Yoda’s unique speech pattern does not originate from his species in the Star Wars canon as revealed by Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi, which raises a question about Yoda’s backstory that Dave Filoni may have answered. While Yaddle did speak like Yoda in the Star Wars Expanded Universe, it was only in Tales of the Jedi that Yaddle got to have a few lines of dialogue in a canon Star Wars story. While Tales of the Jedi season 1 was focused on Ahsoka and Count Dooku, audiences could not help but anticipate seeing Yaddle speak in canon for the first time given how mysterious her and Yoda’s species is.
The fact that Yaddle does not speak like Yoda means that Yoda’s speech pattern is not something shared by the members of his species. In order words, Yoda’s speech pattern is something unique to the character, and the true reason why Yoda speaks like that remains a mystery. Interestingly, long-time Star Wars creator Dave Filoni, who has recently worked on The Mandalorian and Tales of the Jedi, has his own headcanon as to why Yoda speaks like that – and it comes from Yoda’s legendary puppeteer and voice actor Frank Oz. During an interview (vua Nerdist), Filoni recalled how Oz told him that “Yoda speaks that way specifically in honor of his own master.” While an interesting point of view, that answer raises a lot of questions regarding Yoda’s backstory.
Who Was Yoda’s Jedi Master?
If what Frank Oz established about Yoda during his The Empire Strikes Back performance is to be considered canon, which very well may be the case considering that Filoni took it into account when bringing Yaddle back to Star Wars, then Yoda must have had an important master somewhere during his early Jedi years. However, there is absolutely nothing in the Star Wars canon regarding this significant Yoda master, which obviously creates a lot of story possibilities. This Yoda master could be from the same species as Yoda, Yaddle, and Grogu, which would make the unnamed species even more important. It is also possible that this Yoda master is not from the same planet as Yoda but still had a huge impact on the life of the future Grand Master Jedi.
Why Star Wars Has Revealed So Little About Yoda & His Species
George Lucas always avoided revealing anything about Yoda’s home planet and species. That approach towards Yoda’s backstory was carried onto the Star Wars Expanded Universe, which, despite creating lore for almost every corner of the Star Wars universe, never established much about Yoda. Not even The Mandalorian, whose main character along with Mando is from the same species as Yoda, revealed anything substantial about the iconic Star Wars species. Much of what makes Yoda interesting are the questions surrounding the character, and not all of those questions need to be answered. If trying to explain the Force with Midi-chlorians was already so divisive, adding too much backstory to Yoda might not work.
The High Republic novels are exploring Yoda’s life as Jedi far before the events of Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace. Still, not much about Yoda’s past has been revealed. Yaddle’s brief moments in Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi establish that Yoda is a far more mysterious Jedi than audiences had imagined and that there is still a lot about the character that can be revealed. It remains to be seen if Frank Oz and Dave Filoni’s Yoda headcanon will ever be referenced in Star Wars.
