Palpatine's knowledge of the force is so grand that I believe he knew he couldn't conquer the galaxy without the chosen one. He probably believed the force would be brought into balance once anakin helped him destroy the jedi order, of course he is wrong, but his overconfidence is his weakness.
Without Anakin, Palpatine would never have been able to take down all of the jedi by himself, he is not the warrior Anakin/Vader was. Look at his name, Sidious, or Insidious, he's a puppet master and a trickster, who just happened to plot the destruction of the jedi order. Anakin was deceived as he just wanted to be recgnized for his deeds, that was his one beef with the jedi and Sidious knew that.
yoda said he was to old to train anakin and he would be wreckless but you forget obi-wan said in the empire strikes back when luke first found yoda he said he was to old to train and then obi-wan says was I not reckless yoda then said he has hate like father so I think yoda new that things were going to get tough with anakin because but I don't think they made him turn to the darkside that was all palpatines doing and anakins emotions towards padame all the others especially his mother. for now may force be with you.
I agree, Yoda knew it would be extremely hard to train Anakin, which is why Yoda reluctantly allowed it to happen. Also he wasn't sure about training Luke because Luke was so much like Anakin at that time, but like with Anakin I think Yoda felt he had no choice.
Anakin was the chosen one, how could they not train him?
and Luke was the only one with enough life in him to tackle the empire, Yoda is too old and he knows he will soon pass into the force.
"Arrogance is a trait all too common in Jedi these days." Yoda said some form of that quote to Obi Wan just before Anakin went off to protect Padme. Maybe Yoda was including himself in that line of thought. Maybe they did let Anakin fall in hopes that he would balance the force. However, because of their arrogance they could not see the consequences of their actions. It is all maybes at this point, but I like the train of thought we are working. I don't know about you guys, but no matter how angry Anakin gets I still like the character and feel bad about where he is going to end up. If his friends fail him and let him fall to the dark side it will allow me to still like the character and, in turn, look at Vader in the original trilogy in a whole new light.
I have a feeling Yoda was including himself as you mentioned, afterall the darkside has been so absent from the galaxy (or at least, the Jedi's site) that they assumed that Anakin would without a doubt come out okay. Although I still think if yoda was so fearful of Anakin's training he should have done it himself, then Sidious would have gotten his ass beat.
EXCELLENT thread, Ushgarak.
the question that rings in my head is "does yoda forsee anakin's fall?"
the answer, i believe, is YES. do i think yoda is setting him up for a fall?
i believe NO. does yoda believe that anakin must fall in order to save
the galaxy and fulfill the prophecy? i think so.
my theory is this:
it will be revealed in ep3 that the prophecy explains in detail that the "one"
will destroy the sith by the only possible means: to join the sith master, then kill him. i think that only a chosen few in the order know of the ENTIRE prophecy. those being yoda and mace. thus, their total lack of enthusiasm when faced with overwhelming proof that they had found "the one".
now lets flash-forward to ESB, when yoda trains luke.
he trains him to feel the force, be passive and calm, clear his mind of thoughts,
and every other jedi discipline >>>EXCEPT FIGHTING<<< never once does he train luke to weild a saber, or do a force-push...nothing. in fact, luke's only saber training was on the millenium falcon in ep4, thats it.
yoda makes no mention on killing vader. only "conquer" and "confront", but never kill. yoda makes luke go into the dark cave and urges luke to NOT bring his weapons. luke ignores this, brings the saber, kills the phantom vader, and thus FAILS the test.
so i say that yoda has a plan. not one that he just concocted by himself, but one that he felt he must follow to fulfill the prophecy. luke was trained to bring vader back to the light. probably because vader was the only one powerful enough to kill palps.
I read an excerpt from an interview late last year that said we would look at the Vader/Obi Wan confrontation a different way after we saw episode 3. The interview was probably on the Force.Net. Anyway, the guy interviewed, somehow connected to Star Wars, said he was extremely sad when he watched that dual after knowing what happens between Obiwan and Anakin in EP 3. Maybe Obiwan knows Anakin has been set up, too. As part of the prophecy, that is. Heck, maybe even Anakin knows.
Maybe Yoda will be surprised when Anaikin turns evil:
"So it was YOU that I could sense the dark-side in, I always thought it was Jar Jar, oh well what can ya do. Scarred you are now, hehehehehe, burnt to a crisp, you are. How feel you, crispy fry?"
*Vader runs after Yoda, Yoda gets in his mini-X-Wing"
"Escape to Sesame Stree.......er, to Dagobah, I will!"