What have been bothering me is Filoni and Faveru never explained why Mando and co. were such autistic fucks with the new "no taking off helmets even in front of other mandos" schick. Line or two of dialogue stating "We're Mando Clan Red Wolf Fucker" opposed to those scrub Mando clan "Grey Wolf Fucker" who show their faces to anybody including non-mandos could of helped with that.
Probably just to leech off the Fett cool factor in ESB, also "Muh mysterious".
It is super fucking stupid if you ask me. Also as I've mentioned before the whole "this is the way" garbage. Makes Mandos sound like a dumb cult or religion.
As much of a primadonna Pedro Pascal has been, I'm tempted to side with him. The reason why I'm not so big on Mandos having such rules as keeping the helmet on all the time is because the Mandos I fell in love with were the KOTOR ones. There, they were a warrior race that had traits that were different from other warrior races in fantasy and science fiction because they were utterly pragmatic. They wore beskar because it afforded advantages to them, but they'll be more than happy to fight without it if it's impractical, and they had no problems showing their faces 90% of the time. If they found armor made of some other material that was more protective or useful than beskar, they'd dump beskar in a heartbeat in exchange for this new armor material.
Many other warrior races have impractical or downright idiotic rules now and then that prevent them from taking full advantage of their potential, but what set the Mandalorians apart from say, the Klingons, is that they were pragmatic. They were willing to blast a city to cinders to take down a target, their weapons and armor were designed to be superior compared to everyone else's so they can attain victory in battle, and they didn't whine about morals or ethics, instead preferring pragmatic approaches to victory, ie. "Victory in battle is my justification." (Canderous Ordo) They were also willing to do away with parts of their culture if it wasn't practical or if they couldn't engage in it. At the end of the Mandalorian Wars, Revan took away all their armor and Basilisk War Droids, and burned it in front of them before scattering them to the far reaches of the galaxy. So during the following Jedi Civil War, they fought as mercs wearing whatever armor they had available and having no reluctance to show their faces in public.
The only time I've seen Mandalorians enforce the whole "I have to wear the helmet at all times" was when Canderous was Mandalore, and he was working with a bunch of weirdos who somehow managed to get a hold of his master's ship. So of course, being the leader of the Mandalorians, he has to keep his identity a secret from people he doesn't trust and he has to keep the helmet on. But everyone else doesn't have to follow that rule-he just imposes it upon himself, for very good reasons.
Forcing Mandos to have rules that attach them to their beskar armor as if it's some kind of holy relic kinda takes the fun out of the Mandalorians, in my view. It makes them more like any other warrior race that has impractical rules in combat. Mandalorians should be pragmatic, and if Din Djarin has to sneak around town without alerting everyone that he's Mandalorian, then him walking around in civilian clothes without a mask on is more pragmatic.
It's also why I wasn't a big fan of the Duchess arc in Rebels. So the Imperials developed a new weapon based on Sabine's tech designs that can fry people in beskar, big fucking deal. Go kill some Stormtroopers, steal their armor, and put your own war paint on it to symbolize that it's yours, and go kill the sons of bitches. Or better yet, keep the stolen Stormtrooper armor clean and infiltrate the enemy ranks, and kill the Imperial commander Tiber Saxon. The Mandalorians whining about Sabine having created a weapon that kills those who wear beskar rings hollow when others raised on the Mandalorian way of life have worn other armors like durasteel (Jango Fett) or duraplast (Clone Commandos).
In my point of view, the Mandalorians' fetish for beskar gets in the way of them being an utterly pragmatic warrior race who only wore beskar in the first place because it gave good protection against blasters and lightsabers. And the rule for keeping their helmets on at all times makes no fucking sense, whatsoever, because not only do we see other Mandalorians violate that all the time, from the True Mandalorians to the Death Watch, but traveling incognito without a helmet is much easier without a helmet that screams "I'M PART OF AN ANCIENT WARRIOR CULT THAT KILLS PEOPLE" to everyone.
Other way around. In the old EU, the conditioning to serve the republic was why most of them willingly betrayed their Jedi commanders and was a tragedy. Those who resisted the orders and were hunted did so willingly, because they trusted and respected their commanders to the point they refused the conditioning. More pathos than the bullshit mind control chip shit Filoni made up to save his clone OCs from being flawed or willing to commit attrocities. How dare you try to have nuance.
The best part is that this move would probably tank the show despite the bleating from their paid shills or proxy sites or botnets like all the other times. The dynamic between the Mando and Baby Yoda was one of the draws, alongside the adventure and western feel it tried to go for. This sudden change between characters and more of the same shit that bombed in Rebels has a good chance of maybe denting Filoni's bullshit credibility.
I expected them to fuck it up, and while the method they used was unexpected, this final result was pretty close to what I was thinking they'd do. But even I didn't think they'd be so hideously stupid and hateful of success they'd just plain murk Pascal for this. Regardless, I expected Filoni fanfic bullshit ever since I knew that he was on the staff as a major force I predicted it'd turn into fanfiction with the same five characters.
In the old canon, Order 66 was a real tragedy because the clones actually cared about their Jedi friends and yet, they were conditioned to be obedient to the Republic thanks to the Kaminoans, Jango Fett, and the Cul'Vay'Dar. So it's basically nature vs. nurture; as a human being, you have problems turning on someone you knew and respected, hunting them down as if they were animals, but as a patriot, you have to do your duty to the state and eliminate anyone accused of treason by your supreme executive. It really put the definition of "good soldier" up for grabs: the minority of clones who stood up for their Jedi friends and refused to attack their Jedi commanders saw the "good soldier" concept in a moral aspect, the majority who turned on their Jedi commanders and ruthlessly killed them and any other Jedi saw the concept of a "good soldier" in a literal aspect, as if being a good soldier meant that you always followed orders, no matter what they were. The classic Battlefront 2 game from 2005 really showed this in a good light; some Jedi managed to make a good impression on the troops, and the men themselves had doubts about their orders. They even wished that some Jedi died quickly, because those Jedi saved their butts and "they deserved that much." And in other works where clones refused the order, it showed how no amount of conditioning can stop some men from following their moral compass and doing the right thing, even if it meant getting branded as traitors to the state they were raised to be loyal to.
Instead, the new canon makes Order 66 less of a choice. It cheapens the tragedy because it's no longer a moral quandary, but rather, something brought about by inhibitor chips. Not only that, but Rex already knew about it before it went down, so logically, he would have told all clone commanders about it, and then the commanders would tell their men about it, that they all had chips in their brains that rob them of free will. So that would logically have ended with all clones having a weird scar across their heads and them telling Sidious to bite their plastoid-encased butts when he issues the order.
Filoni still has TCW to fall back on every time he gets called out on being shit. Rebels was less than adequate, Resistance was a joke, and yet, despite failing two out of three Star Wars shows, Filoni is still seen as a savior for Star Wars due to TCW. Face it, TCW's fans will never betray the man, and he will always have a large following among SW fans because many SW fans who are grown-ups now were kids back when TCW was airing, and they fell in love with that stuff instead of the old EU and movies that most of us grew up with.
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