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Ok, so I'm a Mando fan. As in old school: Boba was my man for years, loved the armour. Didn't care about the EU and the continuity errors; liked the ideaa he might have survived the Sarlacc, even though he deserved such an ignominious end (he's a bad guy). Liked a few things in the Jeter trilogy on him too. This was all before he was officially Mandalorian, etc.
Then Jango: yep, I'm on board too. Kotor: nice touch, just a game, they can do what they want back in that era.
But I got to say... I'm not liking this Manduabe business.
Looking at it: ok, Jango became an official Mandalorian. Fine; at first he was considered one of the last remnants. And then, oh no, more were around: also fine.
But from there we have this weird vicious cycle where the Clones have to be humanised as soldiers - ok, I can understand that, and the Commando novels have been popular. There's a market for humanised soldiers (never mind that in the real world they're trained to be dehumanised - fiction is so topsy-turvy). And this humanising agenda means they're all chatty and pally and have nicknames and are wondering who they are. All good stuff.
But then they, I dunno, want to get in touch with their Mandalorian roots? And they have Mandalorians training them... and because the Clones are all slap-my-hand-now friends and pals, Mandalorians are by default like that? And Boba Fett has to become like that? And suddenly you have to "humanise' Mandalorian culture - which is in fact an vicious alien culture - just because they wear human faces? And Boba Fett has to be made into some redepmtive figure so he's "three-dimensional"?
Where did all the bad guys go?
There are real bad guys in life, and there are real bad guys in SW. We may disagree about who they are sometimes - war for selfish, very very human reasons clouds the issue - but no one is going to argue that Charles Manson or Hitler or the dudes behind 9/11 need a fresh perspective on their stories so they become "three dimensional characters".
So to provide some context, I just finished reading Revelation. And I didn't mind Bloodlines: it was quite Fett, even if we got in his head too much (there is such a thing. Show, don't tell). And Sacrifice, although it was fat on this new Mando business, was balanced by the good stuff with Mara, etc. But I was dreading Revelation, and so it proved. Only one, boring spacefight of no real consequence (Yes, Fury and Inferno had little real impact, but the fights were a lot better, even if Caedus was shonw up as a fool.. but that's a LotF beef.)
Rev was absolute overload on chatter and meaningless role-playing of side characters, and these jolly cuddly Toblerone Mandalorians. It is upsetting how a defence journalist (basically) got to come in and flesh out clones (no problem), and then pushed the Band-of-Brother's Flag of Happiness up the Mandalorian flagpole. Look at their armour. If they're a family hugs and chats and drinks culture, I think they may have developed a slightly different style of daily-wear over their many millennia of existence. (I can't imagine what "human" culture KT based them on - some imagining of Fijian mercenaries, fighting in Iraq then going back to the islands loaded with cash for some kava? but with super-weapons.)
Now, I'm happy for those that enjoy the new Mandalorians. You're lucky. But to me they are cold, solitary, scattered people with minimal love and affection shown by their parents who are kicked out of home and have to develop an iron hard conception of self just to survive. They are brutal fighters, but trust no one... which is why they don't take over the galaxy. Except when, every now and then, a Mandalore rises and whips, cajoles and conscripts them into a raging army.
Of course, this sort of culture does not develop a very productive economy (no magic Besuliik rolling off conveyors belts after a month), so they were only successful in the earlier days of the Republic, when technology was less advanced and they could overwhelm and steal neighbouring wealth quickly without warning. In the modern era this strategy simply doesn't work, which is why they've "disappeared"... Until some new Mandalore unites them behind a new plan and vision.
This of course makes for a painful life. How they deal with it makes them 3D. I think there are more appropriate ways than cracking a joke a minute and singing around campfires.
So I'm a Mandalorian fan, and that's how Mandalorians are to me, and always will be. Maybe the EU versions will "return to their roots" some day.
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