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#HE HAS THE DARKSABER HES THE BOSS NOW
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I don’t think I really like how The Mandalorian has been MCUified if that makes sense
Like the first season was it’s own thing, Mando went to different places across the galaxy trying to hide some kid he found from remnants of the fallen empire, it was largely its own thing and helped make the Star Wars galaxy seem bigger for me. It also had its own characters that managed to be memorable and interesting. It was a unique take on Star Wars I wanted to see more of.
Then season 2 comes out, and it’s a bit larger scale wise. Mando’s gotta find another Jedi to fulfill his kid’s destiny, which brings him back to going around the galaxy finding leads on one of these Jedi folks. There are a lot of returning characters in this season; most of the surviving season one character show up for at least an episode, Mayfeld gets some damn good characterization as a former imperial after being a one-note asshole in season 1, Ashoka gets an episode to learn more about Grogu and set up her own show, Boba Fett is a looming presence until he actually shows up and fucks shit up, Bo Katan returns with her besties, and even Luke Skywalker is in this bitch. Now I don’t like cameos just for the sake of having them, but the legacy characters at least either have good reason or are done well. Ashoka needs setup for a show, Fett is finally given the chance to be cool as shit, and Bo Katan going from ruler of Mandalore in Rebels to just another pirate gives context to why Gus Fring has the Darksaber (Luke’s just kinda there to be there though). I wouldn’t like to need to watch Clone Wars and Rebels to know what the hell Ashoka, Bo Katan, or the Darksaber are if I didn’t already, but I feel they’re given just enough explanation to make sense without it. And all of it was tied up in an emotional ending with Mando and Grogu that payed off everything set up throughout the season and made the entire thing feel grounded. It was probably the best ending the show could’ve had. This was the last time I would feel this way.
When Book Of Boba Fett was announced at the end of Mando season 2, I was exited. I loved how Boba Fett was handled in Mando and hoped that the show would flesh him out better. It was then that the rug was pulled from under my feet. Like Fredrick Fitzgerald Fazbear coming down upon a poor night guard in the dead of night, I was jumped with the truth of this show. This wasn’t a show about Boba Fett. This was just a season of Mando they shoved Boba Fett on for more runtime.
Theatrics aside, BOBF was just really disappointing to me. The Boba Fett stuff was kinda garbage, they perfected his character in Mando as a brutal goddamn terminator man, then they went back and went “he doesn’t want to be a bounty hunter, he just wants to live peacefully as a crime boss or something” which felt really weird to me. The Flashbacks were also so fucking boring, they could’ve been shorted down to one episode and given more time to Boba. I praised Mando season 2 for both giving legacy characters purpose and explanation so you didn’t need to know what their deal was. But you see, I’m pretty sure Cathleen Kennedy read my complement on that, realized she fucked up by making a story that can stand on its own, used her fucking Disney witch magic to go back in time, and had the guy who worked on the writing for those episodes shot at point blank range because holy shit they fucking shattered the ball with Cad Bane.
The show makes a point of saying that Cad Bane and Boba had a history, and this confused me. They never specified what exactly this history was, so I looked through everything I could get my grubby mits on. I looked through every one of both Bane and Boba’s appearances in Clone Wars, checked comics with Bane, looked through all of the officially released media I thought could be a lead. Then I noticed something about Bane in BOBF, he had a metal plate on his head. This wasn’t much, but I thought it was something, so I went through his animated appearances one more time and noticed he had the same plate in The Bad Batch. This just made me more confused, so I checked around and found it. The “history” the show was referring too. See when they brought back Clone Wars for season 7 they took unfinished arcs and gave them new life, but some were left on the cutting room floor. I said “couldn’t find any officially released material” because what they were alluding too was an unfinished episode, you can even see the part where Bane gets shot in the head. The crux of Bane and Boba’s unfinished business was an unfinished episode that wasn’t even considered canon at that point.
This was my Joker arc.
This show was so lazy, so uncaring about making the story seem complete without supplementary material, that the only thing they did to give the main villain a connection with the hero was a vague allusion to an event that wasn’t even officially released. Could they not have cut some of the boring-ass shit in the desert to flesh out this relationship? Was it too much to ask for this show to get even close to how Mando used it’s legacy characters? Was it too much to ask for competence?
Besides that, I thought that it kinda fucked up the great ending I thought Mando season 2 had. I knew they weren’t gonna be separated for that long, but I would’ve liked them to be apart a bit longer, or have them reunite in their own show. Feel the same way about Mando’s new starfighter, I think it would’ve been less alienating to have him get that in the beginning of season 3
Speaking of season 3, it’s also kinda disappointing. I think the shift from Mando to Bo Katan was disappointing, it’s like what happened to Boba Fett with Mando ironically enough, but it’s still disappointing that in a world where it seems like almost every character is slated for their own show, Bo was shoved into Mando. I also think Gus Fring seems less intimidating, I feel him being a part of this “Shadow Empire” is less threatening than a warlord trying to bring about his own empire. It also has the same problem as BOBF where you need to know stuff beforehand. I don’t think they ever explicitly state Gideon carpet bombed Mandalore, they just kinda said it was cursed. I know it was mentioned in BOBF, but again I shouldn’t need to watch another show to understand what’s going on in this one. I’m not gonna go too long with this one since it’s not over yet, but I’m not sure it’ll fix my problems with this season.
Anyway my biggest takeaway from this is that I hate Book of Boba Fett way more than I first thought.
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brokestrapmountain · 1 year
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mando s3 spoilers scroll if u don’t wanna see me complain
Literally what the fuck has this season been. It has zero direction, absolutely terrible dialogue, and it is SO BORING!!!!!! every episode since the season 2 finale has been building up a super badass fight between bo-katan and din all for din to say Here i don’t want this. The logic makes absolutely no fucking sense. Let’s say if i kill a bug for Mike Tyson, does that make me stronger than Mike Tyson???? BITCH FUCK NO. This season was advertised SO WELL, I thought we were going to get some interesting insight on din’s covert instead of being told it’s a cult over and over again without any nuance!!
I love Bo-Katan but this show has just entirely been her girl boss moments!!! which would be sick!!!! if there was a balance between her and din!!! every single one of his moments have been outshined by her, this was supposed to be his season of acceptance!!! and I guess we got it!!! but bo-katan had the main focus and was feeling shitty about her past!!!!
I’ve seen a lot of criticism for this season being labeled as “misogynistic” which yes there is a lot of unnecessary hatred for bo and her role which I DO not agree with, I think her character has been really good this season and that she was incredibly important to the story, but this season should have been about din’s complicated journey with his redemption, not hers. it’s honestly super fucking funny though
what is supposed to happen now??? Din goes back to being a bounty hunter living in the N-1 life with grogu?????? WHY give him the darksaber if he’s just gonna pawn it off like some pussy. I am praying he’s gonna get it back and his character development isn’t flushed down the toilet. or this entire season gets retconned. They turned my baby into a little bitch
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grogusdads · 3 years
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I want din to meet a clone so Bad it would be so funny
din: oh hey r u related to boba fett u look a lot like him
literally any clone: ????????
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infinitepunches · 3 years
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what do you think future the disney+ star wars shows should do for a plotline? i kinda feel like they have nowhere to go becuz of the sequel trilogy...
I’ve actually given a good bit of thought to this. Here’s what I think is the best case scenario:
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We’ll get The Book of Boba Fett setting up Boba and Fennec as the bosses of the underworld. Have him fight his way to the top of the food chain. Maybe throw Bossk in there.
Then we’ll get more Mandalorian. Our first season with a real Mandalorian plotline. Din taking on the Darksaber, learning to take on the responsibility of his culture. Uniting Mandalore.
Then we’ll get Rangers of the New Republic. They serve the Republic but they don’t always follow Chancellor Mon Mothma’s rules, because that’s what heroes do.
Then the larger plot will kick off with the Ahsoka show. She picks up Sabine. They search for Ezra. By the end of the first season, they find him. They’re shocked to learn that he wasn’t captured by Thrawn but that he’s actually working with him. Timothy Zahn’s book Thrawn: Treason establishes that Thrawn never really liked the Empire but thought that aiding Sidious’ militarization was the only way to stave off the greater evil: the Grysk.
The Grysk are an alien species that can twist other beings to their purposes. It isn’t mind control, per se. It’s more that they manipulate your desires, fears, even your memories. And they have ambitions to rule the entire Galaxy. They’ll be the big bads.
After she understands the gravity of the threat, Ahsoka decides to seek allies. She pleads her case before the New Republic Senate, but they insist that disarmament is the only way to avoid becoming just like the Empire was. So, she tracks down Din Djarin, who now has an army of Mandalorians at his back. He calls in Boba who now has a horde of mercenaries. The Rangers go rogue and bring along some air support. Thrawn summons the Chiss Ascendancy. Maybe CGI Luke shows up. They amass a giant force to save the Galaxy.
Boom. There’s your Avengers: Endgame-level climax crossover event.
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buckybarnesss · 2 years
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din djarin: is on the heroes journey. is the knight-errant of star wars. his story is the central story of star wars right now. has an interlude in the show meant to bridge s2 and 3. interlude also to get the audience up to date with him and set up his next season that will specifically deal with mandalore, gets a ship connected royalty, show is literally called the mandalorian, has the darksaber, character arc focused on mandalorian identity, has ties to multiple jedi
boba: finds family with the tuskens on tatooine, is working to become crime boss on tatooine because he wants things to be better and help bounty hunters who are screwed over by their employers, shows little interest in mandalorian culture outside his armor or father
people on reddit: so this means boba’s gonna be mandalore.
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insomniamamma · 3 years
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Dragon: Boba Fett X Reader
A/N: this started as what would happen if the reader had a nightmare and was comforted by Boba. It mutated some. Sorry. Self indulgent because I have terrible nightmares, and Boba would make the best weighted blanket ever.
Warnings: Language. Implied sexual harassment. Cannon typical violence. angst hurt/comfort. Soft!Boba. No beta. I tried to make this GN! but don’t know if I caught everything. let me know and I will edit.
"It's a funny feeling being taken under the wing of a dragon. It's warmer than you'd think." --Amsterdam Vallon "Gangs of New York"
          "Get up," Sassak kicks at your bedroll, "Big day for you." You hated Sassak, but he owned your contract and that meant doing what he said, wether that meant cutting down the hulks that littered the dunes for scrap, fixing whatever ships limped into port, or whatever grimy deed he'd lined up for you. You sit up, glaring at him through gritty eyes.           "Got a buyer on the rest of your contract," he leers,"We meet them at the cantina and then you're someone else's problem."
          You get up and dress. You are numb. Sassak's owned your contract for three years. One year indenture at going rate was the initial deal. Sassak offered to teach you the mechanics trade. Your wages would square up the cost of room and board and education for a year. At the time it had seemed like a good deal. Only deals have a way of getting altered. There was always some excuse. Hard times love, got to cut your hourly rate, imperial traffic ain't what it was, you're lucky I don't just cut you loose to starve. Then there's times when Sassak came back after blowing credits he swore he didn't have at the cantina, reeking of spotchka, shoving you against the mud-daubed walls and grinding his bony hips against yours, hey, pretty thing, I knock a thousand cred off your debt if you fuck me like you love me, and luckily, he's always drunk enough that you can fight him off. Sometimes you have to hold him while he cries about his misfortune at being stuck in this backwater with the likes of you.          So now, someone else will own your debt. And Sassak is viciously happy about it. Maker only knows what this means. You worry the steel cuff welded around your wrist, tight to your skin with your contract number stamped on it as the two of you walk to the cantina.           The contact is not what you expected, a slight woman with a rifle slung over her shoulder and bright red thread woven through her hair. Her face is impassive as she haggles with Sassak over your worth. You keep your eyes down and sip at your spotchka, never quite got a taste for the stuff, but, as the object of negotiations, you at least get a drink out of it. Sassak laughs and seems satisfied, passes the contact his data pad, and she keys in her name, Fennec Shand.           "All yours," says Sassak and, mock bows, "Have fun."           You ride behind Fennec on her speeder, arms gripped around her middle, watching the only place you've ever known blur by. The ship is old, a make you have not seen in some time. Fennec leads you up the ramp.          "Time to meet your new boss," she says, and you are confused.          "I thought you--"          "No," says Fennec. "We both serve the same master." The cowling's been removed from the hyperdrive housing. A stream of yellow sparks spills down.          "Boba!" She calls,"I've got you some competent help." A Mandalorian clambers down out of the ship’s infrastructure and you shrink back. You've never met one but you've heard the stories, all blood and thunder and brutality, planets turned to ash. He looks at you, but you can read nothing from that look, just the dark of his visor, the stillness of his body.          "We're getting power drain from the hyperdrive," he says, "The reactor is stable, so I'm not sure where the problem lies."          "Give me a light and boost me up," you say, "I'll see what I can do."
          Fennec cuts the cuff off your wrist at Boba's orders.            "But my debt--"          "We've paid your debt," says Fennec, "You're crew now. You get pay."          "But what if I just take off? What if I run away?"          "What if you do?" She says, "We're not slavers." Fennec smiles. Her smile is small and controlled but warm. "No one will make you stay."
          And for a time things are quiet. You do maintenance on Slave I. She's old, and you can't always find the right parts, but mostly you make due. You man the galley, bringing Fennec and Boba their meals on the bridge and then retreating to your bunk belowdecks. Things are quiet. But then Tython happens. The light cruiser happens. And you find yourself contending with one more crew member. He is Mandalorian, like Boba, but he never gives a name. He is just Mando, and silence spins out from him like the arms of a galaxy. He is always polite, even though he does not need to be. You are junior-most crew after all. Now there are four of you. Enough to sustain a proper two-shift crew rotation. Boba insists on cross-training which means that Mando and Fennec are together for main shift, and you and Boba are together for the alter shift. He teaches you the weapons systems. You teach him emergency shortcuts for when the boards fry out. There is little conversation between you. Working the same shift means you sleep the same shift. Sleep has a hard time finding you most times. Boba can drop off in an instant, you are not so lucky. After Tython the nightmares started. Sometimes it's Slave I that gets hit and turns to ash. Sometimes you see Fennec and Boba in the dirt choking on their own blood, sometimes, Maker damn him, you see Sassak in Imperial dress, mocking you as if the present and the past have gotten tangled together. But there is one nightmare worse than all the others, in which the man with the darksaber cuts your friends down, melts through their beskar armor like ice under a hot blade, and you are left naked and without defense, waiting for the last cut.          You wake up screaming in your bunk in the belly of Slave I, the last of your nightmare dissipating even as your body still protests that every bit of it was real, so real this time, the spattered blood, the blaster cooked flesh, the smell, and you sob, trying to remind yourself that you're safe, that the hull's intact and them you care about are safe inside.          "You're crying," Boba's voice comes raspy through the dark. He flips a switch and dim reddish lighting fills the crew quarters. You rub at your eyes.         "Bad dream," You say, "It's nothing. I'm sorry."         "You're crying," he repeats, his dark eyes peer at you, unreadable. He slides himself towards the inside of his bunk, and pats the thin mattress, "Come here."  And you do so, the deck plating cold beneath your bare feet. Boba grabs you and pulls you into the bunk with him, gripping the back of your neck and settling you against his chest. You tense, expecting violence, but there is none. Just the warmth of him, the steady rise and fall of his chest, his broad palm cupping the back of your head. He makes no other move. Slowly, you relax against him. Your hands unfist. Your arm creeps around him and Boba makes a low sound like a contented cat. 
      "Sleep, burc’ika." He says, and you drift off in the safe cage of his arms.
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projectorthus · 3 years
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I think what people need to realize about Bo-Katan is that yes, she’s manipulative. She has a short temper. Gaslight, gatekeep, girl boss is HER PHRASE. And yes, she should work on those things.
However we can’t hate her for them.
Because here’s the facts: she was in Death Watch. Death Watch was essentially a cult. She still loved and cared for Satine, which is evident not only because of her immediate turn to Satine’s side once Pre died, but also her reaction to Satine’s death, and her declaration that she was taking the darksaber for her sister.
I’ll also site my absolute favorite Bo and Pre scene, where Pre walks up to her and essentially scolds her and tells her to “stay focused, soon Mandalore will be ours and maul and his brother will be dead alongside the duchess” (yes I have it memorized leave mea lone).
Now we don’t have time to unpack all of that scene but we DO have time to unpack the fear on Bo’s face as Pre walks up to her, and the expression she has when he mentions killing Satine. The expression quickly gets replaced with a smirk, because that’s what she’s been conditioned to do. She can’t show any emotion about killing Satine. Because she’s supposed to want it to happen.
Bo-Katan learned manipulation from Pre Vizsla. There’s no denying that. She was close to him, and likely his protege, and so she learned that in order to get things done, she had to manipulate. She has a difficult relationship with the truth.
She has a short temper because Pre had a short temper. We saw him killing a Death Watch soldier for allowing Obi-Wan to enter the camp. If he’s willing to kill his own soldiers for something that small, I can’t imagine what he was like the rest of the time.
Bo-Katan learned to respond to things with violence, like when she was questioning Almec and he told her she was never the politician her sister was, and without hesitation she tried to shoot him in the head. Or when she walked into the throne room, saw Maul sitting on Satine’s throne, immediately drew her blasters and charged.
So for the love of god before hating on Bo-Katan for being a little mean sometimes, for manipulating Din, for snapping at Obi-Wan, please consider the organization she was a part of. Consider the fact that all signs point to her being manipulated by Pre. Consider the fact that she still loved Satine. Bo-Katan has issues, that much isn’t in question, but those issues come from somewhere. They come from Pre, from Death Watch, from her repressed love of her sister.
She’s an amazingly deep character, and if Star Wars fans put as much effort into understanding her as they put into understanding male protagonists with the depth of a teaspoon (that’s a conversation for another time), this site wouldn’t have a WHOLE TAG devoted to hating her.
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the-obiwan-for-me · 3 years
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Maybe it’s because my brain is overheated and underfed. Maybe I should have stopped at one hard seltzer tonight. Maybe I’m just avoiding working on my current impossible chapter. But a discussion in my beloved Obintine Forever discord inspired me, so I’m just going to say it.......
I don’t care if you’re Team Din or Team Bo-Katan when it comes to who should have the darksaber. Honestly, while my undying and unwavering love and support automatically means I am Team Bo-Katan, a large part of me just wants her to let him have it so she can retire with the love of her life, Fenn Rau, to some quiet Outer Rim planet and help her nephew, Korkie Kenobi and his wife, Lagos, raise their kids while occasionally getting drunk with her bff, Ahsoka, while they tell stories about the trauma of growing up a soldier. Occasionally she has to talk Mand’alor Din off the ledge as he tries to reunite the clans, but mostly its just her and all her great nieces and nephews and that hot ginger man of hers. That’s what my heart REALLY wants for my girl. Girl is tired. This is all obviously wishful thinking since probably just about everyone Bo has ever loved is DEAD.
But I digress (see: overheated and underfed; possibly drunk). What I was going to say was: you know who shouldn’t be Mand’alor? You know who doesn’t WANT to be Mand’alor? 
BOBA FREAKING FETT.
Listen. I dig Boba. He was a cool ass villain in the OT. He has a pretty legit character arc in The Clone Wars (especially if you add in the episode they deprived us of with Blue Man Group....I mean Cad Bane). He was a karking BAD ASS in Mando. He’s cool. He’s right there on my list of “baddies I love with all my heart” along side Vader, Maul, and that silver fox, Director Krennic. I love that bald baddie.
BUT BOBA DOESN’T WANT TO BE MAND’ALOR. HE KRIFFED OFF AND RAN BACK TO TATOOINE WITH FENNEC AS SOON AS HE HONORED HIS DEAL WITH DIN “SHINY PANTS” DJARIN.
Boba wants to be a crime boss. And, you know what? Good for him. He’s worked hard all his life for just that, and now he has a chance to fulfill his life long goal.
So stop thinking he should be Mand’alor when HE DOESN’T EVEN WANT THE DAMN JOB (and do we blame him!?!).
End rant.
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Resol’nare - Part Seven
A/N: This part has a lot of bits that I have been excited to share. There are a lot of pieces of my own HCs in here, as well as a few plot hint crumbs that I’ve had fun developing, so I hope you guys enjoy this one! (Also sorry it was late- we got power back late last night and I was too lazy to post after making dinner. oops. Don’t worry, I already formatted eight so this won’t happen again next week) Also, also... Fennec and Boba are fun to write :) 
*this story will regularly be using words in Mando’a. for a good list of references click here.*
Summary: The Mandalorian makes the journey back to Tatooine to take care of some things back at the covert after his run in with Navina on Nevarro. More is revealed about the goings on in the upper levels of Boba Fett’s complex, we learn what he and Fennec are up to, as well as a little more about how things are run below. And we finally hear what Bo-Katan has been itching to tell him. 
Warnings: descriptions of violence, death, talk of manipulating kids (if you’re unsure feel free to ask) 
Word Count: 5.6k
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Tatooine. 
  The suns were sinking into the Dune Sea by the time he pulled Peli’s rental speeder into one of the hidden bays at the rocky base of Fett’s palace complex. There were three other occupied spaces, leaving just the one to his left empty. A quick scan of the vehicles that were there told him immediately who wasn’t. Fennec. Hers was the easiest to recognize. She had painted it a heavy matte black, accented with a weblike design of crisscrossing red lines. It wasn’t inconspicuous but she didn’t want or need it to be. If one of her targets saw her speeder and made the connection, it was already too late for them to turn and run. She liked knowing that they felt some modicum of fear or at the very least panic in the seconds before she struck, and he couldn’t blame her. They had it coming. 
For too long the scum that she and Boba were after had run nefarious crime rings that preyed on scared, young kids with nowhere else in the galaxy to turn. It was how they’d both ended up in their line of work, Boba swept into a life of violent instability in the aftermath of his father’s death, and Fennec developing a kind of admiration and a misplaced feeling of owing her employers for rescuing her from being sold to a brothel as a child. The slime had wasted no time in manipulating her, taking that gratitude and twisting it into something ugly and sinister, crafting her into a sniper, a trained, leashed killer, trading one horrible outcome for another. By the time she realized how trapped she truly was, the price on her own head had climbed so high it had very nearly gotten her killed. 
He winced thinking back to when he’d found her crumpled form in the sand. His thoughts had flashed so quickly to Grogu, to getting back to where he was and ensuring his safety, that he had only given Fennec a cursory check for any signs of life. Had Fett not been tracking the Mandalorian in search of his father’s armor, the woman would have died there in the desert. But the grizzled wanderer had found her, and saving the assassin from the brink of oblivion had given both of them a second chance. Fennec had been freed from the things that held her feet to the flames, and Boba had been given a reason to care for someone other than himself. He may have never been in any real peril on Tatooine- Not even in that pit if how I’ve seen him fight is any indication of how he handled that Sarlacc- but two souls were saved that day regardless. Though they worked as a pair and while Fennec deferred to Fett at first, she gave him her loyalty because she chose to, not because she was made to, and he gave her his respect because she had proven herself to be just as resilient as he was.  
Now, having taken the palace from the Hutt crime family and rooted out their presence on the planet, the two child killers turned vigilantes had started working on the galaxy’s other crime rings. Their sights were currently set on the Black Sun syndicate, and they had been working on picking away at one of their strongholds in Ord Mantell City, dispatching those who gave them no new information immediately, and freezing and bringing anyone who might have something useful to share back to the complex on Tatooine. Karga and the Bounty Hunter’s Guild on Nevarro had even been helping them, and more than a handful of the Mandalorians from the new covert had offered their assistance as a way to repay Boba and Fennec for providing them the space. Yes, they were taking the law into their own hands, but he had seen time and again how easily the New Republic could be made to look the other way, so he had no personal or moral objections to what they were doing. 
And so far they had brought three children under the age of thirteen back to the covert. The kids were being held captive as leverage so that the Black Sun leaders could keep control over their parents, often threatening them with things unspeakable should they refuse to do what their bosses required of them. The youngest was no more than five. After they’d been fed and tended to by the Healer and given a place to rest in the tunnels below, Woves one of the Mandalorians he’d first met on Trask, had set out to get in touch with the guardians of the rescued children. Since joining the cause to unite the clans, Axe had become increasingly interested in participating in educating and caring for the covert’s children, even assisting the Instructor in teaching new sparring techniques or sharing the perspective of someone who had grown up on Mandalore when it came to more cultural or historical lessons. Though he’d tried to make contact multiple times using the information that he had on the children- only their names and home planets- just the two older boys had been claimed by living relatives. 
The smallest, a girl barely reaching the top of Woves’ boot, didn’t seem to have anyone anywhere. Though he continued to try to locate the child’s kin, everyone knew it was only a matter of time before the Armorer was presiding over the gai bal manda, the man who had once been one of Bo-Katan’s most feared fighters kneeling in front of the entire Tribe and swearing to protect and raise the child as a warrior, as a member of his clan. As his own. 
Ni kyr'tayl gai sa'ad. I know your name as my child. Grogu. 
He felt a tug in his chest, just behind his rib cage as he dismounted the speeder, those big round eyes blinking at him from beneath that wrinkled green forehead and those over large ears filling his thoughts before he could guard himself. With a sigh, he wished for what could have been the hundredth time that he had been given the chance to take that vow, swear those words… Raise my son. 
Slinging his bag across his body and ensuring that the Darksaber’s hilt was clipped firmly to his belt with one hand, the other went to one of the leather pouches at his waist. Without needing to look, he pulled the small silver ball from its designated spot, spinning it twice between his thumb, index and middle fingers. We’ll see each other again. I promise. The metal sphere slipped smoothly in his gloved grasp, the object giving him comfort. It was something tangible, a link to the thing he carried in his heart for the child that had upended his entire world. Bo-Katan might understand Woves’ choice if she… He let out another breath and tucked the ball away. But all she can see is Mandalore. 
The sharp-eyed, orange- haired heiress was not too keen on her former companion’s sudden calling towards child rearing, but swearing an adoption vow, promising to care for a foundling, was such an integral part of Mandalorian beliefs, of The Way, that she knew better than to try to talk him out of it. She would lose any credibility that she had as a leader if any of the others caught wind of that. She still had Reeves, and Hast,  one of the few that had made it off of Nevarro, had also volunteered to help her search for other hidden coverts and lone stragglers in the far reaches of the Outer Rim, on the quiet, often overlooked planets in the Mid Rim, in the corrupt and crowded cities of the Core Worlds. And if she wanted more help I’m sure there are others who would go. 
He cringed, tilting his chin down to glance at the innocuous looking object knocking against the beskar tasset covering his left thigh with every step towards the tunnels he took. If she wanted, I could… He reached across his body to wrap his hand around the sword's grip. It still felt strange. Unnatural. I could order others to join her mission. Dropping it as soon as the thought crossed his mind, it hit the beskar beneath it with a loud clang that echoed in the dark passages that connected the speeder bay to the main hall. Leadership in a fight, in a battle, in negotiations, while all still outside of what he would have chosen for himself, were things that he could get his head around. But making demands? Setting punishments and enforcing laws? It was the things that ran in that vein of what it meant to be the Mand’alor that gave him the most pause now that the Armorer had assuaged some of his other doubts regarding the title that had been thrust upon him, unwanted. 
Thing after thing. Loss after loss. Responsibility after responsibility. That had been his life for nearly four decades, and it didn’t seem like his burdens would be getting lighter any time soon. For the first time since he left Nevarro two days before, he thought of the woman he’d run into there, whose stolen vambraces he was bringing back to be reforged. Navina. Though he’d only spent a few hours with her he had picked up the impression that difficult trials and heavy hardships followed her wherever she went, too. He wondered if that was uniquely Mandalorian, or if there were others who understood the same level of loneliness that sometimes came when such strength was constantly required of a being. She had spoken of her clan; of losing her mother and being separated from her father and the foundling that her family had taken in, not knowing after all that time if they were still alive. He knew the odds and she seemed clever enough to know them, too, and though he had sympathy for her, it also made him feel less like he was alone in struggling to carry an ungainly load. I have to remember to ask the others about her father… Harsa. That was the name.  
There were several things he had to do on this trip, asking about Navina’s family name just the latest addition to the list. After promising the Armorer on his last visit that he would begin training with the Darksaber, he knew that he would be spending at least two sessions with the Weapons Master, learning how to wield the legendary black blade. We’ll start with the beskad, though. He was firm in that and he knew that no one would argue with him. He wanted to check in with Fett, make sure that the arrangement was still working and that the man didn’t need anything from him. He had no doubt though, that if the man running things topside had any issues, he wouldn’t hold them back, not hesitating to contact the Mandalorian directly to launch his complaints. His directness was one of the things that he liked most about Boba, and one of the reasons that he had been so quick to trust him. I hope he’s free now. I’d rather start there then…
The last thing that he absolutely could not leave the planet without doing, was meeting with Bo-Katan for a debrief on the recruiting efforts and to begin discussing tactics for reclaiming their ancestral homeland. Hers, anyway. She wasn’t happy that he had put it off for as long as he had, but again, he knew that she wouldn’t voice her displeasure for fear of the optics of disagreeing with the Mand’alor. Politics. His top lip curled at the thought that he would have to get good at knowing how to keep people on his side, even when he knew that their endgames were slightly out of alignment with his. Maybe she’s in the sparring hall now. He knew that she spent hours training with Reeves and Hast whenever she came back to the covert, and he hoped that was where she was now. 
If he was being entirely honest, something about her still didn’t sit well with him, but he knew that he didn’t have to like everyone to work with them. 
Striding the last few steps through the winding passage, he finally reached the plain stone archway, a circular splotch of light from one of the torches visible on the other side of it. Two helmeted Mandalorians stood guard, but moved aside as soon as they saw the signet on his shoulder and the Darksaber on his belt. 
“Olarom yaim, Mand’alor.” The shorter of the two spoke with a nod, welcoming him home in a voice that cracked too adolescently for the modulator in the newly sworn fighter’s helmet to hide. A kid. He recalled the first few years after he’d finished his required training in the Fighting Corps, the cockiness, the harsh lessons that no amount of studying or practicing in the sparring hall could prepare him for. He’s just a kid. 
It was different though, the way that Mandalorians allowed Tribe members to swear additional oaths inducting them into the elite group of warriors at seventeen, than what the syndicates did, how they inducted their young members. We learn and train our whole lives for it. Understand what we’re agreeing to. Not like… He swallowed a sudden spike of rage at the thought that the quiet, innocent child that was likely still latched to Woves’ right leg would have otherwise ended up raised to be a mercenary -or worse- for the Black Sun. But she won’t now. 
“Thank you,” he responded to the young guard cursing himself for forgetting the Mando’a translation. I need to do better with that. Again he felt his thoughts backtracking to Navina and the way that he’d heard several Mando’a words roll easily off of her tongue. Maybe she can… when we meet again in a few weeks, maybe she can help me with… He sighed. There was a long list of things he needed to talk to her about when he saw her next, just like the list of things that awaited him at the top of the staircase he was currently climbing. He wanted to know more about her pendant, about the seam they had found in the metal that hinted at a modification that was made well after the piece had been crafted that would allow the Mythosaur to hold the peculiar stone that shone purple. He wanted to know more about what had prompted her family to leave Concordia, why they were running and why they’d had to separate. He wanted to know anything that he could from her and any other Mandalorians he encountered that might help him be the Mand’alor that the young guardsman and everyone else in the covert seemed to think that he was. 
As soon as he ascended the last few steps though, his thoughts were interrupted by a heavy arm falling around his shoulder. “Still in one piece then, Mand’alor?” 
Boba Fett’s gruff, gravely voice was oddly comforting, and he knew that he was likely one of maybe two people who thought that. He returned the one armed thunk that he supposed the other man took for a hug. “Seems that way.” The man’s heavily scarred face pulled up into a jagged looking grin, the expression almost jarring on such a serious visage, but then a rumbling chuckle came out and took the smile with it, leaving his features in their natural scowl. “Everything alright here?” 
The Mandalorian followed Fett through the large main hall, past the stone slab throne that he only occupied when passing judgement on those that he and Fennec brought back once any useful information could be wrung from them, and through to the long table that had been brought in for strategy meetings and sharing information with the Bounty Hunter’s Guild and others who agreed to offer help. “Everything’s fine,” he said with a grunt, gesturing flippantly with one hand, pulling a chair out from the table with the other. “The Princess wasn’t too thrilled when she found out she’d have to wait for you, but tell me, Mandalorian, is that woman ever truly happy about anything?” 
He had never so much as seen her smile. Pulling out a chair of his own, he simply shrugged. It seemed unlikely. “I’ll meet with her as soon as we’re through here.” Fett nodded. “I had… urgent business on Nevarro.” 
“Urgent?” One eyebrow rose on the man’s forehead. 
“Yes, I met another Mandalorian, only she was,” he tilted his head to the side as the image of Navina’s silver-gray eyes staring at him through her shattered visor flashed in his mind. “Different.” 
Boba answered with another gruff chuckle as he reached for the jug of spotchka that was never too far away. “Different, was she?” He took a long pull, the remnants of his teasing laugh still there when he lowered the jug and swiped the back of his free hand across his mouth. 
What? No, that’s- He leaned forward, elbows on the stone surface as he made a quick slicing motion with one hand. “No. That’s not what I meant.” 
It wasn’t. But as he dropped his palms back to the tabletop, he could recall the way it felt when he’d gripped her biceps, shaking her from her dreams. He had been concerned that she would hurt herself or more inconveniently, break one of the controls in the cockpit with the way she was thrashing in her sleep. But what he remembered now, hands flat before him, was how it felt to make contact with her skin, even if it was just through the thick padding of his gloves. He pressed his thumb down hard on the table like he had pressed it into the crease of her bent arm, squeezing the muscle there to get her attention. She felt strong and warm and solid and he almost held onto her for too long, caught up in the feel of another body beneath his hands. That isn’t what I meant. 
He cleared his throat and went on. “She hasn’t sworn the Creed, but she carries out the traditions, she can fight, knows things about Mandalorian history-“ he looked up at the man across from him, Fett abandoning his ribbing to regard the Mandalorian seriously. “She had a helmet and a dagger made of pure beskar.” 
“And you’re sure she’s not a thief?” 
Technically she is. But she didn’t steal the helmet or the kal. She didn’t steal the pendant. “They belonged to her parents.” He explained what the woman had told him about how her family had been split up- how she had known for a fact that her mother had been killed, but that since it had been years since she’d seen her father or the other child in her family, she had no way of knowing if they were still alive. “She… she asked me to spread word here at the covert, in case anyone knows where to find her father. Harsa. His name is Gavil Harsa.” 
Boba shrugged. “Don’t know any Harsa. But then, I’m no Mandalorian either. Your different girl and I have that in common.” 
She’s not my-
But before he could protest what had just been said, voices from the same entrance he had come through caught his and Boba’s attention, the other man standing as Fennec’s dry, smirking tone could be heard greeting the guard at the door. “You’re back.” He stated, opening his arms wide, his voice booming across the otherwise empty space. “What took so long?” He dropped his arms as Fennec maneuvered a carbonite block through the doorway. 
She cocked her head in the direction of the hardened, frozen slab containing what could have been any number of humanoid species, their features completely indiscernible but clearly contorted in terror. “Ixon here didn’t want to come quietly.” She turned to pull the block the rest of the way through, the unit hovering weightless and only needing her guidance for direction. “It was actually quite a workout.” She grinned. “For him.” Fett let out another gravelly laugh as Fennec turned her attention to the Mandalorian. “Mando,” she smiled and used one hand to push her long black braid behind her. “Good to see you.” 
“Fennec,” he nodded a greeting. “You’ve been busy, I see.” 
“Nothing for the Mand’alor to worry about,” she winked, shoving the block containing Ixon more roughly than necessary. “Just dealing with the trash.” She winked as she walked through, waving off Boba when he tried to assist her. “I’ll handle this one on my own.” She patted the side of the unit with an almost malicious gleam in her dark eyes. “It’s personal.” 
“I’d pity him if he weren’t walking slime,” Boba offered her the spotchka jug but she declined with a flick of her wrist. 
“He might not be walking when I’m done.” She gave the block another shove towards a door on the other side of the large room, her lips lifting in a quick snarl. “See you around, Mando,” she called over her shoulder, disappearing with Ixon, not waiting for a response.
“They say if you love your job you never work a day in your life,” he clapped a large meaty palm on the Mandalorian’s arm. “And Shand loves her new job.” That much is obvious. “Speaking of jobs, Mand’alor,” he gestured with his jug towards another set of stairs that led to the tunnels that the covert was using, the blue liquid sloshing gently as he did. “I’m sure yours is calling.” 
He stiffened. “Yes.” 
The man, gnarled by life and the things that had tried to drag him from it, set the jug down then. “Taking that planet back… well, you know what I think there.” I do. From first mention, he had not held back his opinion of the mission. “But bringing this many Mandalorians together under one roof? And they haven’t killed each other yet? I know you didn’t ask for this but,” he narrowed his eyes. “That’s no small feat.” 
It was as close to true praise as Boba Fett had likely ever bestowed upon anyone, and he knew that. It was also the truth. He thanked the man and crossed the room to yet another doorway that led to a different set of stairs. This time though, as he shifted the bag on his shoulder, the metal pieces inside clanging together, he did not stop on the landing and wait to pass off the reclaimed beskar to a middleman. This time, he continued down the second set that brought him to the forge. 
It was quiet, the Armorer taking a rare break from her unending task of providing the best protection and defenses that she could for her people. As a child it was easy for him to forget that there was a human beneath that pointed gold helmet. Her understated power, the sparks that flew frantically from her hammer, the ability she possessed to craft such stunning objects all contributed to the almost mythological status that he and the other small children regarded her with. He still admired and respected her and held her in higher esteem than anyone else in the covert, he knew that even the Armorer needed to eat, needed rest, needed to give her own ears a reprieve from the ringing of her tools battering hot metal. 
Entering the room for the first time since the covert relocated to Tatooine, he gave himself time to take the space in. Slowly turning his head he scanned over the work table, all of the tools neatly arrayed, each one clean and sharp and shining, each one a weapon in its own right. The forge itself was unlit, the mouth that usually spat fire simply open in a gaping yawn, but as he ran his hand over it he felt the residual heat that never completely faded. He wondered if what was left of the forge back on Nevarro still retained any warmth. 
Drawing his hand back, he stepped over to the small table that the Armorer used for meeting with the recipients of her work. Reaching into his bag, he took the vambraces that Navina had surrendered and set them on the surface between the two empty stools, leaving them for when the Armorer returned to her duty. She’ll know what to do. And where they came from. He would return to the forge the next morning to speak with her in more detail about the items’ provenance, and also to spread Navina’s family name to the member of the Tribe who was most likely to know it. He gave the room one last scan, slowly turning his head so that he could see it all through the eyeline of his visor, then left, continuing on with his own list of responsibilities. 
A handful of the covert’s children, some in the second hand helmets of the older ones, others belonging to clans that didn’t cover their faces at all times displaying smudges of dirt across round cheeks, were gathered in the widest portion of the hall. Engaged in some game that he likely played himself at that age, they shrieked and laughed and jumped. The kid would love it here. He could easily picture Grogu waddling into the group of young Mandalorians and fitting in without a problem, and he hoped that he had other children to be a child with while he underwent his Jedi training.
Continuing on and following the fork to the left, he headed next for the sparring hall. Unlike the forge, it was not empty. He could already hear the sound of practice staffs clashing, and the Instructor’s voice calling out advice to his trainees. One of the fighters grunted as they lunged or swung, and he knew right away from the sound that it was Bo-Katan, the heavy footsteps he heard suggesting that she was training with Hast. 
Since she was occupied at present, he stopped at the door beside the entrance to the sparring hall to arrange sessions with the Weapons Master. The man seemed pleased that the Mand’alor was ready to start working with the beskad in preparation for the Darksaber, and gave him his choice of available times for one on one training. Slating himself for three instead of the two he had planned on, he thanked the man and, with nothing left to do to push it off any longer, he entered the sparring hall and prepared to speak with Bo-Katan. 
She was still locked in a battle with Hast, the hulking man nearly twice her size but incredibly nimble for his weight and width. Blocking a swing of her opponent’s staff, the helmetless woman gritted her teeth and gripped her own weapon, holding it horizontally in front of her chest to take the force of the blow. Her feet slid back but she dug them in and gave a strong shove. Staffs still connected, the push set Hast off his balance just enough for her to turn the staff and whip it down and behind the man as he tried to regain his footing. In a sweeping blur she used it to take his legs out from under him, and he fell hard to the ground. Following all the way through to the finishing position, Bo-Katan flipped her staff around, jabbing it a few inches from Hast’s helmet, signifying her victory. 
It was impressive, but the Mandalorian knew that she was a skilled fighter, having seen her in live battle. She extended a hand to help Hast up, then turned towards the entrance. “You’re here.” It sounded almost skeptical, and he noticed the tiny twitch of her brow, hardly any sweat beading there after her workout. “Back from your,” she passed the staff behind her to Hast who took both of them back to the wall, the Instructor stowing them on their pegs. “From your urgent business?” 
He’d been expecting her to be upset, so the bite in her tone wasn’t a shock. “Yes.” He answered simply, not willing to allow her annoyance to spark his own. “I’m ready to discuss plans with you.” 
Her eyes narrowed, lips pressed together in a thin line as though that was the only thing keeping her frustration in. She swallowed, then let out a short breath and gestured toward the door. “Shall we, then?” 
The Mandalorian nodded and once she’d thanked the Instructor and Hast for the session, she followed him out into the hallway, the two heading for one of the smaller halls that had been designated for closed door meetings. “Thank you, for your patience.” He knew that she hadn’t been patient, but that she wanted it to seem like she had. “I had things to tend to, but I’ll be here for about two weeks, and I,” he opened the door to the room, letting her in before him and then closing it after he entered. Letting out a small sigh that he knew she wouldn’t be able to hear, he continued. “Aside from training with the Weapons Master I can spend as much time as necessary working with you.” 
Her cheek jumped as she gave a quick smile that was more of a forced smirk. “Well, that’s great news.” Pulling out a chair, she gestured for him to do the same, which he did. “Because we have a lot to discuss.” 
She went on to tell him that she, Hast and Koska Reeves had come back with ten adult Mandalorians from a covert located in the Mid Rim, and four children that had been part of their clans. There were a few that had chosen not to come back to Tatooine, but he and the others had all agreed that no one would be forced into joining them, that it was a decision only they could make for themselves. Still, adding fourteen to the Tribe in just one trip was something of note. For most of his life he had thought that his kind were far closer to extinction than they were. It was encouraging to see their numbers grow after so much time spent thinking that they were alone, and he hoped it gave the others that joined them there that same feeling of hope. That even if the quest to take back Mandalore were to fail, they would still have a safe place there where they didn’t have to hide in the shadows and only gather in groups of twenty or fewer. At least they were united now. At least they had a home.    
She went on to tell him about the old rebel base they had heard about on the remains of Concord Dawn, a planet in the Mandalore System that had all but been destroyed in the centuries of warfare that plagued that portion of the galaxy. Largely uninhabitable, and missing nearly a third of its mass, the planet had been abandoned ages ago. But it’s proximity to Mandalore made it a good candidate to set up a base of their own once the battle for their planet began. She outlined what would be needed in terms of weapons, fortifications and troops, and stated that once they had acquired and allotted the required supplies, she would like to accompany him on a trip to Concord Dawn so that he could see it for himself before the base was established. 
Agreeing to all of this, he listened as she laid out her plans for obtaining what was needed, giving her another two hours of his time before exhaustion started setting in so heavily that he wouldn’t have been able to listen to much more even if it was the most interesting topic in the universe. Assuring her that they could pick up where they left off the next morning, he excused himself from the small room and headed for the chamber that he always slept in when he was at the covert. 
He didn’t know why, but as he removed his helmet he thought again of the woman he met on Nevarro, and how he was about to begin a war to take back her home planet. Unbuckling the rest of his armor piece by piece and laying it out to be polished and cleaned, he wondered if she would ever go back to the place she was born once they had won it back, or if their own traditions would make her feel unwelcome there. Frowning, he hoped that wouldn’t be the case, that he would help build the kind of society that welcomed anyone who was an ally, whether or not they swore an oath. Would she take the creed? Pulling the breastplate cuirass over his head, he wondered if it was even something she would want to do. She said she wasn’t given the chance… what if she was? 
Shaking his head to clear her from his thoughts, he finished taking care of his armor for the evening, focusing on the lightness in his limbs that came from removing all that weight, and sunk into the mattress, finding sleep as soon as his eyes closed. 
But the head shake hadn’t cleared her completely, his dreams tinged with purple light and the echo of her name.
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darthspideys · 3 years
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antithesis // four
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din djarin x jedi! reader
summary: You expected to find another of yoda’s species, much less under the protection of a particularly stubborn mandalorian. Little do you know its that discovery that will change life as you know it, and put all three of you in danger you never saw coming.
words: ~2k
a/n: so I had to repost this because I deleted the orginal version which prevents you from reading any of the other versions I relogged.. I’m an idiot  
disclaimer: I h8 baby yoda and it
You really don’t know whether to be offended by him calling you a hurricane or not. Very easily you could push him onto the ground, put your foot on his chest for the third time today and show him who’s boss, show him that he shouldn’t doubt you or mess with you just like you do everyone else. Only you don’t, you let it breeze past you, and you don’t overthink it. You can’t quite explain why but you think it has something to do with the fact that you might be getting through that thick helmet finally. 
He doesn’t know what he means by it either. As he looks at you, really takes a good look for the first time in the whirlwind of a day, he doesn’t know what to make of you. It’s a new feeling since he is very good at judging people at least he thinks, or at the very least he forms opinions on people within seconds of meeting them and it usually stays that way. It hasn’t stayed that way with you, he thought something about you that he doesn’t want to repeat at the beginning of the day but it’s been changing ever since then. You’ve gone from enemy, to menace, to women who took out twenty stormtroopers single handedly, who can cut through anything with that lightsaber who might just be a real life jedi, to know when you're something else entirely. 
When he looks at you, you're closer to earth. You’re grounded as you stand in front of him, like you’ve settled down the dust is beginning to clear and he thinks that maybe the real you is shining through. For the first time he wants to know you, really know you, you're a mystery that he’s desperate to solve and that scares him a little. Not as much as you scare him, because you’ve had him on the ground unable to move twice today which is more than anyone else has. 
“You’re staring,” You say, trying to cut through the silence. 
“I’m not,” He shoots back, “Just happened to be looking in your direction, you don’t know what I was looking at.” 
“Whatever you say, Mando,” You start to think about leaving but you don’t. Something makes you want to stay put, you just want to sit there and be next to him for as long as you can which is something that you don’t want to get into. “Can I ask where we’re going, then?” 
“No,” He says. 
You cross your arms, “This feels a bit like kidnapping then.” 
He sighs, so verbally that you can hear it through the helmet, “Not if you willingly got into the ship.” 
“When I did it was because I didn’t want to be captured by the empire,” You narrow your eyes, “Maybe not kidnapping but definitely entrapment.” 
“Do you always talk this much?” 
“Yes,” You don’t miss a beat. “Is it annoying? Do you think I’m MirchiKyramud?” You tease, hoping to maybe annoy him into submission. “There’s a very easy solution, just drop me off with the child and I’ll be out of your hair.” 
He turns to you, “You think you’re so smart don’t you?” 
“I know I am, but thank you for the compliment.” 
“It’s not a-” He stops, realizing that it's a battle he’s not going to win. 
You tap your fingers against the console, half to break the tension filled silence and half because you're trying to think of what to do. The adrenaline of fighting off about twenty stormtroopers and not dying when presented with the darksaber has yet to wear off, and your brain is running at a speed where it's hard to comprehend anything. There are other people, people you know who would be able to come up with a plan in this situation and execute the plan to perfection. You on the other hand are scuffed around the edges and your first instinct is to fight your way out of it, which is impossible here because the cockpit is very small. That and the kind of fighting you want to do would destroy the console, which would most likely end in all three of your deaths which would defeat the purpose. 
That’s the conundrum. 
A conundrum which is compounded by the fact that the Mandalorian is staring at you again. 
“Yes?” You ask, “You look like you have a question.” 
“I don’t look like anything,” He shoots back. 
You take a deep breath, “Just ask me, whatever it is.” 
“You understood what I said when I-”
“Insulted me?” 
“It’s not an insult,” He says, like he’s already got his answer. 
You sigh, “It’s insulting to me for you to act surprised that I’m still alive when you left me to the empire.” He’s surprised at that, you can tell. “But you're wondering how I know that, and the answer is it’s none of your business seeing as I’m not even supposed to be here.” 
He grumbles something under his breath, something that you can’t hear this time and you sigh in reply. Suddenly a planet comes into view, “What is that?” 
“Nevarro,” He replies. 
“Why would you go there?” 
“To meet with some friends.” 
“That is unnecessarily ominous.” 
Nevarro isn’t any better than Tatooine. It’s still dry, sandy which reminds you that there’s still sand in your hair. The wind blows through the city square you walk through, and you cross your arms over your chest huffing out a frustrated breath. The mandalorian shut down all of the other questions you asked him once you got into orbit leaving you mildly confused. You follow him anyway because he’s your only way off this dust bowl and you still need the child he’s so very protective of. Though you're beginning to wonder if the little thing is more trouble than he’s worth. 
You trudge close behind the Mandalorian through the sand, trying to keep yourself from accidentally making eye contact with anyone else. You would never admit it, but you’re a little out of your element. You’ve never been someone who’s used to being in the city even after the war you still feel removed from places like this, like a fish out of water. 
The Mandalorian is on edge just like you are. You can tell from his body language, and from the way he’s been carrying himself since your time in the cockpit. For someone whose face is concealed he gives off a lot of hints about his feelings in his body language. The run in with the empire has rattled him more than he wants anyone to know, and he’s scared of the dark saber more than he wants you to know. 
“Can I ask why you would meet with known associates with the empire on your tail? I didn’t kill all of the stormtroopers, I killed some of them but I definitely didn’t kill Gideon and if he’s come after you twice he’s going to go for lucky number three.” He quickens his pace and you keep up with ease. “Seems like you're walking into a trap, unless you want another confrontation with them?” 
“I want to warn them,” He stops and turns to you, “The empire is after them too.” 
“You care about them enough to put yourself at risk,” You narrow your eyes, “Interesting.” 
“Interesting?” He repeats like a question. He wonders what you're trying to get at, but you don’t say anything else so he just keeps walking.
You meet his friends for all of five minutes before you’ve got your lightsaber at the throat of someone outside the crowded Cantina. People pass by but they don’t notice, which makes your skin crawl. You turn your attention back to the man in front of you, “How did you find him?” You growl. 
He smiles a sick smile, “We have eyes everywhere.” 
“Do you?” Suddenly you feel the Mandalorians presence behind your back, but you don’t pay him any attention. “In case you weren’t aware, you lost the war. The empire is dead.” 
“You think you won Jedi? You're more of a fool than I thought. The empire can’t be destroyed, we’ll always be there in the shadows, waiting until your republic is weak.” You can’t quite explain why but that shakes you to your core. 
You drop him to the ground and he runs off. You turn back to the Mandalorian, unsure. He grabs your hand, “We have to go.” 
But when you turn around you see that the crowds that had been walking through the market have cleared, and standing in the middle of the plaza is a woman with a jet black cloak covering everything but her face. Not a good sign. The Mandalorian steps forward, but you hold out your hand against his chest and stop him from moving forward. “Hukaat'kama,” You say and he nods. 
The figure stands in the middle of the plaza, and when you step forward she pulls down her hood to reveal her face. She pulls down the hood to reveal her brown skin, and dark black hair braided back in small braids she undoes the cloak all together and lets it fly off in the wind. You recognise her, and you freeze.
Seeing her sends you back into a memory you thought that you would be able to forget. You can smell the smoke from the village, and see the fire overtaking the homes, and her standing in the middle of all of it, reveling in the destruction she inflicted. There’s someone else too, standing off to the side out of sight. He stands and surveys the wreckage with a look on his face that you can’t forget. 
The Mandalorian calls out your name from behind you which shakes you back into the present. This is a different town, with the same woman, only you're here now and you can protect it.You take an offensive stance, and unsheath your own lightsaber, ready to strike if she moves towards you. In response, she unsheathes her own and ignites it, the red blade sticking out against the yellow of the sun and the landscape. You were right on that one too. It’s the second time in less than a day that you’re going to have to do lightsaber combat which is more than you’ve done in a long time. But you’ve convinced yourself that you're ready for this, and you have people to protect so there’s no room for error. 
She lunges at your first, which doesn’t surprise you and you jump back and she misses the strike at you. At first, it doesn’t look like she has an abundance of skills, and you’re trying to gauge how good she is with the hopes of knowing who she is and where she comes from. You try not to panic at the possibility of more sith hiding in the shadows and focus on winning this battle. You go on the offensive, moving forward and swinging at her rapidly but controlled so that she can’t think of a counter offensive. 
She pushes back on you, aiming at your head which you block and then going lower which you also block. You take a couple of steps back and break into a run, pushing her back using a combination of physical strength and the force, which sends her flying back through the air about ten feet. You think it’s over, but soon enough she comes back into the plaza, a light film of debris covering her upper body. So she doesn’t give up easily, you note that. 
Before you can even think of something she comes at you at a speed you’ve never seen and pins you up against the wall surrounding the plaza. She holds the lightsaber to your neck dangerously close to slitting your throat. She looks at you with not an ounce of feeling in her eyes, she just looks in disgust. “Jedi,” She sneers, “You’ve become stronger than the last time I saw you.” 
“Strong enough to kill you,” You respond. 
Then she smiles, “You’re father thought the same, and where did that leave him?” 
Suddenly you kick her right in the stomach, sending her back clutching it. “It left you with an enemy,” You kick again and her lightsaber falls out of her hands as she stumbles back. Then you punch, knowing that she won’t be able to block all of them and put the lightsaber to the side as you use your normal combat skills. You take your own lightsaber and point it at her throat, as you throw hers through the nearest wall so she can’t use it. 
“Now-“ You start, “Where’s the empire?”  
She spits, “I don’t work for them.” 
“Liar,” You reply, “Scum like you are always working for one master or another. Who is it?” 
Suddenly something slices over your head, and her lightsaber is in her hands, but instead of facing off against you, she runs. You don’t even think about following because you're a little out of breath, and the idea of facing off against her again is not appealing. You fall to the ground and try not to let the tears pricking your eyes fall onto your face. If you weren’t in the middle of a public place, you’d probably let out a deep guttural scream. 
The Mandalorian appears at your side. “What the hell just happened?” 
You don’t even register what he says, you don’t even look at him. “I thought I killed her.” You don’t even notice him there, you're too consumed with your own failure. “I was supposed to kill her!” You say loudly, and the stones of the town square crack at the force of your anger. 
taglist:
@mjlok // @abysshaven​ // @itsafreakingtouque // @carrietrekkie​
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twilightofthe · 3 years
Text
Chapter Sixteen liveblog of The Mandalorian Season 2!  Let’s go!!!
It’s the LAST ONE AHHHHHHH!!!!!
DIN BETTER GET HIS SON BACK IN THIS EPISODE I SWEAR TO FUCK
THEY WILL NOT MAKE ME WAIT AN ENTIRE ASS YEAR ON A CLIFFHANGER FOR ME TO SEE DIN HOLD HIS SON IN HIS ARMS AGAIN FUCK NO
Also they’ve kept who directed this episode a secret and lemme tell you I’m REAL curious as to who it was
Ok ok ok ok ok.  OK.  Here we go
*screaming intensifies*
Ok we getting RIGHT into a space battle
GETTEM BOBA GET EM
Oh but this is Pershing I’m hesitant about him, he let Din go with the baby last time
Hmmm good guy or bad guy
I feel like I’ve seen the actors of these Imp pilots before
OOP there goes Pilot #2
OOOP YEP PERSHING’S A CLONE ENGINEER OOOOOOOOOOH
Ok this guy’s a dickass extraordinaire 
Leave Cara alone lol Luke blasted everyone who saw Alderaan blow up into smithereens you should know that
Shut up bro someone’s gonna kill you
YEP CARA GOT HIM
WOOOOOAH DRAMATIC OPENING
The title card says “The RESCUE” which implies the baby is being RESCUED do NOT fuck with me here Star Wars 
Ok ok so I have no clue what this planet is I’m curious
Also wait if Pershing’s a clone engineer it’ll be real interesting if he and Boba interact
Oh there’s Bo Katan guess she’s back
OH WHOOP THERE’S A FETT AND A KRYZE MEETING
C’MON STAR WARS DON’T MAKE SATINE LOOK BAD IN THIS I’VE ALREADY GONE TO BAT AND SAID THE FETT EXCOMMUNICATION WASN’T HER FAULT XD
“Not all Mandalorians are bounty hunters” bitch you were a TERRORIST holy SHIT Bo Katan why are you like this
ALDKFSJDLK EVEN BO KATAN IS READY TO SQUARE UP OVER A BABY THAT CUTE
Lol whoop never mind
Uh oh here she goes with Boba
To glass eh?
PRINCESS OOOOOH
AND THE CLONES BOOTED MAUL OFF YOUR PLANET AND BAILED YOUR ASS OUT THE FIRST TIME ASSHOLE JESUS
TWICE YOU HAVE LOST YOUR PLANET TWICE
Wait what now about the Darksaber
So it’s a super special cutting saber?  Tf?
THE CHILD IS MY ONLY PRIORITY AAAAAAAA
Lol something tells me Pershing’s not gonna make it past this episode he knows too much and is giving too much information 
The lesbian energy in this scene is immense btw
Booooo you’re talking a BIG game rn
Y’all have no idea how fucking much I love that Boba’s calling Bo Katan princess it’s the funniest thing
Hmmmmmm honestly they should have expected they’d send TIEs instead
HMMMM GIDEON’S GONNA KILL Y’ALL
Lol Bo who taught you to fly
OH NO OH NO IT’S A TRAP I THINK GIDEON KNEW
Wait a minute fucking duh Gideon knew it was Bo Katan’s voice on the comms he’s met her AHHHHHHH
Aaaaaand here come the terminators
Ohhh so I guess Bo and Fennec and the wlw squad are the distraction
MORE LACK OF OSHA VIOLATIONS AGAIN FOR FUCK SAKE THAT IS DEEP SPACE GODDAMMIT
YAYYYYY GIRLS
Ok so it’s taken this long for Mando to pass the Bechdel test but ngl this is worth it
Wait a fuck so where’s Pershing in all of this?  With Boba?
WELL DIN MAYBE IF YOU HAD RAN A BIT FASTER YOU WOULDN’T BE FIGHTING THE TERMINATOR AHHHHHHHHH
Ok so THERE’S the spear
Hahaaaaa he spaced all the Terminators hahahaha
GIDEON’S GUARDING THE BABY AS YOU SHOULD KNOW BO KATAN
If he’s holding the Darksaber to the baby’s neck I swear--
AAAAAAAHHHHH I FUCKING KNEW IT LEAVE HIM THE FUCK ALONE ASSHOLE FUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCK
STOP IT
Ok fine Thrawn 2.0
DON’T TRUST HIIIIIIIIM DON’T TRUST HIM DON’T TRUST HIM DON’T TRUST HIIIIIIIIIIIIIM
I HATE THIS ALL SO MUCH DIE BITCH DIE
NONONONONONONONONONONONONO
AAAAHHHHH I KNEW IT
GET THE SPEAR DIN GET THE SPEAR
THE SPEAR THE SPEAR AAAAHHHHH YES
Ok how is it possible so far that not even Din’s CLOAK has been sliced off
AHAHAHA NO BITCH KILL HIM
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Oho so we getting some Bo and Gideon drama now!
Whaaaaat since when Sabine gave it to Bo Katan no fight?????
Ooooop the Terminators are back
I knew this was too easy
The Terminators coming back now are like when you roll a nat 20 earlier in a RPG and get rid of one of the really cool bosses the DM wanted to use and now the DM’s like “nOPE I’M STILL USING THEM”
FFS HE HAS A LOCKPICK NOOOOOOOOO
OH NO OH NO OH NO OH NO BABY DOESN’T LOOK TOO GOOD AAAAHHHHH HEEEEEEELP
Gideon Shut The FUCK Up Challenge
Oh NOW who’s showing up
Who’s in the X Wiiiiiiiing
I DON’T LIKE THIS WHO IS THIS WHO 
Ahsoka???
NO WRONG HEAD SHAPE
THAT’S A LIGHTSABER AAAAAAAAA WHO WHO WHAT
LUKE OR EZRA GREEN GREEN GREEN GREEN THAT’S LUKE OR EZRA THAT’S ONE OF MY BOYS HOLY SHIT
HOLY SHIT HOLY SHIT HOLY SHIT HOLY SHIIIIIIIT AAAAHHHHHHH
I don’t know if Ezra could take out all those terminators that easily though
OK RIGHT HAND BLACK GLOVE??????
But is that Luke’s saber tho I can’t tell I don’t know?!?!?!??!?!
YEP THE OTHER HAND DOESN’T HAVE A GLOVE THAT’S LUKE THAT’S LUKE THAT’S LUKE THAT’S LUUUUUUUKE!!!! 
I’M GONNA CRY
OH SHIT BO’S DOWN OH SHIT
WHOOP CARA GOT GIDEON NOOOOO JUST LET HIM DIE GAH
And the baby sees the Jedi aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
OK JEDI VS DARKTROOPERS COME ON LUKE GET EM
WAIT NO THAT HAND DIDN’T LOOK WHITE THO COULD IT BE EZRA?
NO BUT THE ONE BLACK GLOVE
Y’ALL I AM ON CLOUD NINE RIGHT NOW THIS HAS MADE ME THE HAPPIEST PERSON IN THE WORLD
Ok good I think Bo’s back up again
LUKELUKELUKELUKELUKE?????
YEP I’D KNOW THAT GAY-ASS BELT ANYWHERE
IT’S HIIIIIIIM
I’M FUCKING CRYING OH MY GOD
IS HE A JEDI BIIIIIITCH
Ok the CGI Mark’s kinda scary ngl
Ok Baby’s not gonna wanna go with him and Disney BETTER not make Luke look bad when he says no
OH SHIT HE TOOK HIS HELMET OFF SO THE BABY COULD SEE HIS FACE KSLDJKLSJKLFSDLKJFJKLSAKJ AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
I’M GONNA FUCKIN DIE THIS IS TOO MUCH THIS IS WAAAAAAAAAAY TOO MUCH FOR MY HEART
OH NO OH NO OH NO DIN NOOOOOOO DON’T LEAE YOUR SON
NO 
NO NONO NO NO NO HE LOVES YOU
EVERYONE ELSE COVER YOUR EYES FUCKERS
Ok now R2 is just fanservice lmao
Ok now it is ILLEGAL Luke never called this kid Baby Yoda he would ABSOLUTELY do so 
OK ALSO BUT LUKE HOLDING HIS BABY GRANDMASTER IS THE CUTEST THING IN THE UNIVERSE
OK OK OK BUT ALSO NO LUKE YOU GOTTA GIVE HIM BACK NOW
DIN’S CRYING HONEY NOOOOOOOO
That’s IT
what the FUCK NOOOOOOOO
OK THIS WAS A GOOD END BUT AT THE SAME TIME NOOOOOO YODITO CAN’T STAY WITH LUKE WITH HIS MURDER-HAPPY HELLSPAWN NEPHEW AROUND
Also who’s Peyton Reed?
Anyway but AHHHHHH ok so this is setting up a conflict of Mando succession where once again I don’t know what the fuck they’re talking about, Bo took the Darksaber just fine from Sabine in Rebels without a fight????????
Gah it’s early and I’m still tired talk later
but AHHHHHH
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Gone
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Summary: Din Djarin and Baby Yoda are trapped. Fighting ensues. Welcome to the pain train :)
Rated T: Violence, Major Character Death
Word Count: 5.122k
The Mandalorian had been in so many impossible shootouts, he started to lose track. Something about this one was different. He was surrounded by bounty hunters and stormtroopers alike, with Moff Gideon at the helm of the ambush. The Mandalorian had been in a situation like this all those months ago, with his friends at his side. Déjà vu was probably the correct term for how he’s feeling. Except, Kuill is dead, IG-11 is gone, Greef Karga is still on Nevarro, and Cara Dune isn’t here. It’s just him and the kid. 
“I don’t think I’m going to be able to get us out of this one Ad’ika,” he said, defeated.
The child’s ears drooped, and he cooed sadly. They were safe for right now, barricaded indoors. Din Djarin took a moment to check his weapons, while the kid cuddled up to his midsection. A blaster burn had scorched his collarbone, and he was doing his best ignore it. The adrenaline rush was helping a lot. 
He sent a message to Cara Dune for assistance a while ago, but he wasn’t even sure if she had gotten it yet. Hope that help was on the way, act like there isn’t. Suddenly he had an idea. He had three charges, and if he timed it right, he would be able to kill a lot of the enemies and it would cause a big enough distraction that he could take the kid and run in the opposite direction. This wasn’t a fight he’d be able to win, so escape was the only option.
“Okay Ad’ika. I need you to be quiet, and not squirm too much okay? We’re getting out of here.”
Mando tucked the child into the crook of his left arm. His pulse rifle was strapped to his back, and his blaster was snug in its holster. His heart was pounding. They only had one shot. He took a deep breath and tried to seem reassuring to his kid, who was looking at him with worried eyes. Din Djarin was nauseous. Now or never. 
He kicked open the door separating him from the Imperialists and their allies, and he threw a now active charge into the crowd of troopers closest to him and the kid. He didn’t wait to see how many the explosive took out. He turned and ran into the forest that backed the cantina he had used as shelter. 
The sound of blaster fire filled his senses. He did his best to dodge the shots, considering they were coming from behind him. After a couple near misses, he activated his next charge and launched it behind him. He heard the explosion and the satisfying screams of dying stormtroopers and bounty hunters. Good. It’s what they deserved.
He put more distance between him and the group chasing after him. They weren’t out of the woods yet. He had one charge left and didn’t want to use it to soon. The kid was relatively calm, the only indication that he was in distress was the distinct droop of his ears. His ship was still so far away, he was beginning to think that they weren’t going to make it. He kept running, his breathing getting sporadic, when a lucky shot hit him in the back of his left arm. The force of the blaster and gravity sent him stumbling forward and he dropped the child when his grip loosened as a reflex from the wound. 
The child squealed as he landed with a thud. Shit.
He dove back down to the child to protect him. The shooting stopped. That’s never a good sign. Gideon approached the pair but kept his distance.
“We don’t want to hurt the Asset, Din Djarin.”
Din grit his teeth. His name being spoken out loud (again) after all this time was unsettling. He didn’t trust Moff Gideon or any Imperial’s more than he didn’t trust droids, if that was possible. So, he called bullshit right away. The Mandalorian was never much of a talker, but if he had to talk his way out of this, so be it. He was desperate. Din was never desperate. First time for everything. 
He stood up slowly, his left arm hugging his chest. The kid was on the ground, clinging to the back of his leg, hiding from view. 
“Then tell me what you want with him. He’s a child.”
Gideon raised an eyebrow in surprise. It almost sounded like the Mandalorian was considering negotiations. He would indulge Djarin, and then he would kill him and take the Asset anyway. 
“We want to understand him. You know of his power, I’m sure of it. We want to discover why he has this power. He’s fifty, but young for his species. If we can harness that power, at a young age… the Empire could rise once more. We can’t do that very well if he’s harmed, now can we?” Gideon said. What the Mandalorian didn’t know, is that he was lying through his teeth. 
There were other Force users in the galaxy. The Empire, or a shell of the Empire would rise once again regardless of the asset. The asset posed a threat, however. The remaining Imperials had hoped to convert the Asset to their side, to ensure the longevity of the new Empire. If not, then the Asset was to be eliminated. Obviously, it was of more value alive, but Gideon had no qualms about putting an end to it here and now. 
“Give us the child, and you both walk away from this.” 
Din Djarin would not hand the kid over. He couldn’t. 
“Over my dead body.” 
“That can be arranged.” With no warning, Moff Gideon pulled out the Darksaber. 
Now acutely aware of just how hopeless this was, he activated his last charge and launched it into the crowd behind Moff Gideon. During the split-second distraction of the explosion, he pulled out his blaster and started firing. 
Gideon ducked behind his troopers, waiting. 
This was definitely the least pleasant fight the Mandalorian had ever been in. He couldn’t outrun them, so this was his last stand. He was essentially a human shield, using his Beskar covered body to protect his Ad’ika. 
Every blaster bolt that hit the Beskar made the armor heat up to the point where it was almost unbearable. Thank the stars that troopers were awful shots, or he never would have lasted as long as he did. He was surprisingly efficient; despite being relatively grounded to one spot (the kid still hadn’t let go of his boot). He was only a man though, and he was exhausted. A particularly nasty shot hit him just below the knee, where the Beskar didn’t cover. His leg buckled underneath him, and he hissed in pain.
 The kid chirped worriedly and started to peek around from behind the Mandalorian. 
“Don’t! Stay behind me, I’m fine.”
As usual, the kid didn’t listen to him, but Djarin was being overwhelmed. Every time he shot a trooper down, another one took its place. A sea of blaster bolts shot towards him at the same time. He couldn’t dodge all of those. The child came out from behind Din and raised his little arms. 
Time stilled. 
The blaster bolts slowed in their approach towards the Mandalorian and stopped mere centimeters from him. The child opened his eyes, and with a flick of his tiny wrists, sent the bolts careening backwards. Many hit their marks. A lot of them scattered, seeing the Force in action for the first time. It helped but it wasn’t enough. Oddly, the kid didn’t pass right out. Maybe he knew how dire this was. The kid was a warrior, protecting the injured Mandalorian from getting shot again. Din resumed shooting at the plethora of stormtroopers that remained. 
What he didn’t see, was that Gideon had snuck around to the side of the child and the Mandalorian. With a blaster in one hand, and the Darksaber in the other, he was hard to miss. They noticed too late. Gideon leveled his blaster, aiming at the space in between the Mandalorian’s helmet and his pauldron. If his aim was true, he’d hit Din clean through the neck. An inevitable kill shot. 
The child launched another volley of blaster bolts back into the stormtroopers. Moff Gideon shifted his blaster and pulled the trigger.
 The Mandalorian watched in horror as the child flew backwards, and light green fluid soaked through his robes. When his Ad’ika hit the ground, eyes closed, and unmoving, Din Djarin saw red. 
With strength he didn’t know he had, he got up on his feet and turned towards Moff Gideon. If looks could kill, Gideon would be dead a hundred times over. He ran towards Gideon, rapidly firing at him. Swinging the Darksaber, Gideon managed to block the shots. 
The Mandalorian was simmering with rage. He would never be able to get close with the Darksaber in Gideon’s possession. He thought fleetingly of Xi’an. Switching his blaster to his left hand, he yanked his vibroblade out of his boot. He kept shooting, distracting the Moff who clearly wasn’t entirely experienced with the unique weapon. Xi’an taught him to be almost as precise with small blades as she was. The anger that fueled him, made up the difference. With all the hate and anger he could muster; he skillfully flung the vibroblade so it slashed Moff Gideon across the throat. Gideon’s eyes widened in shock, and he sank to his knees. The Darksaber slipped from his grasp, deactivating before it made contact with the ground. 
The Mandalorian stormed forward and retrieved his vibroblade from the ground. He eyed the Darksaber and picked that up too. He made eye contact with Gideon, who had a silent plea forming on his lips. 
‘End it.’ 
That was too easy. Gideon was going to choke on his own blood (good), and it was still too pleasant of a death for him. Din Djarin activated the Darksaber. 
“This belongs to the Mandalorians.” 
Rapid fire could be heard from behind the Mandalorian and he whirled around, saber raised. Some of the tension poured out of his shoulders when he realized that backup had arrived. Cara Dune was piloting a gunship, raining hellfire on the stormtroopers who just watched one of their bosses get killed. 
Djarin was going to be relieved, but he remembered why he killed Gideon. Anger bubbling up again, he examined the Darksaber that was now in his possession. He would make quick work of this. Adrenaline at an all-time high, he ran right into the sea of stormtroopers, putting the blade through anyone that was close enough. He went absolutely feral. He may have gotten shot a few times (again), but if he did, he didn’t notice. 
He cut down stormtroopers one by one until there was only a handful left. Cara had landed the ship in a clearing and raced towards the scene with her blaster drawn. She shot down the remaining troopers and scanned frantically for Din. When she saw him, she was unsettled? Maybe scared was a better word. His back was towards her, so she had to get closer to realize what was going on. He was beating the shit out of a stormtrooper who was clearly, very dead. 
“Mando?” she approached him worriedly.
He ignored her. Or maybe he didn’t hear her. She couldn’t tell. He was unhinged, that’s for certain. She put her blaster in her holster and continued to cautiously creep near him. The last thing she wanted was to startle him.
“Djarin?” 
The only answer she received was a grunt, but that was probably because he kicked the fallen trooper. She noticed an unhealthy amount of crimson darkening his sleeve, his collarbone, and his leg. That doesn’t include the blood dripping down his breastplate. She didn’t know if it was his own or the stormtrooper’s. Probably a mixture of both. 
“Din!” 
In the blink of an eye, he had the Darksaber pointed at her throat. She put her hands up in an attempt to placate the Mandalorian. She couldn’t see his face, but turmoil was radiating off him in waves. As if he suddenly realized who he was threatening. He deactivated the Darksaber and dropped it at his side. 
He swayed unsteadily and collapsed. 
“Whoa!” Cara rushed to his side. “Are you okay?”
He couldn’t answer. How could he?
“That sword. That was the one Moff Gideon stole right? Where is he?”
Din raised his good arm shakily and pointed in the direction she just came from. She helped him up, and they slowly trudged to Gideon.
 “It's okay, I gotcha.”
About twenty feet from where Gideon was slain, Djarin stopped moving. He pointed in the same direction that they were going but made it clear that he would not be accompanying her. Cara gave him a quizzical look but figured that he was more hurt than he let on, so she let it slide. 
“I’ll be right back,” she said, what she hoped sounded reassuringly. What the hell happened to make him like this? He seemed detached. Like he wasn’t all there. She saw Gideon’s body, and smiled grimly. The son of a bitch was dead. Brutal death, but it was probably better than he deserved. 
Satisfied, she returned to the Mandalorian, just to find him on his knees, his back towards her once again. If she squinted, she could have sworn that she saw him shaking. 
As she neared him, she could tell he was holding something small. Halting to a stop right behind him, she peered over his shoulder and her heart sank, a strong wave of nausea hitting her. 
“Oh god,” she groaned.
She understood now. The kid. He was gone. 
Din just stared at the child, his brain short circuiting. He heard Cara call his name. She was right behind him, so why did she sound like she was a million miles away? 
“Din? I’m going to get your ship, okay? I had to crash the gunship and I passed it. I’ll bring it back here and then we have to leave.” 
She had to give him time alone. Nothing may change, but he certainly wasn’t going to react or do anything if she was around. He needed time. It wouldn’t be enough, but she wasn’t sure all the time in the world could help him now. 
Once Cara was gone, Din cradled the child close to his chest. 
“Ad’ika,” he murmured, “I’m sorry. I’m so, so sorry.”
His voice was tight with emotion. He had spent decades learning to stuff his feelings in a box and throw away the key. He wasn’t about to stop now. 
“Ni kyr'tayl gai sa'ad,” he whispered. He should have said it sooner.
By the time Cara made it back, the Mandalorian was back on his feet. He had laid the child to rest in the forest. She didn’t expect him to answer, but she had to ask after he boarded the Razor Crest. 
“Are you okay?” she regretted it as soon as she asked. Of course, he wasn’t okay. In a weak attempt to cover it up, she added, “Physically?”
He was in the cargo hold of his ship, where Cara had joined him once she put the ship on autopilot. They were going back to Nevarro. He was sitting on the floor, his head tilted back against the wall. He was quiet for a moment. 
“I’m not sure. I can’t feel anything, so that’s probably not good.” 
Cara blanched. He was probably in shock. She didn’t know if it was because of the kid, or the amount of blood he lost, or the trauma of it all. Before she could ask another question, he blacked out. 
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
When Djarin woke, he wasn’t on the Razor Crest. His arm was in a sling, and there was a bacta pad on his collarbone and his leg. He hurt everywhere. Groaning he sat up, and it all came rushing back. 
“Oh good, you’re awake.” Greef Karga was sitting by the end of the cot. “You had Cara and I worried there.” 
“I take it we made it to Nevarro okay?” His voice was surprisingly steady.
Cara came in with food, and a jug of water. 
“Yeah we did. Listen, you’ve been out for a few days, so you need to eat. Karga and I will leave you be for a while, but then we need to talk.”
Djarin nodded his head once, in silent confirmation. Relieved that he didn’t put up a fight, his friends shuffled out of the room. In one swift motion, he pulled his helmet off and placed it on the bed next to him. The rest of his Beskar was cleaned and placed neatly in a pile on a table in the corner. His stomach growled and he noticed how hungry he was. He did his best to eat slow, but he ended up throwing it all up anyway. The water he could handle. Shortly after he donned his helmet, there was a knock at the door. 
“Is it safe to come in?” Karga asked. 
“Yes.”
Cara entered, followed by Greef and they both looked nervous. They kept glancing at each other and fidgeting.
 “What is it?” Din sighed.
Cara cleared her throat. 
“What you went through was- is, a lot. What are you going to do now?” 
He blinked. What is he going to do now? Oh right. He didn’t have to worry about the kid anymore. He would go back to his clan- oh right. The Imperials came through and killed them. His focus shifted to Karga. 
“Am I still welcome back in the Guild?”
Greef looked taken aback. 
“Of course, Mando! That offer has no expiration date. Though I do recommend you wait a bit until your arm has healed.”
He looked at Dune. “I’m a bounty hunter. I’m going to keep bounty hunting.”
Okay. She didn’t have to like it, but it was his decision. 
“Are you going to take care of yourself?” 
Now he was annoyed. “I’ve made it this far.”
“You know what I mean," she said seriously.
“No, I don’t Cara! Stop dancing around the subject. If you want to say it, say it!” The Mandalorian raised his voice.
“You haven’t talked about it, about him at all. It’s not normal. It’s not healthy,” Cara said.
Djarin was getting mad. She was trying to pry the box open. He kept it locked for a reason. Except, this time it cracked. Just a little bit, but it still cracked. 
“What do you want me to say Cara? The child is dead, and I couldn’t do anything to stop it? He’s gone. It’s over. I can’t change the past, and neither can you.” He calmed as he spoke. 
He took his arm out of the sling, testing his range of motion. Pretty good considering the minimal amount of bacta that was applied. He grabbed the Beskar from the desk and put it all back on. Even his signet, which he had somehow unearned. 
Imagine that. The only Mandalorian in the history of Mandalore to earn a signet and have it unearned in a matter of months. He shook his head and huffed, almost laughing at himself. It would be him of all people.
“Greef, how many pucks do you have on you right now?”
Karga looked through his pockets.
“Eight,” he supplied. 
“Good,” the Mandalorian said. “I’ll take them all.”
Karga offered him the pucks, without objecting. He knew the Mandalorian needed this. That’s how it usually goes. Keep busy, and you might not fall apart.  Before he left Cara Dune and Greef Karga in the hotel room, he stopped in the doorway. 
“Thank you both. For everything.” 
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Six Months Later:
Business was booming. The Mandalorian was now the most widely known, successful bounty hunter in the galaxy. He was different now. Cold. Calculating. A shell of the man he used to be. It didn’t matter. Cara called him out on it, and he retaliated. It’s safe to say that they weren’t friends anymore. 
The Mandalorian very rarely, if ever stepped foot on Nevarro anymore either. Client’s would contact him directly if they wanted a job done, so he hadn’t seen Greef either. He probably never would, unless someone placed a bounty on Karga. 
His work became his life. He hardly found the thrill in it anymore. But he did what he had to do to survive. Some days were hard. He would open the panel of the compartment of his ship where the kid used to be safely tucked away. Then he remembered that the kid wasn’t hiding. He was gone. He looked for the kid everywhere he went. He knew he wouldn’t find him. The kid was dead, and he had buried him. 
He had just returned from his last job, and currently there weren’t any more scheduled for him. He did that on purpose. Like he said, some days were hard. But every night was hard. He found himself dreading sleep. He would get a good two or three hours of rest, when nightmares of that day would tear him out of his slumber. He tried to go days at a time without sleep. He succeeded. The less sleep he got, the sloppier he was on his jobs. The amount of times he’s used his cauterizer in the last week was testament enough. At this rate, he would be all burnt flesh by the end of the year. 
So, for the first time in his life, he had a clear schedule. Hopefully, he would be able to catch up on sleep, and then pick up another job. He wasn’t optimistic, but he had to try. 
He set the Razor Crest to autopilot, to crawl around in deep space. He removed the Darksaber from his belt and placed it on the cot next to him. Paranoia would never really leave him. 
He closed his eyes, and let exhaustion take over. 
~ It was raining blaster fire. Cara had showed up earlier here. The odds were looking in to be in their favor. Din genuinely smiled. He thought this was the end. It was far from it. Suddenly an odd light glinted in his peripheral vision. 
Moff Gideon had the Darksaber. 
Recognition of the weapon and its history sent tendrils of anger shooting throughout his body. Gideon would pay for that. He wanted to kill him.
Then he noticed the blaster pointing at the child. 
“NO!” 
He launched himself in front of the child, and the blaster bolt ricocheted off of the corner of his pauldron. He didn’t notice that Gideon had shifted the gun to shoot at him instead. His movement had deadly consequences. 
A sickening feeling worked its way into his throat, and he tasted bile. He turned his head slowly to look at the child who was lying face first in the ground next to him, his robes smoking from the heat of the shot. 
Din dropped to his knees. This was his fault. ~
The dreams were always different, but they always ended with the same line.
“Ni su'cuyi, gar kyr'adyc, ni partayli, gar darasuum Ad’ika."
He woke up with a gasp and shot up like a rocket. He placed his helmeted head in his hands. Apparently, he was going to suffer indefinitely. Frustrated, he went back to the cockpit. Maybe if he went to a market or something, he could purchase sleeping pills or some other form of medication that would save him from his endless nightmares. 
He’s tired, on edge and frustrated, so when looks at the Mythosaur pendant that the child used to wear around his neck once upon a time, a little bit longer than normal as it dangles from the ceiling in the cockpit, he grips the lever a little too hard, and the knob pops right off and in to his hand. This tiny, insignificant ball should not make him hurt this much. 
He stood up and threw it to the back of his ship. He wanted it out of his sight. He returned to his seat, the silence nearly suffocating. He wouldn’t kill anyone ever again if he could get his Ad’ika back.  Maybe if he wasn’t so sleep-deprived, he would have noticed sooner. A few minutes later he realized that he never heard the ball clang when the metal hit the metal of his ship. 
He quickly withdrew his blaster and turned around, side-stepping the pilot’s seat.
“The toy I’ve heard so much about, this is?”
Din Djarin scanned the cockpit and saw no one until he glanced at the floor. He froze. A much older version of the same species as the child was in front of him. There was a cane in one hand, and the knob-turned-toy in the other. He couldn’t be much more than two feet tall, and he was green, but tinged blue. Almost like a ghost. He shook his head. 
“Now I know I’ve lost it.”
The creature laughed. 
The Mandalorian tried blinking a few times to make it go away. It stayed. 
“Yoda, I am. Real, this is.”
Yoda used the Force to send the ball back into the Mandalorian’s hand. Djarin caught it and clenched his fist around it. Wait a minute.
“How did you know about the toy?”
Yoda laughed again.
“Many things I know, Din Djarin.”
Din tensed. 
“Why are you here? I… couldn’t protect one of your kind, if that’s why.” He was lost. He might actually be crazy. Or he managed to fall back asleep, and this was another dream.
Yoda sobered up at his confession.
 “Your best, you did.”
Din leaned against the side of the pilot’s seat and sighed heavily.
“It was all for nothing. It wasn’t enough. I wasn’t enough.” Months of pent up emotional pain bled through his voice. 
“Fail, you did. Your fault, it was not.”
His head snapped up at that.
“Then who’s fault was it?” he asked angrily.
Yoda looked around, taking in his surroundings. 
“The will of the Force, it was.”
The Force. That was the power or sorcery that the child had. He scoffed at the thought that the ‘Force’, would want a baby to die. He came to terms that he was indeed, speaking to a dead person. They stood in silence for a long time. When it became clear that neither of them were going to speak, Din turned around and looked at the stars passing by through the front window. After a few minutes, he pulled the Mythosaur pendant down and stared at it. There was a pattern with him, he noticed. He had everything, he lost it all. He had everything, he lost it all. And it continued to repeat.
His parents.
His clan.
His friends.
His kid.
Yoda watched the Mandalorian sadly. He felt the darkness in him, which had fought relentlessly to snuff out the light his whole life. Only now, the darkness was winning. 
“Highly of you, Ad’ika thinks.” 
Din Djarin went rigid, and nearly cut his hand with the pendant.
“What?” he whispered.
A very familiar, sorely missed babbling noise filled the cockpit. Djarin switched the pendant to his left hand and gripped the headrest of the pilot’s chair to steady himself. He felt his eyes betray him as they burned with unshed tears. The babbling noise got closer. He bowed his head and squeezed his eyes shut, refusing to turn around. 
“Please, I can’t. I can’t do this,” he whispered again. He wanted to wake up now. It was worse, somehow, knowing that this wasn’t a dream. A soft tug of his cape convinced him to turn around slowly, steeling himself. He looks down at the floor and sank to his knees.
The kid was right there. Right in front of him. His clothes lacked the bloodstains that the Mandalorian had last seen on him, and the child was glowing a faint blue color, just like Yoda.
 “Ad’ika?”
 The kid’s ears perked up, and he made the grabby motions with his hands. He wanted to be picked up. 
 Mando looked to Yoda, who was silently observing. Seeking confirmation. Can you even touch a ghost? Yoda gave a slight nod, and Din went for it. He scooped up the kid and the weight of the world was lifted from his shoulders. The child squealed happily as Djarin held him close to his chest, squeezing a bit harder than he should have. He couldn’t help it. The helmet masked the tears that finally escaped him. “I don’t understand what’s happening,” he said. He was grateful, obviously. But it didn’t make sense. Yoda cleared his throat. 
“Missed you, he has.”
A lump formed in the Mandalorian’s throat. He looked down at the ghost of a child who was gnawing on the top of his breastplate.
 “I missed you too, Ad’ika.” His voice cracked when he spoke. He sat there holding the child, stroking his big ears with his fingers.
 He listened as Yoda did his best to explain something that Din couldn’t fully grasp yet. The Force connects all things. No one is ever really gone. Force users can come back and interact with the living under certain circumstances. Apparently, Ad’ika cried non-stop when he couldn’t find the Mandalorian. Yoda taught the child about his abilities and how to manifest as a Force ghost, so he could go find his lost guardian. Force ghosts could only interact with the living sporadically.
 However, he may have hinted that it was much easier to appear in dreams and interact with the living that way. Djarin’s breath hitched.  The child squirmed out of Djarin’s hold and waddled to the mythosaur pendant which found its way to the floor amidst the reunion. He picked it up and held it out towards Din, a questioning look on his face as he babbled.
“A-ga da a-ba?”
Din took the pendant and tied it around the child as a necklace. 
“Why don’t you hang on to that? It’s yours.” 
The child immediately stuck it into his mouth. The Mandalorian laughed. 
“Time for us to go, it is,” Yoda said solemnly. “See him again, you will.”
Djarin’s heart sank, but he nodded. Before they disappeared, the child placed a three-fingered hand on the back of the Mandalorian’s hand.
 “Ba-ba bu, buh!” The kid shook his head in frustration and tried again. “a-ga… dada!”
The Mandalorian started. 
“I-” he had so many questions. Did the kid know what he was saying? It was just baby talk. Then the kid dropped this on him just before both ghosts vanished.
 “Boo-Bu-eer. Buir!”
His heart stopped. Long after they faded, he kept replaying it in his mind. 
Buir.
 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mando’a Translations: Ad’ika: little one, son, daughter, of any age Buir: father/mother Ni kyr'tayl gai sa'ad: Adoption vow; I know your name as my child Ni su'cuyi, gar kyr'adyc, ni partayli, gar darasuum: Daily remembrance of those passed on *I'm still alive, but you are dead. I remember you, so you are eternal*. Followed by repetition of loved ones' name(s).
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aion-rsa · 3 years
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The Mandalorian Recap: What You Need to Know Before Season 2
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This The Mandalorian article contains spoilers.
Five years after Return of the Jedi, a gunslinger comes to town in the latest Star Wars phenomenon. The Mandalorian took the internet by storm last year, thanks to the central duo of Pedro Pascal’s titular bounty hunter and the adorable Child, aka Baby Yoda. Even if you aren’t a hardcore Star Wars fan, the story of a heavily armed mercenary suddenly becoming a father figure to protect the mysterious and Force-sensitive Child is very charming.
With the show returning for a second season on Oct. 30, you might need a refresher on how Mando and Baby Yoda met, what the Empire is up to, why IG-11 is constantly trying to self-destruct, and who the Darksaber-wielding Moff Gideon is. If so, you’ve come to the right place!
Disney dropped a season 1 recap video earlier this week that plays the hits. Check it out below:
But if you need a proper recap of The Mandalorian season 1 in more detail, we’ve got a chronological timeline of events below:
The Client Hires Mando for a Top Secret Bounty Involving the Empire
From the very start of the show, the Mandalorian, whose real name is Din Djarin, has a job to do. He’s a down-on-his-luck bounty hunter, good at his job but low on credits at a time when the fall of the Empire has destabilized the galaxy. And the highest paying job right now, according to Bounty Hunters’ Guild leader Greef Karga (Carl Weathers), is from the unnamed Client (Werner Herzog), a crime lord loyal to the Empire. He will pay top credits for Mando to find a 50-year-old escapee referred to only as “the Asset.” Working for the oppressive Empire isn’t at the top of Mando’s list, but he needs the cash to keep his ship, the Razor Crest, running and send some home to his clan, which is hiding in a secret Mandalorian conclave on the planet Nevarro.
Mando Suits Up with the Help of the Armorer
The Client is willing to pay in beskar, the highly durable metal Mandalorians use for their legendary armor. Before heading out on his next job, the Mando checks with his clan’s Armorer (Emily Swallow) to make sure his pay is the real deal. A skilled blacksmith and community leader, the Armorer explains that the beskar came from Mandalorians lost in a Great Purge.
The Armorer builds Mando a new armor piece and talks about the importance of the signet, a symbol of a Mandalorian’s victories. Every time he finishes a job, he’ll return to the Armorer for a new piece. Her work also gives him time to think about his own past as a foundling, orphaned during the Clone Wars.
Kuill Helps Mando Find the Asset
The new bounty leads the Mandalorian to Kuill (Nick Nolte), an Ugnaught farmer on the desert planet Arvala-7 who used to be an indentured mechanic for the Empire. Getting to the Asset isn’t going to be easy: Mando has to ride ornery animals called blurrgs, and he isn’t nearly as good at it as he is at killing. Kuill mentors Mando with patience and insight, and he agrees to help him find the bounty.
IG-11 Is an Assassin Droid with an Enthusiastic Self-Destruct Mechanism
When Mando reaches the target’s location, he discovers he isn’t the only bounty hunter there. IG-11 (Taika Waititi), an assassin droid with the ability to spin his body all the way around and fire in any direction, agrees to work with Mando to find the Asset. IG-88’s deadpanning and his eagerness to self-destruct when facing overwhelming odds bounce off of Mando’s straightforward, serious demeanor, and the two become effective teammates.
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Mando Forms an Instant Bond with Baby Yoda
It turns out the Client was a bit misleading when he said the Asset was 50-years-old. It’s a child of Yoda’s mysterious species, and Mando remembers the loss of his own parents too keenly to consign anyone else to orphanhood. The Child, who has no known relation to the Jedi Master despite the fact the majority of fans call him Baby Yoda, is green, cute, and harmless, and while Mando initially wants to turn him in for the money, a deep bond begins to form between them as soon as they meet inside a mercenary hideout.
Needless to say, the reveal of the little guy was as surprising to Star Wars fans as it was to Mando, since we rarely see any other aliens of Yoda’s species, and certainly never a child. When IG-11 tries to kill Baby Yoda, Mando takes him out, and a new heroic duo is formed.
Baby Yoda Reveals His Force Powers
In order to leave the planet, Mando has to wrest his ship back from scavenger Jawas who have dismantled the Razor Crest for scrap by offering a trade. They want a mudhorn egg, and, naturally, the rhinoceros-like mudhorn doesn’t want to let him into the nest.
Mando’s acquisition of the egg turns into a messy, muddy fight, the animal’s bulk almost proving a match for Mandalorian beskar and weapons. But just when it looks like Mando might lose, Baby Yoda levitates the monster with the Force. Do Jedi abilities run in his species? We don’t know, but the little guy’s magic enables Mando to kill the beast.
The Mandalorians Pledge to “The Way”
When Mando returns to his people, it sparks an argument about whether Mando is doing the right thing by taking Imperial bounties. Through this we learn more about the culture of the Mandalorians, who had to go into hiding after the Empire took control of their homeworld of Mandalore. “This is the Way,” they intone, emphasizing the seriousness of their creed to stay hidden, keep their helmets on at all times, and be loyal to one another. At one point, the Armorer has to break up a fight between Mando and another Mandalorian warrior.
Mando Hands the Child Over, Then Steals Him Back
Technically, Mando does his job, turning the Child over to the ominous Client. But when he learns that the Client’s men plan to do some kind of experiment on him — there’s a strong implication that Baby Yoda is an early strand-cast, just like the Emperor’s clone in The Rise of Skywalker — Mando can’t live with that. He sneaks back into the Client’s Imperial facility and cuts through the crime lord’s ranks of stormtroopers.
Stealing the Child back, Mando soon finds himself at odds with not only the Imperial forces on Nevarro but also the Bounty Hunters’ Guild, which can’t standby Mando after he breaks their code. Ultimately, Mando’s clan helps him escape and rocket away on the Razor Crest.
Cara Dune Brawls Her Way into the Story
Trying to find a safe place for himself and the Child to hide from the Empire and other bounty hunters, Mando winds up on the planet Sorgan. There he meets the ex-Rebel shocktrooper Cara Dune (Gina Carano), who suspects he’s there to collect a bounty on her. After a fistfight emblematic of The Mandalorian‘s more down-to-earth take on sweeping Star Wars combat, they become fast friends.
We learn Dune turned to the mercenary life after the end of the Galactic Civil War because she wasn’t interested in the peacekeeping career for the New Republic. Fighting for credits suited her better.
Mando Finds Himself in Trouble in a Quiet Village
Mando’s next stop on Sorgan is a small village that he needs to protect Seven Samurai-style. The village is under threat of attack by Klatooinian marauders, with a farmer named Omera (Julia Jones) and her daughter leading the defense.
In order to get Mando on their side, Omera offers Mando sanctuary: he and Baby Yoda cab hide from the rest of the galaxy in the village. Mando, who seems to develop feelings for Omera during his time in the village, almost shows her his face, which is forbidden by his clan, which would banish him. Mando stops Omera from taking off his helmet at the last second.
Ultimately, Mando, Omera, and Cara Dune defend the village, but they can’t stay together. Baby Yoda still has a price on his head, so Mando and Cara move on.
Gunslingers on Tatooine
When his ship falls under attack by another bounty hunter, Mando is forced to make a quick pit stop on Tatooine to do repairs on the Razor Crest. While on the famous Star Wars planet, Mando meets both the friendly mechanic Peli Motto (Amy Sedaris) and the young bounty hunter Toro Calican, who is searching for an infamous assassin named Fennec Shand (Ming-Na Wen). Toro asks Mando for aid taking down his target, promising to split the bounty.
While the two successfully defeat Shand in the desert beyond Mos Eisley, Toro ends up betraying Mando in an attempt to collect the bounty on Baby Yoda. This turns out to be a poor decision.
Mando’s time on Tatooine is particularly notable for the final scene of the episode “The Gunslinger,” which teases a mystery character wearing armor and spurs not unlike those worn by another famous Mandalorian bounty hunter from Star Wars‘ past! Based on the season 2 cast list, this is either Boba Fett (Temuera Morrison) himself or a sheriff from the books named Cobb Vanth (Timothy Olyphant), who finds Fett’s armor in the novel Aftermath by Chuck Wendig.
Kuill Dies Protecting Baby Yoda
Mando, Cara, Greef, and Kuill, who has reprogrammed IG-11 as a fast-shooting service droid, eventually have come up with a plan to throw the Imperials off Baby Yoda’s scent. They’ll turn in Baby Yoda’s pram to the Client while Kuill takes the kid himself to safety. But it doesn’t work: the Client’s boss turns out to be Moff Gideon, an Imperial warlord who knows exactly who he’s up against. Gideon recommends the Client double check the kid’s whereabouts and the plan falls apart. With the season coming to a close, the Client’s troopers catch up to Baby Yoda and kill Kuill, while the others are trapped in Nevarro’s cantina by Gideon’s Imperial forces.
Moff Gideon gives the Mando an ultimatum: surrender before nightfall and he’ll let them live. The good guys try to break out of the cantina, but they’re thoroughly trapped.
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IG-11 Saves the Day, But Pays the Price
Fortunately, IG-11 swoops in to steal Baby Yoda back. In a blaze of blaster fire, he breaks through the Imperial ring around the cantina, then blasts his way into the underground network of tunnels where the Mandalorian clans live. But Mando is injured and faces another type of exposure: IG-11 needs to remove his helmet to heal his wound. Although Mando can’t show his face another living being, the droid is no such thing, so he gives in.
With the wound stabilized, they limp into the tunnels. After a cascade of action sequences including the Armorer kicking stormtrooper butt, IG-11 finally self-destructs to give his friends their only possible way out of the Imperial trap.
Mando Takes Down Moff Gideon’s TIE Fighter
The last piece of equipment the Armorer gave Mando is the perfect counter to Moff Gideon’s starship. Mando activates his jetpack and follows Gideon’s advanced Outland TIE fighter into the sky, putting to use all the skills he’s learned since he started earning back his beskar. He plants explosives on the ship and brings it down, seemingly killing Gideon in the process. It’s a bittersweet victory for our heroes, who have lost a few friends along the way. At least Baby Yoda is finally safe, right?
Moff Gideon Wields the Legendary Darksaber
Wrong. Moff Gideon has one more surprise to show. He not only survived the crash, but is able to cut his way out of the wreckage with the Darksaber, a black-bladed energy sword that was once the symbol of the true leader of the Mandalorian homeworld.
Last seen in the hands of the Mandalorian Bo-Katan Kryze, the Darksaber shouldn’t be in Imperial hands. It’s an insult to the Mandalorian people and suggests Gideon is out for them personally. With Din Djarin’s people scattered after the Imperial attacks, Mando and Baby Yoda really are a clan of two against the world, and will have to face overwhelming odds to finally defeat the Empire.
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Mando and Baby Yoda Embark on a New Journey
At the end of the season, Mando and Baby Yoda follow the Armorer’s suggestion (although it’s more like an order) to find the Child’s people (the Jedi, ancient sorcerer enemies to the Mandalorians, the way she tells it) out among the stars. Meanwhile, Greef and Cara Dune stay with the Bounty Hunter’s guild, sharing a final farewell with Mando and Baby Yoda before the head out to parts unknown on their new mission. This is where season 2 will pick up!
The post The Mandalorian Recap: What You Need to Know Before Season 2 appeared first on Den of Geek.
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soutasnotebook · 7 years
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But consider all of the cast with lightsabers.
Oh my word
I’ve sorted the characters according to their introductory affiliation.
Anteiku/Re Affiliates
Kaneki Ken - After inheriting a very special bright red/Darth Maul two-sided saber from the fallen Rize Kamishiro, he finds himself hunted by the Dark Side.
Nagachika Hideyoshi - His is light blue, like Luke’s. 
Yoshimura Kuzen - He’s long retired his purple lightsaber, except when he brings it out to clean up after his daughter, Darth Owl. It used to be his lover Ukina’s, from whom he learned how to wield it. 
Kamishiro Rize - She was exceptionally skilled with her two-sided saber, but is currently saber-less. 
Kirishima Touka - Hers is dark blue and she wields it well. 
Koma Enji - Green.  
Irimi Kaya - Green. This is why she and Koma first fought in the 20th ward, before Yoshimura convinced them there was room for two green sabers.
Yomo Renji - Darksaber all the way.
Kosaka Yoriko - Yellow-green, but she would rather not use it. 
Hinami Feuguchi - Yellow, two-sided, and she possesses uncanny skill. 
Nishiki Nishio - green and cracked. 
Nishino Kimi - green (this is how she met Nishiki). He then cracked her crystal by accident, and learned the power of love by her forgiveness. 
Tsukiyama Family
Tsukiyama Shuu - the gourmet’s is indigo to match his hair, and he adores it to the point that he talks to it. Still, he pines after Kaneki’s two-sided saber.
Karren von Rosewald - Servants weren’t supposed to have sabers, but Shuu bought her a rose pink one for her birthday one year. She’s loved him ever since.
Matsumae - the family bodyguard possesses a darksaber. It still thrills her every time she lights it.
Mirumo - passed down the indigo saber to Shuu.
Chie Hori - her tiny green saber was so delectable she and Shuu had to be friends.
Clowns
Uta - Darksaber, but with a cracked crystal. He and Yomo used to make a fierce darksaber team. 
Itori - Hers is bright pink but rarely used, unless you’re counting when she gets drunk and waves it about Helter Skelter pretending she’s a Samurai. 
Hoito Roma - She seemed to have an ordinary red saber. Instead she literally has a four-sided saber she uses for utter destruction. 
Nimura Furuta - he started the series by pushing pipes onto Rize so he could steal her lightsaber, but now that Kaneki has inherited it, he hired Kanou to make a duplicate. Someday, though, he will get the real one. 
Rio/Shikorae - is not trusted with one. Probably for the best.
Nico - pink but cracked. 
Donato Porpora - Purple, cracked.
Aogiri Tree
Kirishima Ayato - dark blue, just like Touka. *pouts*
Yamori - Sabers cauterize wounds. That’s boring. 
Tatara - Green - half of a two sided saber. 
Yoshimura Eto - Darth Owl has a fierce purple lightsaber and exceptional skill.
Noro - Darksaber. 
CCG
Amon Koutarou - Blue-white and pure. 
Takizawa Seidou - blue, but he cracked the crystal while insisting he could make his own.
Mado Akira - green. She made her own, nice and neat. 
Houji Kousuke- the second half of Tatara’s green saber is his. This is the root of their enmity. 
Mado Kureo - His fascination with lightsabers has lead him to have a collection of every color, plus every cracked version. He was missing a green one before Akira made hers. 
Marude Itsuki - It used to be yellow. Inspired by Yoshitoki, he also decorated the label. It did not turn out well, but thankfully, Juuzou Suzuya wrecked it. 
Washuu Yoshitoki - yellow. He’s decorated the label. 
Washuu Matsuri - spent half his childhood (literally half) whining for one. Now he has a yellow one and isn’t not as exciting as he hoped. 
Washuu Tsuneyoshi - He wishes it was purple, but alas, his is yellow. 
Kuriowa Takeomi - He got so good at beating ghouls up with his hands his dad was reluctant to hand down their family’s white saber. 
Kuriowa Iwao - He used to have a white saber. Now he has an orange one, because he gave the white one to Takeomi.
Aura Kiyoko - Blue and damn does she use it well.
Tanakamaru Mougan - Pink. He loves the color. 
Shinohara Yukinori - Green, “the color of life,” he used to remind Suzuya.
Hajime Hazuki - white. Someone take it away from him.
Arima Squad
Ihei Hairu - hers is lemon-colored, and she’s nicknamed it “Sunlight.”
Arima Kishou - His is ordinary light blue. But he can beat even the most powerful sabers with his technique. 
Ui Koori - His is green. Sometimes Hairu tells him they’re lemons and limes, and he enjoys this.
Take Hirako - he ordered light blue to match Arima. 
Ihei Shio - Pink. He and Yusa swapped colors. 
Arima Yusa - white. He didn’t care for the color, but Shio really wanted pink.
Souza Rikai - purple, which she’s very proud of. 
Suzuya Squad
Suzuya Juuzou - green and two-sided. He insisted on green to honor Shinohara. 
Keijin Nakarai - Yellow to match his hair.
Hanbee Abara - Darksaber. He feels silly with it.
Miyuki Mikage - Green, like his boss. 
Mizurou Tamaki - Orange
Quinx Squad
Yonebayashi Saiko - light blue, and she enjoys wielding it, because then she gets to pretend she’s someone from Feudal times. 
Shirazu Ginshi - orange, cracked, and he loved it for its imperfections. 
Urie Kuki - purple, but cracked, and the crack is growing bigger.
Mutsuki Tooru - green, and he’s determined to become as skilled as Kaneki. 
Hsaio Ching-Li - dark saber. Beware her skill.
Aura Shinsanpei - his is dark blue, and he’s either way too fierce or too timid with it. There is no middle ground.
Higemaru Touma - pink, and he likes to light it up for no reason other than he enjoys the sound. 
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eldritchblaast · 7 years
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So yesterday, my party and I finished Curse of Strahd, and hoooo boy, it got interesting right at the end.
(Please bear in mind that my DM retconned the ending of the story, so none of this was actually ‘meant’ to happen.)
So we’d already killed Strahd like four sessions ago, and we finally went to the Amber Temple bc it was the only thing we hadn’t done apart from Ravenloft itself (we killed Strahd in the Abbey, along with the Abbott). So, we fought our way through the Amber Temple, and my brother’s character (also my character’s brother) got killed again, by a fireball that I, the rogue, took literally no damage from (because Evasion is the best class feature ever imo). So he died. Again. For the forth time. So we all thought that he was dead for good this time as our cleric (my boyfriend) didn’t have enough fifth level spell slots left to revive him, nor could he really because his leg was blown off in the explosion. 
However, this is where it got interesting. My DM retconned the story so that Mother Night was the one really pulling the strings of Strahd, allowing him to think he was all powerful when he actually wasn’t. And so, she pulled my brother’s character into limbo and asked him if he wanted to be resurrected and be completely immortal in exchange that he become her undead hunter (my brother is a ranger whose favoured enemy is the undead and humanoids). He accepted her terms so he was resurrected on the floor of the Amber Temple as a sort-of zombie - he still looks like a living elf, although his skin is a little more pale and slightly green, but in exchange he literally cannot be completely killed; he’ll drop to 0hp and then immediately spring back up to full, unless his brain has been destroyed. 
So that was a thing that happened. 
The next big thing was the arrival of Rahadin, Strahd’s chamberlain and loyal servant. Because we’d killed Strahd, he’d hunted us all the way from the Abbey to the Amber Temple, and came flying through the front door wanting to kill us. However, my boyfriend’s character, the seeming true neutral death cleric, used this as the perfect opportunity to enact his plan; to become a full vampire and the next Strahd. Because he was already a dhampir (a fact only known to him, the DM and myself - because I guessed it months ago and he confirmed it), and was the one who worked with Lady Wachter in secret to enable her to take over Vallaki, the cultists in the temple were already loyal to him. All he had to do was kill one of them, drink their blood and then get killed by someone who hated him; in this case, Rahadin. So he got himself killed, which confused everyone but myself, and then me and the dragonborn fighter killed Rahadin, while my sort-of zombie ranger brother stood there and did nothing.
So with the cleric lying dead on the floor, the rest of the party were ‘killed’ by a dark cloud - Mother Night. In this sort-of limbo state, we saw the Doctor in his true form, now a proper vampire, and revealed himself to actually be Neutral Evil the entire time, once again surprising everyone.
Mother Night then offered each of us ‘gifts’ individually, in order for our party to become her physical force on the Material Plane. 
The werewolf bloodhunter was offered the chance to become an even more ferocious hunter, forgoing his human form entirely to become completely werewolf, with iron claws (the remainder of his greatsword), giant wings made of smoke and fire, and a size of Large.
The now fallen paladin/monk was offered another monk sub-class, allowing her to have two at once, with unlocked ki stones (allowing her to use literally every single ki sub-action in one turn if she wished), and all of her previous radiant paladin smites turned into necrotic damage, so long as she was the apostle of Mother Night and broke her oath to her previous god.
The dragonborn fighter was given the armour of Strahd, giving him a whole load of cool bonuses, without the threat of it killing him, could shroud himself in magical darkness, removing his disadvantage to stealth, and corrupted the Sun Blade, turning it into the Night Blade (a +3 +3 necrotic damage dealing darksaber).
And finally, I, the wood elven assassin, received the ability to see through walls and into the Ethereal Plane if I wished; the Incorporeal Movement ability, allowing me to move through objects and creatures at the risk of taking 1d10 damage if I ended my turn in one; the two weapon fighting feat and the ability to make a third attack as a bonus action, as well as being able to sneak attack on three targets a turn (including Assassinate); and the ability to create dark ice at will, allowing me to create an infinite number of ice shards to shoot at people (plus now being immune to the cold). The only price I had to pay for my contract (I wasn’t bound to her like the others were) was that my hair and eyes both turned as white as snow, and my previously brown skin turned a light blue.
And the previously dhampir death cleric turned into a vampire lord and received all the powers, stats, spells and bonuses of Strahd (including Legendary Resistances and Actions), and once we finally killed Strahd again (because he reformed while we were in the Temple), he would have control over Ravenloft as well. 
Needless to say, these characters, while only at level 9 (or 10 in the case of my boyfriend’s vampire lord death cleric), will be used at some point to combat some incredibly high level bosses, considering we could all now probably take on a vampire lord on individually and win.
And that was how we left Curse of Strahd; incredibly overpowered and the new lords and ladies of Barovia.
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aion-rsa · 2 years
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How The Book of Boba Fett Changes the Bounty Hunter’s Original Star Wars Story
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The return of infamous bounty hunter Boba Fett in The Mandalorian was the first big surprise in a second season full of them. First as a hermit living in the deserts of Tatooine, and then as a Mandalorian warrior on a quest to get his father’s armor back, Boba’s story five years after Return of the Jedi was told in the background of Din Djarin and Grogu’s own adventure. And it all led to a massive cliffhanger in the season finale that showed Boba and his new partner, the assassin Fennec Shand, take over Jabba the Hutt’s palace.
This is where Boba’s spinoff series, The Book of Boba Fett, picks things up. With Jabba and all of his minions dead, Boba and Fennec can now take over the Hutt’s criminal organization.
“The Book of Boba Fett, a thrilling Star Wars adventure, finds legendary bounty hunter Boba Fett and mercenary Fennec Shand navigating the Galaxy’s underworld when they return to the sands of Tatooine to stake their claim on the territory once ruled by Jabba the Hutt and his crime syndicate,” reads the show’s official synopsis.
It’s not much to go on in terms of The Book of Boba Fett as it’s just confirming what we saw in the cliffhanger is what the spinoff is about, but it does tell us how Disney will further differentiate its version of Boba from his counterpart in the old Legends continuity. Indeed, like in The Mandalorian, the Boba Fett of pre-Disney canon found a way to escape the sarlacc’s digestive system and go on many more adventures, but he ultimately walked a very different path than Disney’s much more petty king.
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Boba and Fennec seem to have very big ambitions in The Book of Boba Fett. After decades of working for the most powerful people in the galaxy, they want to become the crime lords now. But that won’t be very easy to accomplish, considering Jabba is only one of a whole clan of Hutt gangsters that rule their own sector of space and all the resources and manpower that come with it. Eventually, someone’s going to wonder why Bib Fortuna hasn’t reported in.
But in Legends canon, Boba wasn’t interested in staying on Tatooine and taking over Jabba’s territory. Quite the opposite. After TWO harrowing experiences inside the sarlacc’s stomach (he escaped but then got stuck again; long story), Boba wanted nothing more than to get off the hellish planet. And when he finally did escape that rock, with the help of bounty hunting rival Dengar (who is rumored to appear in Book), it wasn’t to become a crime boss. Boba actually liked the idea that everyone in the galaxy thought he was dead. It allowed him to operate under the radar of the New Republic, taking on jobs from only the most discrete clients to preserve his cover. He also ditched the Empire, which seems to be the biggest similarity between Legends Boba and Disney Boba, who helped Din rescue Grogu from Moff Gideon before heading to Jabba’s palace.
Before Boba and Fennec decided to become crime lords, it was easy to assume that Disney was interested in remixing some of Boba’s post-Return of the Jedi Legends story for the Disney+ series. After all, the studio seems to be doing something similar with Grand Admiral Thrawn and the Heir to the Empire storyline, which could end up being the big crossover event that ties The Mandalorian, Book of Boba Fett, Ahsoka, and Rangers of the New Republic together, with the infamous Chiss villain set up as the big bad who threatens the galaxy.
In fact, when Boba returned in The Mandalorian season 2 premiere, you could fill in the five-year gap between Return of the Jedi and his first run-in with Din by using what you knew about Legends canon. The time he didn’t spend inside the sarlacc was probably spent simply healing and trying to survive the Tatooine heat. We know from the robes he wears and the gaffi stick he carried early on in the season that he probably received help from the Tusken Raiders in lieu of Dengar, who doesn’t know Boba is still alive in this continuity as revealed in the Star Wars Aftermath books. And the reason Boba didn’t have his iconic armor is because Jawa scavengers recovered it first.
What he got up to off-planet is anyone’s guess, but since The Mandalorian revealed that he had access to his ship all along, one could assume that Boba spent time taking on the same kinds of discrete jobs as his Legends counterpart did, using his lack of armor to hide who he really was in order to stay under the radar. But Disney canon Boba was clearly just biding his time until he could get his armor back and use it to take over Jabba’s palace.
That’s my headcanon, anyway. How Disney will fill in those gaps in The Book of Boba Fett remains to be seen. What’s even more interesting is what Boba’s future might hold. In Legends, Boba continued to hunt bounties for years until he eventually ascended to a position of power as Mand’alor. As the leader of the Mandalorians, Boba allied his people with the Republic in the fight against an empire of extra-galactic alien invaders known as the Yuuzhan Vong, which you could call a major heroic turn for a guy who most fans first met on the bridge of an Imperial Star Destroyer.
It’s also interesting that Mandalorian affairs and the future of Mandalore are currently at the center of Star Wars drama, at least when it comes to the group of shows that branch out from The Mandalorian. Bo-Katan Kryze wants to reclaim her throne, but Din is now the wielder of the Darksaber, which technically makes him Mand’alor, even if he wants nothing to do with that tradition. Where does all of this leave Boba, though? In Disney canon, the bounty hunter has found a new throne to sit on, and this one seems to really suit him.
The Book of Boba Fett premieres on Dec. 29 on Disney+. In the meantime, check out the complete list of upcoming Star Wars movies and TV series here.
The post How The Book of Boba Fett Changes the Bounty Hunter’s Original Star Wars Story appeared first on Den of Geek.
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