something just occurred to me today as i was logging on to the SW site at work (obviously no customers yet--crap! one just called as i was typing this, so i'd better hurry): Yoda was a bit on the militant side as a Jedi! i realize that many would disagree with this and would say that he and the other Jedi believe in self-defense versus being militant. but the point is, during the Clone Wars he took care of himself pretty well!

i thought of this while looking at that picture of Yoda on the SW website as you log on; the one with his long, thick finger nails showing and the expression on his face could kill...!

this little green dude fought against the best of the Dark Siders: Count Dooku and then Senator Palpatine..."or should i call you Darth Sidious?" but like another SW fan had mentioned, he never really won against either Sith. Dooku escaped from the cave while Yoda actually ran away from Sidious as he climbed through some ducts, awaiting Bail Organa's rescue of him.

i suppose one could play the psychology card and say that perhaps for the reason that he never really defeated either Sith it is what eventually turned him into a more "pacifistic" Jedi by the time we see him on Dagobah in ESB. as Yoda told Bail Organa as they escaped by repulsor-car, "into hiding i must go...i have failed! (hope i got the quote right)"

let's face it, seeing your fellow Jedi massacred all in one day by a soldiers that were there originally to protect you must have had a deep impact--even post-traumatic throughout the rest of his 800+ years life! besides, what was there to fight for anymore by the time the Emperor had galvanized the Republic into a galactic Empire?

as Qui-gon Ginn told Queen Amadala (Padme) on Naboo, 'i can't fight a war for you.' Yoda and Obi-Wan, for all they knew at the time, were the only Jedi left in all of the former galactic Republic! could you blame Yoda for mentally escaping to Dagobah with such depressing prospects???