What Is Yoda's Race?

18-Till-I-Die · Post by **18-Till-I-Die** » 2005-04-27 02:15pm

Like the title says, has it ever been said what race he is.

Is he related to these Gree Enclave? The Hyperspace Aliens? The Starforge Builders?

I know we've seen three Yodarace people--two in the movies, Yoda and the female Yoda creature on the Jedi council, and one in a game, Vanar in KOTOR. So his race was around at least durring teh Sith War era, meaning they're probably very ancient.

Or is it possible, if i may speculate, that Vanar and Yoda are one in the same? Yoda says he's 900 years old IIRC, but we only have his word. Flimsy i know, but possible.

Another thought...something that hit me was perhaps Yoda isnt his name, more like his title. Like Ghandi. Or perhaps it's not his name but indeed, the name of his race.

Like they asked him who he was, he said "Yoda" not, perhaps, fully understaning they were asking for his name?

Anyway...i'm rambling. I'm just looking for answers, and having only read a little of the EU i was wondering if it has ever been explained, of if there are any theories...of if any of my tinhat rantings makes sense.

JediMaster415 · Post by **JediMaster415** » 2005-04-27 02:32pm

I don't think there have ever been any explanations.

We know he's not related to the Star Forge builders since they were Rakata and he doesn't look even superficially like them.

Yoda, Yaddle and Vandar are the only members of the race we've seen so it's quite possible that Force-sensitivity is extremely rare in their species.

That's all I have to say, though I have one question:

In ESB, Yoda says he's trained Jedi for 800 years then in ROTJ, he says he's 900 years old. Did he spend 87 years in remedial Padawan studies?

Or spend around 70 years just wandering around, learning on his own?

Elheru Aran · Post by **Elheru Aran** » 2005-04-27 02:40pm

Actually, I'd explain that disrepancy by noting that considering his species' apparently rather long lifespan, he was likely considered 'very young' when he went to the Jedi Temple. If you take off roughly twenty years or so for the RoTS~ANH time period, and about 15 years or so for him to rise from Padawan--> Knight, he would've gone when he was around 65.

Elheru Aran · Post by **Elheru Aran** » 2005-04-27 02:41pm

Ghetto Edit:

And IIRC, some have speculated that Yoda is a Whill, as in 'Journal of the Whills', which IIRC George Lucas says the storylines of SW are chronicled in a few hundred thousand years after the fact or something.

18-Till-I-Die · Post by **18-Till-I-Die** » 2005-04-27 02:41pm

Hmm, yes for beings who live close to a thousand years 65 or even 80 would almost be a child, by their standards. It'd be like an eight year old to us, i guess. Interesting...

18-Till-I-Die · Post by **18-Till-I-Die** » 2005-04-27 02:43pm

Elheru Aran wrote:Ghetto Edit:

And IIRC, some have speculated that Yoda is a Whill, as in 'Journal of the Whills', which IIRC George Lucas says the storylines of SW are chronicled in a few hundred thousand years after the fact or something.

Whills eh?

Sounds familar, i heard that somewhere. Is it a real word?

JediMaster415 · Post by **JediMaster415** » 2005-04-27 02:47pm

The only mention of the Whills I've heard is the beginning of the A New Hope novelization. That's all I know.

Elheru Aran · Post by **Elheru Aran** » 2005-04-27 02:47pm

Well, considering it's SW? I don't think it's 'real' per se

But (remember this is IIRC, so may be off): As far as I know, George Lucas has mentioned that SW is apparently shown to us 'after the fact', so to say, as an video or something of stories from the Journal of the Whills, an enormous chronicle of the history of the galaxy, maintained by the Whills, who may or may not be a race of alien monks somewhere in a distant galaxy... something like that. In fact, I believe they originate in Lucas' most early visions of SW, which would've been 'Tales from the Journals of the Whills' or some such.

EDIT: Hence their appearance in the ANH novelization, which IIRC was ghost-written by Alan Dean Foster from material provided to him by Lucas.

Mange · Post by **Mange** » 2005-04-27 02:49pm

Elheru Aran wrote:Ghetto Edit:

And IIRC, some have speculated that Yoda is a Whill, as in 'Journal of the Whills', which IIRC George Lucas says the storylines of SW are chronicled in a few hundred thousand years after the fact or something.

No, Yoda is NOT a whill. That "idea" originally originates from SuperShadow. According to the OS forums, I remember reading something about that neither Lucas's documents or anything else specifies Yoda's species.

Elheru Aran · Post by **Elheru Aran** » 2005-04-27 02:57pm

Mange the Swede wrote:
Elheru Aran wrote:Ghetto Edit:

And IIRC, some have speculated that Yoda is a Whill, as in 'Journal of the Whills', which IIRC George Lucas says the storylines of SW are chronicled in a few hundred thousand years after the fact or something.
No, Yoda is NOT a whill. That "idea" originally originates from SuperShadow. According to the OS forums, I remember reading something about that neither Lucas's documents or anything else specifies Yoda's species.

Righto, my bad. Guess that means we'll never know, though... oh well. Hardly something to break our heads over...

Spanky The Dolphin · Post by **Spanky The Dolphin** » 2005-04-27 03:01pm

Yoda's background and species is essentially permanently off limits to EU writers and even the production team for the films.

But he's not a Whill. The Journal of the Whills and the Whills themselves were more or less phased out during the writing process of ANH.

TCUSWE wrote:Whills
in the original outline for Star Wars, the Whills were a race of higher beings who monitored the progress of the galaxy. Lucas had planned to use them to guide the story along, but they became unwieldy as a story device. Lucas replaced the Whills with the concept of the Force

The whole Journal of the Whills thing is covered pretty well in The Annotated Screenplays.

Mange · Post by **Mange** » 2005-04-27 03:03pm

No, I agree. I guess that will be one of the saga's remaining mysteries.

Lord Revan · Post by **Lord Revan** » 2005-04-27 03:03pm

Well as we know (IIRC) only three members of said species (2 males and 1 female) it's not odd that we don't know much about them. There are some things that can we tell just apperence of that species (they probaly live mostly in trees for example).

JediMaster415 · Post by **JediMaster415** » 2005-04-27 03:06pm

I think Yoda's species is the only one seen onscreen that's never named.

Personally, that kind of information I need because I always wanted to write "Yoda: The Padawan Years."

18-Till-I-Die · Post by **18-Till-I-Die** » 2005-04-27 03:13pm

It may be possible to make some logical assumptions though:

1--Obviously the Yoda creatures have existed at the hieght and more likely than not PRIOR to the Old Republic. What may indded be possibel is that they predate human civilization in the galaxy.

2--Peices of technology left behind--Centerpoint Station, the Maw--imply that some time long before even the most primitive version of the Republic a highly advanced spacefaring race existed.

3--If Yoda was almost a thousand years old, he wouldnt be that far removed from the Yodarace being Vanar in KOTOR, perhaps a few generations.

4--Tying into point 2, the Starforge Builders did die out because of a war with someone. I think the possibility may be they died against the Centerpoint Builders. In fact, it's possibel Starforge was an attempt to offset the technological superiority of the Centerpoint Builders' weaponry, which could nova stars and be used to build starsystems, a la Corellia, and black hole clusters.

What does all this mean...technically nothing really...but heres my best guess about it:

Whatever Yoda's race is, they were the Centerpoint Builders, some multi-million year old race who fought the Starforge Builders and destroyed them. They probably brought Humans from where ever they came from, millions of years ago, and built Corellia to 'house' them...possibly because they foresaw the need for powerful human Force users. Three of the most powerful Force users were humans--Luke, Palpy and Anakin/Vader--they might have created SW Human civilization as a selective breeding program to create powerful Force users, leading the Jedi. the plan derailed with the unexpected birth of the Sith, which they tried to stop (KOTOR). But while they suceeded in destroying the superficial Sith Empire, the heart and soul of the Sith survived, the Master and Apprentice, and went on to crush the Republic. By this time the Yodarace was too weak and low in numbers to do anything but watch. Eventually leading to Luke and Anakin/Vader defeating the Empire, etc, etc...the rest is history.

Of course...this is just some conspiracy theory of mine, using flimsy ties between the known fact. Sounds cool though, eh?

Anyone else have any theories? Or info to burst my bubble?

McC · Post by **McC** » 2005-04-27 03:18pm

Sounds like Babylon 5 and its human telepaths that were created by Vorlons

Spanky The Dolphin · Post by **Spanky The Dolphin** » 2005-04-27 03:19pm

It would take me too long to properly do it, so I'm just going to say that you're absolutely wrong. Basically you're taking IP and my Hyperspace Alien theories and throwing a whole bunch of crap in them to force a connection to KOTOR and Yoda's species.

The Starforge builders (Ratakan) and the Centerpoint/Maw builders (the Hyperspace Aliens) existed at different points in time. The Hyperspace Aliens were more than likely gone from the Galaxy for perhaps a million years by the time the Ratakan showed up.

18-Till-I-Die · Post by **18-Till-I-Die** » 2005-04-27 03:24pm

Yes but i was under the impression that no one knew who the 'Hyperspace Aliens' were, more importantly that they were merely a fan creation to explain the Centerpoint Builders, Corellia and the Maw.

So yes, i guess the builders of Starforge (Rataka) didnt loose to the Centerpoint Builders but it's still possible that the people who built Centerpoint Station had something to do with some of the 'mysteries' of Star Wars.

I mean more than the Yoda people, i mean like what was talked about the Whills, or why Corellia was built, where humans came from and why they were brought to the GFFA.

I'm convinced, somehow, the answer to what Yoda is and who built Centerpoint is the answer to those questions...unfortunately it's an answer most likely never forthcomming.

Spanky The Dolphin · Post by **Spanky The Dolphin** » 2005-04-27 03:25pm

I prefer not to force and contrive connections.

McC · Post by **McC** » 2005-04-27 03:26pm

Rakatan.

Post by **NecronLord** » 2005-04-27 03:26pm

I seem to recall that the twin Dark Jedi Gorc and Pic were speculated to be of the same or a related species to Yoda, but the massive size of the former would suggest that if they are, there must be massive variance in their sizes. Thankfully their force skills were nothing like Yoda's.

Kurgan · Post by **Kurgan** » 2005-04-27 03:37pm

Answer: they were created by this crazy bearded guy in a flannel shirt.

Oh yeah.

18-Till-I-Die · Post by **18-Till-I-Die** » 2005-04-27 03:44pm

If you put togerher what we know, and some speculation, but the Yodarace it paints a very complex picture, if a vague one.

They, the Yodarace, appear to be mammals. I thought for a time they were reptilian, or Jawas but i was wrong on both counts and someone explained to me.

It's interesting, but something to consider...the KOTOR timeline was about 4000 years ago, Yoda being about 900 years old, so he wasnt born durring or near KOTOR itself but was maybe a couple of generations later. It's possible they dont breed very quickly, with such long lifespans they might only reproduce one every few hundred years.

Also we've seen three Jedi of this race, thats almost unheard of. How many Conehead Jedi are there? Or those tenticle things, or the Hammerheads, or the blue-skinned chicks? One, maybe? Few high powered ones, only, it seems, the Yoda and Humans have very many upper tier Jedi. Course humans are extremely prolific throughout the galaxy so that may be misleading...but that the Yoda folks are one of the few races that have lots of promenent Jedi beisdes humans it's very interesting.
(the above point: i must say, i dont raed much EU so if i'm wrong just forget that)

Something else interesting, we've never seen a child one, that we know of. So, it's possible they could be either very slow breeders, as i'd speculate, extremely rare, or are dying out.

Lord Revan · Post by **Lord Revan** » 2005-04-27 03:51pm

From what know we can say, that they're probaly strong in the Force (all three examples have been very high in order (two being member of the Jedi high Council on Corusant and one being member of the Jedi council on Dantooine (in charge of the Jedi Enclave there)). Also probaly spend(or did spend) a lot of time in trees (powerfull legs and sharp claws).

The Original Nex · Post by **The Original Nex** » 2005-04-27 04:05pm

Lord Revan wrote:Well as we know (IIRC) only three members of said species (2 males and 1 female) it's not odd that we don't know much about them. There are some things that can we tell just apperence of that species (they probaly live mostly in trees for example).

Who's the other male? Even Piel, the large-eared Jedi Master with the facial scar is NOT of Yoda's race.