PT Why does Yoda talk backwards to the extreme in the Prequels, but not in the OT?

I was watching Empire Strikes Back today and realized Yoda's vocabulary is horrible in the newer movies. In the OT, he comes across as a wise old master, but in the prequels it's almost as if it's for comedic purposes. (Example: Not if anything to say about it..... I have). How could Lucas screw this one up?

 

In ESB, he switches back and forth. Many of his sentences follow normal syntax.

(in response to "I'm not afraid") "You will be."
When Luke wants to leave "You must not go"
and there's "If you end your training now, if you choose the quick and easy path, as Vader did, you will become an agent of evil"

And so on.

 

I think some of those sentences are really not plausible to pull off in Yoda-speak, so perhaps there is some of that going into the decision?

 

Even in RoTJ, there's more conventional phrasing from him, especially when being metaphorical. "Twilight is upon me, and soon, night must fall. That is the way of things. The way of the force."

 

If it had been Episode III, It woulda sounded like:

"Will be you."

"Go you must not."

"An agent of evil you will become, if your training you end now, quick and easy path you choose, as did Vader."

 

I would have "yoda-ified" the last one as:

"If end you, your training now, if choose you, the quick and easy path, an agent of evil you will become".

But the point is sound. Some phrases just work better with normal syntax, some can sound good Yoda-style.

"If you start down the dark path once, it will dominate your destiny forever- it will consume you" - seems a little flat.

 

How is it a screw up? And where exactly is the comedy on those setences?

Yoda talking like Yoda? The horror...

 

My point is Yoda talked fairly normal in the OT and that was him in the minds of people for 20+ years until the prequels came out. Then Lucas took something minimal and degenerated it to a ridiculously cheesy level. I saw Episodes 2 & 3 opening day and people were laughing in the theatre at it. I am sure that never happened with the OT!

 

Oh look, someone pointing out an incredibly minor reason to justify their hatred of the prequel trilogy.

 

it definitely became more exaggerated

 

Oh I can also point out a number of major reasons....

 

I was watching TESB the other night and GL was talking about how worried he was at the time he introduced Yoda that he'd be perceived as too comical. I think Yoda and Sidious are both 'less is more' characters. A little bit of backwards Yoda speak goes a long way. As someone has already said, it works well for some sentences, others not.

 

"Around the survivors a perimeter create" is supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, even though the sound of it is something quite atrocious.

 

I never really thought about this, interesting.

 

I like Yoda-speak in general, but some lines in the saga didn't work too well.

 

It works when it is subtle, a quirk of syntax. You're meant to think that it's because of his extreme age, he comes from a time from so long ago that language has evolved around him.

It doesn't work when Lucas hits you over the head with it like a hammer.

 

He only speaks a few lines in ESB with the 'backwards syntax' but it seemed to get excessive in ROTJ and then really excessive in the PT. Maybe the more you CGI a character, the more they speak 'backwards'?

 

I don't think All of his speech in the PT was backwards-speak though.

 

The only book he had with him on Dagobah was a grammar book.
Sitting there for 20 years, he had quite a bit of time to learn to speak properly.

 

It wasn't.

I checked all of his dialog on IMDB and while his speech patterns are a hot-mess, he does have plenty of normal sounding lines.

Yoda Quotes:
http://www.imdb.com/character/ch0000015/quotes

 

interesting this thread is

this thread is interesting

interesting thread this is

which one of the above would Yoda say?

 

I think the PT generally does a good job with Yoda's lines. Sometimes it sounds better to me in "backwards speech" than "normal" speech. For example, I really like this line:

"Clouded this boy's future is."

I don't think it would have the same impact if Yoda simply said "This boy's future is clouded."

However, lines like "Fear is the path to the Dark Side. Fear leads to anger; anger leads to hate; hate leads to suffering." work best in normal speech.

It's the same with AOTC and ROTS. Yoda's conversation with Anakin is, I think, a good example of where the two styles work well together:

YODA: Careful you must be when sensing the future, Anakin. The fear of loss is a path to the dark side.

ANAKIN: I won't let these visions come true, Master Yoda.

YODA: 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.

ANAKIN: What must I do, Master Yoda?

YODA: Train yourself to let go of everything you fear to lose.

 

The first one

 

Or he had a relatively brief period of "syntax clarity" during the ESB time period.

In general, though, I agree with PiettsHat on this. A lot of the time, Yoda's unusual patterns sound better for the lines they're delivering.

 

Oh my God! Really?? What is this? Another excuse for PT bashing? Yoda's speech pattern?