The Cuy'val Dar and Galidraan

You might want to consider that it's entirely possible to be injured during a battle and...gasp...not die!

Also, I don't see twelve Jedi bodies. I see five Jedi bodies, and a few shapeless masses that are of a vague brown colour, which, considering the capes worn by Jango's crew could quite easily be Mandalorians. (In fact, two of them look more like rocks.)

Fact: Dooku states only 11 Jedi die, no one denies this (presumably since the nine remaining return). One questionable interpretation of a frame isn't "heaps of evidence". It's bugger all evidence.

 

One of them might be a rock. Assuming that the object in question is, in fact, a rock, that leaves us with eleven visible Jedi bodies (again, not counting the Jedi Jango's about to kill or the other dead one soon to be revealed behind him), plus two dead Mandalorians and two probable dead Mandalorians in that one panel.

Given the way Mandalorians fight, and the mechanics of Star Wars in general (only named characters are wounded!), I find that unlikely.

Still, I'd be willing to concede that it's not out of the realm of possibility that a majority of the Jedi were incapacitated during the course of the battle, and only eleven actually died there.

Agreed?

 

Perhaps it's just the age old issue of the victor painting his own version and overestimating his enemies dead and underestimating his own dead.

 

That's a distinct possibility, I'm quite certain.

 

I'd prefer option number one, myself. If the Mandalorians who died at Galidraan were only a small group of all the True Mandalorian supercommandos Jango commanded, why would he say "We're all dead" and become a bounty hunter instead of returning to lead the rest of his people? Yes, Jango's an ass, but if Galidraan's any indication, he did care about his men.

What do we know about Skirata's and Vau's pre-Cuy'val Dar days? Have any sources indicated what they might have been doing or whose side they were on during Galidraan?

 

OOU, the reason is probably that Karen Traviss wanted more Mandalorians.

I think the in-universe difference is best explained as being between "the Mandalorians" as an organized fighting force, and "Mandalorians" as individual mercenaries.

Jaster's "True Mandalorians" are the equivalent of the supercommandos who follow Fett personally in the Yuuzhan Vong War and 'Legacy of the Force'. After their defeat and destruction of the Death Watch, they're the only large, organized body of Mandalorians fighting as a group.

That's my guess, anyway.

- The Imperial Ewok

 

I'm not sure if I'm misremembering it, but I believe some of the Cuy'val Dar were ex-Death Watch.

As to Jango and the True Mandalorians, the Mandalorians as a culture are in a rough way around the time leading up to the Empire, or at least that's the way it seems. The implication is a lot are in diaspora, like Sinrebirth said. With that being the case, I'd assume the title Mandalore didn't have as much meaning as it did in the past, being used simply to refer to the head of the Supercommandos. And maybe there was even some elitism on Jaster and Jango's parts. They did call themselves the True Mandalorians, after all.

 

My thoughts on this, from the other thread:

Goes pretty parallel with the other opinions here.

 

Were they though? I mean, Shysa was a hero of the Alliance of Free Planets, and Shysa's revived Protectors continued to fight against the Empire and support the New Republic. I'm not sure where the Mando's beef with the NR or any of their earlier incarnations is coming from. If people in the NR have a problem with the Mandalorians, that's probably entirely Boba's fault for serving the Empire and holding to the "status quo" if you will.