CT Why did Yoda stay on Dagobah when Luke went to Cloud City?

Yes, Yoda did not agree with Luke going to Cloud City, but having Yoda with him for the duel with Darth Vader would have been a big advantage to Luke. Maybe Yoda thought it was best to stay in hiding in case Luke was killed and he needed to train Leia, but the problem there is that neither Yoda or Obi-Wan had any way of contacting Leia. It didn't seem like Leia could see the force ghosts in Return of the Jedi, so sending Ben to contact her may not have worked. If Luke had died, Yoda most likely would have soon after died of old age without training anyone else. My guess why Yoda marooned himself on Dagobah and never attempted to become personally involved again is because he felt that he had let the galaxy down. Yoda had experienced so many failures, from bringing in the Clone Troopers, to not detecting Sidious' plot, failing to prevent the slaughter of the Jedi and being personally defeated by Sidious that he now doubted his ability to be any real help. Since all of this happened on his watch, would the Rebel Alliance even give him a warm welcome or would he be hated for having been duped and bringing in the Clone Troopers in the first place? It's interesting that when Leia sent for Obi-Wan's help, Obi-Wan was ready to go, even if there was a good chance he could be killed. Yoda made no offer to help even though this could have been his chance to defeat Vader. Yoda was going to die soon anyway. He had nothing to loose by going with Luke and little to gain by staying in hiding.

 

It looked to me that Yoda viewed the destruction of Jedi by Palpatine as his personal failure. Maybe that was the reason, he probably felt worthless and his only contibution he could have made was to train Luke. Also, he had gone a little nuts in all those years of solitude. And finally, his powers weren't near as big as they were sometimes, I doubt that he could have defeated Darth Vader.

Also, for the record, he was never defeated from Palps. It was more a tie, with Sidious having the upper hand.

 

His home, it was!

 

Because there was no CGI back then. How can puppet yoda duel vader?

 

I think Yoda's hesitancy to help take on Vader is partly his age itself. I think there are certainly self doubts (as you mention) but that is exacerbated by knowing that he is now too old to face Vader in combat. He seems to think Luke is facing failure anyway and thinks that his being there only means that both would fail together. His survival (even if for a limited time) may be the only real hope of training one to defeat the Sith.

I think his personal mistakes (bringing in the Clone Troopers, not detecting the plot, not preventing the slaughter of the Jedi) were pivotal in any self doubts he had, and are a major takeaway from the PT.

 

You kind of answered your own question in that paragraph...

 

Yoda would miss battlestar galactica on his holonet,

unfortunately it doesn't have pre record facility.

 

1) He's getting too old for that sort of thing. In the next movie he describes himself as sick, old and weak.......and then he lays down and dies. Even if he does have the physical ability to do it, he might not have the spirit to do it anymore.
2) If he was going to fight, he would have done it at some point in between ROTS and ESB, before he got too old.
3) He might see it as holding Luke back or holding his hand. He can't fight Luke's battles for him. Vader is Luke's test, he must pass it on his own.

Just the way I see it.

 

A better question is why neither Yoda nor Obi-Wan told Luke the truth about his father before he left.

 

That's what I want to know.

 

because the plot demanded the villain to tell him, for dramatics sake

 

I was kind of hoping you'd tell me something I hadn't already known

 

Not ready for the burden was he...

 

What bothered me was that Obi-Wan and Yoda never doubleteamed Vader or Sidious. They try once with Obi-Wan winning and Yoda getting a stalemate, but never try again?

 

That might have been true in ANH, but not when he was going to confront Darth Vader himself.

 

That's what I was thinking too. Obi-Wan couldn't help anymore, but this was Yoda's chance to doubleteam with Luke. Yoda may not have had a lightsaber, but he at least could have used the force to throw Vader around and distract him. I wonder if Yoda ever really thought that Luke had a chance at winning, even by the time of Return of the Jedi. Yoda said that only a fully trained Jedi Knight could conquer Vader and his Emperor. Yoda, Obi-Wan and all the Jedi killed by Vader and the Emperor were fully trained and they couldn't do it. I guess Yoda wanted to live out his last days in peace rather than risk defeat.

 

I think it was still true in ESB – at least from Yoda and Obi-Wan’s perspective: they believed that nothing remained of Anakin Skywalker in Darth Vader, and that Vader would try to turn Luke to the Dark side and if that failed would not hesitate to kill him. I believe Yoda and Obi-Wan refrained from telling Luke the truth because they wanted to protect him: if Luke learned about Vader’s true identity his emotions would unbalance him which would lead to two outcomes: 1) Luke’s death, or 2) a third Sith.

Since Luke was determined to go and face Vader – a battle Yoda and Obi-Wan knew he could not win – they wanted Luke to focus on getting out of this alive and not give in to the Dark side, and telling Luke the truth would likely be counterproductive to that.

 

Because Yoda needed to be alive to train Leia if Luke were to fail.

 

Going to Cloud City would have been Yoda's chance to contact Leia. Even if he refused to help Luke battle Vader, he could have easily found Leia there and started her training between the events of ESB and ROTJ.

 

I can't see Yoda just taking the easy option though, after 900 years of dedication to the Force. Actually, that may be the answer... the Force told him not to go!

 

Maybe he thought Luke was the chosen one

 

I think Yoda tought that it was a good lesson for Luke so in the future he overlooks things. In fact, Yoda could look in the future, maybe he knew Luke wouldn't die.

 

At this point in the series, Yoda wasn't a warrior. Even when the PT is brought into the equation, he lost his lightsaber and couldn't duel. Yoda just trusted his instincts and knew Luke was destined for failure.

 

Anyway, after rewatching a part of TESB I think that I know why Yoda did that.

After Luke leaves Dagobah, Kenobi says to Yoda: 'That boy is our last hope'.

Yoda replies: 'No, there is an another'.

If by that another he meant Leia or Anakin I don't know. Who knows, probably Yoda always believed in an Anakin redemption. He also says to Luke (moments before he leaves) for Darth Vader: 'Save it, you can'.

So, it's either that Yoda must have trained Leia if Luke failed, or he believed that Luke can redeem Darth Vader and together they can defeat the Emperor, as ultimatelly happened.

 

Me too. Yoda was pretty even with Palpatine, while Kenobi though not in that level still was very strong (I think that he was the third strongest Jedi of his time, only Yoda and Windu were stronger than him). Yoda and Kenobi could have stand a chance to kill Palpatine, and with him dead Anakin wouldn't be that dangerous.