The Mandalorian: Why Does Moff Gideon Need Child Yoda?

Close to the tip of “The Mandalorian” season two, Child Yoda (aka Grogu) is captured by the dastardly Moff Gideon (Giancarlo Esposito) after evading him for a very long time. Din Djarin, aka the titular Mandalorian (Pedro Pascal) and his compatriots find yourself defeating Gideon and taking him into custody, however we all know that he will return in “The Mandalorian” season three and nonetheless desires to get his fingers on the little man. So what precisely does Moff Gideon need with Grogu? The reply appears to come back all the way down to one in every of Star Wars’s most controversial items of canon: midi-chlorians.

Gideon has by no means shared his intentions outright, however there have been clues all through the season. Through the sixth episode of the second season, “Chapter 14,” Gideon exhausts and taunts Grogu. As soon as he places the little man to sleep, he has one in every of his officers contact Dr. Pershing (Omid Abtahi). Pershing is the physician originally of the collection who was making an attempt to maintain Grogu alive whereas the Shopper (Werner Herzog) ordered experiments on him. Gideon refers to Grogu because the “donor.”

Nonetheless, we discover out what Pershing and Gideon are actually as much as in “Chapter 12.” Din finds a recording that Pershing despatched to Moff Gideon about his experiments. Mando thinks Gideon is lifeless and assumes the recording is an previous one, however Cara Dune (Gina Carano) tells him the message is from three days earlier. Within the recording, Pershing says that he is had “catastrophic failure” in his trials, including, “There have been promising results for a complete fortnight, however then, sadly, the physique rejected the blood.” He provides, “I extremely doubt we’ll discover a donor with a better M-count, although.” The Little one was too small for him to take extra blood out of when he had him in his custody, so he must get extra.

“M-count” nearly positively means midi-chlorians, that are a mixture of science and magic that animates the Star Wars universe. Midi-chlorians live, clever, microscopic organisms that exist in each residing being, however a excessive midi-chlorian depend results in Power sensitivity. Having a excessive depend lets an individual entry the Power, which then might allow them to develop into a Jedi or a Sith with correct coaching. The idea of midi-chlorians was first launched in the primary Star Wars prequel film, “The Phantom Menace.”

So it appears the baddies of “The Mandalorian” are out to extract midi-chlorians from Grogu and switch them — and the powers of the Power that they convey — to another person. Proper now, they’re making an attempt to do this by way of blood transfusions, however they’ve had no luck thus far.

Within the alternate “Legends” canon (consisting of supplies spun off from the unique trilogy however rendered noncanon after Disney’s acquisition of the franchise), there is a expertise that enables for infusions from somebody with a excessive midi-chlorian depend to heal somebody who’s on the point of demise. Whereas that hasn’t been touched on but in the primary, present canon, it is definitely attainable that that is a minimum of a part of the explanation Gideon is after Grogu: to get a “transfusion” that may save his life or the lifetime of another Imperial determine.

Nonetheless, the alternate rationalization is a good scarier — and doubtless extra seemingly — one: Gideon is making an attempt to artificially flip himself right into a Jedi, or, extra precisely, a Sith lord. He already acquires a lightsaber by the point viewers meet him, carrying across the legendary Mandalorian Darksaber regardless of being neither a Jedi nor a Mandalorian. Din wins the saber from him within the season two finale, however Gideon certainly nonetheless has his eyes on it.

Lightsabers aren’t precisely a standard weapon, and so they’re often called a weapon used nearly completely by Power customers, so it is positively odd {that a} “regular” man, even a robust Imperial officer, would wield one with no good purpose. Pair that together with his obsession with capturing Grogu as a midi-chlorian “donor,” and it’s extremely attainable that he is hoping to switch Child Yoda’s Power talents to himself and develop into a full-fledged Sith to revive the Darkish Facet and the Empire within the aftermath of Darth Vader and Emperor Palpatine’s deaths. We do not know his precise plans, however certainly they’re coming in season three — and a reunited Din and Grogu must cease him.

“The Mandalorian” season three premieres on March 3.