The Grandmaster of the Jedi Order during the centuries leading up to and throughout the
Clone Wars, Yoda was the leader of the lightside Order right before the dark times and was
regarded as the most powerful Jedi to ever exist in history up to that point.
But exactly how powerful was Yoda and what was the centuries old Jedi Master truly capable
of when unleashing the full might of his abilities?
For this video we’ll go over his greatest, demonstrated feats in regards to his lightsaber
combat skills, direct force abilities, and then finally his extensive knowledge of the
force for non-combative purposes.
When it came to lightsaber combat, Yoda was second to none.
A master of all 7 standard lightsaber forms, Yoda specialized in form 4 as he believed
it best suited his small stature and short reach.
Form 4, also known as Ataru, essentially required the user to utilize the force to enhance their
bodies and use them as a weapon alongside their lightsabers, performing physical feats
that would otherwise be considered impossible.
This was purely an offensive form, and to use it at its most effectiveness one had to
always be on the attack and constantly moving around.
And Yoda not only specialized in this form, but straight up perfected it, as when fighting
at his full strength the Jedi master was able to overpower any opponent of his as every
strike he dealt was done with flawless precision.
But on top of his mastery of form 4, Yoda’s speed that he was able to achieve through
the force was what made him so deadly in one on one combat, as only a very small handful
of force users of his era could even compete with it at full force.
Just to give you an idea of the difference of speed between Yoda and other Jedi Masters,
Yoda once demonstrated this very fact to a group of padawans a few decades prior to the
Clone Wars during a lecture.
Completely unarmed, Yoda had the 3 Jedi Masters Plo Koon, Saesee Tiin, and Depa Billaba attack
him at their full strength.
And even with 3 of some of the most talented duelists attacking him all at once, the unarmed
Yoda was able to evade their blows with complete ease.
A lesson to show the students that with the full power of the force even a weapon wasn’t
required to overcome some enemies, and to perhaps even show them all why a small, old
man like himself was the one who held the title of Grandmaster as well.
Beyond that, Yoda had also demonstrated in beating some of the other greatest duelists
to exist within his lifetime, including even Mace Windu, who was unable to fully contend
with the Grandmaster’s fury of attacks during a practice duel.
Even Count Dooku himself, who was regarded as the finest duelist of his generation, was
unable to contend with Yoda for more than a few seconds before going on the defensive.
During their fight in Attack of the Clones, Dooku was actually very confident that he
could beat his former Master.
When they began, he unleashed his full power, only to have it be completely repelled by
Yoda’s defensives.
The Sith Lord’s initial confidence in victory was quickly shattered in only mere seconds,
as he was now fighting for his life against his former teacher.
He finally had to resort to a cheap trick to distract Yoda so he himself could flee
onto his ship.
Funny enough, when Dooku got back from his duel with Yoda, he quickly added the Jedi
Master to the list of people General Grievous should never confront in battle, later telling
the Cyborg General that he better pray to the stars that he would never be forced to
engage with Yoda, as it would mean his certain death.
Even Palpatine, who was regarded as the most powerful Sith Lord to ever exist, was genuinely
afraid of fighting Yoda in a lightsaber duel, as he knew he would likely lose.
That’s why when they dueled in Revenge of the Sith, Palpatine desperately tried to get
away from Yoda and create as much distance between the two, so he could instead use his
force abilities to fight, in which case the Sith Lord had the advantage in.
Yoda knew of this fact as well, which is why he worked so hard to get close to his opponent
in an attempt to re-instigate their lightsaber duel.
But even when Yoda did get close again, Palpatine didn’t take any chances and instead unleashed
the full power of his force lightning, which was enough to repel the already exhausted
Grandmaster into knocking him back into the Senate central chamber following the force
repulse that was created between the two.
Compare this duel with Palpatine’s fight against Mace Windu, and you can see the difference
in how the Sith Lord treated his two opponents, where with Windu he was confident enough in
his own lightsaber skills to continue dueling with his opponent, but when against Yoda he
quickly resorted to his force abilities which he was far more confident in.
With all of this being said, Yoda’s biggest weakness when it came to his lightsaber dueling
abilities was of course his age.
His intensive fighting technique was extremely taxing on his old body, which resulted in
him only being able to sustain himself at full strength for a short period before needing
to retreat due to exhaustion.
When it came to using the force itself as a weapon, Yoda demonstrated feats that were
unimaginable to most other force users.
One of his most notable uses of the force was during the Battle of Coruscant.
During the initial landings of the Separatist armies on the city planet, Yoda casually stared
down the thousands of battle droids that were approaching him before picking up hundreds
of them and lifting them up so they’d collide with the incoming enemy starfighters.
Shortly afterwards he denied a massive separatist transport of unleashing its droid compartments,
in which he then pushed back so that it would collide and explode into another transport
ship that he was also manipulating with the force.
Later in that same battle Yoda, with the help of Mace Windu, was able to force push thousands
of battle droids back.
He then continued to fight in the frontlines of the planet-wide engagement along with the
other Jedi in a battle that was said to have lasted an entire day.
Another notable feat of his was using the force to bring down the top of a mountain
in order to create a massive avalanche as a way to destroy a small army of battle droids.
A less direct but extremely powerful force ability that Yoda was a master in was battle
meditation.
It’s usage was capable of amping up nearby allies, boosting their moral and making one
man feel like a hundred when they fought.
His most notable use of this ability was during Kashyyyk, where the heavily outnumbered Clones
were able to overcome near impossible odds as a result.
His usage of the force for defensive purposes were also beyond that of any force user of
his era.
His ability to contain Palpatine’s force lightning, which was known of being capable
of turning beings into dust at full power, was perhaps Yoda’s greatest feat in demonstrating
his mastery of using the force for defense.
All in all, when it came to using the force for combative purposes, only a small handful
of either Jedi or Sith could contend with him without being utterly obliterated.
A great example of what a fight between Yoda and most other force users would look like
was shown when Ventress tried to confront him.
While quite formidable of a fighter and very dangerous against most other Jedi, Ventress
was nothing when compared to Yoda, who casually disarmed her like she was a lightsaber rack.
She was so little of a threat to Yoda that he even returned her weapons back to her after
making a fool of her.
Also in Canon, Yoda straight up fights a gigantic force mountain, and wins with relative ease
by overpowering it with his own force abilities and forcing it to submit to his will.
Which in of itself is one of his most incredible feats even among Legends material.
With centuries of studying and exploring all aspects of the force, Yoda was basically an
archive of Jedi lore all to himself.
He was so knowledgeable of the force, that he was capable of creating Holocrons from
scratch and locking them so that only those worthy in the lightside were allowed to open
them for their contained secrets.
He was also known to sense disturbances of incidents happening across the galaxy, whether
they be catastrophic events or just the intense feelings of a fellow Jedi.
And finally, one of his more unique abilities was using the force to straight up sustain
himself during his final years.
By the time he was training Luke, Yoda’s physical body had gotten very sick and was
on the verge of death, with it only being sustained by the force and his sheer will
to train the galaxy’s last hope.
The very moment he believed Luke was ready, Yoda stopped sustaining himself with his powers
and slowly let his age overcome him as he became one with living force.