Yoda

> *"Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate... leads to suffering."*
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> *-* Grand Master Yoda, 32 BBY
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**Grand Master Yoda,** a Force-sensitive male member of a mysterious species, was a legendary Jedi Master who witnessed the rise and fall of the Galactic Republic, as well as the rise of the Galactic Empire.

A descendant of the long-deceased Jedi Grand Master *Vandar Tokare*, as well as an ancient Jedi revered for his advanced age and wisdom himself, 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 and Ki-Adi-Mundi.

For over eight-hundred years, he mentored others in the ways of the Force and had a hand in the training of many Jedi during their time as Padawan learners.

## Biography

### Pre-Invasion of Naboo

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. During one mission to the Wookiee homeworld of Kashyyyk, the padawan witnessed his master face off with a giant, dreadful terentatek.

Yoda visited Kashyyyk on several other 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. Yoda often counselled "Do, or do not. There is no try." He also taught groups of younglings in the basics of Jedi training, including lightsaber instruction.

### Invasion of Naboo

"*There's no doubt the mysterious warrior was a Sith.*"
"*Always two, there are. No more, no less. A master and an apprentice.*"
"*But which one was destroyed, the master or the apprentice?*"
―Mace Windu and Yoda, about Darth Maul —

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, descendant of Quinlain 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 that the boy was harboring a high amount of fear and his future was uncertain. They therefore refused to allow for his training.

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 Gungan species in order to combat the Federation occupation forces. The Federation's droid army was eventually deactivated after Anakin Skywalker accidentally destroyed its command ship. During the battle, however, Jinn and Kenobi dueled a dark side Force user—Darth Maul, the Dathomirian apprentice of the Sith Lord Darth Sidious—which tragically cost Jinn his life.

#### Qui-Gon's Funeral

Yoda, along with other members of the Council, was present at the Naboo victory parade and Jinn's earlier funeral, where he shared his thoughts on the apparent reemergence of the Sith with fellow Master of the Order Mace Windu, 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, who had 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.

### Separatist Crisis

> "*I think it is time we informed the senate that out ability to use the force has diminished."*
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> *-*Mace Windu, to Yoda
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    Ten years after the Naboo crisis, several thousand systems, disillusioned by heavy taxation, seceded from the Galactic Republic and formed the Confederacy of Independent Systemsunder 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. This discovery alarmed Yoda, who surmised that 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.

### The Clone Wars

#### Battle of Geonosis

"*The shroud of the dark side has fallen. Begun, the Clone War has.*"
―Master Yoda
News that Skywalker and Kenobi had been captured 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 galaxy-wide 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 that of Dooku by casually repelling the latter's telekinetic assault and Force lightning.

Yoda then engaged Dooku in a brief yet intense duel, having the upper hand. Dooku, realizing he was outmatched by Yoda, used the Force to bring a large metal pillar down on the unconscious Skywalker and Kenobi, forcing Yoda to break off the duel and use his own powers to stop it from crushing them. 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 Anakin 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.

Following this, Yoda had many grand adventures throughout the *Clone Wars*.

#### Distrust of the Chancellor and the Battle of Kashyyk

Three years after the initial battle on Geonosis, the Republic was crumbling under the attacks of the Confederacy. Throughout the course of the war, Palpatine had been granted ever increasing personal authority by the Senate to command both the war and the Republic at large. The Jedi Council, though reluctant to oppose the extremely popular Chancellor, nonetheless grew ever more concerned about the continual centralization of political power in Palpatine.

After a Separatist attack on the Republic capital world of Coruscant by General Grievous, Skywalker came before Yoda, seeking counsel. He had been experiencing terrifying visions of the death of a loved one, though he did not reveal that the one in question was his secret wife, Padmé Amidala. Yoda warned Skywalker to be wary of his visions and of his own feelings, as fear was a path to the dark side, and advised him to "train himself to let go of everything he feared to lose". Skywalker, however, was dissatisfied with this answer, as he could not bear the thought of losing someone he loved. Shortly afterwards, Palpatine, hoping to increase his influence over the Jedi Council and further ingratiate himself with Anakin Skywalker, appointed the young Jedi to be his personal representative on the Council. The Council, having little choice, begrudgingly accepted Palpatine's interference, but refused to grant Skywalker the rank of Jedi Master, infuriating him. Additionally, the Council gave Skywalker the unofficial assignment of spying on Palpatine, an assignment which Skywalker was less than enthusiastic about, as he regarded Palpatine as a friend and a mentor.

Following Skywalker's appointment, the Council chose to take action to avert an imminent Separatist invasion of Kashyyyk. Yoda chose to personally oversee the defense, as he was held in high esteem by the Wookiees. Before the battle, Yoda participated in a holographic session of the Council, where he learned from Skywalker that Republic intelligence located the fugitive General Grievous in the Utapau system. When Skywalker volunteered to lead the campaign, with the stated approval of Palpatine, Yoda and Mace Windu both disagreed, and Yoda nominated Kenobi to be sent instead. Agreeing with Yoda, fellow councilor Ki-Adi-Mundi seconded the nomination and the decision was made.

While Yoda was on Kashyyyk, Supreme Chancellor Palpatine revealed his true identity as the Sith Lord Darth Sidious, turned Anakin Skywalker to the dark side of the Force, and defeated a group of Jedi Council members who had come to arrest him.

#### Order 66

"*How many other Jedi have managed to survive?*"
"*Heard from no one have we.*"
―Obi-Wan Kenobi and Yoda, after Order 66
Christening his newfound apprentice Darth Vader, Sidious sent him and and the 501st Attack Battalion to attack the Jedi temple and slaughter all who resided there. Meanwhile, Sidious began to broadcast Order 66 to the clone troopers, a contingency order that required them to eliminate their Jedi Generals.

As the clone army turned on their leaders galaxywide, Yoda sensed the deaths of his fellow Jedi and fell to his knees. Commander Gree and another trooper received Order 66 a few moments afterwards and prepared to shoot Yoda. However, Yoda sensed their intentions and decapitated the duo with his lightsaber. He then proceeded to escape with the help of the Wookiees Chewbacca and Tarfful, rendezvousing with Senator Bail Organa of Alderaan and Obi-Wan Kenobi, who had escaped death on Utapau.

The two Jedi discussed their situation, during which Bail and Yoda informed Kenobi that the Temple was broadcasting a coded retreat message, ordering all surviving Jedi to return to Coruscant. Yoda and Kenobi decided to return to the Temple and reconfigure the beacon to warn any survivors to go into hiding, and to that end Bail took them to Coruscant. The two Jedi fought their way in and witnessed the effects of the rampage by Vader and his clone unit, including the visible lightsaber cuts on several dead clones. In the meantime, Sidious reforms the Republic into the first Galactic Empire with himself as its Emperor. That was the beginning of the Age of the Empire.

## Source(s):

* https://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Yoda
* https://www.starwars.com/databank/yoda