{"id":4359,"date":"2026-04-14T21:52:16","date_gmt":"2026-04-14T21:52:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.polygon.com\/2020\/11\/27\/21722336\/the-mandalorian-s2e5-baby-yoda-name-jedi-grogu-origin"},"modified":"2026-04-14T21:52:16","modified_gmt":"2026-04-14T21:52:16","slug":"the-mandalorian-chapter-13-gives-us-a-baby-yoda-origin-and-a-clear-look-at-the-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/the-mandalorian-chapter-13-gives-us-a-baby-yoda-origin-and-a-clear-look-at-the-future\/","title":{"rendered":"The Mandalorian Chapter 13 gives us a Baby Yoda origin \u2014 and a clear look at the future"},"content":{"rendered":"

There was no wasting time in The Mandalorian<\/em> chapter 13<\/a>. \u201cThe Jedi\u201d gets right to \u2026 the Jedi. <\/p>\n

But the teed-up reveal of a major Star Wars character wasn\u2019t the only bombshell awaiting Thanksgiving-dinner-comatosed fans: Season 2, episode 5 gave us the clearest look yet into the origins of Baby Yoda aka The Child aka Actually He Has a Real Name and If You Were One with the Force You\u2019d Know What It Was. And in what might be the most lore-heavy episode yet, director-producer Dave Filoni solidifies every part of the Star Wars canon, including his animated series The Clone Wars<\/em> and Rebels<\/em><\/a>, as essential to understanding the the current mainstream side of the franchise. <\/p>\n

[Ed. note:<\/strong> This post contains major spoiler for The Mandalorian<\/em> episode \u201cThe Jedi.\u201d] <\/p>\n

Chapter 13 finally whisks Din Djarin and The Child off to Corvus, where two episodes earlier, Bo-Katan (another Clone Wars <\/em>import<\/a>) instructed the Mandalorian to find the Jedi Ahsoka Tano<\/a>. And he does rather immediately! Rumors that Rosario Dawson<\/a> had been cast as the fan-favorite warrior broke over the summer, and many wondered how significant a role she\u2019d play whenever she turned up. A brief cameo? A glimpse from the shadows? Under the eye of Filoni, who had previously hinted at reviving the character in April<\/a> during the conclusion of The Clone Wars<\/em>, there was no holding back: The episode was an Ahsoka story through and through, as much as a milestone in Din\u2019s journey.<\/p>\n

Ahsoka has a lot to share with Mando and the The Mandalorian <\/em>audience \u2014 and share she does. When The Mandalorian arrives to Corvus, he\u2019s hired by the local overlord, an ex-Empire leader named Morgan Elsbeth, to hunt down Ahsoka, who is terrorizing her troops and chasing some coveted knowledge. When Din crosses paths with the Jedi in the woods of the planet, he quickly flips sides. (Morgan didn\u2019t win any favors by visibly torturing her Corvusians with electric shock pillories, another vestige of the animated canon.) With Ahsoka out of attack mode, Din introduces the Jedi to his Force-sensitive surrogate Child. That\u2019s when the midi-chlorians really start poppin\u2019. <\/p>\n

\"Rosario <\/picture> <\/span> <\/span> Image: Lucasfilm Ltd.<\/cite> <\/span> <\/figure>\n

Though The Child can\u2019t speak, Ahsoka communicates with the lil\u2019 stinker through the invisible channels of the Force, and we get his full backstory. The Yoda-looking being\u2019s name is Grogu, and he\u2019s old enough to have been raised in the Jedi Temple on Coruscant, Ahsoka learns through her telepathic connection. \u201cAt the end of the Clone Wars, someone took him from the temple. Then his memory becomes dark. He seemed lost. Alone.\u201d<\/p>\n

Din hopes Ahsoka will consider training Grogu in the ways of the Force. She declines. For those who aren\u2019t familiar with the deep conflict of the character, the reasons why aren\u2019t entirely clear. She simply tells The Mandalorian: \u201cHis attachment to you makes him vulnerable to his fears. His anger […] I\u2019ve seen what such feelings can do to a fully trained Jedi knight. To the best of us.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Ahsoka <\/picture> <\/span> <\/span> Image: Lucasfilm Ltd.<\/cite> <\/span> <\/figure>\n

In the early days of The Clone Wars<\/em>, Ahsoka was apprentice to none other than Anakin Skywalker. A loss of faith in the rigid Jedi ways saw her cut ties with the Order, but wherever life took her, she maintained an allegiance to Anakin. Even after Darth Sidious initiated Order 66, and news of the eradication of Jedi reached her hears, she couldn\u2019t believe her former master was one of hands working to dismantle peace in the galaxy. But in the final episodes of The Clone Wars<\/em>, the truth became clear, and Ahsoka went into hiding. The final scene of Filoni\u2019s animated series<\/a>, which aired this past May, brought all the tragedy to a head, and connected emotional dots between Ahsoka\u2019s eventual face off with the one and only Darth Vader. Though The Mandalorian <\/em>takes place many years after her revelations, and also after she came and went from the timeline of Star Wars: Rebels<\/em>, Ahsoka harbors the trauma of Anakin\u2019s fall to the dark side. The scene works whether you know the backstory or not, but for those who\u2019ve followed Filoni\u2019s expanded universe storytelling over the years, it\u2019s a chilling payoff.<\/p>\n

After dropping the Baby-Yoda\u2019s-Real-Name bombshell, Ahsoka continues to carve out the Star Wars universe as it pertains to the bounce back of the Empire. Morgan Elsbeth, her adversary on Corvus, has information on Imperial bigwigs that she\u2019s ready to kill to obtain. One assumes Morgan has ties to Moff Gideon, who we learned last week has a battalion of super soldiers<\/a> ready to deploy on The Mandalorian\u2019s ass (not to mention the coveted Darksaber<\/a>). <\/p>\n

But anyone who knows Ahsoka from Star Wars: Rebels<\/em> understands the one quest she\u2019s truly relentless about: the location of her former Jedi-in-the-making pal Ezra Bridger. At the end of Filoni\u2019s second animated series, Ezra, in a heroic moment, sends an enemy ship zipping off into the unknown of hyperspace \u2014 which also sends him<\/em> into the unknown of hyperspace. A series coda finds Ahsoka working with Sabrine Wren, a true Mandalorian like Bo-Katan, teaming up to locate their friend.<\/p>\n

When we pick up with Ahsoka, she\u2019s still looking for Ezra. And we know it because, after a vicious two-sabers-vs-Beskar<\/a>-spear battle with Morgan, the Jedi holds her glowing white blade to her opponent\u2019s neck and demands to know the location of her boss. And it\u2019s not Moff Gideon. The name that comes out of her mouth sent every Star Wars EU fan\u2019s jaw to the floor: \u201cWhere is Grand Admiral Thrawn<\/em>?\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

Thrawn. Thrawn! Created by acclaimed Star Wars novelist Timothy Zahn in the pages of 1991\u2019s Heir to the Empire<\/em>, Thrawn is a blue Chiss war strategist and quite possibly the most beloved villain to never hit the live-action screen<\/a>. Though decanonized after Disney bought Lucasfilm and retired all of the pre-Force Awakens<\/em> EU, Filoni brought Thrawn back to become the ultimate adversary in Star Wars: Rebels<\/em>. The Admiral was on board the ship that Ezra sent flying off, and assumed dead. Clearly that\u2019s not the case, and Ahsoka hopes to track him down in order to locate Ezra \u2014 and hopefully cut off any chance of an Empire revival.<\/p>\n

The Mandalorian<\/em> season 2, episode 4 added more fuel to the fire that the Empire was hunting \u201cBaby Yoda\u201d for his blood<\/a>, either as the basis for a new cloning operation \u2014 teased by the return of the Kamino uniform from Attack of the Clones<\/em><\/a> \u2014 or something even more nefarious. We know thanks to Rise of Skywalker<\/em> that the Empire\/Palpatine was behind the creation of the Force-powerful Snoke<\/a>, but we don\u2019t really know how it was all possible. The Mandalorian<\/em> is positioned to answer those not-that-pressing questions. The fact that Grogu has ties to the prequel-era movies and Clone Wars<\/em> shenanigans only makes him more of a target for the Empire\u2019s old practices. Is he an actual clone of Yoda born from that era? Is he Yoda\u2019s kid (a hint of \u201cYoda\u2019s Theme\u201d in the soundtrack makes the head-gears turn)? Who ushered him off Coruscant? Maybe the upcoming Obi-Wan-centric Disney Plus series<\/a> will fill in some blanks…<\/p>\n