The Mandalorian: Is Baby Yoda Turning To The Dark Side?
Is The Child destined to go dark?
One of the greatest joys of watching The Mandalorian is seeing The Child turn up on screen and brighten up your day. With his big cute eyes and innocent appearance, he really is a sight to behold, and it's fair to say fans would be crushed if anything bad were to happen to him.
But there is a problem with Baby Yoda (as audiences call him), and it's the fact that he may be hiding some darkness under his adorable demeanor.
Take, for example, the gleeful expression on his face whenever Mando engages in violence, or the more recent season two outing, "The Passenger", in which he's seen eating the Frog Lady's eggs despite being told not to by his protector.
This can be seen as The Child being nothing more than, y'know, a child, but his earlier behaviour in season one's "The Reckoning" is much harder to justify. The scene in question comes when Mando is arm wrestling with bounty hunter and ally Cara Dune. Baby Yoda can be seen watching the pair test their strength, only to raise his cute little hand and begin to strangle Cara through the Force.
The Force choke, throughout the entirety of the Star Wars franchise, has been a favoured tactic of the Sith, particularly Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader, who uses the hold on his own wife and anyone in his employ who fails him. There are a few other explanations for the little guy's actions, since it could be that he was just wanting to protect Mando, but it could be a lot more sinister than that.
Audiences still aren't fully aware of where Baby Yoda came from and what the first 50 years of his life looked like, so it could well be that under his unassuming facade he's a Sith Lord waiting to break out, whose past has already set him on a dangerous and dark path.
With season two just starting to get into the swing of things, we'll have to wait and see if this comes to anything or is given more of an in-depth look. Until then, we should all cross our fingers and hope that The Child is just as pure as he looks.