The Mandalorian gave Disney+ subscribers its most nerve-rattling episode yet with Chapter 10, "The Passenger," which brought Pedro Pascal's Mando and his mirthful sidekick Baby Yoda to a frozen planet full of freaky ass ice spiders that recalled Ridley Scott's Alien franchise. The installment left us with more than a few questions about the so-called Child's behavior, particularly when it came to his ravenous appetite for Frog Lady's eggs. The character's recurring snacking was disturbing for all kinds of reasons, many of which were noted on social media, but one Star Wars and Lucasfilm head honcho spoke up in defense of the egg-munching moments.
The exec in question is Phil Szostak, who serves as the senior content and asset specialist for Lucasfilm, and is the author of the three Art of Star Wars books that covered the most recent film trilogy. Szostak took to Twitter to offer up an explanation for Baby Yoda's masticating antics in "The Passenger," saying:
For the record, Chapter 10 of #TheMandalorian makes it clear that the Frog Lady’s eggs are unfertilized, like the chicken eggs many of us enjoy. But obviously, chickens aren’t sentient beings and the Child eating the eggs is intentionally disturbing, for comedic effect. #StarWars
Perhaps surprisingly, or perhaps not, fans who took issue with Baby Yoda eating Frog Lady's eggs were not very sated by Phil Szostak's reasoning. Many were not at all comfortable with the idea of the kid-friendly merchandizing cash-cow Baby Yoda being used for such dark and theoretically gruesome comedy, and didn't see it as very comedic to begin with. Had the episode not been so specific about those being the last of Frog Lady's unfertilized eggs, or if the egg-gobbling had only occurred once instead of multiple times, The Mandalorian might not have earned such ire.
Phil Szostak followed his first post up with another message positing that those moments were geared more to be pleasing for general fans of horror. In his words:
Fans of horror know that disturbing things make some of us laugh and some of us squirm, or both. Your mileage may vary.
Negative reactions to The Mandalorian's Baby Yoda grossness could be found all over Twitter, but there were obviously also quite a few people that specifically argued against Phil Szostak's explanation on social media. Not everyone, mind you, since there were plenty of fans who spoke up about how much they enjoyed the episode, as well as those specific moments. But by and large, it was very obvious just how triggered many people were by Frog Lady's eggs being devoured.
This is, perhaps, one of those cases in which fanbase blowback should have occurred per usual without being directly addressed by anyone involved with the Star Wars universe as a whole. Not because Phil Szostak's opinions are meritless, since that's certainly the opposite of the truth, but because there are clearly differing viewpoints at play regarding the eggs that are largely running parallel to each other without much of a chance of meeting in the middle. There are no "right" answers here. This is the way.
The Mandalorian drops new episodes on Disney+ every Friday at 3:01 a.m. ET, so wake up with CinemaBlend's coverage every week. Hopefully soon we'll get to see Rosario Dawson's Ahsoka Tano arriving, along with more characters from the Rebels and Clone Wars universes. While waiting for new episodes, head to our Fall 2020 TV premiere schedule and our Winter and Spring 2021 guide to stay up to date on all the upcoming debuts.
