The Mandalorian, introduced audiences to the Child, also known as Baby Yoda, and the hoards of bad guys who keep trying to abduct him for nefarious purposes. Clearly, the Child is extremely important, but despite how central this premise is to the show, fans still don't know the actual reason why people want him. Moff Gideon is one of these folks, eager to get his hands on the Child, but like the others, his motive isn't apparent. Nevertheless, one Redditor has an interesting theory that might explain Gideon's reason.
As Reddit user Almo95 speculates, Moff Gideon wants to steal Baby Yoda to extract his midi-chlorians and inject them into himself so he can become a Force user. Introduced in The Phantom Menace, midi-chlorians are microorganisms present in all living things in the Star Wars universe. Force users tend to have significantly higher midi-chlorian counts than most people, and since Baby Yoda can use the Force as a toddler, his midi-chlorian count is probably quite high. While there's no guarantee that increasing one's midi-chlorian count would make that individual Force sensitive, Almo95 also suggests that Gideon might be saving them for someone else: Emperor Palpatine.
While Moff Gideon has been pretty vague about his intentions, his allies the Client and Dr. Pershing may have provided some information. As Mando prepares to rescue Baby Yoda, he overhears part of a conversation between the two. The Client orders Pershing to "extract the necessary materials" while Pershing insists that they need to keep the Child alive as per their boss's wishes. Some have theorized that they were trying to clone Baby Yoda and that the "necessary materials" were DNA samples, but if the theory proves to be true, they could've meant midi-chlorians. Perhaps the Client wanted to extract the Child's midi-chlorians while they had the chance but Pershing feared that doing so would harm or even kill him. After all, the Jedi believed that the microbes were necessary to create life, so removing them probably wasn't great for the host.
In Star Wars Legends, a person could take someone else's midi-chlorians via blood transfusion. In one such instance, General Grievous received a midi-chlorian-rich blood transfusion from a frozen Jedi Master which saved his life but, to his disappointment, did not make him Force-sensitive. This is because high midi-chlorian counts are actually a by-product of Force sensitivity, not the cause of it. Although this story isn't considered canon, it may still be useful to understanding the true nature of midi-chlorians. Depending on how much he knows about the Force, Moff Gideon may mistakenly believe that he can make himself Force-sensitive if he takes a Force-user's midi-chlorians just as Grievous thought.
On the other hand, maybe Gideon knows more about the Force than Grievous and intends to use the midi-chlorians to revive Emperor Palpatine. This could help explain how Palpatine was able to return in The Rise of Skywalker, creating a direct link between the show and the movies in the process. Even so, The Mandalorian Season 2 has a lot of questions to answer about its villain and his backstory. As actor Giancarlo Esposito's interviews indicate, it could be a while before fans learn the truth about Moff Gideon.
Created by Jon Favreau, The Mandalorian stars Pedro Pascal, Gina Carano, Carl Weathers, Giancarlo Esposito, Taika Waititi and Emily Swallow. Season 1 is available now on Disney+, with Season 2 premiering Oct. 30.