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ermakeys · 1 year

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A Rewrite of S3 the Mandalorian

Full disclaimer this is just an idea since I was unhappy/disappointed with quite a few things in season 3. I tried to cover an issue of object permanence (darksaber, razor crest and beskar spear), an idea I saw talked about with the missing children that links up to the sequel trilogy, removed Din’s sudden return of droid hate (why???) and tried to avoid showing that the New Republic “failed” as season 3 seems to be portraying them. Plus the whole Bo-Katan... issue. I will note that I like Bo-Katan as a character, but I think of her an antagonist or even villain (like here). While I am not writing a rewrite of the Book of Boba Fett which is also bad, someone already proposed a very good idea of how that show could have gone! As I wrote this an OC was created and I had fun making her and I wanted to introduce the Protectors through her.

Word Count: ~7,100 words

Pre Season 3

The Book of Boba Fett needs it’s own rewrite, but for the purpose of this piece imagine that Din did help Boba. However, we never see or hear anything about Grogu and he doesn’t come back to Din (yet). Nor does Din find the Mandalorians and have his spat with Paz and the Armorer. What was he doing? Crying somewhere about losing Grogu and helping Peli fix his new ride. Also he keeps the spear because I say so. In the Book of Boba Fett, Din would also mention needing the credits to buy and rebuild everything he lost with the razor crest. So Din helps Boba, but skip 99% of what they actually showed cause ew. It’s Boba’s show and you should treat it that way!

Episode 1: The Apostate 😢

(same title ha!)

Like in the Book of Boba Fett, Din follows rumors to find his covert and tribe. (Same location) They welcome him at first until Din retells his tale and is asked if he removed his helmet. He admits he did. Paz calls him an apostate and a fight breaks out because Din could reveal their location and they can’t have that. Din is pulling his punches because he doesn’t want to hurt them. The covert wrestles him down and take off his helmet as well as his weapons. One warrior finds the darksaber and activates it. A handful recognize what it is and the Armorer inspects it, saying that the one to wield it has the right to claim leadership over all Mandalorians (or some sort). During the struggle, Din asked for a chance to redeem himself in the eyes of his people. That he will take any task. The Armorer takes him up on it now that he has the darksaber. Paz argues against it since Din’s an apostate and the darksaber belongs to him by right. The Armorer has Paz and Din duel and if Din wins, he will be given a mission to redeem himself. After some back and forth, Din manages to win and the Armorer reveals what his task will be. When the covert fled Nevarro, many foundlings went missing. The Armorer didn’t find their remains like she did the others when she remained behind. Din’s task is to find the missing foundlings. Among those foundlings is Paz’s son, Ragnar. The covert had tried to find traces of the foundlings, but only ran into dead ends. They assume the children are gone or dead and are mourning them. They send Din on this quest with the intention of him either finding the foundlings or dying honorably trying to find them. This should be mentioned in the conversation between the Armorer and Din.

Din accepts this quest and limps out of the covert as Mandalorians whisper to each other, some whispering “Apostate” as he passes. He returns to his ship and for extra emotional damage, you could have a few shots of Din staring at little children and him missing Grogu OR him taking out and staring at the little metal ball Grogu loved.

Cut to Grogu arriving at Luke’s new jedi school/temple. Some parts are still under droid construction and there are a few younglings and a handful of adults/staff. They are very welcoming and the rest of the episode shows Grogu being shown around and casual displays of the force. Could even have a few other jedi survivor cameos if you had to have them. (I certainly wouldn’t complain about Cal Kestis...)

Episode 2: The Lost ⛑️

Din returns to a flourishing Nevarro. He seeks out Karga to find out what he knows of the foundlings that vanished in Nevarro. Karga tells Din that the foundlings weren’t the only children to disappear. In the time that the imps were present, several young children went missing. He suspected the imps being behind it, but he could never be sure. Karga tells Din that his best bet would be to ask the New Republic to question Moff Gideon about the children. Karga has a contact on Coruscant that Din can get in touch with and Din travels to Coruscant.

Only to discover that Karga’s contact was demoted a while ago for accepting a bribe. The contact says they can still help, but they need Din to do them a favor first. It involves a bounty and Din goes hunting. While hunting the bounty (“I can bring you in warm or I can bring you in cold”), Din runs into Bo-Katan, Koska and Axe. He’s in the middle of a hunt, so when they call on him to stop, he doesn’t listen. So, they run after him because Bo won’t take no for an answer. They corner the bounty and Din and he demands they hand over the bounty to him since he needs it for his new quest (can even work in an “I like those odds” moment). Bo mocks him that as the wielder of the darksaber he is wasting his time chasing petty bounties in the lower levels of Coruscant for scraps. Din isn’t happy about the comment and asks what her noble reason for being here is. Bo reveals that since she can’t unite the Mandalorians without the darksaber, she demanded reparations from the New Republic for what the Empire did to Mandalore, so she could reclaim and rebuild the Mandalorian homeworld. Unfortunately, they’ve been brushing her off, saying it was the Empire that did those things and not the New Republic. In addition, the planet is known to be cursed/dead. The New Republic has other worlds with dying populations so while they would like to help the Mandalorians it is low on their priority list. She “graciously” invites him to help, Din declines and sneering, Bo demands a duel for the darksaber since he isn’t he ally anymore. Din tries to yield again, but that only makes her angrier. He refuses to fight her and after some more arguing, they part ways after mocking Din some more.

Din climbs back up to the surface of Coruscant with his bounty and looks around, wondering where he is. The bounty helpfully supplies that they are next to the old imperial palace and where the old jedi temple stood. Din stares at it for a while as it is bathed in the red sunset. It looks like it’s on fire in that light.

Episode 3: The Foundling 🔥

The jedi temple is in flames. It’s flashback o’clock baby. The sound of blaster fire and lightsabers. The cries of those being shot and the static voices hidden behind helmets of those that used to protect the temple, the planet and the galaxy. Grogu wakes up from the dream of his past. He shares a room with other younglings in Luke’s temple and new jedi training facility. Grogu climbs out of bed and steps out to look over the temple. Parts of it are still under construction. Luke (if we need to have fake Mark Hamil…) greets Grogu since he was coming to wake the younglings for breakfast and then training. Luke speaks to Grogu about his dreams and that he is concerned. Grogu is seen over the course of the day being different from the other younglings. He is seen constantly staring up at the sky (as if he missed his DAD T.T) and fiddling with his mythosaur pendant. Grogu is both the oldest and the youngest. He reacts in ways that startle the kids sometimes. He repressed his powers for so long so that when he does try to tap into them, the results can be unpredictable. Luke has a chat with him about that when Grogu has an accident. “Did you have these dreams and problems before?” “Patu (no)” “Do you think it had to do with the presence of the Mandalorian? You trusted him, felt safe with him. Perhaps leaving him is making you feel the same way as when you were ripped from the temple.” (Something to that effect.) They return to the other younglings and their training.

Cut back to Coruscant and Din. He hands over the bounty much to the delight of Karga’s contact. The contact takes Din to his supervisor who tells him that this is confidential, but Moff Gideon escaped. Din asks how that is possible, but the supervisor tells Din that it happened. The supervisor gives Din a point in a direction he can try to get more information though. The patrols of the outer rim had been reporting some missing children and one captain had been requesting an investigation and more patrols. The supervisor tells Din to try his luck with that captain.

Episode 4: The Protector 👩🏽‍✈️

A similar opening to the very first episode of the Mandalorian in season 1. Except it’s that beach bar from canon season 3. New Republic pilots are relaxing inside when Din steps inside. It’s tense at first until Captain Teva appears with a comment about meeting again. Din explains why he is here and Teva reveals that they have been trying to investigate the missing the children all over the outer rim. However, many outer rim planets don’t want the New Republic to patrol or investigate them or the inhabitants of republic worlds don’t trust them. The cries for help they do receive are scattered all over the outer rim, but there are too many to be completely random. One of Teva’s pilots went “rogue” to try and go undercover with a mercenary group he thinks could be involved. The mission couldn’t be officially sanctioned, but Teva sent the pilot on an “extended” patrol. However, Teva lost contact with her several cycles ago and is getting worried. He promises all his information and whatever his pilot found in return for Din helping him find his lost pilot. Din agrees and they fly to the moon where the pilot was last heard from.

They land near the x-wing of the lost pilot (it has a Mandalorian Protector symbol). Din and Teva begin to track towards the base where the mercenaries only for them to run into a patrol. Teva and Din fight them only to be joined by the lost pilot wearing Mandalorian armor (hers and she uses it as a disguise for the mercs). They quickly eliminate the patrol and in the fight Din uses the darksaber. Once the fighting is done the Mandalorian lost pilot points her weapons at Din and demands to know how he got the darksaber. Teva tries to order her to stand down, but she’s not having it. Din reveals he earned it by fighting in a duel against Moff Gideon and her whole attitude changes. She bows to Din and calls him Mand’alor (much to his discomfort) and that she is at his service. The pilot is the niece of Fenn Rau (young barely out of her teens) and following in her uncle’s footsteps of becoming a Mandalorian Protector and she is serving the New republic until a new Mand’alor returns. Din says he’s not the Mand’alor and Teva calls back to the present. Rau reports that she infiltrated the mercs and they had been raiding settlements and kidnapping children. She had wanted to get back to her x-wing to report earlier, but things have been tenser and everyone was being more heavily scrutinized. She reveals that her superior said an imperial warlord was scheduled to come this evening and pick up the children collected so far.

Din, Teva and Rau need to move fast if they want to save the children here now. Rau tells Din that she doesn’t know where the children are taken once the mercs hand them over to the imps. That kind of information would be found in an imp database or cruiser (hint hint Bo-Katan currently owns one of those). The rest of the episode is spent fighting mercs and freeing the children. Din and Rau take care of the close quarter fighting while Teva provides aerial support from Din’s ship and Teva’s and Rau’s astromechs fly the two x-wings. Din and Rau hijack one of the merc’s transporter ships and once they get the kids on board, they get the hell out of there. One of the kids happens to be a force user who helps them get the kids out.

Episode 5: The Challenger 🤺

The episode opens with the beach bar being super busy as kids are being taken care of and sorted. Some are already being reunited with parents that flew out to get them. Din is standing to the side and Rau approaches him with a fist over her heart and a short “Mand’alor.” He tells her not to call him that and they have a conversation about the darksaber, the Mand’alor and the Protectors. Din says he doesn’t want to be followed as Mand’alor, so she asks to join his quest. Foundlings are such an integral part of Mandalorian culture, his quest is important to her. Teva speaks with Din and Rau and says that now they have the proof they needed that imperial warlords are behind the abductions, he could leverage the support he needs to try and track them down better after taking the children back where they belonged. Din accepts Rau’s offer for help and she hands in her resignation to Teva. (Teva asks how he should explain Rau’s resignation when her uncle asked and Rau mentions he won’t because they had a spat about her wanting to follow in his footsteps) Rau mentions again they need to access an imperial database to find out where the foundlings went and Din says he might have an idea for that since he knows which cruiser probably had transported the foundlings and he might be able to gain access to it. Cut to Grogu at the temple. He’s not concentrating on his studies again and gets scolded for it. A ship arrives, drawing everyone’s attention and the force user child that helped Din is brought to the sanctuary. Everyone crowds around the newcomer and the pilot that brought them explains what happened. Grogu is super excited to hear about his DAD (<3). He lies awake later in the night, staring up through a window at the stars. He crawls out of bed and tries to hijack an x-wing (Luke’s). Luke finds him and says he thought Grogu might try to leave. He can tell that Grogu misses his father and is not ready to learn here yet. R2-D2 gets into the x-wing and Luke says to join his father. The temple would be here when Grogu was ready.

Cut back to Din as he and Rau exit hyperspace. They land on a planet where the light cruiser is stationed along with a small fleet of smaller ships. Rau follows Din and is shocked to discover it’s Bo-Katan in control of the light cruiser. She questions if she heard that right and lists several things about Bo-Katan (sister of Satine, member of the Death Watch, the one to lose the darksaber twice, etc.). A lot of things Din didn’t know. What catches his attention is her affiliation to Death Watch which Rau explains to him. He files that away for later and they approach the encampment.

Bo-Katan, Axe and Koska along with several other Mandalorians receive them and Bo says she was surprised Din asked for a meeting. Some snide comments get thrown around. These include about him being a Child of the Watch which Rau counters is rich coming from her. Bo sneers at Rau and says she didn’t ask for a little girl’s opinion. Bo also asks about Grogu and mocks Din about his foundling. Din says he needs to try and access the light cruisers old imperial files. Bo says they are encrypted and that makes them useless. Din says let that be his worries and she counters, they won’t be for free. “The way I see it, we both want something from each other. You want the data. I want a duel.” Din accepts the duel. Over the course of the duel Bo tries to goad Din about his son and being from a cult. She finally hits a nerve and Din who had considered fighting until he could pretend to yield, goes all out and stomps Bo into the ground. Axe jumps in, trying to argue that someone from a backward cult can’t be the Mand’alor and Rau jumps in before Axe can go after a vulnerable Din. Rau announces Din as the victor of the duel and there is a tense silence. Koska finally steps forward and says she will give them the data since Din won. She leads Din and Rau into the light cruiser. As they pass the other Mandalorians, some murmur “Mand’alor” as Din passes, pressing their fist to their chest. Others just watch while others go and join Bo and Axe. Koska downloads the old imperial data onto a disk and hands it to Din, saying that it isn’t easy for Bo to give up being the Mand’alor. Din argues, “I would have just given her the darksaber. I don’t want it.” Koska and Rau both say that that isn’t how earning the darksaber works. Koska adds that Bo’s family were rulers and Bo had been taught to rule her entire life. It was hard for her to be the one to lose it all. Rau pipes up by saying, “The Mand’alor was never a hereditary title.” The episode ends with Din and Rau in their ships and Rau asks how they’re going to get the data decrypted. Din says he knows someone who could crack the code, but doesn’t know how welcome they’ll be.

The Shadow Council ♟️

I liked the Shadow Council scene enough that I would leave most of it. Instead of Gideon checking in with his agent on Coruscant, Gideon is seen in an office of his surrounded by Mandalorian artifacts. He receives a notification that the Shadow Council is assembled and he does the walk over through all those silly red lasers. The council meeting proceeds as usual. Add it either to the end of episode 5 or the beginning of episode 6, depending on how long the episodes are already.

Episode 6: The Return 👾

The episode opens with Din guiding Rau to the covert. On the way to the covert Din tells Rau a list of things she should avoid at the covert (removal of helmet, saying he’s the Mand’alor, antagonizing Paz, etc.). Rau answers each instruction with a question which Din ignores. They reach the covert and the covert greets them with raised blasters. Paz and the Armorer appear and comment that Din has returned not only without the foundlings but with a stranger, revealing their location. Din introduces Rau and holds up the data disk saying he needs a hacker to break the imperial encryption. He turns to look at one of the Mandalorians holding a blaster towards them (the Hacker). Paz scoffs and asks why they should trust Din? He’s an apostate and he’s already failed to return with the foundlings and brought a stranger with him. The Hacker Mandalorian lowers his blasters and asks Din if that data disk can tell them where his child could be. Paz growls at the Hacker to hold formation and Hacker takes a step forward, repeating his question. Din explains that the data disk holds information from Moff Gideon’s cruiser and that if the information would be anywhere, then it would be here. Paz grabs at Hacker to pull him back, but Hacker yanks his arm free and snaps, “If I can break the encryption and find my daughter, I will take that chance.” Paz argues against, stating they can’t trust an apostate as much as he is grieving his son like Hacker his daughter. Hacker argues that they used to trust Din, why should that have changed? “He broke the Creed to save his son and he is working to atone for that act. The Creed should acknowledge his faith for trying to follow it and forgive him for breaking it to save his son.” “Heresy!” The Armorer silences them and asks if Hacker thinks he can do it and he says he can. She allows for Din and Rau to enter the covert so Hacker can break the encryption.

Din and Rau stay with Hacker as he works on breaking the encryption. Hacker has a workshop where he does programming and encryption for the covert. Hacker and Din have a conversation about how Din and the covert has been. Hacker shares a little about his daughter and asks about Grogu. Din shares a little and Rau asks about Grogu. Din admits to missing Grogu and his fingers are tracing the pocket where Grogu’s little metal ball is hidden.

Eventually, Hacker says he’s done as much as he can. The program just needs to run. Hacker invites Din to a friendly spar and the trio goes to an open area of the covert. Quite a few watch as Din uses his spear and then the darksaber when Hacker encourages him because he wants to try defending against it. Din wins and Paz appears making mocking remarks about Din and also Rau. Rau has listened to Din and not spoken up around the others like he’d asked, but it’s visible that she has been angered by Paz’s remarks. Din declines the spar since he just sparred and invites Rau to fight Paz instead. She is startled at first and then relishes in the challenge. “Why…?” “You’re the one who wants to protect.”

The two fight (showcasing Rau holding her own against a larger and stronger foe) and the match is interrupted by someone hurrying into the room and saying someone is approaching the covert. “Who is it? Imps?” “Unknown.” The warriors hurry to the perimeter and after a tense moment, Teva, Rau’s droid and Grogu appear! Teva explains Grogu appeared with R2-D2 and Teva tracked Rau’s droid who brought them here. Paz flips his noodle saying that Din brought even MORE strangers to the covert!!! Din says that Grogu is meant to be with his teacher, but Teva says that in the message he received that Grogu wasn’t ready. That Grogu wanted to be with his father. Din argues, reaching and recoiling from Grogu at the same time. (He knows that if he picks up Grogu he won’t be able to let him go again *sob*) The Armorer shows up and encourages Din to accept his foundling. That his foundling chose the way of the Mandalorian.

Din picks up Grogu and it cuts to Din, Rau and Hacker sitting in Hacker’s workshop as Grogu sits on Din’s lap, chattering animatedly, waving his hands around. Din answers him in a quiet voice like he can’t quite believe that Grogu is back with him. Hacker and Rau fawn over Grogu before they all check in with Rau how she’s doing after her spar with Paz. “Sore. Feels like a rancor threw me through a wall.” The Armorer joins them hands Grogu a more size appropriate mythosaur pendant (that huge thing is ridiculous. She might have had a bracelet sized one lying around) and Grogu puts it on while after a tense moment the Armorer hands him back his pendant. She says they had lost hope of ever finding the foundlings and he has brought hope back to the covert. She gives a side-eye to Rau (as much as one can wearing a helmet) and makes a comment about Din finding a protector for himself. She mentions that things are changing and Din doesn’t have a chance to say anything when Hacker’s tech chimes. The encryption is broken. They sort through the data and find out that the imps had taken the foundlings and children of Nevarro. They try to find out where and find the blueprints of an imperial facility that Gideon built. Tie fighters, droids, training facilities for future storm troopers and a… the Armorer and Rau both startle when they recognize the Forge. Hacker calls up the coordinates of the base and confirm the Armorer’s and Rau’s suspicions. The base is on Mandalore. Hacker and Din say that it’s impossible that the planet was cursed and glassed. Apparently not though and the decision is made to go to Mandalore.

Episode 7: The Fight for Mandalore ⚔️

Grogu is sleeping peacefully (probably the first time since he left Din) and Din is standing over him, just watching. The shot is so that the viewer can tell Din is helmetless, but can’t see his head. Din’s bare hand traces over Grogu’s head and ear before a chime sounds and the viewer can see Din lifting on his helmet (NO FACE). Grogu starts to wake up from the sound of the chime and once Din has his gloves on he calls for them to enter. Rau enters and lets Din know that Bo-Katan was answering the call they’d sent out last night. Grogu starts to crawl out of his bed and Din picks him up. He hesitates a moment before holding Grogu out to Rau and asks her to hold him while he talks to Bo. Rau is surprised and asks that he trusts her with his child? “I don’t need to be protected. Protect him in my stead if I can’t.” (something along those lines of her being a protector, but din can protect himself so please defend grogu instead) Din asks why being a protector is so important to Rau. She says she lost all family except her uncle and she and her culture feel so lost and adrift. Since there was no Mand’alor, her uncle Fenn hadn’t wanted her to become a protector like him, but she had defied him, making her feel a little more lost when he went low contact with her. She had imagined and hoped that a Mand’alor would give her an anchor, a purpose. “So far, I am honored to have been allowed to accompany on your quest.”

Din steps into the forge where the Armorer, Paz, Hacker and most of the covert has gathered. On a holoprojector stands Bo with Koska and Axe on either side of her. Bo is even more bitter than before but reigns in her snide comments a little better this time. She coolly asks what Din wants this time and Din announces what he found on the imperial data disk. That the foundlings and Nevarro children are being held on an imperial facility on Mandalore. Din proposes to join forces to take down the facility. Bo could claim the planet while the covert just wanted their foundlings returned. The Armorer declares that the covert intends to join Din in this quest and save the children. After some hesitation, Bo agrees to Din’s terms. They agree on a time and the Armorer orders for the covert to mobilize.

Cut to Bo-Katan sitting in the captain’s chair of the light cruiser. She is sitting there thinking while some of the Mandalorians around her are chattering excitedly. Koska asks Bo what is wrong and Bo waves her off. Bo leaves, saying she has something to take care of (~foreshadowing~).

Cut back to the covert in full chaos mode of packing up everything into boxes and onto their ships (screw not having ships like wtf was that!?). Din and Rau are helping the Armorer when the Armorer asks if Rau would call in the other protectors. Rau hesitates and says she could try and looks to Din. He gives Rau a nod and tells her to wait at her x-wing since they’re almost done. Rau goes to her x-wing and chickens out with calling her uncle Fenn. Instead, she sends him a recorded message telling him she found the wielder of the darksaber and that they are going to chase of imps off Mandalore. She asks that he join them with any protectors he has. She finishes with an “I hope the battle goes well. I will know you forever.” Din joins her and they both get in their respective ships. Grogu joins Din in his ship. They take off and meet with the covert’s ships off of the ring space station the covert had been hiding on. They enter hyperspace and in a holoprojector call with Bo and her forces, go over the plan for storming the imperial base. Covert will be ground forces while some of Bo’s fleet will draw their attention in the sky and fire relentlessly at the base, drawing their tie fighters.

The episode cuts to the ships meeting over Mandalore. This is the first real full shot of Mandalore that isn’t a projection. Rau comments that it looks nothing like the holoimages her uncle had shown her and the Armorer adds that it looks nothing like she remembered it either. Thanks to atmospheric interference they don’t have to worry about flying stealthily too much and the covert flies in.

The first part of the operation goes mostly well. (Rau and Grogu follow Din) Bo’s fleet starts shooting at the base, allowing Din and the covert to infiltrate the base. They find the beskar wearing storm troopers and while it’s unexpected the covert can take them. They train every day with each other. They know how to take down others and other Mandalorians equally. Especially losers that haven’t been wearing beskar for as long as the covert. After a while it becomes eerie with how easily they are advancing. Then the sounds of fighting outside dies down. Din tries calling Bo to no avail. They press on only to reach a large room open to the sky and the doors behind them seal. Tie fighters fly in and beskar storm troopers jetpack in and Din and the covert get pinned down. Din calls for Bo again and again, that they are taking heavy fire. The shooting pauses and Din looks up to Moff Gideon arriving in his black beskar suit (minus the horns that was a reference to maul before!!??). Gideon is also accompanied by the three members of the praetorian guard. He smiles and says, “Hello Din Djarin. I think you have gotten yourself into a rather dire situation. I think I even sense a certain amount of betrayal.”

As he says that last sentence, the scene cuts to Bo’s fleet retreating back into orbit near the light cruisers and the tie fighters breaking off their pursuit. The scene cuts again to Bo sitting in the captain’s chair with Koska and Axe standing on either side of her with confused/shocked expressions. Bo looks grim, guilty and determined as she stares into the camera before closing her eyes as Gideon says “betrayal” and that is the end of the episode.

Episode 8: The Ruler of Mandalore 👑

The episode begins with Bo-Katan watching her fleet fight the tie fighters. She gets some notification as a chime and orders her fleet to retreat. Everyone on deck looks at her like Bo has lost her mind and they’re confused. Axe demands to know what is going on. Bo doesn’t explain at first just demands that her fighters retreat back to the light cruiser or if they were defying orders. They can hear Din calling for support and asking what is going on. Koska steps forward demanding answers and Bo tells her to back off. Axe and Koska are cornering her for answers until Bo explodes angrily. (I wish) Bo goes on a rant how she deserves to be Mand’alor! She was the one who fought tooth and nail for that right! She trained endlessly for it! First her sister got to rule and now she is being denied that right by some nobody bounty hunter! “Let the empire and the cultists wipe each other out. We’ll deal with the scragglers.” Koska and Axe stare at her like she’s lost her mind. Finally Koska asks, “You want to reclaim Mandalore… by betraying our allies? Our own people?” Even Axe chimes in with, “You know I am loyal to you, my lady and I might not be fond of or happy to be working with the children of the watch, but even I can’t stomach turning on our allies.” Bo calls them traitors and draws her blaster on them. Sides are drawn and fighting breaks out. Bo is forced to retreat with a few Mandos loyal to her while Koska and Axe take over the light cruiser. As Koska and Axe regain control of the command deck, they get several notifications: One that Bo has taken a ship with those loyal to her and is flying towards the surface. Second that they have several ships on approach from outside the system. They don’t know if friend or foe.

Cut to Din and the covert cornered and surrounded by the beskar storm troopers and Moff Gideon. Gideon lords it over them that he is control of the Forge and that he will bring in a new age of Mandalorians and bla bla bad guy speech (explaining also that Bo betrayed them) and he offers them the chance to surrender. On the condition that they all yield. Particularly Din. Din is considering yielding to save the covert while Paz is arguing against surrendering at all. Rau sees a notification on her wrist brace and steps up calling that that isn’t how the darksaber can be won. Only through a duel. Gideon who wants to be acknowledged as Mandalorian and is very clever knows it’s a play for time, but he thinks with his new armor that he can best Din this time. Rau asks Din to trust her and he goes out to duel with Gideon.

Din and Gideon duel and it is very close and tense. However, the duel is interrupted by the arrival of the Protectors as they swoop in and shoot down the tie fighters hovering nearby. The Protectors use a dropship to drop several Protectors and Fenn Rau calls out over an open comms that the Protectors have arrived to help.

Chaos breaks out. The covert charges out as the protectors have broken the imperial formations. Gideon retreats away from Din who wants to charge after him to finish what they started, but the praetorian guard gets in between. Paz, the Armorer and Rau jump in to help Din with the three praetorian guards. Between the four of them they manage to take down the guards. Over comms Koska and Axe check in and announce that they are returning to the fight after taking over the cruiser. The Armorer tells Din to go after Gideon and finish the hut’uun.

Din is followed by Paz, Hacker and Rau as they chase after where Gideon was last seen. They stalk down several corridors and hallways until they find Gideon at one of the entrances to the Forge and the living waters. This entrance has a chasm with a long drop and a waterfall that crashes somewhere far below. Gideon is waiting for them in front of a platform over that chasm. On the platform are the children of Nevarro and the Mandalorian foundlings. Gideon and several beskar storm troopers are holding the children at gun point. Paz and Hacker spot their foundlings and call for them. Gideon raises a hand and informs them that if they come one step closer one of his troopers will hit a button that will collapse the platform. The children would fall to certain death. Gideon demands Din hand over the darksaber and that he be allowed to walk free. Din is willing to do that because the darksaber means very little to him compared to the lives of the children.

(Gideon has the chilren by the way because while he might look down on Hux he does think that he can use these kids and train them into future Imperial Mandalorians.)

Unfortunately, that is when Bo finds them with the handful of loyal Mandalorians she has left. She says she won’t tolerate any rivals to her rightful place as Mand’alor. Din is sick and tired of these two fighting over the darksaber and says all he wants is the children. He doesn’t care who gets the darksaber. He drops the darksaber and kicks it towards Gideon. “Now let the children go.” Bo is swearing that Din made a mistake while Gideon picks up the darksaber. Gideon ignites it with a smile and then says, “No.”

A trooper hits the switch to drop the children and Din, Paz, Hacker and Rau lunge forward, crying out. The supports of the platform are blown out and it rocks dangerously before beginning to fall.

Meanwhile Bo launches an attack at Gideon and their two sides move slightly away from the platform to engage each other.

Cut back to Din and his people trying to reach the children in time to save them. Luckily, Grogu is with them and stops the platform with the force. This gives them enough time to save the foundlings while Bo’s and Gideon’s forces fight. Rau who had been carrying Grogu on her shoulders needs to be careful so she can protect him without becoming a target for the other two forces.

Hacker and Paz move the children away and Din and Rau sprint over to take care of Gideon once and for all. Only a few are still fighting the rest are either dead or heavily injured. Gideon and Bo are fighting in the middle. Rau goes to take care of the remaining imps and to keep the other Mandalorians from interfering while Din throws himself at Gideon and Bo. It becomes a three-way fight between them. All three are tired and exhausted at this point.

Bo gets thrown back at some point and Din manages to stab Gideon with his beskar spear. Gideon can’t seem to believe it before he finally slumps over. Din starts to pick up the darksaber and ignites it in time to block Bo’s screaming attack. She yells at him that it should be hers. He doesn’t want it anyway, he should give it to her!

Din manages to defeat Bo and she’s kneeling on the ground, exhausted and beaten, tears streaming down her face (lost her helmet at some point). Din is tired and upset at this point and says this is all so frustrating. Their people should have been her focus and look at where they are now. Her people defeated, dead or splintered by infighting. The ones that entrusted their lives to her.

Din looks at the darksaber in his hand before he throws it into the chasm, saying he is returning the saber to the living waters of Mandalore. Bo cries out and crawls to the edge of the chasm. “What have you done!?” Din walks away telling Bo to think about what she’s done.

Cut to showing a wrap up of the fighting. The imps are destroyed or chased off the planet by the Protector’s and Koska’s and Axe’s fleet. The foundlings are returned to their parents while others take care of those without. Fenn Rau is introduced in person as Din, Koska, Axe, Paz, Rau Jr and the Armorer meet to discuss what happens next. No one had expected Mandalore could actually be inhabitable. Fenn asks about the Mand’alor and Din says he threw the darksaber away. That he was tired over the fighting for a weapon. Fenn is shocked and says that won’t go down well with the other Clans. (point of conflict for another season maybe?) Axe and Paz aren’t pleased either. Axe and Koska are mourning Bo-katan in a way as she has vanished. Paz isn’t happy, but shrugs it off since he’s happy to have his son back. (somewhere in the background Hacker and his daughter are reunited too) The Armorer says that the last owner of the darksaber decided that was how he would handle it and nothing more could be done. It was lost to them for now. Rau sort of sadly says that she supposes the protectors will have to disband since there is no darksaber wielding Mand’alor anymore. Fenn and Din both correct her that the protectors were more than bodyguards of the Mand’alor. Din reminds her of how she protected the foundlings.

The covert decides to set up their camp in the forge and claim this as their new home for now. Koska asks if her people could be welcome here as well. Paz argues that they don’t follow the Way. Axe starts to get bent out of shape about that, but it’s the Armorer who shuts that down. Not sure about the exact wording, but I would imagine something along the lines of winds of change, they’ve reclaimed a part of their ancestral home and have access to the living waters. They no longer need to hide as they once did. They can be more accepting of other ways as long as others can be of theirs, looking at you Axe. The Armorer looks at Din and adds that some could even learn to walk both ways. Plus it’s nice to have a light cruiser in orbit.

Fenn’s protectors leave to spread the news and discuss with their Clans and families. Rau stays behind and Fenn promises to come to her.

New shot of Din and Grogu having a quiet moment in front of the chasm where Din threw the darksaber. The Armorer joins him and Din says they have a lot of work ahead of them. She agrees, but asks when have Mandalorians ever backed down from a challenge? She says she officially welcomes him back into the covert, but with a look at Grogu says he will probably learn to walk both ways in more than one way as the father of a Mandalorian Jedi. Din asks if he did the right thing to throw the darksaber away like he did. The Armorer is quiet for a moment before saying, “The darksaber had been taken by the jedi a long time ago. We reclaimed it and then it spent quite some time in the hands of those that sought to use Mandalorians as tools for their own gains. Perhaps it was time for the darksaber to be reclaimed by the living waters.” She leaves him to mull over it and the last scene is of him and Grogu sitting together.

Epilogue 🐉

The following scene can either be an after end credits scene or follows the previous scene. The viewer sees the darksaber hit the water. It sinks quickly and far, far below the surface as fish swim by and enters the depths. It gets pushed around by currents and creatures in the water until it reaches a dark area with bubbling and glowing vents of lava. It comes to rest on the bottom of the water near a vent. The viewer then sees an eye slowly crack open and move to reveal the head of a mythosaur as one massive clawed paw reaches out and drags the darksaber into the dark. The screen fades to black to the sound of a mythosaur growling.

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amischievouscat · 8 months

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Trans People Are Valid - And Here's Proof (Not That We Needed It)

Hi! Whether you're just scrolling through your dash or happen to be someone who was sent this post by someone else, I invite you to take a seat. This post was written as a place for people to be directed if it is so needed; so that others don't have to use their time to write out 5+ replies in the comments of a post.

A while ago (back in April, in fact) I wrote a series of replies in the comments of a post talking about the Nebraska lawmaker protesting the passing of an anti-trans bill. You can find the post here if you'd like to read it and my replies. In doing this I realized that the person I was arguing with (no, it was not a debate. Debates are two-sided and in good faith) would not listen to my points no matter what I said or how many articles proving my point I sent.

So instead, I decided to make one post and be done with it! If you happen to see a transphobe in the comments of a post arguing against gender-affirming care, saying that they'd never respect a trans person, or anything else along those lines, you can link them to this post and move on, secure in the knowledge that this post contains a wealth of scientific studies and news articles. To view the post, expand it.

Note: AFAB stands for "assigned female at birth" and AMAB means "assigned male at birth".

Oh, if you were sent this and don't read it, you can be secure in the fact that you're arguing in bad faith, and always knew that. I implore you to at least read my post, as I have quotes from the articles I link.

Some Context

Many times, in my browsing of this and other websites, I have come to see a disappointing number of people who do not understand completely (or at all) what "Transgender Healthcare" entails or is in the first place. I am of the mindset that education is the best way to combat hate; and as such I will be explaining (with links to studies and further reading, of course) what the phrase "Transgender Healthcare" means. My own personal ability to speak on this subject comes from my biology courses.

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What most people refer to as "Puberty Blockers" are actually a type of medication that prevents the release of a hormone in the body called "Gonadotropin (gonad-oh-trope-in) Releasing Hormone", or GnRH for short. This hormone is a releasing hormone, which means it tells other glands in the body (in this case, the Anterior Pituitary Gland, located at the base of the brain) to release hormones.

Normally, GnRH is released into the bloodstream at the onset of puberty. When the GnRH reaches the pituitary gland, it causes the pituitary to start to release two hormones: Luteinizing (lute-in-eye-zing) Hormone (LH) and Follicle-Stimulating Hormone (FSH).

LH has two effects:

In AFAB individuals it causes the onset of ovulation.

In AMAB individuals it causes the production and release of Testosterone.

While LH is being released, FSH is also released alongside it.

FSH's effects include:

In both AMAB and AFAB individuals, it stimulates the maturation of germ cells (cells that will eventually become either sperm or eggs, known colloquially as sex cells).

In AMAB individuals, it triggers spermatogenesis (production and maturation of sperm cells)

In AFAB individuals, it causes follicular cells to begin to mature. Think of follicular cells as the container that an egg is held in before it is released during ovulation.

The usage of PBs blocks all of this. Which means, in simple terms; it does exactly what it says it does. It doesn't "make people trans", it very rarely causes irreversible change. once you stop taking them GnRH is released as normal and all of the changes above will still take place. PBs simply delay puberty. You can read more here.

The Reason We Need Trans Healthcare

In my comments of the post that I linked at the top, I referred to a study (which you can find here) that aimed to "investigate changes in mental health over the first year of receiving gender-affirming care and whether initiation of puberty blockers (PBs) and gender-affirming hormones (GAHs) was associated with changes in depression, anxiety, and suicidality."

This study found that there was a whopping 60% decrease in the rates of depression and a 73% decrease in suicidality among youths aged 13-20 years old who took Puberty Blockers and/or Gender Affirming Hormones (commonly known as HRT — Hormone Replacement Therapy among the transgender community).

"After adjustment for temporal trends and potential confounders, we observed 60% lower odds of depression and 73% lower odds of suicidality among youths who had initiated PBs or GAHs compared with youths who had not."

This study also found that there was no correlation between the use of either Puberty Blockers or GAHs in youths and increased anxiety.

It's Not Unsafe Either

Another very common reason that I see people oppose GAH is that it is "unsafe", "experimental" or "off-label" (I.e. not approved as medical care). This statement is blatantly false, as many different organizations across the US identify it as life-saving. You can click on the names of the organizations within that link to view their statements on the matter.

Oh, and kids aren't getting double mastectomies. The isolated cases often brought up in arguments (of which I could only find a few) against transgender healthcare fail to mention that this goes directly against the Standards Of Care from the World Professional Association for Transgender Health itself. According to these guidelines (Chapter 5 - Assessment Of Adults, and Chapter 6 - Adolescents) before an adult is able to receive care, all of the following must be met:

The experience of gender incongruence is marked and sustained;

Fulfillment of diagnostic criteria is met;

Other possible causes of apparent gender incongruence prior to the initiation of gender-affirming treatments have been identified and excluded where applicable;

Any mental and/or physical health conditions that could negatively impact the outcome of gender-affirming medical treatments are assessed, with risks and benefits discussed, before a decision is made regarding treatment;

Capacity to consent for the specific physical treatment prior to the initiation of this treatment has been assessed;

Capacity of the gender diverse and transgender adult to understand the effect of gender-affirming treatment on reproduction and reproductive options with the individual have been discussed prior to the initiation of gender-affirming treatment;

The role of social transition together with the individual has been considered;

A single opinion for the initiation of this treatment from a professional who has competencies in the assessment of transgender and gender diverse people wishing gender-related medical and surgical treatment has been received;

A minimum of 6 months of hormone therapy as appropriate to the TGD person’s gender goals before the transgender person undergoes irreversible surgical intervention has been considered.

All of these criteria must be met before an adult receives any form of gender affirming care. In adolescents they must fit the above criteria AND:

The adolescent demonstrates the emotional and cognitive maturity required to provide informed consent/assent for the treatment;

The adolescent has reached Tanner stage 2 of puberty (the starting stages);

The adolescent had at least 12 months of gender-affirming hormone therapy or longer, if required, to achieve the desired surgical result for gender-affirming procedures, including breast augmentation, orchiectomy, vaginoplasty, hysterectomy, phalloplasty, metoidioplasty, and facial surgery as part of gender-affirming treatment.

As demonstrated by these guidelines, a child must have at minimum one year of HRT before they are able to have any gender-affirming surgeries, on top of all of the other requirements regarding therapy and differential diagnosis.

Furthermore, many of the effects of HRT are reversible, as shown by the graph on the Trans Primary Care website. According to the graph, of 11 physical characteristics that are changed with taking Estrogen in transgender women, 4 are completely reversible, 1 is reversible/variable, 5 are variable, and only 1 is irreversible, that being breast growth.

The Bathroom Debate Is A Joke (And Trans People Are Suffering)

There's a common idea being spread primarily online that cisgender men will use trans women being allowed to use women's restrooms as a method to get into women's bathrooms to rape cisgender women. This rhetoric has bled into our lawmaking system, as shown by the Trans Legislation tracker, which records that of 568 anti-trans bills proposed in the United States this year alone, 83 of them have passed, while 360 are still active. That's a pass rate of 14.6%.

The data, however, does not and never has supported this idea. One study in Massachusetts found no correlation between allowing transgender people to use their preferred restroom and increased assaults.

There is, however, overwhelming evidence to the contrary. There are many articles about transgender people being harassed and even killed for entering the bathroom that is perceived as "incorrect" by onlookers. An example is this 12 year old trans girl (second article) who was forced to move after violent threats were made to her family for the second time in a row. Her mother, Brandy Rose, stating that while going to school in Texas after she transitioned male students had forced her daughter, Maddie, into the boy's restroom and taunted her to commit suicide. After their move to Oklahoma, the young girl's school district was forced to shut down for 2 days following violent threats directed at the 12 year old over Facebook for using the girl's restroom at school.

Another example can be seen in this 29 year old homeless transgender woman, who was assaulted by a group of 3 men outside of a restroom in Puerto Rico. In a recording of the incident, the men verbally harassed her, driving off and later returning with what is presumed to be either a paintball gun or a silenced handgun, and firing at the woman repeatedly. The woman was found dead on the side of the road with multiple bullet wounds later that same night.

This study reports that:

"Seventy percent of survey respondents reported being denied access, verbally harassed, or physically assaulted in public restrooms."

Another study found the following, out of 3,700 respondents:

"36% of transgender or gender-nonbinary students with restricted bathroom or locker room access reported being sexually assaulted in the last 12 months. Of all students surveyed, 1 out of every 4, or 25.9%, reported being a victim of sexual assault in the past year."

The argument that transgender people are a danger to cisgender people or that the "modern trans movement is radicalizing activists into terrorists" (quote here) is a complete fabrication. Isolated cases of transgender women being the perpetrators of violence does not mean that being transgender is the cause (correlation does not equal causation after all).

Transgender people are over 4 times more likely to be victims of violent crime than their cisgender counterparts. Another study reported that, of 7 transgender high school students interviewed, 2 of them had been set on fire and all of them had been victims of mass bullying and physical assault.

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This marks the end of my post. Good job, you made it! Hopefully you've come out of this feeling more knowledgeable.

If you notice a broken link or have information that you would like me to add or change, you can send me a message/ask. My asks are also open for those with questions. Please note: if you are rude, arguing clearly in bad faith, or obviously did not read my post, I will delete your ask without responding. I don't have time for dealing with that. Revaluate yourself if you feel like being a jerk online is the best way to solve your problem.

Have a good day, and I hope you learned something.

#trans #transgender #serious #fenn talks #trans healthcare #trans health #trans positive #study #studies #scientific

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