If you are a fan of The Mandalorian or just a Star Wars fan then you know how important a character like Penn Pershing is to the over all story. Pershing is a, or make that the Clone Engineer who wants to study Grogu. Working for Moff Gideon, Pershing injected Grogu’s blood into volunteers who then died as a result.
Dr. Penn Pershing is a scientist first and foremost. He simply wanted to study Grogu, but Moff Gideon wanted much more. Remember, this is leading up to how Emperor Palpatine was able to come back by using a clone body while the entity of Palpatine enter the clone.
With all things Star Wars Pershing’s motives are fine, he wanted to clone people due to his mother passing away. The Dr. would be recruited by the Galactic Empire or the remnant of the Empire.
Pershing seems conflicted with what Moff Gideon’s motives are as he simple wants to clone people so they can live on. But the Empire inflicts strong holds over subjects when they want/need something. Gideon is trying to bring Palpatine back so that the Galactic Empire can rise again.
What if Pershing was not fully onboard with what was being asked of his work, created a counter plan that would end Gideon’s plans before they could gain traction? What if Pershing created The Bad Batch as means to destroy Gideon’s work?
Think back to Season 2 of The Bad Batch, when Dr. Emerie Karr who had the same uniform patch as Pershing helped Crosshair and his medical needs. While The Mandalorian and The Bad Batch are set at different points, they connect.
Dave Filoni, Kathleen Kennedy (President, Lucasfilm)
Pershing would give Gideon what was being asked of him, then The Bad Batch would take out Gideon before his plan could be executed. This would make Pershing a strong character in the Star Wars universe.
The sequel trilogy showed that Palpatine was indeed cloned so yes it did happen, but to have a counted contingency plan that would hinder Palpatine’s contingency plan would be great story telling.
