The Star Wars sequel trilogy showed a galaxy still dealing with the impact the Galactic Empire had on it. The various Disney+ projects reveal a galaxy still very much at war, dealing with Imperial remnants. This is all because of the former leader of the Empire, Emperor Palpatine. He was a strategic genius who had a plan for most events. He knew how to rise to power in the prequel trilogy, how to hold onto his power in the original trilogy, and how to regain power in the sequel trilogy. While the galaxy will always remember Order 66 as the single most devastating act the Emperor initiated, there is another that could have been significantly worse.

Operation: Cinder was the Emperor's way of telling the galaxy that he was a sore loser. It was Palpatine's contingency plan in case his other plans failed, or his Empire failed him. Of course, the Empire did eventually fail, with the Rebel Alliance overtaking them at the Battle of Endor. Unfortunately for the Rebels, the Empire, and everyone in between, the Emperor falling to his death was not the last they were going to hear from him.

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What Is Operation: Cinder?

Emperor Palpatine was a man who always needed to come out on top. He needed to obliterate his enemies at any cost, even if that included destroying entire planets. That much is evident with the Death Star's creation. To say that Sheev Palpatine didn't think of everything would be false, because he had plans in place even in the event of his unexpected death.

Weeks after Darth Vader tossed his master into the core of the second Death Star, messenger droids were deployed to pre-selected Imperial Officers from the former leader of the Galactic Empire. The messenger droids delivered the directive for Operation: Cinder, which saw the deployment of a network of satellites in the orbit of numerous planets. The satellites created massive planet-wide electrical storms that ultimately destroyed entire planets. Any ships attempting to flee the targeted planets were shot down or destroyed in the electrical storm.

Operation: Cinder targeted planets such as Burnin Konn, Candovant, Commenor, Narcronis, Abednedo, Vardos, and even Naboo. These weren't all planets that hoped for victory over the Empire. Vardos, for example, had a reputation for its loyalty to the Emperor and the Empire. But in the Emperor's message to his Imperial officers, Palpatine said:

Operation: Cinder in The Mandalorian

Eagle-eyed The Mandalorian fans undoubtedly caught Operation: Cinder as the topic of conversation in Chapter 15, "The Believer." When Din Djarin enlisted the help of the criminal Mayfeld to go undercover in order to infiltrate an Imperial base, General Valin Hess approached the two, sparking a conversation about Operation: Cinder. This would be the first mention of the operation in a live-action project.

Valin Hess carried out Operation: Cinder on the planet Burnin Konn, and Mayfeld was a part of it. In fact, Mayfeld served in Hess's division. When Djarin and Mayfeld entered the officer's mess during their infiltration, Mayfeld caught sight of Hess, and he immediately turned around in hopes of avoiding the Imperial General. Hess sacrificed his own division in the name of Operation: Cinder, wiping out an entire city on Burnin Konn. Mayfeld understandably held ill feelings toward the general. The General's actions during Operation: Cinder disillusioned Mayfeld, prompting him to leave the Empire's service.

General Hess saw Operation: Cinder as a necessary evil, and believed it was for the "greater good." He said as much to Din Djarin and Mayfeld during the episode of The Mandalorian:

Mayfeld couldn't control his rage any further. He had watched the people he fought with die thanks to orders from the top of the chain of command. Then he had to sit there and watch his own superior claim that those deaths were necessary. General Hess might have survived the destruction of Burnin Konn, but Mayfeld was going to make sure he didn't survive his hollow toast to their fallen brethren.

Where to See the Effects of Operation: Cinder

Before Mayfeld expressed his disgust for Operation: Cinder and General Hess with the business end of his blaster, the catastrophic events appeared in other Star Wars projects. Operation: Cinder's first appearance came in the comic book series Star Wars: Shattered Empire by Greg Rucka and Marco Checchetto, which showed various events that eventually lead to The Force Awakens. The four-issue miniseries mentions the attack on Vardos, but shows Leia Organa's defense against the operation on Naboo.

Battlefront II players got the opportunity to experience the events on and around Naboo during Operation: Cinder. Gamers first got to play as Iden Versio, a former Tie Fighter pilot for the Empire who defected to the Rebellion after witnessing the events on Vardos. After supporting the Rebel Alliance in the air where she and a fleet of other Rebel pilots successfully destroyed the satellites, players joined the the Battle of Theed as Leia on the planet's surface. Alexander Freed's Alphabet Sqaudron trilogy of novels dives into the long lasting trauma of Operation: Cinder, showing how it affected people on both sides of the war.

Palpatine was a man with a plan, and if he couldn't hold onto the galaxy, nobody was going to. Of course, while Operation: Cinder took place and the galaxy reeled from the Empire's oppression, Palpatine activated another plan. This plot called the bulk of the Imperial's military to Exegol in the Unknown Regions to not only rebuild, but to create a perfect clone of Palpatine, allowing the Sith lord to return to power.

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