#nobody has better insults than the mando'ade

[tarrevizsla]

idk if you've talked abt this before but what do you think tarre's feelings/reactions are regarding revan and their actions?

YES oh my god that

im gonna put this under a cut bc. yeah

i set up tarre as being about 500 years before revan in the timeline but their lineage is linked to revan's lineage so they almost blame themself for revan's actions especially when revan takes mandalore's mask, this all comes to a head about 2500 years later when the darksaber and revan's holocron are in the same part of the temple vault

see tarre, like most mando'ade, respects revan - their skill in battle, their strategy and strength, their willingness to sacrifice - but more than that she understands revan, one ex-jedi to another. tarre, more than anyone i think, understands why revan felt the need to go to war against the mandalorians - why they chose to leave the jedi and protect those they considered their people.

but seeing the destruction they brought to mandalore and mandalorians, seeing what revan and the exile did at malachor (mandalore the ultimate wielded the darksaber at malachor), the use of the mass shadow generator... like i said tarre understands revan. she knows the lengths people go to to protect that that they love - she has sacrificed much for justice herself. even so, tarre has never flirted with the dark side in the way that revan does, she's somewhere in the grey area of the force but not on the edge of falling like they were, she wouldn't have made that choice (even at war against the republic or the sith).

and the insult of taking mandalore's mask on top of the use of the msg - she can respect it as a political move, but as a mandalorian (a mandalore) she finds it incredibly rude. just as she understands revan, she knows they understand mandalorians, knows that they know what they've done by taking the mask. this is mitigated slightly when they return the mask to canderous ordo - she always had a soft spot for clan ordo - but it isn't the place of an aruetii to determine who gets mandalore's mask, even one with so much mandokar (because revan is one of the most mandokarla jedi, and most mandalorians would be honored to fight by their side as canderous did).

tarre has her own reasons to dislike mental manipulations, on top of generally regarding it as a bad move, so what the jedi council did to revan adds to her distaste for the jedi order even centuries after she left. despite what they did, she still wants to see revan come back to themself - they deserve to be their own person, at the least. everyone deserves that, even darth revan. she holds justice above all things, even vengeance (some would say that they’re the same thing, but tarre knows better) and revan must achieve their justice. (yes, tarre has absolutely been force-ghosting behind revan throughout their adventures, it’s the most entertaining thing since real housewives of mandalore was canceled).

now, here’s the other question - how does revan feel about tarre? and that is also a question with no easy answer - they can respect a mand’alor who was known as a powerful jedi and a fair and good ruler during their time, but they must also scorn someone who left the order, who led an army against the republic (even though they would as well), because the key difference between revan and tarre is that revan was always doing what they thought was best for the republic while tarre did everything she did for justice - mandalore second, but justice first and foremost. and you can get into the deeper implications of that line - i will not remove your mask until there is justice [...] so swears revan - but their justice was still through a republic view, not their own view.

tarre understands revan but revan cannot understand tarre, not for a long time - cannot understand turning their back on the republic and the jedi in the way she did (and this is deeply hypocritical, of course, coming from darth revan - but they still thought they were acting in the republic’s best interests when they were a sith, even as they led armies against the republic and killed jedi).

tarre was never spiteful the way revan could be, never angry - they were not calm but they were controlled, cold instead of fiery the way revan could be. their leadership styles were similar, but at the same time they couldn’t have been more different - tarre had friends where revan had followers and followers where revan had friends (tarre walked among their people when revan walked before them, revan was friends with their generals where tarre demanded (and had) their respect).

so many jedi followed revan over the edge to the dark side, and yet tarre had more friends on the other side, away from the jedi. again, revan had followers where tarre had friends - they didn’t get to know the revanchists or the sith, not truly. they were thrust into the role of leader (they chose it, and yet it was no choice - if they were not revan, then the galaxy would have fallen. this is known). they had no opportunity to rise, they simply were and were not at the same time - they were revan, they were the republic, they were nobody and everybody at once. they spent so much time defending the republic that they didn’t even defend themself, it was inevitable that they fell just as it was inevitable that the republic fell.

revan and tarre both had the habit of forming attachments, and those attachments led them both away from the jedi order (not from jedi teachings, however, which is an entirely different essay). revan’s attachment to the republic, tarre’s attachment to mandalore, and the way the jedi are both separate from the republic and part of its military force at once - both of them had to sacrifice some connection to the jedi to serve their people.

so when they meet, some 2500 years after revan lived, they meet as force ghosts - which is the only reason they don’t immediately throw hands; revan would love to fight another mand’alor and tarre isn’t about to go all ‘there is no emotion, there is peace’ with darth revan right there. instead they spend 50 years stuck in the same room sniping at each other, arguing with each other over tiny contradictions in jedi teachings and tactics in war and leadership. but even with the history between them and their respective peoples, there’s only so much arguing you can do before you start to understand each other, and so 50 years after they meet the arguing has become affable rather than angry.

there’s still a distance between them, that won’t go away - having worn out their arguments, their mutual respect for each other wins out, and they get to reasonable, rational discussions and even some agreements about the finer points of jedi morality (horse shit, your people and justice come first), the sith (make too much of a fuss about being opposite jedi), and even petty things like lightsaber forms (makashi is overwrought and ataru is the way to go to win). and if they ever met without the context of everything that happened between the jedi/republic and mandalore - everything that happened between tarre and the republic and revan and mandalore - they would hit it off fairly well, because their personalities are complementary.

in the end, tarre respects revan a great deal and vice versa. they are far more similar than they really want to think about, and both will always carry a resentment for each other but at the same time they understand each other’s decisions, the choices they made and everything that led them to these choices. if they had lived in the same era - tarre would have been a revanchist, that’s for sure, if she didn’t have ties on mandalore. even while she considered herself part of the jedi order, she thought they needed to be more powerful, more willing to do what had to be done - just like what revan did. revan achieved some things that tarre had dreamed of, and she recognizes and appreciates that.

so does tarre like revan? not really. but she does understand them, and in a way, that’s more important.