The Mandalorian‘s Baby Yoda has been the breakout star of the show and launched a million memes. Audiences instantly fell in love with him, leaving Disney scrambling to produce merchandise plastered with his cute green face in time for Christmas 2019. But now, with the release of the second episode of season 2, that love affair may be over.
The plot saw Din Djarin transporting a Frog Lady and her jar full of unfertilized eggs to her husband. Unfortunately for her, though, said eggs appeared to be an irresistible treat for Baby Yoda. Throughout the episode, Djarin had to deal with a plague of snow-spiders, their gigantic mother and some trigger-happy New Republic pilots, all while trying (and failing) to keep the little dude’s paws out of that jar.
Fans were aghast, saying that it was horrible that Baby Yoda was chowing down on this poor woman’s last remaining eggs and dubbing him a “murderer” and a “menace,” Others clutched at straws, theorizing that he may have simply been keeping them safe inside him. But c’mon, I think we all know that this was snack time.
Now, director, writer and all-around authority on Star Wars Kevin Smith has weighed in on the matter and here’s his verdict:
Me trying to explain to my kid that Baby Yoda eating those eggs isn’t cute, it’s genocide. pic.twitter.com/PJGjc7WpCI
— KevinSmith (@ThatKevinSmith) November 10, 2020
First off, it’s awesome how much Baby Yoda has disgusted everyone. Personally, I took it as an amusing dark joke about how toddlers are essentially amoral and can and will put anything in their mouths. There were a lot of eggs in that canister, though, and Frog Lady seemed more annoyed than distraught about him eating them.
It’s also notable that these scenes come as part of a running joke in The Mandalorian about Baby Yoda being very hungry – there are no less than two previous examples in the first season of him eating (or trying to eat) actual frogs. So, whether it’s genocide or not, it’s at least in character.