In ROTS, Master Yoda and Emperor Palpatine faced off in the Senate Rotunda. The battle was a stalemate, according to the official website, with ultimately both sides forced to regroup. Many feel that Yoda was superior to Palpatine, and that the Dark Lord merely had luck and a terrain advantage. Others, like myself, believe the battle was designed - for all intents and purposes - to be an equal showdown between the most powerful light side practitioner (Yoda) and the most powerful dark side practitioner (Palpatine).
Flash foward twenty odd years to the time of A New Hope. The Empire reigns tyrannically over the galaxy. The Emperor's Starfleet and Army police the galaxy, and most signs of rebellion are crushed between the perpetual boots of the Stormtroopers. On Dagobah, Yoda has lost hope in the belief that the prophecy will be fulfilled. He is getting too old, and he will soon become one with the Force. So, Yoda decides to take one final gamble on putting down Emperor Palpatine, and allows himself to be captured by the Imperial Fleet.
Yoda is taken to Coruscant, where he is placed in Palpatine's throne room, before the cackling Sith Lord. Calling on the Force, however, Yoda mimics a move that he used twenty years before, and disables the Imperial Guards with a mighty Force push. Reaching into the folds of his cloak, Yoda retrieves his dusty lightsaber and ignites the emerald blade. The Emperor rises from his throne and glares down at the Jedi Master. Reaching a gnarled hand into his sleeve, he brandishes his sleek saber and activates the crimson blade.
Yoda, deep within the heart of Imperial City, realize that he will die, despite the outcome of this duel. If Palpatine does not slay him, Vader or the Stormtroopers will. With this knowledge, the Jedi Master takes his final stand against the last Dark Lord of the Sith.
Both combatants rush forward, with the movements of beings who haven't touched their sabers in years. Crimson and emerald clash together in a mixture of sparks.
Registered: Sep 2005
Location: Picking up some power converters.
Nice ...story. Palpatine would win. He has been teaching Vader some stuff and that kept him fresh. He also had all the Jedi and Sith Holocrons from the Jedi Temple to look over. Yoda has just been playing with the animals... and losing.
I think Yoda would win, he had 20 some years of meditation and could learn even more about the force and could use his lightsaber to catch himself some animals.
Registered: Sep 2005
Location: Picking up some power converters.
He could of learned more about the Force... but he didn't. He kind of abandoned hope after Ep. III. The only thing he learned was the Force Spirit thing.
oh, my bad, i forgot he dropped it after falling off the pod. But who is to say he lost all hope though, he would know that Obi-Wan or Bail Organa would be bringing one of the children, so he could have been meditating and learning every day.
Palpatine wins. Yoda's very old now and is nearing death due to old age. Palpatine would probably still has quite a while longer to live before he died of old age, compared to Yoda at least. And ANH Obi-Wan could beat Yoda but I doubt he could beat Sidious.
Personally, I think Palpatine might win, but with considerable difficulty. Two decades of soaking up stolen knowledge would put him a step up from ROTS Sidious in terms of Force ability, and due to the fact that it is now an obligation to train alongside Vader, his saber skills, while possibly slightly diminished, won't have suffered much over the years.
On the other hand, Yoda has been honing his Force abilities with absolutely nothing else to take up his time. While the Emperor must busy himself with political affairs, Yoda's only duty to meditate and delve into the Force. So his Force abilities wouldn't quite be rusty, either.
More on this later; need to attend to other matters. . .
Oh, and Faunus. It was Pestage and the Inner Circle who did most of the politics. The Emperor simply gave his approval. Also, according to the Expanded Universe and databank, Sidious did most of his time studying the Force as well. Considering he'd gleaned the Archives of the Jedi and such as well, Palpatine is definately equal to Yoda in the Force as of ANH, no doubt. But the battle isn't guarenteed, either way.
Registered: Sep 2005
Location: Picking up some power converters.
I think Palpatine did more training then Yoda. Throw in the fact that Yoda was studying no offensive force powers and that Sidious had the Holocrons to study from, I think Sidious is a few steps above his Revenge of the Sith version while Yoda is a clear downgrade. I think they were pretty close in Revenge of the Sith (With Sidious a small step above Yoda), and by the time of A New Hope, Palpatine is a good deal stronger then Yoda.
I can't help giving it to Yoda. It just doesn't seem to me like he could lose. That's probably why i can't admit that he lost to Palpatine. Part of me keeps wanting to know how he got to the bottem of the arena in the first place (cursed deleted scene) I think his powers have grown, we never once saw the emperor use the force, other than the lightning in the OT. I think he is relying too much on Vader. He wants immortality, he has been pursuing that line of the force, while Yoda has been preparing to teach a new Jedi to defeat the emperor.
Palpatine relied on Vader for executing his demands. He was then free to study Sith and Jedi holocrons. When you become Emperor of the galaxy, you can do things like that.
Dec 12th, 2005 10:55 PM
