Looking back on Episode V, I started thinking about Yoda's interactions with Luke, and in particular Luke's training. And I started thinking...you know what? Yoda is just as stubborn and set in his old way of thinking as he was when he first went into exile.

I mean, between 21 or so years on a desolate jungle planet, being beat to pieces by an evil Sith Lord, suffering through years of galaxy-wide devastating war, watching the entire Jedi Order crumble beneath him, and hoping really, really hard that Darth Vader didn't come looking for his kids, you think Yoda would learn his lesson. But, based on his behavior in V, he hasn't. Let me give you a few examples.

Yoda: He is too old.

He is too old?? Are you joking? He's also the galaxy's second to last hope of restoration, and Yoda's complaining about his age? Oh, ok, how about we just not train him, and hope that the galaxy eventually rights itself...riiiight... It's not like Yoda had a choice. It was either Luke or Leia, and Leia was just as old as Luke. Perhaps Yoda would have been happier floating rocks around his head until he turned 950...

Yoda: Never his mind on where he was!

Another bit of lesson not learned by our wise green puppet-friend. Because Yoda had spent so many years wrapped up in his superior knowledge and experience, he failed to realize that someone with Luke's background and age would have a very hard time not looking to the future, especially with a total lack of training. Just as before, Yoda has succumbed to demanding all but the impossible from his students, just as he had when he was in charge of the Order. (But that's another blog.)

Yoda's Impatience

Ok, ok. Even the greatest Jedi lose their temper from time to time, but Yoda's attitude during Luke's training was very...un-Jedi-like. He was trying to force Luke through 16 years of training in 4 months, and expecting Luke to follow through completely. Yoda expected, once again, the impossible from both himself and his student.

No Guidance= No Understanding

Luke was trying his best to understand Yoda's point of view and reasons behind the grueling tests and training, but failed only in that Yoda never gave him a reason for Luke to trust him. The only real affirmation of Yoda being a Jedi Master had been by a semi-ghost voice of Ben talking to Yoda. Other than that, Luke didn't know anything about Yoda's past, the Jedi Order, or what Yoda's goals were. It was 'do or leave' for Luke from day one, and Luke put up with it quite admirably for a long time.

Those are just a few reasons why Yoda never really seemed to 'get it'. Perhaps it wasn't really Yoda's fault- having been trapped and trained in the cloistering dogma of the Jedi Order for hundreds of years can't exactly help your tolerating outlook on other people's opinions.

Well, I'd better end this blog on a happy note or people are going to start thinking I hate Yoda. I don't. So, Yoda's cool, awesome, powerful, and all that...but he's also very naive, even for a 900 year old green Jedi Master.

Feel free to post comments, disagreements, funny soliloquies, and/or random quotes.

JV out.