Babes,,,, they wore pieces of their armour. Maybe not FULL armour but certainly pieces of it, at least towards the end. So like. The idea that they didn't have it??? Or that Satine somehow took it away???? Or that denied/made it difficult for them to get access to it????? Doesn't seem to hold any water if we have people wearing bits and pieces, not to this degree of people and not as openly as literally in a protest in front of Satine herself at least.
And yes, I mess a bit with brightness and saturation to see better.
Build The Millennium Falcon issue 68 - Starship Fact File
what's written in each picture in the alt text OR below (tried to organized it):
Gauntlet Starfighter - Death Watch Fighter
The design known as the Kom'rk-class fighter (Mando'a for 'gauntlet') was a versatile ship classified as both a fighter and as a transport ship. It was used by the Mandaloiran Death Watch during much of the Clone Wars, and, near the end of the conflict, by Darth Maul's Shadow Collective.
Main text: The Kom'rk-class was designed and built in secret by engineers and technicians loyal to the Mandalorian Death Watch, a warrior cult that craved a return to Mandalore's warlike past and desired to abolish the pacifism of the New Mandalorians. The group used the factories on Mandalore's moon of Concordia - which were regulated and supervised by Governor Pre Vizsla.
Vizsla had secretly begun to rally his forces on Concordia, and members of Death Watch made several terrorist attacks in the Mandalorian capital city. The Leader of the New Mandalorians, Duchess Satine Kryze, trusted Governor Vizsla as a loyal ally in the crusade against the Death Watch. Little did she know that Vizsla was, in fact, the leader of her most dangerous Adversary.
MANDALORIAN CONFIGURATION
The Kom'rk was proudly finished with white, blue and grey paint, faithful to Mandalorian tradition. It also followed the peculiar configuration of Mandalorian craft. The central, sleek hull was flanked by two wing-like structures. These were positioned vertically while the ship landed, but when flying they could rotate to a horizontal position with the wings flanking the hull. This offered the fighter very impressive manoeuvrability for a ship of its size.
The wings, which also functioned as the aft landing gear, housed essential engineering components. The ship was propelled by more than one type of drive as a turbojet was inserted in the rear section of the hull to ensure quick gertaways and rapid start-ups.
Landed, a Kom'rk-class ship stoof a little more than 13 metres high. Its large cockpit accommodated a crew of four, with additional room for small cargo. However, the main hold could transport up to 24 passengers - mostly Death Watch troops who could disembark with their jetpacks to provide air support during combat situations. The ship itself had two forward laser cannons and two aft-facing cannons that could protect the boarding tube.
DEATH WATCH
While the rogue Death Watch faction was preparing its coup on Mandalore, it kept a base on Concordia guarded by two Gauntlet fighters. Next to the Aka'jor-class shuttles, these were the largest ships in its possessions. Death Watch Leader Pre Vizsla's own fighter was simply christened Gauntlet.
After he was unmasked as the leader of the Death Watch, Vizsla still had high hopes that his alliance with Count Dooku and the Confederacy of Independent Systems would pay off. Instead, Dooku cancelled the invasion when the republic decided to let Mandalore keep its neutrality, and the count rewarded Vizsla with a nasty lightsaber scar across his left cheekbone.
Next stop for Vizsla was the snowy planet Carlac, before a new base was established on Zanbar, where more Death Watch zealots fathered. With the help of Darth Maul and Savage Opress, Vizsla planned another invasion of Mandalore. Although this took place and proved to be a victory for Death Watch, it also led to Vizsla's personal downfall, as he was killed in a ritual combat when Maul questioned his leadership of the warrior group.
MISSION TO DATHOMIR - DARTH MAUL'S ESCAPE
After Pre Vizsla's death, the remaining Death Watch forces continued to use the Kom'rk ships. Death Watch commandos Gar Saxon and Rook Kast took one to liberate Darth Maul from the Separatist Spire prison on Stygeon Prime. When Word of Maul's escape reached the Confederacy of Independent Systems and the Republic, plans were set in motion. Darth Sidious wanted to recapture Maul to lure out his old nemesis, Mother Talzin, while the Jedi hoped to avoid Separatist control of Mandalore.
Maul himself used a Kom'rk fighter during his struggles against both the CIS and the Republic. While battling Republic forces on the Mandalorian supply post near Ord Mantell, Maul and Dooku escaped in the same vessel, which was later used by Saxon and Kast to escape with Maul after Darth Sidious succeeded in killing Mother Talzin on Dathomir.
Red Text: Darth Maul and Count Dooku used one of Death Watch's fighters to journey to Dathomir, where the Sith battled Mother Talzin to the death.
Blue Texts:
CONCORDIA - While Mandalore itself was adesolate world, made so by years of conflict, the moon of concordia retained much of its natural beauty. At the end of the civil war, with the ascension of the New Mandalorians, surviving members of the warrior caste were exiled to the moon. They wer thought to have died out, killing each other off through bitter in-fighting. In fact, the survivors banded together under the leadership of Pre Vizsla to become Death Watch, hiding out in the abandoned mines of Concordia.
DEATH WATCH LEADER
Pre Vizsla, a member of the prominent Mandalorian Clan Vizsla, succeeded in gaining Duchess Satine's trust when he functioned as Concordia's governor. In secret Vizsla was gathering allies on Concordia for his beloved Death Watch. Vizsla's personal weaponry consisted of two WESTAR-35 blaster pistols and an ancient darksaber, a weapon stolen from the Jedi Temple by Vizsla's ancestors centuries before.
Pre Vizsla wore Mandalorian armour and was typically heavily armed. His personal ship was a Kom'rk-class vessel, which he called Gauntlet - the ship's name rendered in Basic.
Red Text: The Gauntlet was finished in traditional Mandalorian colours of white, blue and grey. Like other Mandalorian craft, the central, sleek hull was flanked by two 'wings' that could rotate to a vertical or horizontal position for maximum manoeuvrability.
Death Watch kept a number of Kom'rk-class fighters at its secret base. After their discovery, it used them in an attack that its leader Pre Vizsla promised would allow the renegade army to take control of Mandalore.
BEHIND THE SCENES - ANIMATED SHIP
Gauntlet was one of several new designs created for the Mandalorians in The Clone Wars animated series, although Clan Vizsla was already long-established in Legends Material - such as the comic series Jango Fett: Open Seasons (2002). Gauntlet debuted in The Mandalore Plot in Season Two of The Clone Wars, and the ships made several other appearances whenever Death Watch featured. This class of the ship was first mentioned in The Clone Wars Official Episode Guide Series 1 & 2 (2010), and it is not to be confused with the similar, but much smaller Aka'jor-class shuttle. A new Mandalorian starfighter, looking like a descendant of Gauntlet, appeared in the second season of the animated series Rebels in 2015.
Red Text: A reference illustration of Gauntlet, showing its wings moved into the upright configuration used when landing or parked.
I have to say, today what annoys me the most rn is the fact that fans KEEP insisting that Death Watch was oppressed by being exiled to the moon
they were TERRORISTS!
the moon was still WAYS OFF BETTER THAN IN MANDALORE THE TOXIC DESERT! (and if you go with lower canon, they still had agriculture and helped Mandalore sustain itself! the moon still looked okay after the civil war even if the forests were nearly decimated!)
we know from Rebels and lower canon that THEY WEREN'T STUCK TO THE MOON AND COULD GO OUT TO LIVE IN OTHER PLANETS! You want more proof? How about a dude that bombed Sundari was tracked down to Concordia! As in! He left Concordia! And there's no mention of that being a crime!
they had NOBLE TITLES (hello Princess Bo-Katan and confirmed-to-have-been-in-the-throne-room-when-Pre-Vizsla-died Countess Ursa!)!
They were autonomous and Satine let them do whatever they wanted! Since they had their own governor, were a province and Satine seemed to have ZERO IDEA what was happening inside!
We know they weren't kicked out because of warrior traditions SINCE IT'S CLEAR THAT THE NEW MANDALORIANS STILL HAD THEM (the kids still fought, they still had guards, they still had the protectors, they still wore bits of armour)!
If you like the RPG books, then let me tell you that NOT EVERY WARRIOR BECAME A DEATH WATCH AND WERE CHILL DOING LIVING THEIR LIVES AND IGNORING SATINE AND NEW MANDALORIANS!
Going even more into lower canon - the ones confrimed to have been exiled were, and wait for it.... a small number of traditionalists who refused to give up power after apeace movement (aka New Mandalorians) became popular enough to start demanding a stop to wars and essentially things that did not benefit the majority of the population! They were literally just an exiled high-ranking people who were STILL allowed to operate in a moon nearby!
Anyway tldr: stop giving a sad backstory to a group of people who were happy with burning villages, murder, enslaving people, working with crime syndicates to take back Mandalore because they knew they did not have the support of the majority of the population! there's no reason to do that and basically no support for it in canon imo.
Especially when that group of people is low-key implied to be rich dudes who threw a fit at no longer being allowed to do whatever they want (read: pillage, wage war, murder and enslave people) without consequences.
"Satine saying that the Warriors, who were exiled, died out and only now that the trees were growing again shows that they were oppressed/put in a position where they had no chance of survival"
Ehhhhh only in the worst of the worst of assumptions and ignoring semi-canon pieces of information.
Let's go by bits. Here's what we are told in TCW:
In the episode we are told that 1, the warriors were exiled and are assumed dead (this was said by Almec), 2, that the trees were only now growing back (and this is said by Satine), 3, Concordia is mostly independent of the control of the New Mandalorian Government (again, Satine/implied), 4, there was still enough population in the moon to justify having a Governor and finally, 5, that there are still warriors. Enough to justify mass production of armour.
In the next episode, we learn that the reason this whole thing happened was because of a civil war that killed over 50% of the mandalorians, with the warrior's losing.
From this alone, we can interpret many ways: from a "Concordia was in a bad state, but not as bad as Mandalore's, and that the warriors were exiled there didn't survive (or some significant number didn't) while the other population somehow did.", edit or a most likely knowing the shit that Death Watch does "Concordia was in a rough state but the warriors were barely affected, if affected at all and the claim that they died out was to cover their tracks and make Satine seem worse" to a horrible "Concordia was in a terrible state and the warriors were stuck there with nowhere else to go or help from Mandalore, died from the lack of resources and very few people, non-warriors, were still living there."
From that alone, and what we know, I think it's... weird to assume it's the later option and not the first? Because we have zero indication that Satine, who comforted a dying terrorist, would let that happen or wouldn't mention it to Obi-Wan in a sad way if she was forced to do it by the Mandalorian population. So like. Sure, headcanon that way, but be aware that from TCW alone, and the fact that the warriors are still very much alive and very much a group that is willing to lie, kill, enslave, etc it's... weird to assume the worst of the New Mandos? Why not assume that the New Mandalorians were given faulty information?
All this is without the other sources beyond TCW. Like, for example, the Fact Files from 2014, that (in number 38) tell us that Pre worked to gain Satine's trust, even renouncing his clan's help and becoming the Governor of Concordia (which again, Concordia is a Province and mostly independent of the control of the New Mandalorian Government, though How he became the Gorvernor I feel can get muddy, because while the same fact file implies that Satine possibly appointed him, I also feel like Satine is too respectful of the independence of the moon and the power of the people that another possible interpretation is that she supported Pre's campaign to become the Governor and that was what sold the population even if Pre wasn't that popular between them) and, throwing in another magazine - Star Wars Build The Millennium Falcon issue 68 - we also learn that the traditionalists that were exiled kept fighting in the moon until Pre got them working all together under him.
This very much means that there are Other reasons for why the statement was said - that they were aware of infighting continuing by the warrior clans and once it calmed down assumed the worst once they didn't hear anything. In my honest opinion, Pre probably took advantage off this to hide his warriors - who will keep an eye on warrior clans to make sure they aren't starting things if people think they are dead? And why would people doubt him? He had renounced his clan and was a trusted ally of Satine after all!
Let's throw in even other sources - in another Fact File from 2014, this one issue 98, we are told that Concordia was still producing enough to sustain Mandalore when needed and, in the Build The Millenium Falcon 68, we find out that Concordia wasn't that affected from the civil war overall, so we can immediately say that whoever was banished to Concordia had a Bigger Chance of survival from resources alone than those in Mandalore (that was a literal toxic desert). AND MORE, in other sources (the Age Of Rebellion core book + Rebels) shows that the Traditionalists were not forced to live solely in Concordia, in fact that had Everywhere Else in the Mandalorian sector to live in except in Mandalore.
They weren't poor woobies who revolted because they were treated badly and were taken advantage of by an extremist group, no! They are said to be a minority of traditionalists who were kicked out for refusing to give up power or Actually listen to the majority people! (issue 98 of the fact files from 2014) Those were the people who were kicked out! Not random farmers! People who wer find out had titles of nobility (Princess, countess)! And had governmental power!
So, in conclusion, while with only TCW you could theoretically make a bad faith assumption that the New Mandalorians caused the death of the Traditionalists, if you use other sources you have more and more indication that the New Mandalorians merely banished the traditionalists from Mandalore and that they had a much better chance of survival as well as power over their own fate than people give them credit for.
Continuing from my previous post about New Mandalorians ACTUALLY wearing pieces of armour, I went off the deep end trying to find more hints of it WITHOUT having to go through all the episodes
Okay so, first of all - armour bits! Mostly gauntlets and protections in the legs.
Now to similarities! Sabine's Karta Beskar seems to be in the clothes that Soniee and Lagos wore when they went to help rescue Satine, although inverted!
(also can we talk about their probably armoured corset-like thingy? or why they thought that was a better option than MORE ARMOUR!? did they forget it at home or something?)
Following designs in armours appearing in clothing (beyond, y'know the ones we see in basic new mando clothing, gauntlet like things, leg covers, boots that look like have armour and make me wonder if Almec is actually wearing armoured boots or not the whole time...), we have something else: The earpieces that Royal Cadets use seems to me similar enough to the antenna and (probably?) commlink - or earcover? Whatever - to assume they were at least inspired by it.
The Bo-Katan and Koska image is from Doctor Aphra (2020) #19
Yet another thing I noticed (but this time doesn't have anything to do with armour) - Satine wears the same boots as some cadets!
EDIT: removed the cadet lagos bit (pretty sure that she is only wear armour on her feet, I think the possible-vambrace was a piece of fabric) to make up for it, have a picture that I'm pretty sure has Almec wearing armour on his boots - or at least padded boots.
When I say "I want to see more Mandalorian culture" I don't mean the "this is how xyz is connected to being a warrior!" I mean "these are the art movements within Mandalore, these are the famous songs in Mandalore, this song/art movement has origin in Mandalore/Mandalorian people, these are the ways that were adopted when a large group of people WILLINGLY joined Mandalorians, this is the festivals/cultural events that happen, this is a famous poet, this is a famous writer"
Connecting it to the warrior side is all good, but there's always more to culture than "they were really good warriors that started wars Often"
