One thing I’ll say is that Disney kept Baby Yoda a secret until the show came out, and thereby forfeited any merch sales until after Christmas 2019. They resorted to doing the same sort of pre-sales they did with Kenner back in 1977 (in that case because they didn’t think demand for merch would be so huge). So that’s a tally on the side of caring more for the artistic expression and making a great fan experience than money (at least directly).
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Interesting, since the truth is the ONLY thing I kept seeing about Mandalorian prior to ever watching it was talk about Baby Yoda. That’s it. No one talked about the story, the main character, or anything. I just saw Baby Yoda everywhere.
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I’m just going to follow this conversation for a bit to “heart” everything @Jeff_AZ says and glare disapprovingly at everything @ryan1 says…
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That’s because he’s so damn cute!
(For the record, I love everything about the Mandalorian. Characters, story, 80s-style episodic format, music, etc.)
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I think you can just shorten your statement to that. 
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But that’s part of the problem. The showed relied on the cuteness of the character. Without that, would it have been so successful? I have doubts it would have been.
I always fear that people judge me being critical of something to mean the same thing as I didn’t like it at all. That’s not true. I did enjoy it. But when the last episode of season 1 ended, I was like, “Okay. That’s done.” And I had no desire to watch more. That was a failure, to me. I’ve watched plenty of shows where I am GEEKED for the next season. This just didn’t do that for me.
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Not for me.
Now Mando’s sexy voice? That could be a thing for me. 
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In the USA!!!
The UK was already full of baby Yoda memes before it launched here 
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But why wonder that??
Grogu IS cute and IS part of the show.
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It was like an old school Western to me - including the soundtrack and the art during the credits. My parents watched tons of those shows and movies growing up. My dad is not a Star Wars fan and loved the Mandalorian because of that.
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Well yes and no. It appealed to a lot of people because of the cute character, but it appealed to a lot of people because it had a strong connection to old school Star Wars and that same vibe. That’s why a lot of people who weren’t into recent SW films loved the series.
The reason I’m pitting The Book of Boba against The Mandalorian (and what I was referring to in setting the bar high) is because Mando succeeded in making that connection to og Star Wars and a lot of og characters. Boba is one of those og characters, so in that way the series has to succeed in and live up to what Mando already did - making that connection. Same goes for Kenobi, of course, as it aims to do something similar, so the stakes are high.
edit: of course, not everyone liked it and I don’t disagree with some of the criticism. I agree on the “80’s style” and I wasn’t a fan of every episode. Early on there was an episode or two which made me question the series, but eventually I fell for it!
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Edit:
That was an imposter tweet. Here’s a news story about what we can expect to hear next week.
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I deleted that last one because the tweet was from an imposter account. We’ll hear more next week on Disney+ day.
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“Under the Helmet: The Legacy of Boba Fett” premiered today on Disney+. I enjoyed it. There were some very interesting things in the early days of character development of him. Now I want to rewatch some of the various movies and shows, and especially The Mandalorian, before “The Book of Boba Fett” is released after Christmas.
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I’m going to see a Star Wars movie in theaters tonight! AMC has surprise showings this weekend for Disney+ day. I won’t know what movie it is until it starts. I’m hoping for Rogue One but I will be happy regardless.
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That sounds fun!
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I’m dying to know which one you got!
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