Thing I've missed for 30 years

[Grimace]

See, I am the opposite. When "Yoda, the Jedi Master who trained me" was mentioned, I never once assumed that Yoda was a "great warrior".

I always got the feeling that Yoda was such a master of the Force that he would not resort to the crude nature of battling with a lightsaber.

"The Force is my ally, and a strong ally it is."

We never saw Yoda with a lightsaber showing Luke how to use it. Never once saw Luke learning to fight by spinning around like a top as Yoda did.

Thus, when I saw Yoda fight in the prequels, I was greatly disappointed, as he did not fight like an 870 year old Jedi Master. To go from hobbling around with a cane to doing flips and jumps and spinning like a top, it just came across as a sick joke.

I know many people hated it, but I thought the Force duel between Rey and Kylo Ren was an example of how Yoda would have fought against other Force users. He didn't need a lightsaber. Force block would stop your attack. Force Push would propel you forcefully back against the wall, and continue to push you to knock you out or even eliminate you. Or he would collapse a nearby wall on you. Or use telekinesis to raise a wall from the ground to impact you and knock you down or block your attack. If you did manage to land a hit, he could do what he did with the Sith lightning and simply absorb a hit. Too many and it would overwhelm him, but he would use the Force to avoid too many hits.

Luke made a wild jump of speculation, as heroes were what was on his mind. He wanted to be a hero and great warrior. Obi Wan was a hero and great warrior. Thus a Jedi Master must be a hero and great warrior. An assumption that Yoda himself put to rest. "Wars not make one great." "Judge me by my size do you? As well you should not, for the Force is my ally."

[Whill]

[Aelwe]

I never interpreted Yoda's words as him not being a warrior, but still, I didn't like him using a lightsaber. I always pictured him (and the Emperor, for that matter) as force users so powerful that had other ways to fight than to use a physical weapon -and the Emperor using force lightning in RotJ more or less cemented that idea for me-. I don't hate Yoda and Sidious both using lightsabers in the prequels, but it just makes them a little less interesting to me. Like all force users fit in a particular archetype, they look less varied and unique.
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"Ah, but a man's reach should exceed his grasp. Or what's a heaven for?" Robert Browning

[Grimace]

[RyanDarkstar]

I had incorrectly assumed my Yoda action figure had a lightsaber and wasn't surprised when he drew one in Attack of the Clones. Now I see the "lightsaber" is actually the lamp he stole from Luke during they're first encounter.

There is a deleted scene where Yoda throws out a cylinder during Luke's physical training and chastises the young wannabe-Jedi for missing -- a Jedi would have been able to cut it into seven pieces. In the Marvel Comics adaptation of The Empire Strikes Back, this is shown, as well as Yoda using training remotes. It's not much of a stretch to believe he could have dueled a little with Luke, as the comic Yoda seemed like a Zen Master who was okay with technology, but of course nothing like that was shown on-screen back in 1980.
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Currently playing D&D 5E and painting an unholy amount of miniatures.

[Whill]

[RyanDarkstar]

Yoda's Test (deleted scene)
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Currently playing D&D 5E and painting an unholy amount of miniatures.