TheStar Warsgalaxy has seen its fair share of devastating events and purges, but the Great Purge of Mandalore, as introduced inThe Mandalorian, is no doubt one of the most severe. FromOrder 66to the purging of the Nightsisters,Star Warshistory has shown just how brutally and, unfortunately, easily groups of people can be wiped out. What’s worse with the Great Purge, however, is that it didn’t only target Mandalorians themselves, but also their homeworld - which was plundered for its riches and then destroyed.
The Great Purge was first brought up inThe Mandalorianseason 1, when the Mandalorian Paz Vizsla spoke of the Empire’sbeskaringots being “spoils of the Great Purge.” Before then, the Imperial Client onNevarrovaguely referenced this event by speaking to Din Djarin about returning to the natural order of things. Moff Gideon later identified the Night of a Thousand Tears as the event’s climactic battle, and from there,Star Warswould continue to flesh out this horrifying event. Here’s everything that’s been revealed about the Great Purge so far.
Mandalore Falls To The Empire By 3 ABY
It Takes Place During The Galactic Civil War
In terms of its timeline, the Great Purge - as is the case with the events ofThe Mandalorianitself - is extremely vague.There have been conflicting ideas about when the Purge took place, with the droidHuyanginformingEzra BridgerinAhsokaseason 1 that it occurred after the Galactic Civil War had ended, while other sources suggested it had happened well before then. The most recent confirmation we have about the Great Purge of Mandalore’s timeline comes from the video gameStar Wars Outlaws, which suggests it indeed takes place during the war.
Star Wars Finally Reveals When The Purge Of Mandalore Took Place, Reopening A Massive Mandalorian Plot Hole
After five years, Star Wars has finally revealed when exactly the Great Purge of Mandalore took place, and it has reopened this major plot hole.
Stormtrooper dialogue inOutlawsabout the Great Purge necessitates that this event had to have happened by 3 ABY, the year in whichOutlawstakes place. This, admittedly, makes a lot more sense for the timeline of this event; the Empire would have been more willing to divert the necessary military resources if a war was truly taking place, and they felt the Mandalorians were putting them at risk. While theImperial Remnantcould certainly pose a threat, it’s unlikely to think they would have been able to do so right after losing the war.
Moff Gideon Carries Out The Purge On Behalf Of The Empire
His Interest In Mandalore Only Grows From Here
According to Din Djarin, Moff Gideon was the ISB (Imperial Security Bureau) officer who was overseeing the Great Purge of Mandalore, though other context clues seem to indicate that he took on an even more powerful role during this devastating event. Gideon had his own desires for Mandalore, as evidenced byThe Mandalorian, particularly season 3. The Moff sought to use their beskar to make himself stronger with a fortified army and a suit of his own.Whether this desire existed before the Purge or in light of it is what’s uncertain.
Gideon would have more of his forces scour the destruction to ensure the deaths of the Mandalorians they could find, and to plunder some more.
Gideon was ruthless with his siege of Mandalore during the Purge. He not only ordered his forces to fight and kill the Mandalorians, but he also gave the order for the planet to be bombed. Even that wasn’t enough; Gideon would have more of his forces scour the destruction to ensure the deaths of the Mandalorians they could find, and to plunder some more. The fusion rays ended up crystallizing the surface of Mandalore completely, making it not quite uninhabitable, but still extremely difficult to live and survive on.
Bo-Katan Kryze Surrenders The Darksaber & Is Betrayed
Moff Gideon Fails To Uphold His Word
Gideon’s ruthless attack on Mandalore during the Purge stung even more because it was an act of dark betrayal.Bo-Katan Kryze, who was leading Mandalore at this time with theDarksaberin hand, could clearly see that her forces were losing the fight. As renowned as Mandalorian warriors are, it’s still extremely difficult to fight against an essentially unending array of forces.On the Night of a Thousand Tears, Kryze thus made the difficult decision to surrender to Gideon, offering up the Darksaber in exchange for the safety of her people.
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Unfortunately, Kryze’s temporary trust in Gideon did not pay off. Gideon took the Darksaber and laid waste to Mandalore, anyway, killing hundreds of thousands of Mandalorians and taking the ancestral blade for himself. Gideon would go on to wield that blade until Din Djarin won it from him in combat aboard his light cruiser inThe Mandalorianseason 2, and later on, he would destroy the weapon within Kryze’s own grasp. The most tragic part about this betrayal is thatthere were many Mandalorians who never knew Kryze had surrendered, and they assumed the battle was still raging on.
Mandalorian Survivors Lingered On Mandalore, But Most Fled
The Majority Of Survivors Were Not Onworld
Of course, as evidenced inThe Mandalorian, the Great Purge wasn’t a complete success - because there were still Mandalorians who survived.Din Djarin and his covert survived because, according to the Armorer inThe Book of Boba Fett, they were still cloistered on the Mandalorian moon ofConcordia, where their forebearers - the Children of the Watch - had been exiled many years before. Had they not been offworld at the time of the Great Purge, they likely would have perished in the devastation.
Star Wars: Every Mandalorian Who Survived The Great Purge
The Mandalorian has made several references to the Great Purge, an Order 66-esque event in which many Mandos were wiped out, but several survived.
Bo-Katan Kryze and her allies presumably survived because they knew that Gideon’s continued assault on the planet, even after her surrender, meant there would be no stopping him. This gave them time to get to safety while Gideon destroyed the planet and fought off any lingering forces who weren’t aware of the failed terms of surrender. It’s still unknown how exactly Kryze and her allies got to safety, including where exactly they fled to, but this still may be revealed in time.
Despite how bad the destruction truly was on Mandalore, there were survivors on the planet who lived to see the events ofThe Mandalorianseason 3, many years after this devastating event took place. Though many of them were in rough shape,these Mandalorian survivors had found a way to live on their ravaged planet, and some were even able to help guide Kryze, Djarin, and their allies to the Great Forge. Unfortunately, these Mandalorians didn’t know about Kryze’s failed attempt to surrender, as revealed inThe Mandalorian- which is likely why they could not escape offworld.
The Mandalorian
Cast
Released on August 07, 2025 The Mandalorian follows a lone gunfighter navigating the galaxy’s outer reaches after the Galactic Empire’s fall. As a skilled bounty hunter, he operates in a lawless universe, undertaking various missions on the fringes of the New Republic’s territories.
