Star Wars fans all around are still reeling from the epic finale to The Mandalorian season 2, and the implications behind the events that transpired have inspired endless speculation and headcanons. After experiencing the meeting of two incredibly popular characters in the episode, one artist has taken it upon themselves to take the idea even further in some impressive Star Wars fan art.
Spoilers for the season 2 finale of The Mandalorian follow.
The artist spdrmnkyxxiii conceived of a piece which featured Kylo Ren, the maybe-villain/maybe-not from the Star Wars sequel trilogy, appears to be gently holding Grogu (Baby Yoda's real name, for those who intentionally but understandably forgot). The artwork appears to reference the idea of the two potentially meeting while at Luke Skywalker's Jedi academy, since both have now canonically been taken under the wing of the legendary farm-boy-turned-knight.
Fans both casual and hardcore leapt from their seats in unison as the show's most recent episode revealed its best-kept secret. As Din Djarin and his Baby Yoda-rescuing team desperately ran out of options, Luke Skywalker himself arrived on the scene to casually annihilate an entire platoon of Dark Trooper droids in response to Grogu's call through the Force several episodes earlier. After saving them all from almost certain doom, Luke ends up taking Grogu with him, presumably to give the young 50-year-old alien proper Jedi training.
Kylo Ren meets Baby Yoda in this artwork from spdrmnkyxxiii.The caption reads "My girl asked me to make a piece with Grogu and Kylo Ren because they are her favorite #Starwars characters," which may suggest the artist isn't referencing anything in particular and just set out to portray the two characters together. Fellow sharp-eyed nerds may also notice the presence of Kylo's face scar which didn't appear until the end of 2015's The Force Awakens, long after Luke's academy had already been destroyed. Of course, this brings up some other unfortunate implications.
Many fans have grimly suggested the idea that Kylo may have ended up killing Grogu when he destroyed the academy itself. Luke did say that none of his other students survived, after all. Even the artist joked about it, saying "Imagine if Kylo actually killed Grogu" along with a macabre skull emoji. While the mainstream Star Wars series tends to save its dramatic deaths for less adorable characters, Rian Johnson's The Last Jedi has proven that anything is possible, at least assuming future productions take those ideas to heart.
But worried fans shouldn't necessarily fret. The people behind Star Wars are fully aware of how popular Grogu is and they are well-known for generally refusing to truly kill anyone off if they can still monetize them. Besides, The Mandalorian seemed to structure Grogu's story as a prelude of things to come, so there's always a good possibility admirers of the adorable little Force-user will see more Baby Yoda in the future. In the mean time, just look at how cute he looks in Kylo's arms.
Source: spdrmnkyxxiii|Instagram