Moff Gideon’s Dark Trooper Project, Explained

While Din Djarin and the child were running trying to find Mandalorians Yes Jediand eat questionable amounts of almost all, the last chapter of Disney + The Mandalorian I checked out what Moff Gideon was doing. The answer? Nothing good. In fact, something bad, from the days of the Old Kingdom and Star wars“Old Expanded Universe.

The end of The Mandalorian “Headquarters,” watched us catch up with Moff Gideon (Giancarlo Esposito) base of operations aboard a Arquitens-class cruiser. Gideon has been busy since breaking free from his crashed TIE Fighter with the legendary black saber– And not just because it is director of Dr Pershing (Omid Abtahi) experiment with the child’s blood to try to transfuse Force sensitivity in test subjects, although get to that. No, the most fascinating thing of all when we see Gideon growl with pleasure to learn that one of his agents managed to place a tracking beacon on the Razor Crest is the other great thing you’re working on:

Row after row of huge black armor shells. Not Death Troopers, as we’ve seen before, but something New. Well, new for some: for fans of the old Star wars expanded universe something became very clear very quickly: these are Black soldiers

First introduced in the classic Star wars First person shooter, Dark forces: The 1995 game that introduced us to the legendary mercenary turned Jedi Kyle Katarn“Project Dark Trooper was a phased plan by Imperial General Rom Mohc. Kyle’s mission in Dark forces it was basically about stopping the project before it started, after the rebel bases were decimated by Mohc’s first tests on the early phases of the Dark Trooper.

So what are the Dark Troopers? Mohc’s plans for the ultimate Stormtrooper stemmed from the first tests during the rise of the Empire to combat the accelerating aging of the Clone Troopers that were undermining their tactical abilities. By grafting cybernetic parts onto candidate clones to counteract their physical degradation, the Dark Trooper’s “Phase Zero” plan was put on hold as the Empire began recruiting human soldiers to compensate for the dwindling number of Clones. But when Mohc rethought the idea, he ditched cybernetics entirely – his Dark Troopers were battle droids.

The Dark Trooper Project ultimately produced three phases of Soldier Design. There could have been more Kyle no sopla Mohc’s command ship, the Bow hammer, permanently ending any Imperial investigation of the Battle Droids as a replacement infantry. Phase 1 was most droid-like: a skeletal humanoid made from phrik (the lightsaber-resistant metallic compound). Wielding an arm-mounted vibroblade and an explosive shield, the First Dark Trooper mirrored Mohc’s own thoughts on warfare, avoiding ranged weapons for melee combat.

Phase II was when Mohc began deploying the Dark Trooper in his ground infantry deployments; He was still a droid, now he was bulging in large Stormtrooper armor, also in phrik. This armor also housed a jump pack, and Phase II soldiers traded melee weapons for an assault cannon capable of firing plasma beams and missiles, as well as an “bow launcher” which projected explosions of electricity from close range. But it’s the phase III soldier that interests him most The Mandalorian.

They were basically the design we saw at the end of the last episode: black armor, compared to the white of phase II, and slightly larger because Phase III Dark Trooper could function as a standalone droid O be used as an exosuit by a fighter. In Dark forces, only a handful of Phase III costumes existed, including the one Mohc wore during his final showdown with Kyle. Although it is presumed that all were destroyed with the loss of the Bow hammer, some units have been delayed even if, for the majority, Research on battle droids in the Empire was abandoned after Mohc’s death.

We don’t know what the new canon version of the Dark Trooper will ultimately be“Completely droid, cyber or exosuit – drunkThis isn’t the first time the Dark Trooper design has inspired the Disney era of Star wars. Although it is not named as such, Thrawn train droids in Star Wars Rebels, the sentry droid of the DT series, has its design inspired by former black soldiers. Further, the mobile game now gone Star Wars Commander he actually included the Dark Troopers in various missions, awkwardly getting them into the cannon. Be The Mandalorian which more formally embodies the Dark Trooper, but the other big revelation of “The Siege” could also borrow an old idea of ​​the Expanded Universe which would bring closer the two research paths of Moff Gideon and Doctor Pershing.

In another Star wars PC game, the strategy simulator Star Wars: Rebellion, published by Lucasarts three years later Dark forces, the Dark Troopers have been described as much more than the next generation of Stormtrooper, but were actually Force carriers in the Dark Trooper armor.. Even in the old EU, it was still a skeptical source: Del Rey’s Resource Book Essential Droid Guide explicitly discussed the release of the Dark Trooper projects as droids.

But we do know that Dr Pershing is experimenting with Transfusion Force sensitivity in test subjects (and the results are currently …does not go welljudging by the hits our heroes found in “The Headquarters”). NAILalthough it seems a lot more These experiences probably lay the groundwork for what we saw with Supreme Leader Snoke and The Return of Emperor Palpatine In the next trilogy, what if we take that sharp turn to Rebellion? What if Gideon’s plan was to create these Force Sensitive people? and then attach them to the Dark Trooper armor?