The Mandalorian Season 2: 10 Best Moments
7. The Dark Trooper Assault - Chapter 16
The human side of antagonism in Star Wars has always moved towards mediocrity, rather than a genuine threat. While the big villains of the series have always been impressive, the henchmen (or henchdroids?) that they employ have never quite gotten the job done. Therefore, the introduction of the Dark Troopers - who possess all the qualities of a Stormtrooper, without the human drawbacks - was welcomed with enthusiasm.
The show did an amazing job of building these machines up, as we had seen them a few times before their proper debut and they'd already intimidated the audience and stolen Grogu. Thus the build-up to seeing them in action was powerful, and the episode's first encounter with one proved that even a single Dark Trooper could cause massive destruction.
When the squadron was finally released and began to assault the blast shields holding our heroes in safety, the tension was utterly palpable. Seeing the incredibly well-designed Troopers slowly bashing the doors in was all the excitement needed to make them a threat.
Keeping the Troopers mostly out of action made them even more intimidating, as we never truly got to see what a whole collection of the mechanical monsters could do.