Daisy Ridley's Response To Rey's Abilities Being Compared To Baby Yoda's
Since Disney obtained the Star Wars license, they have been putting their new characters front and center (for the most part) over the popular characters of the series' past. Their protagonists, for better or for worse, always tend to draw strong emotions from the fan base. The two seemingly mentioned the most these days happen to be Rey and Grogu, the latter often nicknamed 'Baby Yoda' by fans. There doesn't seem to be much connecting the two on the surface, but some fans have given a deeper look to draw some comparisons to the two Force users. It seems that, beneath it all, there is some overlap, and now even Daisy Ridley herself has commented on the comparisons being done.
Daisy Ridley has not been quiet about standing up for her character and her own performance in the three films of the sequel trilogy. Ridley's experience with the Star Wars universe and its fans has been a little polarizing, to say the least. While she has been given some praise for her portrayal and the positive influence having a woman as the central Jedi has brought, she's also received a lot of backlash for many things fans don't seem to approve of, from seemingly genuine concerns over plots to less grounded and often times sexist remarks about her being the integral character to the plot. Regardless of which she seems to be dealing with at the time, she has never been shy about speaking up and sharing her thoughts. She's done it again about the comparisons between herself and the lovable green child we spent two seasons watching grow and learn.
The comparisons in question are about their powers over anything else. While physically, their differences are many and they even don't occupy the same time period (that we know of so far), the main comparison comes from how they tend to utilize the force. While they definitely have their differences, with Rey shown to have the potential for powers like Force lightning, something Grogu has never even hinted at, both characters show an affinity and a seeming fondness for a Force healing ability not often seen beforehand. This ability, when it appeared in The Rise of Skywalker after it appeared in The Mandalorian, brought about a lot of backlash from fans, causing Ridley to once again be on the defensive of Rey's own abilities and character. But it seems to have not elicited the same reaction to our lovable green protagonist, no matter how many times we've seen it. Now, Ridley herself has a theory as to why.
“Here’s the thing… Baby Yoda is immensely powerful but also Baby Yoda is almost cheating because he’s so sweet that whatever Baby Yoda did you’re like, ‘Aww!’ Whereas I’m a human so I don’t have that. So I feel like Baby Yoda has had an easier time being a Force healer because it’s Baby Yoda being a Force healer. We’re both good in that space but he definitely has cuteness on me.”
She definitely isn't wrong; there is little that Grogu can do wrong that we wouldn't overlook, as we've spent two seasons watching and loving our child protagonist. The biggest draw to him is definitely his cuteness and the childlike wonder in which he approaches every episode of The Mandalorian. As a human, she definitely does get held to a harsher standard as everyone wants to bring up realism when it comes to her, while a child being 50 years old and having these abilities does get overlooked with his stature and naivete driving our fascination with him.
Only time will tell whether they ever get held to the same standard. With Disney putting the ability in a film and the series, it's safe to say that Force healing may be around to stay, but only time will tell if the backlash over Rey's use of it will ease, or whether Grogu will gain some criticism for using it in The Mandalorian.
Source(s): Screen Rant