Mandalorian armor

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"The armor I wear is five hundred years old. I reforged it to my liking, but the battles, the history, the blood all lives within it. And the same goes for every Mandalorian."
"This armor is part of our identity. It makes us Mandalorians who we are."

―Sabine and Alrich Wren^[src]

Mandalorian armor referred to the traditional armor worn by the human warrior clans of the planet Mandalore. Common traits included a helmet with a T-shaped visor that concealed their faces, and armaments like whipcord throwers, flamethrowers and jetpacks.

The Mandalorians' bloody history made their armor an iconic symbol of fear. Mandalorian armor was made from beskar, which was one of the strongest metals in the galaxy. Beskar could protect the wearer from blasters and even lightsabers. The bounty hunter Jango and his cloned son Boba Fett wore customized Mandalorian armor, though they are outfitted with a different material rather than beskar.

The Arc Pulse Generator, an Imperial superweapon, was capable of superheating the beskar alloy used in Mandalorian armor to incinerate its wearer.

Description[edit | edit source]

Generally the armor was made from beskar, a highly durable metal which could repel blaster fire^[4] and lightsaber strikes^[5] while giving the user maximum protection, although variants made from durasteel and other lesser materials were frequently utilized due to those materials being more common. The helmets had an angled visor, which reflected Mandalorian style, and the unique armor became a symbol of fear across the galaxy as the Mandalorian warriors engaged in numerous wars. Due to the durability of the beskar metal, some armor sets were hundreds of years old, such as in the case of Sabine Wren's armor.^[2]

History[edit | edit source]

Tradition of Mandalore[edit | edit source]

The ancient Mandalorian crusaders wore helmets over cloaks.^[6] The Mandalorian Neo-Crusaders also wore helmets.^[7] After encountering the Jedi during the early crusades, the Mandalorian-Jedi War began and it was during this period that the Mandalorians created their signature armor, weaponry and fighting style in order to combat the Jedi Knights and their Force abilities.^[8]

During time after the Mandalorian Civil War, two styles of Mandalorian armor would emerge—the formidable traditional armor of the warrior clans like Death Watch, and those of the pacifist New Mandalorians.^[1] Death Watch's female warriors, the Nite Owls, wore a different set of armor.^[9]

Jango Fett wore Mandalorian armor, though Prime Minister Almec expressed bewilderment as to how, decrying Fett as nothing but a common bounty hunter.^[1] The Kaminoans who cloned him to create the Grand Army of the Republic took inspiration from his suit for the clone trooper armor.^[3]

Clone Wars[edit | edit source]

After Fett was killed by Jedi Master Mace Windu during the First Battle of Geonosis, his helmet was used by Boba as a bomb in an attempt on Windu's life.^[10] By the Age of the Empire, Boba had inherited his father's armor and rebuilt it in his memory.^[11]

The renegade Sith Lord Maul defeated and killed Pre Vizsla and became ruler of Mandalore during the Clone Wars, causing his followers in Death Watch to customize their armor with painted helmets, handprints, and horns resembling their new Dathomirian Zabrak leader.^[12]

The Mandalorian Protectors, such as the those who served with Fenn Rau in Skull Squadron wore armor when they fought at the Third Battle of Mygeeto.^[13]

Age of the Empire[edit | edit source]

Boba Fett, wearing his Mandalorian armor

Following the end of the Clone Wars, the Protectors continue to wear the armor as part of their arrangement with the Galactic Empire at their encampment on Concord Dawn's third moon.^[14] Gar Saxon, acting as the Imperial Viceroy of Mandalore, and the Imperial Super Commandos such as Tristan Wren,^[15] wore armor that resembled stormtrooper armor.^[16] Members of Clan Wren, such as it's leader, Countess Ursa Wren, wore armor with yellow markings.^[15] At some point during his bounty hunting career, Boba Fett began to wear his father's Mandalorian armor.^[11]

Sometime after the Battle of Endor, a seemingly acid-corroded yet complete set of Mandalorian armor somehow ended up in storage in a Jawa sandcrawler on Tatooine. A man named Adwin Charu, who was on the sandcrawler looking for goods on behalf of his employer Lorgan Movellan, happened upon a crate containing the armor. Before he could take it, however, Cobb Vanth, a local man who had assisted in gaining Charu access to the sandcrawler, shot Charu in the shoulder and took the armor for his own.^[17]

The pirate Kars Tal-Korla wore a trademark suit of patchwork armor made from Corellian, Imperial trooper, and Mandalorian.^[17]

New Republic Era[edit | edit source]

Many Mandalorians were killed when an Imperial remnant cracked down on them.

During the New Republic Era, the Mandalorians became rarer to see, after the Great Purge by the Empire against them. During that time the Empire also plundered vast amounts of Beskar from the Mandalorians. The Mandalorians took orphans in as foundlings. One Mandalorian tribe hid in an enclave under Nevarro city on the planet Nevarro. However, after they fought the Bounty Hunters' Guild in the city,^[18] an Imperial remnant cracked down on them, killing many. Their armor was piled up in the enclave to be salvaged by the Armorer, one of the only survivors from the tribe.^[19]

Design[edit | edit source]

"My armor is like my second skin. I'm being serious: sometimes I totally forget I even have it on and I fall asleep in it."

―Sabine Wren^[src]

Traditional Mandalorian armor consisted of a helmet, shoulder pauldrons, vambraces, breastplate, codpiece, knee-pads, thigh and shin guards clasped over a body stocking. Mandalorian helmets often had a macrobinocular viewplate, tactical displays,^[20] a comlink and an antenna tipped with a rangefinder that could be pulled over the viewplate to enhance imagery.^[3] Sabine Wren programmed a holo-imager in her rangefinder to take snapshots.^[21] They wore magnetized shoes.^[20]

Mandalorian vambraces were computer-controlled tools bristling with weaponry,^[21] designed to combat the abilities of a Jedi.^[22] They potentially included:

Sabine Wren holds up a pair of Mandalorian Vambraces.

The Mandalorians used many models of jetpacks, including the Z-6 and JT-12, to increase maneuverability in combat as well as fly. These were often tipped with a launcher that were used to fire anti-vehicle homing missiles. However, they could also be used to fire a grappling hook linked to an internal winch. Gyro-stabilizers made it easy to maneuver in the air, and were capable of both short jumps and long-distance flight.^[5]