Warning: This article contains full spoilers for The Mandalorian: Season 2, Episode 6! Be sure to check out IGN’s review of “The Tragedy.”
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The Mandalorian is drawing closer to its Season 2 finale, and the big twists keep coming. Not only does “The Tragedy” pit Din Djarin against the tag-team combo of Boba Fett and Fennec Shand, it ends with poor Baby Yoda (or Grogu, as he’s now known) falling back into the Empire’s hands. Worse, this imprisonment shows us a darker side of Grogu, literally, as we learn The Child is capable of tapping into the Dark Side of the Force.
This is definitely a big deal for such a little character. Read on to learn what Baby Yoda’s Dark Side leanings tell us about his history and why “The Asset” is such a key part of Moff Gideon’s plans.
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Baby Yoda’s History With The Jedi
Only recently has The Mandalorian begun to shed light on Grogu’s 50-year history and his connection to the Jedi Order. As Ahsoka discovered in “The Jedi,” Grogu was a youngling at the Jedi Temple during the Clone Wars. While most of the younglings were slaughtered by Darth Vader and his troops, someone helped sneak Grogu out of the temple. We don’t know much else about the roughly 30 years that followed, other than that Grogu eked out a meager existence before being captured by the Empire and used as fodder for Moff Gideon’s Palpatine-cloning experiments.
However, “The Tragedy” offers more insight into Grogu’s true nature. We see him lash out with the Force and choke his two Stormtrooper captors, relying on a move used only by Dark Jedi like Darth Vader and Kylo Ren. Clearly, the Dark Side of the Force is strong with Baby Yoda, and that may explain his seemingly unique status among the Jedi. We’ve never seen Grogu in any other Clone Wars-era stories, and even Ahsoka seems surprised to learn of his existence. This suggests the Jedi did their best to hide him from the outside world. He’s clearly very powerful in the Force, given that he has the mind and body of a toddler yet can levitate massive objects and fight off adult attackers. But as Star Wars has so often shown, great power brings with it the potential for great darkness.
The Jedi may have feared Grogu’s potential for evil, especially if his existence was ever uncovered by someone like Count Dooku or Darth Sidious. That’s probably why he kept a low profile all those years, and that’s why his mysterious benefactor (Mace Windu? Yoda? Jocasta Nu?) helped him escape the Empire’s clutches during the Purge. But as Ahsoka hinted in “The Jedi,” life has been rough for Grogu ever since, and a harsh existence spent scrounging for food and being prodded in Imperial labs has probably done nothing to quell the darkness within.
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Grogu’s New Teacher
Din Djarin’s goal leading into the events of “The Tragedy” is simple – travel to Tython, bring Grogu to the ruins of a Jedi temple and help his buddy reach out through the Force to find a teacher. While the Empire’s sudden intervention complicates things quite a bit, Din and Grogu seem to have succeeded. Grogu appears to have been successful in reaching out and contacting someone. Whomever that mystery person is, we probably won’t learn their identity until the very end of the season, assuming that reveal isn’t being saved for Season 3.
Whatever the case, the series may be building toward the introduction of a character who’s better qualified to train Grogu than Ahsoka. This character would have to be comfortable tutoring a pupil with heavy Dark Side leanings. Ahsoka herself seems unwilling to shoulder that burden, as she’s clearly still haunted by the shame of what her master became. And Luke Skywalker seems unlikely, if only because fans might be less than willing to accept an actor other than Mark Hamill in that iconic role.
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There’s already some speculation online that Star Wars Rebels protagonist Ezra Bridger might be the teacher in question. The Mandalorian has already introduced several Rebels veterans and name-dropped Grand Admiral Thrawn, so why not bring Ezra into the fold, too? Given that his own Jedi training was fairly unorthodox, and that he’s shown an affinity for communing with other creatures through the Force, Ezra might be just the teacher Grogu needs.
However, it’s entirely likely this mystery teacher will be a brand new character. While The Mandalorian has shown us a number of familiar Star Wars faces, these characters only tend to hang around for an episode of two before parting ways with Din and venturing into whatever spinoff project Lucasfilm might have planned. If Grogu is going to have a teacher who becomes an ongoing part of the series, they’re probably more likely to be a new character without a lot of external baggage weighing them down. When and if Ezra returns, he’ll surely have problems of his own to deal with.
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Why the Empire Needs Baby Yoda
“The Siege” sheds some important light on what Moff Gideon is up to and why Grogu is so crucial to his plans. Gideon is trying (and currently failing) to create a new clone body for Emperor Palpatine. Dr. Pershing’s message to Gideon reveals that he and his fellow scientists haven’t cracked the secret of cloning bodies with high midichlorian counts. We even see a glimpse of what looks to be a discarded Snoke body in the Imperial facility – a failed prototype of what Palpatine will eventually use as a vessel to rule over the First Order.
Basically, even though Palpatine is clinging to life five years after his apparent death in Return of the Jedi, his minions haven’t figured out how to give him a clone body that can actually wield the Force. As we learned in the novelization of The Rise of Skywalker, this is actually the start of the origin story for Rey. Her father isn’t technically Palpatine’s son, but a clone with no Force abilities who escaped his “father’s” clutches.
Gideon needs The Child because he’s the only source of midichlorian-rich DNA the dying Empire still has. So far, none of Pershing’s experiments with Grogu have yielded the results they need. But Grogu’s flirtation with the Dark Side in “The Tragedy” may hold the key in that regard. Perhaps by torturing Grogu and pushing him deeper into Dark Side territory, Gideon can unlock the secret of creating Force-sensitive clones.
It’s probably safe to assume Team Mando will eventually rescue Grogu and Din will have that inevitable Beskar Spear vs. Darksaber duel with Gideon in the Season 2 finale. But even with the victory, Grogu’s recapture may be the pivotal moment where the key to Palpatine’s return is discovered and the Empire begins its transformation into the First Order. Din Djarin may well ride off into the sunset completely unaware he just set the wheels in motion for another Galactic Civil War. He’s kind of a goof like that.
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For more on the major developments in the world of The Mandalorian, find out why the series might be setting up a New Republic spinoff, what the new episode confirms about Boba Fett’s past and learn more about the history of the deadly Dark Troopers.
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Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter.
