Moff Gideon seems to be obsessed with Darth Vader. There was a lot of shit in the EU about cults being formed around Darth Vader after his death - shitty young adult novels about someone finding his glove or hand or something, stuff in the pre-sequel trilogy Aftermath novels about someone recovering his lightsaber.

And then there's the Thrawn novels. The Noghri in the Thrawn novels revered Vader so much they referred to Leia as "Lady Vader." So there's a lot of shit here that I just love - I hope they expand on this at some point with Moff Gideon - who, by the way, in extremely limited screen time is already more interesting than anything Jar Jar Abrams came up with.

The troopers he seems to have created an obvious nod to the Dark Forces video game - the Dark Troopers are like, basically, Iron Man suits for stormtroopers. So it's not shocking that Favreau has gone this direction given his Marvel background.

But I really, really like it. Because Mando is now becoming super powerful, with his shiny armor and his ship all repaired and **** it I'll just go everywhere on my jetpack attitude.

So now they need something to cut him down to size a bit, hopefully.

https://i.imgur.com/HxcZKvO.jpg

the Fish Guy points out how there is no guard rail around the super important computer console that means life or death for the good guys (YET AGAIN), and how the Biker Troopers bumble**** around and kill each other going down the mountain. I love that both Filoni and Favreau are super fans making this series together.

the Biker Scout scene that touched me so, in all the right fanboy places, was simultaneously how ****ing cool it was that BIKER SCOUTS WERE GOING DOWN THE SIDE OF A MOUNTAIN and ALSO HAD A HILARIOUS EXPLOSION and somehow the coolness of it all was not affected by the slapstick.

Carl Weathers In Star Wars blasting the last one off the roof of the transport was pretty badass/funny too.

the scientist and Dark Troopers in the closing scene were straight out of the game

The initial (mark 0?) Dark Troopers were Clone cyborgs, but every model after that were advanced battledroids. Nothing organic about then at all.

The model Gideon was reviewing looked like the last model from the game, mark 3 I think they were. Fully droid.

Which is pretty perfect as an opponent for Din Djarin...

They were droids, but they could be worn as an exosuit.

https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Phase_III_dark_trooper

I like the idea of an exo-suit much better, because it's a better foil for Mando and his suit vs the bad guy's suit - plus fighting a bunch of droids doesn't seem like a worthy opponent for him.

I like the idea of him getting beaten by a bunch of dudes in Dark Trooper armor, and then going back to someone (Boba Fett maybe) for some upgrades that help him win the rematch

Having Ahsoka carve up and dismember droids (dark troopers) on the screen lets Disney keep this a more family-friendly show. Some of that violence has been implied off-screen, like the aperture door in the first episode, but NOBODY wants to see Ahsoka go full badass without seeing the awesome carnage she can wreak. At this point in the universe, I would have to say that it is likely her lightsaber skills are matched by no living entity.

Agreeing with somebody above, I think these dark troopers are going to knock Mando down a peg or two, which would be nice to see for an arc this season, and Ahsoka is going to come in a change his entire worldview on what is possible.