My sentiments line up pretty well with Idir and NFB. This was a really solid episode, and I liked how they developed Mayfield a lot. His little in-universe rants were great, and I loved the back-and-forth with the Imperial officer. Hearing Bill Burr mention Operation Cinder and Burnin Konn were such deep cuts. But not only served as little easter eggs, but these conversations developed Mayfield’s character, as well as painting a picture of the Imperial philosophy. I loved the officers line about, “People think they want freedom, but what they really want is order.” We see Imperial/First Order characters almost touch on this, but never really do. I understand wanting to keep things simple, but I think they would be so much more interesting as antagonists if we could see these characters justify their loyalty to an authoritarian regime.
Also, Din choosing to take off his mask to do what is necessary to save Grogu was a great character moment, and tied in well to his almost one-sided conversation with Mayfield. Mayfield kept picking on Din about wearing the mask and the armor, but by the end of the episode you could tell he respected Din for what he did.
It’s funny how I really didn’t care for the idea of Operation Cinder, but it is interesting how it has become an interesting story element to the post-Empire era. With characters like Mayfield and Iden Versio, we can see how some Imperials couldn’t handle the almost self-destructive orders of Cinder, but that clearly was the point. In a way, the Remnant was able to weed out the least loyal, and those that remained were near zealous to their loyalty to the Empire (almost like a sunken-cost fallacy, how could they justify their crimes if they accepted what the Empire was doing was wrong). And this leads right in to factions like the First and Final Order, who clearly are basically Imperial extremists.
At the same time, it was cool to see the Empire have a heroic moment, when they saved Din and Mayfield from the pirates, the stormtroopers cheering their return, and the officer wanting to get a drink with them. It almost makes me wish we could’ve seen the First Order and Resistance team up to take out the Sith Eternal.