Rowan_the_Escapist

Yes, of course! Here’s my recommended reading order (I'll highlight the most important ones lore-wise (imo) in blue):

Disclaimer: This list is NOT an endorsement of any of the authors/writers/illustrators. This is from a lore perspective ONLY.

Jango Fett: Open Seasons- Read this first if you can. It lays the groundwork for most EU Mando and clone books

Star Wars Insider Articles: History of the Mandalorians/Mandalorians: People & Culture/Mando’a Guide

Star Wars: Bounty Hunter (Game)-The sequel to Open Seasons, starring Temuera Morrison himself. You don’t have to actually play it. There are gameplay/cutscene compilations on YouTube. Try to have some patience with the graphics quality if you can. It’s over 20 years old now.

Star Wars Insider Article: Guide to the Grand Army of the Republic

Star Wars: Republic Commando (Game)- Also starring Mr. Morrison. Good to watch before reading the Republic Commando/Imperial Commando series. Gameplay/cutscene compilations are on YouTube. Once again, try and have some patience with the graphics. It’s almost 20 years old.

Boba Fett: The Fight to Survive-Boba Fett’s POV from before AOTC to a little bit after Jango’s death

Republic Commando: Hard Contact, Republic Commando: Triple Zero, Republic Commando: True Colors-The sequels to Open Seasons & the video games (Links to really well done fan-made YouTube audiobooks for Hard Contact & Triple Zero here)

Star Wars: The Clone Wars novelization-Probably not essential, but it has a good Dooku POV moment that ties into Open Seasons. Also clones.

Boba Fett: Crossfire, Boba Fett: Maze of Deception, Boba Fett: Hunted, Boba Fett: Pursuit, Boba Fett: A New Threat

The Clone Wars: Defenders of the Lost Temple comic-Force-sensitive clone trooper vs. Pre Vizsla! Also Bo-Katan, Pre Vizsla’s and the Darksaber’s first appearance in the SW universe. Somehow this is not on Bo-Katan’s Wookiepedia. I am apparently nerdier than my fellow lore nerds for knowing this.

The Cestus Deception- An Obi-Wan & Jedi book but has a great clone-centric storyline

The Clone Wars: No Prisoners

Order 66: A Republic Commando Novel & Imperial Commando: 501st

Important Miscellaneous Boba Comics-“Outbid But Never Outgunned" - Star Wars Tales 7,Empire 7, Boba Fett ½, Boba Fett: Agent of Doom, Blood Ties: A Tale of Jango and Boba Fett 1, Blood Ties: A Tale of Jango and Boba Fett 2, Blood Ties: A Tale of Jango and Boba Fett 3, Blood Ties: A Tale of Jango and Boba Fett 4, Blood Ties: Boba Fett is Dead 1, Blood Ties: Boba Fett is Dead 2, Blood Ties: Boba Fett is Dead 3, Blood Ties: Boba Fett is Dead 4, Empire 28, Boba Fett: Twin Engines of Destruction - These are about Boba’s life after TCW/Boba’s ties to Concord Dawn and his family. Important lore for the Legacy of the Force series.

Star Wars (1977) 68, Star Wars (1977) 69, Star Wars (1977)101, Star Wars (1977) 99, Star Wars (1977) 100, Star Wars (1977) 107-Adventures of Luke, Leia, Lando, Han & Chewie and the Mandalorian Protectors. Old but still fun comic series. More lore that’s referenced in the Legacy of the Force series.

Luke Skywalker and the Shadows of Mindor- Really fun book. Good for both Jedi and Mando lovers. Features Fenn Shysa and the Protectors

Boba Fett: A Practical Man

Legacy of the Force: Bloodlines, Legacy of the Force: Sacrifice, Legacy of the Force: Revelation, Legacy of the Force: Invincible: Part of a longer series but these are the ones where Mand’alor Boba and the Mandalorians feature heavily.

For more Mando stuff: Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (game) & Star Wars: The Old Republic (game)- cutscenes are on YouTube if you’re not a gamer. Mando stuff in SWTOR is mostly under the bounty hunter storyline and new stories are still being put out semi-regularly.

Also, some important Mando & Clone EU reminders/facts/tips before you get started:

Do your own due diligence and research authors before reading if that’s something that concerns you. As I’ve mentioned, most of these books were written around 20 years ago (some of these comics are even older). You’ll occasionally see some outdated ideas/attitudes/terminology. If these are things that will bother you to read, be forewarned.

Remember that EU authors usually had to abide by rules set into canon by previous authors to be approved by the Lucasfilm story group, so not everything in a book/comic is an author’s original idea. EU books/comics always work off of stories that came before so everything feels like it's mostly part of the same narrative & universe.

Keep in mind that 20 years ago there was no concept of clone trooper brain chips. The lore at the time of AOTC was that clone troopers were pretty much mindless drones who literally could not disobey orders. The RepComm game and tie-in novels challenged and changed this, but sometimes this concept pops up.

Have you ever encountered the 'Seventy Maxims of Maximally Effective Mercenaries'?

It's an in world book from the Schlock Mercenary universe and has since been printed in real life. Each maxim has footnotes that add context.

I have the defaced edition where characters from in universe have written notes about the various maxims.

Both footnotes and the graffiti notes are very funny.

Some of my favourite maxims are:

1) Pillage THEN burn

6) If violence is not your last resort you have not resorted to enough of it

23) The company mess and friendly fire should be easier to tell apart

32) Anything is amphibious if you can get it back out of the water

43) If it's stupid and it works, it's still stupid and you're lucky.

I had no idea that this existed so I went to look for these 70 maxims and, omg some of this stuff is insane like:

13. Do unto others. 15. Only you can prevent friendly fire. 24. Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from a big gun. 26. "Fire and Forget" is fine, provided you never actually forget. 29. The enemy of my enemy is my enemy's enemy. No more. No less. 33. If you're leaving tracks, you're being followed. 37. There is no 'overkill.' There is only 'open fire' and 'I need to reload.' 41. "Do you have a backup?" means "I can't fix this." 43. If it's stupid and it works, it's still stupid and you're lucky. 54. It's only too many troops if you can't pay them. 55. It's only too many weapons if they're pointing in the wrong direction. 70. Failure is not an option - it is mandatory. The option is whether or not to let failure be the last thing you do.

First off, we have … Oh, wait. Satine’s the only named character in The Clone Wars who speaks Mando’a, and she even uses the warrior dialect of the Concordians.

And hmm … there’s Mando’a on the police speeders.

(Also note that the police carry and use blasters and flame throwers, so she hasn’t outlawed weapons either. Mandalorians are also not forbidden from carrying weapons within the city, which is why the Death Watch terrorist pictured above was carrying a blaster. The only people forbidden from carrying weapons are outsiders ... and that was only a rule solidified in The Clone Wars Season 3.)

But surely the children are only taught Basic …

Nope! The children of Mandalore are taught both Basic and Mando’a, but you can see that Mando’a is what Korkie is using on his tablet.

It’s clear the children are bilingual. They use Mando’a for their studies, but Ahsoka’s presentation is in Basic. It's likely that they are using Basic to converse with her but speak Mando'a amongst themselves.

In fact, the only place in Sundari where we see Basic is on the dome’s exits (this says “Hangar 1”), with the implication that they are accommodating travelers.

Huh. It’s almost like violence isn’t the only tradition that makes up Mandalorian culture, and Satine loves her Mandalorian heritage even as she believes (as the majority of Mandalorians did who confirmed her right to rule) that the time of peace had come.

For example. “He’d hate the Jedi for sending kids to war!” …the same man that gave an eight year old a gun and said “hey, you wanna kill that guy that killed your parents?”

Okay jokes aside (please take this meme with a laugh and a grain of salt) but I want to talk about Mandalorian x Jedi pairings and how authors write them.

A rant about Jedi-Mandalorian Pairings, Anti-Jedi attitudes, and how prevelent it is.

So, you might be thinking, "If you don't like it, don't read it", now I do agree with that stance. However, when the author either doesn't tag the fic as having Anti-Jedi sentiments or as being Jedi critical or just doesn't realize that's what they are portraying, it's kinda impossible to do so. It just kinda creeps up on you mid fic.

I am an avid Jedi-Mandalorian pairing reader. I love seeing how Jedi and Mandalorian culture and societies come together. It just seems that many authors think that it is a one-way street where the Jedi in the relationship has to completely integrate and learn Mandalorian customs and the Mandalorian gets to be willingly ignorant to Jedi culture.

I hate coming across this trope of "Jedi that follows the Resol'nare, might or might not be married to a Mandalorian, and is still ostracized for being an aruetii, until they give up their Jedi ways"

It feels icky.

Reading what is essentially a interracial/intercultural relationship and one partner be put down for doing what their culture does is weird. It gets even weirder when the author starts going down the assimilation route. (Clarification: I am talking solely about fics where the author doesn't tag or put a warning that there are these themes in said fic. I am not talking about fics where that is blatantly the focal point)

If I have to see something alone the lines of "maybe the order died for a reason" again I'm going ballistic. What could you possibly mean by that.

Ah yes, because the babies and younglings that got murdered in the creche sooo deserved to die. Or the members of the Agriculture Corps, Medical Corps, Education Corps, and the Exploration Corps, who aren't even overseen by the Jedi High Council but the Council of Reassignment, also deserved to die.

Like I'm starting to think that y'all just don't like the Jedi characters you write about. If that is the cause THAT'S FINE JUST FUCKING TAG IT.

I would like to believe that most of these authors don't have any ill intent when writing like this, but there's definintely a vibe going on. It's just so infuriating because Jedi and Mandalorian cultures could mesh together, or at the very least closely co-exist, really well. They are like two sides to the same coin. So it makes no fucking sense (and is very harmful) to have this way of thinking if you genuinely like these pairings and think they could work.

Afterall isn't that one of the main appeals of these pairings?