CT Evil Yoda?

Why didn't Yoda do anything other than sit in a swamp for a long period of time?
No helping the Rebels?
No trying to kill Vader?
Disregard the PT. Approach the question as if you are existing in the period from 1983 to 1999.

 

My guess would be Yoda isn't the real Yoda. He's an ancient Sith spirit housed inside a literal puppet. In the ST he would return and reveal the dark truth to Luke.

 

Lucas's intention in 1981 was that Yoda wasn't a Jedi Knight, he was just a Jedi Master. A Jedi Master like Yoda was not a warrior, but a teacher. So he could not fight since that was not his capability. He could only teach others. He could only wait until a new pupil came to him.

 

But Yoda is shown to have powerful telekinetic ability in the film.
Maybe give Vader the ol' shove?

 

Lucas: Also another misconception is that Yoda teaches Jedi, but he is like a guru; he doesn’t go out and fight anybody.

Kasdan: A Jedi Master is a Jedi isn’t he?

Lucas: Well, he is a teacher, not a real Jedi. Understand that?

Kasdan: I understand what you’re saying, but I can’t believe it; I am in shock.

Lucas: It’s true, absolutely true, not that it makes any difference to the story.

Kasdan: You mean he wouldn’t be any good in a fight?

Lucas: Not with Darth Vader he wouldn’t.

Kasdan: I accept it, but I don’t like it.

--The Making of Return Of The Jedi, 1981 story meeting transcripts.

Previously, Yoda was capable of using a Lightsaber and sparing with Obi-wan's ghost in Brackett's draft, but this was abandoned. In his rough draft for ROTJ, Yoda would appear as a ghost before Palpatine block his lightning blasts, but not for long. It was only when working on the PT, that Lucas decided to have Yoda be capable of fighting and going out there as we saw him do in the films and in TCW and the old EU.

 

That doesn't answer my question. Yoda could shove Vader.

 

And Vader could shove right back, pinball him around from tree to tree and then kill him with a Lightsaber blow. Yoda was not intended to be a fighter when the OT was made.

 

Yoda was never the goodest.

 

And yet, he has offensive powers at his command.

 

"A Jedi uses the Force for knowledge and defense, never for attack."

 

We proved Yoda was a Sith Lord in the Lit forum years ago.

 

But Yoda and Ben are banking on making Luke a Jedi so that he can attack and kill Vader.

"I can't kill my own father."
"...Then the Emperor has already won..."

 

But they didn't want Luke to kill Vader with direct Force attacks, because that way lies the Dark side. It wouldn't do them any good to get Luke to kill Vader and then take his place.

 

how did they want him to kill him then?

*this is not a sarcastic question. Genuinely curious.

 

With a lightsaber.

In my headcanon, there is a critical distinction between being guided by the Force in battle vs using the Force to attack. Everything living eventually dies or at least moves on from the known universe (that is the way of things, the way of the Force), but to use the Force - which is created by life and makes it grow - to directly destroy life (as in Force lightning or choke) is to turn the Force against its own self, and the backlash of that is the Darkside corrupting and consuming its followers. Lightsiders, OTOH, are guided by the Force in defending themselves and in knowing where to strike in order to defeat the Dark without directly using the power of life to cause death.

That's not spelled out directly in the films, but to me it makes sense and doesn't contradict what we see on the screen.

 

isn't that just semantics though?

He was still trained to go and kill him, whether or not that's with force push or a lightsaber, the result is the same.

 

wait. this was my impression of yoda from the OT but the PT completely destroyed it. yoda vs. dooku: EPIC. yoda vs. sidious: sort of epic.

is it really that they just had yoda do all those super fast moves and gymnastics around dooku because they were trying to manufacture one of those "that's so cool!" bad*** scenes.

i mean if yoda could stand up to dooku when 30 years younger and vader was about as strong as dooku in the OT, then it follows that...

 

Someday, someone has to actually make this into a movie.

 

Destroying Corrie was quite sick, but y'all got any better ideas?

 

His eyes do look yellow.

 

If you want to see the Death Star destroying the Imperial capital world, may I suggest a raid on the secret "experimental films" in the Lucasfilm vaults?

 

Those offensive powers didn't exist in 1981. There was no Force push. No holding someone in place with the Force. Yoda could only lift up objects like an X-Wing. In battle against Vader, he would lose.

A Jedi is not supposed to go out and just kill. That's not what Luke is being trained to do. He's being trained to stop the Sith, but from a defensive standpoint and not an offensive one. But Luke is never told to kill his father and we see what happens when he tries in in the tree cave. He only truly succeeds when he doesn't kill him.

The point in the duels was that Lucas realized that Kasdan was right, Yoda should have been the type of Jedi who challenged the Sith. So we see Yoda fight Dooku and realize that he can beat Dooku, but he cannot be Palpatine who is far stronger than he is. This sets the stage for Luke and what he will do.

 

then perhaps the line

"I can't kill my own father" should have been changed to ...well any other line then. And also Obi-Wan's flippant response to it too.

Seems clear cut to me.

 

This is the correct answer. It's only after the prequels that the OT Yoda looks rather foolish asking Luke to go face Vader alone and not join in on the fight himself. I'm sure if we had the OT now, Yoda would certainly join Luke in his final battle against the Emperor.

I rather preferred the OT Yoda, the wise teacher at the top of the mountain instead of the jumping jelly bean.