PT Was Yoda passed his prime in the movies

He died like what 25 years after ROTS he was 900 years old thats like 3% of his life

 

Yoda probably didnt feel the effects of his age until ESB. In the PT, Yoda is just as bright and energetic as any other Jedi.

 

Perhaps his species suffers from a rapid decline in their very latter years.

 

If you had Frank Oz's hand up your butt, you'd decline too.

 

I think speculation like this is likely the reason why Lucas still refuses to disclose what species Yoda is. Although it is also arguable that Yoda was past his prime but was able to muster up enough power to act as if he's in his prime for a set time limit, which would explain why after his duel with Count Dooku, he immediately goes back to hobbling. Then again, it is part of the wuxia/kung fu tradition for a decrepit looking old master to have the skills and agility of someone much younger and a visual joke.

 

obviously... yoda could still fight in ROTS. but obviously he was way past his prime physical condition.

 

Well he was using a cane and had white hair which usually shows old age. However, I won't be looking that good when I'm 900 years old.

 

Being on a miserable planet like Dagobah for 20 plus years wouldn't help anyone. Look at Obi-Wan and how much he changed from ROTS to ANH from being on Tatooine for so long

 

pretty scary to think how good he was in his prime

 

I think our brains would explode if we were to see that.

 

aye

 

At some future point we might.

 

The OP asked, "Was Yoda [past] his prime in the movies"
In my opinion, he was not.. For the Jedi it is only a matter of clearing your mind so you can commune with the Midichlorians (sic) to use your full force potential. As long as he has his mind and is able to focus, he should be at his prime. "Luminous being are we, not this crude matter... *poke poke*" unless...

I hate to ask...

Did the whole Midichlorian thing make the crude matter Yoda scoffed at in ESB important again?

 

Well, Obi-Wan did say in ANH that he was "getting too old for this sort of thing," which does imply that age may be a factor. Though that's not to say that such dialogue is conclusive evidence since he seems to have been trying to persuade Luke to come with him at the time.

Regardless, though, I do think it's possible that the Jedi feel the effects of age. Death is part of life, after all, and it would seem to me rather counter-intuitive to Jedi philosophy to try to keep it and aging at bay.

I can imagine the Sith employing the Dark Side to bolster them as they get older, but I think the Jedi would be more accepting of decline in ability as being natural (if any exists of course).

 

My read on that is that ob1 was manipulating Luke. Yoda's "Crude matter" line in ESB coupled with his flipping around like Super-Grover in AOTC seals the deal for me on age, size, sexual orientation, etc not mattering when it comes to using the force.

 

Largely, I agree that the primary purpose of Obi-Wan's line was to get Luke to come with him. I do think it held some amount of truth, though. Perhaps not in the sense of Obi-Wan being physically hampered, but that he recognized that it was time for a new generation to take on the mantle of the Jedi Knights.

I go back and forth on the age bit. On one hand, Yoda's line would suggest that age doesn't matter in any significant sense (and that's probably true), but on the other hand, the Jedi are living beings who age and I don't see them consciously utilizing their abilities to slow the effects of time. It seems antithetical to their philosophy.

 

Yoda was definitely beyond his prime

 

Yoda was physically beyond his prime although my assumption would be that as he grew older his knowledge and connection with the force was better. While when he was 850 he was physically very old he was probably stronger in force at that time than when he was like 400 years old.

 

I want to see what a youthful Yoda can do

 

He must have aged dealing with Skywalker whining over the previous 30 years.

 

If you look at some of the real world religions that the Jedi/Force draw from you might find a possible answer:

In Qigong a Master not only helps students develop and strengthen their own Qi (life force), but can give his own Qi to students to help them get to "the next level". But you only ever have so much life force and when it's gone you die. Yoda could have given Luke a great deal of his own life force in ESB, knowing Luke would need it more than he would. This could be the reason for his steep decline by ROJ, and for Luke's sudden jump in force ability.

 

That's not ever indicated or even spoken about, though. Plus it does damage to Luke's character arc-in each episode he faces increasingly dangerous situations that he has to deal with pretty much by himself-from the trench run to duelling Vader to defeating Vader and defying the Emperor. The idea that Yoda was giving him a power boost vs. Luke accomplishing these things by himself is pretty at odds with what's demonstrated.

 

I don't know that it'd do any damage to his character. It's not as if Yoda would be holding his hand or doing those things for him in those situations. And character arcs don't really work for "in-universe" explanations, which is kind of what I was going for.

 

Yoda was mentally in his prime, but physically way past his prime. When it comes to the force, you are always learning the older you get, so your mental prime would be just before you die. Yoda was still learning more about the force even in his late years, he barely learned the secret to immortality at the end of ROTS. Physically he was in his prime a long time before TPM and I would think you would meet halfway between your mental prime and physical prime to determine your overall prime.

Let's compare Yoda's species to humans, say 10 Yoda years equals 1 human year. A human is physically in their prime at about 25 years old, so for Yoda it would be 250 years old. If Yoda was mentally in his prime at 900 years old and physically in his prime at 250 years old, if you meet halfway that would put him in his overall prime at about 575 years old.

You could argue that a humans physical skills start to deteriorate at about 35 years old so there are in there prime just before that. If that's the case then Yoda would be in his prime at about 350 years old. I like to think that using the force and being a Jedi is as much mental as physical so that's why I meet halfway between the both of them.