Bo-Katan Kryze is the last of her line, the Heiress of the Royal Family of Mandalore. However, there was a time when she was not the only one. The most recent episode of Disney+’s live-action Star Wars series The Mandalorian showed her opening up to Din Djarin about growing up on Mandalore and having taken the creed in the Living Waters of the Mines of Mandalore. She spoke of her father, watching proudly as she was baptized in her people’s ways. But who was Bo-Katan’s father?
Who was Adonai Kryze?
Adonai Kryze was the Duke of Mandalore at some point before 42 BBY (or 42 years before A New Hope). As Duke of Mandalore and Patriarch of Clan Kryze, he was sovereign of the Mandalore system, which included the planet of Mandalore, the moon of Concordia, and Kalevala.
From Bo-Katan’s recollections, he appeared to have been a proud Mandalorian, who believed in the ancient ways and held strongly in the customs of his people, as well as a great man. However, her definition of a great man may be malleable considering their warrior culture.
We know Adonai Kryze had multiple children, including Bo-Katan Kryze, her elder sister Satine Kryze, and an unnamed sibling of the two who had a child by the name of Korkie Kryze. Because Mandalore values name over patriarchal lineage, it is possible that Korkie’s parent was either a son or daughter of Adonai Kryze and kept their name, as it held the most rank and respect. In any case, Korkie Kryze is the only known grandchild of Adonai, though he has apparently died by the time period of The Mandalorian, leaving Bo-Katan the only surviving member of the royal family.
The father of Satine Kryze and Bo-Katan was previously alluded to in both The Clone Wars: Darth Maul: Shadow Conspiracy and The Bounty Hunter Code: From the Files of Boba Fett. Both books have since been removed from canon and deemed part of the Star Wars Legends.
The death of Bo-Katan’s father
Adonai Kryze died “defending Mandalore” during the Great Clan Wars, one of the many Mandalorian civil wars that ravaged the planet. His death led to his eldest daughter and heir, Satine Kryze, being assigned Jedi protectors for the remainder of the war. (We have no confirmation of where Bo-Katan was during this time.) The Jedi assigned to her protection were Master Qui-Gon Jinn and Padawan Obi-Wan Kenobi, the latter of whom fell in love with the young Duchess. However, at the end of the war, both the Duchess and the Jedi chose duty over love and ultimately parted ways.
Satine Kryze, now Duchess and ruler, outlawed Mandalorian armor and weapons, after having lost her father and half her people to their violent warrior ways. Bo-Katan saw Satine’s peaceful reforms as a betrayal of their culture and their world, and joined the terrorist group Death Watch.
Theories about Bo-Katan’s father
In many ways, the two Kryze sisters’ responses show similar but opposite reactions to grief and the loss of their father. Satine blamed their warrior ways for causing the death of her father and so many others, and so she sought to banish them and protect anyone else from suffering her father’s fate. Bo-Katan, during her Death Watch days, seems to have fought against her sister’s reforms in an effort to defend the warrior ways that made her father proud. However, she now appears to blame Mandalorian infighting as the greater cause of their people’s suffering.
In any case, it appears that the loss of her father is still a grief that Bo-Katan is working through and partially explains why restoring Mandalore is so important to her. It’s not just her responsibility as a member of the royal family, but it’s also all she has left of the family she lost to multiple wars.
(featured image: Disney/Lucasfilm)
