Some Star Wars Fans Criticized The Mandalorian Season 3

 Some Star Wars fans criticized The Mandalorian Season 3 for feeling bit like artistic regression after Disney+'s last live-action hit Andor. However, the subtle colonialism allegory in Moff Gideon's cloning plan is storytelling on the level of Andor. Since showing up in the first season finale, Moff Gideon has a fascination with both Mandalorians and baby Grogu. He knows quite a bit about Mandalorian culture, overseeing the Imperial purge of Mandalore and ruling over the ashes.

Gideon's interest in Grogu is just about the Force, and his interest in Mandalore is primarily about the mighty beskar alloy. In Season 3, Moff Gideon fully appropriates the armor and weapons of the Mandalorian people. Yet, his plan to create an army of clones of himself could be a clever dig at colonization. Season 3's focus on the two divergent sides of Mandalorian culture was not as nuanced and complex of the slow radicalization of Ferrix. But taking a culture's resources, cultural knowledge and wearing it like a costume is exactly what colonizers do.

When standing over a captured Din Djarin, Gideon says he crafted his next generation Dark Trooper suit out of beskar alloy, saying "the most impressive improvement is that it has me in it." That emphasis was in the line-reading, which carries a different weight after "The Return." Din and Grogu destroyed the clones Gideon made of himself that might control the Force. This suggests the people in the quasi-Mandalorian armor he crafted are just regular clones of himself.

The cloning subplot in The Mandalorian was the series' biggest red herring. Fans expected that Gideon was a loyal Moff and working to restore his Emperor. Yet, if the Imperial Shadow Council are in on that plan, it's not Gideon who is in charge. Rather, he and the recently lobotomized Dr. Pershing needed Grogu so he could make Force-sensitive clones of himself. However, given Pershing's experience with cloning, it was likely much easier for him to create a few dozen clones that Gideon could use as troopers. The line about "having me in" the armor may have referred to more than just himself.

If the new Dark Troopers were clones of Gideon, they were likely heavily programmed to be obedient. Like any good white-armor-clad Star Wars villain, they weren't really characterized beyond their threat to the lives of the heroes. Gideon seems like the kind of guy who wouldn't trust anyone but himself. His fascination with Mandalorians drove his entire plot to regain control of his sector of the galaxy. Yet, even though he held his own in dramatic fashion, his clones were all too easily dispatched by the true Mandalorians.

Gideon not only took the Mandalorian people's homes from them, but he destroyed their cities and turned the surface into inhospitable glass. It wasn't the Empire's only genocide, but the Mandalorians are survivors. Gideon's plan only existed because he knew it was a matter of time before they came for him. It was no accident the early part of the season focused on the Mandalorian culture through the eyes of both Din and Bo-Katan. Din was raised to see Bo-Katan and her family as apostates. The first six episodes showed him and the Children of the Watch how wrong they were.

Gideon appropriated much of their culture, along with their planet's unique resource. The Dark Troopers are a blend of Imperial Stormtrooper and Mandalorian armor. The Troopers carry similar weapons such as rockets, wires and a flamethrower. However, like most colonizers do, Gideon ignored the rest of what makes the Mandalorians a people. Thus, when the dumbed-down clones of himself faced down the Mandalorians, the pretenders were no match for the genuine article.