I had heard a rumor that Baby Yoda was originally not to be in The Mandalorian Season 3. Judging from the first two episodes, it does feel like the little green guy was shoehorned into the story, to sell merchandise.
The notion that Baby Yoda now needs to ride around the galaxy on Mando’s lap in that tight cockpit is very ridiculous. And he needs to do that now because, again, he was shoehorned, probably late.
The unfortunate ramification is that R5-D4, who clearly would have been a fresh sidekick with a nod to classic Star Wars, was relegated to a small role. R5 showed a personality! The droid whose bad motivator changed the course of the galaxy was so promising in this episode. I want to see more of R5-D4 and less of Baby Yoda! Grogu’s story arc is done, at least for now, whereas I would have been very intrigued to watch how this archaic droid could have had an epic adventure as the sole sidekick to The Mandalorian, at least for one season.
On a silly note, I am still waiting for The Mandalorian to work in a reference that Bo-Katan’s sister was once Obi-Wan Kenobi’s girlfriend.
