUST be some helpful hints for specific words and phrases that could be useful in trying to write Mandos being lovers not fighters (at least at the time.)

Please let me know if you'd like me to write more of these (grammar basics, handy hints, translation help etc.) or to expand on any points, me and my ADHD hyperfocus would LOVE TO HELP.

(Note: I use mainly Mando'a from mandocreator.com because I like their online tools the best. A "dialect" of Mando'a is basically "one particular conlang hobby group that has made up some words that don't exist in the official sources." Other Mando'a dialects are available.)

Anyway, so, first thing:

You can't just write an English sentence, look up each word in a Mando'a dictionary, and then string those words together. Translation doesn't work like that. What you get will almost always make no sense - like those things you see when someone runs a sentence through Google Translate a couple times and then puts it back to English. This is doubly true because Mando'a was created to give flavor to books and video games and doesn't have anywhere near a complete dictionary, so a lot of the time you won't even be able to FIND the word you want.

This is how you get characters calling someone "my to hold in the heart forever."

There are many conlang nerds (myself included) who would happily help you figure out ways to say what you want to say, but for a shortcut:

Look below the cut for help with terms for: love and marriage, beauty/hotness, pet names, and compliments. Bonus: some vocabulary for getting frisky.

Love and Marriage

If you want someone to say "I love you" (the VERB form of "love"), use kar'taylir darasuum which means "to hold in the heart forever." You will need to CONJUGATE this like so:

I love you: ni kar'tayli gar darasuum You love me: gar kar'tayli ni darasuum I love him/her/them: ni kar'tayli kaysh darasuum

If you want to call someone "love" or "my love" ("love" as a pet name/endearment), the word to use is cyare (loved one/beloved) or possibly cyar'ika (darling/sweetheart). Your spouse/committed partner is your riduur. To get married, you say/swear/vow the riduurok. (NOTE that the riduurok is not 100% equivalent to a modern US marriage but this is the vocabulary post not the Mando Culture Meta post. Hit me up if you want me to make the Mando Culture Meta post.)

If you have read more than 2 or 3 Mando fanfics you likely already know about the riduurok but here are the vows, for completeness:

Mhi solus tome, mhi solus dar'tome, mhi me'dinui an, mhi bajuri verde. (We are one when together, we are one when apart, we share all, we will raise warriors.)

If you want to talk about love as a CONCEPT (the noun form of "love") you're going to have to reword it somehow, because Mando'a doesn't have a canon word for that. A few suggestions: 1) reword the sentence to use the verb form 2) use another word, like guuror (to be fond of/to like/to hold affection for). Mando'a also has the very handy intensifier prefix ori-, so you could also say ori'guuror to mean "to like a lot/to be very fond of/to hold great affection for." 3) Think of another way entirely to say the thing you want to say, one that there ARE words for. (You have to do this a lot in Mando'a honestly.) 4) Use a metaphor. Mando'a is a very poetic and metaphorical language where the same words take on different meanings based on context. 5) use words relating to knowledge and remembrance. In Mando'a the concepts of love and remembering/knowing someone or something are VERY closely related.

Attractiveness

A couple related concepts here. Also note that if you are writing Mandalorian characters, they will have Mandalorian standards of attractiveness, of which physical appearance tends to be a lot lower-ranked than in modern Western culture. When you are part of a historically nomadic warrior culture in which most people wear armor all the time, you're gonna care a lot less about what they look like than what they act like and how they ARE, as a person.

Beautiful: mesh'la Very beautiful: ori'mesh'la More beautiful: mesh'lashya The most beautiful: mesh'lane

Note: for all these adjectives, you can add ori' to the front to make it "very [thing]", shya to the end for "more [thing]", and ne to the end for "most [thing]". Attractive (not relating to physical beauty but attractive as a person for other reasons): copyc

Don't mix copyc up with copik'la, which means "cute" but should only be used about animals and small children, not adults. (unless it's a pre-negotiated kink thing but let's save that for the advanced lesson.)

See also the section on compliments for other qualities Mandos find appealing and might use to sweet-talk someone.

Pet Names

cyare (love/beloved) and cyar'ika (darling, sweetheart) are the classic go-tos here. If you are married you can call them riduur (spouse/life partner). You could also use ner kar'ta (my heart), which I would argue works well in Mando'a since the way you tell someone you love them is literally to tell them that you hold them in your heart forever. The heart is actually very significant in Mandalorian culture generally; the elongated hexagon you see used in their designs and in the chestplate of their armor is called the kar'ta beskar (beskar heart) and is a culturally significant symbol.

A note on "-ika": using the suffix "-ika" forms a Mando'a diminutive meaning something like "little [thing]" with an affectionate connotation. Hence cyare (beloved) becomes cyar'ika (sweetheart, darling.) You can do this with names: you add -ika to the first syllable, so Jango would be Jan'ika, Din would be Din'ika, Boba would be Bob'ika. (Note- you can fudge the "first syllable" thing to make it sound better and be easier to say. "Bob'ika" flows better than "Bo'ika" but I think it's easier to say "Gro'ika" for Grogu than "Grog'ika.") Note that -ika is a lot like the Japanese -chan in that it generally connotes something young and cute more than something adult. So don't just deploy it at random. An adult calling their adult lover "-ika" is kind of like, say, calling Steve Rogers "Stevie" or possibly even "Stevie-poo" - it definitely can happen but there's a certain vibe to it that you might not always want. But you could still use it in conjunction with any of these other terms - like you could call someone your kar'tika (little heart) and get the point across.

If the person is being formal/poetic/archaic you might see them use ner runi (my soul), though this would not be commonly used by modern Mandalorians; think of it as like.... using terms from Shakespeare to compliment someone. It can work in the right context but it could also sound really pretentious.

There isn't a canon Mando'a noun that means "treasure" or anything similar, but there are adjectives for "valuable" (waadasla) and "important" (jaonyc) so you can work from there if you're flexible with your phrasing. (You can actually transform words in Mando'a into other parts of speech quite easily--there are simple and standard rules for doing it--but that's another post.)

You'll also see mesh'la (beautiful) used, though I tend to think that Mandos wouldn't emphasize physical beauty so much as other qualities they like, such as:

Other Things A Mando Would Compliment You On (could be platonic or romantic)

Being mandokarla (adjective) or having mandokar (noun) means basically "having all the qualities that make an ideal Mandalorian." The dictionary definition calls this "a blend of aggression, tenacity, loyalty, and a lust for life."

Having shereshoy (noun) - this is the "lust for life" referred to above, but that's a shorthand translation. Shereshoy is a Mandalorian cultural concept that means "the enjoyment of each day and the determination to seek and grab every possible experience, as well as surviving to see the next day - hanging onto life and relishing it." (a nice parallel for those who ship Mandos with Jedi is to the Jedi concept of being in the present moment!)

Loyal - verburyc (adj)

Stubborn/tenacious/enduring - atin (adj)

Aggressive (not necessarily negative) - verd'yc (adj) (note that "verd" is "warrior" - this is aggressive in a culturally valued way for Mandalorians and might also be used the way you'd use passionate, ambitious, etc in English. OVERLY aggressive/rude/intrusive would be something like "akaa'naryc" which has a connotation more like starting fights/instigating war.

Clever/intelligent - mirdala (adj)

Brave - kotep (adj)

Good - jate, very good - ori'jate, best - jatne.

Ramikadyc - this is one of those words that needs cultural context to really define. Verd is "warrior," Ramikad is "commando," and ori'ramikad is "supercommando" which is the term for elite special forces. Ramikadyc -literally "commando-like" - is defined as "an attitude that he/she can do anything, endure anything, and achieve the objective. A blend of complete confidence and extreme tenacity instilled in special forces during training. Can also be used informally to describe a determined, focused person." (Side note: ram'or means "to attack" and "kad" is "sword" so ramikad likely originally just meant "swordfighter." Possibly because you need more training to be effective with swords and blasters than blasters alone, this came to refer to a more elite class of soldier.)

Kandosii can mean both indomitable and ruthless, while kandosii'la means stunning or amazing.

Strength - a couple different words here. Kot (strength) and kotyc (strong). Dral, which means strong or powerful but can also mean bright or glowing. This leads to the question- how do you know which word to pick when there are multiple ones with the same or similar dictionary definitions?

My go-to is to look for other words that have similar roots, or canon phrases that contain one of the words, and use that to figure out the connotation/flavor/nuance that distinguishes the words from each other.

So for strength - do you use dral or kotyc?

You see the "dral" root in a few places: Dral'Han (the Annihilation - a more literal translation would be "bright annihilation" or "bright oblivion" and it is a reference to the glare of the orbital bombardment of Mandalore), draluram ("bright-mouth", a term for spicy food), and the phrase "nar dral'shya." (try harder/put your back into it.) The "kot" root appears in kote (glory), kotep (brave), kotir (to defeat, to overpower), and alli'kote (a clan's reputation.) From this, it seems like you might use "kotyc" to talk about physical/martial strength or strength that leads to victory or reputation, and "dral" to talk about more innate or existential kinds of strength/power.

Okay, so you can give the sweet-talk. What about the SPICY talk? (because Mandalorians love spicy food? get it?)

Some Potentially Useful Words For Sexy Stuff

naritir (v) - to insert, to put, to place. Note that if you wanted to do an imperative you would add "ke" to the beginning.

narir (v) - to act, do, put

Nar dral'shya! (phrase) - try harder, put your back into it. (We talked about this phrase above when discussing dral. "shya" at the end means "more [thing]" - it's the equivalent of adding "-er" to an English verb - so "dral'shya" here means something like "more powerfully". The "nar" is likely from narir (act/do/put) but could potentially also be from naritir (insert/put/place), so I think that it's quite possible for this phrase to have a double-entendre connotation something like "shove it in harder.")

Words for body parts - (note, in Mando'a you make a word plural by adding -e to the end if it ends in a consonant and -se if it ends in a vowel)

Hand/hands - gaan/gaane Finger/fingers - cer/cere Buttocks/ass/rear - shebs (note that this is referring to one entire butt; there isn't a word for a single buttock. "shebse" would be "asses" aka the butts of more than one person.) Arm/arms - irud/irude Chest - haalas (there is no word for breasts) Thigh/thighs - motuun/motuune Face - troan (this word also means "mask") Eye/eyes - sur'haai/sur'haaise

Words for THOSE body parts - okay look the Officially Licensed Star Wars Expanded Universe material isn't big on telling you how the GFFA says "cock" so you're going to have to use some creativity here.

Mando'a in general uses gender VERY rarely (in Mando'a, everyone's pronouns are they/them) and when it does, it's mostly in reference to like, animal husbandry. It's generally not going to be very well received to call someone jagyc (male) or dalyc (female) in a sexy context. It's more a medical/scientific thing because in Mandalorian culture biological sex is only relevant for medical/scientific/agricultural reasons and gender only matters in so far as it personally matters to you but is culturally largely irrelevant. Probably Mando OB/GYN vocabulary exists but it was apparently not deemed relevant to the Republic Commando tie-in game and novels that most Mando'a was developed for.

That said, there are definitely crude, Shakespearean-esque jokes including swords and sheaths and such - but these would be considered kind of raunchy and not something that everyone would appreciate. Anyway the words here are:

Kad (n)- sword, saber Dalab (n)- sheath, scabbard

And if you want some verbs, Mando'a has THREE words for stabbing: chekar, kalikir, and bikadinir. Chekar means to stab with a small blade - think "to shiv." Probably not the most complimentary metaphor but some people might be into that. Kalikir is to stab with a narrow blade - "to skewer". Bikadinir is to stab with a broad blade - "to run through." The way that these metaphorical uses might be interpreted are left as an exercise for the reader, ahem.

Big (and little) - Big is "ori" and small is "kih". In addition to using them on their own, you can also use them as modifying prefixes, where they CAN mean physically big or small but can also mean the equivalent of "very [thing]" or "slightly [thing.]" Note that "kih" (at the front) is small/little with no context about how you feel about the thing being described, while -ika (at the back) is a way to say "little" with an affectionate, cutesy vibe. So your ori'vod is your older/big sibling, your kih'vod is your younger/little sibling, and your vod'ika is your little sibling (affectionate.)

Hard (and soft)- you probably want muun (hard as in a surface or material) rather than urakto (hard as in difficult.) Soft or yielding is pel; do not use laandur (fragile) as that is considered an insult.

Tight (and loose)- sadly don't exist, but you can probably use novla (closed/shut) and tenn (open) to get the job done here.

Hole - palon is "hole." surdol means "an opening" or "a window," you could likely use this in a sexy context. I've seen people use "shebs'palon" to mean "asshole" but YMMV.

Hot (and cold)- hot is nadala, but this refers to temperature only. Hot as in attractive you want copyc, hot as in physically appealing you probably want mesh'la. Cold is ciryc.

Wet (and dry)- wet is piryc, dry is haast.

Show - tenganaar is "to show" or "to display" with a root from "open hand" (like you're showing something in the palm of your hand.)

Want - copaanir is the verb "to want." Me'copaani? is "What do you want?" or "what would you like?" vercopaanir (literally future-want) is "to wish" or "to hope" and vercopa is a wish or dream. If you say "Vercopa" followed by a statement, it means "I wish that/may it happen that." So like - "Vercopa mhi me'dinui an" would be "I want us to share all." Vercopa can also have a connotation sort of like the one when someone says "I'm manifesting this" - like, you are urging the universe to make it happen for you. The related word copad (noun) is an ambition or desire.

Okay that got really long but I hope it is helpful to someone! Because I've spent way too much time thinking about this. :)

[mrfandomwars]

The Hardships Of Being A Mandalorian Jedi: Part One - Resol'nare

Hello, it's me.

With another post about Mandalorians (and Jedi).

Sorry, couldn't help it XD

Anywho, back to what needs to be said about this post: I'm breaking down how Jedi, if they wanted to be Mando'ade or are mando'ade that were adopted into the Jedi Order (of which then consider something to think about when making ocs like that), would have a hard time with the rules that were put on the concept of 'mandalorian', both in the Six Actions (Resol'nare) from Legends and with the Way Of The Mandalore from (Disney) Canon.

This meta will be divided into 2 parts, the first part is this one and will focus on the Resol'nare (fair warning though, I Will use most of the Legends version of Mandalorian when talking about the Resol'nare, so no fanon) while the second part, found Here, will focus on Canon, specifically on The Way Of The Mandalore.

This part was a lot more certain - in terms of what the jedi would be able to do and what they can't do - than the second part, but only for a bit, honestly.

That said, let's start, shall we?

Resol'nare - Six Actions

What constituted the Six Actions, you may ask? Well, following "The Mandalorians: People and Culture" from Star Wars Insider 86, it's the following six rules:

This is the 'rules' to be a mandalorian that are followed by most mando fans, especially the older ones.

The Resol'nare was - outside of universe - created by Karen Traviss for her version of Mandalorians - of which are still very popular in the fandom, even though a good proportion of the said fans ignore a good part (for valid reason) of what she created.

Wearing Armour

Speaking Mando'a

Raising their child(ren) as Mandalorians

Defending themselves and their families

Contributing to the clan's welfare

Following a Mand'alor and rallying behind said leader if they call for arms

Sounds easy enough, right? Ehn, not so much if you are also a Jedi.

Why, you may ask? Let me break it down for you:

1. Wearing Armour -

This is one of the easy parts, anyone can wear armour - and, although I wasn't able to find a confirmation, it is said that a helmet issue in Chapter 20: The Foundling might have been simply how the mandalorains adapted to someone needs, just like we do in the real world. Meaning that armour could be adapted for Everyone

2. Speaking Mando'a -

Also super easy! And I'm sure there are variants or certain rules for Ithorians, who can't speak basic and have to use a translator

3. Raising their child(ren) as Mandalorians -

Oh boy! Now we get to the hard ones! Why, you may ask?

Because a Mando Jedi Would have Two Cultures that they would raise their kid by!

And while I'm sure it maybe wouldn't be an issue, the fact is: Mandalorians are known to forcefully change the name of kids they adopt (Kal Skirata, for an example of a victim even though his situation was portrayed positively because Karen Traviss Would Never show her mandos in anything that Wasn't a positive view), we don't get a lot mandos that show other cultures Beyond Mandalorian culture - which is bad btw (and before anyone comes at me, I'm just going to say that it could have been done during the Rebels or The Mandalorian) - and also since they view Jedi as enemies it wouldn't surprise me that they wouldn't be too kind on a kid who was mixed cultures, let alone if the kid preferred the Jedi culture more than Mandalorian.

This is not even talking about the fact that raising children is hard and that the Jedi might have to leave their job in the Order to raise the kid(s) if they weren't force sensitives - thus no longer being a Jedi job (which is what most people want when they say they want a mando jedi), and if they were force sensitive it would mean that they would probably be raised in the Order - And I want you to look at me in the eye and tell me if you truly believe that the majority of mandalorians wouldn't say that the Jedi wasn't "a true mandalorian" for taking that decision.

4. Defending themselves and their families -

Again, they will 100% do that UNLESS it means a greater harm for a good amount of people - and can you tell me that most mandalorian clans would accept that fact? That they wouldn't be the priority if something much bigger happened? Most people in real life wouldn't like that! Would fake accept and then get mad when it did happen because they were hoping that the person would change their minds!

But being a Jedi means following a philosophy of Harm Reduction and that means choosing the option that would save more lives/harm less lives, that fact doesn't change just because one of the people you won't be able to safe is your family. Or your whole family will be people you won't be able to safe, but a million more will survive, and there's No changing that.

5. Contributing to the clan's welfare -

This one seems easy but we don't know how much the Jedi are paid - if they are paid at all, honestly. For all we know they could get paid anything that could help anyone and all their things are made by the Jedi themselves or are donated or given by the Senate for missions, like they give them communicators, but it's mostly with the intent of using them during missions and not every day life - even if that becomes a side effect.

Or maybe the Jedi are given a budget, and they pay their workers, buy stuff they need (food, for example, even if I believe a good majority of vegetables and fruits are grown in the Temple) and pay the bills and then pay the Jedi/give the all the Jedi money depending on their age and rank. and maybe Jedi Shadows win money while undercover that they can use afterwards or normal Jedi have side hustles to earn money, but none of this we know for sure.

We don't Know how much the Jedi get if they get anything at all, so they won't be able to provide financially.

Okay but not with money what else could they do? They can't help around with the kids or daily tasks regularly when they have always the chance to be called away for a mission that could take months to years at the time. They can't help moving because they might get on call and drop that agreement. They can't move around or leave the Republic space because they might be needed for emergencies.

There's nothing that the Jedi can promise to do to help the Clan because of their job, and like.

Again, I can see a good majority of the Mandos (and Fans) not being able to forgive that and use it as a 'proof' that the Jedi ins't a 'True Mandalorian'

6. Following a Mand'alor and rallying behind said leader if they call for arms -

This is the one that it's a full No for the Jedi.

They are supposed to be Neutral, they can't join a side - they can't join the Mand'alor side or support them without a very good reason to.

The Jedi joined the Republic because they could help more planets and people would Listen more easily because they would have the Republic's backing. And I mean, looking at the good they did! A Thousand years of peace, ending slavery in the Republic and still working on ending it outside (Quinlan was on Tattooine, probably undercover take down a slavery ring)

Like lives are in danger and the best course of action is to ally themselves with with the Mand'alor.

Oh, and before anyone brings up the Republic and the War:

The Separatists were Enslaving worlds and literally built a weapon to eradicate all the organic life in a certain distance of the weapon, they Needed to be taken down. No matter the faults of the Republic, they were the better option in the Clone Wars as much as I hate to say it

I already said before on how the Senate is the one giving the Jedi stuff, and I will say it again! The Senate is probably the one who pays for a LOT of things of the Jedi, things they possibly need to survive. They Could Not say no to the Senate without risking the Order's entire life, ESPECIALLY because you can't tell me that Palpatine wouldn't activate Order 66 Earlier if they had said no.

Speaking of Palpatine, did you know the Senate and him drafted the Jedi? Yeah, they CANONICALLY did that.

Anywa, went off the road a bit but yeah.

The Jedi would only swear themselves to the Mand'alor If they were forced to, OR more lives would be saved that way.

And this fact? This being unable to swear themselves to the Mand'alor would be a deal breaker, since then they would be following 5 out of the 6

THE VERDICT:

Out of the Six Actions, we have:

2 that a Jedi would have no trouble following

2 that they would need clauses on - something that the majority of mandos wouldn't allow

1 that is Uncertain, but it's probably a negative since we don't know how well the Jedi would be able to help their clan and most mandos would probably want a full commitment and help for their clans

1 that the Jedi wouldn't be able to follow without a good reason that would last longer than a month

Meaning? A Jedi wouldn't be considered a Mandalorian by the majority of the Mando'ade, in fact they would most likely be considered dar'manda by a good proportion of the Mandalorian people.

Personal Thoughts: All my thoughts right now are surrounding Tarre Vizsla and how he would deal with all of this, since he would only be able to swear to two with no problems Makes me think that what @/aspiringwarriorlibrarian (sorry for the tag) theorized about Tarre becoming a Mand'alor via the non-warrior elite is a lot likely

Part 2 Here