Who or What IS [SPOILER!] In The Mandalorian?

Fair warning, friends, if you don’t want to be spoiled on the big twist in the final minute of the first episode of The Mandalorian, don’t read on. Seriously. The entire first chapter of the newest Star Wars story is dedicated to the titular Madalorian bouny hunter going after a mysterious quarry that he only know the age and location of and in the final minutes it’s revealed to be…

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(last chance to avoid spoilers)

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A tiny Yoda????

Well, maybe it’s Yoda? We don’t know. This little green thing looks like the last, great Jedi Master, but we honestly don’t know anything about it other than it’s really cute, it’s referred to in interviews and credits as “The Being,” and it hints at some major myth reveals in the Star Wars universe that possibly have implications for Rise of Skywalker. Let’s discuss.

Don’t know who it is but damn is it cute

So this little guy – who I’m going to call Yoddle – is obviously of Yoda’s race. That’s a big deal in Star Wars because where Yoda is from, and what race he is one of the few remaining mysteries in the galaxy far far away. We say “Yoda’s race” because that’s the only information we have, George Lucas maintained a policy of not revealing Yoda’s race or home planet for decades, even while making up complex stories and origins for literally any minor character that appeared on screen. So the fact we have a member of this species in The Mandalorian is huge.

Though Lucas wanted Yoda to stay mysterious, we know he isn’t the only one of his kind because this isn’t the first time we’ve seen another member of Yoda’s species on screen. As the green one might say: “There is another” and her name is Yaddle. Yaddle appeared briefly onscreen as a member of the Jedi counsel in The Phantom Menace but didn’t speak or do anything. That was sort of a shame because she has a pretty insane backstory, mainly from the Star Wars comics, involving years of captivity living off the energy of The Force and earning the badass moniker “The One Below.”

Yaddle in The Phantom Menace.

But Yaddle disappeared from council before Attack of the Clones and never spoke on screen. I think it’s unlikely that the baby who will probably win the cold heart of the Mandalorian is some version of Yaddle rather than Yoda, but it’s something to keep in mind because the presence of Yoda and Yaddle on the council implies that this race might have an affinity for The Force and thus our little Yoddle is potentially very powerful. It’s also potentially something else: A clone.

The one thing we know about the being that The Mando is sent to retrieve is that they are fifty years old. That precludes this from being a reborn Yoda, since The Mandalorian is set right after the events of Return of the Jedi where Yoda died rather than continue having an awkward conversation with Luke Skywalker. But what was happening in the old republic around fifty years ago? A whole lotta cloning.

This is why “clone” is my go-to theory right now. The timing works, there was a mysterious doctor/scientist hanging around with Werner Herzog’s Client and it will feed into some of the themes that I think the The Mandalorian will explore: identity, adoption, and destiny. All of those are common Star Wars themes, but it goes further than that.

The most famous Mandalorian in Star Wars canon is, of course, one Boba Fett, but Boba isn’t technically a Mandalorian: he’s a clone of a Mandalorian: Jango Fett. So were all the Imperial Storm Troopers for a long time. The true Mandalorians never remove their helmets, because their helmet and armor (as was hinted at in the show) is their second skin, and that united them as a race in diaspora. There’s an adopted sameness to them, and it’s mirrored and distorted by the Storm Troopers. Even Boba Fett’s beat up armor in comparison to the shiny, meaningful pieces worn by our Mandalorian hint at this.

I don’t know how much those origins and similarities will be explored by The Mandolorian but adding in a clone of one of the most unique figures in Star Wars lore would be a brilliant way to expand on ideas of personhood, individuality and duty to a people. It also plays into some great Western and Noir tropes (of which there are so many in this series already) of the tough, loner guy having to take care of a vulnerable, pure thing. And if little Yoddle is tied up in the cloning that the Mandalorians have also been linked too? All the better for a bond.

Another point in the clone column: The Rise of Skywalker and the persistent theory that Rey is a clone or genetically modified being in some way related to Palpatine. If we have a Yoda clone out there predisposed to the light it could exist to balance one who was created predisposed to the dark. As Freddie Prize Jr. reminded us, in a glorious rant inspired by Clone Wars mastermind and Mandalorian director and co-runner, Dave Filloni–the force is all about balance.

We will know more about Yoddle the Minty Moses soon, but the timing of the finale of the Mandalorian right around the release of The Rise of Skywalker gives us lots of reason to suspect something about Rey and that film could be revealed over on the Disney+ platform, much like elements from Agents of SHIELD fed into other Marvel films.

Whatever the answer to this adorable green mystery, it’s certainly got us thinking and excited to see what comes next.

(Images: Disney)

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