No single planet in Star Wars has seen as much strife as Mandalore. Conflict is tradition in the warrior culture, united only under the Darksaber. Known around the galaxy for their iconic beskar armor, the Mandalorians would fall once to the Jedi order and again at the hands of the Empire during their Great Purge of the unruly population. Conflict breeds strength, however, and Mandalorians are respected and feared as great warriors.
Here’s our ranking of the best among them.
Fenn Rau
Rau was a leader of the Protectors, royal guards to the ruler of Mandalore. After he was captured by the Rebels on The Ghost and ordered the Protectors to give them safe passage, Imperial Viceroy Gar Saxon killed the group of warriors and incited Rau to fight against him with the Rebels. After Sabine successfully liberated the planet from Imperial control, Rau finally came to sympathize with the Rebellion and joined the cause.
Paz Vizsla
With heavy armor even for a beskar-clad Mandalorian, Paz Vizsla’s loyalties lie squarely with what he sees best for Mandalore. A devout member of the Children of the Watch, he will quickly turn on those who shake the Way, but fight to defend any Mandalorian with his life. Despite his formidable appearance, he was unable to win the Darksaber from Din Djarin in a duel.
Tiber Saxon
Brother to Gar Saxon, Tiber Saxon assumed control of Mandalore following the Viceroys death at the hands of Clan Wren. With the title of Governor and weight of the Empire behind him, Tiber betrayed Mandalore and developed a weapon capable of killing Mandalorians clad in beskar armor. The weapon, dubbed “the Duchess,” along with his death star, would be destroyed by Sabine, ending his short reign.
Rook Kast
Kast served alongside Gar Saxon as warriors in Maul’s Shadow Collective, fighting against the Republic, CIS, and other Mandalorians. Though initially successful, she would fail to stop the Republic from occupying the planet and fail to capture Ahsoka Tano before she could challenge Maul. Loyal to the end, she fled with the former sith after the Siege of Mandalore.
Ursa Wren
Though a member of Death Watch, Ursula Wren would follow Bo-Katan Kryze and other loyalists in the Mandalore resistance as the countess of Clan Wren. Fighting alongside Ahsoka Tano and the clone army, Ursula shook Mandalore from Maul’s grasp only for it to summarily fall into Imperial occupation. After her daughter fled the planet’s Imperial Academy, however, Wren’s husband would remain a hostage of the Imperial Viceroy Gar Saxon. Though she initially worked against the rebellion, she would support the cause to save her daughter and was crucial to helping free Mandalore from Imperial rule.
Pre Vizsla
During the Clone Wars, Pre Vizsla secretly led the splinter group Death Watch against the pacifist leader Duchess Satine. Wanting Mandalore to embrace its history of battle, he would side with anyone who gave him power. It was ultimately his downfall, as Maul and Savage Opress would soon best Vizsla and assume control of the planet for themselves.
The Armorer
While little is known about The Armorer, she’s been a significant figure in leading The Tribe in the aftermath of the Great Purge. Building and defending coverts for Mandalorians and keeping them safe by forging new beskar armor, she clearly demands respect from all those around her. And don’t think she can’t fight with her smithing hammer.
Duchess Satine Kryze
The Duchess Satine led the warrior planet of Mandalore in the final years of the Republic. An old friend (if nothing more) of Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi, Satine tried in vain to maintain neutrality during the Galactic Civil War despite the protests of many extremist factions that would eventually attempt to take her life as the splinter group Death Watch. While she would ultimately fall at the hands of Maula and his Shadow Collective, she would become a martyr and inspire her estranged sister Bo-Katan to resist Maul’s ascension to power.
Tarre Vizsla
As a force sensitive Mandalorian, Tarre Vizsla became a Jedi Knight and created the Darksaber—a unique black lightsaber with a beskar hilt—a millennium before the events of The Clone Wars and Rebels. He founded House Vizsla and would become the first ruler of Mandalore, bringing order and relative peace to the combative planet and enshrining the Darksaber as a permanent symbol of power and unity to all Mandalorians.
Bo-Katan Kryze
Bo-Katan has fought on all sides of conflict for the ideals of Mandalore. She was a commanding officer of Death Watch when the splinter group allied with Maul and Savage Opress to overthrow the planet’s pacifist leader and her sister, the Duchess Satine. And when Maul assumed control of the planet for himself (and killed her sister), she led the resistance against him. Her newly assumed regency over the planet was short-lived, however, as the empire quickly replaced her with apologists. She would fight again for Mandalorian freedom years later alongside Clan Wren, and was uniquely gifted the Darksaber by Sabine in a peaceful transfer of power. But, Bo-Katan quickly lost the symbol of Mandalorian power when the Imperial genocide of the planet known as the Night of a Thousands Tears made the planet uninhabitable. While she lost the saber to Moff Gideon, she would later help defeat Gideon with the help of Din Djarrin. Haunted by her past, she refused to accept the Darksaber from Djarin through an act of peace.
Gar Saxon
Gar Saxon was a ruthless ruler of Mandalore. Fighting as a commander in Death Watch, Saxon was one of few Mandalorian’s who sided with Maul’s reign and fought for his Shadow Collective against loyalists like Bo-Katan. He would then serve the interests of the Empire as Viceroy of Mandalore, and even held the unique epithet of Emperor’s Hand. After Sabine showed him mercy in their duel for the Darksaber, Saxon would attempt to quite literally shoot her in the back, but was instead shot first by Ursa Wren—ending his reign.
Din Djarin
A foundling of the zealous orthodoxy the Children of the Watch, Din Djarin was our first look at the extremes to which Mandalorian could take their identity as warriors. After meeting other Mandalorians fighting to avenge their bombed planet while completing his obligation to return Grogu, Djarin would begin to rub up against the conventions of The Tribe. While his story is not yet complete, Djarin has already displayed incredible combat prowess, winning the Darksaber. Showing little interest in the relic and responsibilities of leading the Mandalorian diaspora, he attempted to give the Darksaber to Bo-Katan, who refused.
Sabine Wren
Din Djarin isn’t the only Mandalorian bounty hunter. After she fled the Empire’s ranks, Sabine Wren took her spark and spunk across the galaxy as a bounty hunter before Hera Syndulla and Kanan Jarrus recruited her to their rebel crew on the ghost. Where she once made weapons for conquest, she now took her talents to sabotage—with some extra flare. More individual than many other Mandalorian’s, Sabine Wren expressed herself with graffiti—inspiring the Rebellion’s iconic phoenix symbol—and painted armor. While we know it eventually leaves her hands after the fall of the Empire, Wren also wielded the Darksaber, learning to fight with the weapon from Kanan and shaking the Empire’s stranglehold over the planet.
