PT If Anakin Had Been Trained By Yoda

Would Anakin have been different had he been trained by Master Yoda instead of Obi-Wan?

Yoda showed in AOTC how he was gentle in his instruction with the Younglings:



Then again Count Dooku was Yoda’s Padawan and fell to the dark side:



Would Yoda have been a better Master for Anakin? Would Anakin having trained under him been less prone to his dark side nature or fall faster?

 

I think they would have clashed even a lot more but that wouldn't have been so bad. Anakin would have quit the Order in 4 or 5 years.

 

Anakin would then speak backwards too, which would make Vader's speech patterns very confusing for the Empire.

 

Well, Yoda did seem to recognize the importance of Anakin's dreams, he had better advice in response to them, and understood the importance of actually training. Yoda may have spent much more time on the fundamentals, keeping Anakin in the temple longer rather than going out into the galaxy before Anakin was fit for it.

 

Why do you think they would have clashed more?

Anakin went to Yoda for help about his visions:



Could Yoda through training help Anakin “let go of shat he feared to loss?”

Roundabound

 

Ironically, I think Mace would've been better. Why? Vaapad. Mace would allow himself to briefly tap into the Dark Side to get an edge on his opponents. Anakin could've used that.

 

I doubt that, personally

Anakin is a person who's defined by his inability to let go of things. Though Obi-Wan seems to feel Yoda would've made a better teacher, I think that that's something that's too deeply ingrained into Anakin's character to be expunged, no matter who taught him

From Anakin's perspective, Yoda's advice regarding his dreams of Padme's death was essentially the same advice Obi-Wan gave him about the dreams he had of his mother's death. It all boils down to "Yeah, don't worry about it", which was never going to be an acceptable solution for him

By the time he'd joined the Jedi, I don't think his fear of loss was something that would be possible to "train" out of him

 

Wouldn’t that only help Anakin fall faster though?

I agree its a innate part of Anakin to fear loss, but with Obi-Wan he had more of a father/brother relationship, with Yoda it would have been more like Yoda and Luke. Luke had the fear of loss, losing his friends on Bespin, but because of his training with Yoda, he was able to reject his father’s temptation and leap to his possible death rather than turn to the dark side.

 

Though Obi-Wan's and Yoda's philosophies and attitudes, teachings were pretty similar I think Yoda seems more direct in a way that would be more offputting, more dismissive of that Anakin would want, be too thinking of "Adventure!," "Fleshy matters ugh," and not really making his alternatives seem appealing, which we did see in the Sith advice scene, the solution to your turmoil about losing someone is to be willing to let go of them as if he didn't care that Anakin had already been getting that kind of advice for a long time.

 

I wouldn't think it's such a foregone conclusion. Then there's not much of a cautionary tale to be had.

Sure, growing up a slave generated a lot of anxiety that stayed with him,
leaving his mother at a vulnerable age and misenterpretting the Jedi way led him to chosing to bury that anxiety, namely by fixating on Padmé,
and most of the Jedi couldn't directly relate to Anakin's situation.
But there still exists the possibility that he could've learned to let go of his clingings and become more equanimous. There's always the chance that Qui-Gon could've been more effective at reaching him. And of course, without Palpatine grooming him and fostering a sense of entitlement within him, things would've been much different. Even with Obi-Wan as his master.


And fwiw, in TCW, though Yoda didn't personally train Anakin, he did give him a Padawan with the intent of putting him in a position in which he'd, ideally, train himself to accept the inevitability of change.

 

It was Yoda’s idea for Anakin to train Ahsoka, interesting. See that makes me inclined to think Yoda would have trained Anakin differently.
Obi-Wan in AOTC is constantly correcting Anakin like a schoolboy with a ruler. Yoda is more patient and adapted. He even tells Luke the most important thing is to, “pass on what you have learned,” and to even pass on, “folly, failure, yes failure the greatest teach of all is.” (TLJ). Obi-Wan kept chastising Anakin for his mistakes, which is odd since Qui-Gon was more flexible like Yoda and less inclined to judge people harshly. Then again Claudia Gray in Master & Apprentice shows Kenobi is Codeist, strict when it comes to Jedi Way, and has trouble with Jinn’s unorthodox teachings.

 

I'm not thinking it would have made much of a difference. Anikan probably would have been less likely to think he is better than his master, but he probably would have gone down the same path. As others have said, I think Qui-Gon probably would have been best for Anikan. Qui-Gon wasn't always by the book and his teaching style probably would have been more fitting. Who knows, maybe Anikan would have went back and rescued his mother sooner.

 

Intriguing point. Had Anakin gone sooner to set his mother free, she might never have been captures by the Tuskans.

 

On top of that, with his mother around, it is possibly less likely he would have succumbed to the dark side.

 

I think that's down to the more brotherly relationship between them though, less a mentor figure role and/or dad role.

 

It would have certainly removed a step to the dark side, but his possessiveness of Padme would likely have happened anyways.

Well the critiques get to Anakin, “he’a overly critical, he doesn’t understand!”

 

I don't think it would be enough to stop Anakin's fall. As you mentioned, even Dooku became a Sith.
Yoda would have far more experience than Obi-Wan, but he would also be stricter.
There is a chance that Yoda nips Anakin and Palpatine's friendship in the bud early on without rage from Anakin. If Yoda succeeds, there's far less of a chance that Anakin falls.

 

Good point. Yoda would not let Anakin have a second mentor like Palpatine. This would have been a massive curb to Anakin falling.

 

He might actually have rivaled Master Yoda as a swordsman.

 

Lol

Anakin, I can do more than flips, I can sidways somersault!

 

I think that would depend on what Shmi does after being freed. If she leaves Tatooine and goes to live on say Naboo, they yes, that won't happen. However if she stays on Tatooine, meets Cliegg Lars, they fall in love, marry and she moves to his farm. Then the kidnapping could still happen.

If Anakin had freed his mother not long after TPM, or if Padme had freed her and let him know. Then I think it would have set his mind at ease. He knows that his mother is no longer a slave and is a free person. So I think that would have made him less worried about her and he would not spend ten years with that gnawing at him. So he might have had an easer time of letting go. Esp if he could talk to her now and again, or write letters.

What could be discussed is if Anakin had gone sooner to check up on her when he started getting the bad dreams. He had them for a while it seems in AotC and he did not go until they got really bad.
If he had gone say two weeks earlier, then he might have been able to get to his mother and maybe get her out alive and back home. He then would not have gone kill-crazy and he would know that saving a person from death could be done with normal means and he might not be so desperate for some "stop-death" spell.
Would Yoda have been more open to the idea of checking on his mother due to bad dreams?
Based on what he says in RotS, I think not.

Bye for now.
Blackboard Monitor

 

Thing is, he ought to know that you can save people from near-death experiences. Did he not undertake rescue missions during his time as a Jedi? Yeah, none of the people were his mother but surely he'd have known that it is possible to save someone from mortal danger.

 

Fair point. If Shimi stays on Tatooine, the likelyhood she would end up meeting Lars and falling in love would be high.

 

What does Shmi want? Seriously, we need to think about this. Sure, it would've eased Anakin's fears knowing she was no longer a slave, but if she wished to remain on Tatooine and eek out a life for herself, that's her right. She shouldn't have to move to another planet to keep her son happy. She had spent six-plus years (from when they were enslaved when Anakin was 3) at the mercy of others who decided her fate for her. How dare we think Anakin gets to turn around and do exactly the same thing?

Shmi gets to do whatever she wants. If she had wanted to leave Tatooine, I'm sure Cliegg would've found a way to get her off-world.

 

I mean, maintaining a role as a parent, I think is what a parent's job is.