They're not supposed to remove their helmets at all, unless to do a function that needs to be done- like eating iirc. I never got this concept either because the armor is ICONIC. If you're supposedly being hunted down for being Mandalorian then this whole no removing the helmet is counter productive because the helmet and armor is a giant sign of 'HEY, I'M MANDALORIAN' running around without the helmet would actually be better at protecting your identity as no one can tell by facial features alone that you're a mando. What designates them is, quite literally, the suit of armor. Heck, it's weird for them to be implying the Mandalorians were massively killed off to begin with because, to quote from canon;
"Here's why you can't exterminate us, aruetii. We're not huddled in one place—we span the galaxy. We need no lords or leaders—so you can't destroy our command. We can live without technology—so we can fight with our bare hands. We have no species or bloodline—so we can rebuild our ranks with others who want to join us. We're more than just a people or an army, aruetii. We're a culture. We're an idea. And you can't kill ideas—but we certainly can kill you."
but who the fuck knows now since Filoni started messing with Mandalorian canon. Seems like he hates them and how popular they were, so he tried to paint them into villians. A lot of people seem to think Filoni is the 'best choice' for Star Wars and I've personally never really got that because it seems like he's a jealous asshole who wants his own characters to supersede others, he's not quite as blatant as Disney but it's there in how his original characters get limelight and totally take over wherever they show up. Whenever his shows start waning in popularity his answer was to take a popular character from the EU, changing them when he does, and inserting them into his work because he knew he'd get people to tune back in to at least see their favorite EU character. He did it with Barriss Offee, who was a healer in the EU, he did it with Quinlan Vos, who he turned into a Rastafarian ya mon, when Vos was basically an Anakin type character who struggled with the darkside but eventually overcame it. Thrawn. I'm sure when that homeage to Delta Squad in TCW got a standing ovation, Filoni died a little inside. His response being to make the 'Bad Batch' to try and be a better version of Delta.
The guy has failed multiple times, I don't get why they keep giving him shows/chances.
The Mandalorian(s) (and Boba Fett/The Clones) via the Mandalorian Mercs were an aspect of Star Wars that only grew more popular, even when there wasn't much activity within that aspect of canon on the EU fronts. They're noticeable. The aesthetic they have is easily identifiable. Boba Fett managed to be iconic while being so short lived and he still sells. They had a very set way and look that people liked and anyone could make a suit to become one. The clones, who continue to be popular, were raised by Mandalorians. The Republic Commando series was incredibly popular. Then Filoni strolled in with his 'Jango and Boba aren't Mandalorians'. Then turned a group who had established canon of being able to be any specie as long as you adopted their culture into Aryan nation of humans all for seemingly making a blonde Padme knock off for Obi-wan. He took the Death Watch concept from the EU and literally labelled the armor wearers as the 'Bad Guys' when there were distinct fractions of these groups in the EU and the Death Watch was hated by the standard Mandalorian. There's no reason Satine couldn't have been a proper Mandalorian, in armor, and keep a similar story even allowing for the Obi-Wan romantic notion but their love couldn't be because of the long standing animosity between Jedi and Mandalorians. She could have been the Mand'alor fighting for peace for her people against the Death Watch. The only reason I can see for Filoni making the choices he did was because he hates how people liked the Mandalorians but his twisting of their canon was .
Then he made his own special OP female teenager Mandalorian character and it was totally ok again!
If Pascal is planning to depart it's probably because he can see the writing on the wall. The second Tano was cast it is almost guaranteed she's going to be pushed. He's already got a shared spotlight with a puppet, why would he stick around and be regulated to the background by two very bland OP female characters in the form of Ahsoka and Sabine? Especially given the track record of both Disney and Filoni to dumb down the male characters in order to prop up and over-power the female ones.
That's from the old canon, though. And even though that quote sounds badass, the Mandalorians have been nearly genocided before, and all the species and people they tried to kill walk off happy and alive. No species or people is truly above getting genocided, just look at the Rakatans. They had all the advantages in the world, from being a Force-sensitive race to having replicators that can poop out goddamn starships, and yet they still lost it all and became nothing more but savages. If Revan chose to eradicate them, or if Sidious chose to eliminate them instead of enslaving them, the Mandalorians would have been totally extinct. So the idea of Moff Gideon wiping most of them out isn't that strange, especially since in Legends canon, the Empire enslaved the Mandalorians in the OT era and kicked their butts at Botajef in the Legacy Era. So the Empire CAN eradicate the Mandalorians. Fuck, if it were me, I wouldn't even bother with a ground engagement, just park three Star Destroyers over Mandalore and tell them to keep firing until they can see Hell. That ought to get the job done, and it would be poetic irony since the Mandalorians used to bomb whole worlds with nukes during the Mandalorian Wars.
But, to play Devil's Advocate for Duchess Satine, the Mandalorians were always a war-hungry people whom the galaxy looked down upon as cheap guns and thugs, so no wonder the Senate supported it when someone like Satine came along. The True Mandalorians were eradicated at Galidraan, the Death Watch went into hiding, so obviously someone would come by and look at this, and seeing how both Mandalorian warrior factions were, for all intents and purposes, erased, the remaining working class folks would be tired of war and would go for a path of peaceful development of economy. Since if they went on to continue with the warrior ways, they'll just keep fighting until they're totally eradicated, while developing economic strength will allow them to have soft power when negotiating with other systems or the Senate.
That, and Lucas was a flaming libertarian hippie. Filoni's approach when it comes to Mandalorians had no problems with them being a warrior race, just look at how he handled them in Rebels-they were warriors 100% and they joined the good guys. Even the evil Death Watch Mandos ended up serving the Alliance and fighting side-by-side along with the Jedi. Meanwhile, Lucas is the same person who depicted a warlike Republic and Jedi Order as corrupt, blind to the true threat while distracted by the threat of the Separatists, so it's no surprise that a show with his blessing and guidance has the "good" Mandalorians be pacifists who reject their warrior ways, because to Lucas, the more warlike something became, the more corrupt it became. The Republic became more warlike until it became the Empire. The Sith were basically more warlike Jedi who used the Force as a battering ram against their foes, and their lust for war and power corrupted them.
Filoni was okay with the Mandos being warriors, while it was under Lucas did the Mandalorian Pacifists have any sway. As Lucas became less involved with the show, the Mandos became more warlike, with the Death Watch eventually taking over Mandalore and the people of Mandalore openly supporting them, and the new "good" Mandos were Death Watch commandos opposed to Darth Maul's Mandalorians. And even then, Maul's Mandalorians were opposed to the greater evil that was Darth Sidious. So to Filoni, the warrior Mandalorians were good. But back then, when TCW had guidance from Lucas, the second season of TCW portrayed the warrior Mandos as bad and the pacifist Mandos as good. That stuff came from Lucas himself, and as much as you love the Republic Commando books, Lucas outranks Karen Traviss on what is and what isn't canon in Star Wars.
I mean, if it were up to me, I'd have just made the Mandos be neutral, not pacifistic. The 1500 star systems that want to remain neutral use the Mandalorians as a guard dog to keep the Republic and the CIS out of their business, and Duchess Satine would have a massive Mandalorian army and navy to keep the neutral systems safe. She would still be bitching at Kenobi though, but mostly because she sees the Clone Wars as pointless since both sides are essentially the same kind of state, and they're killing each other because one takes orders from Dooku and the other takes orders from Palpatine, which to her, wouldn't make sense. She wants Kenobi out of it so that he can join her in protecting systems who want to keep out of the war and keep the peace. Palpatine would manipulate the revived Maul to take her out of the picture and hold her hostage in a trap to get Kenobi killed so as to get Skywalker even more angry, but Kenobi manages to kill Maul after the latter tears apart Mandalorian society by getting some clans to turn on Satine because they hate the Jedi and Satine's in bed with one. The clans kill each other, with one side being led by Maul and the other being led by Kenobi after Satine's death, and an apocalyptic battle between Satine's Mandalorians and the Jedi-hating Mandalorians ends with Mandalore devastated by the war, which would be easy pickings for Sidious to take over once the Empire comes into being. The Empire comes in and offers resources and reconstruction for the clans, but they take the clans' children and indoctrinate the future of Mandalorians to be pro-Imperial.
Pedro Pascal quit most likely due to what he said publicly-he wanted his face shown and they wouldn't allow it, and that rule is stupid as hell. I can understand scenes in battle, but in some scenes taking place inside ships, buildings, etc., or when he's with friends, he should be allowed to take it off. There's instances in the Open Seasons comic where Tor Vizsla and Montross had it off, and even Jango spent some time without the helmet, and of course, we see Bo-Katan, Rook Kast, Gar Saxon, and Pre Vizsla without the helmet all the time. Since these guys are Death Watch, they'd be big on Mandalorian traditions, and if they don't have a stick up their ass about keeping the helmet on, then the Mandos in the show shouldn't be that obsessive about it either.
boards.theforce.net
