*There be spoilers ahead.*
Ah yes, the timeless story of a lawless killing machine and his adorable moppet. That may sound like sarcasm, but it actually is a classic archetype, the gruff outlaw of few words having a soft spot for someone cute and cuddly under his charge. While the specifics change – It might be a baby, a plucky young orphan, or a precious dog – it’s a reliable way to create a highly-watchable tonal balance between sharpness and sweetness in a show or movie.
But for all that, I think hardly anyone had “the high-stakes bounty is Baby Yoda” on their bingo card of The Mandalorian anticipation. Not much was known about the show going in, and no one really knew what to expect, but I doubt anyone was expecting that.
And yet, it immediately blew the show wide open. I’d been enjoying the adventures of the taciturn, seemingly-nameless bounty hunter going after a big score for a shady client. The show was giving us a good mix of nostalgia and new content, the production design was fantastic, and I got a kick out of the back-and-forth between Mando and IG-11, a droid all but hell bent on self-destructing. But when that pod opened up, Grogu stared up at us with those enormous eyes, and Mando shot IG-11 to keep him from “eliminating” the baby, it was suddenly very clear what sort of show I was embarking on.
All the hallmarks are there. While Mando initially protects Grogu, he still views the bundle of adorableness as a bounty, an asset, and he does his best to resist Grogu’s innocent charms. But under that armor, he isn’t made of stone, and we watch him slowly start to crack. The moment when Grogu reveals his Force sensitivity at a critical moment, saving Mando from a charging mudhorn. Grogu’s mischievous tenacity trying to play with a particular knob on a control in Mando’s cockpit. Grogu’s cries when Mando hands him over to the client, Mando asking what the client wants with the child, even though bounty hunters are paid not to wonder such things. It’s a gradual progression, but it’s no surprise that Mando immediately regrets turning Grogu over and is prepared to do anything to take him back.
The big action moment of rescuing the baby is of course memorable and dramatic, but it’s what comes after that’s even more impressive to me. Because Mando basically blows up his whole life for this kid. Grogu still has a bounty on him, so they’re on the run, and Mando’s rescue stunt has burned his bridges with the bounty hunters’ guild, so his usual livelihood has dried up. Part of the reason so much of the show feels like a series of side quests is because Mando is working to keep them both alive one step at a time. Every week, it’s, “Find some kind of work to keep us in the air a little longer,” or, “Find some out-of-the-way planet where no one can track us.” In season 2, it becomes more, “Chase down this lead to find someone who can point me in the direction of a Jedi who can help the kid,” and later, “Figure out how to take the fight to Moff Gideon, because he’s not gonna stop coming after Grogu.” Everything he does becomes about protecting and providing for this child.
Not that Mando suddenly becomes a perfect surrogate dad. Far from it. He puts his own life in immediate danger way too often for someone who has a baby to take care of, and he repeatedly acts as if saying, “Stay on the ship,” is enough to get Grogu to listen to him. But his life is about this kid now, and it’s really gorgeous. I love his fond resignation when he lets Grogu have the knob from his control panel, and I love his mostly-futile attempts to stop Grogu from eating live frogs. I love when Grogu rides in his lap in the cockpit, and I love that they apparently bunk together on the ship. I love Mando’s veiled but pointed warnings for Grogu to behave himself around the Frog Lady’s tasty eggs, and I love Mando trying to get Grogu to help him with electrical repairs on the ship (true, it’s another “wildly imperfect dad” moment, but Exasperated Mando Trying to Talk Grogu through Wiring Instructions is definitely the best Mando.)
With all of that, it’s completely believable that Mando goes to the lengths he does when Moff Gideon finally comes for Grogu near the end of season 2. Not just the danger he confronts, the violence he wreaks, or the laws he breaks, but the code he breaks. Twice – once out of mission necessity, once for deeply personal relationship reasons – he breaks the Mandalorian code so sacred to him that he once was prepared to die rather than let someone see him without his helmet. For Grogu, there’s nothing that Mando wouldn’t do.
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