It's been a few days since that explosive season finale of The Mandalorian, which means you've had plenty of time to wipe your tears and answer the kneejerk questions: how does the return of a superpowered Luke Skywalker affect the future of not only The Mandalorian, but the billion-some Star Wars TV shows Disney has planned?Why did R2-D2 freak out at the sight of Baby Yoda? What will the next season of The Mandalorian even look like at this point?
Unfortunately, friends, we've gathered here today to ask a much darker question – but one that has to be asked. Some context first: in The Mandalorian season finale's closing moments, Luke Skywalker becomes Baby Yoda's brand-new legal guardian. (AKA: takes him in so that he can teach the kid the ways of the Force.) Which seems like great news – we know that Skywalker, a few years removed from the events of The Return of the Jedi, is looking to take in students and rebuild the Jedi Order. But it might actually turn out to be bad news. Throw it back to the Star Wars sequel trilogy, where Skywalker tells Rey that he ended up building a new Jedi temple, which Kylo Ren/Ben Solo promptly blew up in a Dark-sided fit, killing all of the students inside.
Which begs the question: was Baby Yoda in the temple during that tragedy?
In a new video breakdown from New Rockstars, host Erik Voss sorts through the ins and outs of Star Wars lore to figure out how likely it is that Kylo Ren killed Baby Yoda during his temper tantrum. In the 10-minute-long video, Voss breaks down the Star Wars timeline, a comic book tie-in, The Rise of Kylo Ren, and even information from the Battlefront video games to answer the question.Just to save you from further anxiety: Voss concludes that it's fairly unlikely. (Seriously: Disney would traumatise a generation of children and their Baby Yoda plushies if this ever happened.)
Watch the full video if you want to ease your fears, but here's the main bit of evidence. We know that in The Mandalorian, Baby Yoda is a young 50 years old. And in Star Wars lore, Yoda (like, OG Yoda) became a Jedi master by 100 years old. Ben Solo destroys Skywalker's temple in 28 ABY – The Mandalorian goes down in 9 ABY – putting Baby Yoda well on his way to the moment OG Yoda reached peak powers. All of the math is just to say: When Solo burns the temple, Skywalker should've helped Baby Yoda max out his Jedi powers by then. Seeing as we already saw Baby Yoda shoo away flames in Season One of The Mandalorian, you think he would've fallen in the temple that day? And that's just assuming that Baby Yoda hadn't already graduated from the Luke Skywalker Jedi School by then.
So rest easy, everyone: As long as the plushies keep flying off the shelves at the Disney store, Baby Yoda is in good hands, now and forever.
