Hey everybody and welcome to Leia’s Lair.
In this episode I will be going over 7 interesting facts about Yoda.
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Number 1: He’s One of Star Wars’ Greatest Mysteries
When one of the most integral heroes of your cinematic universe is a two foot tall green
guy, the best way to avoid questions is to not give any answers.
Lucas has said in the past that he himself doesn’t know much about Yoda, and he intentionally
doesn’t want to find out because that would take away from the mystery.
No one even knows what species he belongs to or what planet he originally came from.
We do know, however, that Yaddle is also a member of the same species, and why the two
never hooked up with each other is a mystery for another day.
Number 2: Earthly Equivalent Yoda’s Speech Has
Though it would be easy to dismiss Yoda’s speech as a unique sounding way for a fictional
900 year old Jedi in a galaxy far, far away to talk, scientists have actually found that
Yoda’s speech is based on a very Earthly concept.
Object Subject Verb languages, such as the one that Yoda employs, are actually believed
by researchers to be what all human languages evolved from some 50,000 years ago.
According to researchers, Object Subject Verb order is the way that kids learn to talk,
and is actually prevalent in more than half of the 2,000 modern languages of Earth.
Number 3: George Lucas Really Didn’t Want Frank Oz as Yoda
Though Frank Oz was the puppeteer for Yoda from day one, performing his lines on set
and controlling his movements, George Lucas never actually intended to use Oz’s voice
in the final film.
When Oz sent Lucas a tape of his planned voice for Yoda, Lucas rejected it, going so far
as to reportedly audition other actors for the voice.
Once Oz’s voice was locked, Lucas did a complete 180, eventually thinking that Oz’s
performance was so good that it deserved an Oscar.
Despite spending thousands of dollars on an Oscar campaign to get Oz nominated for Best
Supporting Actor, the Academy never ended up nominating Oz, as they felt that a puppeteer
is not an actor.
Number 4: George Lucas Couldn’t Decide On His Name
George Lucas actually originally went with Buffy.
That is, until The Empire Strikes Back screenwriter Leigh Brackett changed the name to Minch Yoda
in her first draft, which was changed once again, this time dropping the “Minch.”
Taking into account that Yoda is actually Sanskrit for warrior, we’re glad that Lucas
settled on Yoda, ditching Buffy and Minch along the way.
Number 5: Yoda Was Only Meant to Appear in The Empire Strikes Back
Originally meant to be a one hit wonder, George Lucas intended Yoda to appear only in The
Empire Strikes Back, and then disappear into oblivion, his job of training Luke complete,
never to be seen again.
However, those plans changed during pre-production of Return of the Jedi when a child psychologist
advised Lucas that it needed to be clearer that Darth Vader was Luke’s father, otherwise
audience members under the age of 12 would think it was a lie.
Faced with the challenge, Lucas added Yoda, as he felt that Yoda was the best character
to clarify one of the biggest, and most famous, twists in movie history.
Once Yoda helped clear everything up and confirm that “your father, he is,” he ended up
appearing in all three prequel films, as well as Star Wars Rebels and Star Wars: The Clone
Wars.
Number 6: Yoda Was Exactly 900 Years Old When He Died
Maybe you’d think George Lucas would want to make Yoda’s age a less even number, just
because there are 899 other ages between 0 and 900?
Or maybe this was on purpose, a sign of a Jedi Master’s life well lived?
Or maybe someone at LucasFilm asked Lucas how old Yoda should be and Lucas shouted out
“I don’t know, like 900?” and then they wrote that in the script, to be forever held
in canon.
Whatever way you look at it, Yoda was born in 896 BBY and died in 4 ABY, making him exactly
900 years old when he died.
Too bad, Yoda, you were just 100 years short of being a millennium.
Number 7: Yoda Delayed Production
When talking about The Empire Strikes Back, Lucas has said that making Yoda believable
was the most difficult thing about the making of the film.
And while Star Wars forever revolutionized cinema as well as special effects, Lucas has
always maintained that Yoda caused some serious problems that almost weren’t solved.
George Lucas has claimed that Yoda is one of the reasons why he originally put off making
the prequel trilogy.
According to Lucas, he didn’t think that there was any way he could make Yoda adequately
fight without the use of CGI.
Although that problem was ultimately solved by an animatronic Muppet version of Yoda and
some clever camera work, who knows how much longer the world had to wait to see more Star
Wars, and all because of Yoda.
And there you have it!
Thanks for watching everyone!
What do you think about these Yoda facts?
Do you know any other interesting facts about him?
Let me know down below in the comment section.
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