One of the major reasons Disney's The Mandalorian is a massive success is the overwhelming adorableness of Baby Yoda i.e., the Child. Even places where the script for the Star Wars TV series faltered, it was his cuteness that saved the story. But recently, it has been his endearing personality that has been the centre of a controversy. Baby Yoda happily munching on the eggs of an alien Frog Lady in The Mandalorian Season 2's latest chapter has caused an online uproar.

Last Friday's episode titled "The Passenger" saw Mando (Pedro Pascal) providing passage to Frog Lady, an amphibian alien who is trying to safely reach her husband along with her unfertilized eggs. She explains that the eggs are the last of her bloodline and that they need to be fertilized before the equinox. The safety of her eggs is so important to her that she is ready to travel sublight and risk detection as going faster would kill her eggs. 

After establishing the significance her eggs hold for her, The Mandalorian then shifts to scenes of Baby Yoda caught eating the eggs by Mando, who reprimands him but to no avail, as several times during the episode, Baby Yoda is caught munching on the eggs. He keeps sneaking into the jar and stealing the eggs to eat them. It is a running gag throughout the episode which tries to compare the antics of The Child to that of a human baby and their habit of popping anything they find into their mouth. 

But many fans of the Disney+ series were appalled by this new side of Baby Yoda. Many felt scandalized that The Mandalorian's writers first presented the predicament of the Frog Lady and her kind centre stage, only to turn the "murder" of the last beings of an almost-extinct species into a joke, hoping that Baby Yoda greedily cramming himself with the eggs would be adorable.

As those not in favour of the scene have not let it slide and are still commenting how The Mandalorian tried to "sell murder as a hilarious joke", Phil Szostak, Lucasfilm's creative art manager, took to Twitter and defended the scene, explaining how it was intended as "comedic effect."

"For the record, Chapter 10 of The Mandalorian 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."

He further added that those who binge on horror series and films know that "disturbing things make some of us laugh and some of us squirm, or both. Your mileage may vary."

But some of the more angry fans of The Mandalorian aren't ready to buy the explanation and objected to his reasoning, citing that the scene was disturbing and how the series is not a horror story. One Twitter user commented that Baby Yoda munching on the Frog Lady's last hope for her species is "actually closer to f-----g up someone's IVF."

"For the record, the frog lady was very adamant about the fact that her eggs were important to her, and that it was her last and only chance to have kids. So, it's actually closer to f-----g up someone's IVF, which would be incredibly upsetting for a wannabe mom. it's not funny."

Many seconded the above tweet, relating that it was "not funny at all to hear mama frog lady go into great detail about how important & beloved her eggs are to her & have to watch them get eaten on 3 separate occasions for s---s & giggles." 

The scene has triggered varied responses from the viewers as there are many who can't get enough of Baby Yoda's cuteness in the episode. In case you were all "Aww" while watching him make cooing sounds and pouting when Mando reprimands him to stop stealing the eggs, a Funko Pop! Toy featuring Baby Yoda with the Frog Lady's egg canister has also been launched as part of Mando mondays.