Emperor Palpatine prioritized control of Mandalore – and the Mandalorians – early in Star Wars: The Clone Wars, and it remained a target throughout the war. Indeed, he went to considerable trouble to remove it from the equation, and the ramifications of his efforts have shaped the course of the Star Wars universe. But beyond the obvious answer – they were powerful and that made them dangerous – there’ve been some questions about why the Emperor was so desperate to get Mandalore and its people under his control.
The Mandalorian provides answers aplenty in that department, since Mandalore remains the principle focus of the series, with the Jedi as a secondary notion (an elegant reversal from the focus of The Clone Wars). That allowed it to explain in the most straightforward terms why the Emperor devoted so much time and energy to bringing them to heel: they were simply too powerful.
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The Mandalorians Were a Match for the Jedi
“The songs of eons past tell of a battle between Mandalore the Great and an order of sorcerers called Jedi,” the Armorer told the Mandalorian at the end of the first season of The Mandalorian. The simple fact that Mandalore survived the encounter makes it perfectly clear that Mandalorians are far from ordinary opponents. They possess martial arts training to rival that of the Jedi, often proving more than a match for even the most adept Force user. Palpatine understood their abilities all too well during the creation of the Clone Army, and chose to rely on Mandalorian Jango Fett to serve as the template for his soldiers.
The Mandalorian makes that equation even more explicit in its depiction of Beskar metal, which can block lightsabers, and is valuable enough to make just a few ounces worth killing over. Ahsoka Tano’s battle with Morgan Elsbeth in The Mandalorian Season 2, Episode 5, “The Jedi” demonstrates the dangers of this to someone like the Emperor. Elsbeth gave Tano all that she could handle using only a spear made of the metal. If she’d possessed a full suit of Mandalorian armor, the battle might have ended differently. That was simply too much power for the Emperor to leave it alone.
The Mandalorians Might Have Saved the Jedi from Order 66
Furthermore, the Mandalorians grew friendlier towards the Jedi as the war continued thanks to the likes of Ahsoka and Obi-Wan. This, too, had a direct bearing on the events of The Mandalorian, starting with Bo-Katan Kryze, whose name carried weight with Ahsoka and allowed Mando to approach her unchallenged. Ahsoka and Mando themselves quickly found common cause when they met, and Luke Skywalker’s celebrated appearance at the end of Season 2 suggested similar Jedi/Mandalorian partnerships in the future.
This extends beyond interpersonal relations. Both orders – Mandalorians and Jedi – adhere to a code of honor, and while specifics may differ, the two groups can be nearly unstoppable when they join forces. That was no less true in the Clone Wars era than it was after the fall of the Empire. Had the Mandalorians thrown in with the Republic during the war, they might have limited the damage of Order 66 and left Palpatine with an intact Jedi Order to contend with, instead of an unchallenged Empire.
While future stories may describe deeper reasons why the Emperor needed control of Mandalore, this doesn’t alter Mandalore’s importance in the galaxy’s affairs. Like all powerful things, Palpatine sought to control it first, and neuter it only when he could no longer use it. But power was his ultimate and only goal, and the fact that the Mandalorians possessed it was the only reason he needed to target their homeworld.
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