[ see this post for explanation & the masterlist of this meta series ]
“Now do you see? Do you?” Vau hissed the sibilant like escaping steam.
Mird cowered on the floor, whining softly.
“I’m sick to death of your sentimental twaddle about Jango betraying us by letting Kamino use his genes. He did it to stop the Jedi. He did it to create an army strong enough to bring them down. You drone on about the injustice of unelected elites, my little working-class hero - well, now they’re gone. Yes, it cost our boys’ lives, but the Jedi are gone, gone, gone. And they won’t be killing Mandalorians again, not for a long time. Maybe never.”
- Republic Commando: Order 66
Vau’s entire character makes a lot more sense when you factor in the massacre at Galidraan.
For an EU recap:
At Galidraan - Jango and the core faction of the True Mandalorians walked into a trap that the Death Watch seized on: playing off the good jedi’s morality (and naivety) by sending a false distress message that the mercenaries were slaughtering unarmed civilians. Their plan worked far better than anticipated as the Jedi confronted Jango - who was unwilling to back down - and sat by as the massacre unfolded, with Jango as the resulting sole survivor on the Mandalorian side.
Overnight, what was a splinter faction had demolished the backbone of the Mandalorian forces - no mean feat. Experiencing a freak accident of being at the right (wrong) place at the right time, Vau and the handful of other surviving True Mandalorianes on other planets could do nothing as their entire command chain (and found family) fell in shambles.
And were left with one hell of a survivor’s-guilt punch.
(To get it out of the way - Vau himself clearly identifies with the True Mandalorian faction. Off the top of my head: there’s the “Death Watch are my only enemy” quote in O66, his close-knit dynamic with Jango (which far exceeds Vau and Kal’s own barely working relationship which still nonetheless has material to span three books), what we know of his initiation in the Mandalorians, etc.
They were his surrogate family, as much as he could admit such a thing.)
Keep in mind, also - that there was probably a long section of time where Vau had no idea Jango survived. Jango went straight to Jedi captivity and slavery iirc, and if the remaining True Mandalorians had an idea of where he was, I gamble that there would’ve been at very least, a rescue attempt. (Cynically - for a figurehead that could be useful in rallying the remaining clans to the cause.)
Jango sure reads like a personal quasi-mentor for Vau, if you ask me. For someone who has extremely deep trust issues, loosing that on top of his entire support network would … not do any favors.
>> on survivor’s guilt
Touching on an earlier point, I am by no means a medical expert, but a lot of his actions can also be read as a pretty textbook case. This quote, right after the one shown above -
Vau didn’t meet Skirata’s eyes for a moment, but he glanced at Jusik. “I could have been at Galidraan, but I wasn’t, and I never forgot that. Not my fight. Should have been my fight.”
“And you could have been dead, now, too. Bard'ika, if you don’t know-”
“Oh, I know what happened at Galidraan,” Jusik said. “I know Jedi wiped out Jango’s entire army.” He paused. “And I know Jango killed Jedi with his bare hands, too, because I once talked to a Jedi who was there.”
-O66
- says it all.
For more physical symptoms -
- mood swings / outbursts of anger (obvious. holy hell)
- hyper-vigilance (something this entire cast has in spades)
- anxiety (this seems like a contradiction to the whole ’~super chill ice king~’ shtick he has going, but bear with me. think about overcompensating and the human nature of avoidance for now - I’m circling back to this in a different post.)
And what do we know, we see all three in the books.
(Not seen directly in the books - but reactions that that I would bet a sizable amount of money on: • exaggerated startle response, • difficulty in falling or staying asleep, • persistent remembering, or “reliving” the stressor by intrusive flashbacks / recurring dreams, to name a few.)
(Additionally - think about why he’s so (overly) attached to Mird, and then come back.)
>> On Jedi and Vau
This could use a whole post on itself, but Galidraan was also a focus for all the lingering resentments that he had before and afterwards - marking the Jedi as a convenient bogeyman to lay the blame down at their feet. The sword of unmet justice, if you will.
( There’s a reason he wears black armor. )
Yes, the Death Watch were the ones who started it, but with the centuries-long bitter history between the Mandalorians and the Jedi, there’s more than enough room for a hatred that only gets stoked as time passes.
It’s to the point that Jusik and Etain really …
… should be much more wary of him. I would. Just because malice isn’t overt and imminent doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist, and there’s a monstrous and nurtured sense of contempt behind the effortlessly composed mask of ice. You can see it if you look hard enough.
The hatred’s mixed with - strangely - fear as well. (First time I read TripZero, I found it so bloody fascinating that here was a killer who would up-front admit to Kal that his greatest fear was Jedi. No bones about it. Vau has very little to fear. He’s someone that could - and does - survive quite happily on the fringes of society, knows more ways to track and kill a man than he should, has a variety of income at his hands - general fears about survival and other beings aren’t a concern. )
(But when you factor in that Jedi can strip away every line of defense in a mind, could (and do) canonically violate every boundary of mental control - especially to unpalatable enemies - and when you consider Vau is someone who holds the idea of control and mental boundaries with a vicious and fanatical jealousy above everything else … then it makes more sense. )
Pair that fear with contempt, and with a desire for justice - all in an extremely intelligent man with black ops skills honed from decades worth of experience - and you have
a very,
very frightening enemy.
He’s studied Jedi with the intent to kill.
(Sev mentions it after the conversation with Zey.)
He’s probably gone after a few, too. (Pro bono or not, I couldn’t say. Personally leaning towards not - a man has to have some standards. Not something Etain would want to explore as a topic, I daresay.)
(Sidenote: I also believe Jusik knows this.)
To put it crudely, he theoretically sees Jedi as loose canons to be put down - as things that should, at the kindest, be kept under lock and key and a watchful eye that could minimize their damage. At worst … all we have to do is look at his reaction above.
(last sidenote: however. like all humans, his abstract ideal stars fuzzing when he meets Jedi individually - I’ll go into how he sees Jusik and Etain individually in their own sections. They still do have bloody good reason to fear him, but their dedication to Mandalorian ideals and protecting the clones goes a long, long way with him. )
He wants so very badly to be the executioners axe. Desires it as a singular purpose. Why else would he react shockingly so, after hearing that the clones committed to O66 in the quote above? Why else, other than suddenly finding out his near-lifelong fantasy had been god damn done - but beat by someone else’s hand?
It’s a shockingly bittersweet realization, is what it is.
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