I’m pretty sure that canonically, Ben Organa-Solo was raised by the village, the village being:
His mother, the Princess Organa who is working with the very green, very wobbly and prone to in-fighting New Republic, a task that makes her long for the claustrophobic, maddening days holed up on Hoth, because at least then she had been certain she was doing something right, something useful. But then Ben stirs in his sling, or starts to cry at the noise, and she remembers why she’s there.
She sits up straighter, takes a deep breath. Calls for order. (She doesn’t have a planet to give him, not anymore. There’s just this.)
His uncle, who carries him around on his shoulders as he’s teaching the very young, very new Jedi recruits—the construction of the temple hasn’t quite finished yet, so they train in the courtyard of a nearby house, borrowed from a Rebellion soldier who made good after the war, and is happy to let the Lieutenant Commander traipse through with his misfit padawans. Luke smiles and gently corrects technique, while Ben grabs handfuls of his uncle’s hair and attempts to steer him like a bantha.
His other uncle, a seven foot tall snarling monster of fur and teeth, who Ben is under the impression is his personal teddy bear for the first five to seven years of his life. Chewbacca does absolutely nothing to dispel this impression.
(At some point, Ben decides he is going to be a wookie when he grows up, and proceeds to sheer the family dog and glue the clumps of hair over his skin. The glue does not wash off for a week, but Chewie walks around pleased as punch, for a while longer.)
His father, who when Ben is eight finally relents, and lets him come along on a smuggling run. Ben sits up in the cockpit with him and Chewie, and watches with wide eyes as they jump to hyperspace. The Millennium Falcon makes different sounds when she’s in space, and Ben can’t sleep in his usual bunk, even when he curls up with the blanket that smells of mother and father. Instead, he creeps back into the cockpit, sitting in the chair behind his father. He watches his father’s hands move over the controls, sure and quick and true, and thinks there can’t be anyone in the galaxy smarter or braver.
His miscellaneous uncles, who come and go through his young life, trailing mystery and glory. Captain—Ben doesn’t know it comes with a name attached until he’s old enough to pronounce
Antilles—usually comes to see Uncle Luke, and invariably gets wrangled into dinner with the rest of them. When Uncle Luke tells stories about the missions they flew in the war, Captain makes the same funny face, where it looks like he’s grumpy but really his eyes are happy.
(Afterwards, Captain and Uncle Luke will sit by themselves and talk in quiet voices. If Ben watches too long, his mother always comes along and shutters the windows, ushers him away to bed.)
Uncle Lando comes with no one’s leave, grinning and arms full of gifts—he kisses Ben’s mother with a ridiculous smacking noise, and his father laughs, and they all sit and talk to each other while his father loses money on bad cards. For a little while mother’s work is untouched, and father stays planet-side, and everyone is happy. Lando gives Ben silly advice, like stay golden, kid, and never let ‘em see what cards you’ve got, kid. For a while, Ben thinks Uncle Lando doesn’t actually know his name, since he keeps calling him kid.
Uncle Lando knows his name, because the first time he runs away, hitching rides on landspeeders and almost bargaining his way onto a cruiser, Lando is the one they send after him. He’s waiting to board the cruiser when Lando comes, and sits down beside him with a sigh. Ben, he says, and Ben nearly jumps out of his skin, before the sick guilt sets in. Uncle Lando looks at him like he’s an adult, it makes him feel worse. Ben, kid….come home.
who wasn’t involved in raising Ben Organa-Solo is the more pertinent question
One of the things I love about Mandalorian culture is that it basically involves loving who ever you want, raising as many kids as you want, wearing cool body armor and flying around on highly unreliable jetpacks, and trying to shoot a space wizard who can send bullets back at you which is peak herbo/himbo culture. But seriously you don’t get in trouble for picking a laser sword that’s the wrong color, being forced to never see your parents as a toddler because you could move blocks with your mind, or never allowed to have family or life outside the Jedi order. One of the things that the EU established is both how family oriented Mando culture and one of the reasons they dislike the Jedi is partially because they force a child to separate from their family.
So for those of you who don’t know, there’s an official Mando’a language and dictionary, and one of the most important sayings in Mandalorian culture is:
Gar taldin ni jaonyc; gar sa buir, ori'wadaas'la.
Meaning- Nobody cares who your father was, only the father you’ll be.
Oh my God?
We stan 1 (one) culture of batshit insane jetpack warriors
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