#pershing au

🌟SO🌟

This is the AU from this post where Dr. Pershing and Mando end up as the unlikely duo traveling with the kid. It deviates almost entirely from Season 1 to be a new season itself, partly because I think that’s interesting and it opens up so many opportunities to explore the galaxy on that boots-on-the-ground level like we had with the first season, and partly because Pershing isn’t just a tagalong character, he feels he has as much if not more say in the kid’s future as Mando does. The whole dynamic of the show shifts a bit away from the Lone Wolf and Cub, like you said, but I think it’s fun to explore, especially with the chance to delve into more of the science side of things. Like can you imagine if the two of them end up at the lab on the other side of Nevarro at one point? Either Pershing is there to retrieve or destroy data, or the kid needs some kind of medical care they don’t have on hand. Him being more familiar with the research and history behind the kid, in addition to what he knows about Gideon, the remnant Imperials and Empire, and potentially anybody else who knew about the kid and had listings out for him. IG-11 said his commission was very clear, and that the target was to be terminated. That’s not what the Client told Mando.

What that also means is that we get a lot more of the Guild and other bounty hunters on their travels, meaning characters like IG or even Cara Dune or Toro or Fennec or Ran’s crew or Gor Koresh could end up as potential hunters on their trail at some point. Completely different dynamics for everybody across the board, and plot complications and different narrative avenues and rabbit trails that branch off and cascade from there. Total butterfly effect, potential canonical enemies ending up as his unlikely allies instead. Like who’s to say Pershing doesn’t know Morgan Elsbeth? What happens when Calodan ends up as their home port for supplies and repairs and information instead of Tatooine or Nevarro? What happens if Luke or Ahsoka find Elsbeth while they’re there 👀 👀 👀

AND. Mando potentially won’t know anything about the Jedi either. What happens if the Jedi on Calodan sees Grogu do something with the Force and believes it’s in the kid’s best interest for them to save him? What happens if Elsbeth sees him use the Force first?

There’s a lot that can happen, in just about any order too. Right now one of the crucial plot points happens towards a sort of mid-season finale where Pershing and Mando do end up breaking into a defunct Imperial lab and as Mando’s going through he ends up finding out exactly what kind of grisly and horrifying experiments the Empire is up to. He realizes Pershing has been keeping the extent of his involvement to himself (because Pershing is terrified of what Mando will do to him if he DOES find out), and in a fury he stalks back to Pershing and the kid, gun drawn and demanding the scientist hand the kid over, all previous trust broken and invalidated. Pershing is desperate now but Mando just sees him as any other Imperial and this time he’s serious when he says if he doesn’t hand him the kid, he will kill him.