I had a theory occur to me on the second rewatch of Chapter 12...

TLDR: Chapter 12 may hint at the Mandalorian bodies from the Nevarro covert, whether dead or alive, being used as the main part of the Dark Troopers. Moff Gideon could be trying to reanimate their bodies with the Living Force from The Child's blood, or he could be trying to bring out the maximum Force potential of currently living Manalorian warriors and turn them into the new super soldiers for the Imperial Remnant.

We have seen The Mandalorian tie to many different Star Wars characters and groups. This episode particularly gave off strong Dark Forces/Jedi Knight game vibes, as many have already pointed out in this sub or the main Star Wars sub. One of the central threads in those games are the bad guys raising or resurrecting an army to do their bidding, tapping into Dark Side methods to gain power.

With that in mind, let's reexamine the ending of Chapter 12.

Throughout this episode, the writers tied in outside Star Wars lore to the show. We see the teacher/protocol droid instructing her pupils on various regions of the galaxy, specifically describing the Kessel system and the Maelstrom that we saw in the Solo movie. The droid also alludes to the New Republic capital moving around, and it is currently on Chandrila, Mon Mothma's homeworld. The stormtroopers make remarks and give orders that parallel similar statements from A New Hope. The Nevarro Imperial scientific installation itself bears striking similarities to the scientific installation that Director Krennic held Galen Erso at to design the Death Star. There are floating bodies in tubes that are reminiscent of various clones we have seen throughout Star Wars. An Imperial officer makes a comment about "the new era," hinting at The First Order. One of the Republic pilots even gives what may be a transponder, bearing the symbol of the New Republic, to Cara Dune. The show leaves us with images of Moff Gideon inspecting suits of armor or soldiers that bear strong resemblances to Dark Troopers of the Dark Forces game. Even the Disney Audio Description labels the armor/soldiers as dark troopers. Obviously, the inner fanboys and fangirls of us all were delighted at the inclusions of the greater, expansive Star Wars universe. I want to touch on these Dark Troopers later.

But how did this episode tie back into other lore introduced by The Mandalorian show itself?

Chapter 12 occurred on Nevarro, which showed us familiar settings from the first season. The episode's first Nevarro setting is in the old Mandalorian covert, now stripped bare of its Mandalorian culture. As Chapter 12 progresses, we see the town that was once home to "scum and villainy," but now the town seems to be a quaint and bustling village thanks to Cara Dune and Greef Karga. As the group walks around, we can see the IG droid's body was memorialized as a heroic monument at the center of the town square. We are reintroduced to the Mythrol that Din Djarin captured in Chapter 1. We see a hologram recording of Dr. Pershing, the scientist that was working with Baby Yoda. And of course, we see Moff Gideon himself, alive and well.

However, Chapter 12 glossed over a very important part of the first Season: The Mandalorians of the Nevarro covert. We have been told that the Imperial Remnant killed the all of the Mandalorians, which was shown in the first season with the pile of beskar armor. The fanatic Mandalorians from this covert would rather die than have their armor removed by someone else. We see their beskar armor but no bodies left, so what happened to the Mandalorians' bodies? Think back to my earlier mentioning of this episode being reminiscent of the Dark Forces/Jedi Knight games and the Gideon's supposed Dark Troopers. This Chapter has many similar elements to those games. The big bad is the Imperial Remnant, and the Remnant is trying its hardest to restore the Empire to its former glory through whatever means possible. Chapter 12 includes explicit callbacks and easter eggs to many things except the Mandalorians' bodies. However, the writers may have snuck in the Mandos' bodies as the presumed clone bodies floating in the tubes. Moff Gideon may be trying to re-animate Mando corpses with the Living Force as siphoned from Baby Yoda. Then, he turns them into Dark Troopers.

Let's dive into a bit of story-telling next.

This Mando corpse supposition seems pretty far-fetched at first review, especially with the expectation of seeing so many live Star Wars characters like Cobb Vanth, Rex/Boba Fett, Bo Katan, and eventually Ahsoka Tano herself. As tantalizing as those on-screen tales may seem, this show is about THE Mandalorian, Din Djarin. Even though we have seen so many great characters from the universe, none of them have completely eclipsed Din Djarin's story. With half of this season still remaining to be seen, there is a ton of room for plot development, especially if season 2's last episodes accelerates the plot like season 1's last episodes. With these things in mind, the plot must progress in a meaningful and invloved way to our protagonist, Din Djarin. What better way than to pervert the Mandalorian Creed that reveres its warriors who honorably died in battle by re-animating the warrior's corpses? This would cement Moff Gideon as being the antagonist to Din Djarin's protagonist.

There is another reason for this prediction. When Djarin's group accesses the terminal in the scientific installation, the recording of Dr. Pershing begins to play, and it is in the middle of detailing a report of his findings:

" ... Replicated the results of the subsequent trials, all ended in catastrophic failure. There were promising results for a fortnight, but then sadly the body rejected the blood. I doubt that we will find a body with a higher M-Count, though. I recommend that we suspend all experimentation. I fear that volunteer will meet the same regrettable fate if we proceed with the transfusion... "

After this packed description, Pershing describes that they will need access to a donor like Baby Yoda. The only part of his recording that ties to the main plot so far is his description of needing more blood and why he could not collect more from Baby Yoda originally. So the writers must have included the five whole sentences of initial science-babble to progress the plot. Pershing describes his experiment in a very detached way. He refers to his experiment as "the body," not a specific person's body or an animal's body, simply the body. This could mean that the body is indeed a corpse, or that Pershing is trying to distance himself from his actions because he is working with live Mandalorian bodies and thinks that this work is wrong. He does seem to have some sort of moral compass, because he tries to protect Baby Yoda with his own body in season 1, referring to him as "only a child." He also refers to the body as having a higher M-Count, which most likely is referring to Midichlorian count. This could be in reference to Baby Yoda's body, but it seems that the body with a higher M-Count is much more recent than when Pershing had Baby Yoda. This could mean that some of the Mandos on Nevarro were Force-sensitive!

Now it is true that Dr. Pershing refers to the experimental as "the volunteer," but again, he may be trying to detach himself from his actions. The Imperial Remnant may have captured the Mandos alive, and now they are using their bodies, whether dead or alive, to experiment on. Dr. Pershing most likely would not approve of this, because of his presumed moral compass, so he would use cold, scientific terms to describe the living, breathing Mandos that he was experimenting on. He also mentions that the "volunteer will meet the same regrettable fate if we proceed with the transfusion." This language further shows that Pershing has some remorse for the work he is doing, and the "regrettable fate" may mean that the experimented body had to be Purged, like the Empire purged Mandalore.

Let me know what you think!