As one of Star Wars‘ greatest Jedi of all time, Yoda has centuries of wisdom, unparalleled skill and a remarkable connection to the Force. And yet with all these qualities at his disposal, Yoda did surprisingly little to combat Palpatine’s reign as the Emperor. Yoda had plenty of opportunity to damage Darth Sidious’ war machine during the Sith’s years in power, and yet he remained in exile. Yoda was a warrior, but also an experienced general – even just his advice could have helped the Rebellion in countless ways.
Star Wars: Yoda #7 by Marc Guggenheim, Alessandro Miracolo, Annalisa Leoni and Joe Caramagna finds Yoda’s meditation on Dagobah interrupted by a voice from within the Force – likely Obi-Wan Kenobi. While acknowledging Yoda’s exile, Kenobi says there’s no way that the ancient Jedi is unaware of the Empire’s rise. Solemnly, Yoda replies:
Know about it, I do. Stop it, I cannot. The Empire… The Dark Side… Vader… The Emperor. Become too powerful, they have. The threat has become too big for me to defeat.
Yoda Calls Palpatine ‘Emperor’ as A Title He Has Rightly Earned
Star Wars: Yoda #7 (2023)
In Star Wars, names carry an immense amount of importance – for example, Yoda thinking of Darth Vader as ‘Vader’ and not ‘Anakin’ shows that he understands his old ally has truly fallen to the Dark Side, even considering Anakin dead. However, he makes a similar linguistic surrender to Palpatine. Yoda has known Palpatine by practically every name the dark lord ever used. Whether it was as Sheev, Senator Palpatine, or even Darth Sidious, Yoda was familiar with the Emperor’s machinations and understood the individual guises he adopted to seize power, and he understands how each has a different meaning. Accordingly, fans might expect Yoda to see ‘Darth Sidious’ as Palpatine’s true name – the identity which reveals his core goals and beliefs, and which he hid for so many years. Indeed, when Yoda confronts Palpatine in Revenge of the Sith, he greets his foe as, “Emperor, or should I call you ‘Darth Sidious?'”
However, by the time of his exile, Yoda no longer saw Palpatine as the Sith who had stolen the galaxy. While this remained true, Yoda explains that he doesn’t believe Palpatine can be beaten. As much as he might hate it, Yoda sees the Empire as an undeniable truth, too powerful to topple or undermine. When he calls Palpatine “the Emperor,” it’s easy to see this as the broken Jedi admitting that Palpatine has earned his title, and his supremacy can’t be denied.
Palpatine Finally Succeeding in Breaking Yoda’s Spirit
Believing the Empire is too big to fail, Yoda gives in to Palpatine’s ultimate wishes – he is no longer primarily relevant as a Sith, but as the leader of an unassailable Empire (a viewpoint which Palpatine also held, much to Vader’s disapproval.) Fans might expect Yoda to refuse to recognize Palpatine’s position to his grave, and yet in his darkest moments, he couldn’t see any way the Empire could be brought down. Obviously, Yoda’s will didn’t remain broken forever – Kenobi helps convince him that “size matters not” – but this moment of weakness ultimately reframes his decision to train Luke Skywalker.
The most enduring theme of Star Wars is hope, but during his exile, Yoda lost his. When Luke Skywalker arrived as a ‘New Hope,’ this applied to Yoda more than anyone, showing him a path to a world where Darth Sidious was no longer the Emperor, and changing Star Wars history forever.
Star Wars: Yoda #7 is available now from Marvel Comics.
