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For those of you not interested in the Mandalorians in Star Wars (not just the TV show but in general), it may never have occurred to you to ask why does Jango Fett, the guy the clones were cloned from, hate Jedi? Why is he willing to sell his children into slavery as part of a plot to destroy the Jedi?
For those of you who care about Mandalorians, the answer is simple: Galidraan. Jango Fett was the leader of the True Mandalorians, with a pretty good claim to being the leader of all Mandalorians. He and his closest followers were hired by the governor of a planet called Galidraan to come in and round up some Mandalorian terrorists from the Death Watch. But the governor was actually in the pay of the Death Watch, and told the Galactic Senate that he needed Jedi help because there were Mandalorians terrorizing his planet ... and he named Fett and the True Mandalorians (you know, the people he himself had hired) as the terrorists. The senate sends a team of Jedi, the Jedi get told that Fett's group are the terrorists, there's a battle, and all the True Mandalorians are wiped out and Fett is the only survivor ... and he gets sold into slavery. This whole mess is where Dooku's hatred of and distrust for the Galactic Senate starts.
Now, if you've read any fic about Mandalorians (and there's a lot of it out there), all of the blame is always solely on the Jedi. Which, yes, the Jedi are certainly culpable. But if you actually read the comic in which this happened ... the Jedi are not the ones who attacked. The Jedi show up where the True Mandalorians are, announce why they're there and say the Mandalorians are under arrest, and the Mandalorians attack the Jedi. Causing a bloodbath on both sides. Now, it's true that the Jedi should definitely have done some investigation before heading out to arrest people and confirmed their information. But at the same time, if Jango had stood his people down and said "hey, before you arrest us, who the fuck told you we were terrorists?" there would have been a standoff that could have been peacefully negotiated and the true culprits would have been unmasked. Nobody would have died.
Which leads me to wonder: is part of Jango's bitterness and hatred of the Jedi because he can't allow himself to admit that it's partly his fuckup for attacking instead of trying to sort things out peacefully and figure out why the Jedi thought they were terrorists?
If the Jedi are evil murderers who slaughtered his people, then Jango is a good leader and his people righteous martyrs. But if the Jedi aren't evil murderers, then Jango has to deal with his shit, and the people who died had some culpability in their own deaths. You can see why he would be very invested in the Jedi being Evil.
Now, this is not to say that the Jedi were innocent. The Jedi made all kinds of mistakes. But so did the Mandalorians. If you can't admit your own mistakes, then you have to blame the other side, and make them carry the weight of not only their own screwups, but also yours.
What's interesting is that both Jango and Dooku do this, find ways to blame other people; Jango blames the Jedi, Dooku blames the Senate, both have just enough truth in their justifications to be able to be properly Righteous about it (but not enough to do anything productive with their anger). Which is ultimately what leaves them both wide open to being manipulated by Palpatine. Neither of them can look too closely at the source of their pain, or evaluate their own reactions. It hurts too much, it's too dangerous to their sense of self.
Therein lies the tragedy of Star Wars, at least the Prequel trilogy. This is one of many places in the PT and Clone Wars where people do fucked up things for understandable reasons, where there isn't a clearly identifiable good-guys-vs.-bad-guys, and the stories that I find most interesting are the ones that explore that dynamic.
For those of you who care about Mandalorians, the answer is simple: Galidraan. Jango Fett was the leader of the True Mandalorians, with a pretty good claim to being the leader of all Mandalorians. He and his closest followers were hired by the governor of a planet called Galidraan to come in and round up some Mandalorian terrorists from the Death Watch. But the governor was actually in the pay of the Death Watch, and told the Galactic Senate that he needed Jedi help because there were Mandalorians terrorizing his planet ... and he named Fett and the True Mandalorians (you know, the people he himself had hired) as the terrorists. The senate sends a team of Jedi, the Jedi get told that Fett's group are the terrorists, there's a battle, and all the True Mandalorians are wiped out and Fett is the only survivor ... and he gets sold into slavery. This whole mess is where Dooku's hatred of and distrust for the Galactic Senate starts.
Now, if you've read any fic about Mandalorians (and there's a lot of it out there), all of the blame is always solely on the Jedi. Which, yes, the Jedi are certainly culpable. But if you actually read the comic in which this happened ... the Jedi are not the ones who attacked. The Jedi show up where the True Mandalorians are, announce why they're there and say the Mandalorians are under arrest, and the Mandalorians attack the Jedi. Causing a bloodbath on both sides. Now, it's true that the Jedi should definitely have done some investigation before heading out to arrest people and confirmed their information. But at the same time, if Jango had stood his people down and said "hey, before you arrest us, who the fuck told you we were terrorists?" there would have been a standoff that could have been peacefully negotiated and the true culprits would have been unmasked. Nobody would have died.
Which leads me to wonder: is part of Jango's bitterness and hatred of the Jedi because he can't allow himself to admit that it's partly his fuckup for attacking instead of trying to sort things out peacefully and figure out why the Jedi thought they were terrorists?
If the Jedi are evil murderers who slaughtered his people, then Jango is a good leader and his people righteous martyrs. But if the Jedi aren't evil murderers, then Jango has to deal with his shit, and the people who died had some culpability in their own deaths. You can see why he would be very invested in the Jedi being Evil.
Now, this is not to say that the Jedi were innocent. The Jedi made all kinds of mistakes. But so did the Mandalorians. If you can't admit your own mistakes, then you have to blame the other side, and make them carry the weight of not only their own screwups, but also yours.
What's interesting is that both Jango and Dooku do this, find ways to blame other people; Jango blames the Jedi, Dooku blames the Senate, both have just enough truth in their justifications to be able to be properly Righteous about it (but not enough to do anything productive with their anger). Which is ultimately what leaves them both wide open to being manipulated by Palpatine. Neither of them can look too closely at the source of their pain, or evaluate their own reactions. It hurts too much, it's too dangerous to their sense of self.
Therein lies the tragedy of Star Wars, at least the Prequel trilogy. This is one of many places in the PT and Clone Wars where people do fucked up things for understandable reasons, where there isn't a clearly identifiable good-guys-vs.-bad-guys, and the stories that I find most interesting are the ones that explore that dynamic.
