shadowsabres' blog

I made Angel's Share from Genshin Impact in Paralives! (Because I have far too much time on my hands, lol)

I still have to do the upstairs portion, the stairs, and add some roof details but then I'll upload it as a lot.

Today, I wanted to go over something that was mentioned in the Clone Wars TV Show- aka the Great Clan Wars (of Mandalore).

With the new(15-year-ish) knowledge of Mandalorian history and culture the TV series “The Clone Wars” brings, also brings some confusion. The main point of concern is, of course, where The Clone Wars fits into Canon- or Legends Canon. It is never really explained which of the licensed Lucasfilms universes that The Clone Wars fits into as a whole (well, mostly, but the main point here is that it’s complicated), which creates some confusion on a few of the topics it goes over. 

But I’m not here to talk about that (though it should be noted for a few things). Instead, I’m going to go over something that the Clone Wars mentions but never gets much into: What are the ‘Great Clan Wars’?

The Great Clan Wars were first mentioned in the TV series “The Clone Wars”, on an episode released in 2010- and this name and first appearance is shown in both Disney Canon and Legends Canon. The Great Clan Wars are explained in both universes as a conflict occurring around 40 BBY in Mandalorian Space, more specifically Mandalore itself. It is here that Obi-Wan Kenobi and Qui-Gon Jinn protected a young Satine Kryze from being assassinated or killed. But that’s about the only main thing known about these clan wars- so what really were they? (Important note: Some articles also refer to the Great Clan Wars as the “Mandalorian Civil War”, despite this already being an event that happened in Legends only a few years before the Great Clan Wars themselves)

First topic of interest: When did these wars occur? Well, in Canon, they were said to occur between 41 and 40 BBY. In Legends, however, this is left more vague in that it ‘ended prior to 32 BBY’. Besides these dates, we know that it occurred when Qui-Gon Jinn was still alive, and when Obi-Wan was still a padawan. It also had to have lasted at least a year, as Obi-Wan states in The Clone Wars that “Master Qui-Gon and I spent a year on Mandalore, protecting the duchess”.

Second topic of interest: Who was fighting in this war? Well, this one gets a bit- or a lot- more complicated depending on which source you’re looking at. Here’s a small breakdown:

Wookiepedia’s Canon Article on the “New Mandalorians”

This article states in the beginning that the New Mandalorians fought the Old Mandalorians. However, the Canon Article on Old Mandalorians (which is linked in the word) says that the Old Mandalorians were a splinter group formed after the Great Clan Wars ended. 

Wookiepedia’s Legends Article on the “New Mandalorians’

This article says that Death Watch declared war on the New Mandalorians after having defeated the True Mandalorians. The article goes on to explain that the choice between standing with the New Mandalorians or Death Watch put clans at odds with each other, which was what really kicked off the Great Clan Wars.

Wookiepedia’s Canon Article on the “Great Clan Wars”

This article states that the New Mandalorians fought against ‘martial traditionalists’ in the Great Clan Wars. The linked article on ‘martial traditionalists’ gives very little detail as to what this group was like, aside from the fact that once they were exiled from Mandalore, they eventually formed into Death Watch.

Wookiepedia’s Legends Article on the “Great Clan Wars”

In this article, the Great Clan Wars were said to have begun when squabbles between clans on Mandalore reached a boiling point (it is also stated that the previous civil war between the True Mandalorians and Death Watch did not help the matter any). Multiple warlords (which I take to mean different leaders of different Mandalorian warrior clans) were said to turn on each other, with their clans caught in the crossfire. Death Watch entered this war to try and gain public support and rally people to its cause, but this did not succeed as they also suffered from this war. The war ended when Satine Kryze, who had become the leader of the New Mandalorians, managed to convince many of the former warlords who were now war-weary to lay down arms and accept pacifism.

So what do we know for sure: Well, the New Mandalorians won the conflict by managing to convince enough warrior Mandalorians to stand down and accept pacifism. Those who did not comply were exiled off of the planet of Mandalore. In every iteration, both of these facts remain true.

Here’s some main differing background facts:

In Canon, the New Mandalorians formed around 40 BBY as a direct result of the tensions in the prelude or beginning to the Great Clan Wars. In Legends, the New Mandalorian movement formed over 700 years before the Clone Wars, as a result of the Republic’s orbital bombardment of the planet after the Mandalorian Empire had grown ‘too large’.

In Canon, Death Watch was formed from the clans that were exiled from Mandalore on the moon of Concordia. In Legends, Death Watch was formed around 60 BBY in opposition to Jaster Mareel’s Supercommando Codex.

The ‘martial traditionalists’ are only ever mentioned in Canon, and no mention of this exact group is made in Legends.

My own conclusions:

Due to the uncertainty of the Old Mandalorians existence in option #1, I would say it was unlikely that the Great Clan Wars was fought between the New Mandalorians and the Old Mandalorians, despite their well-matching names. So, that leaves options 2, 3, and 4.

Personally, I like the ideas of the Legends side of things- especially option #4. This option is the only one that doesn’t list the New Mandalorians as a main opponent, which makes total sense with their ideas of peace and pacifism- instead, they merely stood on the sidelines and slowly gained people over to their side through politics and other clans growing war-weary. For a more overall view of things, the Legends options are the only ones that really put meaning into the name of the “Great Clan Wars”- neither of the Canon explanation mentions any clans fighting against each other, while Legends does- making the name fit much better.

Many fanfictions I’ve read often portray the New Mandalorians in an unfavorable light- the more extreme saying that the New Mandalorians committed cultural genocide. But did they really? Well, here's a short essay-like thing I made of some details about New Mandalorian culture, laws, and ruling that show how they interpreted different parts of traditional Mandalorian culture. (Note: This is purely for fun, and I used Wookiepedia articles as a source, mainly the ones on New Mandalorians. So, don't take super seriously :D)

First, here’s some important facts to know about Mandalorians: the Resol’nare, or the Six Actions, is the core idea of Mandalorian culture. It consists of six main tenets: the wearing or armor, knowing self-defense, knowing the language of Mando’a, following the Mand’alor, and the teaching of children and further generations. So the question here is this: have the New Mandalorians exiled any who follow this code, or ban parts of this code, or really done anything that actually bans non-bloodthirsty Mandalorians from remaining on the planet? Well, let’s find out! (Courtesy of Wookiepedia article surfing).

So, the first issue of the New Mandalorian leadership: Do they ban armor? While both the Legends and Canon articles explain that the New Mandalorians gave up their own armor, nowhere does it say that they forced anyone else to give up armor- simply that they themselves chose to. In fact, in Legends, it is said that a number of New Mandalorians still chose to wear traditional Mandalorian kamas. So, no, there isn’t ever a mentioned ban on armor that the New Mandalorians enforced.

Second issue: did the New Mandalorians ban weapons? Yes, or at least to an extent. In Legends, it was illegal for offworlders to bring weapons into New Mandalorian territory at or by 22 BBY. However, it didn’t seem to be illegal for the citizens of New Mandalorian cities to hold weapons- or at least not Satine Kryze, who carried a deactivator with her at all times. (Though whether or not she needed a permit for this or if regular citizens could carry weapons is unknown).

Third issue: Could the New Mandalorians fight? While it’s not really mentioned if they could or couldn’t, it is mentioned that while New Mandalorians still stood against bloody violence against sentients, they accepted non-lethal self-defense in certain situations. Meaning that it wasn’t a crime to be able to know how to fight, or to fight back when necessary (though it was likely illegal to begin a fight). In fact, it was canon in both universes that Satine Kryze knew how to fight and could hold her own, and was said to have good aim with a blaster. She explained to Obi-Wan at one point that even though she was a pacifist, she wasn’t afraid to defend herself. Seeing as Satine was the leader of the New Mandalorians, then it was probably fine for the New Mandalorians to at least be able to know how to fight.

Fourth issue: Do New Mandalorians speak Mando’a? This is a bit trickier. It is canon, however, that Satine Kryze can speak Mando’a, having understood a bomber speaking in the Concordian dialect of the language and speaking back to him in the same. As for the written form of Mando’a, in Wookiepedia’s legends article on Mando’a, it is said that “The New Mandalorians used written Mando’a quite frequently in their everyday lives.” So, while it’s not entirely clear whether most New Mandalorians can speak Mando’a or not, they are said to be able to read and write in it.

Fifth issue: What about following the Mand’alor? Well, it’s said on the legends article for New Mandalorians that the New Mandalorians made their own Mand’alor- though the only named person with this title is Satine Kryze, so it’s not entirely mentioned how long this practice existed for. Regardless, there is technically a Mand’alor of the New Mandalorians, even if most other clans wouldn’t recognize their rule.

Sixth Issue: So, for the last issue of the Resol’nare in comparison of the New Mandalorians: raising children as Mandalorian. While it’s not said if the New Mandalorians pass down self-defense skills and such, there doesn’t seem to be any mention of them banning the teaching of children in a more traditional outlook (so long as it doesn’t involve weaponry and needless violence). Plus, a simpler version of the Resol’nare would simply be ‘education’, in which case the New Mandalorians do educate their children (even if they have centralized education instead of individualized).

Conclusion: While most New Mandalorians choose not to follow the Resol’nare, there doesn’t seem to be any laws in the New Mandalorian rule that prevent traditional Mandalorians from living peacefully on-planet. While no armored Mandalorians are ever pictured as living on-planet during the New Mandalorian rule, it is never said that every traditional Mandalorian was banned from the planet- only that the ‘warriors’ or ‘militant traditionalists’ were exiled. Therefore, it seems entirely possible that so long as a follow of the Resol’nare didn’t start any fights, they could still follow their codex in most senses, even if they sort of stretched the bit about following the Mand’alor to include the leader of the New Mandalorian movement. While, in my opinion, New Mandalorian culture is incredibly boring with their cube-shaped everything and largely white color scheme, they don’t seem to have committed a cultural genocide (at least not canonically in either universe with the details available). Instead, it seemed they only banned the people who would not stop fighting (against each other or the New Mandalorians, at least).

There are, of course, issues with the whole ‘blond-hair, blue-eyed, human’ population that the New Mandalorians seem to have- at least when you compare it to the mixing pot that is the traditional Mandalorians. There’s also the issue of corruption (though this wasn’t spared in the traditional factions -cough, Montross, cough-). Oh, and their awful cube-style, though that’s more of a personal note than a ‘that’s pretty inherently not a good thing’. While the New Mandalorians have a very different culture from the traditional Mandalorians, they don't seem to inherently forbid the super important parts of said traditional Mandalorian culture.

(At least I’m pretty sure it’s fanon, I havnt read the original material he was in just his wiki page)

Anyway, one of my favorite Headcanons when it comes to this is about how he became Mand’alor. In canon, he got the posistion around 60 BBY when he wrote a codex, a work of honor codes pulled from old Mandalorian honor codes, Journeyman Protector ideals, etc etc

My Headcanon, though, is that after Jaster was exiled from the Journeyman Protectors that he went to a university somewhere, and wrote his thesis project on old Mandalorian honor codes and about how to implement them in his current time, and called it the Supercommando Codex- and it was somehow leaked, and he found himself with a bunch of Mandalorian follows proclaiming him the Mand’alor.

Recently, I've been attempting to build the Jedi Temple from Star Wars in Minecraft. Here are some screenshots of what I have so far :D

(From top to bottom and left to right, we have Jedi Archives Hall, Jedi Archives Rotunda, the Exterior of the Temple, the Temple Roof, one of the Towers, the High Council Chamber viewed from above, the High Council Chamber viewed from the side, the Hall of Knighthood, the Rooftop Training Ground with Shaders, the Council Master's Quarters/Dorm, the Sith Containment Cells, and the Rooftop Training Ground without shaders)

Oh, and the chairs in the High Council Chamber are diagonal since I used entity block displays