#speculating about what happened to Korkie

[kalevalakryze]

The Ghost Of You

Bo-Katan Week Day 3: Bo-Katan and Satine Pairing: Bo-Katan Kryze & Satine Kryze, Bo-Katan Kryze/The Armorer (background) Characters: Bo-Katan Kryze, Satine Kryze, The Armorer Warnings: Grief, Loss, Blood & Injury Mention, Force Ghost Satine (kinda) Notes: Look, listen… I may not know as much as I want about these two and their beginnings, but I know that I love them, and that Bo-Katan deserves to have someone looking out for her. Also, I am not great at writing anything motivational, but I’m trying. That’s all I can say. Tidbit at the end is inspired by this, also, big thanks to @beladonna02 for reading everything through for me ! Word Count: 3,565 Summary: Satine would appear in her nightmares, when the horrors were chased away by the woman that she had only reconsidered an older sister hours before her death. Satine never spoke in these dreams, and would disappear with the war zones she chased away. Tonight, however, as Bo-Katan tucked the darksaber under her pillow and reclined in her cot aboard the gauntlet, preparing to manage some rest before going home, to see if Mandalore could be saved, things changed. Her dream put her in a field in Kalevala, long grass tickling her fingertips as she pressed forward, muscle memory leading her to a clearing atop one of the many mountainous cliffs. There, Satine stood, looking as if she’d been waiting quite some time. “Satine…” AO3 Link: Here!

Nothing could ever be simple, not for Bo-Katan Kryze. There always had to be something to fight back against even in the simplest tasks, a trait she’d had since she was young. She would always argue the points of things, like brushing her hair, or doing things with her family, or, as she got older, their stances on the way Mandalore was run. During basic training, Satine had always been there, though Bo had never known just what her older sister had gone through to soften people’s reactions to the child’s brash nature, she’d never thought about how much Satine blocked for her, until she’d left, and there was no one to stand between her and the consequences of her actions. 

Death Watch had been Bo-Katan’s chance to be something other than the little vod’ika who couldn’t hold her tongue, but she’d had to change so much just to survive, Pre had killed those he deemed weak, and he’d always pressed down harder on Bo-Katan for her relation to the Duchess of Mandalor, even if Bo-Katan had readily thrown away familial ties the second Pre had asked. 

The girl who used to follow Satine Kryze around was as good as dead, compared to the warrior that sprouted in her place. She did exactly as Pre asked, kept quiet when her opinion didn’t matter, and recognized a true Mandalorian, had aided in every operation to take down her sister, even if it meant Satine would have to die, it was what Mandalore needed, right?

Bo-Katan would face the consequences of her actions when Pre’s operation with the CIS came to an abrupt end, when he’d allied with the dar’jetti, and she’d decided to speak out against it, against him. She had enough bruises to keep her quiet, for a time, until Pre met his end at the business end of the dark saber. 

From that day forward, nothing had slowed down, the loss, the pain, the consequences she had to face for living her life while someone else took the blame. 

Bo-Katan had exactly an hour of peace, an hour of forgiveness and the feeling of someone having her back in a way that even Ursa could not have truly provided. “There was a time when we weren’t enemies. Perhaps that time has come again,” Though neither of them could have ever guessed that it would have been a matter of minutes, before they were pulled apart once more, a mere matter of hours before the Jetti, Kenobi, was telling her of her ori’vod’s death, like she had some kind of right to be upset.

Air never came to her lungs without a fight since that day, every breath she took was a struggle to plant herself in the sand and declare that she wasn’t going to die, not yet. Without Pre to fill her head with how she was supposed to feel, or the threats of death at being seen as weak to keep her in line, the kid she’d buried in basic had pounded at the bars in her heart. 

She didn’t just leave behind her family when she’d left for Death Watch, she’d left the kid who wanted to read her sister’s datapads with her work on it, or read holonovels about mandalorian history, the kid that would bug Satine into staying up to watch just one more documentary with her. Every day since Satine’s death, that kid tried to break down everything she’d spent so long building, the blood, sweat, tears, and mountain of corpses she laid as foundation for the woman she’d become, it all threatened to come tumbling down each time the adrenaline wore off. 

Sometimes, when the adrenaline started to ebb from her veins and she had a moment’s respite in her ship, the redhead would fall into a fitful sleep. Warzones mottled with enough grief to have her waking up more exhausted than before were suddenly memories long forgotten. Some nights, she would be at her families castle on Kalevala, the blurry faces of her buir explaining something or another that Bo had found interesting, her ori’vod giving her piggyback rides around the grounds, or even the protectors showing her some of their moves, after she bugged them enough. The kid she refused to acknowledge as herself would grow quiet for a few days, after nights like this, and she would walk through war zones with an unabashed sense of safety.

Bo-Katan had never given much thought to the temporary shift from her nightmares, not until she was striking against the Empire. An explosion had sent a sharp piece of Durasteel through her side, an inch away from her armor that would have protected her. She’d hit the ground hard, had scrambled to try and stand instead of put pressure on the wound, had been busy firing at the troopers. The only thing she had been certain about that day was that she had been completely alone, and that she hadn’t called into her comms once. Bo-Katan hadn’t given any of her weird happenings any thought, until the feeling of hands pressing against torn skin, keeping both sides close together and keeping a great deal of pressure on the wound, within moments, Koska and Axe had been there, but she’d felt when the first set of hands had been replaced with Koska’s, the first set had been so cold, but they’d felt safe. It was all Bo could recall, after she’d woken up in the gauntlet with her side stitched up and enough batch to keep her down a few days, along with the knowledge that if she hadn’t applied pressure before Koska and Axe had gotten there, she surely would have died. 

Bo had started to pay attention, after that day, to all the oddities that had occurred in her life. How her armor would be removed when she was sure she’d passed out with it on, or how a Niteowl would show up right when she needed a hand, before she could even think to call. Or how, when she lay her head down at night, there was an undeserved feeling of safety and love, and the ghost of fingers brushing the tangles from her hair after a long day.

Her dreams changed more often, the ever present nightmares were still there, but so was Satine. She would never say anything, but she would take Bo-Katan’s hand and lead her away, would lead her home, even in the nights since the Night of a Thousand Tears, even after Bo-Katan had failed to protect Korkie. Satine would lead her home, and Bo-Katan would sit in the fields on Kalevala, or would jump around the palace on Mandalore, looking at all the architecture their people designed. It had been relieving, until it wasn’t.

Satine’s presence in her nightmares were eventually met with anger and hate from the redhead, not unlike their last days as sisters, before Bo had grabbed her armor and left for Concordia. She failed to win the dark saber, and she couldn’t justify challenging Din Djarin, she failed, and her fleet left her. So why Satine’s ghost stuck with her when literally anyone else deserved her presence (wasn’t Kenobi still floating somewhere, she could go do ghost shit with him) was a loss on Bo. 

She deserved the nightmares, and the anxieties, and the pain that pulsed through her being, day in, day out, as she sat on that throne on Kalevala. She didn’t deserve the haunting memories that offered respite, or a breath of fresh air against the ebbing darkness that consumed her. When the Imperials destroyed Kalevala, she figured she’d deserved that too. Until Din Djarin brought her home, took her to his people, and they accepted her as one of their people, as long as she fell in line. 

It had been easy enough, just like with their predecessors, Bo-Katan had fallen in line, had kept her mouth shut about their ideals and just followed the creed the way they wanted. Of course, even the comfort of being told what to do by the tribe did not last. The Armorer had seen something in her, something Bo-Katan truly wished would die, just like the kid she had forced into the back of her very being. 

She’d felt someone else’s hands against her own, when she’d taken off her helmet in the forge, the ghost of fingers brushing through her hair as she swallowed her anxieties and met The Armorer’s gaze. There had been a fear of being cast aside for good, that day, but the feeling of a hand in her own, and the reassurances from The Armorer, had loaned her the strength to find their people. 

Now though, with the dark saber officially her own, under Din Darin’s technicality, their people united, and plans to reclaim their home, Bo-Katan had breathed easy for the first time in over a decade. 

The dark saber was stuffed under her pillow in her cot aboard the gauntlet, The Armorer, still helmeted, lay already asleep in the space beside her, allowing her to find some semblance of comfort between the durasteel wall and the solid form of the other leader, Bo-Katan was able to relax. The kid had come with the comfort, however, bringing the redhead to curl into the warmth at her side, until the cold ghostly feeling of someone stroking the bridge of her nose lulled her to sleep.

Tonight, it was not one of hundreds of battles that played behind her eyelids, but the familiar sights of Kalevala, although, Bo-Katan had never visited this particular mountain, far off from the castle and too difficult to climb as a child who could never hope to reach. 

A muscle memory she did not have had her walking through a long overgrown path, pushing past the brush to the small clearing on the other side. The redhead stopped cold in her tracks as she took in the view. Near the edge of the cliff, a figure clad in white stood, blonde hair falling loose down her back, caught in the breeze as the wind sung its way through the mountains. “Satine…” Bo’s words were no more a whisper as the wind, but the woman still turned towards her. 

“I’ve been waiting for you, for quite some time, Bo,” The woman stepped away from the ledge, before lowering herself onto one of the large boulders that must have landed years before on the cliff’s top from mountains above. When she patted the spot next to her, the redhead moved, almost numbly, to drop inelegantly into the indicated seat. 

“Waiting for me?” Her hands went to feel her own pulse point, feeling for the thumping of her own heart, which responded with rapid thumps into her fingertips as she pressed her fingers into her bare wrist. 

“I was sure you would have come years ago,” Satine shook her head, an almost fond smile pulling at her lips. “Though, Obi-Wan said he hadn’t been able to see his master until he was good and ready either.”

“What are you talking about…?” Bo-Katan’s brows furrowed as she leaned forward, elbows settling into the tops of her legs as she stared hard at her sister. Satine still looked young, which was rather jarring to the woman pushing fifty, with wrinkles pulling at her face and age wearing her down. The drop it caused in her chest had Satine reaching to take her hand, as if she could feel it the spiral of Bo’s thoughts. 

“I’ve always been around, Bo-Katan, no matter how you’ve viewed me, or yourself,” Satine offered, squeezing Bo-Katan’s hand.

The coldness of the hand against her own, the way blue eyes settled on her, it was… certainly too much, to real, and too familiar. “This is some force osik, isn’t it?”

A soft laugh, hidden behind her sister’s hand and the nod of her head met Bo’s ears. “Yes, I suppose it is.”

“Why are you talking to me now?”

“You let me in,” Satine’s brows furrowed in a way that was achingly similar to Bo’s own, as she looked to the redhead. “I was never able to speak to you unless you were ready, I managed to get through occasionally, when you needed me, but you always shut me out before I could say anything,” The soft pads of her fingers brushed against the top of her hand, bringing Bo’s gaze down to stare at the pale, unblemished skin, against her own, scars littering her knuckles and the backs of her hands. 

“We had others in our clan,” Bo pointed out, forcing her gaze to a patch of wildflowers nearby. “They could have used your help more,” The stability of the dream shifted as she spoke, and Bo had to clamp her eyes shut to avoid the way Satine’s image had flickered into that of a corpse. 

“Bo, if you shut me out, I will lose this connection, I can’t be here without your consent,” She reminded with a gentle voice. A beat passed before the dream stabilized once more, and Bo could open her eyes. 

“I just, don’t get it, sometimes,” She let go of Satine’s hand to wrap her arms around herself. The kid she tried so hard to lock away soared at the comforting action, one the Mandalorian hadn’t allowed herself since she’d walked away. 

“Talk me through it,” 

“I walked away, Satine,” The blonde’s hand rested on her shoulder, a gentle pressure, until the redhead was tucking herself into the woman’s side, head dropping onto her shoulder, like they’d done so many times before. “I left, and I actively plotted to kill you, I took each opportunity I had to make things harder for what you were trying to do, and I only decided to change when the consequences of my actions started to catch up to me,” Her hands pulled at the soft fabric of her shirt, one she didn’t recognize as something she’d ever owned, but it was comfortable, at least, as her hands fisted into the fabric to release some of her frustrations. 

“I tried to do something right, and I failed, at every, single, step.” 

“That’s not true, Bo. You’ve united our people, you’re going to go to Mandalore tomorrow, and you’re going to lead our people into a new age, you’ve brought them together,”

“Until they find out exactly what I’ve done, Satine. Korkie is dead, because I wasn’t enough, because I gave up,” Bo’s teeth ground together as she flexed the muscles in her jaw. If it wasn’t for the arm wrapped around her shoulders, she probably would have stood and started pacing, just so she wasn’t sitting still.

“There was no way you could have avoided Gideon’s betrayal. If you wouldn’t have surrendered, you’d be dead with them,”

“Maybe it would have been for the best,” The arm around Bo’s shoulders disappeared, before her chin was being pushed up to meet the anger in blue eyes. 

“That isn’t true,” 

Before Satine could continue, Bo batted her hand away and stood, rising to meet her with just as much, if not more, anger. “You can’t say that and believe it, Satine. If you’d lived, Mandalore never would have been lost!”

“It would have, Bo-Katan, I could never convince the warriors to unite to my ideals, we would always be at war with each other, if I had continued. But you have learned, have you not? You have walked both worlds because you have seen what your actions have created. You have met the Children of the Watch, those who faced the consequences of your actions in Death Watch. You have fought, won and lost and everything in between to get to this point, and you are learning what no other has before. Too much Mandalorian blood has been spilled, there is a balance to this choice that only you can weigh. If you push for warriors that strike out against everything, you face annihilation, if you push for pacifism, you face annihilation, but you know the way to balance it all, because you’ve lived it,” 

Bo-Katan scoffed and turned her back on her sister, though she kept her foot pointed towards her, afraid that if she closed her body language off entirely, she would lose her forever. 

“I hate it,” She admitted after a moments deliberation. 

“Hate what?” Satine’s hand rested once more on her shoulder, and once again, Bo-Katan leaned into the contact. 

“I hate what I’ve become,” When she looked at her hands, she only saw blood, when she looked at her blasters, she remembered only the lives of her own people that had been cut out by the other end. “I hate that I survived, when you didn’t. . . I hate every year that passes, that reminds me I’ll always be older than you ever got to be, that Korkie never got to be as old as you, before he’d died, that there are Mandalorians out there who have never known Mandalore when it was full of life. I hate what I’ve done to survive, I hate Pre, even though I chose to follow him, I hate the way he made me feel, I hate it all, Satine.” Bo ranted, now able to pace across the clearing, creating a small path in the wildflowers she’d trampled. 

“Well… What are we going to do about it?” Satine offered as she lowered herself back onto the smooth face of the boulder. 

“There isn’t a ‘we’, Satine, you’re dead. This is just… a figment of my imagination gone wild,”

“You and I both know that isn’t true, Bo,”

“It’s easier than thinking this could be real,”

“Bo-Katan, just, sit, please,” Again, Satine patted the spot beside her, a smile pulling at her lips as the redhead dropped beside her. “You are worthy of love, in it’s many forms. Wether it be whichever way I am able to reach you, from your friends, or even from the woman you’ve allowed into your life,” 

“How do you know about The Armorer?”

“Force osik,” The sisters laughed together, and Satine once more pulled her ‘little’ sister close, until she could run her fingers through her hair. “You have always been worthy of love, just like you are capable of change. You need to learn to love those things you hate, but-“ Her finger tapped the tip of Bo’s nose, “You do not have to do it alone,” each word was emphasized with a tap to the tip of her nose, until the redhead was crinkling her nose and lightly batting at her hand. 

“I know,” Bo-Katan’s smile faltered for just a moment, as she dipped her head into her ori’vod’s shoulder. 

“You’re going to have to trust me on this one, Bo. The Mandalorians at your side tomorrow are not there for the darksaber, they will be there because you’d proven that you’re capable, even at your lowest, you’ve saved their younglings, had brought new foundlings to the tribe, and are leading them home, together. There may come a point where that saber is gone, but they will still be with you, just as I am. Mandalorians are stronger together, you just have to let them in to help you. And maybe, you won’t have to be the person you’d become to survive, because you’ll be able to live,” 

“How did I ever survive all those years without your motivational speeches?” Bo’s voice was muffled into Satine’s shoulder, though the blonde could feel the smile on her sister’s lips. 

“Would you have listened, even if I told you this while you were moping around on the throne?”

“Probably not,” 

“Exactly, so just, be quiet, and let me enjoy this time with you,” Satine shook her head, before her fingers found Bo-Katan’s hair once more, brushing it out as she pointed out different birds or talked about the flowers around them. 

When Bo-Katan woke up, hours later, she was tangled entirely in The Armorer’s arms, legs interlocked, fingers grasping at the soft material of her flight suit, and the woman’s gaze boring into her sole. “Did you sleep well?” The Armorer questioned as Bo’s cheeks flushed and she started to unwind herself, nodding as she dropped herself into the space beside the woman. “Were you aware that you talk in your sleep?”

“There was a lot to talk about, apparently, I’m sorry if I woke you.” Bo-Katan reached to pull the dark saber from under the pillow, settling it on the edge of the bed to clip to her belt once she got ready. 

“Your sister, Satine?” The Armorer questioned, bringing Bo to a grinding halt. 

“How did you..?”

“You are not the first one she’s reached out to in the night,” The Armorer had left it at that, even with Bo’s continued questioning glances, and a stifled laughter in the air. 

Days later, as Bo-Katan stood in front of the forge, in front of their people, she’d felt a familiar weight at her side, and as the torch was passed to her, there was another hand guiding her to lower it and light the flames. In the chanting of their people, she heard not just those standing around her, but the echoes of hundreds, of Satine’s own voice ringing in her ear. It wasn’t her song, but it was Mandalore’s. From Mand’alor the great, all the way to Bo-Katan Kryze, they were all there, in some way, shape, or form. 

Translations: vod'ika - little sibling ori'vod - older sibling Jetti - Jedi dar'jetti - sith osik - shit kriff - expletive 

[duchess-of-mandalore]

Bo-Katan Kryze’s Age

Or rather, it’s not polite to talk about a lady’s age, except in this Lady’s case

How old is Lady Bo-Katan Kryze by the time she appears in The Mandalorian? 

We don’t have a canon answer, but we can get pretty close. And yeah . . . it’s a weird answer. But it’s not without reasoning.

Though Bo’s exact age has not been explicitly confirmed, Bo-Katan is in her mid-60s by Mando S2.

How did I get to that conclusion?

1. Dave Filoni has implied that Bo-Katan and Satine are twins, or at least very close in age.

At least twice, Dave, who has said that he has an “extensive genealogy of Clan Kryze,” has referred to a formative event that happened in the Kryze family when "[Bo-Katan] and Satine are six.”

The first is in a YouTube video (source listed in reblog, or search YouTube for the title listed below)

You ask yourself why is [Bo] acting one way & why was [Satine] a pacifist? I have a theoretical backstory that outlines them even at six years old—the two of them—& what transpired to make them who they are today.

- Dave Filoni, The Clone Wars Hangout - February 2, 2013, start at 28:15

The second is in an interview with IGN (source listed in reblog)

I have a rather lengthy backstory that even explains how [Bo] became a Death Watch soldier that goes all the way back to the time she and Satine are six. Because to figure out how she got to that point, and yet Satine is a duchess… I have a whole story about who their father was and what their relationships were and everything with Vizsla, going back for a very long time and how that intersects with Obi-Wan Kenobi. 

- Dave FIloni, IGN Interview, 2013

Both of these sources come from shortly after The Lawless aired in 2013. Yes, it is possible that Dave has since backtracked on this idea, however, until we know more, that’s unwarranted speculation (however, we’ll speculate on whether or not Bo could be younger than her mid-60s by the time of The Mandalorian later).

-

2. Bo-Katan (and Satine) are close in age to Obi-Wan Kenobi.

Even establishing that Bo and Satine are probably twins or close in age, we don’t have a canonical age for Satine in order to solidify how old they are. However, we do know that Satine is close in age to Obi-Wan Kenobi. They fell in love together while they were on the run together during the time that he was a padawan. 

Because this is all we know, the reasoning behind Bo’s age has to rely on Obi-Wan birth (57 BBY). I’m willing to allow for a slight difference between Obi-Wan and Satine & Bo, but it can’t be much (especially since we know that Satine begins ruling Mandlore immediately afterwards). Thus, we’ll consider the difference basically negligible at this point, and just assume that Obi-Wan, Satine, and Bo were all born in 57 BBY.

That makes them 38 years old at the time of Satine’s death in The Clone Wars (19 BBY). Bo and Obi-Wan are about 56 when they appear in Rebels (1 BBY), and Bo is about 67 years old by the time of The Mandalorian Season 2 (~10 BBY).

So yeah. That’s definitely different from how Bo looks in Mando S2. Katee Sackhoff is 40 years old (about the same age as Bo in The Clone Wars), but they really did not try to age her up at all.

-

Could Bo be younger?

So, just for the sake of argument, could I be wrong about all this? Let’s say that Dave has backtracked on his original plan to have Bo and Satine be twins. Could Bo be younger? And by how much?

If Dave backtracks on them being twins, he’ll probably have to backtrack on the story that he had about something happening to Satine and Bo when they were six that had a formative effect on why Satine became a pacifist and Bo a warrior. 

(Though it’s only speculation, I’ve always assumed that event was the death of their mother, so in my mind, Bo can’t be more than six years younger than Satine, but I could be totally wrong about that headcanon)

But let’s say that just for the sake of argument, Bo is quite a bit younger. Let’s say she’s 15 years younger than Satine, and that would make her a little older than 50 in The Mandalorian Season 2 (still over 10 years older than Katee). That means that she would have been about 23 years old at the end of The Clone Wars. 

There’s nothing that concretely denies this, but we do know that Bo’s nephew, Korkie is about 18 at that same time (he’s listed as being in his “late teens” in Season 5, in the original novelization of The Lawless), and it’s just hard for me to believe that Bo is only five years older than him. She’s clearly much closer to Satine’s age.

Plus, making her that much younger robs Bo and Satine of a connection that they clearly had at one point. In The Lawless, Satine says that it’s been a long time since they’ve seen each other and that there was a time when the two of them weren’t enemies. Again, there’s nothing concrete here, but I’d have a hard time buying an actual enemies-life feud between them when, for example, Satine is 25 and Bo is 10. 

Impossible? No. But personally, I just don’t think that’s what Dave is thinking about.

-

Was her appearance in Mando S2 intentional, or was Bo’s age simply forgotten/ignored?

As I mentioned, Katee Sackhoff is 40 years old, but they really did not try to age her up in The Mandalorian, even though Bo likely is in her mid-60s.

While this is strange, I do not believe that this is an oversight. Dave Filoni loves timelines, and Katee has said that between takes all they would do is sit together and Dave would tell her everything about Bo’s backstory and work through all the timelines with her. 

So what could the explanation be? Well ... it could be an out-of-universe explanation. It could have been decided not to age Katee at all in order to make her as instantly recognizable as possible in live-action for those who already knew her from the animated shows (I struggle with this though, because some streaks of grey in her hair would not make her less recognizable, especially with that iconic armor).

However, there could be an in-universe explanation. Instead of having Katee play someone who looks like she’s in her mid-60s, Dave may have decided to have her play someone who doesn’t look like she’s in her mid-60s (but still is).

Some options include: 1. Canonizing the idea that was present in the EU that Star Wars humans simply live longer than regular humans (personally, I’m not a fan of this because we’ve never seen characters aging in a way different from Earth humans before, so I think it would set an awkward precedence).

2. Giving Bo herself a reason for why she looks much younger than her age. The one I’m most fond of is the idea that maybe for most of the time between TCW and Rebels, Bo was stuck in carbonite (perhaps by the Empire for some reason). 15 years in carbonite would allow her to be 65 but act as if she’s 50.

3. Hanging a lantern on the whole situation by saying that “wearing a helmet in the sun really keeps the wrinkles away!” or something like that. Bo’s in great shape. She’s led a healthy (if dangerous) life, but it’s not unheard of for people in their mid-60s to be very athletic. However, I do think that if that’s the fact, it still needs to be explicitly referred to.

-

Will we learn more in the future?

I sure hope so. Katee has basically confirmed that Bo’s story will be ongoing and she expects/hopes to be in The Mandalorian Season 3. It’s possible we’ll learn more about Bo’s backstory (including how old she is), and hopefully we’ll get an explanation for her appearance. 

Katee has said that she desperately wants to know more about the story of Bo and Satine, and how Obi-Wan/Satine’s relationship affected Bo as well. Those are all things that Dave has expressed interest in exploring:

I’d give you more detail [about Bo and Satine’s backstory] except I’d like to tell that story at some point in some form of Star Wars media in the future. I’ve discussed it with a couple people, and we’ve started to architect it into the timeline of Star Wars somewhat, just to see where these things fit.

- Dave FIloni, IGN interview (2013)

So I’m just clinging to the idea that perhaps some day, we’ll be getting more answers. Bo’s appearance in The Mandalorian and bringing her story to a more general Star Wars audience certainly bodes well for more details on the Kryze family story in the future.

[tessaliagrey]

Bo’s redemption - or the lack thereof

Every time we get an episode of Star Wars that has Bo-Katan in it, tumblr is full of everything from “OMG I love her, she’s the coolest and sooo badass!” to “OMG I hate her, she’s a terrorist!”. And I might say you are all right.

One of the things that comes up periodically is Bo-Katan’s redemtion - or the lack thereof - depending on how you see her character in general (see above).

In my opinion, Bo has no real redemption arc. And I don’t think we’ll ever get one. As to why, I think it helps to retrace her steps...as far as we as viewers know them.

The first time we see her in mid-season four of TCW, she is a faceless (literally) Death Watch lieutenant on Carlac. She slaps Ahsoka’s ass, burns down a town, helps kill the townspeople and tries to kill Ahsoka and Lux Bontari as they escape. And she seems to have fun doing all that. Yep, solid terrorist. And I’m not budging on that. There is nothing “badass” about that. It’s just wrong.

The first time we see her as an independent character is during the Lawless arc. She’s still fully emerged in Death Watch. And even though she might not think of getting Maul to “help” is a good idea (I think she really thinks that Sith are no better than Jedi), she stands by Vizsla’s decision to join forces with him.

But that is also the part where we begin to see that while she is loyal to Vizsla, she is also probably one of very few people who are allowed to contradict him. Maybe not publicly, but at least bewteen the two of them. She tells Vizsla to his face that she thinks joinging forces with Maul and Savage is a bad idea. But she seems to trust Vizsla so much that only a few words from him are needed to quench her fears; at least for the time being.

But the longer this allience between Maul and Death Watch lasts, the more worried she gets. She sees that Vizsla is loosing his grip on the situation. But her trust in him seems to be unbreakable. Even when he says that “Maul will soon be dead alongside the duchess”, she doesn’t say anything. She just smirks. He tells her to her face that her sister will die at the end, and she doesn’t say anything. (As to why, we can only speculate, and that’s not what I want to get into right now.)

And then, for a few days maybe, everything looks like it all panned out the way she wanted. Maul and her sister are imprisoned, a “true” Mandalorian rules, and the people will find their way back to the warrior faith that was still openly practiced until the beginning of Satine’s rule after the civil war.

But then, everything changes. And quickly. Maul escapes his prison and challenges Vizsla to a duel, which he naturally accepts (he might just run himself through with the Dark Saber if he didn’t). And loses. He dies; unceremoniously, broken and defeated. And only then, only in those last few moments of Vizsla’s life, does Bo-Katan realize that it was all for nothing. That her vision of Mandalore will not come to pass. That it ended in one swift motion of a black blade.

Maul declares himself ruler of Mandalore, and a not unsignificant part of Death Watch bows down to him. Bo rejects his rule - not because he killed Vizsla, which Bo is visibly shocked by - but because “no outsider will ever rule Mandalore”. She and others loyal to her, like the Nite Owls, make a run for it and escape the palace.

She then teams up with her nephew Korkie (How the hell did they get in touch?) to rescue Satine (Why? We never learn that!), and Bo seriously tries to save her sister’s life. But they are overpowered by Maul’s Death Watch loyalists and barely escape while Satine is recaptured as bait for Obi-Wan.

We don’t know where Bo was when Maul killed Satine or how she learned about her sister’s death. The next time we see her, she and her Nite Owls rescue Obi-Wan from being imprisoned and help him escape, asking him to tell the Republic what happened, even if it meant a Republic invasion of Mandalore. The reason she gives is that “Maul will die. But Mandalore will survive.” Why she wants Maul dead; if it is because he killed her sister, because he killed Vizsla or because he’s - from her POV - the reason it all failed, we never learn. Maybe, in the end, it is a combination of all three. But that is speculation.

Well, the Republic doesn’t get a move on when it comes to Mandalore and it takes the unlikely alliance of Bo-Katan and Ahsoka to get Anakin and Obi-Wan to agree. Again, all we really know is that Bo wants Maul off Mandalore, preferably in pieces. She brings up Satine to goad Obi-Wan into helping her, but we still don’t know if she actually grieves/grieved for her sister, or more for a lost ideal of Mandalore.

Well, the siege of Mandalore finally happens, and by the end, Bo is left in charge as regent. It is also the only time we hear any words of regret from her. “I wish I was good at something other than war.”

After that we have a nice 17 year gap in Bo’s story, and anything we know about that time comes down to hearsay. We learn that she was betrayed by Clan Saxon (who had followed Maul) and had to flee Sundari. We get the feeling that Fenn Rau as a protector knew her personally around the time of her regency, but we don’t really know that for sure.

But something in the past seventeen years did change in Bo-Katan. Well, it is quite some time to reflect on your actions and choices. We get the feeling that she did learn to understand her sister’s motives, though they will never be hers. And that she can recognize what her sister acomplished as a leader. She’s a lot more considerate of other people’s positions. But we never hear a word of regret for what she did during the Clone Wars, for being part of Death Watch. And maybe that is because there simply is no regret. Bo-Katan as a person might be a lot calmer and a lot more considerate, but her ideals of what Mandalore should be, of what it stands for and what it means to be Mandalorian, haven’t changed.

Bo-Katan may have matured; grown as a person. She does try to do right by her people. But there is no redemption. We might like the way her character is portrayed in Rebels and The Mandalorian, and we might even wish for her to be redeemed, but quite honestly: How?

No, I’m afraid we will have to live with our conflicting views of Lady Bo-Katan of House Kryze, where we love her and hate her, but can’t get around her. And face it, people, we wouldn’t want it any other way.

[theboywhocan11]

Rey Kenobi - A Da Vinci Code Theory Analysis

Okay, yes...this is going to sound like a conspiracy theory and why is the “Da Vinci Code” being thrown in with Obi-Wan Kenobi and Rey Kenobi (Theory). But, please hear me out...

Disclaimer: The following post covers a fringe theory. A fringe theory is defined as a theory that is not based entirely within the Official Star Wars Canon lore. The purpose of this fringe theory is to go over a what-if scenario in regards to the subject of interest at hand. This post is not to advocate for any certain perspective, but instead it is to educate an alternative point of view in regards to characters and/or events in the Star Wars Lore (both Canon and Legends). The focus of this theory would be using the Dan Brown’s Novel “The Da Vinci Code” and various related material in this fringe theory analysis.

(1) First things first, what is the “Da Vinci Code”?

Da Vinci code refers to a list of hidden clues found in Leonardo Da Vinci’s work all of which seems to point to the idea that Jesus Christ and Mary Magdalene got married and had descendants.

(2) What’s going on with the Da Vinci Code in Dan Brown’s book, “The Da Vinci Code?”

The novel “The Da Vinci Code” “explores an alternative religious history, whose central plot point is that the Merovingian kings of France were descended from the bloodline of Jesus Christ and Mary Magdalene, ideas derived from Clive Prince's The Templar Revelation (1997) and books by Margaret Starbird. The book also refers to The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail (1982) though Dan Brown has stated that it was not used as research material.”

Link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Da_Vinci_Code

In other words, in Dan Brown's “The Da Vinci Code,” the descendants of Jesus Christ and Mary Magdalene formed the Merovingian Knights and these Knights protect this knowledge from various opponents who were against the idea that Jesus and Mary had children. 

Furthermore, “The existence of the bloodline was the secret that was contained in the documents discovered by the Crusaders after they conquered Jerusalem in 1099 (see Kingdom of Jerusalem). The Priory of Sion and the Knights Templar were organized to keep the secret.”

Link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Da_Vinci_Code

In the novel, “The Da Vinci Code,” The Priory of Sion knew of the latest descendant of Jesus and Mary and thus kept the identity of the descendant a secret.

(3) How does this particular “Da Vinci Code” theory mean and/or tied to the sequel trilogy and the Rey Kenobi Theory?

(To read more - go below the cut)

The relatives of Kenobi/Kryze family (predominately the Kryze) family helped form some Mandalorian organization (like Knights Mandalore or Mandalorian Knights or even another iteration of the “Mandalorian Protectors” who were mentioned in Star Wars Rebels) who were assigned to protect the bloodline of Obi-Wan Kenobi and Satine Kryze. 

It can be speculated that either this Mandalorian Knights group also formed the Knights of Ren either by Force via Snoke or by choice in order to stay alive when the First Order went after this particular group who were harboring a powerful child. A child who is a blend of Jedi and Mandalorian heritage.

Like in the Dan Brown novel that explores the idea that the Merovingian Knights are the descendants of Jesus/Mary - this particular group of “Mandalorian Knights/Protectors” may have blood ties to this Kenobi/Kryze bloodline.

(4) The possibility of another group knowing about the secret Kenobi/Kryze bloodline besides some Mandalorians???

Further note: As mentioned in the “Da Vinci Code” novel, “The Priory of Sion and the Knights Templar were organized to keep the secret.” 

Now, what if the Knights of Ren also knew about this bloodline and under the leadership of Kylo Ren and were to going to keep the Kenobi/Kryze bloodline a secret as well. But, how so you may ask. Well, if Kylo Ren was having visions of a Rey (but not yet confirmed Kenobi), he, as leader of the Knights of Ren, wants to keep Rey (after finding about her and knowing she's powerful based on her heritage) so Kylo and Rey can become the..."Renperor and Renpress" of the Galaxy in their image. This would happened after overthrowing Snoke. A Skywalker and a Kenobi ruling the galaxy together - like Husband and Wife.  

Side Note: The possible direct descendant of Kenobi/Kryze bloodline is Korkie Kryze.

(4) Other Notes: 

If anyone is familiar with the history of Constantine and the Byzantine Empire that later adopted the Christian Belief system that Constantine saw a symbol in the clouds. That symbol he saw was: Chi Ro.

XP or this symbol

Now, take a closer look at this X (chi) P (rho) symbol. It sounds like it has "K" and "R" sound as in. Also, as you guessed it: Kylo Ren (K R)

(Kira) Rey (K R)

Kylo Ren's namesake is Ben as in Ben Kenobi. But, his dark side name is Kylo Ren with its initials K R for X (chi) P (rho).

In speaking of Khristos (Christ), Obi-Wan Kenobi has been seen within Star Wars Fandom as "Space Jebus."  Or, the “Space Jebus” who fell in love with a Mandalorian woman whos surname, Kryze, sounds similar to "Christ."

Source: https://www.howtopronounce.com/kryze/

Source: https://www.howtopronounce.com/christ/

(Above) Here is the picture posted on various Tumblr blogs abotu Obi-Wan Kenobi being confused as Space Jebus.

Make it really more odd, the actor (Ewan McGreggor) who plays Obi-wan Kenobi also played Jesus Christ in a film called “Last Days in the Desert”.

Moving on...in the Dan Brown’s Da Vinci Code, Leonardo Da Vinci’s “Last Supper” painting has an “M” shaped outline over Jesus Christ and Mary Magdalene, indicating marriage between Jesus Christ and Mary.

In Star Wars, this “M” can be tied to the fact that “Space Jebus” Obi-Wan Kenobi had an intimate relationship with the “M” andalorian Duchess, Satine Kryze. “M” for marriage...”M” for Obi-Wan Kenobi marrying his love for “M” for “Mandalore’s” Duchess Satine Kryze.

Furthermore: there is a connection between the Merovingian Knights and certain sub-groups of the Knights Templar Order who are aware of this Holy Bloodline of Jesus/Mary Magdalene.  

Now, make this even more striking. In one Da Vinci Code Documentary, there is a symbol for the Knights Templar. That symbol is the hooked X.

“According to [Scott] Wolter, the symbol that he associates with the Holy Bloodline of Jesus and Mary Magdalene.”

Source: http://www.jasoncolavito.com/blog/scott-wolter-apparently-solves-mystery-of-hooked-x-but-not-the-way-he-thinks-he-did

If look at the TFA poster upside down, you can see a similar symbolism right there.

First, see below.

(Above) Here is the Hooked X symbol used by the Knights Templar.

(Above) Here is the TFA poster lifted upside down.

As you can see the two images above, there is a hooked X, indicating in the Star Wars Universe context...of a holy (FORCE) bloodline of the Kenobi/Kryze down to Rey (Kenobi) and any of her relatives still out there.

Here’s a image comparison below:

Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code Story: The Jesus/Mary Descendant and her brother

(1) In the Da Vinci Code book by Dan Brown, the female descendant of Jesus/Mary has a sibling.

“It is revealed that Neveu and her brother are descendants of Jesus Christ and Mary Magdalene. The Priory of Sion hid her identity to protect her from possible threats to her life.“

Link:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Da_Vinci_Code

Based on this above quote, there could be a group of people trying to keep the Kenobi/Kryze bloodline a secret and may even know about Rey and any of her siblings (if Rey had any) to the point in keeping Rey and her siblings’ identities a secret.

(2) In many of the Star Wars Canon stories about a significant female character also happens to have a brother.

(a.) Star Wars Rebels: Sabine Wren and her brother Tristan Wren

(Above) Sabine Wren, her mother (Ursa Wren), her brother (Tristan Wren)

(b.) Jyn Erso in the original draft of Rogue One (film) was supposed to have  Jedi Mother and a brother.

“In early versions of the script, Jyn was given a mother who was in hiding from the Empire and a young brother she had to protect.”

Link: http://www.slashfilm.com/early-rogue-one-scripts/

(c.) So, what's to say...that Rey might have a brother/sister that may be part of the dark side forces serving Snoke and/or the Knights of Ren.

The reason for saying so is that Lucasfilm has a tendency to reuse old concepts and re-adapt them into later stories.

For instance, in the Force Unleashed Games, there was a concept art for a spinning-double-bladed lightsaber. That was not used. Instead, it was used by the Sith Inquisitors in Star Wars Rebels.

Now, some would say that the whole 'Significant-female-character-having-a-brother' is already used. Why use it again?

Some would answer that in Legends, Rey is partially based on Jaina Solo, the older twin sister of Jacen Solo who turned to the dark side as Darth Caedus.

What if Rey is the sister of a dark side sibling and it so happens that Rey was the weaker child who was left to die on Jakku (assuming various Dark Rey theories are true)?

Issues with this "Fringe" Theory:

(1) THIS SOUNDS LIKE A CONSPIRACY THEORY! CONSPIRACY THEORIES DO NOT HAVE ANY CREDENCE. IF THERE IS, THEN IT'S CONTROVERSY!

(2) There is NOTHING in Official Star Wars Lore indicating about some sort of Da Vinci code clues about some holy bloodline that is Kenobi/Kryze bloodline. and making such a bloodline the MOST HOLIEST OF THEM ALL. If the Kenobi/Kryze bloodline is so "HOLY", then would it out-shadow the significance of the Chosen One that was Anakin Skywalker?

Also, yes...there are various clues, such as Rey and Obi-Wan shared same force sounds, the Obi-Wan Theme in Rey’s Theme, and other hidden references indicating a connection between Rey and Obi-Wan Kenobi. However, there is NO other clues like what’s being presented in the “Da Vinci Code”, such as the Hooked X symbobl.

(3) That hooked X symbolism in the TFA poster is just a coincidence. There is no other "hooked X" symbol anywhere in the official Star Wars lore. Ever.

Also, even though Kylo Ren’s costume is similar to a Knights Templar group called the "Hospitaller Knights," such similarity does not warrant the Hooked X symbol in the TFA poster as proof about Rey Kenobi. 

“The Hospitaller uniform was black with a white cross, though some of the lower-ranking soldiers had red uniforms, too. Templars and Teutonic Knights (other crusading orders) wore white uniforms with a red and black cross respectively, but otherwise similar in shape. The long, flowing tabbards worn over armour are definitely associated with the various orders of crusader knights, and the crossguard shape of the lightsaber brings the association home.

Here, Kylo seems to be wearing a combination of a longer surcoat and a shorter tabbard, both of them very Mediaeval in design“

Source: https://a-shipper-despite-herself.tumblr.com/post/136412523874/kylo-ren-and-the-holy-war

(4) There have been many criticisms against Dan Brown's take on the Da Vinci code that such criticisms warrants not to take this particular “Kenobi Code” Theory seriously.

In conclusion:  

Are various iterations of the Rey Kenobi Theory a credible theory? Yes, they are. Is Dan Brown Da Vinci Code the key to unlocking the Rey Kenobi (Kenobi Code) theory as definite proof that Rey is a Kenobi? Maybe...but that’s up to debate. More information would be needed from various sources to confirm that Rey is definitely a Kenobi besides using the “Da Vinci Code” as proof and/or using it to prove that Obi-Wan Kenobi and Satine Kryze indeed had a secret a child.