The discrepancies in Yoda’s behavior across movies have become infamous. Photo Courtesy of R/Tumblr.
Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith
sees the evil Empire displace the Jedi Order after a slew of various disasters. Emperor Palpatine, a malevolent, manipulative genocidal maniac, is responsible for most of these disasters. Darth Vader (formerly Anakin Skywalker), also a malevolent genocidal maniac, gets credit for a few of them. Yoda is probably to blame for the third-highest tally.
I realize that last statement might need some qualifying. People love Yoda. Starwars.com describes him as a “legendary Jedi Master.” His speech patterns are widely imitated. And it is easy to see where the hype comes from — Yoda is strong and nimble. He is good with the Force. He is patient. He embodies the Jedi Order.
If you dig deeper, though, you will find that Yoda makes a series of glaring errors throughout
Star Wars
, particularly in
Revenge of the Sith
. He is more unqualified poser than legend. Here are some inexplicable and/or very costly Yoda moments from the film.
1. Telling Obi-Wan not to look at the security tapes to see who killed the younglings
After Anakin swears fealty to Palpatine and massacres all the young Jedi-in-training, Obi-Wan Kenobi and Yoda walk into the temple to find it littered with slaughtered younglings. One would think that the natural next step would be to identify the serial killer in question. Yoda seems to figure out Anakin is at fault pretty quickly, but bizarrely tells Obi-Wan not to look at the security tapes. “Only pain you will find,” he says. Approximately 2.1 seconds after Obi-Wan looks at the tapes anyway, Yoda declares that he will go fight Palpatine and tells Obi-Wan to go kill Anakin, who is Obi-Wan’s former apprentice and surrogate son. With that in mind, you have to wonder what his initial plan was if Obi-Wan decided not to look at the tapes. “Cool, man, thanks,” I imagine Yoda saying. “Wanna get lunch?”
2. Insisting on taking on Palpatine himself (and then bailing)
Obi-Wan begs Yoda not to make him kill Anakin and let him fight Palpatine instead — “I cannot do it,” our favorite mentor says, in earnest, heartbreaking fashion — to no avail. Yoda’s rationale is that Obi-Wan isn’t strong enough to take on Palpatine. Sure. This may or may not be true, since we never actually see Palpatine and Obi-Wan clash in the films. What is clear is that a statement like that requires backing up. In Yoda’s case, it requires the presence of superior strength and bravery, which as we see in the ensuing battle, our little green friend is sadly lacking.
The first half of the fight goes fine. Yoda and Palpatine exchange some good hits in the Senate area (symbolism, eh?); Yoda is leaping around like a wind-up toy on crack and frisbees one of the circular Senate seats at Palpy. Eventually, they find themselves in a Force stalemate, and Yoda gets pushed off the platform. He falls to the ground. Palpatine barely manages to stay on the seat, but his victory seems more symbolic than anything. Yoda is physically fine: his billion-year-old skin is intact and none of his limbs are broken.
Then — for no discernible reason — Yoda gives up. I guess you can argue that he was exhausted, though he had enough energy to crawl through an air duct and drop into Bail Organa’s ship to escape the scene. Immediately afterwards, he begins shaming himself for giving up and declares that he has to go into exile. Imagine how Obi-Wan, who did his job by swallowing his affection for Anakin and cutting his own apprentice to pieces (admittedly not enough to kill him), feels. Had Yoda managed to stall Palpatine for even a few more minutes — and again, there was no reason why he couldn’t have — maybe the shriveled Dark Lord would not have arrived in time to doctor the sliced-up Anakin and Vader-fy him. In unilaterally deciding to take on Palpatine and siccing Obi-Wan on his surrogate son, there’s really no excuse for Yoda failing to get the job done.
3. Giving Anakin terrible advice
There are hints galore throughout
Revenge of the Sith
that Anakin is susceptible to being tempted to the dark side. He is deeply offended by the Jedi Council’s lack of trust in him; he thinks he’s more powerful than he is. And, crucially, he’s desperately afraid of losing his pregnant wife Padmé — this is the fear Palpatine taps into in his effort to turn Anakin into a Sith. Before all of that, though, Anakin goes to Yoda to talk about his fears of losing Padmé. This is a sensible plan. Surely the wise, experienced Jedi Master will have sage advice for our struggling young Anakin. Here is what Yoda says instead:
“The fear of loss is a path to the dark side…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.”
In other words: being afraid of losing someone you love is a real slippery slope, kid. It might even make you evil. So just avoid doing it! Be okay with your loved ones dying instead. Now try comparing that with Palpatine’s pitch to Anakin: I can feel your fear, I understand it, and I can give you power to save the one you love. (The last part ended up being bullsh*t, but still.)
***
To recap quickly: Yoda tells Obi-Wan not to look at the tapes of the youngling massacre, as if an anonymous serial killer is a preferable option to knowing the identity of the killer. Yoda then makes Obi-Wan hunt down and fight Anakin, despite their close bond, while taking on Palpatine himself (and failing for no apparent reason). Oh, and Yoda is more or less responsible for Anakin cozying up to Palpatine in the first place and getting corrupted into a genocidal monster in the process.