Why Did Grogu Choose the Armor Over Yoda’s Lightsaber? A Complete Breakdown
If your search history includes “Did Grogu pick the armor or the lightsaber?” you are not alone. Ever since The Book of Boba Fett aired in early 2022, that brief scene with Luke Skywalker, a tiny beskar shirt, and Yoda’s lightsaber has driven constant rewatching and explaining.
By late 2025, it is still one of the most‑googled questions tied to The Mandalorian era. Many fans skipped The Book of Boba Fett but came back for The Mandalorian season 3, only to discover Grogu suddenly back with Din Djarin. Naturally, they went looking for answers.
Here is what actually happened on screen, what the creators have said since, how Yoda’s saber even exists in canon, and why the choice still matters for where Grogu is heading next.
The Setup: Luke’s Binary Choice in The Book of Boba Fett
The dilemma appears in The Book of Boba Fett “Chapter 6: From the Desert Comes a Stranger,” which hit Disney+ on 2 February 2022.
In that episode, Din Djarin flies to a forested world where Luke Skywalker is building his new Jedi academy and training Grogu. Ahsoka Tano meets Din first and warns him that seeing Grogu could disrupt the child’s training. Din leaves without meeting him and hands Ahsoka a gift instead: a small bundle containing beskar chain mail, forged from his old spear for Grogu.
Ahsoka delivers the package to Luke. During their talk, Luke admits he is unsure how committed Grogu really is to the Jedi path. He also says he does not quite know how to handle the situation with the child and Din.
At the end of the episode, Luke brings Grogu into a stone training room and sets up the choice. First, he unwraps Din’s gift and reveals the tiny beskar chain shirt. Then he opens a small box and shows Grogu a green‑bladed lightsaber, which he identifies as having belonged to “Master Yoda.”
Luke presents them as mutually exclusive options. If Grogu chooses the armor, Luke says, he will return to the Mandalorian. That means “giving in to attachment” and “forsaking the way of the Jedi,” in Luke’s words. If Grogu chooses the lightsaber, Luke will train him as the first student of his new academy, but Grogu may never see Din again and the training could last many years.
The episode fades out on Luke asking, “Which do you choose?” without showing an answer. That deliberate cut is the cliffhanger that launched thousands of theory posts and explainers.
How the Show Quietly Answered the Cliffhanger
The series did not leave the question hanging for long. The resolution comes just one week later in “Chapter 7: In the Name of Honor,” released on 9 February 2022.
The answer arrives in a very practical way. R2‑D2 flies Luke’s X‑wing to Peli Motto’s hangar on Tatooine. When Peli lifts the astromech dome, she finds Grogu tucked inside. Luke himself is nowhere in sight.
Peli quickly notices what Grogu is wearing. Under his robe, he has on the beskar chain mail that Din ordered for him. That single visual detail confirms the choice. Grogu picked the armor and left the lightsaber behind.
Later in the episode, Peli drives Grogu into Mos Espa on a rickshaw during Boba Fett’s battle with the Pyke Syndicate. As blaster fire and explosions fill the street, Grogu spots Din, leaps into his arms, and the two finally reunite. Din sees the beskar shirt, realizes what Grogu chose, and reacts with clear relief and joy.
Grogu then proceeds to help in the battle. He uses the Force to disable part of a massive Scorpenek droid, and at the climax he calms Boba’s raging rancor to sleep. By the end of the episode, Din and Grogu leave Tatooine together in Din’s new N‑1 starfighter, with Grogu riding in the modified droid dome.
Reference material has since spelled it out plainly. Official character entries summarize that Grogu “chose the beskar chain mail over Yoda’s lightsaber,” ended his time with Luke, and returned to life with the Mandalorian. In other words, the armor won.
Inside the Story: Attachment, Family, and Two Very Different Paths
On an in‑universe level, the choice is framed as a clash between Jedi doctrine and personal attachment.
Luke tells Grogu directly that choosing the armor means “giving in to attachment to those that you love and forsaking the way of the Jedi.” Choosing the lightsaber, however, means committing to the traditional Jedi path. Luke warns that because Grogu’s species ages so slowly, what seems a short time for him could be a lifetime for someone else. That comment highlights how long Grogu might remain at the temple while Din grows old.
Several detailed explainers written soon after the episodes aired draw the same line. The beskar shirt represents the Mandalorian way of loyalty, found family, and mutual protection. The lightsaber represents the Jedi path of self‑denial, discipline, and distance from personal bonds.
Writers at The Cinemaholic, for example, described the choice as one between “the Mandalorian way of loyalty and solidarity” and a more detached Jedi life. They emphasize that Grogu “ultimately chooses the former” and reunites with Din accordingly. Distractify’s breakdown likewise points to the “sturdy bond” between Din and Grogu built across The Mandalorian seasons and argues that Grogu cannot turn down a chance to return to “the person he loves the most.”
That reading lines up with earlier comments from co‑creator Dave Filoni. In interviews collected by genre outlets, Filoni has said of Grogu’s background that “Mando’s his family,” and that he has no interest in centering a story on Grogu’s original biological relatives. The bond with Din is the relationship that matters.
So, taken strictly from the story’s perspective, Grogu is not just picking a shirt over a weapon. He is choosing between a life with his adoptive father and a life inside a rebuilt Jedi Order that still expects him to put personal ties aside.
What Favreau and Filoni Were Really Doing With That Choice
Outside the story, the people making these shows have been unusually clear about why this decision happens in The Book of Boba Fett rather than later.
In a February 2023 interview with Empire, Jon Favreau explained that they did not want to “hit a hard reset” by keeping Din and Grogu separated through The Mandalorian season 3. Instead, they used The Book of Boba Fett to show each character struggling alone. Viewers see Din without Grogu and Grogu without Din. Favreau said that “neither of them was doing too good,” and their reunion served as a “really good plot point” to restore the show’s core relationship before season 3.
Favreau also compared the situation to the film Paper Moon. In that movie, a child bonds deeply with a con‑man father figure. At the end, she chooses to stay with him instead of a more conventional guardian. Favreau said Grogu is “given a decision to choose,” and “the kid chooses the emotional relationship and wants to be with the Mandalorian, and passing up Yoda’s lightsaber.”
In another discussion quoted by entertainment sites, Favreau tied Grogu’s decision directly to Luke’s own history. He pointed out that Grogu had spent years in the Jedi Temple, then time traveling with Din, and then up to around two years training with Luke. According to Favreau, Grogu eventually chooses to leave training because of his attachment to Din. Favreau compared that to Luke Skywalker’s choice in The Empire Strikes Back to abandon Yoda’s training early and rush to save his friends on Cloud City.
There has been some confusion over the exact length of Grogu’s time with Luke. Favreau later told Variety that the separation between Din and Grogu was somewhere between zero and two years, roughly echoing the gap between the December 2020 Mandalorian season 2 finale and the February 2022 Boba Fett episodes. The precise number is less important than the pattern. In both eras, Skywalker training gets interrupted by powerful attachments.
Favreau has also been clear that Grogu’s relationship to the Force is not finished. In a 2024 conversation with Collider about the upcoming film The Mandalorian and Grogu, he said that Din has now formally adopted Grogu and that “it’s his job to train him.” Favreau described an “apprenticeship” between the two. At the same time, he reminded audiences that Grogu “was trained by none other than Luke Skywalker” and that “the path of the Force is a lifelong path.”
In other words, from the creators’ point of view, Grogu is not turning his back on the Force. He is picking who will raise him and what kind of day‑to‑day life he will have, while still carrying both Jedi lessons and Mandalorian armor.
Clearing Up the Yoda Lightsaber Canon Confusion
Part of what made this scene so striking was the object Luke used to tempt Grogu: Yoda’s lightsaber. For long‑time viewers, that raised an immediate question. Wasn’t Yoda’s saber destroyed after Revenge of the Sith?
In the prequel films, Yoda wields a green‑bladed shoto. He loses it during his duel with Darth Sidious in the Senate chamber, when Force lightning knocks the weapon away and it falls out of view.
Years later, the comic series Darth Vader (2017) seemed to settle its fate. In the first issue, set shortly after Revenge of the Sith, Emperor Palpatine’s regime holds a public ceremony on Coruscant. Grand Vizier Mas Amedda throws confiscated Jedi lightsabers into a furnace. Dialogue in that issue even mentions the idea of corrupting “even Yoda’s” saber. The story strongly implies that at least one of Yoda’s weapons ends up destroyed in that purge.
However, other canon sources introduced another wrinkle. The 2016 reference book Star Wars: Complete Locations included a note that a box in Yoda’s hut on Dagobah contained keepsakes, Jedi texts, and Yoda’s lightsaber. That suggested the old Jedi Master still owned a functioning saber during his exile, long after the Senate battle.
When The Book of Boba Fett showed Luke presenting “Yoda’s lightsaber” to Grogu, those two threads collided. To address the apparent contradiction, members of the Lucasfilm Story Group and comic writer Charles Soule pointed out that a 900‑year‑old Jedi could reasonably have owned more than one lightsaber during his life.
Current reference entries have followed that line. They now describe the weapon in The Book of Boba Fett as “Yoda’s second lightsaber.” According to those summaries, after Yoda’s death in 4 ABY, this saber and its storage box ended up with Luke Skywalker. Luke kept it among his belongings and later brought it to his academy on Ossus. Around 9 ABY, he offered it to Grogu as part of the choice. Grogu declined, and Luke sent him back to Din with only the armor.
So, the short version is this. The saber Luke offers is canonically treated as a later Yoda weapon that Luke inherited, not necessarily the one destroyed in the Coruscant furnace.
Why Fans Are Still Asking About This in 2025
Given that the answer appears only one episode after the setup, why does this question still drive so many searches almost four years later?
There are a few practical reasons.
First, many Mandalorian viewers never watched The Book of Boba Fett. They finished season 2 in December 2020 with Grogu leaving with Luke. Then they jumped straight to The Mandalorian season 3, where Din and Grogu are together again, traveling the galaxy in an N‑1 starfighter. The emotional reunion, the armor choice, and the Luke scenes all happened in another series that some people treated as optional.
Second, the cliffhanger itself was designed to spark discussion. For a full week in February 2022, fans did not know which item Grogu had picked. Theory articles speculated that he might try to take both, or that he would choose the saber but still rush off to help Din, mirroring Luke’s early departure from Dagobah.
Once the finale aired and showed the armor under Grogu’s robe, the focus of coverage shifted. Outlets like The Cinemaholic and Distractify explained that his choice kept him away from Luke’s future academy. That detail became important after the sequel trilogy, because Ben Solo later destroys that school. Grogu’s decision therefore saves him from that massacre and leaves his long‑term fate completely open for future stories.
Finally, the scene also triggered debate about Luke’s teaching style. Some viewers, and writers at sites like Looper and Forbes, argued that his strict no‑attachment message felt at odds with the Luke who fought to save his father in Return of the Jedi. Others countered that the show was portraying Luke still wrestling with how to rebuild the Order, and perhaps making some of the same mistakes that doomed the old Jedi.
All of those threads keep the moment alive in fandom. New viewers encounter it through clips and recaps, then head to search engines to catch up on exactly what Grogu did and why.
What Grogu’s Decision Sets Up Next
As of late 2025, the franchise has doubled down on the path Grogu chose in that stone room.
In The Mandalorian season 3, Din formally adopts Grogu as his son and Mandalorian apprentice. He takes an oath in the Living Waters of Mandalore and has Grogu included as his child in that vow. Favreau has said publicly that it is now Din’s “job to train him,” framing their next phase as an apprenticeship.
At the same time, creators keep stressing that Grogu is not simply a miniature Mandalorian with a helmet and a jetpack. He carries early instruction from temple days, trauma from Order 66, and a short but intense period of training with Luke Skywalker. Favreau has remarked that Grogu has “strong ties to both the Jedi and the Mandalorians,” and that future stories will likely explore that dual heritage.
The upcoming feature film The Mandalorian and Grogu, scheduled for theatrical release in May 2026, is expected to push that evolution further. Official comments from Lucasfilm and Favreau suggest the movie will focus on Grogu’s growing independence and power, and on how Din handles being both a father and a mentor.
All of that flows from one quiet decision: a small hand reaching toward beskar armor instead of a historic green blade. Grogu chose a life with his found family over a distant academy, at least for now. The Force is still with him. The Jedi are still part of his story. But thanks to that choice, so are the Children of the Watch, Mandalorian steel, and the man he calls Dad.
