Bo-Katan Kryze

Bo-Katan Kryze was a Mandalorian human female born into House Kryze and, during the New Republic Era, the Mand'alor of her people. Her life was bound to that of her sister, Duchess Satine, who ruled Mandalore as a pacifist while Bo-Katan believed her world should take pride in its warrior heritage. She served as a lieutenant in the Death Watch terrorist group, fought against and later alongside Jedi such as Ahsoka Tano and Obi-Wan Kenobi, and across decades of war came to carry the Darksaber and lead the survivors of her shattered people back to Mandalore.

Death Watch and the Nite Owls#

Born on Mandalore into House Kryze, Bo-Katan inherited a suit of Mandalorian armor that had been passed down through three generations of her family. As a child she took the Mandalorian Creed in an initiation ritual in the Living Waters beneath the Mines of Mandalore, though she regarded the ceremony as theater for the royal family's subjects and believed there was nothing magical about the waters. After her father died defending Mandalore, she joined Death Watch, a radical group that sought to revive their world's warrior heritage and opposed the pacifist government her sister Satine led. Within Death Watch she served as a confident, sardonic lieutenant under Pre Vizsla and commanded its Nite Owls subdivision.

In 20 BBY, on the world of Carlac, Bo-Katan led the squad that received Lux Bonteri, who sought Death Watch's help against Count Dooku. She was suspicious of Bonteri's companion, a Togruta girl who was in truth the Padawan Ahsoka Tano. When Vizsla turned the meeting into a massacre of a nearby Ming Po village, Tano revealed herself as a Jedi and fought free; Bo-Katan pursued her but was bested and thrown from a speeder as Tano escaped.

Maul and the Shadow Collective#

In 19 BBY, Death Watch recovered an escape pod carrying two wounded Zabrak brothers, the Sith Lords Maul and Savage Opress. Bo-Katan asked whether she should kill them, but Vizsla had them brought aboard a Kom'rk-class transport. When she later voiced doubt about allying with the Sith, reminding Vizsla that Death Watch's past dealings with Sith had ended in betrayal, Maul Force choked her into silence. A vote of Death Watch nonetheless approved the alliance.

The plan was to assemble an army, the Shadow Collective, by absorbing the galaxy's criminal syndicates. Bo-Katan accompanied Vizsla and the brothers to recruit the Black Sun on Mustafar, the Pyke Syndicate, and the Hutt Clan on Nal Hutta and Tatooine, leading her Nite Owls in the fighting at each stop. She learned from Vizsla that he intended to betray the Sith once Mandalore was secured.

Takeover of Mandalore#

The Collective struck targets across Sundari to make Duchess Satine appear unable to protect her people, then Death Watch staged a heroic rescue, capturing the very criminals it had unleashed. Bo-Katan's Nite Owls were hailed as saviors, and the people of Sundari chanted Vizsla's name as he was installed as Prime Minister and Satine was arrested. Bo-Katan then took Maul prisoner as Vizsla turned on the Sith, clubbing the Zabrak into submission when he struggled.

But Maul and Opress broke free, releasing the corrupt former minister Almec, and Maul challenged Vizsla to a duel for control of Mandalore. By Mandalorian tradition Vizsla accepted, and Bo-Katan threw him the lightsaber she had taken from Maul. Maul defeated and beheaded Vizsla and declared himself the new leader of Death Watch. Bo-Katan refused, declaring that no outsider would ever rule Mandalore, and as the traditionalists sided with Maul, she and her Nite Owls fought their way out of the palace.

War for Mandalore#

Bo-Katan joined her nephew Korkie Kryze and Death Watch loyalists to free Satine from the royal prison, telling her sister that the enemy of her enemy was her friend. Their escape failed and Satine, having signaled the Jedi, was recaptured. When Obi-Wan Kenobi arrived to rescue Satine, Maul killed her before his eyes and imprisoned him. Devastated, Bo-Katan ambushed Maul's warriors as they delivered Kenobi to the prison, freed the Jedi, and fought beside him through a city consumed by civil war. She asked Kenobi to inform the Republic of events, willing to accept a Republic invasion if it meant Maul's death.

Bo-Katan later tracked Maul and approached Tano on Coruscant, telling her that Death Watch was gone and that they now shared a common enemy. Together they convinced Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker to commit Republic forces, and the Siege of Mandalore began under Tano and the newly promoted Commander Rex. Bo-Katan captured and interrogated Almec, fought Gar Saxon, and joined the final battle in which Maul was at last subdued and taken into custody. She and Tano parted on good terms, and Bo-Katan was named regent of Mandalore.

Occupation and the Great Purge#

Bo-Katan's regency ended when she refused to serve the newly proclaimed Galactic Emperor; Clan Saxon, loyal to the Empire, took control. In 2 BBY, during a new Mandalorian civil war, she encountered Countess Ursa Wren and Sabine Wren, who sought a worthy wielder of the Darksaber. After fighting the Empire alongside Clan Wren and helping destroy the Arc Pulse Generator known as the "Duchess," a weapon that turned Mandalorian beskar armor against its wearers, Bo-Katan accepted the Darksaber and the mantle of leader, rallying several clans to her banner.

Her rule proved brief. The Empire devastated Mandalore in the Night of a Thousand Tears, and Bo-Katan lost the Darksaber to Moff Gideon. In the aftermath of the Great Purge she surrendered to Gideon in the hope of saving her remaining people, only to be betrayed.

The Mandalorian and the return#

During the New Republic Era, Bo-Katan rebuilt her forces and, on Trask, rescued Din Djarin and the foundling Grogu before recruiting Djarin's help to hijack an Imperial weapons cruiser. She revealed to Djarin that he belonged to the Children of the Watch, a zealot sect that had broken from Mandalorian society. Later she joined Djarin's party to assault Gideon's light cruiser; though they captured it, Djarin defeated Gideon and unknowingly won the Darksaber, and Bo-Katan refused to take the blade from him in such a manner.

After her forces abandoned her, a discouraged Bo-Katan retired to Kryze Castle on Kalevala. When Djarin came seeking the Mines of Mandalore, she accompanied him, took up the Darksaber to save him from a cyborg in the ruins, and dove into the Living Waters after him. There she glimpsed a living mythosaur, proof that the legends she had dismissed were true. Accepted by the Armorer and the Children of the Watch, Bo-Katan was charged with uniting all Mandalorians.

She reclaimed her old unit by defeating Axe Woves, accepted the Darksaber when Djarin formally ceded it, and led the survivors of the Great Purge back to Mandalore. In the final battle she fought Gideon directly; though the Darksaber was destroyed, she declared that Mandalorians were stronger together, and with Djarin's return Gideon was defeated. Bo-Katan reignited the Great Forge alongside the Armorer, marking the start of Mandalore's reconstruction.

Personality and skills#

Bo-Katan was confident, sardonic, and fiercely loyal, first to Death Watch and later to the idea of a free Mandalore. Despite opposing Satine's politics, she loved her sister deeply, and grief over her death drove her against Maul. Her many failures humbled her over the years, until she came to see worth in Satine's ideals and was reluctant to lead again. She was a deadly warrior, expert in hand-to-hand combat, jetpack maneuvers, and marksmanship with her dual WESTAR-35 blasters, capable of holding her own against Force-sensitive opponents such as Ahsoka Tano. Her blue-and-white armor, three generations old, carried a wrist vibroblade, a whipcord launcher, and a shield projector, and after her redemption she bore a mythosaur insignia on her pauldron.