CT The superiority of CT Yoda

Watched the scene of Yoda raising the X-wing again tonight.

I think the beautiful part of this scene is that Yoda is trying to teach Luke that The Force is not physical, and not bound by physical limitations. Luke is too young and doesn't understand; but Yoda has graduated to a level where he's nearly all-powerful in the good side of The Force. Unlike Luke, who is still young and inexperienced, Yoda no longer needs to rely on weapons or physical strength. He even reminded Luke before he went into the cave:

Similarly, The Emperor in Return of the Jedi had also graduated to a point where he was so strong in the dark side, that he too no longer needed weapons in battle.

Contrast these two characters to their depiction in the prequels, where they were spinning around in elaborate mid-air flips, swinging swords at each other, talking about midichlorians, and altogether disregarding every bit of wisdom Yoda tried to teach Luke. I think it's clear which versions are better.

 

The entire point of the prequels were that the Jedi (yes, including Yoda) used to be all 'We're awesome, because the Force' and going in lightsabers swinging and imposing order on the galaxy... and Sidious wiped the lot of them out. Yoda's teaching the lesson he learned the hard way.

 

I've heard some prequel fans make that argument here, and that's just not true, it was retconned in. The Jedi were good but got wiped out because they were betrayed by one of their own. That was the original story.

 

No, it's simply expanding on the very bare bones that Kenobi mentioned. The Empire really did hunt down and destroy the Jedi knights, Vader himself helped, exactly as claimed. The only lie/retcon there is Vader not literally murdering Anakin Skywalker, and that was not a Prequel addition.

 

I agree with jakobitis. I think it was a learning process, even for Yoda. The Clone Wars explained that brilliantly.

 

From the ANH novel:

"In many ways they were too good, too trusting for their own health. They put too much trust in the stability of the Republic, failing to realise that while the body might be sound, the head was growing diseased and feeble, leaving it open to manipulation by such as the Emperor."​

 

I think the cocky, people-of-action PT Jedi and Yoda's more introspective, spiritual teachings in ESB compliment each other really well, actually. It seems like the striking difference was the point. It's a huge reach to suggest that Lucas was not well aware of that difference.

Also, it's been a while, but I don't remember anyone but Qui-Gon and Palpatine mentioning midichlorians.

 

It's not about one version being better than the other. It's about one version (PT) growing into the other (OT).

Similarly, since midichlorians were brought into this, its worth noting that in the trilogy in which they are mentioned the Jedi are not nearly as connected to the Force as they should have been (thus allowing Palpatine to hide in plain sight for so long). Much like the lightsabers in the hands of Yoda and Palpatine, that physical connection to the Force is shed in the OT to allow for a more spiritual one (hinted at in RotS' final moments and brought to light explicitly in the OT's Force Ghosts).

I don't understand why people have to view these things in ways that paint them so black and white, better or worse, etc. when it was clearly George Lucas' intention to show a progression and change over time. That's typically how storytelling works. If everything was stagnant throughout all six films there wouldn't really be a story worth telling.

 

Not in the least. One is not better then the other. They are simply different and without on the other doesn't happen and doesn't mean as much.

It's called character development.

The Yoda of TESB is only that because of his "failure at the cave" that cave happened to be the entire Jedi Order and the Republic. BTW Yoda never talked aobut midi-chlorians in the PT and that is entirely another debate which I can and have written reams and reams about.

if Yoda was exactly the same in the PT then we wouldn't have seen his character growth or development. Yoda can learn as well and that is the important thing.

As for Sidious he only fights duel with people that are real threats like Mace and Yoda. The other Jedi he cuts down were mere warm-ups for Mace.

If anything the real point is that while Yoda was blinded by his arrogance in the PT and Sidious wasn't by the time of ROTJ Sidious was now the blind one after 23 years of absolute power. He didn't think it possible that Anakin could ever return and that he was forever Vader.