What Is Yoda's Race?

[VT-16]

Lucas himself said he wanted Yoda´s species and cultural background to remain a mystery. Speculation is fine, but there is no official explanation and there never will be. (Same as Palpatine´s distant past and point of origin, really.)

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.

Actually, according to a recent article (don´t remember the source), during a conversation, Lucas told Rob Coleman that the Skywalker family saga is told by R2 to the "Keeper of the Whills", approx. 100 years after ROTJ.

[18-Till-I-Die]

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.

Vanar, a Yoda from KOTOR 1.

[The Original Nex]

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.

Vanar, a Yoda from KOTOR 1.

Oooh.

[JediMaster415]

Vanar, a Yoda from KOTOR 1.

That's pronounced and spelled Vandar. To my knowledge, Vandar didn't seemed to speak perfect Basic with Yoda's accent so he was probably around humans longer.

From the fact that we've only seen three of them, I'd say that Force-sensitivity is rather rare in their species. Seems rather cool to me that the most powerful, and influential, member of the Council wasn't human.

[Drooling Iguana]

As a kid, I always thought that Yoda was human, whose lifespan had been drastically extended through the use of the Force. The small stature, big ears, etc. were the result of extreme old age.

Of course, that doesn't seem too likely now.

[Old Plympto]

As a kid, I always thought that Yoda was human, whose lifespan had been drastically extended through the use of the Force. The small stature, big ears, etc. were the result of extreme old age.

Of course, that doesn't seem too likely now.

Hey, me too.

And for a ROTS spoiler: Qui-Gon will teach Yoda to be a force ghost which he learnt from a Shaman of the Whills, whatever that is. I'm guessing the Whills are another Force using order.

[GeneralTacticus]

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?

1) The Rakata died out because the Star Forge's influence exacerbated their internal tensions and caused a civil war, along with stripping away their inherent Fore-sensitivity. Aside from revolts by their slave races, there is no indication of any outside threat to them whatsoever.

2) (Minor nitpick) The Sith of KotOR were in no way the first to turn against the Jedi order; the Sith Empire of Marka Ragnos, Naga Sadow et al was around a thousand years before, and it had to come from somewhere.

3) If we accept your argument that, since Yoda's race lives a very long time, it may have only been a few generations from KotOR to the SW-'now' for them... it would also have been less than fifty or sixty of their generations from the time of the Rakata to KotOR. This would be equivalent to a little over a thousand years for us. Given that we have quite detailed historical records of things that happened much longe rago, I find it hard to believe that the 'Yoda-race' would have simply forgotten about such an enormous piece of history, especially if they're busy trying to turn humanity into a race of uber-powerful Force-wielders.

[Smuggler's run]

supershadow has what he says are the answers (lies of course) but other than that, there is no solid info.

[Molyneux]

As a kid, I always thought that Yoda was human, whose lifespan had been drastically extended through the use of the Force. The small stature, big ears, etc. were the result of extreme old age.

Of course, that doesn't seem too likely now.

Oh, thank goodness, I wasn't the only person who used to think that...
It was the "When 900 years old you reach, look as good you will not, hm?" line that gave me that impression, I think.

[The Original Nex]

As a kid, I always thought that Yoda was human, whose lifespan had been drastically extended through the use of the Force. The small stature, big ears, etc. were the result of extreme old age.

Of course, that doesn't seem too likely now.

Hey, me too.

And for a ROTS spoiler: Qui-Gon will teach Yoda to be a force ghost which he learnt from a Shaman of the Whills, whatever that is. I'm guessing the Whills are another Force using order.

I think that's only in the Novelization. I doubt that it's been kept in the film.

[Old Plympto]

I think that's only in the Novelization. I doubt that it's been kept in the film.

Nay good sir. It's also in the script, therefore it's not a Matt Stover addition and should be in the movie. But of course, the final say would be in George Papanoida's hands. He might edit it out.

[wolveraptor]

What I found somewhat implausible is Yoda's ability to have human-like or higher levels of activity while still retaining an incredibly long lifespan. If he spent even half his life jumping around like he does on AotC, then the wear and tear on his body would've been immense. Wouldn't he have to have some excellent regenerative ability? Of course, the more times cells divide, the more likely they are to develop some sort of cancerous mutation. Plus, continual exposure to light and other forms of radiation would increase the risk of cancer. It's like those biblical folks who lived for 900+ years. They would need to be really lucky not to die of some cancer/disease.

I always imagined the long-lived alien to be slow, ponderous and methodical.

[Manus Celer Dei]

What I found somewhat implausible is Yoda's ability to have human-like or higher levels of activity while still retaining an incredibly long lifespan. If he spent even half his life jumping around like he does on AotC, then the wear and tear on his body would've been immense. Wouldn't he have to have some excellent regenerative ability? Of course, the more times cells divide, the more likely they are to develop some sort of cancerous mutation. Plus, continual exposure to light and other forms of radiation would increase the risk of cancer. It's like those biblical folks who lived for 900+ years. They would need to be really lucky not to die of some cancer/disease.

I always imagined the long-lived alien to be slow, ponderous and methodical.

That's not really a problem, since we've only see him doing anything like that once out of the four movies he's been in.

(Dunno about whether he does that sort of thing a lot in the EU though.)

[wolveraptor]

Sure, but what about when he wasn't an old master, but a young padawan, who would've been out travelling the galaxy learning with his master? Or when he was a Jedi Knight, with his own padawans, keeping the peace? He must've been fairly active, training and doing loads of...stuff.

Maybe the Force helps him heal? That would mean others of his race do not retain such abilities into old age.

[SCRawl]

Yoda's race? Given the length of his legs, I'd presume that it isn't the 100m steeplechase.

[Highbacca]

Yoda is just himself in a species, just suddenly showed up to the Old Republic and became the ultimit Jedi master.

[Kurgan]

goblin

[Winston Blake]

Regarding Gorc and Pic mentioned before, i have to say Pic looks like an evil nasty version of Yoda:



http://images.google.com.au/images?q=tb ... PicPic.jpg
(for some reason i can't get the second one to [img] properly)

[Darth Sephiroth]

Well, the first thing that hit me when I just read the stuff about Yoda being an old human was an image of Yoda running around stealing panties ala Happosai in Ranma 1/2, really strange to picture actually.