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Is Baby Yoda an important part of The Mandalorian or just there to sell Star Wars toys?


Is Baby Yoda really necessary? (Picture: Disney)

The Mandalorian was a first for the Star Wars Universe as its first-ever foray into live-action TV.

And from the end of the very first episode people were hooked – not just on the story but one (very cute) character in particular – Baby Yoda.

The little green meme machine broke the internet; whether by sipping on a cup of steaming hot tea (well, soup) or when celebs like Elisabeth Moss thanked him for ‘uniting society.’

But there’s a dichotomy at the heart of Baby Yoda. He’s cute. So cute. Perhaps a bit…too cute? So questions now have to be asked whether his place in the story of The Mandalorian really is all that integral – or whether Disney just wanted an excuse to sell loads of cute Star Wars toys at Christmas?

First, a bit of context on the galaxy’s cutest creation. In the first episode of The Mandalorian the titular bounty hunter (played by Game of Thrones star Pedro Pascal) is employed by a figure known only as The Client (Werner Herzog) who pays the assassin to acquire ‘The Asset,’ which is of great importance to him. This asset, in the episode’s closing moments, is revealed to be Baby Yoda. 

In narrative terms, Baby Yoda does play an important role. The Mandalorian is an old-fashioned Western set in space, so we can read the main character himself as the atypical grizzled old gun-for-hire whose starting to wish for a quieter life. 

A classic trope in the Western genre is to give our anti-hero something to care for and look after, ensuring his redemption. The best example of this is probably True Grit, where gunslinger Cogburn (played famously by both John Wayne and Jeff Bridges) is hired by a young girl (in the remake, Hailee Steinfeld) to find her father’s killer. 

Sip, sip (Picture: Disney+)

Do you see where I’m going with this? Baby Yoda is basically Hailee Steinfeld. He’s the Mandalorian’s salvation. In a pivotal scene early in the series, the bounty hunter steals Baby Yoda back from The Client and spends the rest of the series trying to keep him from the evil grip of the Empire. 

But the question still remains – why does it have to be a baby Yoda in particular that the Mandalorian is saddled with? The writers could have chosen anyone, any thing (this is sci-fi after all) to accompany the Mandalorian on his journey, so why did they have to choose something so cute?

For the answer to this, we have to travel back to the early 1980s when George Lucas was in the middle of pre-production for the final film in the original Star Wars trilogy, Return of the Jedi.

Lucas, concerned more than ever about the franchise’s lucrative merchandise, rejected several plot points – such as killing Han Solo off per Harrison Ford’s request and ending the film with Luke Skywalker walking off alone – fearing they would impact on sales of Star Wars toys.

He also created the Ewoks – you know, those cute and cuddly tiny bears that live on the moon of Endor – which critics have said was done with the specific intention to appeal to children, aka the largest buyers of toys.

So, Star Wars itself has set a precedent for this and there’s no denying that the boys over at Disney know what they’re doing with Baby Yoda. Even now – before the season of the show has even finished airing – there are already pre-order lists going up for licensed Baby Yoda toys made by games giant Hasbro. 

Small but mighty (Picture: Disney Plus/Jon Favreau)

And just look at him. Look at that little, green face. It’s almost entrancing, how cute Baby Yoda is, you wouldn’t think twice about spending £20 on a fluffy toy of him, would you? Me neither!

But therein lies the magic of Baby Yoda, the dichotomy I mentioned earlier. He works on multiple levels, even if you don’t realise it. He is, obviously, a massive cash cow for Disney. This, I believe, is the main reason for his existence, I won’t deny it. I accept it. But when you interrogate The Mandalorian and its genre influences, you can also appreciate that as a character, Baby Yoda serves a big purpose, both physically in driving the plot ahead and allegorically, typing The Mandalorian into the Westerns of old.

And look, I get it. I get it. Franchises like Star Wars need to thrive off their youngest fans – the sales of toys, video games and other merchandise fuels more money into the creation of projects like the Mandalorian. It would also be very easy to hate Baby Yoda – of course it would. He’s the face of multi-corporate, capitalist greed, a figure whose only meaning for existence is to take your hard-earned money from your pocket. You pay for a Disney+ subscription to see Baby Yoda, then go out and buy a Baby Yoda toy. Rinse and repeat, ad infinitum.

But at the same time, he can kill bad guys with the Force (which means he’s definitely not a clone, by the way) and sips a cup of soup better than you. He may actually be too cute to resist.  It would take a braver man than me to attempt to.

So in that case, may the Force be with us all.

The Mandalorian is available to stream now on Disney+. Disney+ comes to the UK in 2020.



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