A new rendition of the Sidious/Yoda battle

Started by Sheev1 pages

A new rendition of the Sidious/Yoda battle

A canon retelling of their battle in ROTS.

Yoda’s ridiculously little lightsaber flares to life, brilliant green. In reply Darth Sidious merely ignites his own lightsaber. The angry red fills him with eager cruelty, and he laughs. There is no need for faith in the dark side. The greater power of the dark side is simply a fact. He attacks with another harsh laugh. Yoda flips up and around, parrying the attack and spinning with his own. The little Jedi Master is fast and bouncy, his movements making him difficult to pin down—but Darth Sidious meets him blow for blow. He cannot be defeated.

Their battle takes them to the half circles of the Chancellor’s podium, sparks flying as their lightsabers clash. Using the Force, Sidious moves the lever that causes the podium to rise. The ceiling spirals back, opening like a great eye, and beneath their feet the podium moves. It rises up and up like the Galactic Empire itself, into the Senate Chamber, a vast cave lined with over a thousand repulsorpods stacked in coiling petals. It is empty, silent, a theater without an audience for this showdown between Darth Sidious and one of the last Jedi Masters. The two continue their battle, furiously, green and red lightsabers flashing together and apart. Darth Sidious laughs and laughs, his cruel cackle echoing against Yoda’s grunts of effort. Sidious is enjoying himself. Crushing this old Jedi will taste sharp and sweet. But they are well matched. It is a rough fight. Exactly what Sidious craves.

A hard blow has him leaping away from the podium. He pulls on the Force to carry him across the cavernous Senate Chamber to land in one of the half-circle repulsorpods. Gleefully, he uses the Force to rip a different pod away from its berth and fling it at Yoda. He takes another and flings it, too. And another. Yoda dodges, leaping away, but Sidious chases him, destroying pod after pod, like pulling scales one by one off the massive body of a krayt dragon. The old Jedi tires and turns, and Sidious has him! He flings a repulsorpod, but Yoda catches it with the Force, both little green hands extended. Sidious laughs again, heady with the fury of the dark side. Suddenly the pod spins, and Yoda yanks it out of Sidious’s control. The Jedi drives it directly at Sidious! He has to leap out of its way, and the pod crashes into the one upon which he’d been standing with an explosion of sparks and fire.

The thin smoke billows, and Sidious turns, leaps again, hunting for the Jedi Master. Where could the Jedi have hidden? Surely he did not slink away already in defeat! Suddenly Yoda is there, hopping too fast to track, and Darth Sidious flings Force lightning at him. But Master Yoda catches it. They face each other, cold blue lightning tying them together. Blue is reflected all around them, especially in the Jedi’s determined, desperate golden eyes. Darth Sidious is tiring. He grins his worst grin and prepares a final assault with all the power of the dark side. As if he sensed it, Yoda shoves back with a final burst of strength.

Their power clashes, violently blowing them apart. Darth Sidious catches himself on the rail of a repulsorpod, gasping for breath. He can barely breathe, energy surging through him as he pulls himself up. He turns to look for Master Yoda, laughing again. All he sees is the Jedi’s ugly brown cloak drifting down like discarded trash.

Stories of Jedi and Sith

Not only does this once again reiterate that they were pretty much equal in every area (both were exhausted by the end), but there is NO mention of Yoda "disarming" Sidious at any point in the battle.

They were "well matched" in sabers. Yoda then dealt a "hard blow" to Sidious, which caused him to leap away from the podium and begin hurling Senate pods. That's it.

I've been saying this forever. This is exactly what is shown on screen.

I used to have Yoda at slightly above Sidious in sabers, because some legends sources mentioned the disarming thing. Does seem like new canon has retconned that though. I guess the "hard blow" that forced Sidious to move away from the podium might indicate that Yoda was slightly better, but it's definitely not as conclusive. Calling them equal in sabers is more fitting.

I also used to have Sidious at slightly above Yoda in the Force. But now it seems like canon has them equally matched there also, because they both emptied their tanks during the final lightning exchange (Sidious to fire the lightning, and Yoda to block it.)

^ Putting RotS Palpatine and RotS Yoda as equals across the board sounds about right, given this novel's description of their battle. If there was any sort of difference between them(in either sabers or the Force), it was negligible.

Anyway, I particularly enjoyed the bit where Yoda's spirit appeared to Palpatine shortly after his death in RotJ:

The Emperor feels a thrill in the Force. And--Impossible! Yoda stands before him, hazy and surrounded by a glow as if lit from within. It is impossible. And yet...Yoda. Hunched and ancient, in his old Jedi robes with that gnarled walking stick. The Emperor does not know if this is real, but he bites out a final laugh.
"You are dead." The ghost inclines his head.
"But come to watch my final glory? I hoped you would see it."
The Emperor spins slowly on his throne to face the observation window. He raises a hand to sweep across the expanse of stars. "Not long from now I will crush the Rebel Alliance. And take the newest Skywalker as I took his father!" The Emperor cackles again.

Behind him, the strange vision of Yoda speaks in that same rough little voice. "Win, you cannot."
This makes the Emperor nearly shriek with laughter. "But, Master Yoda, I already have."
He turns back on his throne, eager to see Yoda's frown. But the specter is gone.

Also found it interesting how Yoda's spirit was sensed/perceived by Palpatine:

The Emperor feels it. Maybe because he was thinking about the old Jedi again. His thoughts and feelings already turned in that inevitable direction. Grand Master Yoda. Dead. As if he's always been able to feel the ancient green Jedi and suddenly his presence is gone. No--it's the opposite. It is as if Yoda has not existed at all to the Emperor, and suddenly he is all around. Everywhere in the Force.

Maybe the "hard blow" is what disarmed Sidious, Anyway yeah, they look pretty much evenly matched

^ Yeah the Hard Blow that had Sidious back away leaves room for it. I would note theres also no mention of Sidious disarming Yoda (not even a hint), but we know it happened.

Anyway so much for all the quotes putting ROTS Sidious above Yoda over the years. In the end its just what the movie showed, a stalemate in terms of combat, but with Yoda fleeing/losing in the end due to circumstance. His failure was that he was unable to kill Sidious, which is what he needed for a win in that battle.

the film always showed that Sidious struggled in sabers with Yoda but Yoda struggled to keep up with Sidious in the Force so same same between those two ive always thought 🤷🏽

Originally posted by relentless1
the film always showed that Sidious struggled in sabers with Yoda but Yoda struggled to keep up with Sidious in the Force so same same between those two ive always thought 🤷🏽

Yeah I still think probably edge to Yoda in Sabers and edge to Sidious in the Force. But overall pretty evenly matched. Just as the movie portrayed.

Is there any Darth Maul and Dooku stuff in this book?

It sounds interesting

^ There's a Maul chapter. Aside from him fangirling over Palpatine a bit, there's nothing too relevant. It's still a pretty good chapter though.

Very few references are made about Dooku. Nothing too noteworthy, at least.

Originally posted by Sheev
A canon retelling of their battle in ROTS.

Not only does this once again reiterate that they were pretty much equal in every area (both were exhausted by the end), but there is NO mention of Yoda "disarming" Sidious at any point in the battle.

They were "well matched" in sabers. Yoda then dealt a "hard blow" to Sidious, which caused him to leap away from the podium and begin hurling Senate pods. That's it.

Sidious fanbois trying so hard to prove that Yoda didn't dunk on their favorite character and lose to a ring out.

So sad.

Originally posted by Stealth Moose
Sidious fanbois trying so hard to prove that Yoda didn't dunk on their favorite character and lose to a ring out.

So sad.

Well in canon at least he..... Didn't. At least not as conclusively as in Legends.

In this telling Sidious was never disarmed in sabers, and they were pretty much equal in the force.

Originally posted by Sheev
Well in canon at least he..... Didn't. At least not as conclusively as in Legends.

In this telling Sidious was never disarmed in sabers, and they were pretty much equal in the force.

Yes so true that .. I always thought that he never got disarmed by yoda as even the movie didnt show it.

Originally posted by ozz81
Yes so true that .. I always thought that he never got disarmed by yoda as even the movie didnt show it.

Movie doesnt show the whole fight. And doesnt show if Sidious put his saber away voluntarily or not. But does show he stops using it.

So the script was always congruent with the film. CG graphics of the missing scene also showed the same thing.

But I think in Disney canon theres an animated short which shows he still had his saber.

IF Sidious still had his saber, then he absolutely won the battle, as he disarmed Yoda. BUT If Sidious was also disarmed earlier then battle was a virtual stalemate, and Yoda lost right at the end due to circumstances only (nothing to grab hold of after the force blast).

So battle was either a stalemate (with a circumstantial loss for Yoda) or it favoured Sidious. But theres no real way to interpret it to say that Yoda won or was overall superior.

Seems Yoda really flipped him off here.

Originally posted by Sheev
A canon retelling of their battle in ROTS.

Not only does this once again reiterate that they were pretty much equal in every area (both were exhausted by the end), but there is NO mention of Yoda "disarming" Sidious at any point in the battle.

They were "well matched" in sabers. Yoda then dealt a "hard blow" to Sidious, which caused him to leap away from the podium and begin hurling Senate pods. That's it.

The you quoted the whole part, and if I 'm not blind, then it means nothing i ncase of disarming. After all, there is no a single word about Yoda being disarmed as well. So if it doesn't tell it about Yoda's saber , then it might not tell about Sidious' as well.

LMFAO that cannot be a Canon retelling. That reads like some nerd's fanfiction.

"Yoda's ridiculously little lightsaber"
"The angry red fills him with eager cruelty, and he laughs"
"The little jedi master is fast and bouncy"

LOL that is f***ing dogshit writing. I haven't read a star wars book in years, were they seriously this poorly written?

Originally posted by Sheev
Well in canon at least he..... Didn't. At least not as conclusively as in Legends.

In this telling Sidious was never disarmed in sabers, and they were pretty much equal in the force.

You're being obtuse. Yoda outclassed Sids in sabers and the force, and lost to a ring out, which is about as lucky as it gets for someone being spanked.

Cope harder.