The bigger they are, the harder they fall. That also turns out to be true of the tiny.
Baby Yoda, who one year ago today cozied into the hearts of Star Wars fans with his bottomless eyes, fuzzy head, and adorable cooing, has invoked genuine social media wrath for last week’s episode of The Mandalorian, in which the mystical infant remorselessly snacked on the eggs of an endangered galactic species.
In Chapter 10 of the Disney+ show, titled “The Passenger,” Pedro Pascal‘s bounty hunter agrees to ferry an amphibious alien woman known only as “Frog Lady” to a swampy distant world so she can fertilize her canister of eggs, which floated in the brine like peeled apricots. (Usually this show conjures memories of Boba Fett, but these called to mind boba tea.)
Amy Sedaris‘ starship mechanic explains that if Frog Lady doesn’t succeed in reuniting with her spouse before the equinox, the eggs will no longer be viable and “her line will end.” That adds some dramatic significance to the cargo, although there remains debate about whether that meant only her family line will end or if the loss of these eggs would end of her species entirely.
Then the unspeakable occurs. Throughout the episode, Baby Yoda is caught reaching his little green claw into her unsupervised container in order to gorge himself on the inappropriate morsels.
The Mandalorian plays this for gross-out laughs—but a contingent of fans on Twitter has taken the actions seriously, and has expressed anger and sadness that the series would make light of something that is both a personal invasion and a potential extinction-level event.
“I just wanna know who thought this was a good idea. Like… ‘we have this woman whose species is facing extinction and she’s very protective of these her eggs.’ ‘We should have Baby Yoda eat them.’ ‘Hey yay dude, bro high five’ Like what????” one Twitter user posted on Nov. 9. (Vanity Fair is excluding links to protect people from harassment.)
“Gosh, Baby Yoda is losing the charm,” another posted on Nov. 6. “I hated him because he ate the eggs of a lady frog and her species. IT’S AN EXTINCTION!!!!”
Still others expressed disgust that an actual toy that features Baby Yoda and the eggs is being sold. “It concerns me that The Child’s appetite might lead to the end of a family line (or maybe the extinction of a species IDK). But hey the kid is adorable, so here’s a POP celebrating that genocide,” another fan posted, along with this retweet:
The backlash ignited a counter-backlash, with those fans insisting that the complaints amount to an overreaction to what is obviously a fictional situation. Lucasfilm creative art manager Phil Szostak, who usually shares behind the scenes goodies about the show, tried to bring calm to the situation by explaining the intent.
That tweet then became a focal point of the complaints, and the increasingly hostile back and forth between those who were unhappy with the storyline and those who thought the uproar was overblown.