The Mandalorian Mandalorians (Clans, Tribes, Mercs) in The Mandalorian (Spoilers)

Yup.

I just also think that Favreau, working with a visual creator like Filoni, who oversaw giving Clan Viszla that branch/stitch symbol in Rebels alongside their old shriek-Hawk one, and who has that quote clarifying that “Clans” serve under “Houses,” is more likely to have deliberately had some stunt men costumed with the shriek hawk, colored mostly in blue, and have a member carry one of the banners during the initiation for another young Mando with a blue helmet. (The kid’s name is apparently Ragnar according to the captions, by the way.)

We didn’t see either the shriek hawk or twig in previous Covert appearances, and these dudes seem to have deliberately been given TCW-style decorations. Whether it ever gets called out in dialogue or just acts as a handy way to show that Paz has a personal clique implied to be his family as part of the background, I think its cool.

On a separate note… is anyone else in favor of calling the mercenaries who left Bo and took her fleet with them “corsairs” until or unless they get some other specific name?

 

I've got some thoughts on Din's first armor, the seeming Viszla clan members of the new Covert group, and the other more colorful but seemingly less coordinated armors of the other Mandos in the Covert.

If the Viszla guys primarily use standardized blue coloring in their personalized paint schemes (though not only that color), maybe the more motley colorings of other Mandos symbolize being foundlings or even just "clanless" Mandos - thus why Din had his hodge podge armor in Season One.

 

So two things I noticed:

We now know that House Kryze were the singular ruling family of Mandalore before the civil war that served as Satine and Bo Katan’s origin story and their father’s death - and that logically, the death of House Kryze’s patriarch did not stop the assumption of power by his pacifist daughter and the rise of the New Mandalorian regime, backed and supported by The Protectors and the vast majority of the people of Mandalore itself.

So I kind of want to ask this: how many still-willing-to-kick-ass Mandos do you think supported the New Mandalorian regime? Pre Viszla seemingly has to recruit a bunch of inexperienced neophytes like himself, while Fenn Rau could apparently keep his armor and act as a clone fighter instructor, and Clan Wren have been inferred to have maintained their traditions and heraldry through the period.

I’m starting to think that most of the Mandalroian worlds were ruled by clans that had comparatively small amounts of warriors and Beskar, and that the majority of “real” Mandos with access to Beskar armor lived on Mandalore itself. Then, making sure those clans weren’t giving fighters and armor to Death Watch was comparatively easy (or at least they had few enough members that it would be harder to ascertain), until Death Watch successfully took over.

This would also explain Ketsu Onyo having non-Mandalorian armor and Alrich Wren belonging to a lower social level than his wife and apparently having no armor; “subjects” might not have the same resources as “citizens.”

 

TCW tried to say that any armored warrior was exiled from Mandalore, which would fit with how the Protectors and police officers ditched their outfits for new designs. But Rebels’s tie in comic had Fenn Rau’s wearing his helmet in his fighter, so that might point to limited “legal” use of armor outside of Mandalore itself. And Almec talked about warriors fleeing to the moon, but that’s both still pretty close to Mandalore itself, and he didn’t point to it as a likely source of the saboteur Obi-Wan was investigating, so even that might have been “legal.”

Personally… I’m kind of hoping we get some lore story that adapts the factions from the old Open Season story in Legends to fit into the Mandalorian civil war, but that separates Tor’s Death Watch from Pre’s; it would work great if Pre’s Death Watch wa s inspired by both his kinsman’s black armored organization, but also took inspiration from Jango Fett’s lethal rampage that took the organization down.

The TCW BTS explanation for the group’s armor designs was that the admired Jango, and Pre’s crazy enough he might genuinely have fanboyed over the silver-and-blue-clad avenger ending his kinsman’s faction just because of how cool it was.

It would also open up a greater explanation for why Bo might join Death Watch if that Death Watch wasn’t behind her father’s death.

Maybe he was killed by another rival House leader, or even by the True Mandalorians.

 

A lot of this will come down to how Mandalorians measure political power and strength - which may be something more solid, like the land-based power comparisons of medieval Europe, or more variable, like how many feared and veteran soldiers they have sworn to them, like Alexander the Great’s successors with the Macedonian armies, or even something like an institutional position you jockey for, like Rome’s Emperor’s and their relationship to the Legions.

And of course, it could simply be a sci-fi, less-extermination-focused version of the Great Houses form Game of Thrones, with a lot of variables.

We know Kryze apparently has a planet they have ancestral rule over - Kalevala. If it’s a significantly populated and prosperous planet, than that might make them an eternal power player in Mandalorian politics even if they lack standing in the central capital. It also looks like it houses a larger castle and might (depending on whether the planet with the working dome we’ve seen in the trailers is Kalevala or not) have a greater population than Krownest, the other Non-Mandalore planet we know is ruled by Mandalorians, albeit a Clan. TCW also gave it at least one other family name, Merrick, that apparently claimed the title of “Prince” for it’s scion, and the planet’s Senator (another indicator of size).

Maybe Viszla or other Houses compete over Mandalore itself, but that can act as a neutralizing factor when stacked against the Kryzes having an outside power base - sort of like how the Plantagenet kings of England wielded the resources of their British and French holdings against the other whenever they had to.

I’ve also got a minor theory that all or most of the Houses might have had Mandalores at one point or another - Mandalore having a less stable and more competence history would make that work, especially since we know that Viszla and a Kryze were apparently competing dynasties, but also that they never pursued policies of extermination of a rival line. Houses being the networks of Allie’s that skilled politicians and generals used to cement their control of Mandalore would make sense.

 

Come to think of it, Satine didn’t seem to raise Korkie or his friends with pacifism - at least, not pacifism by the Galaxy’s standards - since we know that they’re all perfectly willing to pop a space-cap in soemone’s ***. Hell, Korkie is willing to shoot someone in the back when he comes to rescue his aunt, and she seems about as occupied by that as she is by her guards and police using blasters and other weapons.

Satine is an “absolute” pacifist (provided it’s not droids she can one-shot with a deactivator) but is it maybe more correct to say that the New Mandalorian government are pacifists by Mandalorian standards?

 

See, I think I distinctly remember seeing the cops actually have blasters. I feel like we totally saw them try and take on Savage Oppress and the Pykes with them.

And I know that TCW, for whatever reason, showed a Mandalore that Death Watch got driven off of without Republic help somehow, and which only succumbed to a false flag operation backed by the combined ALL major criminal organizations bullied into it by Maul.

…I kind of just really want to see some non-armorers Mandos show they can totally hold their own through numbers, logistical support, and the same chutzpah the rest of the Galaxy has. I like Korkie not being afraid to blast someone without armor, and I think it would pay to see that Ketsu comes form similar stock.

 

It would be nice to see anyone happy to learn Korkie were alive.