Order 66 was an essential crossroads in the Star Wars universe. The Jedi Order was almost completely wiped out and the Empire under Palpatine came to power. To escape death, some Jedi, including Master Yoda, hid. But how did he do it?
Why did Master Yoda have to hide at all? In Star Wars Episode 3, we see how Order 66 is executed. The clone soldiers turned against the Jedi, and the Empire took out as many as possible, even the children. Even with the Force and their lightsabers, they could not stop the betrayal and the overwhelming force.
As we already know from Episode 5, however, Master Yoda, one of the most important and powerful Jedi, survives Order 66 and even manages to hide for a long time from the Empire. But how did he manage that? A book explains it.
Yoda Hides Through the Dark Side of the Force
How did Yoda hide? As we learn in Episode 5, Yoda is in exile on the planet Dagobah. However, Dagobah is quite close to the planet Mustafar, where Darth Vader lived. Sith should be able to sense other Force users, especially someone as powerful as Yoda.
Originally, it was thought that Dagobah was Yoda’s home planet. However, he chose Dagobah because of a cave, as we learn from the book From a Certain Point of View: Return of the Jedi
. This is the cave where Luke fights a vision of Darth Vader in Episode 5.
This cave is full of dark side power. The book explains that Yoda uses his light side of the Force to keep the dark power in the cave subdued. This, however, created a balance in the Force, so that neither the dark nor the light side can be sensed on Dagobah.
The book also explains that the dark side took over the planet after Yoda died in Episode 6.
How could Palpatine hide from the Jedi? When one knows that Force users can sense each other, it seems even stranger that Darth Sidious was able to hide as Senator Palpatine, even though he worked with the Jedi.
In stories from Star Wars that are part of the Legends, the technique Force Stealth
was introduced. This allows Force users to hide their presence. However, this technique is not canon in the current Star Wars. There is still no official explanation for Palpatine’s disguise. It may be possible that Disney is bringing back old ideas. This is also the case with this combat technique: Disney banned a lightsaber technique in Star Wars 10 years ago, and it is coming back in The Acolyte.
