Hi! Sorry to bother, but I couldnāt find a clear answer when trying to research. What were the Mandalorians role in the Clone Wars in Legends/EU? I know in TCW they were a neutral planet and largely pacifist (outside of Death Watch), but do we know anything about the Legends Mandalorians at that time? Thank you so much!
Hi there! You are not bothering me at all, Iām always here to talk about Mandalorians.
The Legends gives some clues about Mandalorians and their role in the Clone Wars, though I wouldnāt say sources provided the full perspective in a political-economic sense. Prequel Trilogy and tie-in materials retconned some already existing elements to fit with the general course of history but the Mandalore sector and Mandalore planetary politics wasnāt flashed out much. The overall idea was that [modern] Mandalore was āa destitute homeworld historically marginalized by the Republicā.
The earliest information (albeit Mandalorians werenāt outright named) comes from The Empire Strikes Back novelization
A human bounty hunter, Fett was known for his extremely ruthless methods. He was dressed in a weapon-covered, armored spacesuit, the kind worn by a group of evil warriors defeated by the Jedi Knights during the Clone Wars. [The Empire Strikes Back by D. Glut]
which indicated that Mandalorian warriors fought against Jedi / Republic. And frankly, this sentiment was repeated in most sources.
So we have Marvelās Star Wars 68: The Search Begins that introduced Fenn Shysa, Tobbi Dala and Mandalorian Supercommandos / Protectors. From Shysaās own words:
The three Mandalorians who survived were Fenn Shysa, Tobi Dala andā¦ Boba Fett. The original version of Fenn Shysaās backstory was retconned to fit with the new lore of Attack of the Clones and summed up in The History of Mandalorians by Abel G. PeƱa [Insider 80]. Here we learn that alleged Boba Fett was in fact a rogue clone known as Alpha-02/Spar, one of the Advanced Recon Commandos. He managed to run away from Kamino some years before Clone Wars and once Jango Fett died, took the mantle of Mandalore and led Mandalorian Supercommandos against Jedi:
Then we have Star Wars Republic comics series [issue 65: Show of Force] that mentions Mandalorians attacking New Holstice, the medical facility.
And Galaxy at War provided another informations like this:
and how Mandalorian Protectors were effective and dangerous during war:
Protectors were the biggest, organized group we were told about that joined CIS for ideological reasons and/or because of poverty of Mandalore. Republic Commando book series on another hand focused on individual Mandalorians while the planet of Mandalore was more or less neutral. The big difference between sources about Mandalorian Protectors and the Republic Commandoās characters is that the first had Death Watch reunited with other Mandalorian warriors to some degree, while the latter kinda ignored it completely, making DW the hated group by main heroes (the former trainers of Great Army of Republic known as Cuy'val Dar). Anyway, because of the civil war and massacre on Galidraan, part of Mandalorians was spread through the galaxy doing their own things. Some, like Ghez Hokan (supposed ex-Death Watchman [RC: Hard Contact]) worked as mercenaries and ultimately agreed to work for Separatist. In the case of Ghez, at first it was about money / work, later about personal dislike of Jedi & Republic for using Jango Fettās clones. Some, like Kal Skirata or Walon Vau (ex-True Mandalorians, the mentioned Cuy'val Dar) who trained clone army on Kamino decided to support Republic out of loyalty to their trainees (clone commandos). And though they worked for the Republic, it did not stop them from stealing supplies from the army (Skirata and Nulls) or even robbing a bank (Vau) during one of republic military operations - their first and foremost motivation was to secure the well-being of theirĀ āboysā (clone troopers) and that desire expended soon to protect their growing āclanā by any means.
Like I said, there is little of proper informations about Mandalore and its status or politics during the Clone Wars era. It is hard to tell what a Mandalorian ācivilsā thought about the conflict or how it affected their daily life. We know that there were Mandalorian Protectors under Alpha-02/Spar and Fenn Shysa who joined CIS either because of hate for Jedi or ideology and Mandalorian individuals fighting on both sides - for money or as a mean to protect their family (including clone troopers).
Hope it answer your question! :)
