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sapphicstarwars · 4 months

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The Sapphic Star Wars Rarepair Tournament is about to begin! We have compiled 100 wlw rarepairs (all with less than 50 fics on AO3), and will be running a series of polls until only one remains. The polls will open on the first day of Femslash February and run all month long. Additional info and the entire list of pairings can be found below (to be updated after each round) @swfandomevents

IMPORTANT NOTES:

Some ships may have more than 50 fics on AO3 now, but at the time of the original data pull (November 2023) they were below the threshold.

Threats of violence or jokes of killing characters mentioned in the polls will not be tolerated. Commenting or tagging polls with calls for harm will result in an immediate block.

Arguing over the sexuality of characters or how queer they are will also result in a block. This tournament is for fun, and is meant to highlight amazing rare pairs that don't get enough love. Canon or explicit confirmation that a character is sapphic does not make them an automatic winner or a better pair. Please vote based on what ships you are excited to see more of and be respectful.

The list below will be updated regularly as winners are decided.

ROUND ONE

Ahsoka Tano/Steela Gerrera vs Phasma/Nastia Unamo

Rae Sloane/Phasma vs Shara Bey/Jyn Erso

Mon Mothma/Hera Syndulla vs Enfys Nest/Leia Organa

Reva Sevander/Tala Durith vs Jordanna Sparkburn/Sylvestri Yarrow

Oola/Leia Organa vs Juhani/Belaya

Kleya Marki/Mon Mothma vs Vette/Jaesa Willsaam

Chelli Lona Aphra/Hera Syndulla vs Lana Beniko/Jaesa Willsaam

Leia Organa/Hera Syndulla vs Rook Kast/Bo-Katan Kryze

Mon Mothma/Tynnra Pamlo vs Elia Kane/Dedra Meero

Zorii Bliss/Bazine Netal vs Yana Ro/Kor Plouth

Visas Marr/The Jedi Exile vs Fennec Shand/Drash

Kleya Marki/Vel Sartha vs Ahsoka Tano/Shin Hati

Padmé Amidala/Dormé vs Mara Jade/Leia Organa

Fennec Shand/Koska Reeves vs Depa Billaba/Adi Gallia

Rae Sloane/Hera Syndulla vs Karé Kun/Jessika Pava

Jyn Erso/Ahsoka Tano vs Qi'ra/Amilyn Holdo

Latts Razzi/Asajj Ventress vs F!Revan/Meetra Surik

Bo-Katan Kryze/Padmé Amidala vs Rae Sloane/Adea Rite

Leia Organa/Evaan Verlaine vs Visas Marr/Brianna

Luminara Unduli/Asajj Ventress vs Ahsoka Tano/Reva Sevander

Visas Marr/Mira vs Juhani/Bastila Shan

Bo-Katan Kryze/Fennec Shand vs Depa Billaba/Shaak Ti

Fennec Shand/Garsa Fwip vs Yana Ro/Shea Ganandra

Jyn Erso/Mon Mothma vs Ahsoka Tano/Morgan Elsbeth

Bo-Katan Kryze/Sabine Wren vs Merrin/Trilla Suduri

Fennec Shand/The Armorer vs Juhani/F!Revan

Reva Sevander/Tala Durith vs Qi'ra/Enfys Nest

Ahsoka Tano/The Armorer vs Kleya Marki/Cinta Kaz

Shara Bey/Evaan Verlaine vs Zorii Bliss/Jannah

Rook Kast/Barriss Offee vs Rae Sloane/Karyn Faro

Bo-Katan Kryze/Ursa Wren vs Bix Caleen/Cinta Kaz

Zorii Bliss/Rey vs Qi'ra/Ahsoka Tano

Jyn Erso/Sabine Wren vs Leia Organa/Sana Starros

Padmé Amidala/Satine Kryze vs Qi'ra/Rey

Zeen Mrala/Lula Talisola vs Qi'ra/Sana Starros

Peet Deretalia/Jessika Pava vs Qi'ra/Leia Organa

ROUND TWO

37. Ahsoka Tano/Steela Gerrera vs Shara Bey/Jyn Erso 38. Chelli Lona Aphra/Sana Starros vs Mon Mothma/Hera Syndulla 39. Bazine Netal/Phasma vs Reva Sevander/Tala Durith 40. Bo-Katan Kryze/Koska Reeves vs Juhani/Belaya 41. Kleya Marki/Mon Mothma vs Enfys Nest/Ahsoka Tano 42. Chelli Lona Aphra/Hera Syndulla vs Padmé Amidala/Aayla Secura 43. Rook Kast/Bo-Katan Kryze vs Rae Sloane/Chelli Lona Aphra 44. Mon Mothma/Tynnra Pamlo vs Trilla Suduri/Merrin 45. Yana Ro/Kor Plouth vs Visas Marr/The Jedi Exile 46. Fennec Shand/Leia Organa vs Vel Sartha/Kleya Marki 47. Shaak Ti/Luminara Unduli vs Dormé/Padmé Amidala 48. Matthea Cathley/Oliviah Zeveron vs Koska Reeves/Fennec Shand 49. Jessika Pava/Karé Kun vs Bo-Katan Kryze/Breha Organa 50. Jyn Erso/Ahsoka Tano vs Rae Sloane/Elia Kane 51. Latts Razzi/Asajj Ventress vs Elia Kane/Koska Reeves 52. Bo-Katan Kryze/Padmé Amidala vs Reva Sevander/Trilla Suduri 53. Leia Organa/Evaan Verlaine vs Luminara Unduli/Asajj Ventress 54. Leia Organa/Sabine Wren vs Juhani/Bastila Shan 55. Kaydel Ko Connix/Jessika Pava vs Bo-Katan Kryze/Fennec Shand 56. Elia Kane/Karyn Faro vs Garsa Fwip/Fennec Shand 57. Ahsoka Tano/Morgan Elsbeth vs Ahsoka Tano/Trace Martez 58. Trilla Suduri/Merrin vs Padmé Amidala/Beru Whitesun 59. Juhani/Revan vs Mon Mothma/Breha Organa 60. Qi'ra/Enfys Nest vs Padmé Amidala/Mon Mothma 61. The Armorer/Ahsoka Tano vs Shara Bey/Evaan Verlaine 62. Padmé Amidala/Breha Organa vs Rae Sloane/Karyn Faro 63. Saché/Yané vs Bix Caleen/Cinta Kaz 64. Chelli Lona Aphra/Magna Tolvan vs Qi'ra/Ahsoka Tano 65. Leia Organa/Sana Starros vs Qi'ra/Jyn Erso 66. Padmé Amidala/Satine Kryze vs Kaydel Ko Connix/Paige Tico 67. Zeen Mrala/Lula Talisola vs Fennec Shand/Asajj Ventress 68. Peet Deretalia/Jessika Pava vs Merrin/Mosey Cimarron

ROUND THREE

69. Jyn Erso/Shara Bey vs Mon Mothma/Hera Syndulla 70. Captain Phasma/Bazine Netal vs Juhani/Belaya 71. Enfys Nest/Ahsoka Tano vs Chelli Lona Aphra/Hera Syndulla 72. Rae Sloane/Chelli Lona Aphra vs Mon Mothma/Tynnra Pamlo 73. The Jedi Exile/Visas Marr vs Leia Organa/Fennec Shand 74. Luminara Unduli/Shaak Ti vs Matthea Cathley/Oliviah Zeveron 75. Breha Organa/Bo-Katan Kryze vs Ahsoka Tano/Jyn Erso 76. Elia Kane/Koska Reeves vs Trilla Suduri/Reva Sevander 77. Asajj Ventress/Luminara Unduli vs Sabine Wren/Leia Organa 78. Kaydel Ko Connix/Jessika Pava vs Elia Kane/Karyn Faro 79. Morgan Elsbeth/Ahsoka Tano vs Padmé Amidala/Beru Whitesun 80. Juhani/Revan vs Qi'ra/Enfys Nest 81. The Armorer/Ahsoka Tano vs Rae Sloane/Karyn Faro 82. Bix Caleen/Cinta Kaz vs Qi'ra/Ahsoka Tano 83. Qi'ra/Jyn Erso vs Paige Tico/Kaydel Ko Connix 84. Asajj Ventress/Fennec Shand vs Peet Deretalia/Jessika Pava

ROUND FOUR

85. Jyn Erso/Shara Bey vs Captain Phasma/Bazine Netal 86. Ahsoka Tano/Enfys Nest vs Mon Mothma/Tynnra Pamlo 87. The Jedi Exile/Visas Marr vs Matthea Cathley/Oliviah Zeveron 88. Breha Organa/Bo-Katan Kryze vs Elia Kane/Koska Reeves 89. Asajj Ventress/Luminara Unduli vs Jessika Pava/Kaydel Ko Connix 90. Morgan Elsbeth/Ahsoka Tano vs Enfys Nest/Qi'ra 91. Karyn Faro/Rae Sloane vs Ahsoka Tano/Qi'ra 92. Paige Tico/Kaydel Ko Connix vs Peet Deretalia/Jessika Pava

ROUND FIVE

93. Enfys Nest/Ahsoka Tano vs Ahsoka Tano/Qi'ra 94. Jessika Pava/Kaydel Ko Connix vs Jessika Pava/Kaydel Ko Connix 95. Captain Phasma/Bazine Netal vs Morgan Elsbeth/Ahsoka Tano 96. The Jedi Exile/Visas Marr vs Breha Organa/Bo-Katan Kryze

ROUND SIX

97. Peet Deretalia/Jessika Pava vs The Jedi Exile/Visas Marr 98. Ahsoka Tano/Qi'ra vs Morgan Elsbeth/Ahsoka Tano

ROUND SEVEN

99. Match 97 Winner vs Match 98 Winner

#sapphic star wars #star wars events #the mandalorian #the clone wars #sw rebels #swr #andor #ahsoka #star wars femslash #star wars lesbians #star wars wlw #the book of boba fett #poll tournament #rarepairtournament #admin post

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likethecities · 3 years

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In “Defense” of Bo-Katan in Mandalorian S2

(or, why Bo’s refusal to accept Boba as Mandalorian in 2x08, after Din did accept it in 2x06, is internally consistent with her character and view of Mandalore, and is not only because she’s a self-serving ass*)

*(although she is both of those things)

NOTE: This is a discussion of why her view of Boba is logical for her character and where I hope/think it will go in S3 and the concept of “Mandalorian”. It is NOT an endorsement for her behavior.

This is ONLY based in current, Disney canon, not Legends. In Legends, Jango was the leader of Mandalore for several years if not decades. However! that line conflicts with TCW. So we’re using the old rule of “if it conflicts, current canon wins” and tossing it out. If it gets recanonized, we can come back to it.

Okay first! Let’s break down the major Mandalorian characters/factions in the Mandalorian.

Din Djarin/Children of the Watch

Bo-Katan Kryze/Nite Owls

Boba and Jango Fett

What do they have in common? All three groups place a lot of practical and symbolic/ancestral value on their beskar armor. Bo and Din also place a lot of importance on the value of the Way, although with different interpretations. Lastly, Bo specifically cares about Mandalore as a place. Unsurprisingly, they all have different interpretations of what it means to be Mandalorian.

Let’s start with Din and the Children of the Watch (CotW). Here’s what we know about their definition of Mandalorian:

high cultural and symbolic value on Mandalorian armor

foundlings/non-Mandalorian children can be raised Mandalorian

very strict interpretation of the Way/Creed

non-Mandalorians cannot wear Mandalorian armor

As a final note, they don’t appear to have much actual beskar. Most of their armor, though forged in Mandalorian style, isn’t made of beskar, but other metals instead. It’s a big deal when Din rolls up with enough beskar to forge a whole suit; that kind of windfall doesn’t just happen.

So when S2 rolls around and Din runs into people wearing Mandalorian armor who don’t follow the Way as he knows it, he assumes they aren’t Mandalorian, with the following results:

Cobb (2x01): admits to not being Mandalorian when Din challenges him, offers to return armor to Din (standing in as a representative of all Mandalorians) once Din helps him. Din agrees, helps, and then leaves with the armor.

Bo-Katan/Nite Owls (2x03): claim a different interpretation of the Way, declare ownership over their armor through family heritage. Din recognizes their claim.

Boba (2x06): identifies himself as the rightful owner of the armor, refuses to claim clan ties or the Creed. Din (eventually) recognizes his claim.

Once Din has accepted that other Mandalorians don’t have the same interpretation of the Way that he does, he’s willing to accept proof of ownership as enough. Likely, this is because the CotW don’t have much beskar, and so they recognize prior claims much more strictly. For Din, at least, owning the beskar is enough to drop the argument about being Mandalorian or not. Now let’s move to Bo and her supporters. Here’s what we know about them:

high cultural and symbolic value on Mandalorian armor: status symbol, but not required by all members

looser interpretation of the Way

high value on clan/community membership, or connection to Mandalore as a planet

non-Mandalorians cannot (or at least shouldn’t) wear Mandalorian armor

We know from SW Rebels and TCW that Bo, her followers, and most of the Mandalore-based people that you do not have to wear armor to be Mandalorian. Sabine’s father is an artist and is never seen fighting or wearing armor, but no one questions that he’s Mandalorian. The armor and Creed alone aren’t a requirement.

How else do we know this? Because Bo spent several seasons backing Pre Viszla and the darksaber for the Mandalorian throne, but when Viszla lost the darksaber - and his head - to Maul, Bo objected. Maul wasn’t Mandalorian; he didn’t care about the place, the community, the culture, or the Way. So Bo turned to Satine, the leader that she had just deposed, as a more “Mandalorian” challenger. Satine still has her House Kryze ties and close attachment to Mandalore as a place; that was enough to make her Mandalorian and a better choice than Maul, even though she’d nearly completely broken with old Mandalorian ways.

(And, we should note, that some Mandalorians did switch their allegiance to Maul after this, because they recognized the right of the darksaber over any community or clan ties. They’re also still Mandalorian.)

So when Bo and her team meet Din, they recognize Din as Mandalorian. He’s part of a Mandalorian offshoot sect: that’s his clan/community. They think his rules are weird and antiquated*, but they recognize them as related to the Way as they know it.

*yes, Bo is a jerk about this, because Bo is a jerk about a lot of things. She does accept it, though, which is the important part for this discussion.

Okay, now let’s turn to Boba.

Boba never explicitly claims to be Mandalorian, with Din in 2x06 or in the bar 2x08. He says that Jango was a Mandalorian foundling, but despite Din giving him multiple opportunities to claim to be Mandalorian, Boba rebuffs every single one. He doesn’t have any clan or community ties, and he doesn’t care about the planet; he’s actively derisive about Bo’s goal to retake it. He doesn’t appear to follow any parts of the Way. Frankly, Boba doesn’t seem to even want to be Mandalorian, he just puts up with being associated with them because of the armor. He certainly doesn’t care who considers themselves Mandalorian or why. The only things that Boba cares about are that a) his ownership of his armor is acknowledged, and b) he’s recognized as Jango Fett’s son. That’s it.

Again, for Din, that’s enough. Boba can prove that the armor is his and he can prove that Jango obtained it properly (ie, as a Mandalorian foundling). Conflict solved, everyone move on.

For Bo and her followers, that’s not enough. The armor isn’t the sole thing that marks you as Mandalorian, and Boba (and Jango after becoming a bounty hunter, apparently for much of his adult life) has none of the clan/community ties that are part of her definition and no attachment to the planet or culture of Mandalore. Ergo, he’s not Mandalorian, and rightfully-obtained armor or not, him wearing it is against their culture. And yes, Bo is being racist (something -ist, at least) when she calls Jango his “donor”, but she also has a point. There are millions of Jango Fett clones in the galaxy, and none of them were raised in Mandalorian culture or have any connection to Mandalore except DNA. Rewatching the bar scene, she doesn’t seem to have any idea who Boba is until she recognizes his voice and identifies him as a clone. Why should he or any clone deserve to wear Mandalorian armor, especially when they don’t participate in Mandalorian culture?

(the answer, obviously, is because Jango raised Boba as his son and heir and chose to pass down his armor/ship accordingly. But Bo has no reason to know this and she wouldn’t consider him Mandalorian either way, so there’s no point in Boba proving his ownership even if he cared enough about her opinion to bother.)

This also ties into the problem of the darksaber. Gideon isn’t Mandalorian, and it seems likely he obtained the sword when the Imperial Remant “glassed” the planet, so he’s not recognized as ruler of Mandalore even when he holds the darksaber. Din

Mandalorian, and he won it in combat. That’s an undeniable claim. He’s also worked with Bo multiple times, it’s not his fault that Gideon outplayed both of them, and he’s very, very good in a fight. Bo really wants that weapon to shore up her claim, but she also knows it’s not very honorable to attack an ally who didn’t ask for this, and she probably doesn’t want to risk the possibility that she might lose. She’s in a bind.

Similarly, Din really doesn’t want the darksaber or the responsibilities that go with it, but he can’t just hand it over because that’s against the Creed. Sabine did, but she never “won” the darksaber; she just picked it up out of Maul’s garbage cave, which was vague enough for everyone to accept her passing it up. (She was also probably 17 or 18 at the time and was considered a traitor by most Mandalorians, which probably helped). But Din is also very honorable; if he can’t find a way to pass the saber off, he’ll probably feel obligated to fulfill the requirements to the best of his abilities until he either does find someone else to take them or accepts them permanently (kinda like Grogu himself HMMMMMM). We already know that Din is fairly good at diplomacy from 2x01, but he’s never worked with Mandalorians outside of his clan before, so he’s got a steep learning curve.

So my guess: S3 is going to be about reuniting the disparate Mandalorian groups, all of whom have different versions of what it means to be Mandalorian, and finding some common ground. They will either attempt to retake Mandalore or find somewhere else to make a homeland, or possibly make the decision to stay dispersed. If Bo stays as a major character, we might see her trying to recruit Din into her clan to influence him; if not, she might slink off and wait to see how he does.

Something that could be cool? Din putting a lot of effort into trying to connect with other Mandalorians and Bo admitting that he’s actually doing a pretty good job, even if she wanted to do it herself! #growth for both of them. Meanwhile Boba, who again appears to not give two shits about any of this, will probably be chilling on Tatooine, maybe throwing some info or weapons Din’s way if he thinks Din actually has a shot at something. Or ignoring all of them and taking over the Hutt empire instead, who knows.

Either way, I hope we get more discussion of what happened to Mandalore, Mandalorian identity, and Mandalorian politics in S3.

#the mandalorian #the mandalorian spoilers #din djarin #bo katan kryze #boba fett #jango fett #children of the watch #nite owls #mandalore #mandalorians #meta #darksaber #star wars

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mandalorianchronicles · 3 years

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So What Makes a Mandalorian a Mandalorian? || Part One

Among the main themes playing out in this season, Din’s perception about Mandalorians is a major one. Those of us who grew up with Star Wars - watched the movies, the TV series, read the books - basically consumed as much Star Wars content as we could...we have a lot of Mandalorian lore and information to sift through and many of it is contradictory.

For those who saw the OT, Boba Fett was the original Mandalorian. There were many books written about this one bounty hunter who had a soft spot for the nastiest characters in the galaxy. They were always writing him to have this complicated code of honor that made him sort of good, even though he was clearly bad. We *wanted* him to be good.

Then the PT came out and we got his backstory. Jango Fett was a bounty hunter who took a job as the DNA donor for the entire GAR and kept one unaltered clone for himself to raise as a son. When the Jedi killed Jango, 10-year-old Boba was left alone, nursing a deep hatred for the Jedi (or at least, for Mace Windu). His fondness for the Empire in his later years now made more sense.

But Boba still wasn’t a Mandalorian, as nothing that the EU books or comics had released about him was counted as canon, even before Disney took over. Then TCW came out and we had even more insight into Boba. We saw his complete disregard for his clone brothers. We saw Aurra Sing leading him down a darker and darker path - but we also saw how he didn’t enjoy killing for the sake of killing either. That much, his father had instilled in him. In interviews, we discovered that George Lucas had never intended for either Jango or Boba to be true Mandalorians, something that TCW seemed to confirm when Obi-Wan Kenobi asked the Prime Minister of Mandalore about Jango and Almec stated that Jango was not a Mandalorian and he didn’t even know how Jango had come by that armor. The case seemed closed at that point, though many fans doggedly clung to the lore than Boba and Jango were Mandalorians.

Fast forward to today. We learned a few important things about Boba:

1) His armor is actually his father’s. There was conflicting lore about this as well, none of it confirmed in canon. Some said it was Jango’s, others said it was his own. Some even said that it was made of carbon steel, instead of beskar. Glad that’s settled.

2) Boba never took the creed. This was assumed by most everyone who watch TCW, but it’s good that it was confirmed. So, if you go by the supposition that true Mandalorians are not a race, but a creed - Boba Fett is not Mandalorian.

3) Jango *might* have been a Mandalorian. He was a foundling and he was given the armor by Mandalorians. That would imply that he did take the creed, but it doesn’t confirm it. Foundlings who are raised by Mandalorians are allowed to take the creed when they come of age, and then they are given their own armor. However, as we know from season one, foundlings who take the creed are all recorded in the Hall of Records on Mandalore, something that Prime Minister Almec would have had access to. He obviously knew Jango, but was emphatic about the fact that Jango was NOT Mandalorian. So, did Jango actually take the creed to become a true Mandalorian? Was he “given” the armor or did he take it? Is The Mandalorian retconning TCW or is there more to the story? We may never know. Regardless, he was killed, and Boba inherited the beskar. And now he has it back.

Which brings us back to the Din’s identity crisis in season 2.

Din has learned some very important things about Mandalorians over the past several weeks, and I’d say he’s taking it very well. We started out with him meeting Cobb Vanth, a non-Mandalorian wearing Boba’s armor. When he took off the helmet, Din rightly assumed he was not a Mandalorian. They worked out a deal, and Din kept the armor because it belonged with a true Mandalorian.

Next, Din met Bo-Katan Kryze. When she took off her helmet, Din wrongly assumed she was not a Mandalorian. She informed him that he was part of the Children of the Watch, a fringe cult of Mandalorian zealots who believe in “the way”. I’m going to pause here and define what a cult is for people who have been debating this for the last few weeks.

A cult is “a system of religious veneration and devotion directed toward a particular figure or object.” In the case of CotW, their devotion is directed to the armor itself. Mandalorians existed long before they had their armor (according to legend). They developed the beskar armor to even the playing field against their ancient enemies, the Jedi...and everyone else in the known galaxy. We have seen people born on Mandalore (I’ll call them indigenous Mandalorians, even though they are supposedly not the original aliens who inhabited Mandalore) who live their daily lives without armor. We’ve seen how certain indigenous Mandalorians have rejected the warrior ways, though it’s unclear if they still swore to the Mandalorian creed - which I would love to have a canon copy of (please, Filoni?). Even the warrior Mandalorians who owned armor were not always wearing it, and certainly didn’t have a problem showing their faces.

To the warriors like Gar Saxon, Sabine Wren, Bo-Katan, Pre Vizsla, and Fenn Rau - their armor is important to their heritage and their line of work, but it is not their entire identity. Take off the armor and they are still Mandalorians. Not so with the CoTW. Take off that armor in front of another person, and you are no longer able to put it on again. Get defeated just once in combat and an enemy removes your helmet, and you are no longer a Mandalorian. Their entire identity revolves around the beskar. It’s implied that a single failure results in expulsion from the group, unless you’re fine being that one person who walks around naked and exposed, the humiliation and shame of your failure staring you in the face behind expressionless masks every moment of every day. THAT is what makes Din’s group a cult, and if you have a problem with the term, I’m sorry. But that’s what is is.

Moving on. Din has suddenly been made aware that “the way” is not the ONLY way. He rejects this at first, but Bo-Katan masterfully draws him into a mission that she did not need his help with to show that if he ever decided to be open-minded, he had a place with them. I’ll write more on her later, but I don’t have the time to do her justice here. She gets in her digs in true Bo-Katan fashion, but in the end, you can tell that Din has begun to accept her as legit.

Milestone #1: Okay, so some Mandalorians who swore to the creed take off their helmets in front of other people, but they can put it back on again.

Next, Din met Boba Fett and learned that he did not swear the creed. Since the armor was in Din’s possession, obviously Boba had been defeated at some point by someone (if he only knew it was an accidental bump to the jetpack by a blind Han Solo). But since Din forgot to lock up the Razor Crest with its state of the art ground security protocols which I will now never know the details of, Boba snuck in and took his armor back. He then proceeds to take out a few squads of stormtroopers with it, earning some brownie points. Remarkably, Din does not threaten to take it off him as he did with Vanth, but I sure wanted to...ahem. I digress. When Boba shows his chain code (which is apparently also a birth certificate and might have cleared up some lineage confusion in past films), Din just accepts that because Jango was a foundling, the armor rightfully belonged to Boba.

Milestone #2: You can be defeated and have your armor taken away from you and still put it back on again.

Milestone #3: You don’t even have to swear to the creed of Mandalore to have the right to wear beskar armor, as long as your father (or, sole DNA donor) was a Mandalorian foundling.

We’re seeing Din’s ingrained worship of the armor being stripped away one layer at a time. He’s learning that what makes someone Mandalorian does not begin and end with the metal plates they attach to their bodies. It’s deeper than that. And I, for one, cannot wait to see where this leads him.

#The mandalorian #the mandalorian spoilers #boba fett #the tragedy #din djarin #children of the watch #the mandalorian creed #jango fett

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lothalsector · 6 years

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The Problematic Life Of Satine Kryze (Or, Is Colonialism From The Inside Just A Culture Changing?)

I’ve spoken in the past about my mixed up Mandalore feelings. I really do like the planet- but only when it changes. Only when it is a place that actively evolves and acknowledges its own flaws.

And it has some flaws. We see the war torn landscape, the violent tribalism, the emphasis on clan loyalty over the common good, the way years of conflict have torn the planet apart. We also see the beautiful strength of families, the emphasis put on tradition, justice, and art. It’s easy to see how people raised in the worst of Mandalore’s feuds might come to resent those traditions, while people who saw a better side of them might cling to them. This is very realistic. No traditional culture comes without its problems, and those who see those problems the closest are often the loudest critics of their own traditions.

Satine saw Mandalore’s wars at a very young age. She was forced on the run, without her family. We don’t get many details about exactly what went down, but it doesn’t seem to have been especially pretty if the Jedi were needed to protect her. The fact that the Jedi were called in at all, on a notable anti-Jedi planet, says a lot about the direction her clan and family were going. They clearly had ties to the Republic, and were willing to forswear their own people to gain protection from... well, their own people.

From the get-go, that’s messy as hell.

Perhaps it’s no surprise that Satine came to resent the traditions that she saw wreck so much havoc. After all, she only saw the bloodier side of them. She only saw the flaws, and not the beauty. Again, there are comparisons to be made with people from other traditional cultures who get a short stick and end up on a crusade against their own people. It’s a complicated situation. Sure, you can’t really blame them for drawing conclusions from their own personal experience and trying to change things, but in the process they deny the experiences of others and try to impose their own worldview. Someone saying “tradition X from belief set X hurt me so I hate belief set X” is understandable but also very misguided.

Then, somehow, Satine came to power, leading a sect of Mandalorians who shared her anti-war views. From this we can guess that she was not alone in her frustration with Mandalorian business as usual.

There are shades of outside interference there, the Republic putting in power someone more “civilized” than the Mandalorian traditionalists. But you also can’t deny that Satine is Mandalorian. She has a Mandalorian name and a sister who is clearly a traditionally raised, traditionally minded Mandalorian. She’s not an outsider imposing her own views on the planet, she’s an insider doing so.

And impose she does. When we see Mandalore it looks like Naboo, with flowing dresses and strange headpieces. Satine has complete reshaped her own planet into something different, and a lot of people, at least in one city, are going along with her. All the open traditionalists live on a moon, plotting their eventual revenge, but it’s a big planet, there are probably a lot more of them. But in one small spot, Mandalore has changed. It seems pretty peaceful, even happy.

It’s complicated to talk about Satine’s rule and the power dynamics inherent in it. It becomes even more complicated when you add the element of race.

During the Clone Wars, all Mandalorians were white. Pre Viszla was white, Satine and Bo-Katan were white. It was obvious they were going for a sort of isolated supremacist military culture vibe with old Mandalore. Sometime in the new canon this changed and a lot more Mandalorians of color were added. Since we haven’t seen of Satine’s New Mandalorians again, and all new Mandalorian characters have been more traditionally minded, this does leave the impression that Satine’s takeover has an added colonialist element (Which can’t be denied even though they are all Mandalorian. A white savior complex only has to be communicated to the audience, not the characters.) While I’m pretty sure Disney would balk at this if you suggested it and the second they figure this out they’ll make one Satine’s advisors space-Polynesian, the implication remains.

I think a lot of people, justifiably, dislike Satine because of this. I’m not going to argue that. I dislike Satine half the time, just because she’s a complicated, messed up gal. But there are a lot of contradictions to her character and those are interesting. She’s a pacifist at all costs, a Mandalorian without a fight, who has made peace her struggle. She has eschewed her own culture and taken a new one, yet she clings to her newly created strictures of non-violence with just as much strength as a Mandalorian would cling to honor or family.

She is, in many ways, the anti-Mandalorian. She rejected love and her family for a cause. She rejected her culture and the Mandalorian way so utterly that it almost broke the system. She threw away everything she should have been raised to believe in and made her own way, a new way, and then watched it burn around her in the same violence and unending war she originally sought to stop.

She wasn’t a colonizer coming in and trying to change things, she was a horribly misguided internal reformer who saw the worst of the system and wanted something better.

And I think she was what Mandalore needed. Not what Mandalore needed to become, but what Mandalore needed a taste of. Every culture, every group, needs change to survive. Satine forced the Mandalorians to recognize how vulnerable they truly were, forced them to acknowledge the toll that war took. If they want to survive, they need cohesiveness, they need better cooperation with outside forces, they need to be more yielding than Satine who never compromised and broke because of it.

Almost every Mandalorian now has lived in the aftermath of her choices, the short lived peace she brought and the long war after her failures. Bo-Katan, the new Mandalore, was intimately acquainted with her and her philosophies even if she didn’t agree with her. Sabine ironically refers to her in the name of her super-weapon, something that takes what Mandalorians hold dearest and turns it against them. Their alliances with the Jedi, their reclamation of the Dark Saber, all of these are in some way influenced by the world Satine made.

And Sabine, perhaps, is her greatest creation. Sabine also saw how cruel Mandalorians could be to other Mandalorians. She also was forced to confront war too young and fled into the protection of a Jedi to escape her own people. But unlike Satine before her, Sabine doesn’t reject her culture, doesn’t reject her armor or her clan (even though they exiled her). She clings to it all, makes it hers again. She incorporates pieces of the rest of the universe into Mandalorian art and culture, without letting it be subsumed. And when she feels safe again, she goes home.

She makes Mandalore better without ripping it up at the foundations. That might not seem like a high bar to reach, but so many people from difficult backgrounds and complicated pasts fail to separate the components of a complex cultural heritage. Sabine’s ability to acknowledge and seek to fix the violence and war that destroyed Mandalore and her childhood, while still loving the art and language of her people is even more admirable after seeing someone else completely abandon many of the trappings of Mandalore while trying to escape the violence that has plagued it. And perhaps it’s wishful thinking, but I do believe a large part of Sabine’s skill in navigating this obstacle course comes from growing up on stories of the monster martyr Duchess who fell at the first hurdle.

#star wars #mandalore #satine kryze #sabine wren #sw #mandalorians

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aion-rsa · 3 years

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How Boba Fett Actor Jeremy Bulloch Set the Template for The Mandalorian

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Boba Fett’s green, T-visored helmet is a menacing visage that’s nearly evocative of Star Wars as Darth Vader’s; one first embodied on film by actor Jeremy Bulloch, who, sadly, passed away on December 17 at the age of 75. However, the legacy that Bulloch leaves behind has proven far greater than a character with minimal screentime and dubbed lines seemingly had any right to possess. It’s a legacy to which hit Disney+ series The Mandalorian owes a great deal of thanks.

Bulloch, born in Leicestershire, England on February 16, 1945, wasted little time getting himself onscreen with uncredited roles—while still an adolescent—in 1958 films Violent Playground and Titanic tragedy movie A Night to Remember, continuing to work steadily for years in U.K.-aimed films and television shows. He fielded a notable four-episode 1974 run as Hal the Archer on Doctor Who (opposite Jon Pertwee’s Third Doctor); his second run on the series, having previously fielded a three-episode role in 1965 with William Hartnell’s First Doctor. He was also visible in 1977’s The Spy Who Loved Me (with Roger Moore’s James Bond) as a crewman on the HMS Ranger. However, that decade’s end would yield his defining role.

Fate would land in Bulloch’s lap in 1979 when his half-brother, Robert Watts, an associate producer for director Irvin Kershner’s 1980 Star Wars sequel, The Empire Strikes Back, offered what would become a career-defining role as bounty hunter Boba Fett. While the role put Bulloch in the highly-anticipated sequel to the world’s biggest blockbuster, it came with the crucial caveat of hiding his face inside a helmet, with his lines eventually dubbed over, seemingly making it more of a stuntman’s gig. Indeed, as Watts told StarWars.com of the almost blue-collar nature of Bulloch’s casting, “I’d never managed to give Jeremy a job on film. So, I rang him up and said, ‘If the suit fits, the part’s yours.’ He came in and it fit.”

Lucasfilm

Bulloch found himself tasked with bringing to life a character who, at that point, existed as a vague concept, conceived by designers Ralph McQuarrie and Joe Johnston, and eventually debuted in animated form for the notorious 1978 Star Wars Holiday Special (voiced there by Don Francks,) before taking shape as Kenner’s mail-away action figure (one that’s extremely valuable these days). Thus, Bulloch may have been the first actor to play Boba, but he didn’t exactly originate the character. Moreover, it wasn’t even his only role in Empire, since he also fielded the minor (and unhelmeted) part of Lieutenant Shekil, the Imperial officer who was holding Leia on Bespin as she tried to warn a just-arrived Luke about Vader’s trap. Yet, that fact didn’t prevent the actor from finding a way to put an unforgettable stamp on the seemingly perfunctory role of Fett.

Why The Book of Boba Fett Could Be The Mandalorian Season 3

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“I thought of Boba Fett as Clint Eastwood in a suit of armor,” Bulloch said of his initial approach to the part, according to StarWars.com. Thus, inspired by Eastwood’s Western films—notably the ruthless antihero elements from his 1960s Spaghetti Western trilogy run as “The Man with No Name” for director Sergio Leone—Bulloch was able to project an attitude through Fett that didn’t necessarily reflect what the Empire script demanded. While Fett was simply in the film to be the Imperial-contracted bounty hunter who—after cleverly out-foxing his competitors—successfully tracked the Millennium Falcon to its destination of Bespin, Bulloch’s nuanced physical performance told audiences everything they needed to know about the character through his movements and gestures.

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Bearing his Eastwood-inspired demeanor, Bulloch’s Fett had an ominously calm stance and constantly cradled his rifle in a way that made you believe that he could, in a blink of an eye, drop anyone stupid enough to run afoul of him. This was immediately clear from the first moment we saw him in Empire, standing amongst the other bounty hunters on the bridge of Darth Vader’s Star Destroyer, being specifically called out by the villain, who said “I want them alive, no disintegrations,” to which he—with shocking temerity—insolently responds, “as you wish.” We’d see more of that attitude later in the film when he protests to Vader of his prize, Han Solo, being put in carbonite, “What if he doesn’t survive? He’s worth a lot to me,” to which an uncharacteristically conciliatory Vader promises compensation if Han dies. Indeed, anyone who can get away with talking to Darth Vader like that must be worthy of interest. In fact, at one point Boba was eyed to be the primary villain of the threequel that we now know as 1983’s Return of the Jedi.

Interestingly, it was actor Jason Wingreen who delivered Fett’s lines in Empire (he had none in Jedi, save for a scream track), bringing a complementary gruffness apropos to the character’s Western inspiration. That element, however, would be one of many casualties in the 2004 DVD releases of the Original Trilogy, in which Wingreen’s impactful lines were replaced by re-dubbed dialogue from Temuera Morrison, who played Boba’s father, Jango Fett, in 2002 prequel middle act Attack of the Clones and (in a recent development), a Sarlacc-survived Boba himself on The Mandalorian. While Morrison has since proven himself to be a great Boba Fett onscreen, his retroactively-inserted lines in Empire—a move made to create cross-trilogy synergy—unfortunately diluted the character’s mystique, since they were delivered unemotionally, as if Boba was simply taking orders like one of his gene-modified subservient Clone Army cousins.

Disney/Lucasfilm

However, Boba Fett’s mystique remained mostly undiminished, seen as a stoic loner unconcerned with the Force—light or dark sides—and is simply trying to make a credit in a galaxy filled with “scum and villainy,” a true Western archetype. Thus, that long-held perception—enforced by Bulloch’s performances—eventually yielded The Mandalorian, which was the manifestation—in a serialized television format—of everything that the fandom had always come to believe of Boba Fett, except through Pedro Pascal’s helmeted, sartorially-similar, jet-pack-flying title character, who we’d eventually learn is named Din Djarin. Moreover, the very title of the series reflects an entire extension of the evolving Star Wars canon that stems directly from Boba, namely the planet Mandalore, the Mandalorian people, its royal lineages, Djarin’s ascetic “this is the way” subsect and even animated favorites like Star Wars: The Clone Wars’ Bo-Katan Kryze (now played onscreen by original voicer Katee Sackhoff,) and Star Wars Rebels‘ Sabine Wren. The entire concept fundamentally came into being to explain Boba’s backstory, and took shape in the way it did because of the seemingly minor element of Bulloch’s onscreen work behind a helmet.

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Consequently, Bulloch’s Boba Fett role may not have been fodder for Oscar clips, but it did provide character-defining, emotive physicality almost akin to what we’d later see recognized in the motion-capture era of films, notably with important onscreen-hidden performers like Andy Serkis. As George Lucas expresses in a statement, “Jeremy brought the perfect combination of mystery and menace to his performance of Boba Fett, which is just what I wanted the character to convey,” adding, “In addition, Jeremy was a true gentleman who was very supportive of Star Wars and its fans, and I’m very grateful for his contributions to the saga and its legacy.”

The post How Boba Fett Actor Jeremy Bulloch Set the Template for The Mandalorian appeared first on Den of Geek.

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#aion-rsa #Den of Geek

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cienie-isengardu · 7 years

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[Rebels] Heroes of Mandalore

I’ve stopped watching regularly SW: Rebels somewhere after first season, but I keep coming back for episodes about Mandalorian. The Heroes of Mandalore aren’t exception. Though most of times I wonder why the hell I still bother to do so.

To be fair, the newest episode(s) have interesting and beautiful moments, like:

new informations about mandalorian art (though I would like know more about Tojnun and the Pre-Exile Masters)

the reversed roles with Ursa (a female character; the wife & mother) is the leader & veteran warrior while her husband is the artist who, so far, did not show any combat capabilities (”My dad fights with his art”)

Bo-Katan is showed as capable warrior and leader and she is pretty good at what she is doing for past decade(s)

Sabine - and her past - once again is important part of the story

Fenn’s “show off” and in general, the evolution of his character

the ending scene of the first episode

Mandalorian for good now are visible diverse group insted of all-white TCW!version

A scene where three main female characters (all leaders & warriors in their own way) get together to discuss future of Mandalore. That alone is something pure and beautiful in so many ways, and I wouldn’t mind to get used to such scenes, really.

But though all of those points were great and fun, there is also a lot things that are, well, stupid. As in: pointless compared to the old canon/Legends. And yes, I’m biased, I know, but then again, new canon gives me time after time more reasons to be distrustful for its content. What means, I’m going to rant about Mandalorians.

The things tha pissed me off for good:

the whole Mandalorian without armor is no more than a common soldier bullshit. Seriously. You know what was great about Legends!Mando, beside how diverse they were? The armor was preciuos thing, sure, but it meant nothing, if person wearing it didn’t deserve the title of Mandalorian warrior. Just like that. Legends!Mando had saying about it: ``A warrior is more than one's armor.``

The armor is not what makes a Mandalorian. This is one of basic thing one must understands about their whole culture. Mandalorians were taught from early age to fight without it, without technology, without weapon to be strong and capable to survive if they were deprived of such things. There were even a time(s), when mandalorian ore wasn’t available to make new armours - or, like The Bounty Code mentioned: the armours were destroyed by New Mandalorian - so the warriors used other materials, like duresteel. And it was fine, no one really cared for such details. For Force’s sake, Boba Fett used durasteel armour, and even though he screwed up almost all rules of Mandalorian Code (what, btw, had only 6! conditions), he was still seen as Mando.

In short: you may deprive someone of armor, but it will not make someone less Mandalorian. Just no.

What makes the whole Sabine’s epic talk about her armour - how its part of their identity, how “it makes us, Mandalorians, who we are” is so... odd and impractical.

I’m ranting about this not only because of my bias toward New Canon, but seriously, Ezra’s question why not change armour for something different is actually smart and pragmatic thing to do - especially since the heroes planned to attack an Imperial forces who happened to have a weapon that will kill anyone with beskar’gam. This was desperate attack, to destroy weapon before imperials figure out how to increase its reach. It’s really laughable that Mandalorians didn’t change their armors for similar to those of stromtroopers what actually would minimize the threat of the superweapon in the first place, and thus, Sabine and Bo-Katan wouldn’t even be trapped later. Seriously, tactical increase of their own chances is not synonymous with change once for all their culture.

And frankly, it would be much better to see Saxon’s priceless face when he would learn that Sabine & her warriors actually adapted themselves to the new situation, that they put the survival and freedom of their nation above own pride to wear non-mandalorian armors for this mission.

What leads me to the second stupidity, the whole let a genius prodigy child to “fix” a weapon that was constructed to kill everyone Sabine loves. Like it was totally rational thing to do, sure, w h a t e v e r.

At this point, I once again lost faith in new canon. I mean, most - if not all - Legends!Mandalorians would just set weapon to self-destruct and died with knowledge that 1) weapon was destroyed and 2) enemy was killed with it. Sure, fine, Sabine is genius, she used it against Saxon - who shouldn’t be so fucking stupid in the first place. I can’t, I really can’t anymore, it was so obviously stupid thing to do, I can’t even find a proper words for that.

The third issue, much less important but still so irritating for me - the lack of mentioning Pre Vizsla, while at the same time constant talking about Satine, like she was some goddamn freedom fighter who lead Mandalore to its independence from Republic/Jedi/Empire. I’m sorry, but as much as I agree she wouldn’t like what Empire did to her people and the whole galaxy, I don’t believe she could do much about it. For the peace, she rejected oldfashioned ways of Mandalorian warriors, their culture & heritage and frankly, I don’t think her character did much in the TCW beside dying for Obi-Wan’s angsty sake.

I don’t really waited for lofty speeches in honor of Pre Vizsla, but it would be nice to see at least Bo-Katan mention him once or twice. Especially when Sabine presented her darksaber which Maul beheaded her friend / close ally (though I think her line “I am not the leader you seek” may refer to Pre, especially since she said that after seeing darksaber for the first time in a long time). Also, it would be nice to learn what happed to New Mandalorians, because I don’t think all of them became warriors or supported of Empire.

The most minor issue: calling Bo-Katan (or any mando female character) my lady? Why she couldn’t be refered as, I don’t know, a Mandalore, clan leader or something less gendered? Even if she was part of royal(?) family, such stuff aren’t important now. Sabine chose to trust Bo, not because she is sister of dead dutchess, but becase she is wise, strong and experienced leader that is already at war with Empire for more than a decade.

#star wars #my rants #star wars rebels #heroes of mandalore #star wars spoilers #sabine wren #bo katan kryze #mandalorian #mandalorian women #pre vizsla #satine kryze #my complaining #star wars new canon vs legends

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rebelsofshield · 7 years

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From Spark to Flame: Predicting the End of Star Wars Rebels

In just a day the fourth and final season of Star Wars Rebels will be upon us. What began as a spark of rebellion has grown into an odyssey following the journeys of a diverse ensemble of heroes and villains spanning years, battles, generations, and a galaxy. It’s hard to believe that in less than a year’s time this series will conclude and close the book on a unique chapter of the franchise’s history and likely pave the way for the next iteration of this universe on the small screen. What should we expect in the series’ final season? In many ways, this final installment is a mystery, but because I love speculating and critiquing I’m diving in any ways. The following is my long, and I stress long, breakdown of my thoughts, opinions, and predictions going in. Who lives? Who dies? Who shacks up? Who cameos? How gratuitous will the wolves be? All here. Well kinda.

(There are potential spoilers below. Nothing not readily available to the public, but if you want to go in entirely clean, maybe stay out.)

Part I: What We Know

Something that Rebels shares with its parent series, Star Wars: The Clone Wars, is that it in many ways functions as a prequel to a large chunk of the franchise. While there are certainly climactic events and character arcs that are unique to the series, Rebels takes place in a period of the Star Wars timeline that is bookended by existing media. This has become even more apparent with the release of Rogue One in 2016. As a result, going into season four there are a few concrete facts that can help shape our expectations of how Rebels’ final season may play out.

Hera and Chopper Live

We know that the Ghost crew’s pilot, captain, and resident maternal figure, Hera Syndulla and her cantankerous droid, Chopper, are the only two members of The Ghost crew that are confirmed to survive the events of the series. Hera receives a literal shoutout line in Rogue One and Chopper has a now famous cameo in the background of the Yavin Base. This is not to say that the other members of The Ghost crew may perish, more on that later, but as of The Battle of Scarif, only two members are known for sure to be active members of the rebel alliance. We also can safely assume that at the very least Ezra Bridger and Kanan Jarrus are no longer active Force-users in the Alliance. The dialogue between Mon Mothma and Bail Organa regarding Obi-Wan strongly indicates that there are no Jedi present in the rebellion at the time of the film. Now, there are many ways that Dave Filoni and crew could cheat this, but I would bet against having Ezra and Kanan swinging lightsabers by Hera’s side by the time this season ends.

The Battle of Lothal will most likely be a loss for the Alliance

Rogue One also reaffirms a statement in the opening crawl of the original 1977 Star Wars by stressing that the Battle of Scarif and the theft of the Death Star plans is the first major military victory for the Rebel Alliance in their war against the Galactic Empire. By this logic, it is unlikely that by the time the series closes its narrative Lothal remains under the sway of the Empire. Now, it seems unlikely that the series will end in a complete downer with our heroes failing in their mission, it is possible that Lothal proves a more symbolic victory, but more on that later.

Thrawn’s TIE Defender Plan is a Failure

One of the plot threads we see shown in the final trailer for the fourth season is the internal conflict between the development of Grand Admriral Thrawn’s TIE Defender fighters and Director Orson Krennic’s Death Star. Tarkin begins to suspect that Thrawn’s pet project may not be in the Empire’s best interest moving forward given its expensive cost and lack of proven success. What is presented to us is a scenario where the TIE Defender likely has a short lived life-span with a premature death. While Star Wars has retroactively inserted vehicles, technology, and lore into the Original Trilogy period since the Prequel Trilogy, it seems confirmed here that Tharwn’s attempt to update the Imperial fighter squadron machine is fruitless.

Part II: What We’ve Been Told/Shown

In the months following the end of Star Wars Rebels season three, we have gained quite a few kernels of information from both the cast and crew of the series. Before I jump into full on speculation, I wanted to take a moment to show and extrapolate on other information we’ve gained for the series.

The season will be shorter and more serialized

One of the major complaints leveled at the second and third season of Star Wars Rebels is the focus on anthologized storytelling at times lead to episodes that seemingly did not tie back into the overarching plot or felt like diversions. Season four, intentionally or not, will somewhat address this issue. It runs shorter than the second and third season, clocking in at 16 22 minute segments, several of which form two part 44 minute episodes. Also, according to Dave, the first several episodes wrap up disparate plot threads before converging on one long story that feed into a narrative that covers the thrust of the last chunk of the season. Conventional wisdom seems to hint that we will spend much of this season on Lothal as the liberation of the planet becomes a priority for the rebellion and our cast.

Mandalore is in Civil War

Ever since Ursa Wren slayed Imperial Viceroy Gar Saxon to protect her daughter, Mandalore has broken apart with the various houses and clans vying for control of the planet with the Empire backing the remnants of Saxon’s house. This conflict takes center stage in the season premiere “Heroes of Mandalore,” which was partially screened at Celebration Orlando and then in its entirety at FanExpo. (I saw the first half myself and it’s pretty great. No spoilers, but it left me with a pretty huge cliffhanger that I’ve been anticipating the conclusion to since April.)

Rebels seems to be pulling out all the stops in putting this conflict to screen. Not only do we get a wide variety of Mandalorian characters and factions, numerous characters from this series’ past as well as The Clone Wars are due for an appearance. After teasing her return to Star Wars animation last year, Katee Sackhoff of Battlestar Galactica fame is due for a reprise of her character Bo-Katan and appears to be wielding the legendary Darksaber (perhaps Sabine hands it over to the rightful ruler of the planet?). In addition to the return of Sabine’s mother and brother, the Rebels Season Three Blu-Ray also reveals that Sabine’s father will be making his debut in the premiere. Having seen part of the episode I can confirm that he plays into Sabine’s character in a fun fashion, it’s very apparent about how his and Ursa’s personalities mixed to create their daughter. Shots of Mandalorian soldiers being turned to dust also seem to hint that the terrible weapon developed by Sabine will be deployed by the Empire.

That being said it seems unlikely that the Mandalorian conflict will spill over into the greater galactic conflict with the Empire. While Sabine and some of her close allies may take part in the battle on Lothal (Sabine can be glimpsed in the final shots of the second trailer with the rest of the Ghost Crew), the lack of Mandalorian presence in Rogue One seems to make this an unlikely possibility.

The Clones Are Back

After sitting out season three, Dave Filoni and Pablo Hidalgo confirmed that clones Wolffe and Gregor would be seen on screen once again before the end of the series at Celebration Orlando earlier this year. Similarly, Dave cryptically dropped concept of Captain Rex wearing camouflage armor seemingly hinting at the popular fan theory that an older extra in Return of the Jedi may be the famous clone veteran.

Saw Gerrera and the Partisans

We also have been informed that Forest Whitaker will be reprising his role as Saw Gerrera in the early portions of the season. In addition to confirmation that his alien partner, Edrio Two Tubes (or maybe it’s Benthic. I honestly didn’t even know there were two of them. Did you know that?), will be joining him. The final trailer and Filoni have both hinted that this season widens the gap between Gerrera and the rest of the Alliance and may explain why he is no longer a part of the larger rebellion by the time Rogue One rolls around. He also seems set to butt heads with some key characters in the ensemble. Ezra in particular seems drawn in by Saw’s no nonsense results oriented strategy. Ezra has often been marked equally by both his compassion and his desire to see the Empire and Sith defeated. It seems likely that he will be used as a vantage point for the viewer allowing them to see both the allure and danger of a more dangerous and fanatical battle against The Empire.

Space Married

One of the most widely popular and to many the most consistently playfully frustrating aspects of the Rebels ensemble has been the frequently hinted at but never explicitly shown relationship between Hera Syndulla and Kanan Jarrus. According to clips shown at Fan Expo and the first and second trailer for this season, fans may finally get their wish and see the symbolic mother and father of The Ghost crew commit to some form of romantic relationship. Whether this has a happy ending is a whole other thing, but for a few happy moments we are more than likely to see this couple finally, maybe, kiss…or something. At least an emotional forehead touch.

Rukh

Thrawn’s Noghri bodyguard from Timothy Zahn’s classic trilogy of novels is set to make his first canon appearance this season voiced by the legendary Warwick Davis. While his role appears to have been reshuffled to be more of a special agent/assassin in Thrawn’s employ rather than the almost enslaved bodyguard in his Legends appearance, it is unclear just how much Rukh borrows from his original role. Most importantly, is he the one to place once again place the killing blow on The Empire’s blue skinned Admiral? I’m inclined to think not.

Space Wolves

Dave Filoni loves wolves. Like, he really really likes wolves. What would the final season be without a whole lot of giant magical space wolves? The Loth-Wolves so far have remained a mystery, but their importance and almost mystical presence have been stressed throughout season four’s marketing campaign. While we can rest easy knowing that Ahsoka isn’t pulling a Sirius Black and transforming into a wolf like some fan’s speculated, Filoni has stressed that the large white predators are a Bendu-like creature that border the light and the dark. What connection do they really have to the planet of Lothal and the series as a whole? Who knows, but it will be nice to finally get a sense of how they fit into the planet’s culture.

Ahsoka Lives !(?!)

Oh yeah, Ahsoka is back. How? Why? Where? Who knows, but Dave Filoni has confirmed that we will see Ashley Eckstein’s fan favorite former-Jedi at least one more time before the series ends.

Part III: Rampant Speculation

So what does this all mean? Where are we going? Who is that? Where am I? Before I start jumping into the general end game for the series, let’s get a few more pieces of speculation out of the way. Let’s talk characters. Let’s talk deaths. Let’s talk why Nick keeps using repetition to spice up this segment of his article.

Kallus and the Rebellion

While Alexsandr Kallus (yes, that’s officially his first name now) has been a rebel operative for about a full season now, this season marks the first time that the former Imperial operative is an active participant in the Alliance. Sporting a snazzy new outfit and set to make a change in the galaxy, Kallus is sure to be one of the more intriguing aspects of this season going into its start. I highly doubt that Kallus’s assimilation into the rebellion will make for a clean transition. In particular, Kallus seems primed to be a key source of antagonism with Saw Gerrera. As we learned in “The Honorable Ones,” Saw’s partisans were responsible for the deaths of Kallus’s men on Onderon. Similarly, Saw’s own fanaticism makes it seem likely that he won’t be keen on having a former Imperial Intelligence officer enter the Alliance. The two seem primed for a confrontation and Dave Filoni and the creative team would be smart to capitalize off this. The idea of having David Oyelowo and Forest Whitaker face off is too great an opportunity to pass up.

Thrawn will survive

Grand Admiral Thrawn’s survival is one of the most hotly debated aspects of the series. The iconic Legends turned canon Chiss admiral has been a fan favorite on and off screen. While he more or less came out on top at the conclusion of season three, Thrawn’s fate is a bit more ambiguous this season. Like many iconic Rebels characters, he does not play a role in the original trilogy and for a character of his stature and in-universe importance, it seems unlikely that he is still an active participant in the Imperial war machine at the time the series concludes. We may have actually been given our first clue to the fate of Thrawn at New York Comic Con last weekend. Timothy Zahn, the original creator of the blue skinned villain, announced that he would be writing a sequel to his canon novel, Thrawn, tentatively titled Alliances, which would feature the character teaming up with Darth Vader himself. While this inherently may not seem like a dead giveaway that Thrawn makes it out of the series alive, the original Thrawn novel concluded just before the character’s introduction in the season three premiere episode “Steps into Shadow.” While it is possible that the sequel novel may function as a pseudo-prequel or even a mid-quel, this seems to indicate that Thrawn’s narrative continues past what is seen on screen. Similarly, the final novel in Chuck Wendig’s Aftermath trilogy appears to hint that Thrawn spent much of his later career stationed in the Unknown Regions, although the language is vague and inconclusive.

Expect Lots of Cameos

With the Ghost Crew now firmly a part of the larger rebellion, it seems inevitable that we will be seeing at the very least cameo appearances from numerous famous characters. Bail Organa, Jan Dodonna, and Mon Mothma all seem like givens for speaking roles, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see various others as well. With the continued attempts to establish creative synergy between Rebels and Rogue One, I think it is highly likely that characters such as Admiral Raddus will appear, especially given that Stephen Stanton is already a regularly employed member of the Rebels voice cast. I also wouldn’t be surprised if we got a few more notable cameos such as Cassian Andor or K-2SO. Having two Fulcrum agents such as Cassian and Kallus interact seems like another relationship that would be key to exploit. I also would be very surprised if we finished the series out without seeing Leia or Darth Vader again. Both characters made a splash in their first appearances in the series’ second season and it seems like both characters still have something to contribute to the narrative, Leia in particular.

Only one Ghost Crew member will die

While Hera and Chopper are proved to make it out of the series, Rebels will not pull a Rogue One and end with the death of the majority of its cast. We may not know what fates may befall Ezra, Sabine, Kanan, and Zeb but a massacre seems off the table. For a simple and almost logistical reason, Rebels is a series that is at its heart tonally optimistic and targeted at a mature but younger audience. It isn’t afraid to kill characters, good or evil, this is true, but Rebels is a series that is most concerned with exploring family and the importance of standing up for a larger cause in difficult times. I do not see Dave Filoni, Lucasfilm, and especially Disney XD, sanctioning an ending for the series that reinforces such a bleak understanding of sacrifice and familial bonds. It may be a good ending, but it’s hardly the best and certainly not the route that Rebels will take. That being said, it seems just as unlikely if the entirety of the Rebels cast is to survive. Heroic sacrifice and the cost of war are a theme of Star Wars and Dave Filoni at times has been all too aware of this. I am willing to go on the record and say only one member of the Ghost Crew will perish and there are two likely candidates.

Sabine seems least likely out of the four non-confirmed survivors of the series to perish. Her fate at this point is almost more connected to the Mandalorian struggle than to the rebellion itself. While it may be a poignant end for her story to have her sacrifice her life to bring liberty to her people and reunite her family, it feels out of place and, again, overly bleak for the series to take this route for her character. Besides, with the media blitz that Sabine has received since her involvement in the Forces of Destiny toyline and animated shorts, I doubt we’ve seen the last of our graffiti inspired Mandalorian warrior.

Ezra is this series’ biggest question mark. Rebels is at the end of the day about him and his journey from street rat to Jedi apprentice to freedom fighter. Does the story end in his death? I’m inclined to think not. Why? Well, again, on a practical level, I cannot recall a single television series aimed at a preteen to teen age demographic that ended with the death of its child protagonist, even if, yes, Ezra is pushing the age boundaries for that term at this point. Rebels has to keep in mind both its adult and child viewers and killing off the hero in the hero’s journey may not be the move that best placates both audiences. That being said, in terms of canon, Ezra does create a problem. He is simply too prominent and powerful a figure to be left around in the universe by the time we reach the events of Rogue One and A New Hope. Well, where is Ezra then? I’m getting to that, I promise.

That leaves our two likely death candidates being Garazeb Orrelios and Kanan Jarrus. Zeb is the character I’ve spoken the least about in this write up and frankly there is a reason for this. While he began the series as one of the show’s more compelling and entertaining characters, season three proved just how stagnant a character the Ghost Crew’s Lasat had become. In two strong episodes in Rebels’ second season, Zeb’s character arcs had effectively resolved themselves. Zeb had not only found out that he was not the last surviving member of the Lasats, in fact there is a whole planet of them, but had also reconciled with his longtime nemesis, Agent Kallus. With Kallus now a willing member of the rebellion, this relationship also seems to have reached its natural conclusion. While there is certainly opportunity to develop this dynamic further, it almost feels as if Zeb’s purpose is to function as an extension of Kallus’s character rather than his own. Unfortunately, this makes Zeb the most dispensable and cleanest death for the Rebels team to pull off. Zeb has been with the viewer long enough for his passing to have an emotional impact both in and out of the series, while at the same time avoiding any long term damage to the series dynamics if he were to be taken off the table. Perhaps he sacrifices himself to save the Ghost Crew or Kallus? Or maybe him and Kallus go out together in a blaze of glory? It could go either way.

And then there’s Kanan. This is the hard one, because Freddie Prinze Jr.’s blind Jedi Knight and resident Ghost father figure has been not only one of the strongest characters in Rebels’ ensemble but also one of its most beloved. There is a genuine affection for Kanan. I’m sure a very large portion of the fanbase would love to see him and Hera happily settle down together and raise some Twi-Lek/Human hybrid babies (I mean we know that can happen thanks to The Clone Wars), but, man, things just don’t look good for him. Like Ezra, Kanan’s continued participation in the Alliance creates a massive problem for the larger lore of Star Wars. A practicing Jedi Knight being a participant in the Alliance would surely be noticed and would have come up in conversation, especially considering the addition of Luke Skywalker to their ranks following the Battle of Yavin. Kanan has to be removed from the playing field somehow. While it is possible he could join Ezra on my big series end theory, it is just as likely if not plausible that he becomes one with the Force. This would undoubtedly be the most emotional route the crew could take and it is a very likely possibility.

Part IV: The Ending

So how does Rebels end? How does this saga conclude in a manner that resolves its various plot points but also moves us towards an emotionally satisfying conclusion that capitalizes off the series’ themes? In all honesty, I’m taking a stab in the dark, but it’s one that I am confident in.

Lothal is the key. Not only is it central to the conflict at the series’ conclusion and is it the home at which Rebels began, but there is something about the planet that is special. Hinted at way back in “The Siege of Lothal” by Minister Tua, there is a secret reason for The Empire’s interest in Lothal as a planet. While this has become lost in the dozens of climactic events that have occurred in the seasons since, the secret for the Empire’s presence on the grassy planet has never been answered.

We know for a fact that this cannot be related to the strip mining of Lothal’s resources as Tua confirms that this isn’t the case. Similarly, Thrawn’s use of the planet as a staging ground for the development of the TIE Defender didn’t come to fruition until after he had been relocated to the planet at the start of the third season. Whatever secret lies buried beneath Lothal has been there for quite sometime and has barely if ever been touched upon.

So what is it? We do know that Lothal is a planet filled with hidden Force secrets. From the lost Jedi Temple seen in the first season to the Lothwolfs, Lothal has a rich secret Force culture. We know from the novels and comics that Emperor Palpatine has been stockpiling Force and Sith artifacts to use in outlook stations to observe some strange threat in the Unknown Regions, which is maybe probably Snoke or something . My theory is that there is some secret Force artifact, temple, or object/place of similar significance that The Empire is actively in search of located on Lothal. Dave Filoni has stressed repeatedly that this season will be delving into a great deal of stranger imagery that is not unlike some work they’ve done in The Clone Wars in the past. While he keeps it vague, it is not hard to call to mind images of the Mortis Trilogy or Yoda’s strange walkabout to learn the secrets of the afterlife.

I believe that while much of the Battle for Lothal will remain a military campaign, Ezra and likely Kanan’s story will take a swerve into the search and discovery of what this Force secret may be, and the Lothwolves are likely the first step to finding this. While we do not know enough regarding this secret to truly learn much about it as of yet, my guess is that this artifact sends Ezra to or leads him into the unknown regions and he is forced to abandon the rest of rebellion to follow his quest. Ezra leaves the rebellion war effort to focus on a task that is possibly even more important and even dangerous.

While I believe that this will occur towards the end of the series, my thinking is that perhaps the Force grants Ezra a brief glimpse into the future. He is able to see key events in the rebellion and will learn that the future, while always in motion, will lead to freedom. I suspect that this is where Rebels will show the fates of most of our cast in how they tie into the original trilogy, such as showing Captain Rex fighting on the moon of Endor. It will be vague and likely not mean much out of context to Ezra, but fans will be able to discern where and what is occurring.

With Ezra out of the picture, we end the series with him a new environment and seemingly unknown. We know for a fact that only a scant few voice actors and production supervisors have worked on the final scene of the series and that it has been top secret. I believe we end the series with a conversation between Ahsoka and Ezra. Dave has hinted for a while that we will see Ahsoka Tano again, but the nature of her reappearance has always been vague. We do know that Ahsoka disappeared into the depths of Malachor following her duel with Darth Vader. The promotional TOPS cards (shown above) released in 2016 seem to hint at this as well, even showing Lothwolves. It seems her fate lead her onto the same path that Ezra now finds himself. It ends with both eras of Star Wars animation joining forces to find a common future.

Well, that’s how I see it anyways. I may be completely wrong, but I feel confident that the end will be something at least slightly similar to this.

We will know soon enough. What are your opinions? Where and how do you think Star Wars Rebels will conclude? I would love to hear your thoughts and critiques and predictions.

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dorksideproductions · 7 years

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So Star Wars Rebels is back with it’s fourth and (gasp) final season with a two-part opener entitled Heroes of Mandalore. So how was it? Did it live up to the promises of the beginning of a satisfying end? Did Sabine’s return to Mandalore arc reach a satisfying conclusion? Well……… ****SPOILERS**** after the break, and they’re bloody. Just sayin’….

OK, so here goes nothing. I’m not going to do a long-winded recap summary, I’ll keep that part brief so I can get to what worked for me and what didn’t. In a nutshell, Sabine and part of the crew of the Ghost (Kanan, Ezra, and Chopper) return to Mandalore in hopes of liberating the planet from Imperial occupation and to find a worthy wielder for the Darksaber. After season three’s Mandalore arc my hopes were super-high that we were building towards not only an epic showdown on Mandalore in regards to not only the aforementioned Imperial occupation and the Darksaber but also Sabine’s complicated relationship with the planet and the weapon she created that we’ve been hearing bits and pieces about since season one if I’m not mistaken.

OK, so here’s the quick rundown – the crew fights to liberate Sabine’s dad from Imperial imprisonment, and after a successful rescue, Mandalore’s new governor, Tiber Saxon (who came completely out of nowhere to replace his dead brother, Gar Saxon, who was killed by Ursa Wren in season three) dispatches the weapon that Sabine designed for the Empire during her time in the Academy on her family and clan. Also aiding in the rescue was Clan Kryze, led by none other than Bo-Katan Kryze who made her first appearance in The Clone Wars. After some dissent and anger towards Sabine over the creation of the weapon (which happens to be called the Duchess of all things), the Mandalorian clans unite to fight Tiber Saxon and disable the weapon. In the end they are successful and Bo-Katan accepts the Darksaber from Sabine to become the symbolic leader of Mandalore. Ok, let’s get to the best part – my opinions!

What worked for me:

Kanan – he was awesome in this episode and I have really enjoyed his arc throughout the series from the middle of season two on. His interaction with Hera via hologram was touching and is obviously foreshadowing the tragedy their relationship is sure to suffer before the end of the final season. His calm and cool demeanor is welcome in this show, as immaturity has a tendency to run rampant, even as the younger members of the Ghost crew get older.

Chopper – always funny, always on point. I am really just putting him in here so I can reference his ‘get a room already’ comment to Kanan and Hera. Hilarious.

The chase – lots of Indiana Jones influence in the chase sequence on the surface of Mandalore to rescue Sabine’s imprisoned father, Alrich Wren. Mando’s flying on jetpacks and Jedi doing Jedi stuff was an awesome combination.

Bo-Katan Kryze’s return – I’ve been speculating that Bo-Katan would wield the legendary Darksaber since Sabine and crew claimed it from Maul in season three, and it was awesome to see that prediction come to fruition. As the sister of the former ruler of Mandalore (and love interest of Obi-Wan Kenobi), Duchess Satine Kryze, it only seemed right that she would become the symbolic leader of Mandalore and unite the clans in their fight against Imperial occupation. I do have a few gripes about this which I’ll touch on below, but overall this wraps up the Mandalore storyline in a fitting way.

Mandalorians being Mandalorians – although I like the portrayal of Mandalore and it’s people in The Clone Wars, I understand many fan’s gripes about the direction George Lucas and Dave Filoni took the planet and it’s people. In Rebels we’ve seen a return to what we were led to believe via the old EU/Legends material that Mandalorians were like – bad ass! It’s cool to see the different clans flying around on jetpacks and being the fierce warriors we have come to expect. I’d also like to give kudos to the design team for not taking the easy way out design-wise with the clans, giving each a distinctive look and aesthetic. It didn’t go unnoticed.

Beskar Alloy – the legendary (pun intended) material Mandalorians use to construct their armor is officially canon. Awesome, thanks Dave!

What didn’t work for me:

Ezra – seriously, isn’t it time for Ezra to be a hero and not the comic relief? It’s so frustrating watching Ezra’s character arc continually regress from the end of season two/beginning of season three, and it’s hard not to think Filoni, Gilroy, and crew are taking it too easy on the audience here. His ridiculous series of hijinx with the jetpack was a distraction and quite simply wasn’t even funny. Also, that stupid Scout Biker helmet needs to go, why the hell does he keep wearing that thing?? I’m going to (hesitantly) stick by my prediction that Ezra will in fact be the Jedi to die (rather than Kanan), but I reserve the right to change that prediction as late as halfway through season four, because well, it’s my blog…

Sabine – after an emotionally-charged arc for Sabine in season three I feel like the resolution to the Mandalorian story arc and her role in it was completely rushed and unfulfilling. And while I admit I’m glad the Mando arc is over (hopefully), way too many scenes in Heroes of Mandalore felt rushed and unconvincing. Also, we know Sabine is a prodigy, but to think that she was able to build this superweapon that was so devastating to Mandalorians in armor at the age of 14 or 15 is pushing it. I’m surprised nobody else is talking about that…. Furthermore, she named it the Duchess? That’s just wrong, and her excuse was super lame. Duchess Satine was by far the best leader Mandalore has had in canon, I have a very hard time believing even the most angsty teenager would name a superweapon that only targets Mandalorians after her. Come on man.

Take a chance Filoni!!! – dude, you had a chance to make a real difference in Sabine’s arc by killing her mother and brother off when the superweapon is used on them and you wimped out!!! Don’t be afraid to kill off characters, man! And these two in particular were so ripe for the picking, as their deaths would’ve resonated strongly in the show given we are in the final season, and shown the audience that the stakes are very high for our heroes as the series winds down. Huge missed opportunity there, let’s hope the creators show more guts moving forward in the final 11 episodes of season four….

Alrich Wren = Bail Organa? – not really, but it would be hard to tell just by looking at the animation models… Could the design team not have come up with a character model for Sabine’s dad that looked original? I mean the resemblance to Organa is startling, to say the least, and distracting.

Tiber Saxon, where’d you come from? – OK, so it’s not a stretch that the recently deceased Gar Saxon’s brother Tiber would take up the mantle of Imperial Governor of Mandalore, but this dude came out of nowhere. This belies a huge problem with Rebels in that there is continually no build up. I wish the creative team would trust the audience like they did with The Clone Wars and build longer story arcs. It wouldn’t have been hard to introduce the character of Tiber Saxon in season three so he didn’t just seemingly appear out of nowhere. This brand of storytelling just isn’t fulfilling to me. Which speaks to a larger problem of….

Lack of real story arcs – I get that Rebels loves to wrap up story arcs in one or two episodes, but it’s so hard to do that convincingly as the series progresses and gets more complex. I was really hoping that the fourth and final season would have a true sense of connectivity in the way that The Clone Wars did, but unfortunately I’m not very hopeful that will happen in the way fans want it to. I would love to see true demographics on just who is watching Star Wars Rebels, because I think the fanbase is older and more mature than Lucasfilm is trying to cater to.

The destruction of the Duchess – OK, so Sabine (very quickly, conveniently enough) is able to turn the weapon against the Empire and use it to target the Stormtroopers plastoid armor as opposed to the Mandalorian’s beskar alloy armor and you destroyed it??? And Chopper and Kanan destroyed all the plans and blueprints??? Don’t you think you could’ve used that in the future? OK then. Saw Gerrera would NOT approve.

Bo-Katan and the Darksaber – I know up top I said I liked this, and I still do. However, I must point out that it’s a little morbid that Bo-Katan now wields the weapon that was used by Maul to murder her sister but OK. You do you, Bo-Katan.

And finally, the ‘what the hell’ category:

Aging on Mandalore – we know the twin suns of Tatooine cause the residents there to age rapidly, but does the the moon of Concordia have the complete opposite effect on the people of Mandalore by chance?? Bo-Katan is almost 20 years older than we last saw her and she looks younger now than she did then. It was comical to hear the creative team talk on Rebels Recon about her character model, quite frankly….

Overall this was a very unsatisfactory start to the fourth and final season of Star Wars Rebels, and by far the worst season premiere in the series’ history. My hope is that things will pick up now and that we can leave Mandalore alone moving forward. Quite frankly, these two episodes should’ve been part of season three, but oh well. Fingers crossed as we move into the final 11 episodes of Rebels. Below are some pics from the official Star Wars site as well as a link to Rebels Recon. Feedback? Gripes? Agreements? Wanna be a guest on The Exhaust Port podcast? Hit me here.

~Todd

Rebels Review – Heroes of Mandalore – S4, Ep’s 1 & 2 So Star Wars Rebels is back with it's fourth and (gasp) final season with a two-part opener entitled…

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