Spoilers The Mandalorian Season 3
- Thread starter JD
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The impression I got is that it's supposed to be for Palpatine, but he's doing his own project on the side. Also Gideon probably doesn't know that's specifically what it's meant for, just that Hux wanted it. That's assuming Hux Sr. is in on the whole Final Order/Sith Eternal end of things (a secret he apparently didn't let his gobshite son in on, which may be why Snoke was deployed, to reassert control of that faction after Phasma offed him.)
The Exogol cloning project has been going since before Palpatine even died, but was never fully successful. Indeed, we're probably seeing the beginnings of it in 'The Bad Batch'. To give you an idea of the timeline; Rey's father Dathan was decanted about twelve years prior to ANH, and escaped into the wild shortly after tESB. So he's been out there for six or seven years at this point (and no, Rey won't be born for another decade.)
Even the differences between the First Order and Sith Eternal are pretty stark and likely a byproduct of Imperial strongmen infighting and ideological schisms - the First Order seemed more like it was set up by Fascist technocrats and a more direct continuation of the ISB and Navy, while the Sith Eternal was set up by Imperials who were steeped in the Dark Side and recruited occultists etc.
Season 3's finale was fun but too darn short, but got less repetitive than Season 2's finale, and overall S3 felt more "odd" than "weak". I think a lot of viewers suffer from short attention spans.
It does doesn't it? The whole Gideon thing felt like "the show" and it's ended a lot earlier than I expected it to. It's almost as if this was TV and they were told that they were being cancelled so wrap it up. I guess they want to play in the bigger pond with Thrawn and what will be set up for the movie so they are cleaning house in preparation for that now.
Yeah, the intent is that the First Order are literally the remnants of the Imperial military that fled into the unknown regions during the Battle of Jakku (though not very far if Hux is still in comm range.) There doesn't appear to be any underlying societal component to the whole thing at all. It's just a roving war machine.
The Sith Eternal seems to be a cult that's just been stuck there since at least the time of Darth Bane, with no direct connection to the Empire save Sidious himself. Though with the likes of Pryde, they've likely always had sleepers in place to support the Sith cause.
The other warlords (including Gideon it seems) are the Moffs, Admirals, and Governors that ignored the rallying call to Jakku, managed to hold onto their commands, and just carve out their own little fiefdom on the outer rim.
Basically the same thing happened in the EU with Zsinj and Ysanne Isard being some of the main antagonists of the X-Wing novels.
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The First Order was likely the last apparant Imperial faction still standing (or most relevant) next to the numerous Imperial factions we saw in Ep. 7 S3 (and you can see how a bit atypical the Imperial Moffs and officers are starting to look).
They were a fleet and army without a government and nation.
I think the Sith Eternal had its seed in the Imperial Inquisitors although I can see Exegol as seat for Dark Side users from across the galaxy.
The First Order must have been the warlord splinter sect represented by Brendol Hux in Episode #7 of this season and eventually it'll be the victor in the competition between sects of the Imperial Remnant. Eventually all the others cede or are defeated in internecine combat including Thrawn's and the one led up until now by Gideon.
It felt that way at the end of S2. Luke arrived and took Grogu away to become a Jedi. It seemed that the Grogu arc, at least the part of his arc involving the Mandalorian, that had gone across the whole show up until that point, had ended.
It's not his fault, he was born that way!
I think he may have meant in terms of the variations in their uniforms?
Yeah, their uniforms are looking a bit less typically Imperial, with only Palleon keeping smart (with Hux's father having a long Imperial great coat that evolves into a FO greatcoat).
I can understand why some viewers thought "Guns For Hire" was a stinker, but had no idea why "The Convert" was the lowest rated episode to that point, with both episodes having brilliant world building (and I must be burned out on serialized episodes).
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No, the Inquisitors were a bunch of ex-Jedi that were turned at some point either late in the clone wars (very late considering the Grand Inquisitor was one of the Temple Guards at Ahsoka's trial) or just after, that Palpatine literally gave to Vader to train as his personal blood hounds. Aside from the usual Imperial monochrome pallet, and the brutalist architecture, there doesn't seem to be any Sith paraphernalia in or around Fortress Inquisitorious or even their uniforms. Indeed, The Grand Inquisitors armour looks very similar to the temple guard design from Rebels, just painted black.
No runes. No glowy red crystals, no altars, no giant statues of bowing slaves, or hooded figures. Just austere metal corridors, and some macabre trophies.
They're not part of the Sith cult itself, they're just in service to the Sith. The black instead of red armour is the real giveaway.
As I said, the history and origins of the First Order is fairly well established at this point. We know they were the ones that followed a secret retreat signal at Jakku (leaving the others to die) and regrouped in the Unknown Regions. We know they built their forces out there away from prying eyes, mostly by raiding independent worlds, and kidnapping children to indoctrinate as Stormtroopers (though it sounds like Hux had an eye towards a clone army, that was still being considered by TFA, going by a line from Kylo.) The only real gap in our knowledge at this point is what happened to Grand Admiral Sloane. She was leading that faction at Jakku, was said to have been around for the First Order's early years, but nothing specific about her fate. She may have already been bumped off by this point, but it remains to be seen either way.
As for how the other warlords looked; yeah, that's kinda the point. They're warlords. It'd be weird if they didn't make up their own self aggrandising styles, especially since part of the whole point of the Shadow Council is to keep their degree of co-operation secret. The more the New Republic thinks they're just a handful of independent despots, tin pot dictator, and glorified pirate lords out on the fringes of wild space, the easier they are to ignore.
Of course Pellaeon is the only one still in official Imperial uniform code appropriate attire because he's Pellaeon, that's how he do. But also, he's representing Thrawn and the 7th fleet. If any faction was able to hold to military discipline, it's that one.
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Fortress Inquistor had strong Sith architecture and in the docking bay area you can see it was built upon much older looking ruins, likely Dark Side related. There's a stronger red motive as well.
I liked Season 3, but it felt compressed (and most of the critical drubbing it received were from the usual suspects for the show acknowledging the Sequel Trilogy's backstory lore and flipping out over the Lizzo/Jack Black stunt casting).
I liked Season 3, but it felt compressed (and most of the critical drubbing it received were from the usual suspects for the show acknowledging the Sequel Trilogy's backstory lore and flipping out over the Lizzo/Jack Black stunt casting).
Like I said, it has the usual Imperial brutalist architecture, which the Sith also favour. However it's stark and utilitarian like any other military facility. Sith Temples are way more ornate, and again; typically feature statuary and other such accoutrements.
Sith adjacent, but not actually Sith.
OK, I wasn't aware of the exact timeline of all of that.
I haven't read a lot of the backstory stuff from Rise of Skywalker, but just from what we saw and heard in the movie, I got the impression that it was a lot older than that. Possibly going at least as far back as when the Sith were in control of the galaxy or possibly back to the very beginnings of the Sith.
The big inverted pyramidal fortress was ancient and it had giant Sith statues reminiscent of giant statues on Jeddah, with its pro-Palpatine occupants seeming to be relatively recent occupants and the crowd of cultists perhaps former members of Republic/Imperial high society (but the place may have been scouted out in previous decades and Snoke may have been its original ruler).
I think Season 3 was not as good as Season 1 and really roughly on par with Season 2 (it didn't have all cylinders blasting, but it cut down on our heroes repeatedly, endlessly shooting and maiming Stormtroopers until it stopped being funny). Vocal fans liked trashing Episode 3 and 6, but they're much more interesting than given credit for - we're shown a New Republic that's not genuinely evil, but having problems stemming from when you have 3 wobbly factions joining up to form a immature democracy in the ruins of galactic institutions hollowed out by civil wars and a Nazi-esque dictatorship (on one hand you have the Rebels - a bunch of guerilla freedom fighters, terrorists, and criminals - on the other you have many, many former Imperial and Separatist officials of varying levels of trustworthiness, with two examples of die hard fanatics who are shown secretly sabotaging the workings of post-Empire institutions). Episode 6 in particular was likely paraphrasing a quote about the original idea of Utopia that still allowed an underclass of serfs and slaves, and I liked its set/location designs alone. Also chef's kiss on the casting of Brendol Hux (the brother of the original Hux's actor) and Captain Palleon (the foster dad from Terminator 2 and one of the bad guys from Airforce One).
I really don't get most of the outrage over Season 3, outside of episode length and feeling a bit undercooked in places, but hey, whatever sinks the angry fanbois' boat.
There is TROS concept art showing a mural of some EU Sith (mostly KOTOR), but as far as we know, it didn't make it into the final movie. But it's so dark on Exogol, it's hard to tell.
Revan is referenced in the name of one of the Sith Trooper legions in the TROS Visual Guide. His name is also chanted by the Exogol cultists in one of the recent novels.
Darth Revan, Darth Nihilus, Tulak Hord, Darth Malak
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Yeah, I noticed that too.
I suppose it could be the composition of the armor itself, or it could have been weapon configuration (the guard's weapons seem to have a lot of those), or it could have been the way Din was presenting himself with his most vulnerable sections covered, or something else.
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