Luke Skywalker would beat Jedi Master Yoda in a fight

I have never done a Star Wars debate, and in fact had to brush up on a good deal of the Extended Universe canon to have any idea of Luke's abilities post-Yavin. This debate promises to be fun, not least because of the nature of the research involved. Lacking a fixed, authoritative source for this debate, biographical information for Luke and Yoda will be taken from Wookipedia. Official canon only. All events are dated from the battle of Yavin, the date expressed as "before the battle of Yavin" (BBY) or "after the battle of Yavin" (ABY). I argue that, if the two Jedi were ever to meet in combat, Yoda would probably win. 1. Experience I'm not going to recount every battle Yoda fought, and compare them to every battle Luke fought. For the moment, unless my opponent chooses to bring up counter examples, I'll make this point by a very simple comparison. Yoda became a Jedi Master before 800 BBY. For more than 800 years, he was the greatest Force wielder and the wisest Jedi in the galaxy, renowned as one of the three greatest Jedi to have ever lived. At the age of 30, Luke re-formed the Order around 11 ABY; he assumed the title of Grand Master around 36 ABY, and died at some point well before 137 ABY. Luke was a Jedi Master for less than 100 years. Assuming we are matching these two in their prime, Yoda has 700+ years of experience more than Luke has. 2. Knowledge Yoda spent upwards of 800 years as a Jedi Master, teaching many generations of Jedi Knights. Through those years, he had unlimited access to the vast Library in the Jedi Temple on Coruscant, with all the books, artifacts, and holocrons the Order had accumulated over the millennia. He spent centuries learning from and teaching some of the greatest Jedi Masters of all time. Luke did not have access to any of this knowledge. He was forced into action after mere months of informal training under an old and dying master, and spent a large amount of his career scouring the galaxy for fragments of Jedi lore that Palpatine missed in the purge. Despite his best efforts, he could hardly have recovered more than a tiny fraction of the knowledge that was lost. The finer points of dueling were lost with the masters that knew them; those that could have mentored him in the classic forms were either killed in the Clone Wars and the Purge (Form II, Dooku; Form VII, Windu) or died before they had the chance to teach him more than the basics (Form III, Kenobi; Form IV, Yoda). Force Lighting, an attack Luke struggled to defend against for most of his career, was obviously not a problem for Jedi Masters before the purge; Yoda and Windu are both shown redirecting it without taking damage - Yoda doing so with his bare hands. The Library was destroyed shortly before Luke's birth, and he struggled all his life to attain the basic knowledge that a few months in it's halls could have given him. Yoda's Force abilities were naturally great, but were also highly trained over centuries with all the knowledge of the Order at his disposal. Luke learned most of his abilities by instinct or by experimentation; his development was hindered by his lack of training. Many of the abilities he learned, such as generating Force Storms, he learned from his enemies. Yoda mastered all of the lightsaber fighting forms, learning them in the mature, polished form that 3000 years of combat use had given; and he used those forms effectively against many enemies who were also trained to a high level. Luke learned the basics, and learned the rest by trial and error; mostly against backwater foes and rustic Sith Lord - wannabes. The few times in his early career that he faced against a truly formidable opponent, he either lost or required back-up to win. As good as he eventually got, its clear he never quite made it into Yoda's league. 3. Character Yoda is noted for having utter control over his emotions at all times, fighting dispassionately and without ever giving in to the Dark Side. His power was more than a match for even the strongest of the Dark Side users he dueled. Luke, in his considerably shorter history, was rather more impulsive and passionate. He had difficulty at times avoiding the Dark Side, actually going over at at least one point. It wasn't until late in his career that he finally gained a level of control over his emotions and was able to fight calmly. In short: Luke had great potential, and a very distinguished career, but he was hampered by his lack of training and the loss of the accumulated knowledge of the Oder. Had he been given the same training and mentoring Yoda received, and had he lived a few more centuries, he might have eclipsed the old Grandmaster. As it was, should Yoda and Luke ever have met in a duel, Luke would be overwhelmed by Yoda's greater skill and experience. I return this debate to my opponent. . http://starwars.wikia.com... . http://starwars.wikia.com...