Was Baby Yoda Created To Rival Anakin Skywalker and The Dark Side?
The Mandalorian is probably the most-talked-about Disney+ show at the moment. It’s the first-ever Star Wars live-action series, and it brings all the great aspects of the movies to eight separate episodes. But the undeniable show-stealer is Baby Yoda and fans have fallen in love with the little alien.
With what audiences saw in the second episode, it’s clear this alien is less “baby” and more “Yoda.” Are they connected to Anakin Skywalker’s rise to the Dark Side? Some fans think so.
WARNING: Spoilers ahead for the first two episodes of The Mandalorian.
Anakin/Vader and Baby Yoda are interestingly the same age
The Star Wars timeline can be hard to follow because there are now a lot of movies and shows to keep track of. However, it is important to this theory. The Mandalorian takes place five years after Return of the Jedi, where the Emperor is defeated, Anakin dies, and there’s a seemingly happy ending, until The Force Awakens.
If Baby Yoda is 50 years old, though, that means he was born before the prequels even took place. User /NatsuDragneel on Reddit pointed out that Anakin would be 45 at the end of Return of the Jedi, making him and Baby Yoda the exact same age. Obviously the little alien ages a lot slower than the former Sith Lord, but that means they’ve lived the same amount of time in their universe. They’ve existed at the same time, but Baby Yoda has been hidden for reasons fans don’t know yet.
Because there are hardly any coincidences in Star Wars, this fan theory prompts fans to believe that Baby Yoda could be the foil to Anakin’s fall to the Dark Side.
‘Star Wars’ is a franchise based on balance
Freddie Prinze Jr.’s viral Star Wars rant just went viral after five months, but it came at the perfect time to help with this theory as well. It started off as a rant about fanservice, but then he shared a lot of really vital information straight from George Lucas’ mouth about how the Force works.
“And all these video games have f*cked people up on what the Force is,” Prinze said. “Luke’s skill doesn’t dictate whether he wins or loses. The Emperor doesn’t dictate whether he wins or loses. The Force dictates who wins or loses based on balance.”
With that in mind, it makes more sense that Baby Yoda was born to offset the damage Anakin was born to do. Star Wars canon tells us that Palpatine is actually Anakin’s creator; he’s the one that formed him in Shmi’s body, creating a powerful new Jedi.
Since the Force is all about balance, it created Baby Yoda to settle the galaxy since Palpatine had created his Sith baby. This would also explain why The Client, who seems to be a supporter of the Empire, wants Baby Yoda dead. So that the Dark Side can get rid of a massively powerful Light Side being.
Yin and Yang, but it’s Baby Yoda and Anakin Skywalker
In the same subreddit, user /RichterNYR35 also noted Prinze’s comments and said, “The force is Yin and yang. Light and dark. It always balances itself. One doesn’t happen without the other. So knowing this, it makes perfect sense that the force, in a reaction to Anakin being created of the dark side, would create a strong light side being.”
They go even further, and suggest that Yoda’s species “isn’t natural,” they don’t come from a planet, and they only exist because they’re “purely beings of the light side of the force” who are “ born in response to the dark side.”
Regardless of if this is true, it does seem a little too suspicious that Baby Yoda is Anakin Skywalker’s exact age. And Baby Yoda is insanely strong with the Force. Only time will tell if he’s the next Chosen One or not.
