This 'The Mandalorian' Fan Theory Explains How the Show Connects to 'The Rise of Skywalker'

From Esquire

At the end of The Mandalorian Episode One, our protagonist tracks down a bounty given to him by The Empire. All he knows about this bounty is that its a 50-year-old male or female. But, what he finds is an infant child of the same mysterious species as Yoda.

It seems, given this is a 50-year-old baby, and that Yoda was 900 when he died, that this species ages differently than humans. While we don't know much about this species, we do know that we've seen at least one other—Yaddle, a female member of Yoda's species who appeared on the Jedi Council in the prequel trilogy and vanished before Attack of the Clones.

But according to a new fan theory, this baby Yoda could have major implications for the rest of the series and connect to the conclusion of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. Reddit user themitchster300 figured out the exact timeline of this baby's birth:

So it is 50 years old, which would put its birth and around 40 bby somewhere. Now Yoda's species is obviously one of the bigger star wars mysteries, and there aren't that many around. There are 2 adult age Yoda species members that we know of at this time: Yoda, and Yaddle. Yaddle mysteriously vanished from the Jedi Council in between TPM and AotC. Could it be possible that she had a child, and wanted to leave the Jedi to take care of it? She is last seen on the Jedi Council in 32 BBY, and is gone by 22 BBY, but she could have left at any time in between those years.

That timing would certainly match up pretty closely to the events of the main series. Although, the Reddit user does note that there's about an eight year gap there that could easily be explained by Yaddle giving the child to someone else to keep safe.

The next question is, if this is Yaddle's child, what would The Empire want with it? This is where we can connect it to The Rise of Skywalker and Palpatine's main plan. Going into the final film of the Skywalker saga, we don't know how Darth Sidious is still alive. But could this baby Yoda be the answer? As another Reddit user writes:

The Yoda baby is being pursued because of its ability to live for centuries. The doctor we see when the bounty is collected is under direction from Palpatine (or his essence) to find out how the baby lives so long. That information is intended to be used to help Palpatine live for centuries.

This certainly fits nicely with most of Palpatine's story arc so far. We know that he murdered his master Darth Plagueis after learning from him the key to keep people from dying. If Palpatine is somehow alive in secret looking for a way to resurrect himself it would make sense that he would be interested in researching this rare Yoda species that stays alive for centuries.

There could even be another layer to it that I noted yesterday. Now, if this is the child of Yaddle (and possibly also Yoda, as some fans believe) it's very likely that it is a powerful Force user. We know that Force strength can be passed from parent to child, but we also know that the only two members of this species are powerful Force users. Now, obviously, a powerful Force user would be of great interest to the Emperor. He could want to raise it as his own new apprentice. Or, as many other fans think might be going on, he might want to use it for his own host body to stay alive until he can resurrect himself.

You Might Also Like