The Mandalorian & Baby Yoda Give The Best Snoke & Palpatine Return Answer Yet

Warning: SPOILERS ahead for The Mandalorian season 2, episode 4, “Chapter 12: The Siege.”

It’s revealed in The Mandalorian season 2, episode 4, “Chapter 12: The Siege” that the Empire used Baby Yoda’s blood for nefarious cloning purposes, which could explain both the origins of Supreme Leader Snoke and the return of Emperor Palpatine. While Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker dropped some clues to the backstories of the two powerful dark side Force-users, there’s still a lot about them that remains unknown. The Mandalorian isn’t directed connected to the sequel trilogy, but Disney could use it to bridge some gaps.

In The Mandalorian season 1, viewers are introduced to Baby Yoda as someone the Imperial Remnant has a keen interest in. What’s more, the Child is handed over to Dr. Pershing for tests, before Din Djarin steps in to stop him. With Pershing connected to the Kaminoans, as revealed by the patch on his uniform, then it strongly suggested that Empire wanted Baby Yoda for cloning. “The Siege” makes this much more overt, telling audiences more of why the Empire wanted Baby Yoda: his high “m-count”, or in other words, his incredible level of midi-chrloians.

While the Empire’s attempts to use Baby Yoda’s blood have so far proved unsuccessful, it’s clear they’re going to keep on trying, and have big plans for it as well. In the short term, that may be more connected to Moff Gideon and his new army of Dark Troopers, which is also teased in The Mandalorian season 2, episode 4, but in the longer run it could be how Star Wars explains more about Snoke and Palpatine.

Everything We Know About Palpatine’s Return

Somehow, Palpatine returned in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. Unfortunately, the movie elected to skip over the finer points of both how he survived the end of the Return of the Jedi and just how he was back at this point in the timeline. As ever with Disney Star Wars, though, there are books for that kind of thing, which have fleshed out Palpatine’s return more clearly. While Palpatine had a Contingency plan for the Empire to return to power in the Unknown Regions after his death, the ultimate goal was for him to return himself. To this end, The Rise of Skywalker novelization confirmed Palpatine was a clone in movie, with Kylo Ren realizing that the “clone body sheltered the Emperor’s actual spirit,” and it was an “imperfect vessel” that couldn’t contain Palpatine’s immense dark side power. Palpatine had been through many clones, each one failing him because he was too strong with the Force for a body to hold him for long, which is why he looked so ravaged on Exegol.

The same novel also explained how Palpatine survived his apparent death in Return of the Jedi. This was a moment the Emperor, who had a long fascination with cloning and an even greater one with discovering the secret to eternal life, and long been ready for. Although he could do nothing to stop his mortal body from being killed, Palpatine was able to transfer his consciousness to a temporary body on the hidden Sith world of Exegol, where he could be fully revived by the Sith Eternal cultists. Star Wars The Rise of Skywalker: The Visual Dictionary also touches on this, revealing the Sith Eternal used “technology and occult” arts to revive him.

Because Palpatine’s clone body was so weak, it meant that he had to stay put on Exegol, which was the only place he could be sustained. Similarly, Exegol has been confirmed to be a place where “the veil between life and death [is] thin,” (via the book Star Wars: Dark Legends), and with the Sith Eternal supporting him, it was easier for him to survive there. Palpatine spent a long time trying to find an ideal host and clearly went through a variety of clones – with Rey’s father even a Stand-Cast, an artificial genetic being, created by Palpatine. Ultimately, his plan hinged on Kylo Ren being able to take his place as the ruler of the Sith Empire, although that changed upon realizing Kylo and Rey were a Force dyad. With their power, he could restore himself, becoming “all the Sith”, although in the end he was no match for “all the Jedi.”

Everything We Know About Snoke’s Creation

Because Palpatine was not able to leave Exegol, he had to find other ways of maintaining his grip on the galaxy. It remains to be seen how The Mandalorian itself will handle this issue, as it’s unclear whether the Imperial Remnant, and Moff Gideon in particular, are working in service of the Emperor himself, or merely in their belief in the Empire. What is known, though, is that Palpatine created Snoke to become the Supreme Leader of the First Order, an organization who could take over the galaxy as the Empire once did, before his Final Order plans were ready. Along with this, Snoke was also designed to manipulate Ben Solo, turning him into Kylo Ren. Truly, it was Palpatine behind all of this.

The Rise of Skywalker hinted at Snoke’s origins as a Palpatine clone, showing several Snokes in a vat on Exegol. Once again, this was fleshed out further in tie-in materials, with The Star Wars Book revealing Snoke, like Rey’s father, to be a Strand-Cast. While Rey’s dad ultimately turned against Palpatine and hid Rey away on Jakku, the Emperor seemed to exert a far tighter grip over Snoke. As per the book, “Snoke has free will, but his actions and goals are still orchestrated by Sidious.” While it’s clear why Palpatine created Snoke, what’s less obvious is how he did it. Snoke is not as powerful as Palpatine, so it’d be easier to contain the dark side of the Force, but he did nonetheless have powers, which would have to come from somewhere and likely need some kind of genetic base. This is something that’s long been seen in cloning in Star Wars – the clone troopers needed Jango Fett as the perfect template, after all – and while Snoke is slightly different, he was still bioengineered. Exactly what or who from, though, remains to be seen.

How Baby Yoda’s Blood Fills The Gaps

Interestingly, even before Snoke’s origins had been confirmed as such, the term Strand-Cast appeared in The Mandalorian season 1, and specifically in reference to Baby Yoda. In that case, the idea of the Child being one was dismissed by Kuill, who had worked in the gene farms, but it sows the seeds if Star Wars so wishes to use them. The way they could do this, of course, would be to reveal that Baby Yoda was either the genetic base (or part of it) from which Snoke was created, or his blood was used to create a Palpatine clone – or perhaps even both could be true. Because so little is known right now of Snoke’s creation and Palpatine’s return, then The Mandalorian‘s reveal of Baby Yoda’s blood being used by the Empire in similar processes makes for the strongest possible answer yet to what happened.

In The Mandalorian season 2, episode 4, Mando, Cara Dune, Greef Karga, and the Mythrol infiltrate an Imperial base, which turns out to be a lab. There’s it’s confirmed that the Empire have been running tests involving Baby Yoda’s blood, which has included transfusions into new hosts who have been unable to handle it. The implication here is that, like Palpatine’s clones couldn’t handle his dark side power, the hosts could not handle the incredibly high midi-chlorian count the Child has, drawing a clear link between the two ideas, even if they’re still a few steps removed for now. What’s more, the scene also has some big nods to Snoke: the tanks contain lifeless humanoids, presumably efforts to produce clones or, more likely, Strand-Casts from the Child’s DNA, and they bear a resemblance to those seen housing the Snokes in The Rise of Skywalker. The music in this sequence, too, is reminiscent of that which accompanies Snoke in the sequel trilogy.

For now, the pressing focus of Moff Gideon seems to be using Baby Yoda to create a new kind of Dark Trooper, who were glimpsed at the end of “The Siege.” The likely idea is to make these into Strand-Casts using the Child’s blood, giving the Imperial Remnant a new, Force-sensitive clone army t as part of the “Imperial expansion” teased that will help usher in the “new era” mentioned here. At the same time, though, if the Empire was to get its hands on more of Baby Yoda’s blood, then it’s possible they’d have even bigger designs on it. After all, given his abnormally high midi-chlorian count, then Palpatine himself would surely be taking a keen interest once he gains knowledge of it (if he doesn’t already know), which likely won’t be before long. Both creating Snoke and bringing Palpatine back require an incredibly strong vessel, and Baby Yoda could be just that.

Even if The Mandalorian doesn’t fully commit to having Baby Yoda used to create two of the most powerful and evil beings the galaxy has seen, though, then it’s still likely going to be showing more of the process itself and better developing the idea of using Baby Yoda’s blood – and so, a Force-sensitive’s blood – to create clones and Strand-Casts, which alone can fill in some of the blanks at the very least.

The Problems With The Baby Yoda/Palpatine Theory

While Disney using The Mandalorian and Baby Yoda to provide answers for Snoke and Palpatine is definitely a distinct possibility right now – not least because it creates the kind of brand synergy the Mouse House loves – there are problems with the idea too. Right now, there’s no evidence of Palpatine being aware of the child, or even that he is involved with Moff Gideon’s Imperial Remnant. At some point down the Star Wars timeline he has to become more involved, with the remains of the Empire turning into the First Order, which is controlled by Palpatine via Snoke, but The Mandalorian hasn’t got there yet – and maybe it never will. The show is very much focused on Mando and Baby Yoda, and while it’s bringing in popular Star Wars characters like Boba Fett and Ahsoka Tano, they don’t risk consuming the show in the way even a mention of Palpatine being involved would.

Another issue is the flip side of the same coin that says it is something Disney would do. While there’s an opportunity for brand synergy here, it’s something the company needs to be careful with. The response to the sequel trilogy overall was far from what they wanted, and Snoke and Palpatine in particular are two divisive aspects. While linking The Mandalorian to those could be a way of boosting their popularity by using the most popular brand, it could have the adverse effect of damaging the show. That goes double for Baby Yoda: the character is the most popular creation of the Disney Star Wars era, beloved by millions. It isn’t beyond Star Wars to do something horrible to an innocent and celebrated character, but turning Baby Yoda into the template for Snoke and/or Palpatine may well be too far. Baby Yoda is a triumph, and Disney won’t want to risk spoiling that.

Perhaps the most likely outcome, then, is The Mandalorian aiming for a best of both worlds option when it comes to Baby Yoda’s blood, Snoke, and Palpatine. Through Moff Gideon’s plans, it can put the Child in some peril to keep things interesting and push the story forward, and its use of the blood can introduce techniques that can be fleshed-out further in tie-ins to explain Snoke’s origins and Palpatine’s return, without Baby Yoda having to be involved too directly in them.

About The Author

James Hunt
(851 Articles Published)

James is Screen Rant’s Movies Lead Editor, having started out as a writer for the site back in 2019. A Sports Journalism graduate, James quickly realized that supporting Sunderland AFC was painful enough without writing about it, and so decided to talk a load of rubbish about movies and TV instead. Formerly the TV editor at WhatCulture, he has a particular love of Star Wars (The Last Jedi was great), Game of Thrones (season 8 was good), and Harry Potter (J.K. Rowling…never mind) – y’know, all that really niche, nerdy stuff. Spending most of his days editing articles about or writing on movies and shows, James likes to really get away from work and unwind by, er, watching movies and shows. He’s fuelled by pint-sized cups of tea, peanut butter, more tea, and a quiet, constant anger (like the Hulk, only not green, or strong, or big).

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