Star Wars: Tales Of The Jedi Reaffirms One Of Yoda's Unique Traits
Though the main characters in the original "Star Wars" trilogy were all mostly human (at least when it came to the Rebel Alliance), the prequels exponentially increased the number of important alien characters in the franchise. This is particularly true of the Jedi, who come in all shapes and sizes. Plenty members of the Jedi Order feature incredible alien designs and personalities, whether it's early live-action Jedi like Ki-Adi-Mundi, Kit Fisto, and Plo Koon, or the animated Ahsoka Tano and Tera Sinube (rest in peace, you magnificent Jedi private eye). Of course, there is arguably no Jedi — certainly no other non-human Jedi — as iconic as Master Yoda, the tricky yet wise Jedi with an oddball sense of humor, extraordinary powers, and a one-of-a-kind speech pattern.
Despite being one of the best known characters in all of "Star Wars," his origin, even his species, have remained a mystery. Yoda has been around for a long time, but we had no idea where he came from, what his childhood was like, or if there were many others like him in the galaxy, at least until Grogu came around in "The Mandalorian." However, there was one other character in the franchise with a striking resemblance to Yoda, and their key role in the new animated series "Tales of the Jedi" seems to further rearffirm Yoda's uniqueness.
We first met Jedi Master Yaddle back in "The Phantom Menace" as a member of the Jedi Council, where she basically appeared to be a female version ofYoda. The character didn't have any lines, and she never appeared again in the films, nor did she ever show up in any of the animated series, until now. That's because we see Yaddle again in "Tales of the Jedi," where Bryce Dallas Howard finally gives the Jedi Master a voice, and surprise: Yaddle talks like a normal person!
Strange, is it not?
Though we only see Yaddle for a limited time on "Tales of the Jedi" — due to an unfortunate encounter with Count Dooku, who did nothing wrong! — she makes an impact due to her having a normal speech syntax. This makes us wonder even more why Yoda talks the way he does. We know they are from the same species, so there's no chance Yoda's speech is inherently a biological thing, so what is it? It feels like there are three possibilities: Yoda and his family share the same speech "impediment," Yaddle speaks differently than the rest of her species, or the old green Jedi Master is extremely committed to a bit.
Consider the evidence, shall we? If the backwards syntax was inherent to Yoda's species, then we would hear it in someone other than Yoda, but Yaddle speaks normally. Meanwhile, Grogu is still a 50 year old baby who hasn't really spoken, so we have no way of truly calling it a biology thing. Though there's a chance that Yaddle didn't even get a chance to inherit that trait from her family, making Yaddle the outlier when it comes to speech patterns for the species. Maybe she was found by the Jedi at a very young age and she never tapped into her own cultural traditions, the same way immigrant kids stop speaking the language and have no trace of an accent because they're raised in another country early in life. That would honestly make Yaddle even more tragic than she is, but it feels too cruel for the "Star Wars" universe.
So what if it is specifically a Yoda thing? What if either he had a speech impediment, his parents raised him that way, or he was somehow the result of a horrible prank by some unknown force that taught him to speak backwards? The latter wouldn't be out of the question in this universe, considering Anakin Skywalker's mysterious experimental birth, though it does sound extremely silly. But what about the former? Giving Yoda a speech impediment but still making him the wisest being in the galaxy is kind of badass, and it would be consistent with his characterization.
Yoda the master prankster?
Then there's the third alternative...
We know Yoda is a bit of a jokester. When we first meet him in "Empire Strikes Back," he hits his identity from Luke and toys with him for a long while before revealing himself to be the Jedi Luke is looking for. He gets into a fight with R2-D2, and generally acts like your weird but funny grand-uncle who is simply too old to care anymore. But even before he got old (well, older ayway), he was already funny. In "Attack on the Clones," he openly mocks Obi-Wan for losing a planet, and cracks jokes in front of the younglings. Is it truly out of the question to think that the Jedi Master, in his youth, sought to stand out even more (perhaps to compete with Yaddle) and decided to take on a backwards syntax just to mess with people? It certainly makes him memorable, and it could confuse people around him to give him the upper-hand.
We may never know the real answer, since Lucasfilm doesn't seem keen on answering any questions about Yoda's origin and species, and I'm sure that's exactly how Yoda likes it.
"Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi" is streaming on Disney+.