The Mandalorian‘s season 2 finale showed the first interaction between two fan-favorite Star Wars characters, Boba Fett and Bo-Katan Kryze. Their meeting was hostile, to say the least, with Boba eager to dismiss the Death Watch leader and Kryze accusing Boba of being a Mandalorian pretender and a disgrace to his beskar armor. Bo-Katan further tried to provoke Fett by bringing up the fact that she’s interacted with Jango Fett clones numerous times before meeting Boba. As seen in Star Wars: The Clone Wars and the 2013 comic The Clone Wars: Defenders of the Lost Temple, Bo-Katan does have a long history with Republic Clone Troopers, fighting both alongside them and against them during the Clone Wars.
Bo-Katan is a member of the Death Watch, a Mandalorian splinter group who sought to rule Mandalore through violence and pillaging. As shown in The Clone Wars, the Death Watch will gleefully raze a village full of innocents simply to prove their superiority. Understandably, they were disliked by other Mandalorian cultures and often deservedly referred to as terrorists. Since Jango Fett’s Legends-era backstory was, in large part, brought back to canon by The Mandalorian, it can be assumed that he helped defeat the Death Watch during the Mandalorian Civil War. During the Clone Wars, the exiled Death Watch briefly joined the Separatist Alliance (in a bid to take over Mandalore) before being betrayed by the Sith Lord Count Dooku. At the end of the war, part of the Death Watch joined the former Sith Maul in claiming Mandalore – but Bo-Katan’s group, the Nite Owls, worked with the Republic to oppose him and retake their homeworld.
Although the canon version of Jango Fett was largely uninvolved in the training of his Clone Troopers (the opposite of his attitude in Legends), they ultimately became some of the most formidable warriors in the galaxy. Many clone pilots, having been trained by Journeyman Protector Fenn Rau, were well-steeped in Mandalorian culture and some, like a pilot in Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith, would display Mandalorian symbols on their helmets. The clones also occasionally came into contact with their template’s old enemies, the Death Watch, fighting against them on Draay 2 and alongside the Nite Owls during the Siege of Mandalore.
A standard Clone Trooper who served under Jedi General B’ink Utrila and Clone Lieutenant Law, Glitch was one of the most unique clones in the Republic in that he believed he could use the Force. Though he was mocked by his squadmates and demonstrated no obvious Force sensitivity, Glitch was nonetheless a stalwart believer in the Jedi way and a close friend of Utrila’s Padawan, Rennax Omani.
In addition to the Jedi and Law, Glitch had two squadmates: Cannon and Horns. The latter was aware that Jango Fett was a Mandalorian, but apparently didn’t know that he fought against the Death Watch during the Mandalorian Civil War. Horns thought of himself as a Mandalorian warrior, so he wore their insignia on his helmet, despite the Death Watch being murderous former Separatists who fought against his clone template. During a mission to recover a Sith artifact from a Jedi Temple on Draay 2, Glitch and his squad ran afoul of the Death Watch, led by Pre Vizsla and Bo-Katan. The Jedi and clones fought bravely but were captured by Vizsla and Kryze’s warriors.
Vizsla, amused by the Death Watch logo on Horns’ helmet, offered him a place in the Death Watch if he’d kill his Jedi general. Horns stuck his ideals and rejected the offer. Though neither a Jedi nor trained to use a lightsaber, Glitch nevertheless took a stand against Pre Vizsla with the Jedi weapon, likely impressing and frustrating Bo-Katan in equal measure. Glitch made inventive use of his ineptitude as a Force user by activating one of the temple’s traps, which distracted Vizsla and Kryze, allowing the clones and Jedi to fight back. Despite being outnumbered and fighting beskar-equipped opponents, they defeated the Mandalorian warriors with no casualties of their own (aside from an MIA Glitch), likely hurting Bo-Katan’s pride in the process. Kryze underestimated Jango’s clones and discovered how formidable they are when four of them were able to outfight the dreaded Death Watch.
The Death Watch was divided for a time when Maul challenged Pre Vizsla to a fight to the death for the Darksaber and the right to rule Mandalore. Maul won the fight, but Bo-Katan and many of her fellow warriors refused to acknowledge Maul as their new ruler, and thus went to war with him. Outnumbered and desperate, Bo-Katan sought the help of Ahsoka and the Republic (possibly remembering the clones’ ability to outfight Mandalorian warriors on Draay 2) to help her reclaim Mandalore. Ahsoka and the Republic agreed to help, and thus the 332nd Company (a division of the 501st Legion) was created to back up Bo-Katan’s Mandalorian Resistance.
Bo-Katan fought alongside countless clones during the Siege of Mandalore, interacting with the newly-promoted Commander Rex the most. Bo-Katan also stood alongside Rex and Ahsoka when Maul released the previously-captive ARC Trooper Jesse after a dark side fueled interrogation. The clones proved invaluable to Kryze during the siege, outfighting Maul’s better-equipped loyalists and helping to capture Maul himself during his duel with Ahsoka.
While the clones were instrumental in allowing Bo-Katan to reclaim Mandalore from Maul, they also, unfortunately, took Mandalore away from her shortly after their victory. It wasn’t long after Maul’s defeat that the Republic became the Galactic Empire by way of Order 66 and the Jedi Purge. Already proven to be capable of defeating Mandalorians, the now brainwashed clones likely defeated Bo-Katan’s forces to claim Mandalore for the Empire. Because of this, whatever positive sentiment Bo-Katan may have felt towards Jango Fett’s clones in the aftermath of Maul’s defeat was likely soured by her people once again being defeated by Fett in some form and Mandalore once more being occupied by outsiders. With this in mind, it’s no surprise that Bo-Katan is so antagonistic to Boba Fett (a clone of Jango who wears beskar armor, no less) in The Mandalorian.
Originally from https://screenrant.com/star-wars-bo-katan-jango-fett-clones-met/