SPAWNING FROM THE MIND OF JON FAVREAU

as a spiritual successor to Master Yoda after his death in The Empire Strikes Back, Grogu is the heart and soul of The Mandalorian. He is the emotional anchor to which fans can latch Comma after on given the unemotive nature of the show’s titular character. Inspired by George Lucas’ love for old samurai movies, Favreau decided to utilize elements and themes from Kenji Misumi’s adaptation of the manga Lone Wolf and Cub. The story follows a samurai who travels Japan with his young son and teaches him how to be an honorable warrior.

From the first moment he appeared in The Mandalorian, Grogu captured the hearts of many Star Wars fans. They saw him as either the cutest creature ever or the next version of the respected Master Yoda. While it’ll definitely take some time for him to reach Master status, unlike

Anakin Skywalker who will never be a Master, Grogu has a chance to be the herald of a new era for the Jedi. For the little while that viewers have known him, Grogu has managed to become an almost universally accepted part The big questions are know about him? Where did he come from? How did he survive Order 66? Will he survive the rise of Kylo Ren and The First Order?

The answer to most of these questions: We’re unsure.

In canon, we don’t have a lot of information on Grogu because he’s only been in episodes of The Mandalorian and hasn’t had his personal history expanded on in comics, books or movies yet. Grogu is a mystery much like Yoda and Yaddle before him. No one knows their race or what planet they originate from, but with every appearance they are shown in high or prominent positions. One can assume that they have a particular affinity for force sensitivity.

Until George Lucas, John Favreau or Dave Filoni outline exactly where they come from, it’s a certainty that that aspect of their backgrounds will remain a mystery. So, the most we have to go on is what we’ve seen in the show, but even that is still more than enough to inform viewers who Grogu is.

Making use of similar puppet technology that made Yoda feel so lifelike, Grogu manages to be one of the most expressive animatronics that viewers have seen in Star Wars in years. For the few scenes that actually do make use of CGI, the animators and puppeteers collaborate to make sure the movements of the computer generated model are doable by the puppet as well. This maintains a sense of motion and continuity between both, keeping the heart and artistry of both in line with each other.

When we’re first introduced to him, he serves primarily as this adorable child Din Djarin has to deliver for some credits. Soon enough, Din realizes a sort of kinship with Grogu as both of them are the last vestiges of a people who’ve been slaughtered by the Empire. Din was a foundling rescued by the Mandalorians, and he sees that he can do for the

Child what was done for him. Maybe it won’t be a glamorous life, maybe it will have its dangers, but no one deserves to be a guinea pig experimented on by the Empire and their scientists. While Grogu himself cannot speak, we see him get closer and closer to Mando through his babbles and big eyes, eventually saving Din’s life like he saved Grogu’s.

As the show continues, we get a few ideas as to what happened to Grogu when Order 66 was executed. We don’t actually learn his name until Chapter 13 of Season 2, peeling back another layer to the mystery of the Childand allowing Din to get closer to him. It’s around this time that Din and Grogu seek out ways to improve Grogu’s control over the force, pulling the Child in different directions: his affection for his new father figure and his duty to help protect the galaxy as part of a new Jedi Order. Grogu meets Ahsoka Tano who helps him improve his powers a little before enlisting the help of Jedi Master, Luke Skywalker, in an amazing finale of the second season. Viewers are left distraught as Din lets go of his foundling and lets him embrace a destiny that could see a new dawn in the galaxy. In The Book of Boba Fett, we learn that

Grogu trained with Luke for a period of about two years before hopping off to his next adventure with Din once the opportunity arrived. Due to potentially more seasons of The Mandalorian being greenlit and, therefore, more chances for Grogu to forever turn away from the Jedi Order, we have no way of knowing whether or not he was amongst those killed by Kylo Ren when he turned to the Dark Side or whether he eventually donned a T-Shaped helmet himself during that time period.

All of this brings us to Season 3, the most recent season of The Mandalorian. We get an account of how Grogu managed to escape from the Jedi Temple on Coruscant when the order was given to the stormtroopers. All of the mystery and guilt surrounding his backstory comes to fruition for the audience as we learn that Grogu managed to escape after the sacrifice of many of his Jedi instructors, and that that guilt was the reason he couldn’t get a great handle on his abilities in the second season. It makes a ton of sense because strong emotions have always been the downfall of so many Jedi over the course of their history, and it’s a sad moment as we learn what’s been weighing so heavily on Grogu’s mind.

He never found himself strong enough to defend those closest to him and confronting those memories makes his control over the Force stronger, as we see when he meditates with The Armorer at her forge. He had already been given a set of beskar chainmail for rescuing Din once before and received a large plate of armor after helping to save him again, showing that he has the heart and bravery to protect those in his family.

At the moment, that’s where Grogu’s story ends, barring any potential spoilers for the rest of the season. As a character, Grogu is someone that fans could possibly see themselves growing with, though given how slow his race ages, it could be quite some time before we see any substantial changes in his attitude or stature. There’s a lot of room for the character to grow as the story of Star Wars never quite ends. There’s a bevy of potential avenues for things to continue, whether it be a time skip or a multi-issue comic book series releasing later this year. We will definitely have more Grogu, but the question is, to what degree?

It’s fairly reasonable to think that after Season 3 of The Mandalorian, the character has had a complete arc from where he started. Of course, when looking back at characters like Yoda and Yaddle, one does have to ask, can Grogu attain the same level of wisdom and power that they have, and how would he when he’s still so early in his years, barely able to hold a lightsaber if he wanted to? I would say, through more teachings by The Armorer and with Bo-Katan and the other Mandalorians as his new family, Grogu has the same chance that he had with the Jedi Order of becoming a prominent uniting figure in the galaxy. Where Bo-Katan bridged the gap between the various factions of Mandalorians, Grogu can do the same in regards to helping the warriors of Mandalore find common ground with their most hated enemies, The Jedi. Luke Skywalker himself holds no ill-will towards the Mandalorians as a people. The only one he may have a problem with is Boba Fett, but he’s having his own adventures on Tatooine. Skywalker allowed Grogu to walk away from Jedi training despite knowing just how powerful someone like Grogu could be in his later years. That is likely because he knows that walking both paths will give the child a sense of clarity and balance that no Jedi, aside from Tarre Vizsla, has accomplished until now.

BY REBECA NISHI