The Mandalorian Reveals Baby Yoda Can Use One of Darth Vader’s Iconic Force Attacks

The second season of Star Wars: The Mandalorian is winding down and things got super intense this week in the Robert Rodriguez-directed “Chapter 14: The Tragedy.” Warning Spoilers Ahead! After taking Grogu (formally known as Baby Yoda) to the ruins of a temple that has a strong connection to the Force, as suggested by Ahsoka, Mando meets up with Boba Fett and Fennec Shand, who agree to help protect Grogu if Mando gives Boba Fett back his armor. The trio teams up and faces off with some stormtroopers, but they end up losing The Child in the process. Poor Grogu is taken and given to Moff Gideon, who locks him in a cell. However, while imprisoned, Grogu shows off his Force skills, which are reminiscent of those used by Darth Vader.

Moff Gideon enters Grogu’s cell only to find him giving his stormtrooper guards a run for their money. The Child gives them hell by using the classic Force chokehold often used by Vader! As if it couldn’t get any cooler, Grogu doubles up and chokes both stormtroopers at once before slamming them against the wall. Unfortunately, this use of the Force is too much for little Grogu. It drains his energy and he gets sleepy, so he was unable to escape once Moff Gideon arrived. Baby Yoda may be in a tough situation, but it was pretty awesome to watch him use that classic Force maneuver.

This small tribute to Vader came at a sad time as this week also saw the death of Darth Vader actor, David Prowse. During casting for Star Wars, Prowse had his choice of playing Darth Vader or Chewbacca. In 2013, he told NPR why he chose to go with the villain:

“What happened actually is my agent rang me up and said there’s a gentleman in town called George Lucas who would very much like to see you,” he said. “So, I went out to see him and meet up with him. He took me into a room and showed me all these conceptual drawings. He said, ‘I would like to offer you one of two parts in this movie I’m doing. The first one is a character called Chewbacca.’ I said, ‘What in the h*** is Chewbacca?’ ‘He goes through the film on the side of the goodies, you see?’ I heard that and said, ‘Three months in a gorilla skin? No, thank you very much!’”

“‘The other one is called Darth Vader. He’s the big villain of the film, you see?’ I said, ‘Don’t say anymore George, I’ll have the villain’s part. He said, ‘Tell me why?’ Think back on all the movies you’ve ever seen when there’s good guys and bad guys. You always remember the bad guy!”

New episodes of The Mandalorian are added to Disney+ every Friday. If you haven’t signed up for Disney+ yet, you can try it out here.