For some reason, I’ve been on a real Star Wars kick lately. It’s been 20 years since Revenge of the Sith ended the prequel trilogy, and like symmetry, it’s been 10 years since The Force Awakens kicked off the sequel trilogy. Interestingly, neither trilogy captured the magic of the originals and yet both trilogies still have their fans. One interesting theme that’s present in all three movies that I’ve been dwelling on is the theme of failure. In the original trilogy, we see failure in the teachings of Yoda and Ben Kenobi. They failed Darth Vader, and as a result the Empire rose. In the sequel trilogy, we learn that Luke failed, too, going into exile because of how he failed his nephew and friends. And in the prequel trilogy, which I want to talk about today, we see an arrogant Jedi order unable to see the Phantom Menace beneath their noses.

I’ve been reflecting on Yoda’s role in these films. Yoda is a fan-favourite, and it’s easy to see why. When we first hear about him, he’s framed as the most powerful Jedi to ever exist. When Luke arrives at Dagobah, where he’s told that Yoda lives, we meet a little green muppet who’s kinda silly and old and wrinkly. It turns out that this old, wrinkly, silly kermit clone is Yoda, the Grand Master of the Jedi Order. In film language, we associate power with being big. Superheroes are massive hunks; supervillains are ginormous planet-sized threats. In Star Wars, this is literally represented by the Death Star being a weapon capable of destroying planets, and it’s the size of a moon. Yoda, who is small and wise, is the antithesis of that. While the Empire seeks unlimited power in the form of massive weapons and the chilling red lightsaber of Darth Vader, we never see Yoda hold a lightsaber (in the Original Trilogy) and his entire training of Luke relies on the Force, not flashy combat. What Yoda teaches Luke is how to listen and live with the Force, the mastery of which makes Luke the powerful Jedi he is by episode VI.

One of the reasons I think the Prequel Trilogy wasn’t well-received at the time is because of this change in Yoda. In the prequel trilogy, he has a tiny lightsaber and jumps around like a monkey who has drunk too much caffeine. He seems hilariously stubborn and doesn’t seem to have a good idea of what’s going on around him. This is, I argue, the point. Yoda is old in Star Wars – over 900 years old by the time he finally dies in Episode VI. He was leading the Jedi for over 200 years. That’s a long time, and it doesn’t seem like the Order got any better under his leadership. In fact, let’s look at what happened to the Jedi under Yoda’s leadership:

• One of the most decorated Jedi left the order and subsequently turned to the Dark Side
• The evil Sith Lord took control of the political system, enabling him to do whatever he wanted
• The Jedi were involved in a massive war, causing the general populace to view them more as warmongers than peacekeepers
• The Chosen One, prophesied for centuries, who was supposed to defeat the Sith, was seduced to the Dark Side
• The Jedi were all but wiped out and exterminated, with any remaining Jedi forced to go into exile

I mean, name me a CEO with a worse track record than that! No matter how bad you are as a CEO, at least your tenure doesn’t end with the state-sanctioned extermination of every member of your company.

Yoda was objectively a failure. In the novelisation of Revenge of the Sith, Yoda recognises this when he goes to fight Darth Sideous. During the battle, he realises that while the Sith evolved over the years, the Jedi grew stagnant. I think in large part that is because Yoda, being so old, was stuck in his ways of how the Jedi should be, based on the practices when he was there hundreds of years ago, instead of allowing youth to innovate. Objectively, Yoda was a failure of a leader.

It is this failure which makes his redemption sweeter in the Original Trilogy. It appears that in his exile, Yoda did learn from his mistakes. How he teaches Luke is not how he taught other Jedi. In the Original Trilogy, Yoda is more aligned with the Force and it is this teaching that eventually allows Luke to convert his father back to the light side and finally fulfil the prophecy, defeating the Sith once and for all.

What’s the point of all this? I think there are three things we can learn from Yoda:

1. Even if you are the best at what you do, there is always something new to learn
2. Failures don’t define us. It is what we learn from failure that shapes our future
3. Teaching and sharing knowledge works both ways: from teacher to student, but also from student to teacher

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