| “ | We shall be rid of the Mandalorians once and for all. Long Live the Empire! | „ |
| ~ Moff Gideon's return and introduction to Season 3. |
| “ | Thank you for gathering the Mandalorians into one place. You were a talented people, but your time has passed. However, as you can see, Mandalore will live on in me. Thanks to your planet's rich resources, I have created the next generation Dark Trooper suit forged from beskar alloy. And the most impressive improvement is that it has me in it. You see, every society has something to offer. The cloners. The Jedi. And even the Mandalorians. By aggregating the best of each, I will create an army that will bring order to the galaxy. Why don't we take your fleet off the board while we still have the element of surprise? Activate the interceptors and bombers. | „ |
| ~ Gideons rise to power. |
Moff Gideon is the main antagonist of the 2019 Disney+ Star Wars live-action streaming series The Mandalorian.
He is a former Imperial Security Bureau officer who becomes a warlord in the aftermath of the Galactic Empire's disbandment. Five years after the Empire's fall in the Battle of Endor, Gideon commands an Imperial remnant set on restoring the Imperial regime by seeking the Force-sensitive alien infant Grogu to synthesize his blood and create Force-sensitive clones to replenish his army. He is the archenemy of both the lone Mandalorian gunfighter Din Djarin and the Mandalorian revolutionist Bo-Katan Kryze.
He was portrayed by Giancarlo Esposito.
What Makes Him Pure Evil?[]
In General/Background[]
- No matter how high the Heinous Standards of the galaxy far, far away are, Gideon stands out for his unique crime of trying to hunt all Mandalorians down into extinction, doing the worst he can to compensate for his lack of resources and keeping his Imperial remnant active long after the Empire's defeat.
- As an officer of the Imperial Security Bureau's Military Department of Advanced Weapons Research he committed several war crimes during the Galactic Civil War under the despotic tenure of Emperor Palpatine and Darth Vader.
- The war crimes he carried out were likely awful enough, considering that Cara Dune thought the New Republic had executed him for them and how Din Djarin thought that he would be tried and executed if caught.
- Additionally, he is spoken about with disgust by other former Imperials, indicating that his actions were too much even for them.
- At the end of the war, he led the Great Purge of Mandalore, killing hundreds of thousands of Mandalorians in a night that would later be known as the Night of a Thousand Tears out of nothing other than a punishment to the Mandalorians for refusing to kneel before the Empire.
- Houses Kryze and Vizsla were decimated in the purge.
- House Kast along with Clan Rook are likely to have been wiped out completely as there are no known survivors.
- Clan Kryze was reduced to a mere gang in the purge.
- All of Clan Wren, including Alrich, Ursa and Tristan Wren, were killed in the Night. The loss of Clan Wren led Ahsoka Tano to quit teaching Sabine Wren to be a Jedi out of fear she would fall to the Dark Side of the Force. Additionally, Paz Vizsla and Ragnar are the only known survivors of Clan Vizsla.
- Clan Eldar's known survivors were a part of the Children of the Watch.
- Aran Tal was driven to vengeance over the loss of Clan Tal.
- Since Fenn Rau was last seen pledging his service to Bo-Katan when she first received ther Darksaber has been absent from the New Republic Era it is likely he has died too, bringing an end to the Mandalorian Protectors.
- All domed cities were destroyed including Sundari, likely wiping out their civilian populations.
- Took the Darksaber from Lady Bo-Katan Kryze, fully knowing the significance the blade had for House Vizsla as a symbol for Mandalorian leadership, putting all of the surviving Mandalorians into disarray and leading them to separate into factions.
- In fact, Gideon took possession of the Darksaber in one of the worst ways possible: after the Night of a Thousand Tears, he approached Bo-Katan and proposed that if she surrendered to him, he would spare the still-standing Mandalorian cities and her people. Kryze complied, but even after that, Gideon ordered his men to bomb what little remained of the Mandalorian homes.
- Forms and leads a sizeable Imperial remnant after faking his execution to reorganize the Galactic Empire in his image and restore its order throughout the galaxy far, far away. In addition he and his forces take control of what is left of Mandalore and rule over the ruined planet.
- This lead to various lies being spread to the surviving Mandalorians and others about the planet being cursed and uninhabitable, leading them all to fear that any one who goes to Mandalore would die.
- Mines Mandalore for its rich beskar resources to forge armors of that mineral such as the Dark Trooper phase 4 armor for his force-sensitive Dark Trooper clone army, a customised version of the armor for himself and the armor for his Imperial armored commandos wishing to create a powerful army of force-sensitive clone superhumans loyal to him to overthrow the New Republic, wipe out all true Mandalorians and take control of all Imperial remnants so he can rule the galaxy.
The Mandalorian[]
Season 1[]
- Hires "The Client" to retrieve the Force-sensitive infant Grogu, actually the last member of Master Yoda's ancient species, so he can experiment with the youngling's blood to create Strand-Casts, but once the Mandalorian retrieves Grogu under the orders of "The Client" in Nevarro, Gideon has his death troopers shoot "The Client" and his men dead as a convenient way to trap his enemies.
- Sends two of his scout troopers to intercept Grogu while he and his soldiers corner the Mandalorian, Carasynthia "Cara" Dune and Greef Karga inside a cantina, resulting in his troopers murdering Kuiil, Mando's Ugnaught friend.
- It's indicated that he killed an Imperial officer offscreen during the standoff with Din, Cara and Greef just for interrupting him.
- Brings in an E-Web heavy repeating blaster cannon to kill the Mandalorian and his allies, but not before taunting Mando and Cara with the fact that the weapon was used to vaporize their loved ones previously, then shooting it against the cantina, wrecking it and later nearly fatally injuring Mando by shooting and blowing up a fuel tank near him before ordering an incinerator trooper to burn it.
- Sends his troopers to kill the Mandalorian and his friends as they are rescued by IG-11, expressing no remorse over IG-11's death as he takes his personal Outland TIE fighter to try to kill a flying Mando himself.
Season 2[]
- When the Mandalorian, Bo-Katan Kryze and her men foil an operation on Trask being carried out by his men, he issues the ship's captain to sacrifice the ship, which leads the captain to shoot his pilots dead and then commit suicide when the Mandalorians corner him, preferring death over the punishment Gideon would give him.
- Has his cruiser fire on the Mandalorian's ship the Razor Crest when Mando and Grogu come to Tython, leaving Mando stranded there while having his dark troopers fly towards Grogu and snatch him as he meditated on the seeing stone, recapturing him for more experiments.
- Distracts Grogu in his cell to allow his stormtroopers to stun and shackle him to prevent him from using the Force against them again.
- Attempts to kill the Mandalorian with the Darksaber when Mando and his crew sneak into his cruiser to rescue Grogu by pretending he's willing to let them go now that he has what he wants from Grogu, that being his blood, only to try to attack him as soon as he lets his guard down.
- Mocks Bo-Katan Kryze once she finds out that the Mandalorian defeated Gideon, meaning that she can't claim the Darksaber unless she bests him in combat, ridiculing Mando's attempts to give her the blade.
- It's heavily implied that the reason Gideon went to confront Mando rather than Kryze was because he knew that, if he killed Mando, he would be able to escape with Grogu from his ship while his soldiers kept Kryze busy, or in case Mando defeated him, he knew that he would spare his life, but at the same time create friction between him and Bo-Katan due to depriving her of the chance of winning the Darksaber, which in the long run led Bo-Katan to lose the support of Axe Woves and the rest of her faction.
- Summons his dark troopers to save him and kill all of the Mandalorian's crew, who were only saved thanks to the timely intervention of Luke Skywalker.
- Tries to shoot Bo-Katan Kryze and Grogu dead once his plans are foiled and tries to commit suicide to avoid prosecution by the New Republic for his crimes.
Season 3[]
- With his armored commandos' help, Gideon was extracted from the New Republic shuttle taking him to his trial, which caused the deaths of all the Republic officers aboard with him. His memory and hidden fate would haunt many such as the Mandalorian, Bo-Katan Kryze, the other Mandalorians, Penn Pershing, Carson Teva, Greef Karga and many New Republic officials and former Imperials.
- Inspires his communications officer Elia Kane into staying loyal to him even after the New Republic's amnesty offer to any ex-Imperials, resulting in Kane, as his Republic spy, tricking a redeemed Dr. Penn Pershing to be framed for trying to desert the Republic and be brainwashed into redemption while Kane escapes with his cloning scientific equipment, but not before augmenting the potency of the brainwashing device to kill or leave Pershing with severe brain damage in order for Gideon to resume his unethical plans and silence Pershing.
- Hires the Pirate King Gorian Shard and his gang to cause chaos in the outer rim specifically in Nevarro's sector without alerting the New Republic and has Shard attack Nevarro, now a peaceful and comfortable community ruled by Greef Karga as their High Magistrate, out of spite for being driven out of there before.
- Persuades most warlords of the Shadow Council, including Commandant Brendol Hux, to not keep supporting Grand Admiral Thrawn's enigmatic plan as Captain Gilad Pellaeon strongly suggests and instead focus on the growing threat of the Mandalorians, proposing to hunt all of them down into extinction to prevent them from assisting the New Republic, which all of them know is weak, but its military could have a chance against the remaining Imperial forces if aided by Mandalore's people.
- Ambushes Din Djarin, Bo-Katan Kryze and their united Mandalorian faction at Mandalore's Great Forge during their attempt to retake Mandalore for the future of their people, leading to several of the recently-unified Mandalorians to perish while fighting Gideon's forces.
- Has Din Djarin beaten into submission and restrained by his men, whom he orders to escort Djarin away from his friends, likely planning to torture and possibly kill him for the inconvenience he has proved to be for his plans.
- Offers Bo-Katan to spare her new Mandalorian subjects in exchange for the Darksaber, obviously planning to trick her again and massacre her and her people, leading Bo-Katan to refuse and for Gideon to trap all the Mandalorians with the Great Forge's electric doors, forcing Kryze and her people to run away while Paz Vizsla and four other Mandalorians stay behind to hold off the Dark Troopers and the Elite Praetorian Guard, resulting in the deaths of all those Mandalorians and all the Dark Troopers, for which Gideon shows no remorse.
- Sends his men to pursue Bo-Katan and her Mandalorians and target their ship, leading to several deaths from both sides.
- Angrily decides to finish Mando off himself once Mando and Grogu destroy the room where all of Gideon's clones were.
- Although one can say that he may have cared for his clones, such care isn't redeeming, as he clearly states that he needed such clones to form his army and that with them gone, he no longer can form such a force. It is also possible that if Gideon really cared for his clones, it was because the clones were engineered in his likeness, thus merely seeing them as extensions of himself.
- Engages Mando in a fight, but summons his Praetorian Guards to gang up on him with their weapons, and once Grogu uses IG-12 to intervene and provide a distraction for the guards, Gideon knocks Mando off his feet to prevent him from reaching Grogu, so had Bo-Katan not gotten into the fight to let Mando go to save Grogu, Grogu would have likely been killed by the Praetorians.
- Taunts Bo-Katan by asking her if she is going to surrender or not this time before engaging her in a fight with him using a baton and she using the Darksaber, which he demands for her to give back to him before proceeding to break it by crushing her hand and the weapon with it when she refuses, destroying a thousand-year cultural relic for Mandalore's people.
- While he does offer to give Bo-Katan an honorable death if she surrenders, it was likely a lie considering how he once backstabbed her, plus there's no evidence he would have kept his word or not this time.
- His demise of being overpowered by the trio of Din, Bo-Katan and Grogu before being incinerated by the fiery inferno of his exploding base is played for satisfaction and triumph as he outright deserved it for all the vile atrocities he committed.
Trivia[]
- Moff Gideon wasn't originally Pure Evil in the first two The Mandalorian seasons, especially because his role in the plans of the Imperial remnants was too ambiguous to determine if he ordered some of their worst crimes or not. It wasn't until the show's third season that Gideon finally showed how evil he really is by targeting all Mandalorians out of unjustifiable hatred, allowing him to qualify as Pure Evil.
- Ironically, prior to the third season's release, his actor Giancarlo Esposito disclosed his feelings about Gideon possibly being redeemable and a genuine well-intentioned extremist who wishes to bring security and order for the galaxy's survival, believing himself to be its "top warden" who is in charge of preventing people from taking each other out. It's unclear whether Esposito was lying back when he gave the interview or if he simply didn't think Gideon would prove himself to be so irredeemable in the third season.
- Giancarlo Esposito stated that one of his inspirations for his performance of Moff Gideon was fellow Star Wars Moff villain Grand Moff Tarkin, which is very fitting, as Tarkin is likewise Pure Evil.
- In spite of being Pure Evil, it's possible that Giancarlo Esposito doesn't see Moff Gideon as such, as he referred to Antón Castillo of Far Cry 6 as the "most monstrous villain" he has ever played.
External Links[]
- Moff Gideon on the Villains Wiki
- Moff Gideon on the Star Wars Wiki
- Moff Gideon on the Disney Wiki
- Moff Gideon on the Wikipedia
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