The Mandalorian: Fans react to Baby Yoda’s real name as the series expands on the favorite character

He was one of the hottest elements in the zeitgeist last year, gaining adoring fans everywhere.

And on Friday, devoted viewers of Disney+’s acclaimed Star Wars spinoff series The Mandalorian learned more about Baby Yoda, or The Child as he was referred to previously.

And fans have expressed mixed-to-positive reactions upon learning the cute character’s real name, Grogu, among other vital details about his background.

Friday’s 13th episode of The Mandalorian, titled The Jedi, in fact contained a multitude of important and well-received elements from the Star Wars universe.

Namely, the episode saw the highly anticipated arrival of Rosario Dawson’s Ahsoka Tano, a fan favorite character from the lauded animated series Star Wars Rebels and Star Wars: The Clone Wars. 

It was thanks to Ahsoka that viewers learned more about Baby Yoda/Grogu, as the pair were able to access their Jedi power known as the Force in order to communicate.

Up until now, the Mandalorian has interacted with Grogu mainly through gestures and baby speak.

It turns out that the 50-year-old baby alien – a baby since his species can live almost 1000 years, as seen with Yoda – has seen a lot in his short life, including the massacre of fellow Jedi students in events that unfolded in Star Wars – Episode III: Revenge of the Sith.

And as with any significant turn of events in the Star Wars saga, fans were quick to express their support or disapproval of the new details on social media.

One Twitter user posted a beautiful three shot of Rosario’s character Tano smiling at baby Grogu in the arms of the Mandalorian. 

‘today I am thankful for this!!’ he wrote in the caption, including the hashtags #AhsokaTano #Grogu and #Mandalorian.

Another Twitter user utilized the meme made famous by the Real Housewives, showing two cast member screaming and pointing on the left side, and Baby Yoda seated calmly on the right at a table. 

The user captioned the meme, ‘#Grogu will always be Baby Yoda to me’ and included a green heart emoji. 

Another Easter egg in Friday’s episode of the Mandalorian was a namedrop of a popular villainous character from the Star Wars Expanded Universe, namely Thrawn.

The Mandalorian has accomplished several unlikely feats in its two seasons thus far.

The most apparent one is the show’s deft ability to maintain dramatic action and interest when the two main characters are an animatronic baby alien and an actor in a helmet whose face viewers never get to see.

The other is an ongoing challenge: namely, how to fit the events of this series into the larger and much-loved framework of the Star Wars universe.

It remains to be seen how Ahsoka Tano will figure into future episodes, as well as Thrawn and other characters who have previously appeared in other Star Wars stories.