Gideon

Gideon was a human male who joined the Galactic Empire sometime after the Clone Wars. Within the Empire, he oversaw various initiatives aimed at developing particularly effective [soldiers](/article/soldier], including stormtroopers and battle droids. Notably, he spearheaded the creation of the death troopers, an elite force of commandos operating under the Stormtrooper Corps and Imperial Intelligence within their own divison. Death troopers became a favored unit for Gideon in his operations.

At some point during or before the Galactic Civil War, Gideon became an officer in the Imperial Security Bureau, serving as a member of the ISB's Advanced Weapons Research division and committing several war crimes throughout the war. As the war was nearing its end he played a bloody and active role in the Great Purge of Mandalore. Gideon issued orders that led to the deaths of millions of Mandalorians. The bloodbath committed by the Empire in the Night of a Thousand Tears eventually drained Bo-Katan Kryze of her will to fight, and she agreed to negotiate with Gideon on the terms of Mandalore's surrender as leader of the Mandalorians.

Gideon pledged to spare all remaining Mandalorian warriors and cities in exchange for their surrender and the Darksaber, the legendary weapon and a significant symbol of House Vizsla. However, Gideon betrayed her: with Kryze having agreed to a ceasefire, the Imperial forces were free to slaughter of all remaining factions in the rest of the Great Purge of Mandalore. Following the Purge, Gideon attained the rank of Moff, but the Empire collapsed with the Battle of Jakku.

Gideon managed to maintain his prestigious position and authority by faking his execution for war crimes and fleeing to the Outer Rim, where he joined other Imperial loyalists. After regrouping, Gideon and his allies established an Imperial remnant under his control, along with a base of operations on Mandalore for both himself and his remnant. Gideon's remnant was a considerable force, comprising elements of the Imperial Army, the Imperial Navy, and allied Imperial remnants. With the loss of both Emperor Sheev Palpatine and his lieutenant, the Empire's informal Commander-in-Chief Darth Vader, Gideon sought control in the restructured galactic community and plotted to reimpose order to the galaxy by the means of a powerful army. He also became a prominent member of the Shadow Council, a loose militaristic coalition of warlords, some of whom hoped to be led by Grand Admiral Thrawn, with whom he was in tacit competition. At the same time, Kryze was hunting Gideon in the hope of regaining the symbol of Mandalorian leadership.

By 9 ABY, Gideon aimed to secure 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 intended to use as a sample in his efforts to create a perfect supersoldier, combining the best traits of the Mandalorians, the Jedi, and the Kaminoan clones. The Client, in turn, enlisted the local office of the Bounty Hunters' Guild, led by Greef Karga, and hired the best bounty hunter available—as claimed by Karga—for the job: the Mandalorian Child of the Watch Din Djarin.

Despite Djarin's success in acquiring the asset and completing the job, numerous 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 several encounters with hunters and pirates, Djarin ultimately returned the infant to the Client, who delivered it to Pershing to begin the experiments. However, this success was short-lived as Djarin soon had a change of heart and attacked the remnant warehouse, escaping the planet with Grogu.

Enraged by Djarin's betrayal, the Client unleashed Gideon's remnant upon Nevarro City, establishing a despotic rule. Karga contacted the Mandalorian, desperately pleading with him to return the infant to the Imperials to avoid execution by the Remnant. 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. Their plan was to feign delivering the infant but instead eliminate the Remnant and the Guild. Despite Karga's initial plan to kill them and take the infant to the Client himself, an attack from a Nevarro reptavian and the child's use of the Force to heal him led to a change of heart, and he joined Djarin's force to assist with their plan. They ultimately sent Grogu back to Djarin's ship, the Razor Crest, with Kuiil, while the rest of the force arrived at 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. However, Gideon instructed him to recheck Grogu's pram. Unbeknownst to the Client, his death troopers had already begun to gather outside. As soon as the Client tried to check the pram, Gideon's squad of death troopers opened fire on the Client and his accompanying forces, killing them and pinning down Djarin's party. Shortly after, a K79-S80 Imperial Troop Transport arrived, deploying stormtroopers to reinforce the death troopers and secure the area outside the cantina. Gideon himself then landed in Nevarro aboard his Outland TIE fighter, behind the mass of troopers. As he emerged 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. Meanwhile, two of Gideon's scout troopers intercepted and killed Kuiil before he could reach the Razor Crest with Grogu.

As the scout troopers made 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 grew impatient and requested 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.

At some point, just as he headed work on the death trooper project, Gideon headed another program designed to create effective troops in the form of the Dark Trooper project as it shifted into its third-generation design. A program that had lasted decades and was originally designed to supply human soldiers with combat suits, the project started out by applying cybernetics to clone troopers before moving into the Phase II Dark Trooper suit, which was field tested during the Galactic Civil War.

By the time of Gideon's involvement as project head, it had been decided that the human pilot was the last weakness in the Dark Trooper design. As such, the third-generation design Dark Trooper was created as a droid. Indeed, Gideon was not satisfied with the human factor seen within death trooper operations, with such personality leading to unpredictability and freewill, despite their many successes. The new phase of Dark Trooper was created as advanced third-generation battle droids that would serve a similar role to the death trooper. They visibly resembled the death troopers as well. Gideon was an active member of the project who pushed for improvements to the design. He would even use his authority to secure local resources for experimental Dark Trooper models. Dark Troopers, like death troopers, were a favored unit for Gideon. Dark Troopers were assigned to be Gideon's personal bodyguards as well.

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 cloning 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.

As Din Djarin was in search of Grogu's people, who were the mysterious faction of the Jedi that the Armorer had described to him as an ancient order of wizards, after he successfully escaped from Nevarro, he would eventually meet Lady Kryze on the estuary moon of Trask, who was gathering Mandalorian survivors from around the galaxy to attempt and retake their homeworld after the defeat of the Empire. 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. However, the Mandalorians were unaware that the cruiser belonged to Gideon's remnant, which led to the Moff discovering Djarin's whereabouts months after their last meeting.

Due to the tracking beacon, Gideon's military forces were able to locate Djarin's spacecraft on Tython. It was there that the Mandalorian had brought Grogu to attempt communication with the Jedi, following the counsel of Ahsoka Tano, information about whom Jedi Kryze had shared. Descending from the upper atmosphere, Gideon's light cruiser deployed two Imperial transports, filled with stormtroopers, initiating combat against Djarin and his newly acquired allies, Boba Fett and Fennec Shand, with the intention of diverting them from Grogu. After the stormtroopers were defeated by the trio, Gideon's cruiser targeted and obliterated the Razor Crest. Subsequently, four Dark Troopers were dispatched from the cruiser, landing near the seeing stone where Grogu was in meditation. They captured the child and retreated to the cruiser, while Fett gave chase in his ship. Upon observing the cruiser, Fett expressed his shock at the Empire's resurgence and ceased his pursuit, allowing the cruiser to enter hyperspace after the trooper droids had returned with the captured child. While in hyperspace, Gideon briefly visited Grogu in his holding cell, discovering the child in the midst of an attack on two stormtroopers. Gideon displayed the Darksaber to Grogu before instructing his stormtroopers to stun him and restrain him with stuncuffs to neutralize his abilities. Subsequently, Gideon instructed Elia Kane to transmit an encrypted message to Pershing, informing him that the donor for his experiments was ready upon exiting hyperspace.

Following the successful recapture of the child by the Moff, Din Djarin formed a team that included Dune, Boba Fett (the former bounty hunter), Fennec Shand (the mercenary), and Migs Mayfeld (the ex-Imperial). This team infiltrated an Imperial refinery located on Morak, where they successfully obtained the coordinates of Gideon's cruiser from a terminal inside the rhydonium refinery. Despite a delay caused by officer Valin Hess, they managed to escape the facility, eliminating the pursuing troopers. Mayfeld ultimately detonated the refinery to confront his past trauma. Upon returning to Slave I, Djarin, driven by his desperation to rescue the child, directly contacted Gideon on his cruiser, declaring that Gideon did not comprehend Grogu's significance to him and that he would soon reclaim the child. After the message was received, Kane advised Gideon to review it, before playing it on the table. Gideon listened as Djarin repeated the words Gideon himself had used on him a while ago when they first met.

To rescue Grogu, Din Djarin assembled a team that included himself, Fett, Shand, Dune, Reeves, and Kryze. Kryze and Reeves joined the mission because the former sought to reclaim the Darksaber from Gideon, while the others were indebted to Djarin due to their shared history. Initially, Djarin and his team captured a Lambda-class T-4a shuttle transporting Pershing, eliminating the pilots and delivering the scientist to the New Republic's Amnesty Program. Subsequently, they utilized the shuttle to infiltrate Gideon's cruiser, feigning an attack by Fett's gunship.

Once aboard, the team divided, with Bo-Katan and her forces searching for Gideon, while Djarin sought to rescue the child. Gideon appeared to have anticipated their arrival and awaited Djarin in Grogu's cell, stating that he no longer needed Grogu. As Djarin approached Grogu, Gideon attempted a surprise attack from behind, leading to a battle with the Mandalorian, who defended himself with his beskar spear. Despite Gideon's efforts, Djarin ultimately triumphed and escorted both Gideon and the Darksaber to the bridge. When Djarin attempted to transfer the Darksaber to Bo-Katan, she declined, and Gideon mocked them, stating that she had to defeat him in combat to rightfully claim it.

Suddenly, the dark troopers, who Djarin had ejected, activated their rocket boosters and flew back to Gideon's cruiser, making their way to the bridge. As Djarin had struggled against one trooper, Gideon was confident that everyone besides himself and Grogu would be killed and the infant would be back in his possession. As the droids pummeled through the blast doors, they suddenly stopped, much to everyone's confusion. An X-wing starfighter had landed on the cruiser and a hooded figure came out of the fighter. Gideon could only watch in horror as the man, the Jedi Luke Skywalker, who had been contacted by Grogu from the Tython temple made his way to the bridge, destroying the dark troopers with ease. Realizing his defeat, he seized a blaster from his distracted captors and attempted to shoot Bo-Katan, but her armor protected her.

However, it was enough to force her out of the way to give Gideon a clear shot at Grogu, only for Djarin to throw himself in front of the child, shielding him from Gideon. Gideon's other captors then trained their blasters on him, ordering him to surrender, so he tried to kill himself, but was disarmed and 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 Gideon's arrest, 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. He was scheduled to be transported to the tribunal by a Lambda-class T-4a shuttle.

Despite his arrest at the hands of the New Republic, Gideon never made it to his trial. Enroute to the tribunal his beskar-plated commandos attacked the shuttle whilst en route. The fight crew was killed and Gideon escaped New Republic custody as a result of the attack. News of this was hidden from the rest of the galaxy, however, rumors spread about Gideon's fate. Some including Carson Teva and Amnesty Officer G27 believed the rumors of his escape, whilst others inclduing Amnesty Officer M40 believed it to be a cover story to hide the possibility that he was hooked up to a Mind Flayer.

Gideon had actually hid from shadows from his base on Mandalore where he continued his cloning experiments, in which he successfully produced Force-sensitive clones for his army, and designed the Dark Trooper phase 4 armor, which he wore to battle himself. He also commanded a TIE/IN interceptor squadron and a TIE/sa bomber squadron. Elia Kane, who had also joined the New Republic Amnesty Program on Coruscant as a spy, routinely communicated with the Moff who was used as his contact with the outside world. He had also hired Pirate King Gorian Shard and his pirate gang to cause chaos in the outer rim without alerting the New Republic specifically in Nevarro's sector.

As Bo-Katan Kryze and Din Djarin were returning to Kryze Castle on Kalevala after a mission at the living Waters, Gideon dispatched several TIE interceptors and TIE bombers to destroy the castle, which resulted in it's destruction and Djarin and Kryze retreating. He then sent Elia Kane to erase Penn Pershing's memory as he was worried that his former scientist would reveal the secrets of his project to the wider galaxy. Kane succeeded in framing Pershing of being a criminal, whilst simultaneously working her way up through New Republic ranks. Later on he sent Shard and his pirates to lay siege to Nevarro out of spite for his forces being being driven off the planet. However, their efforts were stopped by Mandalorians led by Djarin and Kryze. The wreckage of Gideon's prison shuttle was then discovered by Carson Teva and Lieutenant Reed.

Elia Kane soon learned of the pirate defeat on Nevarro and urgently contacted Gideon. The Moff answered the call, before ordering his spy to not waste his time as he was expected to participate in a meeting with the Shadow Council. Kane informed Gideon of the pirates' defeat as well as the alliance between Kryze and Djarin. The warlord questioned the validity of the news, having previously heard of the rivalry between the different Mandalorian clans. Kane responded that it was the exact reason why she contacted him so urgently. Gideon assured her that he would deal with them, before ending the call and preparing for his meeting.

Gideon marched through the corridors, walking through the shield barriers and past his cloning laboratory, before finally arriving to his meeting with the Shadow Council. He remained silent as he listened to the other members discussion. Irked by Captain Gilad Pellaeon's zealous commitment to Grand Admiral Thrawn, Moff Gideon mockingly remarked on the Chiss commander's recurring absence and expressed doubt at his "imminent return". Pivoting from this point, he further stressed the need for new leadership, hinting at his own ambitions to take the reins. Commandant Brendol Hux instead suggested that Project Necromancer would solve that matter, before questioning Moff Gideon on Doctor Pershing's situation. The warlord denied using the scientist for his own experiments and changed the subject to the Mandalorian threat. Hux and Pellaeon agreed to grant Gideon extra resources as well as three Imperial Praetorian Guards to protect him for the upcoming battle. With his request granted, the Moff ended the meeting with a patriotic chant, joined in unison by his fellow warlords.

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, encountering Mandalorian survivors who also joined their side. As the Mandalorians made their way to the Great Forge, which was located near Gideon's base, the Moff dispatched several commandos to engage them. The commandos ambushed the Mandalorians, and Axe Woves left to return to the fleet and request reinforcements, and lured them to the blast doors 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 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 blast doors 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 Guards, who killed him. Meanwhile, Gideon sent his squad of TIE interceptors and bombers to wipe out the Mandalorian fleet. Woves evacuated all of the Mandalorians from the light cruiser while he alone stayed aboard to steer it into the Imperial base.

Eventually, Djarin escaped his captors with the help of Grogu, Gideon decided to take care of Djarin knowing that he would come straight to him in an attempt to take him out. In the process, Djarin and Grogu discovered his sensitive clones 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 Djarin with the aid of his suit and would have killed him had Kryze not interfered. Switching his attention to Kryze as she drew the Darksaber, he drew an electrostaff and they began to duel as Djarin rescued Grogu. In the process, Gideon crushed the Darksaber with his suit's augmented strength, breaking Kryze's hand in the process and taunting her that without their toys, Mandalorians were weak. As Djarin and Grogu arrived, Kryze declared Mandalorians were stronger together, and the three quickly overpowered him as Woves crashed the light cruiser into the base. In a last fit of rage, Gideon screamed before being disintegrated by the resulting inferno, while Grogu redirected the flames around him, Djarin and Kryze.

Sometime after the conflict on Mandalore, Carson Teva cited Gideon's battle as an example of how there had been coordination among the scattered and dwindling Imperial remnants during General Hera Syndulla's admonishing session at Coruscant for disobeying the orders of the New Republic Senate to ignore the attempts of Morgan Elsbeth's forces to bring Grand Admiral Thrawn from another galaxy. However, Senator Hamato Xiono dismissed Teva's intervention as not a proof that there was a greater conspiracy possing a threat immediately to the Republic, naively opining that Gideon had been a warlord acting on his own.

As a member of the Galactic Empire, Gideon was both intelligent and a formidable adversary, placing a high value on both knowledge and power. His primary objective was the capture of Grogu, a young member of Yoda's species. 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 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 Kryze 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 has no moral standards whatsoever.

Gideon lied and tried to trick Djarin before attacking him during the rescue of Grogu. During the Imperial Era, he had helped double cross Bo-Katan Kryze, tricking her into a surrender in order to massacre her people. While Gideon did see value in the Mandalorian culture, he regarded it as a thing of the past. He saw strengths in various cultures and hoped to combine their traits into new forms of warfare, culminating in his attempt to create a clone army. Gideon did demonstrate genuine concern for his cloned army, growing saddened and enraged at their deaths. Gideon was a human male. He had dark eyes, skin and black hair that was greying by the time of the New Republic Era. Before his arrest at Cara Dune's hands, Gideon sported a mustache, 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.

As an Imperial officer of high rank, Gideon wore an outfit similar to an Imperial uniform with dark-colored battle armor and a cape. It is clear that Gideon was a seasoned warrior and has participated in many battles. He wielded a blaster pistol and flew an Outland TIE fighter, and was also in possession of the Darksaber, which he used to duel Din Djarin until he was disarmed. He also used the weapon to escape his TIE fighter when it crashed on Nevarro.

Later on, he wore a full suit of armor which augmented his strength and was based on his third-generation Dark Troopers that were made of beskar. The armor's left vambrace was equipped with a rocket launcher and a whipcord launcher while the right vambrace was equipped with a blaster and a flamethrower. He wore a crowned Mandalorian-style helmet as well as a jetpack. He also wielded a collapsible electrostaff during his final fight against Kryze and Djarin.

Gideon's initial appearance was in Chapter 7 of The Mandalorian, a Disney+ television series from 2019 created by Jon Favreau and directed by Deborah Chow, which premiered on December 18, 2019. The character was first alluded to in Chapter 3: The Sin, broadcast on November 22, 2019. The role was played by Giancarlo Esposito.

Esposito, a long-time Star Wars enthusiast with a particular fascination for Darth Vader, expressed his excitement upon Favreau's invitation to join the show. Favreau then informed Esposito that he wrote the role of Gideon for him. After telling Esposito that all of the money would go into the Volume, Favreau explainied the show's story and technical aspects. Esposito explained to Favreau that his bottom line was that he wanted to work with people he liked. He loved the idea and his only request was to wear a cape, which Favreau agreed to. Strongly affected by Peter Cushing's performance as Grand Moff Wilhuff Tarkin as well, Esposito tried to do some research for the role.

Esposito believes that Gideon is genuinely motivated by a desire to establish order and security, ultimately ensuring the survival of the universe. He views Gideon as the galaxy's "top warden," responsible for preventing chaos and conflict. Talking to Star Wars Insider, Esposito said Gideon thinks of himself as the master of the universe around him. He also stated Gideon is willing to do anything to those around him on the belief that he is the best candidate for running the galaxy. Esposito compared Gideon and other villains he has played to heroes, believing they think of themselves as having missed their chance at becoming a hero and, thus, want to exert their presence in another way.

Brian Matyas, the character designer for the series, created Gideon's costume. Joseph Porro and Frank Ippolito, through Ippolito's company Thingergy Inc., were responsible for the costume's creation. Esposito felt powerful the first time he wore his costume. On Esposito's first day of shooting, he landed in a TIE fighter and was ushered into a standoff with around 300 stormtroopers. During filming, he thought about how Gideon does not need to do or say much to get what he wants because he believes that he will get it. Esposito said the scene helped him find the balance of who Gideon is. Esposito's portrayal of Gideon earned him a nomination for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series.

Upon seeing his stunt double during the filming of "Chapter 16: The Rescue," Esposito felt that the body type was too dissimilar for the fight scene between Gideon and Din Djarin. He then told Favreau that he would do the fight scene. He then worked with stunt double Lateef Crowder to prepare for the fight scene, which he thought went phenomenal. Esposito worked with different kinds of lightsaber props of varying sizes. During filming, he broke six lightsaber props, and after the fifth lightsaber broke, the prop master told him to be careful because there was only one more.