I met him first in 1980 midway through "The Empire Strikes Back". He was small, old, and wrinkled with time. Being six and much less familiar with labels, I don't think I would have called him "crazy", but he certainly appears that way to me now...at least in the beginning.

I suppose he was attempting to test Luke's patience, and Yoda certainly had to have warehouses full of that. I also surmise that most of us would be a little insane if we had experienced Yoda's situation. A trainer of Jedi for 800 years and for the last twenty quietly passing the decades. He is left to remember what he himself views as a personal failure. What a weight that must have been to carry on tiny shoulders: the destruction of Alderaan, the imprisonment of his friends, the Wookiees, and so much more...all becuase Palpatine had bested him two decades ago.

As a six- and then nine-year-old when "Return of the Jedi" played in theaters I thought Yoda had always been a home-body, but in the Prequels we clearly see that he was well traveled and knew well the various intelligent life in the galaxy. What a disappointment it must have been to wake up everyday on Dagobah. However, this is not uncommon in depressed people. Their failure looms before them and they would rather in no way get involved then make things worse than they already have.

I know that Yoda was a powerful Jedi Master, but he did tend to spend much time warning Luke about the Dark Side of the Force.

Luke: Is the Dark Side stronger?

Yoda: No. No. Quicker, easier, more productive.

I couldn't agree more with that. Godliness, goodness, the "Light Side" is stronger by virture of it not being quick and easy to obtain. The Dark Side is basically to think about yourself. When Anakin killed Mace Windu he was thinking of himself: he wanted to save Padme. Palpatine, certainly, thought only of himself as he schemed for control.

The happiest moment in Yoda's life occurs after his physical life is over. The Empire is dead and Anakin is more alive as a spirit than he had been for twenty years inside the machine. Luke looks into the Endor night and sees a smiling and approving Obi-Wan, Yoda, and Anakin (in my mind still the older version).

Yoda is happy, I would even say joyful, because the sins of Luke's forefathers have been forgiven: a now-twenty-six-year (according to the original novels) has undone in six years things that in twenty years the three spirits had failed to do. He has brought Obi-Wan's apprentice back to the Light Side of the Force, he has destroyed Palpatine's Empire, and he has restored the Republic.

There have been few movie characters (or even those of literature) like Yoda. Even if you closed your eyes and didn't realize he was green, with long ears, and less than two feet tall.

Luke: I'm looking for someone.

Yoda: Found someone you have I would say.

Someone who bore more responsibility for the rise of the Emperor than he probably have ought. Someone who loved deeper than what he saw with his eyes. I admit I wanted to cry when Yoda said: "Good relations with the Wookiees I have," because no two people on Earth look as different as Yoda and Chewbacca, and yet we don't even have good relations with each other. Yoda is someone who trained Jedi for 800 of his 900 years and was ready to "rest".