Yoda Was One of the Oldest Jedi Masters — Who Taught Him Everything He Knew?
Published Jan. 25 2023, 9:38 a.m. ET
Even if you aren't a huge Star Wars fan, you probably know who Yoda is. This tiny green alien with backward speech patterns and pointy ears is one of the wisest Jedi ever to brave the galaxy. He was also one of the oldest Jedi Masters.
Because Yoda was alive for so long, he knew more about the Force and the Jedi teachings than just about anyone. But he wasn't always so knowledgeable or powerful — he was young and inexperienced once, too. Before he trained the young initiates of the galaxy, someone had to first train him.
Who trained Yoda in 'Star Wars'?
There are many things about Master Yoda that will likely always remain a mystery to Star Wars fans. Creators will likely never reveal, for example, the name of his species. The name of Yoda's old master also remains unknown in canon, but the Legends continuity called him N'Kata Del Gormo.
Yoda's master is only mentioned briefly in several books. But it's believed that Yoda found him after crash-landing on a swamp planet, where he was trained in the ways of the Force nearly 800 years before the start of the movies.
Yoda trained many of the Jedi fans know and love (or hate).
Once Yoda had mastered the Jedi teachings, he focused much of his attention on teaching younger generations of Jedi. In Attack of the Clones, an entire key scene takes place in a training room during one of Yoda's classes.
The master trained Obi-Wan Kenobi and Dooku (before the latter left the Jedi Order and, later, turned to the dark side). He also trained other Jedi Council members such as Mace Windu.
Most notably, Yoda trained Luke Skywalker in the original trilogy of Star Wars films. As the last remaining Jedi, he trained the boy all he could before he reached the end of his life.
Why does Yoda talk like that? Another mystery, there is.
Like other questions in Star Wars, there's an in-universe and out-of-universe "answer" here. One is a theory, since it has never actually been explained. The other can be summed up with one simple phrase: "Because George Lucas said so."
In-universe, not much is known about Yoda's species (the same species as Grogu and Yaddle). Therefore, we don't know exactly where he comes from or why he speaks backward. In reality, when George created the character, he needed his speech to sound alien, so he got creative.