A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away (before my computer started acting up) I discussed the controversial duel between Mace Windu and Darth Sidious. Today I follow-up on that entry with an analysis of the even more controversial face-off between Yoda and the Emperor.

The shadowy blanket of the Sith shrouds the galaxy. Darth Vader, the agent of evil, trades blows with Obi-Wan Kenobi on Mustafar. But it is on Coruscant where Emperor Palpatine, Darth Sidious, the architect of the Galactic Empire and the Sith's dominaion, waits in his lair.

In walks Yoda, the Master of the Jedi, the greatest enemy the dark side had ever known. He is two feet tall, and he's green, and he's 900 years old. The Emperor is ancient, and deformed, and he wears the face and body of one who has seen more than a century.

Yoda and the Emperor are the greatest practitioners of the light and dark sides of the Force of modern times.

The warriors exchange words. The Jedi and the Sith don't waste time with words and veiled threats - they are direct and prepare to do battle. Well, Yoda is.

Now, this is interesting. Sidious has little interest in a battle. Is he frightened? I think not. The Dark Lord underestimates Yoda's power, and thinks he can finish the Jedi Master with a quick surge of dark lightning. Even Yoda can't defend against the pure dark side attack, and he's thrown against the wall.

Darth Sidious revels in the victory, advancing on Yoda, and preparing to deliver the deathblow. "I have been waiting a long time for this, my little green friend. At last the Jedi are no more."

Yoda springs to life. "Not if anything to say about it, I have!" Yoda responds to Sidious' lightning with a surge of the Force, sending Sidious across the office and over the desk. "At an end, your rule is, and not short enough it was, I must say."

Now, Sidious is frightened.

How can a Jedi respond to the dark side so potently? thinks the Sith. And Sidious knows that for all his machinations and serpent-tongued subtleties, this is the true contest of the light and dark. And Sidious decides not to chance it. He will live to fight another day,

But Yoda will not let him.

And it is Yoda's smug confidence that the dark side is nothing against the light, that Palpatine is nothing against Yoda, that assures the Dark Lord that he can win this battle and still make it to that ballet he was going to attend. Darth Sidious knows Yoda's fatal and absolute flaw, the flaw of the entire Jedi Order: They are arrogant and blind.

Blind to the fact that the Sith have adapted. Blind to the fact that their codes and teachings are imperfect. Blind to the fact that Darth Vader is destined to become the most powerful Sith of all time.

And blind to the fact that Yoda lost the battle against Palpatine before he began.

Well, that's it for tonight, folks. Like my entries about Mace Windu, I will only be able to address one or two issues in my first entry, and really get into the meat of the subject in the second. I'll finish this tomorrow in "The Fall of the Jedi, the Rise of the Sith."