Yoda

**Yoda** is a main character in the Star Wars saga. He was a legendary Jedi Master who witnessed the rise and fall of the Galactic Republic, as well as the rise of the Galactic Empire. Yoda served as Grand Master of the Jedi Order during the latter days of the Republic and also held a seat on the Jedi High Council along with other legendary masters such as Mace Windu or Ki-Adi-Mundi. After the fall of the Republic and the Jedi, Yoda fled to Dagobah where he lived for over two decades.

## **Biography**

* Before
* Episode I
* II
* CW
* III
* V
* VI
* VII
* VIII

**Early Life**

Born 900 years before the Battle of Endor, Yoda belonged to an ancient and mysterious species. As he was keenly attuned to the Force, he joined the Jedi Order as a youngling. After undergoing the ritual known as the Gathering, he received his kyber crystal, and Professor Huyang helped him construct his first lightsaber aboard the Crucible. Thereafter, Yoda was paired up with a personal mentor. During their time together, Yoda's Jedi Master told him the tale of K'ungfu and Chuang, two great Jedi of the past. Around the age of 100, Yoda was ready to pass on what he had learned. Having attained the rank of Master, he spent the next eight centuries training and tutoring generations of Jedi. It was estimated that over his lifetime, he trained around 20,000 Jedi.

Centuries later, Yoda took on the human Dooku as his last known padawan in the era of the Galactic Republic. Yoda visited the planet Kashyyyk on several occasions prior to the Battle of Kashyyyk, serving as Jedi negotiator in many incidents involving the Wookiees and their Trandoshan neighbors. This earned him the ancient title of "Defender of the Home Tree", as well as becoming a member of many Wookiee leaders' and all the inhabitants of Kachirho's honour families. Yoda also taught outside the Master/Padawan relationship, and trained all the Jedi younglings prior to their teaming up with Jedi Masters, including Master Obi-Wan Kenobi.

**The Phantom Menace**

During the invasion of the planet Naboo by the Trade Federation, Yoda served on the Jedi Council as the Grand Master of the Jedi Order, having trained Jedi students for about 800 years. He was present when Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn presented Anakin Skywalker, a young slave boy from the planet Tatooine, to the Council in the hopes of training him. Although Jinn believed Skywalker to be the Chosen One, prophesized to bring balance to the Force, Yoda and the other Council members did not share his opinion, sensing an uncertain future and a high amount of fear in the boy, and refused to grant permission.

After Jinn and his Padawan, Obi-Wan Kenobi, returned to Naboo, they forged an alliance between the human inhabitants of the world and the native species in order to combat the Federation occupation forces. The Federation's droid army was eventually deactivated after the accidental destruction of its command ship by Anakin Skywalker. During the battle, however, Jinn and Kenobi dueled a dark side Force user—Darth Maul, the Dathomirian Zabrak apprentice of the Sith Lord Darth Sidious—which cost Jinn his life.

Yoda, along with other members of the Council, was present at the Naboo victory parade and Jinn's earlier funeral, sharing his thoughts on the apparent reemergence of the Sith with fellow Master of the Order Mace Windu and pointing out that the Rule of Two, the Sith succession system in effect at the time, meant that another Sith was still present. Unbeknownst to the two Jedi, the remaining Sith was Sheev Palpatine, the Supreme Chancellor of the Galactic Republic, having been sworn in after a Vote of No Confidence forced his predecessor Valorum to resign. With Jinn dead, following the events on Naboo, the Council named Jinn's former Padawan Obi-Wan Kenobi a Jedi Knight, who informed Yoda of his master's final will—that Skywalker be trained. Reluctantly, Yoda permitted him to take the boy as his Padawan.

**Attack of the Clones**

Ten years after the Naboo crisis, several thousand systems, disillusioned by heavy taxation, seceded from the Galactic Republic and formed the Confederacy of Independent Systems under the leadership of Count Dooku, a former student of Yoda who left the Order due to widespread corruption in the Republic. As the Galactic Senate, the chief governing body of the Republic, debated the creation of a standing army, an unsuccessful attempt was made on the life of Senator Amidala of Naboo. After Jedi Knight Obi-Wan Kenobi and his Padawan Anakin Skywalker cornered the assassin, the killer was in turn killed by a mysterious person who escaped using his jetpack. The events prompted the Council, which included Yoda, to appoint Kenobi to track him down.

Kenobi's investigation led him to attempt to find the planet Kamino, whose location had been missing from the Jedi Archives, alarming Yoda, since only a Jedi could have erased the files. Interrupting a training session with the Bear Clan, Yoda helped Kenobi pinpoint the world's exact location through meditation, allowing the latter to travel there.

Following Kenobi's departure, Yoda experienced a vision while meditating, in which he heard the voice of the spirit of Qui-Gon Jinn, and sensed that Anakin Skywalker was in terrible pain. He discussed the vision with fellow Master Mace Windu afterwards.

Having arrived on Kamino, Kenobi reported that the Kaminoan cloners had created a clone army, the order for which had been placed by Jedi Master Sifo-Dyas, who had perished around the time of the Invasion of Naboo. Kenobi believed that the template used to create the army, bounty hunter Jango Fett, was the person involved in the attack on Amidala. After a brief encounter with Fett, Kenobi followed him to the planet Geonosis, where he found that Dooku's Separatists ordered the assassination attempt on Amidala and had constructed a droid army. After relaying the information to the Jedi Council, Kenobi was captured and scheduled for execution, later joined by Amidala and Anakin Skywalker.

News of Skywalker's and Kenobi's capture prompted the Council to dispatch a Jedi strike team to Geonosis, while Yoda headed to Kamino to take command of the clone forces. As the strike team interrupted the execution of Kenobi and his associates, suffering casualties at the hands of the numerically superior Confederate battle droid forces, Yoda led the clones into battle, thus beginning a galaxywide conflict that would become known as the Clone Wars.

As the clones engaged the Confederacy's forces in a massive battle, Yoda headed to rescue Kenobi and Skywalker from Dooku, who had incapacitated the duo in a duel. The diminutive Jedi Master showed his mastery and power over the Force surpassed Dooku by casually repelling Dooku's telekinetic assault and Force lightning. He then engaged Dooku in a brief but intense duel, having the upper hand. Dooku realized that he is outmatched by Yoda and telekinetically destabilized a large metal pillar, forcing Yoda to break off the duel and use his own powers to stop it from crushing Obi-Wan and Anakin. Dooku used the distraction to flee aboard his personal craft. Although the battle on Geonosis ended in the Republic's favor, Yoda was concerned about the growing influence of the dark side of the Force and the outcome of the Clone Wars.

**Mentoring Skywalker**

As the Clone Wars progressed, Yoda decided to alleviate Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker's fear and inability to lose loved ones by assigning him a Padawan learner, Ahsoka Tano. He believed that by becoming a teacher, Skywalker would develop emotionally and that when the time came for Tano to go off on her own, he would understand that his excessive bonding to those he cared about was unnecessary. Tano traveled to the planet of Christophsis, where she presented herself to Skywalker in the midst of a battle against Confederate forces.

After the battle had concluded, Yoda himself arrived on the planet and assigned the duo to the task of finding Rotta, the son of influential Hutt crime lord Jabba, who had been kidnapped as part of a plan arranged by his uncle Ziro to alienate the Hutts and the Jedi and drag the former into war. After the two Jedi successfully completed the mission, Yoda, along with a group of clones, extracted them from the planet Tatooine.

**Revenge of the Sith**

Three years after the start of the Clone Wars, Yoda remains the leader of the Jedi Order, and head of the Jedi Council. The Council has become suspicious of Supreme Chancellor Palpatine, who was captive on board General Grievous' ship. Obi-Wan and Anakin were sent to rescue him, and return after Anakin kills Dooku at Palpatine's urging. Palpatine then asks Anakin to be his representative on the Council. Anakin asks if he could be a Jedi Master, but they deny it and ask Anakin to spy on Palpatine. They send Obi-Wan to Utapau to apprehend Grievous and Yoda travels to Kashyyyk to assist the Wookiees in the war.

After Order 66 is initiated by Darth Sidious, Yoda finds himself clutching at his forehead and chest as he feels a disturbance in the Force as his fellow Jedi fall to their own clone troopers as part of the Great Jedi Purge. As two Clone Troopers sneak up behind him and prepare to shoot him as well, he senses their intent with the Force, causing him to jump up and decapitate them with his lightsaber before they even can fire - he and Chewbacca then travel into the forests, evading clone and droid patrols before Chewbacca and his fellow Wookiee Tarfful provide an escape pod for Yoda to flee Kashyyyk with so he could go meet Senator Bail Organa. They go to rescue Obi-Wan, who killed Grievous, but was also betrayed by his soldiers. Yoda and Obi-Wan return to Coruscant and enter the Jedi Temple, where they find out that Anakin had turned to the Dark Side and became Darth Sidious' apprentice, Darth Vader. Obi-Wan asks if he could face the Emperor so he would not have to kill Anakin, but Yoda says that he would be no match for Sidious and goes to confront the Emperor himself.

Yoda arrives at Sidious' throne room and knocks his guards out. Sidious zaps him with Force lightning, but Yoda gets up quickly and surprises him with a powerful Force push. With that, the two begin to duel. They battle in the Senate room, wrecking the entire room. During the battle, Yoda realizes Sidious' power is growing, while his is leaving him. The fight ends in a stalemate and Yoda, realizing that he cannot win, flees into the vents and crawls through them. He leaves with Bail and they travel to Mustafar to pick up Obi-Wan, realizing he has to go into exile due to failing to kill the Emperor. They arrive and find Obi-Wan (who had supposedly killed Anakin) and Padmé (who was pregnant with Anakin's children) and take them off the planet. Padmé gives birth to twins who she names Luke and Leia just before dying. Yoda says that they would have to hide the twins from the Empire, so Obi-Wan takes Luke to his uncle and aunt on Tatooine, and would watch over him from afar, while Bail and his wife take Leia to Alderaan. Yoda goes into exile on the swamp planet Dagobah and adopts the planet as his home.

**The Empire Strikes Back**

Years later, Luke Skywalker, under guidance from the Force spirit of Obi-Wan Kenobi who had served as his mentor, sought Yoda in his Dagobah exile to receive Jedi training. To test Skywalker, Yoda did not reveal his true identity and instead promised to lead him to Yoda; Skywalker's subsequent frustration and his age made the Jedi doubtful as to whether it was a good idea to train the boy, but Kenobi's spirit managed to convince him to do so. Yoda proceeded to tutor Skywalker with a variety of exercises, including the telekinetic manipulation of objects in the area. As part of his training, he also sent Skywalker into a nearby cave, which was powerful with the dark side in order to demonstrate the dangers of falling to the dark side of the Force. During his tenure with Yoda, Skywalker sensed that his friends were in danger in Cloud City on the gas giant Bespin, and headed there to confront Darth Vader in spite of Yoda's and Kenobi's persuasion to the contrary. Although Kenobi was distraught by Skywalker's rushed departure, Yoda reminded him that there was still another offspring of Anakin Skywalker—Leia Organa.

**Return of the Jedi**

Skywalker, having engaged in a duel with Vader on Cloud City, returned to Dagobah after a year. Yoda, ill and very close to death, confirmed what Vader had revealed to the young Jedi on Bespin: that the Sith Lord indeed was Anakin Skywalker, his father. He also warned him that with his training fully complete, his final task would be confronting Vader again and defeating him, and cautioned Skywalker not to underestimate the Force powers of Darth Sidious. Yoda also said that when he dies, Luke will become the last of the Jedi. Therefore, he wanted Luke to "pass on what you have learned". Finally, he also managed to inform him of the existence of another member of the Skywalker family. Yoda then died, and his body disappeared as he became one with the Force. He later appeared as a Force Ghost, along with Anakin and Obi-Wan, to Luke after the destruction of the Galactic Empire.

**The Force Awakens**

Thirty years later, Rey heard Yoda's voice describing the Force during a vision she witnessed upon touching the lightsaber that previously belonged to Luke Skywalker, and his father before him.

**The Last Jedi**

Sometime later, after Rey had visited Luke on his hermit-island on Ahch-To, a disillusioned and self-loathing Skywalker tried to burn down what few Jedi artifacts and writings were left in hopes that it would rid the galaxy of the Jedi once and for all, who, through him, had failed. Luke was surprised by the sudden appearance of Master Yoda as a Force spirit, who not only didn't seem to mind the ancient scripts burning up, but was the one to actually start the fire by causing lightning to strike the tree. In fact, unbeknownst to Luke, Rey had already taken the Jedi books when she left. During their meeting, Yoda pointed out that mistakes and failure are important lessons, if not the most important lesson, for a Jedi Master. Ultimately, Yoda helped Skywalker come to terms with his failed training of Ben Solo, and to realize that Rey already was a powerful Force user in her own right that didn't need his help. In reality, it was Luke that needed to forgive himself. This final, heartfelt meeting between the two friends led to Luke changing his mind and helping save the Resistance from certain defeat during the Battle of Crait.

## **Appearances**

* "The Phantom Menace"
* "Attack of the Clones"
* "Star Wars: The Clone Wars"
* "Revenge of the Sith"
* "The Empire Strikes Back"
* "Return of the Jedi
* "The Force Awakens" (Voice Only)
* "The Last Jedi" (Force Ghost)

## **Gallery**

* Episode I
* Episode II
* The Clone Wars
* Episode III
* Episode V
* Episode VI
* Episode VIII

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