Originally posted by Escape81
Still. The anomalies in the battle, ie, Yoda overpowering Sidious's Force lightning, and Sidious tossing pods far easier than Yoda, need to be very analyzed. While you may hold the Lightning-War as you call it, in higher esteem than the pod-tossing, it does not negate the facts. Yoda scored a victory by repelling Sidious's lightning, and Sidious did the same for his outstanding usage of the pods.
After having watched the scene half a billion times the entire scene is a big anomaly for me. Because:
a)
At the very beginning of the pod throwing sequence you can see that Yoda is jumping away from the central pod and flies to a lower level. Sidious himself is on the same hight as the central pod or maybe a little bit higher. Now Yoda jumps down and also Sidious jumps down from his position but suddenly, when Yoda's lightsaber is falling down (and later Yoda himself) they are somehow again above the central pod. I don't get it.
b)
All the pods thrown around are "active". You can see that the lights at their side are glowing and this actually make the entire "pod throwing" much less impressive. For me at least. Actually both Yoda and Sidious have nothing else to do than use the force an manipulate the controls of the pod to make them fly around as they like (if you have a look at the pods Sidious is lifting up - they remain in their "normal" flying position).
c)
Does that only look like it to me or is the Senate Champer in ROTS much smaller than it appeared to be in TPM ?
d)
Why the hell didn't Yoda pick up his lightsaber and went to fight Sidious again ? His lightsaber must be somewhere near the point that he fell to.
This leads me to believe that Yoda and Sidious both have advantages in one another in the Force. Some labor under the delusion that one would flat out own the other in either category; you have your Yoda fanboys on one hand, and the Sidious fanboys on the other, and the few who are rational, in the very middle.
The point is that you can see that Yoda bested Sidious in their direct force confrontation. And after having watched the scene again you can see that Sidious is leaning backwards. Just have a look at his head from the sideposition. You can see that it's "behind" his body meaning that he's leaning backwards.
The ROTS script is moot. Before a few of you jump off the deep end, I only refer to the part where Yoda supposedly disarms Sidious, and then leaps away for no reason, despite his intent to kill Sidious, and the part where he has the limited time to do it. Simply, had the battle turned out like this, it wouldn't have made sense.
Yoda didn't leap away for no reason. I don't know what script you were reading but Yoda had to put down his lightsaber to deflect Sidious lightning and then jumped away to ready his lightsaber again since he can't kill Sidious with his force powers. Actually Sidious had to destract Yoda somehow to get away from him because if Sidious had just jumped away Yoda would directly have followed him and as we see Sidious is on the "high ground" already when Yoda is jumping away from the central pod in the beginning of the pod throwing sequence.
Sidious and Yoda, in my view, are equals in the Force. Yoda and Sidious are both capable of using the Force for defense and offensive purposes, Yoda being the most vicious little Jedi we've seen, other than Mace. Yoda's core powers seemed to be a trifle more attuned than Sidious's own, but considering he's had eight centuries longer to use them, it would not surprise me. But I do believe Sidious and Dooku are naturally stronger Force-users than Yoda, considering how he was unable to overpower both of them, despite his overwhelming experience and mastery of the Force. Don't bite my head off, just an opinion.
The point is that you're totally forgetting the Dark Side effect. First the Dark Side is "quicker" and then the Dark Side powers do simply look more impressive. Still Yoda did best both Dooku and Sidious in a "direct" battle of force powers - he just didn't kill them.
To the fight you descriped:
I think Stover in the ROTS novel is pretty much accurate when he descripes why Yoda can't defeat Sidious. Because the Sith changed their philosophy or the way they use the force. You can't overwhelm them with sheer "Light Side" powers - you have to utilize the Dark Side to beat them. And now think about it:
Mace took Sidious with a fighting style that embraces the Dark Side to a certain point. Luke did "beat" Vader in ROTJ using his anger and Sidious himself was finally killed by Vader who again was a Dark Side user.
Maybe that's the explanation why Ben and Yoda didn't train Luke and Leia from childhood on - because Yoda knew (from his fight with Sidious) that a "normal" Jedi (meaning a servant of the Light Side) can't defeat the Emperor.
And just to point it out again: Yoda must have some very high force potential since Obi-Wan is wondering that Anakin's midi-chlorian count is even beyond Yoda's. But Yoda is operating under a very strict code when it comes to using force powers and therefore we'll never know what Yoda could have done with his potential. But it's possible that Yoda would be able to beat Luke when it comes to potential which means that he could have been a devastating power on his own if he wasn't operating under the Jedi Code (imagine somebody with more potential than NJO Luke and 800 years more training - ouch !).