Though I haven't watched the episodes yet, I have seen the movie special that was released on DVD. Watching through it though, something caught my eye that has been bugging me. There are no spoilers so don't worry for anyone who hasn't seen it yet.

Here is the leader of the group Kanan.

Now, look at his right shoulder there and the symbol on it.

Now here is the symbol for the Mandalorian clan Vizsla and the emblem of Death Watch.

Notice anything, similar. To me, both symbols are way too similar and it has me wondering, why use the symbol? As a huge fan of the Mandalorians, I could go on about Death Watch not being true Mandalorians. But the fact remains that Kanan has a symbol on his shoulder eerily similar to that of a terrorist group of fallen Mandalorians. I know there is a Mandalorian on the team, Sabine, but she doesn't strike me as the kind that would be part of Death Watch and I doubt Kanan would support them given that he is a former Jedi.

What are your thoughts on this?

3683985 he might've taken the armor from a dead warrior.

3683985 Well Sabine's training had to come from somewhere and Death Watch were the only ones with that training available that I can recall. Perhaps she's the daughter of a member and either her parent/s or she herself defected from them. The armour could be a nabbed keep sake or loot.

There's also the fact that the symbol also vaguely resembles the rebel symbol and carries none of the shaky lines of Death Watch's so it could be related to the other.

Or it could simply be coincidence.

3683985
3684069

Or it could simply be coincidence.

The kind like Sabine using a phoenix symbol for the Rebellion, while it's supposed to be Starkiller's family symbol that has been used ?

About that symbol, I just think that since they are out-law rebels, they are just using the equipment that they can find. Konan probably found some part of a Mandalorian armor, and used it since then.

3684122 You know I hear there were other stories behind the rebellion's insignia from before Force Unleashed. I think it's one of the details the cannon is kind of iffy on, in fact I think the cannon of Force Unleashed as a whole is a little suspect.

3684021 3684069 3684122
As far as Kanan taking the armor from a fallen Mandalorian, this is doubtful. The plate is too big and doesn't fit the style used by Mandalorians, especially Death Watch. So I doubt he took it from a Watcher. Death Watch may have some members like Bo-Katan, the female Watcher, who have slightly different armor but overall, they are streamline and follow a pattern. Kanan's plate doesn't fit the style.

Now I know the symbol is not an exact match but it still could be a bit of a stylized version. Here is Pre Vizsla's helmet which has a bit of a cleaner version of his clan's emblem.

It is likely coincidence that the symbols look so similar but it just bugs me that they do. As for Sabine, I think she likely trained on her own or was trained by another Mandalorian bounty hunter or mercenary. There are other Mandalorians other than Death Watch that use the armor. I can see that her parents defected from Death Watch or left after their downfall at the end of Season 5 of the Clone Wars rather than her leaving.

I can see the Rebellion symbol they are using if it is Starkiller's family symbol. The events of the Force Unleashed do lead up to the formation of the Rebellion. I would love to see a connection to those rebels.

3684217 On a side note Sabine could be related to the New Mandalorian movement that Jango Fett was a member of before the Jedi wiped them out (under false pre tenses set up by some Death Watch members I might add).

3684266 No, Duchess Satine was the leader of the New Mandalorians. Jango was a member of the True Mandalorians. But I can see that.

3684284 Ah, sorry, my mistake. Picked up the Open Season comic a while back but haven't read it in a while.

3684347 That's alright. I actually get all my information from the essential guides like the Essential Guide to Warfare or the Essential Atlas, each with a section dedicated to the history of the Mandalorians up to the Clone Wars.

3684217
The problem is that Star Wars Rebels takes place 5 years before A New Hope, while The Force Unleashed takes place one year and a half before Star Wars IV.
So that means that the true Rebel Alliance hasn't really started yet (especially with the end of the third episode), and that the rebel's symbol has a different origin here.

3684425 Forgot when Force Unleashed was supposed to take place. My mistake. Yeah, the whole thing is likely one big coincidence. Still, the similarities in the symbols just bugged me the whole time I was watching Spark of Rebellion. I'm probably just overanalyzing this whole thing.

3683985 Perhaps it is a coincidence. There are a number of things that could also make some sense.
1: Stolen Armor
2: Maybe the actual Mandalorian in their group did it...
3: He thought it looked cool
4: He is a descendant (vague, I know)
5: He is one, but was whisked away before he became a true mandalorian

3683985 Now that I think about it, they do look similar. Who knows it could be something else that looks Death Watch's emblem. Very interesting.

3684524 Probably is just a coincidence. However, for these:
1. Already explained why this could not be.
2-3. Possible. Either it makes for a great plot device as to the reason or it is just pure coincidence.
4-5. First, he became a Jedi and Death Watch wouldn't allow one of their descendants to be taken to the Temple. Second, couldn't have been one and a Jedi. Too many other variables to say why not.
Also, Death Watch are not True Mandalorians. (Discussion for another time and place)

3684122 Force Unleashed is no longer canon

Aren't you familiar with Revan? He was a high-ranked Jedi Knight during the conflicts known as the Mandalorian Wars; where he and fellow Republic Soldiers and Jedi fought against the Mandalorian forces, led by Mandalore the Ultimate: the greatest warrior in Mandalorian culture. At one point in the conflict, are an stumbled across a discarded Mandalorian faceplate and began to use it, giving him his iconic appearance that would serve as a sign of death when he came underneath the control of Vitiate: the Sith Emperor.

Kannan possibly fought to a standstill against Death Watch during his tenure in the Clone Wars, and events played out as they did millennia ago with Revan

3812123

Aren't you familiar with Revan?

Someone hasn't seen my profile yet. You speak to a guy with Mandalore the Indomitable as his avatar. Sorry, but yes, I am familiar with Reven and the faceplate.

However, as I mentioned earlier, the shoulder plate that Kanan uses doesn't match that of Death Watch. Death Watch is too uniform and it seems unlikely to me that he would find a differently designed shoulder plate.

3812123 Kanan (or by his real name, Caleb Dume) was 14 by Order 66 under the training of Master Depa Billaba. (It was all in the book A New Dawn)
He couldn't have been fighting Deathwatch, as he was still a fairly new padawan under training.

3812261
3813791

It's not a matter of armor, but possibly one of symbolic nature. Revans faceplate originally belonged to a Mandalorian who opposed the genocide of a Cathar settlement and fought against killing the already defeated opponents that Cassus Fett was leaning towards. A decade later, Revan would find her mask on the Shores and vow to prove to the Republic for Mandalores' involvement in the genocide and declare his own personal war against the Mandalorians.

Something similar might have happened with Kanan where events played out similarly to long ago, and instead of taking a fallen Mandalorians mask to serve as the fallen ones "eyes" seeking justice, he takes the gauntlet to serve as the extended "reach" of oneself to others. And it might not be the entirety of the gauntlet itself that's Mandalorian, perhaps just the insignia pauldron and the glove itself while he reshape everything else to match his style. Crazily enough, this kinda thing happened elsewhere with Darth Maul: after his rescue by Savage Oppress, he was brought back to Dathomir where Mother Talzin repaired his broken mind, along with using the force to strip his spider legs down and interweave them with Battle Droid parts to be melted together and blended to create his new set of legs.

3814073 That sounds nice and I would love to see it, but I have a few problems with that theory. If it was reshaped it would have to be a Death Watch gauntlet or shoulder plate only. Death Watch, by the time of the Clone Wars, had very little beskar, Mandalorian iron, and resorted to making their armor out of other, more available materials. Only Mandalorians have the knowledge of how to forge beskar. But one thing to take into account is the amount of material. The shoulder plate Kanan has is too big to have be re-forged from a Death Watch shoulder plate, plus the gauntlet is too smooth to have come from a Death Watch gauntlet.

However, knowing the creators of Rebels, I don't think they thought about something like that. Plus, the book A New Dawn doesn't paint the picture of a guy who would do that. (Admittedly I have not gotten a chance to read it yet but the summary does not portray that idea) Plus, even if it did by chance come from a fallen Mandalorian, why would Kanan keep the symbol of Death Watch? They are a violent terrorist group and their own resident Mandalorian, Sabine, would likely be familiar with them to inform them. I can see Kanan not being familiar with Death Watch but I would at least believe that Sabine would know although she is rather young and Death Watch has already fallen and the survivors have gone underground again.

I am under the impression that the symbol is just coincidentally similar. Something the creators came up with that just happened to look similar. As for it's story in Star Wars, I could see it being a similar symbol representing a trident rather than the Mandalorian shriek-hawk, which is what Death Watch's symbol represents.

3813791 Does A New Dawn ever mention the armor plates Kanan wears? That would have the explanation if it did, I would guess.