45 years after The Empire Strikes Back
, Yoda’s lessons to Luke Skywalker have finally been proven right. When Luke Skywalker arrived on Dagobah, he had no real idea what training he was about to go through. Dagobah is a planet rich in the Force, the perfect place for a Jedi Knight to be trained, although it is by no means untainted by the dark side. Luke’s time there came to a premature end because of a vision he experienced, one warning that his friends were in danger.
Yoda cautioned Luke not to take Force visions for granted. According to Yoda, his friends’ fates were “difficult to see,” because the future is always in motion. The aged Grandmaster had always been wary of Jedi prophecies, believing that the desire to control the future is in fact of the dark side. 45 years later, Star Wars has just proved he was right.
Yoda Was Right: The Future Is Always In Motion
The Kyber Mirrors Reveal The Truth
Other Force cults were willing to embrace visions, and the Jedi of the High Republic Era were well familiar with kyber mirrors that served to encourage such visions. A Force-sensitive who meditated on such a mirror would receive a glimpse of their potential futures, and they would actually be able to choose a path for their lives. George Mann and Vincenzo Federici’s Star Wars: The High Republic Adventures – Echoes of Fear #4 sees a Jedi Knight called Reath Silas encounter one such mirror, and the experience subtly reveals Yoda was right.
The mirror had been planted by an ancient race to test whether the beings who pᴀssed were worthy of claiming a Force relic they possessed, or whether they were subject to the dark side. Reath pᴀsses the test by refusing to choose a future at all, instead trusting in the Force; “My future path is not decided,“ he insists, and the kyber mirror lets him pᴀss. The very fact of choosing a desired future is in itself of the dark side, because it means a person is imposing their will on the Force.
This is what Yoda is referring to in The Empire Strikes Back, when he says the future is always in motion. When he sought the guidance of the Force, Yoda no doubt perceived myriad possibilities – some tragic, some not. Refusing to commit to a simple yes or no in response to Luke, he was instead allowing things to play out according to the will of the Force – whatever that may mean.
Why Palpatine Believed He’d “Fixed” The Future
Palpatine Believed He Had Foreseen Everything
It helps to contrast Yoda with Palpatine in Return of the Jedi. There, the Emperor insisted that everything on the Death Star was happening as he had foreseen. Palpatine was fascinated with the future, always attempting to see through the mists of time so he could thwart his enemies and secure immortality. This was a major reason he had the Imperial Inquisitors scour the galaxy for Force-sensitive children; many of them were corrupted, their minds used as windows through which he could explore the future.
Now we see what Palpatine was actually trying to do with the Force: he was perceiving myriad futures, and he was attempting to “force” the one he desired by imposing his will upon it. In essence, unlike Reath Silas, he was actively choosing a future timeline that he desired. It’s possible he had been doing this for decades; it would certainly explain why so many events coincided in his favor during the Clone Wars.
Luke Rejected All The Futures Palpatine Had Foreseen For Him
This Is Why Palpatine Could Never Win
The final scenes of Return of the Jedi are essentially the ultimate battle between light and dark, life and death, and it is striking that they involve two different views of the future. Palpatine wishes to choose a future and act, pushing events in the direction he longs for, and he has been successful – up to a point. The Rebel Alliance looked to be doomed, Luke Skywalker was at his mercy, and the dark side appeared to be triumphant.
But the Emperor failed to understand Luke Skywalker. Palpatine had placed Luke in a position where his every choice would tilt him toward the dark side; if he turned on the Emperor out of rage and hatred, it would seal his fate. Instead, Luke consigned him to the will of the Force. If every choice was darkness, then Luke would remain true to the light, and he would not choose. If that meant he died, he would die, and he accepted that fate.
Light and dark collided. The Sith Lord attempted to “force” a future, but the Jedi resisted him, trusting instead in the will of the Force – even if it meant he had no future. Luke’s dedication to the light caused history to spin in a direction the Emperor had not foreseen – could not foresee, because Palpatine could not conceive such an atтιтude – and the Sith were defeated. Yoda was right in The Empire Strikes Back, and the galaxy was saved as a result.
