Gideon

**Gideon** was a human male warlord that led a remnant of the Galactic Empire on Mandalore during the era of the New Republic, and had prior served as an officer during the Imperial Era in the Imperial Security Bureau. Following the Galactic Civil War, Gideon retained the title of Moff and acted away from the New Republic's eyes in the Outer Rim. The warlord valued power and knowledge and was a patriot of the Galactic Empire, while also being imposing and ruthless, even willing to kill others to achieve his goals.

The future Moff Gideon took part in the Great Purge of Mandalore, where he was responsible for killing millions, and acquired the legendary Mandalorian weapon known as the Darksaber during the Night of a Thousand Tears, tricking Lady Bo-Katan Kryze of House Kryze into surrendering the Mandalorian relic under the false promise to spare her people, leading Kryze to dedicate her life into reclaiming the Darksaber from Gideon and return it to where it belonged. He was widely believed to have been executed for war crimes in the aftermath of the Galactic Civil War.

After the Galactic Empire capitulation to the New Republic which placed strict disarmament treaties and punishing reparations on it, the Empire subsequently collapsed with many soldiers, officials and other loyalists joining various warlords who ruled their own sectors. Gideon, who was in fact alive, was amongst these and led his own forces, where he sought out a high-value asset known as Grogu, a Force-sensitive youngling necessary as a blood donor for his experiments. After Din Djarin, a Mandalorian bounty hunter, went rogue and rescued Grogu from a detachment of Gideon's forces on Nevarro, the Moff took an active role in acquiring the child. He was eventually successful, when his Dark Troopers captured Grogu on Tython. Upon Djarin's effort to rescue Grogu, he was defeated in combat and attempted suicide, but was knocked out and detained, leaving the Darksaber to Din.

After the assault on his cruiser, Gideon was sent off to the New Republic for interrogation and trial, which many assumed would give him the death penalty. He was liberated from New Republic custody by a squad of beskar-armored Imperial commandos and resumed his cloning project on Mandalore. Moff Gideon sought to take over the Shadow Council from the absent Grand Admiral Thrawn's grasp in his quest to conquer the galaxy, but was ultimately killed by the Mandalorian resistance when they returned to attempt to recolonize the planet.

## History

By 9 ABY, Gideon wished to acquire a valuable asset from Arvala-7, tasking "the Client" and Doctor Penn Pershing with bringing it alive by any means necessary. This asset was a Force-sensitive infant, Grogu, which Gideon wanted to use as a sample in his attempts to create a perfect supersoldier which would combine the best traits of the Mandalorians, the Jedi and the Kaminoan clones. The Client, in turn, asked the local office of the Bounty Hunters' Guild, led by Greef Karga for their help and hired the best bounty hunter available—as claimed by Karga—for the job: the Mandalorian Child of the Watch Din Djarin.

Despite Djarin being successful in acquiring the asset and finishing the job, a number of other hunters had also received tracking fobs for Grogu -a standard practice among bounty hunting guilds at the time due to the galactic recession. Following a number of engagements against hunters and pirates, Djarin was ultimately able to return the infant to the Client, who delivered it to Pershing to begin the experiments; a short-lived success as Djarin soon had a change of heart and attacked the remnant warehouse, escaping the planet with Grogu.

Enraged with Djarin's betrayal, the Client brought the might of Gideon's remnant upon Nevarro City, occupying it with a despotic rule. Karga contacted the Mandalorian and desperately pleaded with him to return the infant to the Imperials, else they risked being executed by the Remnant themselves. Djarin and his new allies, ex-Rebel Cara Dune, Ugnaught Kuiil, and assassin droid IG-11 -now reprogrammed to guard Grogu- reluctantly returned to the planet with the goal of pretending to deliver the infant but instead taking out the Remnant and the Guild. Despite Karga also planning to kill them and take the infant to the Client himself, after an attack from a Nevarro reptavian and the child using the Force to heal him he had a change of heart and joined Djarin's force to assist with their plan. They ultimately sent Grogu back to Djarin's ship, the *Razor Crest* along with Kuiil, and the rest of the force arrived to the cantina with the empty pram as a distraction.

Upon their arrival, the Client contacted Gideon, informing him that they had Grogu in their custody. Gideon, however, told him to recheck Grogu's pram; unbeknownst to the Client, his death troopers had already started amassing outside. As soon as the Client tried to check the pram as instructed, Gideon's squad of death troopers opened fire on the Client and the forces accompanying him, killing them and pinning down Djarin's party. Moments later, a K79-S80 Imperial Troop Transport arrived, deploying stormtroopers to supplement the death troopers and secure the area outside the cantina. Shortly after, Gideon landed in Nevarro himself on board his Outland TIE fighter, behind the mass of troopers. As he climbed out from his ship and approached the broken cantina window, he confronted the mercenaries inside, claiming that they did not understand Grogu at all and describing how much he needed him. At the same time, two of Gideon's scout troopers intercepted and killed the Kuiil before he was able to reach the *Razor Crest* with Grogu.

As the scout troopers were making their way back to Nevarro, they were informed that they would have to wait, as Gideon had wiped out a dozen of his own men. The troopers became impatient and asked for an update, only to be informed by the same person that he had an officer killed for interrupting him before they were subdued by IG-11, who rescued Grogu and headed back to Nevarro City to rescue the others. Gideon's men set up an E-Web heavy repeating blaster cannon outside the cantina to blast the mercenaries out, prompting them to desperately try to escape through the vents, to no avail. Upon hearing the commotion inside, Gideon began to speak to the group,introducing his E-Web turret as the weapon that had mowed down many of Dune's ranks as well as many Mandalorian recruits at the Night of a Thousand Tears during the Great Purge of Mandalore. Gideon revealed both their full names in the process—Carasynthia Dune and Din Djarin- prompting a shocked reaction from the group who finally realized who their opponent was. Lastly, Gideon called out Karga as a disgraced magistrate and asked him to lay down his weapon and come outside.

After hearing this, Karga called out to Gideon to ask the Moff what he was proposing. Gideon answered by offering reasonable negotiation, to which Karga responded by questioning what assurance he offered. Gideon merely admitted that the mercenaries couldn't trust him. Gideon continued by remarking how Karga broke their earlier arrangement and stated how he would gladly break any promise he made to them, would happily watch the former magistrate die, and that all he could offer was that he would act in his self-interest. After he had finished, Gideon left his troopers to watch over the cantina, warning Djarin and his crew that they had until nightfall to cooperate otherwise, he would order the E-Web to open fire.

Before Gideon could depart, IG-11 arrived at the square and attacked the amassed troopers, giving Djarin, Karga, and Dune a chance to escape. A battle ensued, and amongst all of the chaos, Gideon watched Djarin in shock while the Mandalorian utilized the E-Web to mow down the Imperial forces and kill his death trooper escort, exploiting the lapse to his attention by raising his blaster and shooting Djarin in the back of the head. Before the Mandalorian could fire back, Gideon took his time to adjust his aim and fire at the E-Web's power pack, causing it to explode and send Djarin flying backward. His injuries forced him and the others to fall back into the cantina, with Dune dragging Djarin inside. Frustrated with the lack of progress, Gideon ordered an incinerator trooper to burn them out and bring Grogu to him. The trooper set the building alight but was overpowered and killed when Grogu used the Force to push back the flames, blowing the trooper's backpack canister and exploding him through the door.

Amidst the chaos, IG-11 successfully used his plasma torch to slice through the vent grates, allowing Djarin and his team to escape through the sewers. Gideon sent in more stormtroopers to stop them, but when their efforts failed, he instead dispatched another platoon to wait at the end of the lava river. Anticipating his troops' failure, Gideon hopped into his Outland TIE fighter to deal with Djarin himself. Realizing the trap the Imperials had set at the exit of the sewers, IG-11 came outside first, detonating his self-destruct mechanism and killing off the entire platoon. Before the mercenaries could escape with Grogu, Gideon swooped in and began to fire at the team. In response, the Mandalorian flew up into the air on his new jetpack and grappled onto the back of Gideon's TIE fighter. Gideon tried his best to shake him off but was unsuccessful. After climbing on top of the TIE fighter, Djarin tried to shoot Gideon from the roof of the cockpit, but the Moff was protected by the blast-proof glass, allowing him to continue shaking off the Mandalorian.

Gideon spun his TIE fighter and darted in multiple directions to lose Djarin, but the latter managed to plant a grav charge on the TIE. By the time Gideon discovered it, the charge exploded, causing the left wing to blow off as a fire started inside of the cockpit. After he crashed, the Mandalorian and the rest of his crew assumed he was dead and Djarin parted ways with his comrades to fly off-world with Grogu. Sometime later, a group of Jawas attempted to salvage the wreckage of Gideon's TIE fighter, only to discover Gideon, alive and still sitting in the rubble. The Moff carved his way out of the TIE using the Darksaber, scaring the Jawas off before he stepped out and climbed on top of the TIE fighter, scanning his surroundings. Despite the Nevarro remnant being wiped out, Gideon's forces were still at large in the rest of the galaxy, allowing Gideon to rendezvous with them and continue his efforts to recover Grogu from his cruiser.

Following his successful escape from Nevarro, Djarin was wandering the galaxy in search of Grogu's people, the mysterious faction of the Jedi the Armorer had described to him as an ancient order of wizards. Eventually, he met Lady Kryze on the estuary moon of Trask, who, following the defeat of the Empire, was gathering Mandalorian survivors from around the galaxy to attempt and retake their homeworld. Kryze agreed to reveal to him the location of a Jedi if he assisted her with the heist for weapons she had planned on an Imperial Gozanti-class cruiser leaving Trask. Unbeknownst to the Mandalorians, the cruiser belonged to Gideon's remnant, leading to the Moff discovering Djarin's whereabouts months after their last meeting.

Kryze worked with Djarin to infiltrate the ship, along with two other Mandalorians, Axe Woves and Koska Reeves. As they were successful in taking much of the ship, the vessel's captain contacted Gideon in need of reinforcements. Gideon asked the captain how far the Mandalorians had breached, but when the captain told him they had taken most of the ship, Gideon stated that it was too late to send reinforcements and cryptically told him he knew what to do. Only the captain was aware of his meaning, upon which he shut off the hologram and killed both pilots, pushing the ship straight into the waters of Trask. He was unsuccessful however, and was stopped by Djarin to be interrogated by Kryze for the Darksaber's location. Knowing that Gideon would kill him for his failure, the captain chose to commit suicide by biting a suicide shocker in his mouth.

Following the infiltration on Trask, Dr. Pershing recorded a message for Gideon, updating him of his progress on their project, whilst also stating that he had used up as much of their supply of Grogu's blood samples as possible, and that he required more genetic material from the donor in order to continue his work with the Strand-Casts. Some time later, Djarin, Dune, Karga and a Mythrol infiltrated Gideon's laboratory on Nevarro, and ended up finding the message. It was here where they first learned of Gideon's longing project, as well as his survival following their previous battle on Nevarro.

Three days after the heist on Trask, Djarin went back to Nevarro in need of repairs for his ship; there, he was recruited by Karga, Dune, and a Mythrol to join them on their own mission first to destroy the sole remaining Imperial base on the planet. As the four of them went on this mission, a Mimbanese worker started working on Djarin's ship, secretly installing a tracking device on it. Djarin and the others viewed the hologram Dr. Pershing had sent to Gideon, and realized that the Imperials were performing cloning experiments. Meanwhile, one of Gideon's deck officers, Elia Kane informed Gideon that the worker had installed the device on the *Razor Crest*, and the Moff smiled to himself as he continued to supervise the work of his scientists on his dark troopers.

Gideon's forces tracked Djarin's ship to Tython. From high atmosphere, two Imperial transports carrying stormtroopers launched from Gideon's light cruiser, to combat Djarin and his allies, Boba Fett and Fennec Shand. After the stormtroopers' defeat, Gideon's cruiser fired on Djarin's ship, the *Razor Crest*, and destroyed it. Afterwards, four dark troopers were launched from the cruiser and landed near the seeing stone where Grogu had been meditating. There, one of the dark troopers seized Grogu and flew upwards back to the cruiser with the other three dark troopers while Fett pursued them from his ship. Upon seeing the cruiser, Fett remarked in disbelief that the Empire was back. Once the trooper droids returned to the cruiser with the captured child, Gideon's cruiser jumped to hyperspace.

Din Djarin and his crew, consisting of Shand, Fett, Bo-Katan Kryze, Koska Reeves and Carasynthia Dune; infiltrated Gideon's cruiser, and they split, Bo-Katan searching for Gideon, and Djarin searching for the child. Gideon was prepared, and tried to trick the Mandalorian to lower his guard with promises of returning the Child, claiming to no longer need him, having already taken his blood. He attempted to strike at Djarin from behind, and proceeded to battle the Mandalorian, who fought back with his beskar spear, while telling him about the Darksaber. Despite his best efforts, Djarin ultimately defeated Gideon in battle and took both him and the Darksaber to the bridge. When Djarin attempted to give the Darksaber to Bo-Katan, she refused and Gideon laughed, telling Djarin that she had to best him in combat to rightfully claim it.

Then the dark troopers, which Djarin had ejected into space, returned via their rocket boosters. Confident that everyone besides himself and Grogu would be killed by the dark troopers, he did not anticipate the arrival of Luke Skywalker. Gideon was horrified when the Jedi began cutting down his dark troopers, upon which he realized that he was truly defeated. Despite having his hands bound, Gideon managed to get a blaster from his distracted captors and attempted to shoot Bo-Katan and Grogu, but failed. Then, after Shand told him to surrender, Gideon attempted to kill himself, but was knocked unconscious by Dune before he could do so. Following this, Skywalker successfully defeated all of Gideon’s Dark Troopers and took Grogu away to be trained in the ways of the Force as a member of the New Jedi Order. After the assault on his cruiser, Dune took Gideon away, where he was placed under the arrest of the New Republic.

Following the arrest of Gideon, Dune was promoted to special forces, leaving her position as Marshall of Nevarro. Having become a sworn enemy to the Mandalorians, Djarin's covert members Paz Vizsla and the Armorer believed that only death would have been justice for Gideon’s atrocities. According to Din Djarin, it was very likely that he would be executed for his crimes by the New Republic Tribunal, although the Armorer doubted that.

Word of Gideon's capture eventually found its way to Commander Sharky on the planet Carlac. Sharky hoped to gain the Darksaber as its new owner, as he assumed that the moff had very likely lost the weapon after being detained. Additionally, the snowtrooper commander hoped to be a prime candidate for the new leader of Gideon's Imperial remnant if the moff were to be executed by the New Republic Tribunal.

Sometime after his arrest by the New Republic, Gideon escaped New Republic custody when his beskar-plated commandos extracted him from the Lambda-class T-4a shuttle carrying him to the tribunal. News of this was hidden from the rest of the galaxy by New Republic officials, however, rumors spread about Gideon's fate. Some believed the rumors of his escape, whilst others believed it to be a cover story to hide the possibility that he was hooked up to a Mind Flayer.

Gideon had actually escaped to Mandalore, where he set up a base of operations to continue his cloning experiments and design the next generation of Dark Trooper armor, which he wore to battle himself. Sponsored by the Imperial Shadow Council, Gideon also developed a larger squadron of TIE/IN interceptors and TIE bombers to defend the Mandalore system, which he dispatched to destroy Kryze castle on Kalevala after Bo-Katan Kryze returned to it. Gideon routinely communicated with his ex officer, Elia Kane, who was now part of the Amnesty Program and was used by the Moff as his contact with the outside world. General Maximilian Veers, due to his status as a dangerous Imperial warlord during the New Republic Era, was believed to have connections to Gideon's schemes during this time.

Eventually, the shuttle which carried Gideon was discovered by New Republic Captain Carson Teva, who had long believed the rumors of Gideon’s escape. Gideon had earlier sent Gorian Shards's pirates to cause trouble on Nevarro, however, their efforts were stopped by Mandalorians. Kane contacted Gideon, informing him of the pirates' defamatory as well as the alliance between Kryze and Djarin.

Gideon assured her that he would deal with them, before arriving to his meeting with the Shadow Council. Gideon suggested new leadership among the warlord remnant factions due to the absence of Grand Admiral Thrawn, and later requested extra resources as well as Imperial Praetorian Guards to protect him for the upcoming battle.

As Gideon had correctly guessed, the united Mandalorian resistance consisting of both the Children of the Watch and a Mandalorian fleet of loyalists under Bo-Katan Kryze's command soon arrived on Mandalore to resettle the world. As the Mandalorians made their way to the Great Forge, which was located near Gideon's base, the Moff dispatched several Imperial armored commandos with beskar-plated armor to engage them. The troopers ambushed the Mandalorians, and Axe Woves left to return to the fleet and request reinforcements, and lured them to the blastdoors of Gideon's base.

Sealing the doors, the commandos separated the Mandalorians into two groups. As the commandos neutralized and captured Djarin, Gideon arrived wearing his Fourth-generation design Dark Trooper suit and ordered his men to take Djarin to the debriefing room. After hearing Kryze's voice, the Moff mocked the former Mandalorian ruler and demanded to once again be given the Darksaber. However, Kryze refused, moving to open a hole through the blastdoors while the other Mandalorians fired toward Gideon's position and the commandos opened the doors and opened fire. After all the Mandalorians escaped, the Mandalorian Paz Vizla killed several commandos and was confronted by Gideon's Praetorian Guard, who killed him. Meanwhile, Gideon sent a massive squad of TIE Interceptors to wipe out the Mandalorian fleet. Axe evacuated all of the Mandalorians from the light cruiser while he alone stayed aboard to steer it into the Imperial base.

After Djarin escaped his captors with the help of Grogu, Gideon hid knowing Djarin would come straight to him in an attempt to take him out. In the process, Din and Grogu discovered a batch of force-sensitive clones of Gideon just outside the command room and destroyed them, infuriating Gideon. Sealing the door behind the pair as they entered the command room, Gideon let out his rage on Djarin as the Praetorian Guards chased after Grogu.

In a brutal duel, Gideon was able to best Din aided by his suit and would have killed him had Bo Katan not interfered. Switching his attention to Bo Katan as she drew the darksaber, he drew an electrostaff and they began to duel as Din rescued Grogu. In the process Gideon crushed the darksaber with his suit's augmented strength, taunting Bo Katan that without their toys, Mandalorians were weak. As Din and Grogu arrived, she declared Mandalorians were strongest together, and the three quickly overpowered him as Woves crashed the light cruiser into the base. In a last fit of rage he screamed out before being disintegrated by the resulting inferno, while Grogu redirected the flames around him, Djarin and Kryze.

## Personality and traits

A clever and formidable member of the Galactic Empire, Gideon valued knowledge and power. In particular, he was fiercely determined to capture a specific quarry, an infant member of Yoda's species known as Grogu. He believed that the infant meant more to his plans than Din Djarin, a Mandalorian bounty hunter and caretaker of the infant, and his allies would ever know.

Gideon was a patriot of the ancient Galactic Empire who considered his cause just, and would not hesitate to rebuild it from scratch. He yearned for order in the galaxy, considering Grogu's power the key to that end in the hope he could replicate the Force through cloning. All the same, he was selfish in that he desired control of the Imperial Remnant for himself. Indeed, he declared himself as the greatest part of the fourth-generation design Dark Trooper.

He was imposing and ruthless, willing to kill fellow Imperials to achieve his goals, as he showed no hesitation in killing the Client and his stormtroopers, and then an officer for only interrupting him. He was also an adept tactician and skilled at both psychological warfare and personal combat. He was willing to reveal information that would have infuriated his enemies just to taunt and destabilize them. He ordered an officer to commit suicide to prevent him and his ship from being captured. Confident in his army's capabilities, especially the dark troopers, it shattered when he saw Luke Skywalker cut his dark troopers with ease. In desperation, he tried to shoot both Bo-Katan and Grogu, but when both of these failed, he attempted to kill himself, refusing to become a Republic captive. Right before being captured, he tried to kill Grogu before Djarin saved him, showing he had no moral standards whatsoever.

Gideon lied and tried to trick Djarin before attacking him. Gideon did, at least, demonstrate genuine concern for his cloned army, growing saddened and enraged at their deaths.

Gideon was a human male, standing at a height of 1.83 meters. He had dark eyes, skin, and black hair that was graying by the time of the New Republic Era. Before his arrest at Cara Dune's hands, Gideon sported a moustache, but he had shaved it by the time he went back to the Shadow Council after escaping from his planned conviction by the New Republic.

## Appearances

* *Boba and Fennec* (First appearance)
* "Alliances"—*The Further Exploits of Indiana Jones* (Mentioned only)
* *Star Wars: Veers* (Mentioned only)