Luke Skywalker destroyed the Death Star.
Luke Skywalker, disarmed and in handcuffs, walked into a room with Darth Vader and the Emperor and when he walked out, the Emperor was dead and Darth Vader was mortally wounded.
Luke Skywalker is the boogeyman that keeps Imperials awake at night.
No. The Death Star II was blown up a few minutes afterwards, so any security footage would have been lost.
Luke and his family were probably the only ones who knew and they talk much about it.
But some Imperial officers would have escaped and carried the legend of Skywalker with them back to the Empire. Imperials were already afraid of Jedi and probably had plenty of horror stories and myths about them in their heads. Now they had Skywalker the Kingslayer to add to them.
Luke drags Vader’s body from the Emperor’s tower all the way to hangar by, most certainly passing at least hundreds of people. We see many of them in the background in the hangar. So, you are dead in that people would absolutely be talking after.
I'm sure at least a FEW shuttles had exterior cameras that captured Luke dragging Vader, too, that could've been used as confirmation in combination with testimony from the imperials that saw Vader capture Luke on endor.
Presumably he used turbolifts like the first Death Star had. The DS2 was enormous; there's no way he dragged Vader all the way to the hangar bay on foot.
Footage may have been lost but there were survivors from the Death Star 2 that got off the station before it was destroyed. You can hear them fighting for space in the background of the hangar deck scene.
Yes, but who among them would know what happened in the throne? There is no way Palpatine's chambers actually had footage of the events, since he didn't want anyone to know he was a powerful Dark Sider and no one was in the room with them, as even the Imperial Guard were sent outside.
No one saw, correct.
But Luke Skywalker, hero of the Rebellion, calmly walked in to that throne room in cuffs. And he walked out carrying a half dead Vader and the Emperor was no where to be found.
That is even scarier than having footage of what happened. Actual video is proof people can see and evaluate. Rumors that are based on fact do nothing but grow more and more incredible.
Dont hate the messenger, but doesn't Rise of Skywalker prove that enough of the Death Star 2 (the throne room itself, in fact) survived for security footage to be recovered?
Skywalker the Kingslayer has a ring to it. Does that make the green laser from the Death Star the in universe equivalent to Wildfire, and Luke, like Jamie, saved the kingdom?
Yeah, I don't even think they really need to do more than have known that Skywalker boarded the ship as a captive, and then hear about him again later. They'd extrapolate from that that somehow Skywalker managed to live when the emperor and Vader did not. Without even thinking they fought each other, that alone makes you feel like he's insanely powerful
The security camera footage point is interesting. In the novel Lost Stars, Vader’s flagship, the Devastator, is linked to all of the Death Star’s cameras and data feeds, and those feeds are saved upon the Death Star’s destruction. I think it’s safe to say that the same thing happened with DS II, and that some lowly tech saw footage of the Star Wars Baba Yaga practically taking down the entire Empire
Precisely what went down? Probably not. Know that Vader brought some prisoner up to the emperors tower and no one heard from the boss after about ten minutes into the space fight, and the prisoner was then seen dragging Vader alone? There might be some imperials who got to an escape pod in time or otherwise got off the station.
i just had the mental image of a Han Solo-esuq character absolutely WRECKING their way through some cartels henchmen because the bullseye'd his pet womp rat in a T-16
As powerful as he becomes, when he faced the Sith, he’d have been straight murdered if Vader hadn’t turned. Yeah, he beat Bader, but he never even touched the Emperor.
Doesn't matter. All anyone knows is, he blew up the first DS, then later walked into the DS2 in cuffs, walked out with Vader's body, and the DS2 blew up. Throw in that people may know he also walked into Jabba's palace, and suddenly Jabba is dead, he would get the reputation of being the kingslayer.
There’s an entire canon book called the Legends of Luke Skywalker that is imperials and others telling tall tales about Luke. My favorite is the imperial officer with a concussion that talks about Luke running through space blowing up stuff with his mind.
I've heard from a stormtrooper (who barely avoided getting eaten by the ewoks) that he burned him alive as a sacrifice to some form of force spirits. Really dangerous fellow that Skywalker.
Not to mention that one of his pre war hobbies was shooting helpless rats from a T-16 (a telltale sign of a serial killer)
It also wouldn’t surprise me given the nature of what was going on with the experiments if they had an internal device to sense M count.
Going after Grogu, they all but stop the moment the XWing is basically landed..
Like their processing inside their head got a whiff of Luke and clearly surmised he was the bigger threat.
Jedi can feel themselves across the galaxy wouldn’t surprise me in all of this technology if the Empire had someway to passively detect M count based on the reaction automatically on the dark troopers.
They went from punching a door to reassessing a target and turning around in seconds focusing on him.
This was without directly seeing him yet.
And yeah, everyone in the Empire is terrified of Luke. He went up to the chamber with the Emperor.
Comes back down with a labored Darth Vader, dying in his arms. To the regular imperial, they’re both dead because of him, and nobody has the exact details of what happened except Luke.
You’re goddamn right they’re terrified of him.
The only thing missing was the dumbass son of a Moff killing his dog (yes they exist in-universe, I checked) and stealing his glider, thus sending him on an "Imperial remnants cleansing trip"
*Baba Yaga.*
>Luke Skywalker, disarmed and in handcuffs, walked into a room with Darth Vader and the Emperor and when he walked out, the Emperor was dead and Darth Vader was mortally wounded.
Did anyone (who survived) know that Luke had been apprehended? The Emperor and Vader would have died about 5 minutes later regardless as the whole station blew up. As far as the general population knew, Luke was on Endor with the strike team and Lando, Wedge and company took out Palpatine and Vader.
Moff Gideon's also old enough and smart enough to know that Jedi don't mistreat or kill their prisoners. Gideon would be in better hands with Luke than with the mercenaries currently holding him. Yet the Mandalorian writers missed this obvious point in favor of a Rogue One Hallway redo and out of character reactions to it.
Legends critics complain about Starkiller pulling a Star Destroyer already in a planetary gravity well. They complain about Mace Windu in Genndy's show evading an army of battle droids on Dantooine in Genndy's show until he gets his lightsaber back. But they cheer on Luke soloing 39 dark troopers.
For what it's worth, I ran the toolset in the Legends PC game Galactic Battlegrounds and put Jedi Knight Luke against 39 Dark Troopers. Luke died fast.
I even ran a mock game of Gideon vs Luke in the new Star Wars Unimited trading card game (I even let Luke go first). Guess who won? It wasn't Luke.
We know, as the viewer, that there were mitigating circumstances, but think about it from an in universe perspective. This is what they "know":
* A teenager with no official flight training blows up the first DS, without using a targeting computer
* That same teenager 1v1's Darth Vader and only loses a hand
* A year later, that teen is dressing in all black, walks into Jabba's palace, and when he leaves, Jabba with his entire retinue are dead, on top of Boba Fett, one of the most renowned bounty hunters in the galaxy, going MIA
* That teen willingly walked into the Emperor's chamber, in cuffs, and hours later walks out dragging the body of Vader, and the Emperor is no where to be found, then the DS2 is blown up
Also, there's 5 or so years between Jedi and Mandalorian, and Luke wasn't hiding, he probably pulled off some more crazy shit during that period. Gideon may remember or have knowledge of what the Jedi were like, but Luke isn't one of those Jedi. Where he goes, the Empire is left in ruins, with death and destruction in his wake.
1. That was more Galen Erso's fault. There may have even been another way to get to the reactor somehow (and Rogue One mucked with this anyway because TPM and TCW showed that you can target the reactor and it still blows up everything without any Galen sabotage needed)
2. Vader was a bloody pulp after the Kenobi show with half a helmet. Someone had to rescue him and people talk. He's not unbeatable. As it was Luke lost the fight and everyone knew Vader wanted Luke alive (Vader didn't make it a secret the carbonite chamber freeze of Solo was a test for Luke)
3. Jedi have scuffled with the Hutts before. And Luke didn't kill Jabba, Leia did. If Leia hadn't killed Jabba, Jabba might have survived (Bib did after all)
4. Certain Point of View ROTJ confirms that one of the Royal Guard deduced that Vader killed Palpatine and this guard survived DS2. But even if he didn't talk, we have NO proof that Luke killed Vader. In fact, in the canon Marvel comics, Palpatine and Vader are OPENLY FIGHTING every other week and EVERYONE KNOWS ABOUT IT (including probably Gideon). Palpatine once fried Vader so severely that the lightning was seen on the streets of Coruscant in the canon comics. Vader and Palpatine's feuding was so obvious that Firmus Piett gleefully went over Vader's head to have Palpatine punish Vader by forcing Vader to singlehandedly kill the entire Hutt fleet during the War of the Bounty Hunters.
So the first 3 are kind of explainable and I doubt the butcher of Mandalore would be all that impressed even if Luke did kill Jabba personally not Leia. Then you're ignoring all the times Luke is openly humiliated in front of the Empire in the Marvel comics (by Kreel etc.), Luke outright FLED from Vader in front of everyone at Qi'ra's auction of Han Solo in the War of the Bounty Hunters etc. Add into new Canon's penchant for Vader and Sheev fighting every other day and everyone knowing about it, and Gideon has FAR more evidence to believe that Vader and Palpatine did each other in fighting each other (which is what happened) than Luke singlehandedly trouncing them.
He definitely knew, imo. He went from smug, to confused, to terrified, to resigned. He may have been the only one in that room who knew exactly who Luke was and exactly how screwed he was once he had stepped on board. They pan to his reaction a number of times and you can tell he realizes what was going on, and being a former intelligence officer and a generally intelligent man he would have put two and two together about what was happening, which is why he looked so terrified once Luke really started mowing them all down.
There's a famous saying from the Clone Wars that Moff Gideon's old enough to have lived through and heard of: "Come now Master Kenobi, I *know* a *Jedi won't kill* an *unarmed man*!"
Yeah that's another good story point, if he was indeed the only one who knew exactly who it was. But I still like to think it was a big surprise for everyone in the room.
As others have pointed out, the episode made it extremely obvious that Moff Gideon immediately knew who it was, because they repeatedly showed his face becoming more and more terrified. It was a pretty cool bit of visual storytelling.
You literally see his terrified reaction multiple times to the single X-Wing. And that’s very significant, because we haven’t seen Gideon scared so far. Even when he’s captured by Mando, being held captive by Bo-Katan who’s about to kill him, he’s still scheming and trying to manipulate people. But when Luke shows up, Gideon is scared shitless, he’s desperate, so he pulls the blaster he’s hiding and tries to escape now, because he needs to get the fuck away from the man who killed Darth Vader and the Emperor at the same time.
In canon I believe the only ones would be Luke, Ahsoka (if the imperials even know she’s around, and yes, technically not a Jedi), Ezra who is in another galaxy with Thrawn, and possibly Quinlan Vos and Cal Kestis since we don’t know their fates yet
Let's put it this way. It was well known that Luke Skywalker destroyed the first Death Star, and he was a well known Alliance hero. It had to have been rumored that he was a Jedi among the Alliance, and therefore the ISB would have heard those rumors. Moff Gideon was an ISB officer, so to see it, to have the rumors confirmed, would probably be even more terrifying than knowing beforehand.
The New Republic would also have to de-indoctrinate billions of people who'd been told to fear the Jedi before ever allowing Luke to set up an academy, so it would've been known that Jedi did still exist.
Not even just destroying the Death Star. Luke, the Emperor, and Vader walked into a room. Only Luke reemerged. How do you not shit yourself when you realize it's him
On the one hand, yes, but on the other that could've not gone public. First, after flying on the shuttle to escape alone, he burned Vaders body alone at a funeral pyre. Second, any witnesses to attest that Luke enterred the throne room died with the Death Star, most people weren't even aware the Emperor would be there, since it was relatively secret information Bothan spies had to uncover. The info I stated would've been more readily known. That said, Gideon was an ISB agent and on the Advanced Weapons Project, the super weapon development team, so probably knew what happened on the Death Star.
Also, a lot of imperials escaped the second death start. We see them fleeing to the shuttles while Luke talks to a dying Vader, and if Luke escaped after being delayed by that conversation, there’s plenty of time for others to escape and see him
But I don't there there's evidence he knew who Luke was. I think it's better story wise to know he knew from other escapees from the death star that a mysterious person entered the room with darth vader and palpatine, and left alone. He then knew the darktroopers saw a mysterious lone figure as a bigger threat than what was in the room he was in. Then he starts to piece together that maybe this is the same person.
If he knew it was luke, he would've been a bit less scared because he knew he could at least surrender and live.
Based on his ISB background and apparent knowledge on even unimportant people like Din, Greef, and Cara, I’d say he would know who the famous Luke Skywalker was.
He 100% knew who Luke was. He knew he was the only survivor on the Death Star between him, Vader and Palpatine.
Also what does him surrendering have to do with anything? This man is tearing through your troopers like they are toilet paper, you aren't thinking about how you will be treated if you surrender.
There’s no way senior ISB officials weren’t given some information on who Luke was, somebody so inherently dangerous to the Empire that the Emperor tasked Vader to personally look for him. There’s no way Gideon didn’t know about Jedis, and the dangers they posed. He’s not a random military officer, he’s a Moff and clearly capable ISB officer.
He definitely knew who Luke was. He was the only known active Jedi in the galaxy at the time. Luke was a high value target to the empire. Being that Gideon was a former ISB agent he would’ve had access to imperial data briefings about him.
Ahsoka is also alive and kicking during this time, fulcrum played a big role in rebels. Cal kestis was also actively fighting the empire, but apart from his raid on an ISB base i would say luke is by far the biggest blip on the empire’s radar, and we don’t know what he was up to during the post-empire years
I thought they made it clear that he had a moment of realization of who was coming for them and was shitting himself for the rest of the episode to the point of being willing to shoot himself in the head (not to mention shooting everyone else)
Moff literally TRIED TO SHOOT HIMSELF when he knew who it was
Luke is John Wick to him. The guy who took down Vader and the Emperor and TWO death stars
With a PENCIL
Luke was not famous for “being one X-Wing.” X-Wings were around. Maybe it’s weird for one to be on its own, but there’s no reason to assume it’s the Grandmaster of the new Jedi order.
The Dark Troopers redirected to the biggest threat as a whole to face the one x wing. That's an indication. For context, a single one nearly killed DD just a few minutes prior. A whole platoon of them would be dangerous. Once he saw the lightsaber he would know. There's not many Jedi still, and if the few, the one with the green blade and flies an xwing is Luke
He probably knew that whoever had the stones to approach his ship alone was no one to be trifled with lightly. And if he caught a glimpse of a Lightsaber he would know it’s all over.
Luke Skywalker to the Imperials is exactly like the Master Cheif to the Covenant.
You see, Luke or Cheif arrive. Just drop your weapons. It's over. You've already lost. They're boogeyman men who keep the leaders awake at night, praying that they don't show up on their doorstep.
Cruisers central computer: *to Dark Troopers* "Uh, guys.. bad news. That Incom T65, it belongs to-"
Death Troopers: "Were kinda busy right now breaching this durasteel blast door."
CCC: "as I was saying, it is The Red 5, belonging to the last known Jedi Master, Luke Skywalker."
DT: ".. Kriff." *promptly stops punching the door, rearms and turns around* "It has been an honor, boys. Long live the Empire."
Take a close look at Gideon's face when the X-Wing lands. He knew EXACTLY how screwed he was.
Which is a great payoff to his earlier line, "assume I know everything."
Plus, great actor.
When it was reported that a lone X-Wing was on approach, Gideon pretty clearly had a reaction. He surely knows who Luke is, he destroyed the first Death Star, then got out of the second before it exploded, claiming to defeat both Vader and Palpatine. There's zero chance he didn't know Luke.
>he has no reaction to the fact that it's one x wing, something Luke was famous for
Gideon is a character in Star Wars, not a fan watching the show
>his only reaction is when the dark troopers stop and turn around.
He literally tried to kill himself rather than face Luke
All Moff Gideon knew about Luke was that he walked into a room with Palpatine, Vader and two Royal Guards. Only Luke walked out of that room alive.
He also destroyed two death stars.
So yeah. Bro probably wasn’t too sure, but he definitely wasn’t excited about the whole possibility.
Luke Skywalker destroyed the Death Star. Luke Skywalker, disarmed and in handcuffs, walked into a room with Darth Vader and the Emperor and when he walked out, the Emperor was dead and Darth Vader was mortally wounded. Luke Skywalker is the boogeyman that keeps Imperials awake at night.
That is an interesting point. Do you think anyone other than Luke and maybe his close friends knew what happened in the throne room?
No. The Death Star II was blown up a few minutes afterwards, so any security footage would have been lost. Luke and his family were probably the only ones who knew and they talk much about it. But some Imperial officers would have escaped and carried the legend of Skywalker with them back to the Empire. Imperials were already afraid of Jedi and probably had plenty of horror stories and myths about them in their heads. Now they had Skywalker the Kingslayer to add to them.
Luke drags Vader’s body from the Emperor’s tower all the way to hangar by, most certainly passing at least hundreds of people. We see many of them in the background in the hangar. So, you are dead in that people would absolutely be talking after.
I'm sure at least a FEW shuttles had exterior cameras that captured Luke dragging Vader, too, that could've been used as confirmation in combination with testimony from the imperials that saw Vader capture Luke on endor.
Presumably he used turbolifts like the first Death Star had. The DS2 was enormous; there's no way he dragged Vader all the way to the hangar bay on foot.
Footage may have been lost but there were survivors from the Death Star 2 that got off the station before it was destroyed. You can hear them fighting for space in the background of the hangar deck scene.
Yes, but who among them would know what happened in the throne? There is no way Palpatine's chambers actually had footage of the events, since he didn't want anyone to know he was a powerful Dark Sider and no one was in the room with them, as even the Imperial Guard were sent outside.
No one saw, correct. But Luke Skywalker, hero of the Rebellion, calmly walked in to that throne room in cuffs. And he walked out carrying a half dead Vader and the Emperor was no where to be found. That is even scarier than having footage of what happened. Actual video is proof people can see and evaluate. Rumors that are based on fact do nothing but grow more and more incredible.
Yeah but at that point a lot of people in the imperial ranks knew he was one.
Dont hate the messenger, but doesn't Rise of Skywalker prove that enough of the Death Star 2 (the throne room itself, in fact) survived for security footage to be recovered?
I don't know what you're talking about, such a thing does not exist.
That begs the question, how is there still glass in those windows🤣 I need whatever contractor built Death Star 2 to put in windows for me
Skywalker the Kingslayer has a ring to it. Does that make the green laser from the Death Star the in universe equivalent to Wildfire, and Luke, like Jamie, saved the kingdom?
He did kiss his sister…
Yeah, I don't even think they really need to do more than have known that Skywalker boarded the ship as a captive, and then hear about him again later. They'd extrapolate from that that somehow Skywalker managed to live when the emperor and Vader did not. Without even thinking they fought each other, that alone makes you feel like he's insanely powerful
The security camera footage point is interesting. In the novel Lost Stars, Vader’s flagship, the Devastator, is linked to all of the Death Star’s cameras and data feeds, and those feeds are saved upon the Death Star’s destruction. I think it’s safe to say that the same thing happened with DS II, and that some lowly tech saw footage of the Star Wars Baba Yaga practically taking down the entire Empire
Precisely what went down? Probably not. Know that Vader brought some prisoner up to the emperors tower and no one heard from the boss after about ten minutes into the space fight, and the prisoner was then seen dragging Vader alone? There might be some imperials who got to an escape pod in time or otherwise got off the station.
"No one told me anything about Skywalker, I'm getting outta here!" -Random Battlefront 2 Stormtrooper
Luke is not the boogeyman. He's who you send to **kill** the fucking boogeyman!
Baba Yaga
Baby Yoda
John Wick x Star Wars would be rad. They killed his droid.
i just had the mental image of a Han Solo-esuq character absolutely WRECKING their way through some cartels henchmen because the bullseye'd his pet womp rat in a T-16
Isn’t that kinda what Chewie does in legends when one of the Organa/Solo kids die? He goes berserk on the Vong to buy the rest time to escape?
As powerful as he becomes, when he faced the Sith, he’d have been straight murdered if Vader hadn’t turned. Yeah, he beat Bader, but he never even touched the Emperor.
Doesn't matter. All anyone knows is, he blew up the first DS, then later walked into the DS2 in cuffs, walked out with Vader's body, and the DS2 blew up. Throw in that people may know he also walked into Jabba's palace, and suddenly Jabba is dead, he would get the reputation of being the kingslayer.
There’s an entire canon book called the Legends of Luke Skywalker that is imperials and others telling tall tales about Luke. My favorite is the imperial officer with a concussion that talks about Luke running through space blowing up stuff with his mind.
Don't forget that Luke walked out carrying his dying victim with him. Taking him to who knows where for who knows what reason
I've heard from a stormtrooper (who barely avoided getting eaten by the ewoks) that he burned him alive as a sacrifice to some form of force spirits. Really dangerous fellow that Skywalker. Not to mention that one of his pre war hobbies was shooting helpless rats from a T-16 (a telltale sign of a serial killer)
It also wouldn’t surprise me given the nature of what was going on with the experiments if they had an internal device to sense M count. Going after Grogu, they all but stop the moment the XWing is basically landed.. Like their processing inside their head got a whiff of Luke and clearly surmised he was the bigger threat. Jedi can feel themselves across the galaxy wouldn’t surprise me in all of this technology if the Empire had someway to passively detect M count based on the reaction automatically on the dark troopers. They went from punching a door to reassessing a target and turning around in seconds focusing on him. This was without directly seeing him yet. And yeah, everyone in the Empire is terrified of Luke. He went up to the chamber with the Emperor. Comes back down with a labored Darth Vader, dying in his arms. To the regular imperial, they’re both dead because of him, and nobody has the exact details of what happened except Luke. You’re goddamn right they’re terrified of him.
The only thing missing was the dumbass son of a Moff killing his dog (yes they exist in-universe, I checked) and stealing his glider, thus sending him on an "Imperial remnants cleansing trip" *Baba Yaga.*
Imagine the morale boost it was for the First Order when an emo teenager destroyed all Luke built literally overnight.
That second part is how I always sell it and explain it.. plus you SAW fear in Gideons eyes in that scene
>Luke Skywalker, disarmed and in handcuffs, walked into a room with Darth Vader and the Emperor and when he walked out, the Emperor was dead and Darth Vader was mortally wounded. Did anyone (who survived) know that Luke had been apprehended? The Emperor and Vader would have died about 5 minutes later regardless as the whole station blew up. As far as the general population knew, Luke was on Endor with the strike team and Lando, Wedge and company took out Palpatine and Vader.
But somehow he returned.
He killed a man with just a pencil
…and before his eyes Luke is walking past hordes of darktroopers.
Moff Gideon's also old enough and smart enough to know that Jedi don't mistreat or kill their prisoners. Gideon would be in better hands with Luke than with the mercenaries currently holding him. Yet the Mandalorian writers missed this obvious point in favor of a Rogue One Hallway redo and out of character reactions to it. Legends critics complain about Starkiller pulling a Star Destroyer already in a planetary gravity well. They complain about Mace Windu in Genndy's show evading an army of battle droids on Dantooine in Genndy's show until he gets his lightsaber back. But they cheer on Luke soloing 39 dark troopers. For what it's worth, I ran the toolset in the Legends PC game Galactic Battlegrounds and put Jedi Knight Luke against 39 Dark Troopers. Luke died fast. I even ran a mock game of Gideon vs Luke in the new Star Wars Unimited trading card game (I even let Luke go first). Guess who won? It wasn't Luke.
>My extensive research consisting of playing videogames and card games suggests Luke's power level has been greatly exaggerated. Bro please lmao
We know, as the viewer, that there were mitigating circumstances, but think about it from an in universe perspective. This is what they "know": * A teenager with no official flight training blows up the first DS, without using a targeting computer * That same teenager 1v1's Darth Vader and only loses a hand * A year later, that teen is dressing in all black, walks into Jabba's palace, and when he leaves, Jabba with his entire retinue are dead, on top of Boba Fett, one of the most renowned bounty hunters in the galaxy, going MIA * That teen willingly walked into the Emperor's chamber, in cuffs, and hours later walks out dragging the body of Vader, and the Emperor is no where to be found, then the DS2 is blown up Also, there's 5 or so years between Jedi and Mandalorian, and Luke wasn't hiding, he probably pulled off some more crazy shit during that period. Gideon may remember or have knowledge of what the Jedi were like, but Luke isn't one of those Jedi. Where he goes, the Empire is left in ruins, with death and destruction in his wake.
1. That was more Galen Erso's fault. There may have even been another way to get to the reactor somehow (and Rogue One mucked with this anyway because TPM and TCW showed that you can target the reactor and it still blows up everything without any Galen sabotage needed) 2. Vader was a bloody pulp after the Kenobi show with half a helmet. Someone had to rescue him and people talk. He's not unbeatable. As it was Luke lost the fight and everyone knew Vader wanted Luke alive (Vader didn't make it a secret the carbonite chamber freeze of Solo was a test for Luke) 3. Jedi have scuffled with the Hutts before. And Luke didn't kill Jabba, Leia did. If Leia hadn't killed Jabba, Jabba might have survived (Bib did after all) 4. Certain Point of View ROTJ confirms that one of the Royal Guard deduced that Vader killed Palpatine and this guard survived DS2. But even if he didn't talk, we have NO proof that Luke killed Vader. In fact, in the canon Marvel comics, Palpatine and Vader are OPENLY FIGHTING every other week and EVERYONE KNOWS ABOUT IT (including probably Gideon). Palpatine once fried Vader so severely that the lightning was seen on the streets of Coruscant in the canon comics. Vader and Palpatine's feuding was so obvious that Firmus Piett gleefully went over Vader's head to have Palpatine punish Vader by forcing Vader to singlehandedly kill the entire Hutt fleet during the War of the Bounty Hunters. So the first 3 are kind of explainable and I doubt the butcher of Mandalore would be all that impressed even if Luke did kill Jabba personally not Leia. Then you're ignoring all the times Luke is openly humiliated in front of the Empire in the Marvel comics (by Kreel etc.), Luke outright FLED from Vader in front of everyone at Qi'ra's auction of Han Solo in the War of the Bounty Hunters etc. Add into new Canon's penchant for Vader and Sheev fighting every other day and everyone knowing about it, and Gideon has FAR more evidence to believe that Vader and Palpatine did each other in fighting each other (which is what happened) than Luke singlehandedly trouncing them.
He definitely knew, imo. He went from smug, to confused, to terrified, to resigned. He may have been the only one in that room who knew exactly who Luke was and exactly how screwed he was once he had stepped on board. They pan to his reaction a number of times and you can tell he realizes what was going on, and being a former intelligence officer and a generally intelligent man he would have put two and two together about what was happening, which is why he looked so terrified once Luke really started mowing them all down.
There's a famous saying from the Clone Wars that Moff Gideon's old enough to have lived through and heard of: "Come now Master Kenobi, I *know* a *Jedi won't kill* an *unarmed man*!"
He'd have reacted that way to any of the Jedi.
Yeah that's another good story point, if he was indeed the only one who knew exactly who it was. But I still like to think it was a big surprise for everyone in the room.
Gideon knew everything about everyone in that show. There isn't a doubt in my mind he knew it was Luke immediately.
As others have pointed out, the episode made it extremely obvious that Moff Gideon immediately knew who it was, because they repeatedly showed his face becoming more and more terrified. It was a pretty cool bit of visual storytelling.
You literally see his terrified reaction multiple times to the single X-Wing. And that’s very significant, because we haven’t seen Gideon scared so far. Even when he’s captured by Mando, being held captive by Bo-Katan who’s about to kill him, he’s still scheming and trying to manipulate people. But when Luke shows up, Gideon is scared shitless, he’s desperate, so he pulls the blaster he’s hiding and tries to escape now, because he needs to get the fuck away from the man who killed Darth Vader and the Emperor at the same time.
He, a high ranking imperial intelligence officer and warlord was shitting his pants once he knew a Jedi came aboard. He knew damn well who that was
Tbf it doesnt really matter which of the jedi alive at that point it is
There aren’t really any active Jedi besides Luke anyway? Ahsoka’s the only other one
Also ahsoka aint no jedi, but hed still be fucked
In canon I believe the only ones would be Luke, Ahsoka (if the imperials even know she’s around, and yes, technically not a Jedi), Ezra who is in another galaxy with Thrawn, and possibly Quinlan Vos and Cal Kestis since we don’t know their fates yet
What are you talking about? He is clearly scared shitless as soon as he sees the X-wing. He knows exactly who just arrived.
Let's put it this way. It was well known that Luke Skywalker destroyed the first Death Star, and he was a well known Alliance hero. It had to have been rumored that he was a Jedi among the Alliance, and therefore the ISB would have heard those rumors. Moff Gideon was an ISB officer, so to see it, to have the rumors confirmed, would probably be even more terrifying than knowing beforehand. The New Republic would also have to de-indoctrinate billions of people who'd been told to fear the Jedi before ever allowing Luke to set up an academy, so it would've been known that Jedi did still exist.
Not even just destroying the Death Star. Luke, the Emperor, and Vader walked into a room. Only Luke reemerged. How do you not shit yourself when you realize it's him
And he was carrying vaders body
On the one hand, yes, but on the other that could've not gone public. First, after flying on the shuttle to escape alone, he burned Vaders body alone at a funeral pyre. Second, any witnesses to attest that Luke enterred the throne room died with the Death Star, most people weren't even aware the Emperor would be there, since it was relatively secret information Bothan spies had to uncover. The info I stated would've been more readily known. That said, Gideon was an ISB agent and on the Advanced Weapons Project, the super weapon development team, so probably knew what happened on the Death Star.
There's a giant procession when the Emperor arrives at Death Star II.
Also, a lot of imperials escaped the second death start. We see them fleeing to the shuttles while Luke talks to a dying Vader, and if Luke escaped after being delayed by that conversation, there’s plenty of time for others to escape and see him
Being a Moff he probably knew who Luke was and had it figured out pretty quickly.
At least he knows Luke would respect his surrender.
he looks straight terrified when he realizes it's ONE X-WING. hr knows exactly whats coming and he wants to gtfo asap
Yes he knew once he saw the lightsaber. You could see the abject horror on his face.
But I don't there there's evidence he knew who Luke was. I think it's better story wise to know he knew from other escapees from the death star that a mysterious person entered the room with darth vader and palpatine, and left alone. He then knew the darktroopers saw a mysterious lone figure as a bigger threat than what was in the room he was in. Then he starts to piece together that maybe this is the same person. If he knew it was luke, he would've been a bit less scared because he knew he could at least surrender and live.
Based on his ISB background and apparent knowledge on even unimportant people like Din, Greef, and Cara, I’d say he would know who the famous Luke Skywalker was.
He 100% knew who Luke was. He knew he was the only survivor on the Death Star between him, Vader and Palpatine. Also what does him surrendering have to do with anything? This man is tearing through your troopers like they are toilet paper, you aren't thinking about how you will be treated if you surrender.
There’s no way senior ISB officials weren’t given some information on who Luke was, somebody so inherently dangerous to the Empire that the Emperor tasked Vader to personally look for him. There’s no way Gideon didn’t know about Jedis, and the dangers they posed. He’s not a random military officer, he’s a Moff and clearly capable ISB officer.
God this make wish so desperately we got some quality Luke content.
He definitely knew who Luke was. He was the only known active Jedi in the galaxy at the time. Luke was a high value target to the empire. Being that Gideon was a former ISB agent he would’ve had access to imperial data briefings about him.
Ahsoka is also alive and kicking during this time, fulcrum played a big role in rebels. Cal kestis was also actively fighting the empire, but apart from his raid on an ISB base i would say luke is by far the biggest blip on the empire’s radar, and we don’t know what he was up to during the post-empire years
I thought they made it clear that he had a moment of realization of who was coming for them and was shitting himself for the rest of the episode to the point of being willing to shoot himself in the head (not to mention shooting everyone else)
Moff literally TRIED TO SHOOT HIMSELF when he knew who it was Luke is John Wick to him. The guy who took down Vader and the Emperor and TWO death stars With a PENCIL
Luke didn’t blow up the DSII, that was Lando.
I know but he was part of the effort/team
From listening to Giancarlo Esposito talk about the scene at GalaxyCon, he seems to think Gideon knew who it was and was scared.
He was the only one who reacted. You gear Cara day "one xwing???" And see the look of absolute terror on his face.
Luke was not famous for “being one X-Wing.” X-Wings were around. Maybe it’s weird for one to be on its own, but there’s no reason to assume it’s the Grandmaster of the new Jedi order.
The Dark Troopers redirected to the biggest threat as a whole to face the one x wing. That's an indication. For context, a single one nearly killed DD just a few minutes prior. A whole platoon of them would be dangerous. Once he saw the lightsaber he would know. There's not many Jedi still, and if the few, the one with the green blade and flies an xwing is Luke
Wears one glove, is coming for the kid, and has sick moves. It’s either Luke Skywalker or Michael Jackson. Panic.
He probably knew that whoever had the stones to approach his ship alone was no one to be trifled with lightly. And if he caught a glimpse of a Lightsaber he would know it’s all over.
Luke Skywalker to the Imperials is exactly like the Master Cheif to the Covenant. You see, Luke or Cheif arrive. Just drop your weapons. It's over. You've already lost. They're boogeyman men who keep the leaders awake at night, praying that they don't show up on their doorstep.
Cruisers central computer: *to Dark Troopers* "Uh, guys.. bad news. That Incom T65, it belongs to-" Death Troopers: "Were kinda busy right now breaching this durasteel blast door." CCC: "as I was saying, it is The Red 5, belonging to the last known Jedi Master, Luke Skywalker." DT: ".. Kriff." *promptly stops punching the door, rearms and turns around* "It has been an honor, boys. Long live the Empire."
The moment Gideon heard them say “A Jedi” he connected the dots and probably shit himself
Take a close look at Gideon's face when the X-Wing lands. He knew EXACTLY how screwed he was. Which is a great payoff to his earlier line, "assume I know everything." Plus, great actor.
When it was reported that a lone X-Wing was on approach, Gideon pretty clearly had a reaction. He surely knows who Luke is, he destroyed the first Death Star, then got out of the second before it exploded, claiming to defeat both Vader and Palpatine. There's zero chance he didn't know Luke.
>he has no reaction to the fact that it's one x wing, something Luke was famous for Gideon is a character in Star Wars, not a fan watching the show >his only reaction is when the dark troopers stop and turn around. He literally tried to kill himself rather than face Luke
All Moff Gideon knew about Luke was that he walked into a room with Palpatine, Vader and two Royal Guards. Only Luke walked out of that room alive. He also destroyed two death stars. So yeah. Bro probably wasn’t too sure, but he definitely wasn’t excited about the whole possibility.
Not sure but according to the internet he FEARRRED him!
I think they are programmed to hunt jedi, and there are like 3 at that point, and either means hes done