this incredibly aged Jedi Master was regarded as one of the primary leaders of the Jedi Council, in the decades leading up the to fall of the Old Republic. Along with Mace Windu and Ki-Adi-Mundi, the 860-year-old Yoda was a strong voice in the Council's decisions. A master of appearing old and frail, Yoda was an expert swordsbeing and teacher. He attained the rank of Jedi Master at a meer 100 years of age. More than 100 years before the Battle of Naboo, Yoda served as one of the Jedi Masters working aboard the Chu'unthor before it was lost on Dathomir. 700 years old at the time, Yoda returned to Coruscant in defeat, and resolved to spent his time on the Jedi Council, guiding the Jedi Order with the help of the Force. He never revealed his race or homeworld, preferring to maintain an air of mystery. Like many other Jedi Masters, Yoda continued to teach while sitting on the Council, and was responsible for the early training of Obi-Wan Kenobi. However, when Qui-Gin Jinn brought nine-year-old Anakin Skywalker before the Council, Yoda was one of the few who voted not to train the boy. He was overruled, and Obi-Wan Kenobi was appointed the boy's master. A decade passed, and Yoda became increasingly aware of the presence of the Dark Side of the Force in the galaxy. However, he underestimated its strength, and the Jedi Council was blinded to the creation of a clone army on the planet Kamino. When the Separatists - led by one of Yoda's former Padawans, Count Dooku - rose up on Geonosis, Yoda was asked to take command of the clone troopers and answer the Separatist threat. Although he managed to save a handful of Jedi and defeat the Separatists' droid armies, Yoda was unable to prevent Dooku's escape. Like other Jedi Masters of the time, Yoda agreed to take up the role of a military General, and led several missions for the Old Republic, most notably to Vjun and Kashyyyk. However, Yoda - like the rest of the Jedi Council - failed to locate Darth Sidious before it was too late. When Chancellor Palpatine revealed that he was the Sith Lord, he moved swiftly to eliminate as many Jedi as he could. Yoda managed to escape Kashyyyk, only to learn from Obi-Wan and Bail Organa that the Jedi had been outlawed. Yoda tried to confront Darth Sidious back on Coruscant, but came to realize that he was totally unprepared for the Sith's power. Yoda also realized that the Jedi Order had been preparing to meet a possible Sith threat based on information from the Battle of Ruusan, a thousand years earlier. Instead, the Sith had been adapting to the changes of the galaxy, and the Jedi had become arrogant enough to believe that the old ways were the only ways to handle things. Thus, any actions the Jedi Council could have taken against Sidious would have been - and, ultimately were - utterly useless. Rather than fight Palpatine and surely die, Yoda chose to flee Coruscant and fight back in other ways. On Polis Massa, he was visited by the spirit of Qui-Gon Jinn, who had somehow discovered the ancient teachings of the Whills and learned to affect the real world even in death. Qui-Gon then offered Yoda the chance to learn the techniques, and Yoda gratefully agreed to become Qui-Gon's apprentice. Yoda later learned of the birth of Padme' Amidala Skywalker's twins, and decided with Obi-Wan to separate them and place them in hiding. The two surviving Jedi hoped that the children would one day be strong enough to oppose Palpatine. Yoda then fled to Dagobah in hopes of eluding the Jedi purge by hiding among the intense life-force of the creatures there. He remained on Dagobah, and was eventually caught up in the Dark Jedi rebellion that engulfed Bpfassh as he was forced to destroy their leader when they fled to Dagobah. A period of relative tranquility passed for Yoda, until the spirit of Obi-Wan Kenobi directed Luke Skywalker to seek out the old Jedi Master. When Luke discovers him on Dagobah, following the Battle of Hoth, Yoda is almost 900 years old, and appears as a dimuntive elf-like creature with greenish-blue skin, wide eyes, and large pointed ears. He speaks in an archaic form of Basic. He claims to have watched over Luke's development for as long as Luke has been alive, not knowing if he would be able to train Luke or not, for he and Obi-Wan Kenobi realized that Luke might be the last of the Jedi Knights. Yoda took part in the events on Dathomir, along with the Jedi Masters Gra'aton and Vulatan, and foretold that the last of the Jedi Knights would someday come and defeat the Nightsisters. This would mark the end of the world as the witches knew it, and reshape their lives in profound ways. The Jedi Knight Yoda saw as Luke Skywalker. Yoda also foretold that Luke would be able to reveal the secret of the hundreds of reader disks that the Jedi kept with the witches of the Light Side (passed down to Rell), and that he would share them with the Dathomir witches.
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