The Mandalorian Season 3 Finale Kills Off A Major Star Wars Character
The Mandalorian Season 3 Finale delivered the epic finale that a lot of Star Wars fans hoped we would get, as the various factions of Mandalorians came together to take back the planet Mandalore from the Moff Gideon (Giancarlo Esposito) and his next-generation Imperial battalion of hybrid soldiers. With the battle set between the fiercest warriors in the galaxy and the Empire's most elite soldiers, it was inevitable that there would be some who didn't make it alive. And, by the end of The Mandalorian Season 3, a major Star Wars character was killed off.
(WARNING: MAJOR SPOILERS FOLLOW!)
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In The Mandalorian Chapter 24: The Return, the fight for Mandalore gets even more intense than the first skirmish, which claimed the life of Mandalorian heavy gunner, Paz Vizsla. Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal) is Gideon's prisoner; Bo-Katan Kryze (Katee Sackhoff) and her recon party are on the run from Gideon's stormtroopers, and Axe Woves (Simon Kassianides) is scrambling against the clock to warn the Mandalorian fleet waiting in orbit that an ambush is coming.
Well, the Force couldn't will it any better than how The Mandalorians all pull together and do their respective parts to bring Gideon down. Grogu bravely charges into battle to defend his adoptive dad, and together they stand against Gideon in his Mandalorian/Dark Trooper hybrid armor, as well as the Elite Praetorian Guards he created. Eventually, Bo-Katan jumps into the battle against Gideon, and even with the trio tag-teaming the Imperial leader, Gideon's next-gen armor and weaponry prove too strong.
Instead of taking down Gideon themselves, Djarin, Grogu, and Bo-Katan get a helping hand from Axe Woves, who pilots the Mandalorians' destroyed command ship from space all the way down to Mandalore's surface, aiming the Kamikaze vessel straight at Gideon's base. Moff Gideon's Beskar Dark Trooper armor can't protect him from the flaming hell of an entire spaceship and fiery base collapsing on his head; thankfully, Mando and Bo-Katan get spared by Grogu, who protects the three of them from the inferno inside a Force bubble.
Is Moff Gideon Really Dead?
There will no doubt be lingering doubts and theories within the Star Wars fandom, but it certainly looks as though Moff Gideon dies within his base on Mandalore. The question is: Is The Mandalorian better off moving ahead into a new story, with new antagonists? Or is Gideon a key ingredient of the show?
The Mandalorian Chapter 23 certainly set precedent for Gideon to fade back into the shadows, while his Imperial rival (or at least competitor) Grand Admiral Thrawn makes his heralded return in the Star Wars: Ahsoka series this summer. The intrigue within the Imperial Shadow Council both Thrawn and Gideon are a part of is something a lot of fans think will be an exciting subplot of the New Republic film that's in the works, and will serve as the climatic crossover event of the current Star Wars TV Universe.
On the other hand, Star Wars has tied up more than a few loose ends by killing off Gideon, but having his research into next-generation Imperial combat tech and cloning still linger as root sources of what The First Order and/or Sith cult eventually become. It might be cleaner and easier to let that part of canon rest, as Thrawn comes into the spotlight as the new big bad.
The Mandalorian Seasons 1-3 are now streaming on Disney+.