The State of Mandalore in Rebels

One of the things I am most interested to see in this new series is what happened to Madalore since the end of the Clone Wars. The last time we saw it Civil War had broken out and it looked like the Republic would soon be invading to restore order. My theory of what has happened since is that it got worse.

Palpatine had been wanting to take over Mandalore since season two of the CW so the Madalorian Civil War, along with Satine being murdered would be the perfect opportunity to send troops. Once the change from Republic to Empire happened this would have turned into a full blown occupation. One of the few things Satine and Bo agreed on was that Mandalore should be free of outside control. Provided that she lived I can see Bo-Katan leading a resistance against the Empire. By the time of Rebels I can see Mandalore being a bombed out war zone with near nonstop fighting between the Imperial occupation troops a the Mandalorian resistance fighters.

So am I being to pessimistic or could this be the fate if Mandalore in this era.

 

The war between Maul and Bo was the perfect excuse for the Republic to come in; in fact Obi-Wan flat-out said it'd happen in The Lawless. This would make sense given the original Mandalore backstory, with the Empire enslaving the planet. The Republic comes in, the Jedi Purge happens, the Republic becomes the Empire, and the ruler of the Imperial forces on Mandalore declares martial law, riling up Bo and her forces, and Maul's forces become the Empire's lapdogs. We know what happens to the warrior clan Mandalorians; Fenn Shysa eventually led a rebellion against the Empire (after the Emperor's death). But seeing what Bo and the others do would be great, too. However, I hope Sabine is a member of the warrior clans; I would not be surprised if she's Bo's daughter or something, though.

 

As the Clone Wars ended, Mandalore was targeted by the Empire, initially offering a friendly alliance as a paying client of Mandalorian mercenaries and customer for beskar equipment, but ultimately turning on them, occupying the world, enslaving the populace, and simply taking what they wanted from Mandalore's people. Assembled and led by Fenn Shysa, the Mandalorian Protectors lead a guerrilla resistance against the Imperials during this time, harassing slaving operations, rescuing Mandalorian captives, and assaulting Imperial convoys. That's the established state of Mandalore during the time Rebels takes place.

 

Additionally, resurgent Death Watch forces from both Pre Viszla's faction and his kinsman Tor Viszla's group worked as hired guns for the Empire. Former members of the Cuy'val Dar, such as Dred Priest, made a comeback during the early reign of the Empire.

So far, it seems as though the Kalevalan government of the New Mandalorians disintegrated following Maul's insurrection, with Mandalore devolving into multiple groups vying for control, before the Empire occupied the planet.

 

The New Mandalorians dissolved, Death Watch got in bed with the Empire, and the Empire conquered Mandalore and started enslaving people. (Why Sabine hates the Empire? Likely.) A bunch of warrior clan Mandos left Mandalore to get away from the Empire (sounds like Sabine...) while the Mandalorian Protectors fought them until kicking the Imperials out, Death Watch ran away to Endor where they got trashed by Boba Fett, and the Mandos joined the Rebel Alliance.

Imperial era Mando history in a nutshell.

 

The next question then is how much of what we know will be kept after the the great retcon is done on the EU. For better or worse the onscreen versions of Mandalore shown in the Clone Wars will be kept canon with everything else having a 50/50 chance of being erased. Rebels will nail down what the new canon for Mandalore is in this era. Again for better or worse what ever is on the TV screens will be the definitive canon.

Given how Filoni operated on the Clone Wars and not having Lucas there anymore, best bet is that the broad strokes of what happened will be kept with the certain specifics changing to fit the story. The Protectors could end up being formed and led by Bo-Katan in this incarnation for example. We wont know for sure till the series airs.

 

Isn't Mandalore already a nuked out wasteland?

Perhaps the Mandalorians who aren't of the pacifist make offer to join the Empire, i.e., they're a recruitment pool rather than resources.

 

Nope, just some desert-sized pieces of it.

 

Yup, if I remember, they fixed that problem with a retcon saying that the capital city just happens to be in this wasteland dome area and that there are forests and other areas on Mandalore.

 

Ok.

They don't seem to have a space navy, nor a ground/marine force. Death Watch had a few small attack ships plus the usual Mandalorian armor (which is kinda like an airspeeder suit), and they're the "militarized" Mandalorians.

The Empire would role right over them like they didn't exist.

 

I would like to see rather peaceful tyranny on Mandalore with Almec as the Imperial Moff with his own guard of imperial mando commandos (and of course stormtroopers) and Bo-Katan and a little group of her warriors (remnants of the anti-maul DW) fighting a guerilla war against them on Concordia or on Kalevala or Concord Dawn- planning to return and re-take Mandalore just as they were during the Clone Wars. New Mandalorians would be just a memory and young cadets Korkie and others would be warriors fighting for Bo-Katan's resistance.

You made it sound like Lucas is dead.
He is still being consulted while he is not so directly involved anymore.

 

One of the biggest questions TCW has left is what happened to Mandalore after Maul was defeated, since we now know that he continued to cause problems for Palpatine after this, it is possible that he may have ruled there for a lot longer.

Another possibility is Sidious came up with a plan to control Mandalore through the CIS, after all since a Republic attack was hinted at, if this happened it would have been a good opportunity for the CIS to be seen as heroes. I think that if the Mando's believed that Maul had abandoned them they would accept another leader and Almec is easily controlled.

It would be nice to see Mandalore on Rebels with Almec still in charge, what I'm glad we haven't seen on TCW is an arc where the Republic would invade Mandalore and defeat Almec giving the arc a happy ending. Considering that Lucas didn't care so much about the EU I could have seen Bo Katan and her warriors becoming good and abandoning their ways, such a storyline could have messed up the EU quite a bit. The reason the Maul arc was so good was that the bad guys got a major victory against the good guys, so seeing Almec still in charge on Rebels would confirm that it was a long lasting victory which would be great.

 

Yes the mandolore plot was definitively the biggest loose end and I do think we will see Bo Katan in rebels and also remember the EU can be retconned at any time. I am not saying I want it to happen but it could.

 

Lucas is still around but he no longer has veto power and will probably be more focused on the new movies. In any event his influence and control will be much less then on the Clone Wars. Weather on not this is good or bad depends on your point of view. He was the inspiration for Cad Bane and pushed to have the opening battle scene of the episode "Landing at Point Rain" be as epic as it was.

Still the fact that one of the main cast is a Mandalorian mean we will probably get some resolution on this

I may be in the minority here but I never minded the whole Madalorian pacifist gain control thing. The problem with making a warrior race is that its easy for them to become a bland caricature, just look at the Klingons from Star Trek. The addition of Satine and her faction gave the society more depth to me. After all considering how many times the Jedi end up beating the Mandalorians and that large parts of their home world were blasted into desert by their constant fighting the idea that some would want to give up the armor makes sense. Also Satine and her New Madalorians were never presented as being perfect and without flaws. She and Visla arguably had the same personality flaw. Stubborn and an unwillingness to compromise or listen to dissenting opinions. Satine was just politer and less likely to shoot you about it.

This is why I like the idea of Bo-Katan as Madalores eventual leader. She was much more pragmatic then either Visla or Satine. Her main concern was keeping Mandalore free and safe. If it had been her that Maul had challenged she would have just had him shot on the spot. She was also willing to put aside past issue to work with both Satine and her supporters and Obi-Wan, the Jedi, and the Republic. I really hope she survived and we get to see her.

 

I forgot about Almec. That's actually not a bad idea; it would make sense for the Emperor to recruit someone who is in the eyes of the people a hero, and then make him do the dirty work. Plus, "Moff Almec" has kind of a nice ring to it, IMO.

 

The Empire kinda did do just that. The Mandalorian clans from the Late Republic/Early Empire were not the superpowers of the past. These small clans and resistance fighters could easily slip away because of how scattered and few they were.

 

I think that Imperial uniform would suit him. Same with Panaka- I would like to see him as Moff of Chommel Sector.

 

Have to agree. Almec would be great as turncoat Imperial supporter

 

Mother and daughter killing spree of the empire (Bo and Sabine)?

 

Nothing brings families together like a spree of death and destruction, just look as Savage and Maul