It's my hope that this post will see some more action on these boards. We've got the single biggest mystery in the
Star Wars Universe starting to unfold in the center of the single most important war in the history of the
Star Wars universe. Let's face it, if fans can't discuss Mandalorians after 3 decades of mystery, there's little else to discuss. Sad, but true. So I'm calling all of you out, diehards and noobs alike. Let's talk Mandos! Apologies in advance if I go hypergeek on the masses here. As Marty McFly would say, watch me for the changes and try to keep up.
I'm mostly going to deal with speculation and
Star Wars history for now, since this is clearly leading up to a larger plot as part of a story arc...as well it should.
We've been told from nearly the beginning that the Mandalorians were the Spartans of the
Star Wars universe: the ultimate warriors, Jedi killers from the darkest pages of the history of the Clone Wars. The representation of all of this was Boba Fett. And even then, we didn't know much. We'd learned as part of the culture that the armor was made of Mandalorian iron, a substance that apparently resists the powers of the Force and most lightsaber attacks. The understanding back in the day was that only by calling on the deepest levels of the Dark Side could a Force user hope to damage the iron.
Backstory on Fett was written and negated time and again until the rather unsatisfying Clone story was cemented in G-level canon in Attack of the Clones. And still the question remained, was Jango Fett a Mandalorian? The StarWars.com databank lists Jango's homeworld as Concord Dawn, his EU backstory listing him as an orphan raised by Concord Dawn farmers, and trained by Jaster Mereel (one of the original possible identities of Boba Fett back in the day!). Clearly this backstory is being evolved as Boba Fett's was as G-canon gives us more information. Is Concord Dawn another name for the Mandalorian moon of Concordia that was introduced here?
The episode tells us that Jango Fett was a mere bounty hunter, and alludes that he wasn't a Mandalorian. Considering the source, the Mandalorians in this episode are pacifists, and perhaps Fett's heritage was simply being denied as a matter of disbelief or disgust. Then again, Fett's databank entry also mentioned that the Mandalorian supercommandos were wiped out by the Jedi Knights. What's certain, however, is that his armor is the same as the members of Death Watch, which means he was either a Mando or he was good enough to take the armor from one.
The character of Pre Vizsla claims to be a direct descendant of these great Mandalorian supercommandos we'd always heard so much about, and yet so little. His lightsaber is an older model, and I love this design. It's a retractable blade with an energy halo, the missing link between modern lightsabers and traditional swords. As I mentioned before on this board, Vizsla made some claims that gives us some new information about Mandalorians. Here's the exact quote:
"For generations, my ancestors fought proudly as warriors against the Jedi. Now, that woman tarnishes the very name Mandalorian. Defend her, if you will. This lightsaber was stolen from the Jedi Temple by my ancestors during the fall of the Old Republic. Since then, many Jedi have died upon its blade. Prepare yourself to join them." -- Pre Vizsla.
I suppose history paints different perceptions as to what "Old Republic" could mean across a 25,000 year history of a galactic government. All this time, we were told the Old Republic fell in aftermath of the Clone Wars. Perhaps it's all true, from a certain point of view. What it does tell us is that the Republic fell before, and that the Mandalorians are not only supercommandos and terrorists, they're also thieves and looters. Very proud heritage, lemme tell ya.
I love that Dooku is the one pulling the strings on Vizsla and Death Watch. Could it be his previous connections to Jango had given him an in-road to Vizsla, or did he simply invite himself in and leave them to wonder about the details of how? Maybe I'm reading too much into it, but I love to see puppet master villains at work, and Dooku's nearly as good at it as Darth Sidious.
On the Obi-Wan side of things, the Negotiator apparently has a past with the Duchess Satine, and given how they bicker, perhaps it was romantic? Given that he has to know about Anakin and Padme, maybe Satine is the reason he did not interfere until Anakin's attack on the Jedi Temple... this could be skeleton in Kenobi's closet, so to speak. I'd like to know more about when this happened, and I'm sure we'll be given more info as this arc unfolds. When Kenobi was apprenticed to Qui-Gon, he was clearly the squeaky-clean council-abiding goody two shoes. He had issues with Qui-Gon being the maverick, and that carried over when Anakin followed in those footsteps in many regards.
In the video commentary on StarWars.com, Dave Filoni makes reference to the cubist-style paintings that we barely see in the background. These paintings are patterned after some of Picasso's work, and detail a Mandalorian history of sorts. Kudos to the art direction in this series for little nods like this. It's lost on the general viewers, but as I am both a
Star Wars junkie and an art major, I have to bow to the masters on this one. Also, as is evident in most of the episodes, the homage to the art of Ralph McQuarrie is readily apparent in the buildings and cityscapes. It's one of the things I've always appreciated about this series as McQuarrie's art design is one of the three points that give the universe that quintessential
Star Wars feel, the others being Ben Burtt's sound design and the music of John Williams. They don't use Williams' music very often, but it resonates for me when they do.
All in all, I think this is a solid setup for whatever's coming next. It's tough waiting a whole week to see more, but it's far better than 3 years between films! The question is, can they give us some answers and keep the aura of mystery that kept us coming back to Mandos at the same time? After 30 years, that's a delicate tap dance. So far, the Mando fighting prowess doesn't live up to hype by any stretch. I've seen better fighting skills from Captain Rex and Commander Cody, though Vizsla executing one of his soldiers for failure is a trademark of a potentially classic villain. Very Vader.
Your turn! I want to hear from all of you!
The Mandalorian Plot
Iceberg
Invasion 2196
Suicide Puppy
Linear Mode
