In the Revenge of the Sith movie, the topic of the droid attack on the Wookiee home world
of Kashyyyk comes out of nowhere, with the decision of sending Yoda being even more odd,
seeing how the Wookiee planet’s safety couldn’t have been more troubling in comparison to
the political maneuvers happening on Coruscant involving the Jedi Council itself, as Palpatine
had just placed Anakin on the very same council only moments before.
Luckily the Revenge of the Sith novel not only explains this erratic decision made by
the council, but also adds a few layers to it, as it highlights the chess game the Jedi
Council was playing against the unknown Sith Lord, Darth Sidious.
A few days prior to that council meeting, right before the Separatists attacked Coruscant,
the Jedi were in the midst of an investigation to uncover Darth Sidious’ identity.
They ended up getting quite close, too close actually, as the Jedi investigation team discovered
the Sith Lord’s hideout on Coruscant located at The Works district.
Not only that, but they were able to find the hidden underground tunnels linking the
hideout to the 500 Republica, an exclusive residential area where the richest and most
powerful of Coruscant lived, including Palpatine and many of his close aides.
However, before the Jedi could further investigate, the Separatists attacked Coruscant, which
was a direct result of Palpatine attempting to stop this very investigation and later
destroying all the evidence linking him and the hideout during the planet wide invasion.
Following the battle of Coruscant, the Jedi council was now certain that what Dooku told
Obi-Wan on Geonosis, that the Sith had infiltrated the highest levels of the Republic Senate,
was very likely true.
The Jedi Council suspected Palpatine’s closest aides, and even the possibility of one of
the red guards, in being the secret Sith Lord.
Around this same time, a bill proposed and quickly passed by the Senate gave the Supreme
Chancellor full authority of the Jedi Order itself, with even the power to disband the
entire organization.
This same bill later gave Palpatine the power to appoint Anakin on the Jedi Council.
When this bill passed, the council was certain that it was orchestrated by Darth Sidious,
and that the Sith Lord was close to making his final moves against them.
Because of this increased tension, the Jedi Council concluded that they needed to bait
Darth Sidious out in the open, to force the Sith Lord to draw his hand too early so that
the Jedi could react and counter it.
With this new mindset in place, the Council decided to make itself appear weak by sending
its best away from Coruscant, so that they could make it very tempting for Darth Sidious
to strike at them against a perceived vulnerability.
Fully understanding that Yoda was the most powerful Jedi of the Order and likely the
biggest threat the Sith Lord on Coruscant faced, the council agreed upon sending him
away from the Temple, a rare occurrence during the war, which was exactly why they believed
that the Grand Master’s absence would cause Sidious to make his next move.
With that now being the plan, all the Jedi Council needed was a front in the war to convincingly
send Yoda to.
And that ended up being Kashyyyk, as the Separatists began to stage an invasion toward that planet.
Seeing how the Wookiee planet was located in a strategic area of the galaxy and held
important natural resources, the Council was able to send Yoda to that world without it
appearing too suspicious, as after all it was a system the Republic could not afford
to lose.
Now all the Jedi Council had to do was wait as Anakin reported back to them all of the
Chancellor’s doings, and if there were any subtle hints of any member of his staff acting
suspicious, the Council would secretly call back their greatest warriors from across the
numerous fronts, including Yoda, before they would all gather up and strike against the
perceived Darth Sidious.
But Palpatine threw a complete curve ball toward this laid out plan of the Jedi Council,
in that rather than being uncovered slowly and subtly, he did the complete opposite:
he straight up told Anakin that he was the Sith Lord who was behind everything, dropping
that bombshell right to the Jedi and forcing them to play their hand immediately rather
than slowly as they had planned.
In which case, the Council’s plan completely backfired, as some of their greatest warriors
were off Coruscant and not available to confront Darth Sidious as they had hoped.
And we all know how things turned out because of that.