The Mandalorian Dark Troopers in The Mandalorian

I think of them as Vaderminators

 

Well so does clones, which were just organic droids.

They were useless fodder like the Hammer Drones and quasi Dark Trooper knockoff Sentry droids of Rebels . Looks like they thought T-600 crossed with a B2 Super Battle Droid was their Dark Trooper. Funny thing was that droid Dark Troopers have been in neo-canon for years, that suit comment from a strange nod to a 90's game.

The only interesting thing about them on this show was that it seemed like they were able to detect a Force sensitive, but that could've just been for dramatic effect since they all stop to face the in coming enemy instead of some continuing to enter the room while the others engage the new target.

But gone are the days of the Arc Hammer and Dark Trooper hyperspace capsules...

 

I wonder if we will see past generations of dark troopers (phase 1 and 2) in future projects set earlier in the timeline. Such as Andor.

There is a bit of a contradiction though, which I’m sure will be retconed.

The Imperial scientist implied with his dialogue about these being phase 3 dark troopers, that these were the first ones who were not guys in suits, but droids.

Though we do have these

https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Phase_II_Dark_Trooper

 

Well, with Luke having cut through them like they were nothing, I'm wondering if the Dark Troopers are going to get upgraded. Would be great to see a Phase III Dark Trooper (from Legends) in action, packing an Assault Cannon.

 

Luke would've had much greater difficultly if they were Inquisitorius Purge Troopers. These droids were very slow, not much AI either, and did not have lightsaber resistant armor nor weapons that could combat Jedi.

 

Right. They were very clearly presented that way, what with the need to be housed in cold storage, kept plugged in, charged up, etc. Energy intensive and normally not worth it.

 

They were very efficient in the episode and pretty much won the fight for the Imperials. The only thing that could potentially stop them is a Jedi Knight and there's like one left in the whole galaxy. What are the chances of him showing up right in that moment...

 

I hated them. In basically every way. Design, function, execution, implementation. All not good for me.
They felt like bootleg suits from Iron Man 2 wearing bootleg Vader helmets. They were simultaneously OP and comically useless. They ended up being entirely meaningless to the story. I found nothing endearing about their retro-style movements.
I wanted to like them, but they were a major bust for me.

 

You have to realise that this was all Gideon had, he didn't have the resources of Palpatine, he had no fleet of star destroyers, no endless brigades of stormtroopers and no top spec battle droids. He's salvaged what he could, tried to maintain control over his territory with the forces that remained.

 

They were essential for the story to conclude with the heroes facing certain death, only to be saved because Gandalf, I mean Grogu, called the Eagles, I mean Luke Skywalker.

 

Well the Tiger tanks were made to combat the heavy Soviet Russian tanks and were able to take out enemy vehicles at very long ranges. The Germans tended to underpower their tanks with inferior engines, and sometimes over engineer their tanks that created complications - and the Tiger like the Panther D was rushed into production to meet the demands of the Eastern Front. But the Tiger tank I can understand. The Dark Troopers arent really advantageous over the Sentry droids of Rebels, and really the Imps could've kept the B2 Super Battle Droids or Destroyers in production. I do not see even an advantage over exoskeleton suit version of the Dark Trooper.

I think the purpose of these Dark Troopers was like that of the Space Troopers of Heir to the Empire, basically made for boarding enemy vessels and being walking tanks by bulldozing through the ship with heavy armor and firepower without wasting precious human lives since they are just heavy armored battle droids.

 

Yeah. I think its quite straight forward. They served their purpose for the plot.

 

Yeah, that's cool. I still hated them.

 

With Gideon having an obvious connection to Mandalore, it's possible that he worked his Dark Troopers to be effective in fighting against Mandolorian Commandos, of whom there is likely a decent amount out there in hiding and very likely to come looking for revenge or to claim the Dark Saber. So it would make sense to tailor them to fight the most likely Foe. They were clearly not intended to be Jedi Hunters or they would have at least some resistance to Sabers, and they did very well against a Mandalorian. That said, Bo Katan being more of a Nimble and Faster fighter than Mando might have faired better in a one on one.

 

Weirdly, I didn’t like how they looked in “The Tragedy.” Had similar problems as you did. But then perhaps due to Reed’s direction, lighting, editing, and other elements of the episode, I thought they worked quite well in the finale.

 

The thing that I love the most about them is that, like so much in The Mandalorian, they're pure pulp. They look and feel and move like something off the cover of some 50s sci-fi novel. In a way that the Sequel Trilogy never really did (apart, perhaps, from the Canto Bight sequence), The Mandalorian really embraces some of those goofier, retro sci-fi elements that are part of Star Wars' backbone.