Why People Shouldn't Be Surprised The Child ("Baby Yoda") Ate the Eggs

If case you haven't heard: "Baby Yoda" was cancelled.

People were up in arms at the Child's behaviour in chapter 10 of The Mandalorian series, "The Passenger". The crime: eating the unfertilised eggs of an amphibian mother whose family line is at risk if dying out.

What has been heralded as a cute character that brought Werner Herzog to tears, the internet has turned on the newly name Grogu. Some fans of the show thought the writers were making a joke of genocide while others have tried to justify the actions of the child.

Though fifty years old, Grogu has the maturity of a toddler. His capabilities are reflective of a human child aged ten months and into their first year. At this stage in cognitive development, children have yet to grasp the concept of consequence. A sense of right vs. wrong is yet to be established so, when Mando repeatedly tells Grogu to stop eating the eggs, it's no surprise his efforts are futile.

Grogu eats just about everything. The internet didn't lose their shit when he ate a live frog in season one. The Frog Lady is human-like and so viewers have an easier time emphasising with her. In the age of children in cages and combating Holocaust deniers, the upset over Grogu's actions is hardly a surprise. It's easy to step into woke and angry when viewing something through a limited lens. Though I use human development to help in understanding the child's actions, he is not human. He eats the eggs like humans would eat chicken eggs or caviar. Because we, as an audience, feel for Grogu and have become emotionally attached to him, we are disgusted over his actions because we would be if our own child did as he did.

I never laughed are thought the writers intended to scenes were he eats the eggs as funny--in fact, Favreau and Felino came out and affirmed that they were trying to make the character less cute, that the act should be taken as disturbing. Rather, I saw a theme of parenting throughout the episode. From Frog Lady to Mando to the xenomorph-like spider creature in the caves, it parallels different approaches to parenting across different species: pre-conception to adolescence. Grogu eating the eggs distracts from the larger message of parenting. Did Mando handle the situation perfectly, no, but he could have done worse. He attempted to instil a sense of right and wrong in the child by verbally condemning the actions; he assume the child does not have a sophisticated understanding of language so he speaks to him using simple terms. His style of parenting is akin to "peaceful parenting", which is healthier long-term as opposed to "permissive parenting"--this style would have resulted in Mando allowing the child to eat the eggs as he pleased.

Children can be shitty--no matter how many times we may refer to them as "our little angels", which would imply they can delineate between right and wrong, they are selfish little imps who needed guidance. Grogu is a cute, force-wielding little monster will little to no impulse control (like real children) who eats just about everything--of course he was going to eat the fucking eggs.