And now we continue onward, attempting to uncover whatever secrets and mysteriousness lies within these final three of The Clone Wars! And if you want secrets and mysteriousness, these episodes sure got ’em!
Seriously folks, prepare for a lot of deepish discussion in this one and the ones to follow! That’s all I can really say right now… so… let’s sit down and watch Voices together!
Contains spoilers from Episode I, Episode II, Episode III, Episode V, Episode VI, The Yoda Chronicles Episode I, and TCW episodes Overlords, Altar Of Mortis, Ghosts Of Mortis, Orders, The Lost One, and Voices.
(Original screencap credit: Netflix)
“Jedi Mystery!” Those are the first words of the narration at the show’s opening, and boy, is that Tom Kane guy right. We just dug up a lot of dirt on the Clone Wars’ origins. I guess the biggest question is “why did a Sith just go and create our entire army?” (Welllll y’all could’ve listened to Fives a few episodes back, but nooooooo…) When you’ve got a question this big, the best thing to do is sit down and see if the Force’ll help out. And that’s where we find Yoda, meditating for a bit before rejoining the council in trying to answer these big questions. But instead of further answers on all that craziness, he hears a familiar voice… a voice he seriously isn’t sure he’s hearing: Qui-Gon Jinn’s.
Yoda’s all, “uh… you’re dead bro, sooo…” and Qui-Gon’s like, “then explain how I’m still talking to you. I’m part of the living Force now!” and then he does a few tricks to further convince his old master of that fact. Yoda be all O.o It’s rather fascinating, watching Yoda in these episodes as he realizes that even he doesn’t know everything. I’m sure, secretly, Qui-Gon’s all “Heh. And you guys all thought I was the crazy one!” XD
Yoda returned to the council meeting, but he was about as attentive as a fourth-grader in a lecture on politics. For good reason, considering what he just saw and heard. Of course, all the Jedi in the room are all “Whut, Yoda wasn’t paying attention?!” (OK, they didn’t actually say that, but it’s what they didn’t say that said it) Master Windu reiterates the situation; clearly, whoever’s really in charge of this whole Sith deal seems to be someone right in front of their noses. But Yoda doesn’t really have much more to add to that statement… he’s really not in his element today, and Mace and Obi-Wan kinda know it as the two head off for a brief conversation.
Also, on a random note, it is really fascinating watching that green bearded Jedi guy in motion, slithering around like he do. For so long he’s just sat in his council chair and now he’s actually moving! So crazy cool! OK anyway, so Mace is totally picking up on whatever’s chewing at Yoda, and he’s pretty weirded out about it. He and Obi-Wan make a point to keep an eye on the master, in case something’s seriously wrong. Because yeah Mace is sensing something big (and dark) on the rise…
Meanwhile, Yoda was out mediating outside the Temple, and may I say that it looks like the weather is lovely there right now? Guhh the animation of those leaves! Anyway, so Anakin just happened to run into him while he was out there, and Yoda decides to confide in him what he’s been hearing. Yoda’s heard the whole Mortis deal, how Anakin and Obi-Wan evidently talked to Master Jinn while in that “rabbit hole.” Anakin brushes that off, thinking it was just a really weird vision, as most of the stuff on Mortis was. The Jedi in general are pretty sure that once you’re dead, you just hang out in that Force-spirit-soup. But Yoda knows that there’s a good chance they don’t know everything… but he’s also aware he might just be a little crazy and in need of a nap. Um I’m going to stick with the first option. Yoda? A little crazy? As if! Also, the way Yoda says “Rest, I need.” just brings up all this Episode VI nostalgia and makes me sad for him even decades before his passing.
So when Yoda goes out to the council and tells them that he’s hearing voices from beyond, the gang bonds together for a good long meditation to see if anyone else hears something. They do this pretty much all day… and nothing happens. I’m sure Qui-Gon is watching them, chuckling at the way he’s messing with them… kick him off the council will they? 😛 OK, so after everyone inevitably got the kinks out of their backs from kneeling for twenty-four straight hours, Ki-Adi Mundi proposes that maybe this voice is just the Sith messing with them. Obi-Wan’s like, “Duuude! Yoda’s like, a rock! No Sith could play that kinda game with him!” Mace is all, “Look, Yoda, you’re great and stuff, and wiser and older than pretty much anyone, but I don’t think you’re above being manipulated by the dark side.” And Yoda’s like, “yeahhh I could see that… the dark side’s already done so much to blind us; who knows what they might be able to do!” So, the Jedi decide to get a second opinion on the matter. But what do you do when the second opinion still doesn’t clear anything up?
According to the Jedi doc, Yoda’s fine physically and mentally for his age. Ki-Adi Mundi, once again throwing out big “what-ifs”, wonders if maybe Yoda having trained Dooku prior to his fall might’ve caused a problem or two. Again, Obi-Wan’s doubtful, as Dooku was just one out of the zillions of Jedi who were Yoda’s apprentices. But Ki-Adi fires back that Dooku could easily use their old bond against Yoda, and what better way to take out the Jedi than by taking out the head honcho? Yikes… the concept of dark side Yoda is disturbing. But what if…? The doc proposes a treatment that could possibly give Yoda a closer idea of this “voice”, and naturally, it’s potentially dangerous. But whatever Yoda wants to do… and of course, he wants to do it.
Sooo I’m still no expert on StarWarsian medicine, and especially not in the area of Jedi medicine, but basically Yoda’s going in deep, quite literally. Into a tank that will put him into a deep deep meditative state, as deep as one can go without being dead. Whooo boy… this could go south, but Yoda wants his answers and you can’t change that. And as the treatment begins, on cue, Qui-Gon steps in and points Yoda to where he needs to go — to some slimy planet called Dagobah, where he’ll figure it all out. Oh, and Yoda’s not allowed to tell anybody else about it. That was about it before Yoda was fished out and revived by his Jedi buddies. Yoda kinda rambled on about having talked to a couple of dead friends… and that naturally started a tizzy amongst the Jedi, who again, are pretty sure that you don’t just go around having conversations with living people when you’re dead. But Anakin, coming back on what Yoda told him earlier, reminds them that they might not know everything there is to know about the Force. Eh, but Ki-Adi’s still sticking to his “Sith-controlling-Yoda” guns. Mace makes the final call that, until they get everything figured out, Yoda’s going to be hanging out in the medical bay under senate guards for a while. But I have a feeling that Yoda’s not going to be there for as long as the rest of the Jedi want… he has a couple aces up his sleeve… the first being Anakin.
I cannot fully express how much I love Yoda’s little plan here. He pretty quickly convinces(ish) Anakin to help him make his escape. Anakin isn’t totally sure if he’s doing the right thing, but Yoda’s like, “dude, you break the rules all the time! You can certainly do that for me right now, can’t you?” Heheh, it’s nice seeing Yoda’s mischievous side again 🙂 So I guess Anakin and Yoda are just going to take a “casual” walk outside… to get some “fresh air.” Once the two have casually made their way past the guards, Anakin gets R2-D2 to set Yoda up with a ship and sends him on his merry way. And by the time Mace and the doc show up, Yoda’s already gone, off to Dagobah!
It’s not long before the master and Artoo land on said planet. Thankfully, Artoo’s allowed to stay on the ship… understandably so, as the next time he steps into the mudhole he nearly gets eaten. If he could speak Basic, he’d totally be saying the infamous “I’ve got a bad feeling about this…” I seriously love watching Artoo and Yoda hang out! It’s nice to know that that squabble they have twenty years from now was not rooted in their past XD
So after walking for a bit, Yoda sits down, ready to hear what Master Jinn has to say next. And I about cried when Qui-Gon spoke next… “Yoda, my old friend…” Ahh, the warmth in his voice! It’s like getting a vocal hug! I want to be his friend so badddd :3 I’m sure he would’ve probably hugged him for real… if of course, he wasn’t currently still trying to figure out the whole “Force ghost form” thing. And if it wouldn’t have probably weirded Yoda out. Anyway, though he can’t be seen yet, Qui-Gon uses a bunch of sparkly lights to guide Yoda to where he needs to go. Qui-Gon’s warm voice and sparkly lights?! It’s all so magical!! I’m getting all the feels right now.
So Qui-Gon tells Yoda that Dagobah’s a crazy Force-rich planet… it looks like Yoda didn’t just choose Dagobah because “a nice place to live, it is”! (#LegoReference) Apparently Master Jinn is, as he said, made up of the living Force, which is entirely different from the cosmic Force (yeesh the Force is so confusing!) So, instead of just joining the Force soup that others would, he gets to hang out and do whatever as just himself… not a bad deal! Of course, just because he’s in this high ranking of deceasedness doesn’t mean he knows everything, and he can’t really say much in regard to Yoda’s wonderings about the Sith and the future. So the sparkly lights lead Yoda to a rather familiar cave… a cave that I really really wouldn’t want to go into anytime soon… why does everything involving the Force has to be so complicated and frightening half the time?! Of course, that’s why they’re the Jedi and I’m not.
Yes, this familiar cave. It’s dark and creepy and has just the right amount of black fog and disturbing foggy visions of what’s to come… visions of Jedi fighting clones, Jedi dying, and Darth Sidious doing what he do, plus Sidious inviting Yoda over to the dark side. Anybody else severely shook when they show CG versions of things that will happen in the films? The Mortis episodes and now this… yikes. It’s very clear that Yoda’s as shook as anybody right now, and that’s saying something since Yoda comes off as a pretty unshakable guy. As Yoda stumbles out of the cave, I think it’s safe to say that he wasn’t exactly expecting that kind of answer to his questions… and there’s still so much he doesn’t know or fully grasp about what he saw.
Qui-Gon knows that things are getting pretty much worse and worse, and that the dark side is getting stronger and stronger as the Clone Wars continue. But he also knows that there is always hope. And with that, Qui-Gon points the way for Yoda to his next step on the path to stronger-Force-ness. So someday, Yoda will continue to be able to provide help and hope in the dark times ahead, even post-death (any chance that means we’ll see Yoda in Episode VII? Just wondering… the only time we saw him in his Force ghost form was when he stopped by the ewok party). So with the Force as his guide, Yoda steps back in his ship, ready to be led to a mysterious place that will deepen his understanding, test his limits, and get him ready for the future to come…
OK, that was so deep I can barely wrap my head around this. And not just because my understanding of the Force is kinda iffy. Dang, man… perhaps some secrets are harder to uncover than most. I think I’m going to stop blogging now because I’m not sure there’s anything else I can really say to aide us in our understanding.
Just WOW.
Keep The Peace,
– Twilight
Padawanline 