Yoda

**Yoda** is a major character in the *Star Wars* franchise.

While eccentric, Yoda was an extremely wise, experienced, skillful and powerful Jedi. He was the most knowledgeable and trained Jedi Master as well as the wisest, strongest and most powerful Jedi of his time, immensely powerful and skilled with the use of the Light Side of the Force and exceptionally skilled in lightsaber combat with centuries worth of training, experience and knowledge in both the Force and Lightsaber Combat. For his surpassing wisdom, skill and power, Yoda was the Grand Master of the Jedi Order who helped train Luke Skywalker and other heroes as well as facing off against and nearly defeating among the most formidable of villains such as Count Dooku and even Darth Sidious himself in the more recent films - he is a gentle teacher, but like all Jedi will fight fiercely to defend the galaxy from the Dark-Side of the Force.

He was a major character in the original trilogy, serving as a major character in *The Empire Strikes Back*, and as a minor yet pivotal character in *Return of the Jedi*. He was also a major character in the prequel trilogy, and a posthumous character in the sequel trilogy.

He was portrayed in motion-capture and voice by **Frank Oz.**

## History

### Star Wars Saga

#### *Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace*

Yoda, around 800 years old, sits on the Jedi Council when Qui-Gon Jinn tells the Council of the events that happened on Naboo and the Sith warrior he fought on Tatooine. Master Mace Windu believed that the Sith would not return without the knowledge of the Jedi, but Master Yoda stated that the dark side of the Force was hard to see. Yoda asks Qui-Gon if he has more to share and the Jedi Master tells them his discovery of a boy named Anakin Skywalker he believes to be the Chosen One, prophesied to bring balance to the Force. Yoda and Mace Windu agree to train the boy, but think training him is unwise.

The following day, the Council tests Anakin and find the Force is strong with him. Yoda asks him how he feels and if he is frightened and Anakin shares that he is not. Yoda tells the boy that his fear will lead him to the dark side and from there it will lead him to suffering and Yoda senses much fear in Anakin.

That night, Qui-Gon, Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin stand before the Council and tell the Masters that the boy is too old and has formed emotional attachments to the memory of his mother. Qui-Gon seemed angry at this decision stating he is the Chosen. Yoda looks into the Force and sees Anakin's future is clouded which is a dangerous sign. Qui-Gon decides to defy the Coucil and take Anakin as his Padawan learner but the Council states that young Skywalker's fate will be decided later and orders Qui-Gon, Obi-Wan to return with the Queen to Naboo.

After the Invasion of Naboo ended and the defeat of the Sith Lord, Yoda and the Jedi Council arrive on Naboo. Yoda grants Obi-Wan the rank of Jedi Knight but still holds firm on his decision to not train the boy. Obi-Wan states Qui-Gon believed in him and Yoda shares that he may be the Chosen One but still senses great danger in his training. Yoda agrees with Obi-Wan's decision and allow him to serve as Anakin's Master.

Later the Jedi Council hold a solemn funeral for the fallen Qui-Gon Jinn, while Yoda and Mace Windu discuss how to deal with the mysterious return of the Sith. Yoda says that there are always two: a Master and an apprentice and Master Windu asks which was destroyed.

#### *Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones*

Ten years later, the Galactic Republic is on the brink of war with many planets leaving and joining the Separatist Movement and the Military Creation Act trying to be passed to give the Republic an army, that has never happened before in galactic history. Yoda and the Jedi Council meet with the Supreme Chancellor, the former Naboo senator, Palpatine to discuss this serious issues.

Chancellor Palpatine asks Yoda if these conflicts would lead to war and Yoda says that the dark side clouds everything and that the future was impossible to see. The Loyalist Committee enter the Chancellor's Office lead by Padme Amidala and discuss with the Chancellor and Yoda about the conflict. Yoda sees that the senator is in grave danger and Palpatine suggests a Jedi escort be issued to protect her.

After a second attempt on the senator's life happened, Master Obi-Wan and Padawan Anakin stand before the Council to discuss what has transpired. Yoda tells Ob-Wan to track down the bounty hunter while Anakin will escort Padmé back to her home planet of Naboo. Obi-Wan feels that his apprentice is not ready for this type of mission but Yoda states their judgement is ensured.

Later Yoda teaches a group of younglings in the training room when Obi-Wan arrives and shares the discovery he has found. Yoda asks the younglings to help the Jedi Master solve his problem of not finding a planet where it was suppose to be. A youngling states that the planet does exist but someone erased it from the Archives. Yoda says that for someone to erase it is disturbing and tells Obi-Wan to search out this planet while he mediates on this.

After Obi-Wan arrived on the planet Kamino and discovered a clone army being created for the Republic and met a Mandalorian bounty hunter, he contacted Yoda and Mace via hologram. Obi-Wan shared all the information he discovered, Yoda told him to bring the bounty hunter to the Temple and they will question him and ended the transmission. Yoda and Mace discussed how they could have been so blind not to see this army and Mace thought it was time to tell the Senate that their ability to use the Force is clouded.

While waiting for Kenobi's report, Yoda meditated. He heard the voice of the spirit of Qui-Gon Jinn and sensed that something had happened to Anakin. He conferred with Windu that the young Padawan was in "pain. Terrible pain".

The Council and some senators met in the Chancellor's Office when Obi-Wan contacted them stating he followed the bounty to Geonosis and discovered the Separatist were creating massive droid armies before the Jedi was captured. Yoda and Mace both felt there was more happening on the planet. The Senate later decided to award the Chancellor emergency powers for him to create the grand clone army of the Republic to counter the threats of the Separatists. Afterwards, Mace Windu told Yoda he will take what Jedi are left and travel to Geonosis to help Obi-Wan. Yoda said he would visit the cloners on Kamino and see the army that has been created and both parted ways.

With the Jedi surrounded by the huge droid army led by Count Dooku with a surviving group left all seemed lost until Yoda arrived with a brigade of the new clone army and rescued the Jedi out of the execution arena and on to the plains. Yoda commanded the clone forces before sensing a disturbance in the Force.

Master Yoda later confronts the Sith Lord Count Dooku who injured both Kenobi and Skywalker in order to save his allies. It was at this moment that Yoda proved that while his body is thin and he is very old, he is not only by no means a weak and small man, but is actually an exceptionally powerful and formidable enforcer of the Light Side of the Force. He proves that the Force is an extremely powerful ally of his and easily bested all of Dooku's Force attacks, showing that his immense power and mastery over the Force considerably exceeded that of Dooku's, tossing aside Dooku's telekenetic projectiles and deflecting Dooku's Sith lightning without any effort or strain in his part, even mocking Dooku by saying he still had much to learn. Yoda then engaged in an intense lightsaber duel with his former apprentice and proved to be the superior duelist, having the upper hand quickly. Just as Yoda apparently is about to defeat and kill Dooku, after commenting he had fought well, Dooku used the Force to hurl debris at the fallen Jedi then flees while Yoda prevented a column from crushing his friends.

Returning to Coruscant, the Republic won its first battle but many Jedi lost their lives. The Jedi meet, with Obi-Wan relieved by their recent victory. But a grim Yoda warns that troubled times await the galaxy's people and sensed the Clone Wars would be a long and foreboding period on not just the galaxy but the Jedi Order.

#### *Star Wars Episode III: Revenge Of The Sith*

He leads the Jedi Council in pursuing the mysterious Sith Lord Darth Sidious. Palpatine has by now amassed near-dictatorial emergency powers, and begins interfering in Jedi affairs by appointing Anakin as his personal representative on the Council. The Council grants Anakin a Council seat, but denies him the rank of Master, feeling that doing so would amount to giving Palpatine a vote in the Council. Embittered by the perceived snub, Anakin begins to lose faith in the Jedi.

Anakin seeks Yoda's counsel about his prophetic visions that someone close to him will die. Yoda, unaware of the intensity of Anakin's love for Padmé, his pregnant wife, tells him to train himself to let go of everything that he fears to lose. Unsatisfied, Anakin turns to Palpatine, who then reveals himself as Darth Sidious, and manipulates the young Jedi into becoming his Sith apprentice, Darth Vader, with the promise that the dark side holds the power to save Padmé from dying in childbirth.

Darth Sidious later transforms the Republic into the tyrannical Galactic Empire, proclaiming himself Emperor for life, and orders the clone troopers to kill their Jedi generals. At this time, Yoda is on Kashyyyk, overseeing the battle between the Separatist forces and a combined command of clone troopers and Wookiees. Through the Force, Yoda feels the deaths of each of the Jedi as they are assassinated by their own troops. After swiftly killing the clone troopers instructed to kill him, he escapes with Wookiee leaders Tarfful and Chewbacca (Peter Mayhew), and returns to Coruscant, where he and Obi-Wan fight their way into the Jedi Temple to stop a trap for all surviving Jedi. Inside, they discover that all the Jedi inside, younglings included, have been slaughtered. They then discover a holographic recording, revealing Vader as the assassin. Yoda decides to face Sidious, sending Obi-Wan to kill his former Padawan. Obi-Wan tells Yoda he won't kill Vader, asking instead to go after the Emperor. However, Yoda insists knowing that Sidious would be too powerful for Obi-Wan and he is the only Jedi who stands a chance of victory in confronting Sidious. He also tells Obi-Wan that the Anakin he knew no longer exists, having been "consumed by Darth Vader."

Subsequently, Yoda battles Sidious in an intense lightsaber duel that wrecks the Senate Rotunda. Yoda and Sidious were at first equally matched but Yoda ultimately started to gain the upper hand and almost beat Sidious until the Emperor began using the Force in an attempt to even the battle. While initially pressured by Sidious' use of Senate Hoverpods Yoda was able to dodge all of Sidious' telekenetic assault and ultimately force him back into reach for another duel but Yoda was soon disarmed of his lightsaber by Sidious' sudden Force Lightning and forced to absorb the attack with only the Force, initially struggled but ultimately despite Sidious' overwhelming power and skill, Yoda was able to absorb the attack and after a long struggle, Yoda finally managed to deflect it but in process was blasted to the bottom of the Senate Building due to his weighing little and being in the center of the blast while Sidious managed to hang on to the edge of the Hoverpod as he was not clearly blasted off it. Battered and exhausted, Yoda realizes while he had the chance to kill Sidious at the beginning of their fight, with his stamina having been reduced and his body battered while Sidious is still at excellent condition, he would not win a fight with Sidious and decides to retreat rather than continue fighting. He goes into exile on Dagobah so that he may hide from the Empire and wait for another opportunity to destroy the Sith. At the end of the film, it's revealed that Yoda has been in contact with Qui-Gon's spirit, learning the secret of immortality from him and passing it on to Obi-Wan.

Yoda is also instrumental in deciding the fate of the Skywalker children after Padmé dies in childbirth, recommending that Luke and Leia be hidden from Vader and Sidious in remote locations. Other than the ancient Jedi Master, only the Organas, the Lars family, R2-D2 and Obi-Wan know of their true identities. Yoda then begins his exile on Dagobah.

#### *Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back*

Luke Skywalker arrives on Dagobah to seek his guidance, having been instructed to do so by the Force ghost of Obi-Wan Kenobi.

Yoda doesn't initially identify himself to Luke and instead tests his patience by presenting himself as a comical and senile backwater individual, deliberately provoking both Luke and R2-D2. Luke is shocked when he finally realizes that this small, elderly creature is the powerful Jedi Master he was seeking. Finding that Luke has the same anger and recklessness which caused his father's downfall, Yoda is reluctant to teach him in the ways of the Force, and agrees only at Obi-Wan's behest. Luke's training includes having to climb up with Yoda on his back and using his mind to levitate his own ship. Before finishing his training, however, Luke chooses to leave Dagobah in order to confront Darth Vader and save his friends from the Empire's grasp at Bespin. Yoda and Obi-Wan warn him that he is not ready to face Vader and is being lured into a trap, but Luke leaves anyway, promising to return. When Obi-Wan laments that Luke is their "last hope," Yoda reminds him that "there is another".

#### *Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi*

Yoda, now sick and frail, informs Luke that he has completed his training but will not be a Jedi until he confronts Darth Vader; he also confirms that Vader is Luke's father, something Vader had told a shocked Luke in the previous film. Yoda then peacefully dies at the age of 900, his body disappearing as he becomes "one with the Force". He leaves Luke with the knowledge that "there is another Skywalker". Moments later, Obi-Wan's ghost helps Luke come to the realization that the "other" of whom Yoda spoke is Princess Leia, who is his twin sister. He return as a spirit on Endor alongside Obi-Wan Kenobi and Luke's father, Anakin Skywalker after the Empire is defeated.

#### *Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens*

Yoda's voice is heard by the young scavenger Rey after she discovers Luke Skywalker's lightsaber.

#### *Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi*

About 30 years after his death, the force ghost of Yoda visited Luke Skywalker at the Jedi Temple at Atch-To, when Luke was determined to destroy the original books containing the teachings of the Jedi Order. When Luke hesitated on destroying the tree, Yoda summoned force lightning and destroyed the tree himself. (Luke did not know that Rey had taken the books with her when she left Atch-To.)

The two discussed the future of the Jedi Order, and also talked about the failed training of Ben Solo. Yoda chastised the younger man for continuing to look to the horizon instead of what was right in front of him, and for not learning from failure, which Yoda said was the greatest teacher.

Yoda's meeting with Luke helped Luke forgive himself for his failures, and led Luke to help the Resistance escape Crait. Fatally weakened by the experience, Luke joined his father, Yoda, and Obi-Wan in becoming one with the Force.

#### *Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker*

Once again, Rey hears Yoda's voice, as his Force Ghost gives Rey encouragement.

## Weapons and equipment

* **Lightsaber**: Yoda carries a green lightsaber.
* **Staff**: Yoda carries a wooden walking stick, mostly due to his age.

## Quotes

> "*Premonitions, premonitions. These visions you have... (Anakin: They are of pain, suffering. Death.) Yourself you speak of, or someone you know? (Anakin: Someone.) Close to you? (Anakin: Yes.) Careful you must be when sensing the future Anakin. The fear of loss is a path to the dark side. (Anakin: I won't let my visions come true, Master Yoda.) Death is a natural part of life. Rejoice for those around you who transform into the Force. Mourn them do not. Miss them do not. Attachment leads to jealousy. The shadow of greed that is. (Anakin: What must I do Master Yoda?) Train yourself to let go of everything you fear to lose.*"
> ― Yoda to Anakin Skywalker
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> "*Size matters not. Look at me. Judge me by my size, do you? Hmm? Hmm. And well you should not. For my ally is the Force, and a powerful ally it is. Life creates it, makes it grow. Its energy surrounds us and binds us. Luminous beings are we, not this crude matter. You must feel the Force around you; here, between you, me, the tree, the rock, everywhere, yes. Even between the land and the ship.*"
> ― Yoda to Luke Skywalker
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> "*Do, or do not, there is no try.*"
> ― Yoda to Luke Skywalker
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