In the second episode of the second season of Disney’s The Mandalorian, Baby Yoda spends the episode hunting and eating several of the last remaining eggs of Mando’s passenger, who is a sentient, frog-like woman. This was met with some consternation, as you might guess. It was obviously meant to be funny. Phil Szostak, creative art manager for Lucasfilm, tweeted,
https://twitter.com/PhilSzostak/status/1325913062826651648
Look, this is a TV show, it’s all very stupid. But. This tiny adorable critter that they want us to love and care about ate sentient life and they played it for laughs.
The things writers’ characters do in a story matter, even if the writers think they’re just making a joke. There are implications in what you write, and you have to think them through. One time I wrote a bunch of scenes that were all jokes and when I went back later on and re-read them I was all, “Shit, now my main character is an abusive stalker,” and I had to scrap half the story.
Just because a writer thinks something is funny doesn’t mean that’s the way it’s going to play for the audience. They wrote a joke and now their loveable little main character is a baby-eating monster.
Pay more attention to what you write and stop being snippy with the fans because they thought the implications through and the writers’ room didn’t. 😒
Notes & Thoughts 