The Purpose Of The Empire in ‘The Mandalorian'

On the latest episode of The Mandalorian season 2, “The Heiress,” there were a lot of surprises for the Star Wars fans around the world even within the 32-minute runtime. We see the reveal of fan favorite Bo-Katan Kryze played by Katee Sackhoff, who actually did the voice of Bo-Katan Kryze herself in the hit animated TV series Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Star Wars Rebels. Then we also got to see a giant sea creature. But the biggest reveal of all was by Titus Welliver, who played the unnamed captain commanding a fully functioning Imperial cruiser and a large amount of well-armed stormtroopers. It was such a stark contrast with the look of the first season's battle-hardened stormtroopers on Navarro.

As we all know, The Mandalorian series is set five years after the event of Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi. Such a peaceful transition of power in the meantime is not exactly established. This show is packed with drama, with tons of criminals wanting to take control the galaxy, and even those loyal to the Empire and the Rebellion continuing on their own paths. Somewhere in the galaxy, a far off planet with inadequate or no communication tools might not even know if the war is over. Some probably think the war is still going on. While there is no concrete evidence of this happening in 9 ABY, we think that it could still be a possibility.

Especially seeing how at the end of season 1, we were introduced to Moff Gideon (Giancarlo Esposito), who seems to be presented as a loyalist with a stronger and impressive army, as well as a great amount of resources and technology. Moff Gideon was even flanked by Death Troopers (somewhat like a Seal Team Six for the Empire), the types of troopers that appeared in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. We do not know where and when Moff Gideon got the army together or even where he got the funds, but he seems willing to rebuild the Empire from the ground up, advancing the cause by maintaining the status quo to get bigger catches by pursuing The Child. Maybe there are still generals or commanders out there that are part of the Empire and have smaller bases on far away planets that might be relatively unknown. They could be hiding and ready to rise when the time comes. And let’s not forget the Client (Werner Herzog), who seemed loyal to the Empire.

Jon Favreau, one of the series creators, seems to have a thing for samurai films, since the show has an ode to a Japanese manga series called Lone Wolf and Cub, where the story of Ogami Itto, a shogun’s executioner who uses a dotanuki battle sword (a sword from a swordsmith from Japanese school in Higo province) and is disgraced by false accusations from the clan, forcing him to be an assassin. Along with his three year-old son, they seek revenge. The idea is comparable to The Mandalorian series, as the feudal warlords are trying to maintain their power over a land but surrounded by chaos. Something always comes up from time to time. Except on this recent episode we actually see something more different, something more organized and committed, which made us fear the Imperials a bit more. We will just have to see how this turns as things keep going in this direction.

Written By Pat Kusnadi

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