Lightsabers, hot-rodded starships, mysticism, cool helmets, and fate. These are among the core pillars of Star Wars, but none are more important than that most central and beloved pillar: the little freak. Be they rubber suits, elaborate puppets, or computer-generated machinations, the little freak has been a core part of George Lucas’ universe from the very beginning. Just look at the Mos Eisley cantina. Remember that little mouse guy who can barely reach the bar, so he just squeaks as he tries desperately to get a stubby little hand around his drink? There’s nothing more Star Wars than an adorably freakish lil’ guy — a Glup Shitto, if you will.

Of course, in the Disney era, there’s a definitive king of the Adorably Freakish Lil’ Guys Club. His name is Grogu, and while you might call him Baby Yoda in passing, the connection between the two characters remains unclear. Yoda himself is a card-carrying member of the AFLGC, though his sage wisdom and immense power put him in a slightly different tier of Star Wars character.

Grogu’s origins remain one of the biggest mysteries in Star Wars. What Lucasfilm has revealed so far heavily suggests that he and Yoda had a meaningful relationship, albeit when Grogu was still quite young. The details remain elusive. So, in the spirit of Star Wars fan-theorizing, and in honor of two of the best lil’ freaks the franchise has ever seen, let’s dig a little deeper into Grogu, Yoda, and the potential connection between them.

Baby Yoda, as he was known at first, was introduced to the Star Wars mythos in 2019 on “The Mandalorian” Season 1. The show’s first big twist is that the 50-year-old bounty Din Djarin is sent to apprehend is an infant of Yoda’s species, who quickly reveals himself to be naturally strong with the Force. Rather than turn him into the Imperial remnant faction that hired him, Din chooses to go on the run with the kid to try and figure out what he is and how best to help him. The rest, as they say, is found-family history.

Of course, no one could have predicted how enormously popular Grogu — a name revealed by Ahsoka Tano on “The Mandalorian” Season 2 — was going to be. It was an odd moment in time for Star Wars. “The Last Jedi” had gotten great reviews and raked in over $1.3 billion at the box office, but it was also polarizing, to say the absolute least. “Solo: A Star Wars Story” had just delivered the franchise its biggest financial flop, and both Disney and the fans were desperate for something with mass appeal. Something to hold onto. Something without controversy that could unify the massive Star Wars community and also bring in new fans.

Baby Yoda ended up being just that. The people love a cute, cuddly little creature, and Grogu Mania took the world by storm. Looking back, the fervor around him during “The Mandalorian” Season 1 is one of the biggest single publicity moments ever in Star Wars history, and is probably the second biggest “hit” Disney has delivered since acquiring the franchise, ranking right behind “The Force Awakens.”

At this point in 2024, it should be crystal clear to everyone that Grogu and Yoda are not the same character. But for years, that wasn’t the case. The “Baby Yoda” placeholder name led to some confusion among viewers who didn’t really know the ins and outs of the Star Wars timeline. While most fans could tell you that Yoda dies in “Return of the Jedi,” which takes place years before “The Mandalorian,” there was a huge influx of casual viewers to the show’s 1st season. It was the first time Star Wars was trying the whole “prestige TV” thing, after all, and it was the marquee show for a fledgling Disney+.

Grogu is not Yoda. Grogu also cannot be a reincarnation of Yoda, as he was born many years before the old Jedi Master’s death.

Personality-wise, the two also have some notable differences, though Grogu is still so young that it’s hard to really say what his personality is. He’s troublesome, mischievous, and a bit of a prankster, which are all traits that Yoda also displays — mostly in “The Empire Strikes Back” (before revealing his identity to Luke) and throughout the “Star Wars: The Clone Wars” animated series. The biggest difference may be that Grogu is a deeply passionate individual, prone to huge displays of power when those he cares about are at risk. Yoda is far more reserved, though of course, that could just be the effect the restrictive Jedi dogma has on someone after hundreds of years.

Grogu is only the third Star Wars character of his species to ever exist, the other two being Yoda and Yaddle, a female Jedi of high rank who’s murdered by Count Dooku shortly after “The Phantom Menace.” Yaddle holds a Council seat late in her life, but she shows more of an outsider perspective on the Jedi’s rigid, bureaucratic doctrine than Yoda does. She also speaks in a normal cadence, proving that Yoda’s backwards-talk is actually a choice.

The question follows naturally: Is Grogu the love child of Yoda and Yaddle, conceived in some forbidden tryst in defiance of the Jedi Code and hidden away in the bowels of the Temple? Well, uh … maybe? Grogu’s Star Wars timeline thus far begins with a daring escape from the Jedi Temple during Order 66. That’s the earliest bit of his life we’ve seen at this point — a flashback sequence on “The Mandalorian” Season 3 in which Jedi Master Kelleran Beq gets him safely to a ship off Coruscant. How he first arrived at the Temple and where he is between “Revenge of the Sith” and “The Mandalorian” are still unknown.

If Grogu is 50 during “The Mandalorian,” which takes place roughly 30 years after the prequel trilogy, he would have been about 20 during his escape. In other words, he was born about a decade before “The Phantom Menace,” when Yaddle was still alive and well.

If the timeline matches up, and if Grogu grew up in the Temple, and if there are no other known members of his species, how likely is it actually that Yoda and Yaddle are his parents? In the old Star Wars Expanded Universe, now known as Legends, there’s precedent for Jedi of endangered species being allowed to break the Code and sire children. This happens with Ki-Adi-Mundi, whose race, the Cereans, have an extremely low birth rate. As a result, he is allowed to take multiple wives.

Yoda and Yaddle aren’t actually married, as far as we know, nor do they have any kind of romantic connection. Still, it’s conceivable that, in the interest of preserving their species, they sired Grogu for that purpose alone, keeping him hidden in the Temple for his own protection. Since the Jedi Code prohibits attachment, that would explain why Yoda and Yaddle might have stayed so distant, avoiding a traditional family model.

Alternatively, some have theorized that Yoda’s species reproduces asexually, or even that Yoda could have begotten Yaddle, he in turn begets Grogu. Since we don’t know where either Yoda or Yaddle came from, their homeworld, their parentage, or even the name of their species, any guesses as to Grogu’s are pure speculation. But with “The Mandalorian & Grogu” set to hit theaters in 2026, we might finally get some answers to these longstanding questions.