This is where not knowing as much as possible can hamper the fans as well as the series when it comes to characters. Christian Bone of We Got This Covered would likely agree that we just don’t know enough about Yoda’s species to tell when a specimen is male or female, but given that most folks on The Mandalorian and around the world have referred to Baby Yoda, aka The Child, as ‘him’ it’s easy for Taika Waititi and Jon Favreau to avoid saying yes or no to the question of just which it is. Hopefully we won’t see anyone go down the path that would allow The Child to be gender fluid and thereby perfect for the Star Wars universe in another way by opening the door to another inclusive idea that would keep things evolving and changing in a manner that would further erode the idea that there are some set principles in the franchise that don’t change so often. Like it or not though there are creatures in the Star Wars universe that have been created to serve both male and female functions if you go traipsing through the manuals and different creature encyclopedias, so male and female is malleable in some species. In Yoda’s species however it’s been seen thus far that there are males and females, so we’ll keep it simple and remain content with that limited spectrum that many upon many people have felt comfortable with for so long.
In truth it’s hard to say whether or not The Child is male or female largely because the little critter is still in a very ambiguous phase of life. Yaddle and Yoda didn’t look too different in appearance despite the fact that Yaddle had a full head of hair while Yoda, being a good deal older, had likely lost most of his a lot earlier on. If you go back in the histories and look at the Jedi named Munch you’ll see that he too had hair and was male, so stating that males have less hair than females wouldn’t be a great benchmark to use. The idea of George Lucas leaving Yoda’s species with so many unknowns has been a big part of the character’s charm for a very long time, but it’s also made a few things hard to figure when it comes to Yoda and those like him. There have been other characters from his species across the Star Wars franchise as they’ve shown up in the video games as well in stories set thousands of years in the past, such as Knights of the Old Republic, which featured Darth Revan.
One might argue that it’s not a big deal really and shouldn’t be the main focus of the story but now that it’s been let out of the bag you can easily imagine that it’s going to keep the attention of those that want to dicker and dither with it for a while until someone finally makes a definitive statement and puts the matter to rest. Greg Brian of the CheatSheet has more to say on the subject. Right now everyone that’s had something to do with the project has referred to The Child as ‘him’ and considering that the Imperials had the little spud on the operating table doing a full scan of him they might know best considering that his anatomy would be known inside and out with cursory bio-scan that could tell the genetic makeup of The Child. It’s funny that no one mentions this but it was a small part in the show to be fair and didn’t really get factored in as much since they weren’t exactly trying to determine whether The Child was male or female, but instead were attempting to harness whatever power the asset had been secured for in the first place. That’s another issue that we haven’t seen resolved yet since the Mandalorian’s sense of honor overrode his mission and the scans that were taking place on the little guy kind of got left in the background very quickly in an attempt to focus on the Mando’s escape with The Child from the Imperial bunker.
It’s kind of a hope that this isn’t going to turn into a debate that will get people buzzing on both sides about why they’re right and the opposing side is wrong since it could end up overshadowing the whole idea that the Mandalorian is off to find The Child’s people and return him in the next season. Likely as not that’s going to be a quest that’s not short or simple since there are plenty of people that are going to be making the trip a little difficult, not the least of which is Moff Gideon who will hopefully be given a little more background, which should include how he came to possess the darksaber. Oh yeah, season 2 can’t come quickly enough.
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