Yoda's Death in Return of the Jedi Hid a Tragic Connection to a Beloved Star Wars Character (2024)

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Yoda's Death in Return of the Jedi Hid a Tragic Connection to a Beloved Star Wars Character (1)

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Yoda's Death in Return of the Jedi Hid a Tragic Connection to a Beloved Star Wars Character (2)

Star Wars is a long-running and expansive franchise, so countless writers have contributed to its lore over the years. There are television shows, novels, comic books, video games, and more that expand the Star Wars universe beyond the core set of films, both in Legends continuity and the modern canon. This easily could have made Star Wars feel inconsistent, but there has been an effort to tie Star Wars' various stories together and keep the universe cohesive. Usually, this takes the form of incorporating existing characters, items, and locations in new pieces of media, but sometimes, stories can retroactively connect two existing parts of the Star Wars universe that were previously unrelated. In particular, this is an excellent way to tie the original trilogy and prequel trilogy together, making it seem as if the plot of the prequels was part of the overarching story from the start.

Many such connections appeared in the 2017 novel From a Certain Point of View. Named for one of Obi-Wan Kenobi's infamous quotes, this was an anthology of short stories about various Star Wars characters that took place during the events of Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope. It aimed to show unique perspectives on the movie that began it all and explain what was happening elsewhere in the galaxy when the cameras were focused on Luke Skywalker and his friends. One of these stories, namely "There is Another" by Gary D. Schmidt, followed a day in the life of Yoda during his isolation on the swamp planet Dagobah. This story included a reference to a character from Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace that retroactively made Yoda's death from Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi even sadder and showcased an often unexplored aspect of the Jedi Grandmaster's personality.

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Yoda Held On to a Keepsake From a Fallen Friend

  • During Yoda's encounter with the droids, he calls down a bolt of lightning from the sky, similar to how he destroyed the ancient Jedi Tree in Star Wars: Episode VIII - The Last Jedi.
  • The description of Qui-Gon's essence remaining on his cloak is reminiscent of psychometry, a Force ability that allows its users to sense important moments from an object's past by touching it.

According to "There is Another," there were only three possessions about which Yoda still cared in his old age. The first was his cane, which he had come to rely upon more and more over the years. The second was a small pot that Obi-Wan had created for him long ago. The third and most important was his blanket, the same one that covered him when he passed away in Return of the Jedi. It may seem unusual that Yoda cared so much about a simple textile, but "There is Another" revealed that this was no ordinary blanket:

The blanket on his bed, made from his old friend’s cloak. How long had it been since Qui-Gon Jinn had become one with the Force? He went back inside and fingered the hem. Sometimes, one strong in the Force might leave a hint of himself in what he had owned, but now, so many years had gone by. If Yoda had felt the hint once, he felt it no longer.

When Yoda discovered some Imperial probe droids on Dagobah, he used the Force to destroy them, accidentally setting his possessions on fire in the process. Above all else, he was quick to rescue Qui-Gon's cloak from the flames, and he was relieved to see it mostly unharmed.

"There is Another" highlighted Yoda's sentimentality. He was a hermit who lived in isolation, having abandoned most that he had ever known and loved, but he still held on to Obi-Wan's pot and Qui-Gon's cloak -- at least until the former broke during the events of the short story. How Qui-Gon's cloak made its way to Yoda is unknown; if it was the same cloak that Qui-Gon wore during the events of The Phantom Menace, Obi-Wan must have recovered it after his fight with Darth Maul and brought it back to the Jedi Temple on Coruscant. Regardless, when Yoda died in Return of the Jedi, he comforted himself with a reminder of his old friend who had died almost 40 years previously.

Qui-Gon Helped Yoda Strengthen His Connection to the Force

Yoda's Death in Return of the Jedi Hid a Tragic Connection to a Beloved Star Wars Character (4)

Stories about Qui-Gon tend to focus on his relationships with Obi-Wan and Anakin Skywalker, but his relationship with Yoda is also important. This played a part in the sixth season of Star Wars: The Clone Wars, which was titled "The Lost Missions." In the episode "Voices," Qui-Gon begins to communicate with Yoda from beyond the grave. He guided Yoda on a spiritual journey that involved traveling to Dagobah and traversing the same Cave of Evil that Luke later would in A New Hope. As a result of Qui-Gon's tutelage, Yoda learned how to become a Force ghost after his death, a long-lost technique that Qui-Gon rediscovered after meeting the Force Priestesses from the Wellspring of Life. There was a deleted scene from Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith in which a truncated version of similar events would have occurred.

Yoda and Qui-Gon had a complicated dynamic. Though they were both wise Jedi Masters, they disagreed in many ways. Yoda was almost a thousand years old, so, unsurprisingly, he was a traditionalist. Though there were exceptions, he generally wanted to follow the rules of the Jedi Order and properly do everything. By contrast, Qui-Gon was something of a maverick. He was frustrated with the bureaucracy of the Jedi, and he was more than willing to break the rules or disobey the Jedi Council's commands for the sake of the greater good. Obi-Wan commented on this in The Phantom Menace: "Master, you could be sitting on the Council by now if you would just follow the Code." Yoda's and Qui-Gon's differing viewpoints were evident in their treatment of young Anakin. Qui-Gon wanted to take Anakin on as his padawan, for he believed that he was the Chosen One who would bring balance to the Force. Yoda thought that Anakin was too old to begin his Jedi training, and he said that it was "impossible" for Qui-Gon to have two padawans at once.

Qui-Gon's Cloak Kept the Past Alive

Yoda's Death in Return of the Jedi Hid a Tragic Connection to a Beloved Star Wars Character (5)

This difference in opinion sometimes brought Yoda and Qui-Gon into conflict, but they were never enemies. They both did what they thought was best for the Jedi Order and the galaxy as a whole, and they deeply respected one another. After all, Yoda was the one whom Qui-Gon contacted when he wanted to pass on his knowledge about becoming a Force ghost, and Qui-Gon was the one whom Yoda wanted to remember as he spent the final decades of his life on Dagobah. Obi-Wan, having learned from Yoda as well as Qui-Gon, combined their teachings and was a better Jedi for it. He had more reverence for the traditions of the Jedi than Qui-Gon, but he was more willing to break the rules when necessary than Yoda. As is often the case in the Star Wars franchise, balance was key.

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When George Lucas and Lawrence Kasdan were writing The Return of the Jedi, Yoda's blanket was not meant to be anything special, but From a Certain Point of View turned this seemingly unimportant item into something much more. The novel is canon, and other pieces of Star Wars media have referenced the revelation about Yoda's blanket. For example, in the video game LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga, the model for Yoda's blanket was that of a Jedi robe. The story of the prequel trilogy was a tragedy, so connecting it to the events of the original trilogy imbued it with a sense of melancholy. Yet it also made the Rebellion's success at the end of The Return of the Jedi all the more triumphant. When Yoda, Obi-Wan, and Anakin appeared as Force ghosts at the end of the film, they witnessed the celebratory conclusion to decades of conflict.

Yoda's Death in Return of the Jedi Hid a Tragic Connection to a Beloved Star Wars Character (7)
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The original trilogy depictsthe heroic development of Luke Skywalker as a Jedi and his fight against Palpatine's Galactic Empire alongside his sister, Leia. The prequels tell the tragic backstory of their father, Anakin, who is corrupted by Palpatine and becomes Darth Vader.

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