#jango fett and walon wau | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

cienie-isengardu · 2 years

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There are plenty of good and bad things I could say about Republic Commando books but one of my favorite parts of the series is the plot twist of Kal Skirata’s recruitment into the Cuy'val Dar - the training sergeants recruited personally by Jango Fett to train clone commandos on Kamino.

Majority of the recruited people in fact were Mandalorians but apparently out of 100 needed people, Jango managed to hire only 75 of his “compatriots” while 25 were (foreing) specialists. The Republic Commandos: Order 66 even mentions the possibility of Jango’s problem with finding enough Mandalorians for the jobs:

The four Mandalorians exchanged a few words and disappeared. Without his helmet systems, Scorch couldn't overhear anything at that distance. "Why did Fett recruit any non-Mando sergeants at all?"

Sev shrugged. "He said it was for the skills mix, but I reckon he just couldn't find a hundred Mandos to front up for him."

From the Imperial Commando: 501st we known that Jango hired Isabet Reau and Dread Priest who in mentioned book joined Death Watch and tie-in source material, Bounty Hunter Code, strongly implied that Jango was familiar with their mindset by wondering if the Death Watch Manifesto was really written by Tor Vizsla since it sounded more like something Reau and Priest would say. Yet despite the ideological conflict between Mij & Skirata clan and these two Mandalorians, there is little to none(?) hints that Jango despited Isabet or Dread on personal level or had doubts about hiring them (the only one conflict I remember was Jango’s intervention that put to the end Priest’s Battle Circle, after Mij reported it Fett and that happened at least some time after hiring the man).

On one hand, it could be desperation that forced Jango to hire any available Mandalorian at that time. But here comes the funniest part: even with such limited human resources, Jango Fett didn’t really choose (and most likely didn’t want) Kal Skirata on this secret project.

"You never told me what you got up to on Kamino in the time before the rest of the Cuy'val Dar showed up," Skirata said, trying to look as if he'd taken the outburst in stride. "So what else are you going to tell me?" Shab, they might not have been best buddies from birth, but they were as close as two Mando'ade could get. Vau owed him some honesty. "You were the galactic freestyle dancing champion, too?"

Vau didn't meet Skirata's eyes for a moment, but he glanced at Jusik. "I could have been at Galidraan, but I wasn't, and I never forgot that. Not my fight. Should have been my fight."

"And you could have been dead, now, too. Bard'ika, if you don't know-"

"Oh, I know what happened at Galidraan," Jusik said. "I know Jedi wiped out Jango's entire army." He paused. "And I know Jango killed Jedi with his bare hands, too, because I once talked to a Jedi who was there"

Vau nodded approvingly. "See, if you want to take out Jedi," he said, "only the likes of Jango could really do it. Only his clones, trained by him, and by men and women like him. That's why he knew it had to be done. He couldn't take them all down alone, but he knew an entire army of Jangos could."

Skirata thought of the abuse he'd heaped on Jango. He knew the man; he'd fought with him, in every sense of the word, and he'd also had comradely moments with him. The thought that he might have done him a disservice was one burden of guilt too many. He shut it out. If Jango had been playing the long game, Skirata had never caught a whiff of it. He knew it wasn't all about the credits. He'd seen Jango cradling Boba in the early days, and that man wanted a son as much as any man ever had. So Skirata hadn't looked for any motive beyond that. It was the only motive Skirata would have had.

"I stand corrected," said Skirata. How do I apologize? Where do I even start, with the osik I have to deal with now? "So I was wrong about Jango."

And now I know why Shysa wants Jango's legacy to live on at any cost.

Vau shrugged. "I let him down once." Vau would never shake off that feeling of having failed, the legacy of his vile father. He'd instilled it into his clones, despite himself. "But I never let him down again."

"Don't beat yourself up. I should have been at Galidraan, too."

"I know," said Vau. "That's why I chose you for the Cuy'val Dar."

Skirata grappled with the stomach-knotting realization that he really didn't know Vau half as well as he thought he did.

He chose me. Shab, he chose me.

"Okay, Walon, answer me this, will you? No osik. Did Jango want me on the team?"

"We discussed all personnel fully."

"Don't talk like some shabla administrator to me. Did he want me?"

Vau wavered for a moment. Outbursts and wavering in one night; it was all revelations. "You know Jango. He could get his downs on people, and then he'd see sense. Does it matter a shab now?"

For context, Kal learned the truth during the time of Order 66 - which means 11 years has passed between getting the job and the current moment. Skirata spent eight years training clone troopers on Kamino and for most of that time, he and Walon weren’t the best of buddies. His dislike of Vau was so strong that both men not only got into violent fights about how to train clones but came close to killing each other a few times. Skirata warmed up to Vau during the three years of Clone Wars when both Mandalorians put aside their differences and joined forces to save their former charges (and the few millions of the credits that Vau stole from bank on Mygeeto to help finance Skirata’s ambitious plan for sure helped a lot).

Which means that Vau for over a decade knew that he was responsible for putting Kal on Kamino where the man found a new family and purpose in life. Skirata saved the Nulls, yes, but in many ways, the little boys saved the Mandalorian over the years too. Vau had a lot opportunities to turn that truth into emotional blackmail or insult to hurt Skirata in their ongoing brawls and spats but for the whole time he endured Kal’s ire and sentimental twaddle about Jango or social injustices without giving any hint he was more involved in this project than any other training sarge.

And Vau told the truth to Skirata only after the man asked if there were more things he should know about Jango and/or training clones and the truth didn’t matter anymore.

What is both pretty impressive on Vau’s part but also ironic in the context of the books and the general idealization of Kal Skirata by almost all characters interacting with him. He is the “dad” to clones and other “strays”but he wouldn’t be part of all of this if Vau, for whatever reason, didn’t decide to drag him on Kamino, despite the Jango’s potential disapproval and then for decade did not even bring that matter even once?

Apparently, Walon and Jango discussed all personnel which may as well mean not only a person's fighting skills or field expertise but also psychological matters (being cut away from the “living world”, maybe even the side-effects of training literal little kids into killing machines for hated Jedi Order / Republic?) and it seems Vau needed to argue for Kal’s sake before Jango actually agreed to hire Skirata.

What in itself:

↪ shows that Walon to some degree could influence Jango’s decisions - or, alternatively, out-stubborn Jango Fett what is pretty impressive feat on its own too

↪ raises a question how close they truly were, since Jango chose Vau way before the rest of Cuy’val Dar showed up on Kamino. I don’t think it would be a mistake to assume Walon was one of the first Mandalorians - if not literally the first one - picked by Jango.

Kal himself wasn’t really fond of Jango Fett but respected him as a very skilled warrior (and most likely he wasn’t the only one Cuy’val Dar to feel like that about the former leader of True Mandalorians, as was hinted in the Order:66, “The Mandalorian training sergeants handpicked by Fett hadn't all been fond of him, but they respected his prowess.”). Quite likely the dislike could be a mutual thing and Kal had a complicated relationship with Walon and yet Vau seems to maintain his relationship with Jango and Kal despite whatever was happening on Kamino and was in that regard like, the less problematic of their trio and maybe worrying about others the most?

Like, seriously, this scene really put upside down what we knew about the dynamic between these characters and showed Walon Vau in a totally new light for me. It also makes me laugh everytime I think about how almost everyone has this weird soft spot for Skirata while Jango apparently did not want Kal on his team and to be honest, I feel solidarity with Jango in that regard.

(The whole situation also puts hiring Priest and Reau in a totally different light, but that is a matter to discuss in another time).

#star wars #jango fett #walon vau #kal skirata #republic commando #republic commando book series #the plot twist - walon vau saved almost everyone by picking kal skirata as potential training sarge #and somehow forced jango to hire him #the hero XD #no seriously i'm dying to learn more about #jango fett and walon wau #and how vau managed to survive with skirata on the same planet for so long #were skirata kinda hated his guts for the 8 years #and vau not once even hinted how much skirata owns him #also the irony if vau actually was so stubborn that jango gave up and hired skirata #only to get stubborn little atin to train XD #and yeah i'm not fan of skirata #but i will give the book that #walon vau and kal skirata #has an interesting dynamic

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