The "New Mandalorians"

[Vlet Hansen]

*executes the double-poster*

Actually, from new info, Jango wasn't really the Mand'alor, it seems like the various factions kept disagreeing with each other, and Jango was only considered a leader by a few hundred across the galaxy.

[Mia Ge'tal'mesh]

Actually, from new info, Jango wasn't really the Mand'alor, it seems like the various factions kept disagreeing with each other, and Jango was only considered a leader by a few hundred across the galaxy.

Really?  They're actually demoting Jango now?  That's...pretty dumb.

[Vlet Hansen]

it's actually the only way to sync the comics with Traviss. See, she pictures this galaxy-spanning society, and the comics picture two small groups beating the osik out of each other. It's the only way for there to be more than about sixty Mandalorians. If Jango was unilaterally accepted as Mand'alor, Vizsla wouldn't have gotten away with all that.

[Mia Ge'tal'mesh]

That was one of the comic's screw ups.  I got the idea like they were trying to show Jango as "The Last Mando!" but somebody forgot about Fenn Shysa, and Tobbi Dala, and the other Mandalorians on Mandalore.  Or it was a bad try at a retcon, I don't know.  Personally I thought of the True Mandalorians as like Jaster and Jango's version of the Protectors, ya know?  Their personal supercommando army they led, rather than all the "true Mandalorians".
And Jaing said that the Mando Civil War really was that small scale and most Mandos didn't care or have a stake in it.  (Direct quote: “Sectarian feud.  Irrelevant to most Mando'ade's lives.")  But there's still no reason for Jango not to be Mand'alor.  It's not like every single Mandalorian runs around behind the Mand'alor at all times...

[Vlet Hansen]

yeah, but if some jerk goes around trying to kill the Mand'alor for no good reason, someone's gonna step in... and frankly, seeing as no one in the galaxy seemed to remember Mandalorians even before the cartoon non-retcon, it makes sense anyway... if they really were a massive, coordinated war machine, there would have been someone who recognized Jango... other than the people who regularly contract him out, that is...

[Mia Ge'tal'mesh]

yeah, but if some jerk goes around trying to kill the Mand'alor for no good reason, someone's gonna step in...

Hence the True Mandalorians hunting down Vizsla/Death Watch with Jango all Mando Protectors style.  And Jango could have pulled a "This guy's mine" kinda deal with Montross.

if they really were a massive, coordinated war machine, there would have been someone who recognized Jango... other than the people who regularly contract him out, that is...

The point is that after Galidraan they weren't really a coordinated war machine any more.  True Mandos got butchered, Jango disappeared into slavery for a couple years.  Maybe that would have gotten some people thinking maybe he wasn't Mand'alor anymore, but he came back eventually.
I dunno, I can kinda see your point but even with all the reshuffling, I don't like them trying to say Jango was some clown who led an outcast group rather than being the Mand'alor.  Which he was.

[Vlet Hansen]

What, the whole twenty of them? The people who attacked Vizsla were the people he was already trying to kill.

Jango was Mand'alor for that faction. He was only recognized as Mand'alor by a portion of the community, the rest knew he took the title, but they didn't care. And face it, not once in the comics, or in any other media is he confirmed as even having visited Manda'yaim, let alone living there. He was an outcast, seeing as he spent a large amount of his life being attacked by the Death Watch, or running of and being a bounty hunter. He was only Mandalorian by the slightest, most tenuous definition.

[Mia Ge'tal'mesh]

Unless somebody else comes along with something new and crazy, there were only three factions of Mandos.  Death Watch, and they had their Overlord.  New Mandos, and they have their Duchess and Prime Minister and all those guys.  And the "true" Mandos, ruled by the Mand'alor.  Doesn't get much for factionized then that, or else he's a clan chieftain or something which would really be coming outta nowhere.  Jaster dies, Jango's Mand'alor until he looses his head and we get Spar.  If the New Mandos want to exist outside all that, fine.  But the peeps in charge don't need to drag down Jango.

And how was he not Mando?  To pull a Xander list:
1) He wore the armor
2) He rallied to the Mand'alor (helped that it was his dad anyway)
3) He defended his people
4) He was raising Boba Mando-style before he died
5) He spoke the language. (glimpse of it in that part from Triple Zero)
6) He looked out for all the Mando's welfare when he was Mand'alor (up till Galidraan...)

Seems like he fits teh bill to me.  And if the other Mandos didn't want him to be Mand'alor, they'd have challenged him.  Nobody did.  I don't remember living on Mandalore being a requirement.  Look at all the other Mando worlds out there like Ordo and Mandallia and even Kalevala.  And he only started being a bounty hunter after he lost all his friends/comrades on Galidraan, he was a regular style Mand'alor before that, leading his mercs on paying missions and stuff.  Besides, bounty hunter and Mand'alor aren't like they're totally incompatible.

[Vlet Hansen]

Hold on there, his dad wasn't the Mand'alor ever, he was the Protector of Concord Dawn. He was a policeman in effect, albeit a powerful one.

Also, Traviss's works agree with the cartoon that the vast majority of Mandalorians didn't care what Jango did. They didn't recognize him as being very much of a Mand'alor, so he wasn't one in essence. And seeing as there's hardly a form to sign, anyone can claim to be Mand'alor with equal accuracy, it's only when Mandalorians actually treat you as such that you are the Mand'alor.

[Mia Ge'tal'mesh]

Hold on there, his dad wasn't the Mand'alor ever, he was the Protector of Concord Dawn. He was a policeman in effect, albeit a powerful one.

Sorry, I meant Jaster.  His adopted dad.

Also, Traviss's works agree with the cartoon that the vast majority of Mandalorians didn't care what Jango did. They didn't recognize him as being very much of a Mand'alor, so he wasn't one in essence. And seeing as there's hardly a form to sign, anyone can claim to be Mand'alor with equal accuracy, it's only when Mandalorians actually treat you as such that you are the Mand'alor.

I'm not saying he was Mandalore of the Year, but c'mon...

[Vlet Hansen]

but can he really count as Mand'alor if no one cares?

[Rune]

Define no one. He could have been the de facto mand'alor, and didn't force the Mando population at large to help him in fighting the death watch. Plus, a mand'alor isn't expected to stay planetside for his entire reign.

[Mia Ge'tal'mesh]

No one ever seems to really care.  That was one of the things I really got from the books.  The only time they cared was when they didn't have one at all.  He's like (don't kill me Flyboy ) the Queen of England.  She doesn't have any real political power, she doesn't have any technical job to do...she's just there because they've always had a king and queen.  But when she wants/needs to, her backing a cause or a certain person tends to sway a lot of people.  Same with the Mand'alor.  The Mandos want one because they've always had one and without one, it's just wierd.  When they get one, he mostly just hangs around.  When they need him to do something, then he turns out does the stuff like talking to the important off-worlders and leading the army.  If he sucks at it, people complain and he's that turd who's supposed to be in charge.  If he does a good job...he's just that guy who shows up to lead when we need him.

Jango seemed like a great Mand'alor before Galidraan.  It was only after all that that he turned bounty hunter and started drifting.  But you gotta think about how screwed up his life was that made him do that.  Parents murders when he was a kid, thought his sister was too.  Adopted dad gets betrayed, left to die, and shot to death right in front of him.  Friends and all his comrades get killed by the Jedi at Galidraan and then he's sold in slavery.  I think it makes some sense that he kinda just said "Screw it, I'm done" and decided to be distant.

Anyway (kinda babbling with that last part ) all I'm saying is that he wasn't the Shysa-level loved Mand'alor, but they respected him, at least for how badass of a fighter he was.

[Vlet Hansen]

There are many badshebs Mandalorians, and that wouldn't have made Jango Mand'alor. And how was he a great Mand'alor? He ran a mercenary company. He was never shown to have been in command of more than one carrier of soldiers. All but one of his soldiers were killed during the battle on Galidraan, and there only seemed to be about twenty Mandalorians present. Whether he was Mand'alor or not, only the most infintesimal fraction of Mandalorians ever really bothered to call him that...

[Mia Ge'tal'mesh]

Okay.  We're arguing over different opinion/interpretations now so I'm just gonna say okay and leave it at that.  You've got some good points there, I think I had a decent point or two, so... yeah.

[Vlet Hansen]

o...kay?

[Mia Ge'tal'mesh]

OKAY!

[Rune]

If only more arguments could end like this.

[Vlet Hansen]

yeah, it'd make the world a lot better...

[Mia Ge'tal'mesh]

It's cuz we iz friends!