The arrival of The Mandalorian‘s shocking true star, Baby Yoda, has sent the internet into a flurry of wild speculation and rampant desire for merchandise, as any good baby should. But baby Yoda isn’t Star Wars‘ first go at the infant rodeo”can he compete with the cutest the galaxy has to offer?
10) Porglets
Porgs? Incredible, even if a little overplayed at this point. Porglets? Absolute fuckin’ nightmares. They’re the Madballs version of a Porg, and almost threaten to undo all the wonderfully cute work of their adult forms.
9) Zinn Toa
Nautolans rule. Mainly because of Kit Fisto, who objectively is very rad. Nautolan babies like little force-sensitive Zinn here, meanwhile, are freaky as hell. Why do their headtails float like that??? Do not want.
8) Luke and Leia
OK, sure, they get by an awful lot on the fact they grow up to be pretty stellar people. But as babies? Eh, they’re fine. Pink and mushy like all humans. They’re also inextricably tied to one of the silliest moments in the prequels, which is a significant bummer.
7) Roo-Roo Page
Gungans themselves are an interesting Star Wars design”lanky and ungainly and just kind of really good in an alien way, even if most other things about them are, uh, a bit controversial among fans. Baby Gungans like little Roo-Roo here lose that lankiness to essentially become Chibi-Gungans, which, while cute, sort of robs the Gungan design of part of what makes it work.
6) Rotta the Hutt
Rotta might have been the focal character of the kinda terrible Clone Wars movie that preceded the excellent TV show, which makes our thoughts of him a little sour. But outside of the context there, just look at his lil’ arms. His lil’ tail. He’s like a squishy teardrop with eyes.
5) Wee Dunn
Big eyes = very cute, unless you’re Rosa Salazar in Alita: Battle Angel. This is an unspoken rule of design. So Adult Rodians, even if we only see them in the movies through the incompetent focal lens of Greedo the Maclunkey Bounty Hunter, are already very cute. Baby Rodians, like Wee, embrace this by having eyes that threaten to overwhelm their tiny little heads. So sparkly, too! It’s like they’re full of stars.
4) Baby Neebray
Neebray mantas have appeared multiple times in both Clone Wars and Rebels, but their infant forms are befriended by wayward Rebel droid AP-5 during the third season Rebels episode “Double Agent Droid” while he’s floating through the vacuum of space after some shenanigans. They glow! They’re tiny! They have a lot of very cute eyeballs! Even better? You can pick up a baby Neebray from the creature stall at Galaxy’s Edge. Take that, Baby Yoda.
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3) Pypey
Most of the infants we’ve seen in Star Wars have been in relation to force-sensitive kids being recruited for the Jedi Order, or hunted in the Rise of the Empire. Pypey, an Ithorian, is one of the latter”and it would truly take an evil faction of space fascists to want to do nasty things to a cutie like him! Ithorians have always been kind of adorable thanks to their big, cartoony eyestalks, and their child form amplifying that makes for an ultra cute image.
2) Nippet
Arguably the OG Star Wars baby. If you thought adult Ewoks were already merchandise-perfect baby fuzzballs, this Baby Ewok briefly glimpsed in Return of the Jedi is like an inverse version of the Porg/Porglet situation. The baby form here just makes an already adorable design even cuter. Plus, her name’s Nippet the Ewok!
1) Baby Yoda
I mean, come on. There’s a reason the world has gone nutso for this little guy. If you’ve got Werner Goddamn Herzog out here defending your right to exist and calling your doubters cowards, well, you’re a pretty fucking rad baby. May the Force be with you, little dude.