Skirmish in the Senate The Skirmish in the Senate was a confrontation that took place in 19 BBY between the Dark Lord of the Sith Darth Sidious and the Jedi Grand Master Yoda . The two masters of the Force engaged in a ferocious lightsaber duel , with each making liberal use of their Force powers . Ultimately , Yoda was forced to flee after coming to the conclusion that he could not defeat Sidious . Afterwards , Yoda went into exile while the Dark Lord rushed to Mustafar to rescue his apprentice , Darth Vader , who had been grievously injured by Obi - Wan Kenobi during their duel on Mustafar . Prelude . The aftermath of the duel between Jedi Master Mace Windu and Supreme Chancellor Palpatine — who was also Dark Lord of the Sith Darth Sidious — left the young Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker in turmoil — torn between his loyalty to the Jedi and his wish to save his wife , Padmé Amidala , from dying during childbirth , as he had seen in visions . Palpatine , who had played the role of a mentor to the boy for many years , swayed Skywalker to his side by tempting him with the power to save his wife from death , using a power only available to him through the dark side of the Force . With no prospect of returning to the Jedi Order given his inadvertent role in Windu ' s death , he saw no other option for himself than to join the Dark Lord ' s cause . At that moment , Skywalker knelt before Sidious and was inducted into the Order of the Sith Lords as Darth Vader . Sidious then sent him to the Jedi Temple with the 501st Legion and to kill all the Jedi within it . The Dark Lord also enacted Order 66 , a measure programed into the clone troopers fighting alongside Jedi in the Clone Wars that commanded them to eliminate any and all Jedi around them . These two actions virtually eradicated the Jedi from the galaxy . Before leaving the Jedi Temple , Vader had used the Temple ' s signal beacon to transmit a repeating message that any surviving Jedi needed to return to Coruscant . Vader hoped that this message would serve as a deadly lure to the lucky few Jedi who had managed to escape the Purge . Jedi Master Obi - Wan Kenobi and Yoda , the Jedi Grand Master , both managed to survive Order 66 and discovered the message from the Temple . Suspecting that it was a trap for Jedi survivors , the two eventually made their way back to the Jedi Temple with the intention of recoding the Temple ' s message beacon . Upon arriving at the Temple , they encountered a clone trooper garrison that had been left there to execute any Jedi who returned as instructed by the beacon . The two Jedi eliminated the troopers and reconfigured the beacon to warn all surviving Jedi to go into hiding . On their way out , Kenobi and Yoda had looked through the Temple ' s security hologram footage and discovered that Skywalker , Kenobi ' s former Padawan , had led the slaughter . The two Jedi knew that they had to make an effort to destroy the two Sith Lords for the sake of the galaxy . Kenobi volunteered to take on Sidious while Yoda would fight Vader , unable to bear the thought of striking down his " brother . " However , Yoda pointed out that Kenobi was not powerful enough to fight Sidious . Kenobi , on Yoda ' s orders , left to find Vader on Mustafar while Yoda entered the Chancellery Secretariat undetected , determined to kill Sidious , who had recently proclaimed himself ruler of a new Galactic Empire . The duel . Inside the Galactic Senate Chamber Holding Office of the Senate Building , the Grand Master came face to face with the Dark Lord of the Sith after Force pushing his guards against the wall , rendering them unconscious . Yoda then mentioned that Palpatine , or rather , Darth Sidious had recently gained a new apprentice , while mockingly addressing him as " Emperor . " Realizing that a battle between two masters of the Force was imminent , Senate Vice Chair Mas Amedda promptly left the office . The battle started when Sidious blasted Yoda with Force lightning , sending him flying across the chamber and slamming into a wall . Yoda quickly recovered , and ignoring Sidious ' taunts , retaliated with a powerful Force Push that sent the Dark Lord flying over his desk . Yoda declared that Sidious ' reign was over , and not a moment too soon . Not wanting to take any risks at his moment of triumph , Sidious attempted to flee but Yoda blocked his way , igniting his lightsaber . Realizing he would have to fight the Jedi Master blade - to - blade , Sidious ignited his hold - out lightsaber . He declared that Darth Vader would become far more powerful than either of them , although Yoda stated that his faith in Vader and the dark side may have been misplaced . With nothing left to be said , the duel began . Their battle raged through the office , with neither opponent able to gain an advantage . As the fight moved to the Chancellor ' s Podium , the platform rose through the retractable ceiling into the Grand Convocation Chamber itself . As the duel continued , Sidious found that his movements were being hampered by the small size of the Podium , while Yoda ' s Ataru style and diminutive stature allowed him to easily jump around the Dark Lord . Yoda ultimately managed to dislodge Sidious ' s lightsaber out of his grip , disarming him . Sidious immediately took the high ground by jumping to one of the Senate pods above him . He then began to use the Force to throw waves of these pods at Yoda , but the Jedi Grandmaster used his own powers to dodge from one pod to another , avoiding Sidious ' s improvised projectiles . As Yoda leapt about , he attempted to re - engage Sidious in lightsaber combat , but the Dark Lord ' s attack was too intense for Yoda to close the distance . It was at that very moment , during a match between the embodiments of light and dark , that Yoda realized the Jedi had lost the war before it even started . In the last millennium , the Sith had changed and adapted , becoming a new entity ; while the Jedi Order , under his leadership , spent the same time merely training to re - fight the last war . Additionally , Yoda sensed that , while he was tiring , Sidious was slowly gaining strength . Shaking away his doubts , the tiny Jedi focused himself on an oncoming pod and sent it hurtling back at Sidious . As the pod flew back at Sidious , he realized that he had spread his own powers too thinly to counter the spinning projectile with the Force . He was instead forced to leap from his perch to a lower pod , giving up the tactical high ground . Yoda immediately saw his chance to re - engage Sidious at close quarters and leaped at the Sith Lord , landing on the edge of Sidious ' s pod and igniting his lightsaber . However , Sidious unleashed a blast of Force lightning at Yoda before he could strike , tearing Yoda ' s lightsaber from his grasp . Yoda was forced to utilize tutaminis to absorb Sidious ' s lightning , but Sidious ' s power was such that Yoda began to falter . Sidious advanced on the diminutive Jedi Master , sending more lightning at him as he closed the distance between the two . However , as he was about to be overwhelmed , Yoda had a sudden realization . Through the Force , he sensed that , though the Jedi Order was broken and the Sith had triumphed , all was not lost . He knew not how or why that might be , but he knew one thing for certain ; if the galaxy was to be free from the Sith , he had to survive . With this newfound knowledge , Yoda gained the strength necessary start redirecting Sidious ' s lightning back at him , coalescing the energy into a blue orb in front of him . Yoda ultimately deflected Sidious ' s lightning back to him but it caused an explosion that hurled them apart from each other Sidious was sent tumbling head over heels to the edge of the pod , but having been at its opposite end when the energy orb exploded , he was not blasted clear of the pod and barely managed to grab one of its guardrails . Yoda however , had been standing at the very edge of the pod during the explosion , and weighed very little . As such , the blast sent Yoda flying all the way back to the Chancellor ' s Podium , situated high above the Senate floor with nothing in between but empty space . Yoda struck the Podium too hard to control his landing , and he rolled off the main portion to the edge where he desperately attempted to climb back up . But , exhausted and holding onto a smooth edge , Yoda lost his grip and fell several stories to the Senate floor . Battered and weary , Yoda knew that re - engaging Sidious with his stamina depleted and his body wounded would be fruitless , and knew through the Force that he needed to escape if the galaxy was to have a chance at freedom . Yoda instead chose to retreat as Sidious cackled in triumph above him . Yoda crawled through the ventilation shafts and eventually dropped into Senator Bail Prestor Organa ' s airspeeder , escaping into exile . Aftermath . Shock troopers led by Commander Thire were not able to recover Yoda ' s body , and Mas Amedda was convinced that the Jedi Grand Master had escaped . Sidious assigned Thire and a squad of clones to search for the Jedi , even giving them permission to blow up the Senate building if they wished . Sidious himself had far more pressing matters to attend to , as his unease had progressed to a near - certainty that Vader was in mortal danger . On Mustafar , the Dark Lord found his apprentice near death due to the recent duel where Obi - Wan Kenobi dealt him what seemed mortal wounds . However , Sidious ultimately managed to save his apprentice . The magnitude of damage in the Senate Rotunda caught the eyes of the Senators . Rumors circulated in the Senate that Jedi Grand Master Yoda had led an attack on Emperor Palpatine himself , and that the ancient Jedi Master had been killed . Through Wookiee Senator Yarua , the rumor found its way to Kashyyyk , including the ears of Chewbacca and Tarfful . Eventually , the rumor reached Olee Starstone and her team of fugitive Jedi . Having not been able to defeat Sidious , Yoda chose self - imposed exile to the swamp planet of Dagobah , where he would wait until Anakin ' s twins , Luke and Leia , would be of age to turn their father back from the Dark Side . Years later , on Dagobah , Yoda would train Luke in the ways of the Force . Luke would ultimately go on to rescue his father from the dark side and inspire the latter to defeat Palpatine , bringing balance to the Force . Behind the scenes . This lightsaber duel in the Senate Rotunda was created for the 2005 film , . It was unnamed in the film , but an official Hasbro Star Wars Miniatures pack that depicted the duel identified it as the Skirmish in the Senate . According to " The Making of Star Wars Revenge of the Sith " , Senate hovercams were meant to broadcast the duel across the galaxy on the HoloNet , but this idea was later dropped . In , Yoda entered the office from another direction , so no Royal Guards attempted to stop him . Mas Amedda left the office before any exchange was made . Palpatine ' s Force lightning was deflected by Yoda which blasted the guards into unconsciousness instead of himself being knocked across the room . Yoda then knocked Palpatine to the floor with his physical body instead of a Force Push . At the end of the battle , the lightning energy ball did not explode . Sidious safely leaped to a nearby podium and Yoda followed . Sidious then turned around and blasted Yoda , who was still in the air , back against another podium who fell down to the bottom . Sidious was not knocked over by any blast , but he was described as " a very old , very tired man " after the epic battle . In the novelization , Yoda apparently does not lose his lightsaber in the battle , as he is described slicing his way through the ventilation shafts in his escape from the Senate Building . In , the first half of the duel is a combination of scenes in the movie and the novelization . Yoda entered the office the way he did in the novel , but was blasted by Palpatine as shown in the movie . The Red Guards and Mas Amedda mysteriously vanished after the battle started , and Yoda knocked Palpatine down with his body as shown in the novel . The duel in the comic ends after Yoda disarms Darth Sidious and gets blasted into the air . In a DVD commentary , Rob Coleman stated that the Emperor ' s use of Senate pods as weapons was a metaphor for the fall of freedom and democracy brought about by Palpatine ' s victory . There is a contradiction between two official sources about whether Yoda truly fainted or was merely playing weak when Sidious shot him with lightning and sent him flying across the office ; the screenplay described Yoda as " stunned , " while the junior novelization stated that Yoda faked it to surprise Darth Sidious . As the screenplay is G - canon , it is the official version . This is one of the few lightsaber duels in any of the films that does not result in any of the participants being injured in any way by a lightsaber .