Many Star Wars fans have wondered- why are the Jedi Padawans always so young? During the prequels, we saw that the Jedi Order was training Jedi Younglings from all over the galaxy. They are a team of Force-sensitive children who would take up the job of keeping peace in the galaxy next. 

In this team was Grogu, who by the sheer force of luck was able to survive Anakin Skywalker’s rampage and Order 66. Now, we should note that this was the norm when the prequel trilogy was going on. And the prequels were set during the Republic’s reign before Emperor Palpatine led the Sith to kill off most of the Jedi. 

However, it was never said why the Jedi train the kids and develop their abilities from their youth. Thankfully, The Mandalorian has finally given us an explanation now. 

Why Are Jedi Padawans Trained From A Young Age? 

Lucasfilm took decades before giving a reason for this practice. But it’s finally here thanks to The Mandalorian season 2. In the second season, Din Djarin had to reunite Baby Yoda with the Jedi. This led him to Anakin Skywalker’s previous apprentice- Ahsoka Tano. 

Din thought that his responsibility to Grogu would end after meeting her. He thought that she would take him in after learning that he was one of the few survivors of Order 66. But Ahsoka didn’t. She refused because she sensed Grogu’s fears as well as his attachment to Mando which made him more susceptible to the darkness. 

So instead of training him to hone his powers, Ahsoka advised that he should be let go untrained and wait for his powers to lessen and then fade away over time. This pretty much gave us the reason behind Jedi’s training the next generation early on. 

After all, leaving their powers untrained could result in the child losing them altogether. Also, it could make the child more susceptible to darkness. Also, other attachments (like Grogu to Din) that might hamper the training later on. 

We should mention that Anakin Skywalker, given refuge by Qui-Gon Jinn from Tatooine (since he believed that Anakin was the Chosen one) had to tell his mom goodbye and begin training immediately. This was despite the Council believing that Anakin was just too old to get trained. Now we all know what happened to him later on. 

But There Are Two Exceptions To This Norm

We should mention that there are two heroes who won’t don’t fit in this idea. They are- Luke Skywalker and Rey. Both of them began training pretty late. We can even say that Luke didn’t start training under Yoda till The Empire Strikes Back when he was around 22 years of age. Previously Obi-Wan Kenobi just gave him some advice during the first fight with the Empire. 

Rey, on the other hand, began training a little earlier at 19 with Luke in Star Wars: The Last Jedi. But despite beginning training late, both of them became powerful Jedis. In fact their connection to the Force was so strong that they might just have been an exception to this rule. Now it’s possible that Grogu will join them as well. 

After all, it has easily been a couple of decades since his training was botched due to the Sith reign. But it seems like Grogu can still use the Force well. However, it still remains to be seen if he is in the same league as Luke and Rey after he begins training again with Luke. Right now we are hoping that this will get tackled in some way in season 3 of The Mandalorian. 

Check Out: Here’s Why The Mandalorian Season 3 Isn’t Coming Any Time Soon