Star Wars has yet to truly explain how and why Mandalore fell in the Night of a Thousand Tears, but Star Wars Rebels may have given the answer. At some point between 4 ABY and 5 ABY, the Empire waylaid Mandalore with fusion bombs, killing the majority of Mandalorians. It’s previously been theorized that Bo-Katan Kryze’s false claim to the Darksaber in Rebels may have caused the Mandalorian clans to splinter apart, allowing the Empire to easily swoop in and obliterate the Mandalorians while they were divided. But a new theory suggests the Mandalorians were already shattered long before Bo-Katan attempted to ascend to the throne.
The question isn’t necessarily how Mandalore fell to the Empire, but why it didn’t provide any meaningful resistance. As far as the movies and tv shows describe it, it’s as if the Mandalorians—some of the most powerful and capable warriors in the galaxy—simply rolled over and let the Empire annihilate them. Of course, Bo-Katan (Katee Sackhoff) explains in The Mandalorian season 3, episode 6 that she disarmed Mandalore in an attempt to assuage Moff Gideon and the Empire, but that they took advantage of her and destroyed the planet instead. Nevertheless, it’s surprising how easily the Empire toppled a planet of seasoned warriors.
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Bo-Katan Kryze Thought She Was Unifying Mandalore In Rebels
In Rebels season 4, episode 2, Bo-Katan accepts the Darksaber from Sabine Wren in hopes of unifying Mandalore against the Empire’s tyrannical reign. Bo-Katan never won the Darksaber in combat, meaning her claim to it was technically false. However, none of the clans present in Rebels seem to care about the legality of Bo-Katan’s claim. In fact, all of them pledge their allegiance to Bo-Katan and to Mandalore. In other words, Bo-Katan believed she truly was uniting all of Mandalore and that—in lieu of the Empire’s threat—there wouldn’t be any Mandalorians who cared about how she obtained the Darksaber.
According to Bo-Katan, she surrendered the Darksaber to Moff Gideon after Mandalore’s main forces were annihilated. This suggests she did end up trying to overthrow the Empire with the few Mandalorian clans that aligned with her, but that her coup d’état was unsuccessful. In any case, the Empire still feared Mandalore enough to lull the Mandalorians into a sense of peace before destroying them entirely. However, Bo-Katan may not actually have had all the Mandalorians on her side when she tried to upend the Empire. In fact, she completely overlooked one of the most important groups of Mandalorians.
Bo-Katan Never Went To Concordia To Make Amends With The Children Of The Watch
Despite reclaiming the Darksaber for Mandalore, at no point did Bo-Katan try to recruit the estranged Children of the Watch on Concordia. There are a myriad of reasons as to why she avoided contacting the Children of the Watch, but her refusal to make amends with them may have cost her the fight against the Empire. Because the Children of the Watch revered the ancient traditions of Mandalore, she likely expected them to call her out on her false claim to the Darksaber.
Since the Children of the Watch rose from the ashes of Death Watch, Bo-Katan may have written them off as mere fanatical terrorists. She’d already been a part of Death Watch during the Clone Wars, so revisiting many of the comrades she’d betrayed would likely bring up painful memories. But because the Children of the Watch were exiled to Concordia, they were spared from annihilation in the destruction of Mandalore. Nevertheless, it’s unlikely that the Children of the Watch and Bo-Katan would have teamed up before the fall of Mandalore.
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Mandalore Had To Fall To Truly Unite The Mandalorians Again
Even if Bo-Katan had gone to Concordia to recruit the Children of the Watch, chances are high they’d rejected her as a leader. There’s almost no outcome before Mandalore’s fall where Bo-Katan could have managed to unite every piece of Mandalore, at least, not without having a true claim to the Darksaber. Therefore, Mandalore almost needed to fall before it could finally unite again. It took the destruction of Mandalore by the Empire and the rising threat of Moff Gideon to truly show the Mandalorians how to work together to overcome their enemy.
Because Moff Gideon attempted to sully Mandalorian culture by seizing the Darksaber and their beskar, both the clans of Mandalore and the Children of the Watch were able to put aside their differences and take down their common enemy. Their union was next to impossible before Mandalore’s fall, as the memories of Death Watch’s atrocities were still too fresh. Thanks to Din Djarin’s efforts, Bo-Katan and the Armorer were able to convince their forces to join. And now that Mandalore has been reclaimed, the Mandalorian’s future in Star Wars looks bright.
