It’s December 2019. You’re scrolling through Twitter and every tweet on your timeline includes a picture of the most adorable, little green creature you’ve ever seen. For once, everyone is agreeing on something: This green little child is cuter than anything else any of us have ever laid eyes on.

 

But who is it? It looks like Yoda, but it’s a baby. Is it Yoda? Is it a he? Is it a she?

Honestly, I think it’s best we all just sit back and let Baby Yoda happen (it’s been a long year, we deserve this), but let me see if I can provide some clarity on our little green friend.

The Baby Yoda memes originated from the show The Mandalorian on Disney+, Disney’s first live-action Star Wars show. The show takes place five years after Return of the Jedi, the film where actual Yoda passes away at 900 years old. So no, Baby Yoda isn’t actually Baby Yoda. He’s actually 50 years old, according to the information we’ve gathered so far from The Mandalorian (different species age differently than we do).

But as of right now, four episodes into The Mandalorian, the only other name we have for him is the Child – so Baby Yoda will have to do.

At this moment in time, we still don’t know the name of Yoda’s green species. Star Wars creator George Lucas has famously kept it under wraps all these years, with only three members of this species ever existing in the Star Wars universe: Yoda, the Child (Baby Yoda), and Yaddle, a slightly terrifying female Yoda who can be seen briefly in a Jedi council meeting during The Phantom Menace.

Despite some of the divisiveness amongst Star Wars fans surrounding the recent Disney additions to the saga, it seems that the consensus in regards to this character is unanimous: Protect Baby Yoda at all costs.

You’ll have to watch The Mandalorian to find out more about Baby Yoda, but with episodes releasing every Friday until the season finale on December 27 (with the exception of episode 7, releasing Wednesday, December 18, before the theatrical release of Rise of Skywalker in theaters that Friday), you’ll have plenty of time to learn about and gush over Baby Yoda’s cuteness with the fam this holiday season.