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Dec. 29th, 2014 03:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bjornwildeAnd I think I finally came across the thing I was looking at in Empire Strikes Back, i.e. Yoda reflecting on the errors he brought to the Jedi. It was actually in the novelization of Revenge of the Sith.
Beyond the transparent crystal of the observation dome on the airless crags of Polis Massa, the galaxy wheeled in a spray of hard, cold pinpricks through the veil of infinite night.
Beneath that dome sat Yoda. He did not look at the stars.
He sat a very long time.
Even after nearly nine hundred years, the road to self-knowledge was rugged enough to leave him bruised and bleeding.
He spoke softly, but not to himself.
Though no one was with him, he was not alone.
“My failure, this was. Failed the Jedi, I did.”
He spoke to the Force.
And the Force answered him. Do not blame yourself, my old friend.
As it sometimes had these past thirteen years, when the Force spoke to him, it spoke in the voice of Qui-Gon Jinn.
“Too old I was,” Yoda said. “Too rigid. Too arrogant to see that the old way is not the only way. These Jedi, I trained to become the Jedi who had trained me, long centuries ago—but those ancient Jedi, of a different time they were. Changed, has the galaxy. Changed, the Order did not—because let it change, I did not.”
More easily said than done, my friend.
“An infinite mystery is the Force.” Yoda lifted his head and turned his gaze out into the wheel of stars. “Much to learn, there still is.”
And you will have time to learn it.
“Infinite knowledge …” Yoda shook his head. “Infinite time, does that require.”
With my help, you can learn to join with the Force, yet retain consciousness. You can join your light to it forever. Perhaps, in time, even your physical self.
Yoda did not move. “Eternal life …”
The ultimate goal of the Sith, yet they can never achieve it; it comes only by the release of self, not the exaltation of self. It comes through compassion, not greed. Love is the answer to the darkness.
“Become one with the Force, yet influence still to have …” Yoda mused. “A power greater than all, it is.”
It cannot be granted; it can only be taught. It is yours to learn, if you wish it.
Slowly, Yoda nodded. “A very great Jedi Master you have become, Qui-Gon Jinn. A very great Jedi Master you always were, but too blind I was to see it.”
He rose, and folded his hands before him, and inclined his head in the Jedi bow of respect.
The bow of the student, in the presence of the Master.
“Your apprentice, I gratefully become.”
Beyond the transparent crystal of the observation dome on the airless crags of Polis Massa, the galaxy wheeled in a spray of hard, cold pinpricks through the veil of infinite night.
Beneath that dome sat Yoda. He did not look at the stars.
He sat a very long time.
Even after nearly nine hundred years, the road to self-knowledge was rugged enough to leave him bruised and bleeding.
He spoke softly, but not to himself.
Though no one was with him, he was not alone.
“My failure, this was. Failed the Jedi, I did.”
He spoke to the Force.
And the Force answered him. Do not blame yourself, my old friend.
As it sometimes had these past thirteen years, when the Force spoke to him, it spoke in the voice of Qui-Gon Jinn.
“Too old I was,” Yoda said. “Too rigid. Too arrogant to see that the old way is not the only way. These Jedi, I trained to become the Jedi who had trained me, long centuries ago—but those ancient Jedi, of a different time they were. Changed, has the galaxy. Changed, the Order did not—because let it change, I did not.”
More easily said than done, my friend.
“An infinite mystery is the Force.” Yoda lifted his head and turned his gaze out into the wheel of stars. “Much to learn, there still is.”
And you will have time to learn it.
“Infinite knowledge …” Yoda shook his head. “Infinite time, does that require.”
With my help, you can learn to join with the Force, yet retain consciousness. You can join your light to it forever. Perhaps, in time, even your physical self.
Yoda did not move. “Eternal life …”
The ultimate goal of the Sith, yet they can never achieve it; it comes only by the release of self, not the exaltation of self. It comes through compassion, not greed. Love is the answer to the darkness.
“Become one with the Force, yet influence still to have …” Yoda mused. “A power greater than all, it is.”
It cannot be granted; it can only be taught. It is yours to learn, if you wish it.
Slowly, Yoda nodded. “A very great Jedi Master you have become, Qui-Gon Jinn. A very great Jedi Master you always were, but too blind I was to see it.”
He rose, and folded his hands before him, and inclined his head in the Jedi bow of respect.
The bow of the student, in the presence of the Master.
“Your apprentice, I gratefully become.”
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Date: 2014-12-30 02:20 am (UTC)Although you could argue that some Sith did achieve immortality as there are definitely Sith rough equivalents of Force Ghosts around in the Extended Universe.
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Date: 2014-12-30 02:55 am (UTC)This is also pretty much what my head canon was for how the Jedi Council had been at the end of the Galactic Republic.
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Date: 2014-12-30 02:58 am (UTC)