The mandalorian [Spoilers]

[Imaculata]

It is possible. I think we are also seeing the beginnings of the First Order, with some imperial remnants refusing to give up their power and keeping some planets in their iron grip.

 

[Zardnaar]

I was wondering if Moff Gideon is in contact with Palpatine? With his project with the midichlorians and the presumed clone tanks, are we seeing the origins of the technology that led to Snoke?

Perhaps. They did kinda explain that stuff in the new canon books just not onscreen.

There's no imperial remnant in the new canon vs legends but there are imperial remnants. Technically the Empire has surrendered.

 

[pukunui]

I was wondering if Moff Gideon is in contact with Palpatine? With his project with the midichlorians and the presumed clone tanks, are we seeing the origins of the technology that led to Snoke?

When I first saw the bodies in the tanks, I thought maybe they were proto-Snokes. But they might also have been whatever's inside those shiny black suits of armor on Moff Gideon's ship. We'll have to wait and see!

EDIT: According to this looper article, the audio description from the episode confirms that the latter are Dark Troopers. Whether the malformed bodies in the tanks are proto-Snokes or Dark Troopers remains to be seen.

 

[Imaculata]

The Star Wars lore goes a bit back and forth on whether the Dark Troopers are force wielders (cyborgs?) or just really powerful droids. It is a bit of a mess. I wonder which of the two the show will lean into.

The malformed bodies in the show imply that the Dark Troopers on the show will be force wielding clones of some sort. SW lore has multiple kinds of Dark Troopers, some of which are equiped with jump packs and vibroblades. It would not surprise me if after the introduction of the Dark Saber we also get to see some vibro blades. They have been well established in SW lore.

 

[Zardnaar]

The Star Wars lore goes a bit back and forth on whether the Dark Troopers are force wielders (cyborgs?) or just really powerful droids. It is a bit of a mess. I wonder which of the two the show will lean into.

The malformed bodies in the show imply that the Dark Troopers on the show will be force wielding clones of some sort. SW lore has multiple kinds of Dark Troopers, some of which are equiped with jump packs and vibroblades. It would not surprise me if after the introduction of the Dark Saber we also get to see some vibro blades. They have been well established in SW lore.

3 types of dark trooper, cyborgs, robots and exosuit.

Original ones.

Whatever they are I don't think they'll be 100% original.

 

[MarkB]

Given that they're drawing from the well of the Dark Forces series of videogames, they may be pulling multiple concepts from them.

Dark Forces introduced the concept of Dark Troopers - which, as Zardnaar mentioned came in three flavours: Exosuit, cyborg and droid.

Dark Forces II: Jedi Knight introduced the concept of the Valley of the Jedi, a wellspring of the power of the Force.

Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast (gotta love these naming conventions) then has the Imperial Remnant under the command of a fallen Jedi channeling the power of the Valley of the Jedi into Kyber Crystals in order to infuse individuals with the Force, creating Reborn warriors who can use the Force and wield lightsabers.

So, Moff Gideon may have already developed Dark Troopers (I'm going to guess the droid variety just because they're kept in storage racks), and may be trying to infuse people with the Child's blood in order to create his own Reborn.

 

[pukunui]

It would not surprise me if after the introduction of the Dark Saber we also get to see some vibro blades. They have been well established in SW lore.

We've seen vibroblades on The Mandalorian already. That Paz Vizsla guy threatened Din with a vibro-dagger in season 1, and just at the start of this season, we saw two Gamorreans fighting each other with vibro-axes.

 

[Zardnaar]

Given that they're drawing from the well of the Dark Forces series of videogames, they may be pulling multiple concepts from them.

Dark Forces introduced the concept of Dark Troopers - which, as Zardnaar mentioned came in three flavours: Exosuit, cyborg and droid.

Dark Forces II: Jedi Knight introduced the concept of the Valley of the Jedi, a wellspring of the power of the Force.

Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast (gotta love these naming conventions) then has the Imperial Remnant under the command of a fallen Jedi channeling the power of the Valley of the Jedi into Kyber Crystals in order to infuse individuals with the Force, creating Reborn warriors who can use the Force and wield lightsabers.

So, Moff Gideon may have already developed Dark Troopers (I'm going to guess the droid variety just because they're kept in storage racks), and may be trying to infuse people with the Child's blood in order to create his own Reborn.

Well there's only so many ways they can go.

Sith troopers from legends.

Darth Krayt's Sith trooper

Sith troopers were individuals, strong in the Force, who were taken by Darth Krayt shortly after birth and augmented through cybernetic implants. They were programmed into servants of unquestionable loyalty and obedience to Krayt. Darth Krayt had begun his Sith trooper project in the decades...

starwars.fandom.com

Hence earlier comment about whatever they are it's unlikely they're going to be that original. From 1991-2010 they covered most of the clone/cyborg/droid elite troopers plotlines they could do including force sensitive ones. Vader's cloning efforts in Force Unleashed as well.

Even if it's just something as simple as super clones it's still better than the super weapon of the week plotlines they used to love.

 

[Khelon Testudo]

They are different shows, but they are both westerns. Firefly leans more into the western angle, while Mandalorian leans more into the pulp sci-fi angle. But Firefly has objectively better writing, as is evident from just about any clip of dialogue from any episode. It was but an example, however. There are plenty of scifi shows that have far better writing than Mandalorian (such as The Expanse for example). Which is what confounds me so much. A show with this budget and scope could be so much more with proper character development, set ups and pay offs. Is it a deliberate decision to make the writing so weak, or do they just have bad writers on this show?

Apart from one or two catch phrases, I can't think of any memorable dialog from 1 and a half seasons of this show.

There's a difference between "writing" and "scripting". Whedon is a master of scripting, that is, putting entertaining things in the mouths of characters. I'm sure The Mandalorian's creators are deliberately avoiding this sort of dialogue because neither Star Wars nor the original cowboy movies were heavy on dialogue, and the protagonist is also a man of few words.

Writing is about story-telling. The stories The Mandalorian is telling are about a reserved bloke with a preverbal child.
The stories in Firefly were about a whole group of different personalities.

I'm personally enjoying the stories being told in The Mandalorian, even though I greatly enjoyed the stories told in Firefly. YMMV.

 

[Dire Bare]

There's a difference between "writing" and "scripting". Whedon is a master of scripting, that is, putting entertaining things in the mouths of characters. I'm sure The Mandalorian's creators are deliberately avoiding this sort of dialogue because neither Star Wars nor the original cowboy movies were heavy on dialogue, and the protagonist is also a man of few words.

Writing is about story-telling. The stories The Mandalorian is telling are about a reserved bloke with a preverbal child.
The stories in Firefly were about a whole group of different personalities.

I'm personally enjoying the stories being told in The Mandalorian, even though I greatly enjoyed the stories told in Firefly. YMMV.

Yeah.

As a fan of all three shows (Mandolorian, Firefly, Expanse), none of them are written better (IMO), they are just written differently. Different genres, different styles. All sci-fi (or sci-fantasy) goodness!