The history of the Mandalorians — formidable warriors with amor and jetpacks made famous by Boba Fett — can get a bit confusing. But now, a new episode of Star Wars Rebels will explain why a bunch of them started fighting for the Empire.
In the canon of Star Wars, the Mandalorians hail from the planet Mandalore, but a faction of them also live on the planet Concord Dawn, while still yet another group hangs out on a moon called Concordia. Back in ancient times the Mandalorians fought the Jedi, then had their own civil war, and then before the time of The Clone Wars, became peaceful and exiled their more warlike factions to live on Concordia.
But, during The Clone Wars, a warlike group called Death Watch tried to take over, which would have jettisoned the alliance Mandalore had with the Republic. After the Republic fell and became the Empire, Mandalore was under Imperial control. Everybody following so far?
But, there’s also a group of Mandalorians called “The Protectors of Concord Dawn” who briefly played nice with the Rebellion, but now, it looks like even that group has become stooges for the evil Empire.
In an upcoming episode of Star Wars Rebels, Sabine Wren will be confronted with her Mandalorian brethren who now are straight-up flying jetpacks and shooting people in the name of the Emperor. In the newly released clip, Sabine isn’t impressed, having long-ago rejected the jerkier side of Mandalorian culture.
While it looks like we’ll now understand how the majority of the Mandalorians hooked up with the Empire, this still doesn’t explain why more stormtroopers don’t rock jetpacks. We also don’t know how the heroic Mandalorian warrior Bo-Katan figures into all of this, but we’re betting she’ll probably side with Sabine.
Star Wars Rebels airs every Saturday on Disney XD.
