Yoda’s “Plan B”
Meanwhile, on Dagobah… Today’s strip prompted the following comment from one of our readers, A. Joyce. It got a laugh out of me and I love his take on the Great Jedi Master. I thought I’d share it, with Joyce’s permission. It points out some of the issues that did not exist before the Prequels came along with a slightly different Yoda to the one I loved when I grew up.
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“I’ve been telling people about this idea that I had! I don’t think Yoda ever wanted Luke trained. He never believed in him. All his life he was stuck on the farm, screwing around, not working towards anything other then getting out of there. But Leia was in the Senate, and joined the rebellion. Obi-Wan was the only one that believed in Luke.
Even if you go back to Revenge of the Sith, Yoda says the kids should be split up, and he smiles when Bail says “we’ll take her, she’ll be loved” (also she’ll have frigging bodygaurds up the wingwang and will be a princess). When Obi-wan asks about Luke, Yoda just tells him to give him back to his family– Leia’s family too! Why not stick her on that rock and let Luke get raised as royalty? Yup, Yoda’s a jerk.
On Dagobah Luke fails every test, then when he goes to leave, Yoda isn’t worried about Luke, he’s worried about the galaxy. Even when Ben laments that he was their last hope, Yoda finally “Reveals his opinion” that there is another. Although it is interesting that he wasn’t worried that Leia was now in the hands of the Empire. Unless my theory is wrong and it was Lando that Yoda believed in.” – A. Joyce.
Leave your comments below.
Well, in the EU, Luke is generally acknowledged to be stronger in the Force than Leia. Not that she isn’t strong, she just didn’t have time to be trained, and Luke didn’t have much else to do.
What a wonderful surprise to see Biggs back!
I think a small bit of ambiguity – without ‘plot holes’ – is good. It gives the story a life outside of, and long after the viewing within the viewer’s imagination.
Hahaha! I love that theory. ;D Not that I believe in it, but it would make on hell of a fanfic. Jerk Yoda. Hah!
Don’t forget that Yoda also sent Obi-Wan to Tatooine to watch over Luke. Obi-Wan got stuck on that desert planet for almost twenty years being a babysitter…
As for the EU. Luke and Leia are supposed to have the same potential, but since Luke was the only one who really trained, and put his time and energy into being a jedi, he got stronger.
I knew Biggs was the chosen one! 🙂
He’s got a point though.
Yoda really didn’t seem overly enthusiastic when it came to Luke’s training. I guess he also thought that he had ‘too much of his father in him’.
IIRC, Lucas’ outline gave Luke a sister who was training in secret on another planet — the “other” of whom Yoda spoke. Leia was a couple years younger than Luke, and Vader would use Luke’s jealousy against him in the third movie. The sister would be a plot point in the fourth movie.
Then, Lucas’ personal life started coming apart and he decided to wrap things up and the end of the third movie, RotJ. The “retcon distortion field” runs backward through the trilogy, Luke’s sister on Earth-1 is destroyed and Leia ages to become the twin sister.
The distortion field also changes Yoda and Obi-Wan from venerable warrior-guardians to incompetent politicians. Obi-wan especially — no longer a wise seer, he becomes instead a confused recluse whose memories of a “golden age of the Jedi” is only true from a certain point of view.
And Yoda? Yeah, Yoda’s pretty much a dick.
Everyone should have a Plan “B”. 😉
Interesting take on Yoda indeed!
I had just assumed he was over-weary from what Vader and the Emperor did to the Jedi Knights and the Old Republic that he didn’t want to see a repeat from Anakin’s progeny and was content to let the Jedi die out.
Though I think his lack-luster interest in Luke was more a show than anything.
I always figured he was just irritated that the last hope for the galaxy was an impatient, over-confident, whining boy who didn’t listen to hardly anything that Yoda told him.
Just like his dad….
Hang on a second, this just made me realize another thing that the prequels screwed up. If Kenobi was there when the twins were split up, why did he say Luke was their only hope? Wouldn’t he realize that Leia was still out there and even known who Leia was?
Sorry things like this occur to me every so often. I don’t really think about the prequels too often.
Neither do I, Schmitty. Neither do I.
Shh. It’s one of those things you aren’t suppose to think about, let alone talk about. 😉
Over the course of twenty years GL forgot some of his own details. Sith happens, y’know.
THERE WERE PREQUELS? WOOOOOAAAAAH
If we take the concept that Yoda is a Jerk, then Yoda sending Obi-wan to Tatoonie to babysit was retribution for everything that happened in the prequels. Yoda never wanted Anakin trained, Obi-wan insisted.
At the same time, Luke was leaking force all over the place, while Vader barely felt it on Leia. He would have been impossible to hide anywhere close to the center of the Empire. Even as a prince, he couldn’t have been protected. So they send him to a place on the rim, trusting in Vader’s hatred of the place to keep him away, but since if they did come looking, changing his name wouldn’t matter, so why bother.
I definitely always *now* see Stacy for the line, “There is… another.” She trained with Yoda, for longer than Luke, and now knows the difference between a hairdryer and a lightsaber. (Thank goodness….)
Sad that the Pink 5 series of short films, which *had* become canon thanks to the novels, is now being cast aside alongside all the EU-post-Ep6.