Over the course of two seasons, The Child’s backstory on The Mandalorian has remained well kept, save for a few details about his age, powers, and desired capture by Imperial forces. But during “Chapter 13: The Jedi,” which premiered on Nov. 27, the series unloads a heap of crucial information about the foundling, including his name.
While we maintain that The Child will forever be known as Baby Yoda among viewers, we learn that his actual name is Grogu (cue the moniker discourse). We also gain a better understanding of where our favorite meme-able character came from, thanks to Ahsoka Tano (Rosario Dawson), who made her live-action debut. She explains that Baby Yoda — er, sorry, Grogu — used to live on Coruscant, where he was trained by several masters at the Jedi Temple. But when the Galactic Empire rose to power and seized the sacred sanctuary, Grogu was hidden and forced to keep his Force-fueled abilities a secret.
Ahsoka senses a darkness in Grogu and notes that he holds the same fear that made Anakin Skywalker turn to the dark side. She then declines to take him in as her trainee, believing that he and Mando (Pedro Pascal) share a deep connection and attachment. Ahsoka advises them to go to the planet Tython, where there’s a Jedi Temple, and place Grogu on a seeing stone at the top of a mountain. That might help him reach other Jedi, though there aren’t many left. But, of course, that might also attract the attention of their adversaries. It’s a gamble, but considering everything else Mando and Grogu have been through, they’re perpetual inhabitants of Planet Dangerous Uncertainty.
Even with all of this new information, we still don’t know who hid Grogu during the Imperial era, nor do we know if his memory was wiped and how he ended up on the planet Arvala-7, where Mando first found him. Here’s hoping that we continue to get more answers to piece this intergalactic puzzle together.