#yes pre vizsla is the one who makes the alliance in the first place | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

ryehouses · 1 year

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I don't remember clone wars SUPER well, but wasn't Bo's whole goal to get Viszla on the Mando throne, not Maul? She did accidentally help Maul get there, but it was never her goal, and she did immediately fight to dethrone him. Like Qui-gon is pretty responsible for creating Darth Vader but we don't blame him. Am I missing something???

hold on let me put on my philosophy hat! star wars meta under the cut, because this is way better than looking at contracts:

tldr, for folks that don't want to read a treatise: clone wars era bo-katan is like the shocked pikachu meme, in which bo-katan is running around with a bunch of terrorists, doing terrorist things, and then is surprised when doing those terrorist things has led to, like, the socio-political collapse of mandalore's government. she's the "'but i didn't think the leopards would eat my face!' sobbed the woman who voted for the face-eating leopards party" woman, except the face-eating leopard is a sith lord with attachment issues and moderate megalomania who kills bo-katan's sister to make his already desperately sad archenemy even sadder. she's an australia that has introduced a non-native cane toad to control a native beetle in order to more efficiently maximize a brutal capitalist system and now is upset that her house is full of huge toads with no natural predators. the toads are poisonous and the ecosystem is collapsing. i got carried away here, but you get the gist.

too long did read, for my reasoning: in this case, i'd argue that no matter what bo-katan's reason for going along with the maul plan is -- possibly installing pre vizsla to the throne of mandalore, but mostly just destablizing the neutral mandalorian government -- her reasoning is secondary to the action because she is fully and consciously participating in death watch, which is doing terrible things (not just on mandalore, mind; there's a whole little arc with ahsoka and... the one kid... lux? where death watch has just casually taken over an enslaved a random settlement because they can and think that they deserve to).

whatever bo-katan's original intentions were, be they good intentions (also arbitrary; the neutral mandalorians would disagree than any attempt to return to mandalore's more violent ways is not good, while dw could and does argue that they're just upholding their cultural traditions and fending off a government they didn't elect or support, how can that not be a good?) or not, intention is secondary to an action that does harm, especially to an action that does intentional harm. maul's name, like, means intentional harm. it's very on the nose. even if maul usupring vizsla was a surprise, the whole "building a super crime syndicate" thing is objectively a bad, immoral action, and imo it's pretty hard to "the ends justify the means" that away just because bo-katan didn't mean for what maul did to happen.

also, leaving morality aside for a minute, imo bo-katan holds additional culpability for what maul does because she knows that it's a bad idea to ally with him from the start, but knuckles under and lets it happen in order to get what she wants from the situation. i could be misremembering, but i'm pretty sure she knows that sith lords are bad news and tells pre vizsla as much, but ultimately falls in line because she wants what maul is offering. that's a conscious choice that she makes.

i think it's also important to remember that she does not abandon death watch because she thinks that maul's actions are immoral or bad -- she leaves because she doesn't want an outsider to rule mandalore. she says it out loud, to the viewer -- it's only after maul takes over and betrays pre vizsla that she bolts and lets obi-wan go, presumably to that obi-wan can rally some jedi to help him pry maul off of mandalore.

(I'm not touching the qui-gon thing until after I've shared it with the discord, because we've honestly never seen a "qui-gon is pretty responsible for darth vader" take and have to dissect it over the course of 4-5 buisness days.)

#a meta far far away #ask box #i think the key difference is that bo-katan doesn't accidentally let maul take over mandalore;#she intentionally agrees to ally with him in order to get what she wants and then underestimates maul's ability to rock pre vizsla's shit #yes pre vizsla is the one who makes the alliance in the first place #but bo-katan goes along with it and only bails AFTER she realizes that dw collectively miscalculated #all of this to say: bo is a complicated awful person and disney trying to pretend that she's not awful does a disservice to her character

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evabellasworld · 3 years

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Death of Mandalore

Chapter 5

AO3 Link | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5

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Summary: After murdering Chancellor Palpatine of the Galactic Republic, Vanya Doyvesky joined leagues with both Death Watch and Darth Maul, hoping to reclaim her Mandalorian warrior heritage. But with broken promises and betrayal against Death Watch and Maul’s crime syndicate, the former Mandalorian Jedi had to choose the right path not only for her but for Clan Doyvesky as well.

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Stuck inside the shipping container, the protocol droid turned to the guard, who was only standing there, staring at the door. “What should we do?”

“There's nothing we can do,” he relented. “The Duchess's forces are being overrun across the entire planet.”

Before he could sit down, he heard weapons firing against each other. “Listen,” the guard gasped. “It sounds like there is fighting going on out there.”

Unbeknownst to him, Vasilia, Vanya, Katrina, and Maria were fighting the thugs with their bare arms and blasters, making sure that the criminals were spared, as instructed by Vizsla. “Take that, you motherfucker,” Maria cussed as she punched a member of the Pykes with her fist.

Vasilia could only roll her eyes as she stunned the other guy, leaving them on the ground. “Put them in handcuffs,” she instructed, as she approached the shipping container. “We’ll take them to the ship after this.”

“Yes, Vas,” Vanya nodded, as she did what she was told.

Approaching the shipping container, the older Doyvesky sister unlocked it and found the guards and the protocol droid that was trapped inside by the Pykes Syndicate. “What's going on?” he exclaimed, facing her in a confused manner.

“We're Death Watch, and we're here to rescue you,” declared Vasilia, letting them out.

“You have my thanks, soldier,” said the guard, placing his hands on his chest as a sign of respect and gratefulness.

“No, thank Pre Vizsla,” she muttered, before gesturing to her sisters to leave the docks. “Looks like our work here is done.”

“Really?” Maria asked. “I wasn’t expecting the fun to end so quickly.”

“I agree,” Katrina nodded. “To be honest with you, this is too easy for us.”

“Of course it is,” Vanya rolled her eyes underneath her helmet. “This was meant to be fa-”

“Zip it, Vanya,” Vasilia shushed her as she looked left and right. “We’re not supposed to say that in front of people, or our plan to take over Mandalore will be foiled.”

“You mean Vizsla and Maul’s plan?” the former Jedi master corrected her. “You don’t even have a say in them. The only thing you do in Death Watch is obeying orders or get yourself killed, that’s all.”

Before Vasilia could say anything, she heard cheers from the surrounding people, who witnessed their so-called heroic deeds against the thugs. “It’s Death Watch,” one of them cried.

“Death Watch are our saviours,” another man claimed. “They saved our lives.”

Katrina and Maria smiled as they waved at the crowds, flattered by the attention they’re receiving. “Thank you, thank you,” Maria said, showing them the peace sign. “I’m honoured to protect my home from dangerous criminals.”

On the other hand, Vasilia and Vanya exchanged a brief glance as they shielded their helmets from the unwelcoming crowd. She could sense her sister’s distress within the Force, prompting her to grab both her younger sister’s hands. “We should get going,” she told them. “We can’t stay here any longer.”

“Fine,” Katrina responded, noticing Vasilia’s hands trembling.

With the criminals within their grasps, all four sisters flew back into the ship, greeted by Darth Maul, who was waiting for them. Vasilia hid her hands behind her back as Vanya cleared her throat, standing in a stiff manner. “We’re done with our mission,” she informed, taking off her helmet. “Where’s Vizsla and Bo?”

“Still fighting our army,” Maul answered, before shifting his focus to her older sister, sensing her uncertainty. “I presumed the mission went well?”

“Yes, my Lord,” Vasilia bobbed her head, releasing them from their cuffs. “We managed to ‘capture’ these criminals and saved the guards at the shipping docks. We were thanked for our service to Mandalore.”

“Good,” he praised. “For now, we’ll wait for the others to return. You are dismissed.”

“Thank you, my Lord,” Vanya bowed, dragging her sisters into the secluded corridor of the ship, making sure there was no one around. “Looks like the coast is clear.”

“Oh, thank the Maker,” Vasilia breathed in relief, removing her helmet as well as Katrina and Maria. “Goodness, Maul scared me to death.”

“Tell me about it,” Maria said. “He almost made me shit my pants.”

“I don’t think I want to hear about that,” gagged Katrina, much to her dismay. “Besides, we’ve done the jobs that were given to us, so now we’ll have to wait and see.”

“But I don’t feel good doing this,” Vasilia wrapped her arms around herself. “Sure, we saved those guards in the docks, except the attack was engineered by us.”

“But you didn’t plan it at all,” Vanya assured her, rubbing her shoulder. “You were just doing what you were told, that’s all.”

“Yeah, but it still feels wrong. I have a lot of opportunities to do the right thing and leave but instead, I’m acting like a big coward. Then again, I am the coward in the family.”

“Vas, you are not a coward,” she told her. “You stood for me more than once when I was mistreated more than three times. Heck, you even walked away from your first boyfriend when he emotionally manipulated you. I thought that was the bravest thing you’ve ever done in your life.”

“Oh yeah?” gleamed Vasilia. “I could say the same for all of you here, especially you, Vanya. You have the balls to kill Chancellor Palpatine of the Galactic Republic. I mean, who would do such a thing?”

“In my defence, he was the Sith Lord who manipulated both the Galactic Republic and the Separatist Alliance just to gain more power.”

“Really?” Maria blurted. “Who told you that?”

“Maul did. He was Palpatine’s apprentice and was trained by him when he was young. He knew his master’s plan to destroy both the Jedi and the Republic from the beginning to the end.”

“Wait, Maul knew everything Palpatine was doing to destroy the Republic?” Katrina wondered. “If that’s the case, then why didn’t the Jedi sense him when he’s standing right in front of them?”

“Because Palpatine allowed the Jedi to be blinded with their own arrogance,” Vanya replied. “That was the reason he created the Clone Wars in the first place. To distract us from what’s actually going on behind the scenes.”

For a moment, all three sisters blinked as if they’re trying to process everything Vanya had said to them before Maria broke the silence. “You know, I have to admit, Palpatine's plans to destroy the Jedi was actually pretty good.”

“Maria!” Vasilia slapped the back of her head, making her exclaim in pain.

“What the hell did I say? It's true though.”

“Yeah, but-”

“No, Maria is right,” Vanya supported her. “He's a goddamn chessmaster, though I feel terrible that the people of the Republic had to pay the price instead.”

“But you eliminated the real villain though,” Katrina conveyed. “It could have been worse had Palpatine been spared.”

“However, many people on Coruscant, especially women and children, got killed when I revealed the truth about their leader's death. Not to mention that I betrayed my own friends, Obi-Wan. He was my best friend, and I stabbed him in the back, without him knowing it.”

Maria tightened her lips and stared at the floor as Vanya leaned on Vasilia's shoulders. There were no heroes in this fight for Mandalore, only villains, and they are part of it, regardless of whether they were only following orders. She clenched her fist as she stared at a photograph of her family on her datapad.

Hey Mama, hey Papa, she said to herself. I hope I get to see you again. I miss you all so much. It feels cold and empty without your presence.

She remembered the last time when they were all together at home. Vasilia was cuddling with her husband as she watched her and Katrina playing with Estella, Marsha, and Sergei, who were growing so fast. Vanya, on the other hand, was chewing on her spicy pepperoni pizza as she was having a lovely conversation with Mama and Papa, since she had just returned from a battle.

Speaking of pizza, it’s been a while since Maria enjoyed her slice of pizza. The only meal she could enjoy was a bowl of broth, and she’s sick of having another meal that is available for Death Watch. She wondered whether it would be a good idea to have a slice of pizza after this. “Hey guys,” Maria grabbed their attention. “Is anyone up for pizza after this?”

“Seriously?” Katrina groaned. “Now it’s not a good time for pizza.”

“I meant after this is done,” she corrected herself. “When we take over Mandalore, you know, we could go to Mama and Papa and order a few boxes of pizza to cheer up.”

“I’m not so sure about that, Maria,” Vasilia doubted. “We might need to stay in the palace a little longer before Vizsla would let us go.”

“But we never had pizza in a while, and see Mama and Papa as well,” Maria pleaded, her hands clasped together. “Vanya, don’t you want to spend time with Mama and Papa? I know you miss them very much.”

“Well…”

“And Vas, don’t you want to see Alejandro, Estella, Marsha, and Sergei again? I know how much they meant the world to you.”

“To be honest with you…”

“We’ve been away from home for too long,” complained Maria. “I’m just sick of being separated from our family, really. Can we please, please go home and have pizza? I just miss the good old days when we don’t have to fight people.”

Vasilia, Vanya, and Katrina looked at each other, before nodding their heads. “Alright, we’ll be home with a box of pizza after we’re done, okay?” Vanya said. “And that is a promise.”

“Oh my gosh, thank you so much,” she squealed, hugging all three of them. “You guys are the best sister ever.”

Vasilia hugged back when she heard her comlink beeping on her wrist, prompting her to put on her helmet. “Well, looks like Vizsla and Bo are done. We should get going.”

“And then we get pizza and see Mama and Papa?”

“Yes, Maria,” Vanya laughed. “Now put on your helmet and let’s go. We don’t have all day.”

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