For as much asThe Mandalorianhas managed to fix, repair, and altogether introduce certain aspects ofMandalorian historyand culture, theStar WarsTV show has also unwittingly introduced some serious continuity snags. The most prominent isThe Mandalorian’s timeline; it’s been utterly inconsistent over the years, with some canonStar Warssources stating that everything fromThe Mandalorianseason 1 throughThe Book of Boba Fetttakes place in the same year, while creator Jon Favreau insists it’s more similar to the real-world gaps between stories.
One of the events that’s been affected by this timeline inconsistency is theGreat Purge of Mandalore. The Purge, first mentioned by Paz Vizsla inThe Mandalorianseason 1, episode 3, is a key event inThe Mandalorianand the history of Mandalore as a whole. The importance of this event that nearly wiped out all Mandalorians, however, goes far beyond the screen. It also served a real-life purpose for theStar Warstimelineand overall continuity that’s now become a plot hole yet again.
The Purge Of Mandalore Was Envisioned As An Explanation For One Simple Problem
Where Were The Mandalorians During The Original Trilogy?
When Favreau began writingThe Mandalorian, he ran into one big problem:there weren’t any Mandalorians in the originalStar Warstrilogy. Boba Fett, of course, was the exception, but even his status as a Mandalorian is, at best, uncertain inStar Warscanon. Creating a story that takes place just a few years after the original trilogy thus had the difficulty of explaining why this was, and how the Mandalorians had managed to avoid getting involved in the Galactic Civil War.
In April 2020’s issue ofEmpire Magazine, Favreau himself posed the question:
I thought, “How come there are no Mandalorians in the movies? What’s going on there?”
That was what led him down the road of creating the Great Purge, an event that could do the work of explaining why Mandalorians were entirely absent from such critical events in galactic history. The Purge saw Moff Gideon essentially level Mandalore and those who inhabited it after betrayingBo-Katan Kryze, who had previously surrendered theDarksaberin exchange for the preservation of her people. As a result, Mandalorians nearly went extinct.
Naturally,this would have taken place before the original trilogy era, as Mandalore would have already been in ruins by the time Luke Skywalker, Leia Organa, and Han Solo were helping theRebel Allianceto defeat theGalactic Empire. This, however, didn’t remain the case for long. Instead,Star Warsfurther complicated things, including their own timeline, to essentially defeat the purpose of the Purge as a whole.
Star Wars Has Now Retconned The Purge To The OT Era
This Event Is Concurrent With A Major Galactic Conflict
Rather than taking placebeforethe original triogy era, the Purge now takes placeduringthat time period. This complicates the matter tenfold;it means the Mandalorians are still active during at least the early part of the original trilogy, and it also means that those movies completely glazed over one of the galaxy’s most devastating cases of what’s essentially attempted genocide. Now, it makes even less sense that the Mandalorians weren’t a part of the original trilogy.
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.
Not only that, but the timeline of the event has also continued to jump around in ways that are more and more nonsensical. TheAhsokaseason 1 finalesaw the droid Huyang insisting that this event had happened after the war had ended, while the video gameStar Wars Outlawsdated a discussion of the Purge by stormtroopers to 3 ABY - which would be around the time ofThe Empire Strikes Back. This is at least a two-year difference, if not more.
Now, it makes even less sense that the Mandalorians weren’t a part of the original trilogy.
It’s unrealistic to think that the Mandalorians wouldn’t have somehow been involved in the conflict if the Purge hadn’t happened, especially given the distaste that the Empire had put into their mouths just a year’s time beforeA New Hope. The animated seriesStar Wars Rebelssaw Mandalorians join together to rid Mandalore of Imperial influence, ultimately culminating with Bo-Katan wielding the Darksaber and uniting various Mandalorian clans underneath the blade.
Given that Mandalorians are people of honor, and members of the early Rebellion, namely fellow Mandalorian Sabine Wren, Ezra Bridger, and Kanan Jarrus, assisted Bo-Katan in reclaiming the planet,it’s hard to imagine that they wouldn’t have returned the favor by helping to fight the Empire during the war. This new retcon of the Purge’s timeline, however, means that it really is the case that Mandalorians simply kept to themselves during this critical time in history.
We Even Have A Mandalorian JEDI In The OT Era!
Sabine Wren Was In Jedi Training During This Time
The moreThe Mandalorianand its adjacent stories go on, however, the more unrealistic this seems - especially with new developments inAhsoka. The aforementioned Mandalorian Sabine Wren is now confirmed to have been in active Jedi training with Ahsoka Tano during the originalStar Warstrilogy era, which meansthey both should have been rather prominent figures in the Rebellion’s fight against the Empire. This is especially true when remembering that Sabine was a founding member of the unified Rebel Alliance as a member of the Spectres.
One Ahsoka Retcon Secretly Broke Star Wars' Mandalorian Timeline
The Ahsoka show created a major problem in the history of the Mandalorians, and it makes the original Star Wars trilogy make no sense.
Mandalorian Jedi are already extremely rare inStar Wars, dating back to the creator of the Darksaber himself, Tarre Vizsla. The knowledge that one of them was in active training during this time makes it seem even harder to imagine that a Mandalorian Jedi would not be a part of the greater story.Sabine would have continued to be a great asset to the Rebellion with the addition of her Jedi training, and as someone who’s always stood up for the right cause, her master, Ahsoka, would also have done the very same.
This, unfortuntely, is not, and cannot, be the case. What has transpired in the original threeStar Warsmovies has already happened, and little can be done to change what actually takes place on-screen in those movies. While the franchise initially endeavored to resolve one of their biggest plot holes,they have unwittingly created not just a bigger one, but also another smaller one. It’s unclear howThe Mandalorianfranchise will manage to explain all this, but it’s beginning to seem like it may be a necessity.
