#wish the show remember her past though but i guess ahsoka can't be friend with criminal so the show forget bo's ties to DW now

[cienie-isengardu]

A bit about The Mandalorian s03′s take on mandalorian culture

As much as I like the concept of Living Waters, I do not like how the third season of The Mandalorian presents Mandalorian culture overall. I wasn’t happy with the characterization in the previous two, but the current take is even worse. Major reason for my disdain  stems from the too medieval climate - Bo’s castle, throne, the royal family and its subjects, the baptism-like ceremony, all of this is opposite to Legends!Mandalorian for whom personal skills stood above any blood-connection in regard to their rulers thus no aristocracy was ever needed. The New Mandalorians’ royalty was a good concept in The Clone Wars as it stood in clear contrast to Death Watch’s old warrior faith and added an interesting edge to the destruction of Mandalore and following Republic occupation (that may have never truly ended by the ~700 years). In The Clone Wars, Death Watch was Bo-Katan’s major tie, but since Rebels, the focus is put on her sisterhood with Satine and the royal family status and The Mandalorian season three expand this even more - she lived in castle, sit on throne, had ceremonial “baptism” as princess and so on. At this point I really miss the “barbarian” feeling of Death Watch even more since Bo’s own Mandalorian warriors were removed from the story, leaving us with one lone Bo-Katan, Boba Fett on Tatooine or whatever he is as I don’t follow his TV series and cult-ish Children of the Watch. Which is pretty irritating, I won’t lie, especially since later seasons of TCW, Rebels and now the TV series don’t bother to even mention Pre Vizsla or Bo’s criminal past - and mind you, this is no “Bo shouldn’t have her redemption arc” - which she arguable already had as freedom fighter against Empire and more complain that Disney/New Canon on purpose erase problematic or nuanced elements of its own worldbuilding. Like, mentioned Bo’s past and her part in the fall of Mandalore or how she was elected/accepted by clans because now Darksaber can be only passed through the fight? And why? Because Mandalorians can’t make a sensible choice about whom they should follow? Because they can’t stick to an ideological case that was important in the previous season but now Bo has no darksaber so her own clan abandoned her to be mercenary? Like, seriously? What happened to the Mandalorian loyalty to the family? Bo may have lost the status of Mandalore, yet Din did not make a claim to be new sole leader so why Koska - described in Character Encyclopedia as “loyal member of Bo’s Mandalorian gang” ditched her companion? 

Seriously, at this point I admire Bo-Katan’s loyalty to Pre Vizsla as she threw away the ancient laws out of window the moment Maul killed her leader / friend and sure, she came with the no outsider is allowed to be Mandalore argument (something that from historical perspective is not true, as in ancient times Ulic Qel-Droma dueled with Mandalore and his success was accepted by warriors) but The Clone Wars made it pretty clear Pre’s death was an emotionally wrecking moment in her life. Arguably more than Satine’s death yet the newest animations and TV series mentions only her sister in passing but not a man that clearly meant something to her. Which is, again, an irritating aspect of Disney’s New Canon. 

There is also no mention of Satine as pacifist / New Mandalorian leader, no mention of Pre Vizsla (who in contrast to Din was capable of using darksaber which is pretty hilarious side-effect of switching lore about this weapon from “ancient item passed in Clan Vizsla” to “well known Mandalorian attribute of power” ) or Death Watch in general. Instead we have this cult-ish Children of the Watch with the weird rule forbidding members to remove the helmet even in presence of their own family and who seem to care more about if the helmet was removed than about Creed itself as was seen with Bo accidentally joining this group. A rule that A) feels to be a rip-off from Sand People’s culture (except Tuskens are allowed to see the face of their spouse) B) has no sense because it is not the armor that makes anyone a Mandalorian but personal deeds. And sure, beskar’gam always played an important role in Mandalorian culture yet at this point I’m truly tired of putting so much focus on armor rather than the soul of a Mandalorian warrior. Armor can be destroyed and rebuilt after all but what counts are the people who wear it, not the other way.

For me, Children of the Watch worked in the previous season because we still had Bo’s clan and Boba Fett (loner) to somehow balance the overview of Mandalorian culture yet in the third season the different types of Mandalorians were removed from the story. Boba is out of the picture, Bo was abandoned by her own people and so there is only Din and Armorer’s tribe  that is too frustrating for my taste. I like the religious aspect it brings to the show but it is hard to take seriously this group as representative of Mandalorian people with their silly rule about not removing helmets (how do they even take care of their personal hygiene then? How do they cut their hair? What about deaf members? How can they learn to read from lips or read anything from facial expression if other members can’t show their face? I know Din communicated with Tusken via hand signals but since children grew up around masked adults how does the communication work exactly? What about an intimate relationship? Or growing up and not having a clue how your mother’s face looks under the helmet? Or father, older sibling, other clan (family) members? What about providing medical assistance in the event of a head injury?). Not to mention the whole weird deal with Armorer who has such great knowledge about Mandalorian lore but doesn’t teach it unless the situation requires her to give a proper explanation? Mind you I did not rewatch the previous seasons so my memory may be a bit rusty but Din did not even know who the Jedi were even though they have special place in Mandalorian history (usually negative in the sense they are the enemy hard to defeat in fair fight) and it was pretty common thing for “normal” Mandalorian to teach their kids about the danger coming from force-sensitive people? And sure, Jedi were supposed to be dead but if Din was a bounty hunter how he has never heard about them with the Rebellion having this one special Jedi in their rank who also happened to be the most wanted man by the Empire?

The Mandalorian TV series creates a long list of question I have about its worldbuilding around Mandalorian culture that somehow switched from Legends “only the best can be Mandalore” and “Mandalorians believe in loyalty” to Disney’s “royal families” and “let’s ditch our leader and our cause just because someone’s else has darksaber yet makes no claim about leadership”. Or let's use a cool looking darksaber as a haunted item that for no real reason is also a symbol of leadership because the Jedi weapon is the most Mandalorian symbol of all possible choices apparently.

And you know what was great about Fenn Shysa and his protectors who fought against the Empire in the older source material? That the fight against imperial enslavement truly united Mandalorians to the point that even former Death Watchmen joined his group. As much as I like Bo-Katan’s comment about how Mandalorian fight against each other often for weird reasons, it truly saddens me that in Disney’s canon even the common enemy like Empire did not manage to unite Mandalorians. Because it is better drama when everyone bothers with some random mystic item than actually working together to take your freedom back and rebuild your world. But sure, whatever.

I seriously miss Legends Mandalorians because Disney’s take on them is so frustrating.