101 Star Wars Variations 12: Darth Yoda

Spiritu,

The history of our kind was once documented so well, but that was a long time ago.  One of the things I hope to accomplish under you is revive this tradition of learning.  

A long time ago, there was a Jedi named Yoda.  I say Jedi, but I think you know what I mean.  His was one of the most famous names in the Old Republic, and he was believed to be the most powerful Jedi of his era.  

And yet, history as we know it doesn't adequately explain him, and I've grown tired of believing the record as it is known.  At the time of Darth Sidious's rise as Emperor of the Galactic Empire, his apprentice Darth Vader set about a systematic campaign of wiping out the whole Jedi Order.  He had assistance, as we know, from the famous Order 66, but it was Vader's actions within the Jedi Temple that led the way, his complete destruction of the foundations upon which the Jedi had stood for a millennium.

Two Jedi survived.  One was Obi-Wan Kenobi, who went to live on the desert world of Tatooine, where he oversaw the young life of Vader's son, Luke Skywalker, who would one day destroy both Vader and Sidious.  The other was Yoda, who exiled himself to Dagobah.  No one knew at the time, of course.  Kenobi doesn't matter.  He was a coward.  It's Yoda who bears further investigation.  In lieu of facts at the moment, I present speculation.

I have made a pilgrimage to Dagobah.  The legends are true.  This is a world rich in the Force, specifically what is commonly referred to as the Dark Side.  I asked myself at the time: why would a practitioner renowned as the greatest of all the Jedi make his home there, his first impulse in a hasty retreat?

Because he was one of ours.  And he was all along.

Tradition has it that there are always two of us, no more and no less.  But tradition is a malleable thing, ripe for deviation.  We know Sidious himself often relied on multiple agents, such as Darth Maul, Darth Tyranus, and Sifo Dyas, all operating at the same time.  Indeed, even Darth Vader was groomed while Tyranus was still alive.  The old legends suggest that Sidious was the apprentice of Plagueis.  

I submit, further, that Plagueis had two apprentices: Palpatine and Yoda.

I have no proof, but it explains so much, does it not?  The whole of the Galactic Wars era becomes reshaped when considered from this perspective.  Yoda's exile was meant to give our kind two chances to convert young Skywalker to our ways.  It was only Vader's hesitations that kept his son out of the clutches of the two most impressive members of our sect I know.

That was why Yoda went to Dagobah.  Thwarted in whatever designs he originally had, circumventing the Jedi, perhaps, from discovering Sidious's activities, he chose to retreat rather than be discovered, perhaps by Kenobi, in the event I've misjudged him.  

I will write more once I have discovered some actual proof.  But I have no doubt it exists.

Yours in obedience to the Force,

~Vobiscum