For a pop culture icon, Jedi Master Yoda is
still a pretty mysterious figure. From his shadowy origins to the real meaning
behind his final moments with Luke Skywalker, this is Yoda's story explained. Linguists have had some interesting conversations
on the subject of Yoda's speech pattern. Talk the way he does, why? His backwards way of communicating has left
researchers baffled, and that might be the way George Lucas likes it. The creator of Star Wars was notoriously shifty
when it came to any information involving Yoda's species and homeworld. There are others of his kind, like Yaddle,
who became Jedi, or the as-yet unnamed child in The Mandalorian, but Lucas has never so
much as whispered the name of Yoda's species. He's even joked that Yoda is the illegitimate
child of Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy. "To be really honest with you, I never even
figured out where he came from, what his species is called, it doesn't even have a name." Before Yaddle's creation, Lucas discouraged
anyone from making more beings like Yoda, suggesting that he perhaps wanted Yoda to
be the only one of his kind. While that ship has sailed now, the story
of his species is still wrapped in mystery. Who knows? Maybe his species really is descended from
the Muppets. In the non-canonical Star Wars Expanded Universe,
now known as Legends, we got the closest thing to a true origin story for Yoda that we're
ever likely to get. In Legends, before Yoda was a Jedi Master,
he had a Jedi Master himself. Centuries before the events of the films,
Yoda and a human friend crash-landed on a swamp world. There, they found Jedi Master N'Kata Del Gormo,
a member of the Hysalrian species. Del Gormo told the two that they were Force-sensitive
and trained them as his Padawans. Eventually, Yoda went to Coruscant to continue
his training at the Jedi Temple. There, Yoda was trained by Huyang, a Mark
IV architect droid professor, who also made a canonical appearance in The Clone Wars TV
series. Once Yoda had his own lightsaber, he was paired
with a mentor. Some fans have theorized that Del Gormo returned
to Coruscant to complete Yoda's training, but the truth is that the lore gets kind of
murky here. In Legends, Yoda's early time as a Jedi Master
was influenced by a story he learned about the Jedi Masters K'ungfu and Chuang. When Chuang died, his apprentice celebrated,
saying that death is just a way that people become a different part of the Force. At the age of 100, Yoda became a Jedi Master. He was surprisingly young and spry at the
time if we consider that he only became geriatric at the ripe old age of 900. Those 800 years as a Jedi Master gave him
a lot of time to pass on his own knowledge, a role that Yoda became extremely comfortable
with over the years. Apparently, around 20,000 starry-eyed younglings
called Yoda their "Master." That's a whole lot of Padawans. "You knew Master Yoda?" "Yes, he taught nearly all the younglings
in the temple at one point or another." Having trained so many Jedi, Yoda became a
well-respected member of the Jedi Order. At some point in his very long tenure, he
was honored with a seat on the Jedi High Council. Made up of 12 members, the council ruled over
the entirety of the Jedi Order. Not all of Yoda's Padawans became exemplary
Jedi. Yoda's very last Padawan was a human man called
Dooku. Before he became the villain we know in the
prequel films, Dooku was Yoda's pupil. As Yoda's student, Dooku was impressed with
his master but not entirely sold on the rules of the Jedi Order. Dooku was also something of a political idealist,
and after witnessing the corruption of the Galactic Senate and struggling with the Jedi
Code, he abandoned his rank of Jedi Master and returned to his home planet. Home for Dooku was the planet Serenno, where
he reclaimed his royal-ish heritage. This is how he became Count Dooku, serving
as the head of state for the Confederacy of Independent Systems during the Clone Wars. What was kept on the down-low was that he
had a new master: Darth Sidious. Dooku had fallen to the dark side. During our first encounter with Yoda in The
Empire Strikes Back, he seemed like an eccentric, cranky, and incredibly wise creature. However, in his heyday, Yoda was much more
physical in how he solved problems. There was a reason why he was so revered,
and it wasn't just because he was quick to dole out deep, merchandisable quotes. "Do or do not. There is no try." Yoda was very close with the Wookiee race
during his lifetime, having served as an honored negotiator between the big furry guys and
their neighbors, the Trandoshans. He likely earned the Wookiees' trust when
he and his young Padawan, Dooku, came to the Wookiee homeworld of Kashyyyk to do some pest
control. At the time, the planet was full of massive,
rampaging monsters known as Terentateks. These venomous creatures craved the blood
of the Force-sensitive, meaning the Terentateks probably must have seen Yoda as a frog-shaped
delicacy. This, and his negotiation efforts, earned
him the title of Defender of the Home Tree. Has any other Jedi trained as many younglings? Has any other Jedi served the Order so dutifully
for so long? Could any other Jedi prove to be so measured
and wise? Yoda made such a name for himself that he
was the obvious choice when it came to appointing the Grand Master of the Jedi Council, a title
only given to the oldest and wisest of Jedi. Yoda was the Grand Master when Naboo was invaded,
which means he was the head honcho when a small and slightly sassy Anakin Skywalker
was presented as the possible Chosen One. Yoda told him how fear can lead to the Dark
Side, foreshadowing Anakin's eventual descent. As Grand Master, Yoda had a lot of difficult
decisions to make as the Clone Wars fell upon the galaxy, but he was first and foremost
a teacher. He assigned a Padawan named Ahsoka Tano to
Anakin in order to help the Jedi Knight to get over his fears of losing loved ones. Obviously, it didn't quite work out for Anakin
himself, but Ahsoka seems to have done alright from it. In addition to his royal title, Dooku served
as the head of state of the Confederacy of Independent Systems. This essentially made him the leader of the
Separatist movement that fought against the Republic and the Jedi Order during the Clone
Wars. Yoda would get to face his former Padawan
head-on when he and a strike team went to rescue Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker,
who were defeated and captured by Dooku. Despite Count Dooku claiming that the Dark
Side had allowed him to become more powerful than any Jedi, Yoda quickly proved that his
power was much greater than his diminutive size suggested. Yoda hobbled in with a cane, but he turned
Dooku's Force lightning against him with ease. When lightsabers were drawn, it was clear
that Yoda was still the master in this fight. Dooku only escaped because he distracted Yoda
by nearly squashing Anakin and Obi-Wan, allowing the former padawan the chance to jump on a
ship and fly away from his old master. Toward the end of the Clone Wars, Yoda began
to hear voices. Some council members wondered if the old Jedi
was going senile when Yoda appeared distracted during a meeting. As it turns out, Yoda was just wondering how
Qui-Gon Jinn could've contacted him from beyond the grave, as he had during an earlier meditation
session. This was unheard of, and the other Council
members were unable to hear anything or anyone while meditating. This led Yoda to undergo a procedure that
would bring him as close to death, and the Force, as possible. Inches away from dying, Yoda heard Jinn again,
who told him to go to Dagobah. On Dagobah, Yoda was led to a cave strong
with the Dark Side, where he saw a vision of a Sith Lord slaughtering Jedi. Having seen this horrible future, Qui-Gon
Jinn directed Yoda to the Wellspring of Life, home of the midi-chlorians. There, Yoda met with a Force priestess who
would help him to achieve life after death. First, Yoda was forced to fight a sharp-toothed
shadow-version of himself, his Dark Side motivated by hubris. He was only able to defeat his wraith when
he accepted that he did have a Dark Side, but that it was a part that he refused to
give into. He went on to undergo some trippy vision training
in order to learn how to appear as a Force spirit after his eventual death. This ordeal had him fighting evil opponents
on the original homeworld of the Sith, and nearly being tricked by the illusions of some
of his dead friends. Before the Empire raised its ugly head, the
Jedi Council wasn't entirely comfortable with Chancellor Palpatine's growing power in the
galaxy. That made things even more uncomfortable when
Palpatine appointed Anakin Skywalker to be his representative at the Council. Thanks to some Sith-level manipulations and
creepy visions of Padme Amidala dying in childbirth, this relationship between Anakin and Palpatine
led to the creation of Darth Vader, the Sith Lord that Yoda had feared would come in the
future. As Jedi were being slaughtered under Palpatine's
Order 66, Yoda and Obi-Wan conspired to take down Darth Sidious and Darth Vader, who were
actually Palpatine and Anakin. At the Galactic Senate, Yoda faced off with
the yellow-eyed Emperor Palpatine and found his opponent was super-charged with Force
lightning. At first, they seemed evenly matched, but
eventually Palpatine gained the upper hand. Yoda knew he was defeated and fled for his
life. Upon defeat, Yoda placed himself into exile,
believing that he had failed. Before he ran off to Dagobah, he witnessed
the birth of Luke and Leia and the death of Padme. Sensing the twins' connection to the Force,
Yoda helped come up with the plan to separate and hide the babies. Yoda also planned on training with the Force
spirit of Qui-Gon Jinn, and he passed the knowledge Qui-Gon gave him on to Obi-Wan Kenobi. Because of this, Obi-Wan used his time hiding
out on Tatooine to also learn how to maintain his identity after death, which meant that
like Jinn and Yoda, he would be able to pass on wisdom long after he was gone. While Obi-Wan made himself comfortable on
the sandy desert planet, Yoda made the swampy world of Dagobah his home. He made a modest house there among all the
little creatures of the muck, waiting for the Skywalker twins to grow up and inevitably
cause trouble. Though he was physically stuck on the planet,
Yoda was still able to keep an eye on surviving Jedi throughout the galaxy, helping them to
avoid the Inquisitors that sought to snuff them out. Around two decades after Yoda's defeat at
the hands of Palpatine, a grown-up Luke Skywalker came to Dagobah in search of a great warrior,
the Jedi who had taught his own mentor, Obi-Wan Kenobi. He found Yoda, who didn't appear to be much
more than a senile hermit. But soon, Luke would find out that Yoda was
the stuff of legend. Despite his cryptic speech pattern, Yoda proved
to be an excellent teacher as he mentored Luke in the ways of the Force. However, their relationship had its ups and
downs. During his training, Luke ignored Yoda's advice
and went to confront Vader when he sensed his friends were in danger. He didn't return to Dagobah until a year later,
when he found Yoda ill and dying. With Yoda gone, Luke would become the last
of the Jedi, so Yoda asked him to pass on what he knew to others and become a mentor
as Yoda had been for centuries. Upon his death, Yoda became one with the Force. But he wasn't gone for good, because no one's
ever really gone in Star Wars. His training to maintain his identity after
death also helped. Yoda appeared one last time, years later when
Luke was at his lowest during his own exile. In classic Yoda fashion, he dispensed some
necessary wisdom to one of his students, restoring Luke's faith in the Force when he, and the
galaxy, needed it most. Check out one of our newest videos right here! Plus, even more Looper videos about your favorite
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