Yoda & Palpatine Taught Luke & Anakin The Exact Same Lesson

Yoda and Palpatine could not be more different teachers, and yet their lessons to Luke and Anakin Skywalker perfectly mirror each other.

Palpatine’s teachings to Anakin in Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith secretly mirror Yoda’s lessons to Luke in The Empire Strikes Back. The original Star Wars movies and the prequels, two very different trilogies, deal with the Force and with the concept of Jedi in different ways – a consequence of how George Lucas was always trying to expand and reinvent the saga. That said, there are thematic similarities between both trilogies, especially regarding how similar to his children Anakin was written.

No matter in which order a person watches Star Wars, chronologically or by release, these thematic parallels become evident. Obviously, there are also some Star Wars canon mistakes created by the non-linear releasing strategy, such as the question of why Leia remembers her mother. Still, despite the retcons, George Lucas managed to create a series of movies that worked as one single story – the rise, fall, and redemption of Anakin Skywalker. One element that helped bridge the Star Wars prequels with the originals is the presence of key characters in both trilogies, including Yoda and Palpatine.

While Obi-Wan had already introduced Luke and viewers to the concept of the Force, it was only in The Empire Strikes Back that Luke had extended training with the “great warrior” master Yoda. One of the first statements that Yoda makes regarding Luke is how the boy lacks patience. Luke could not stop asking for Yoda to train him and did not even want to wait for the training to be complete before heading to Bespin’s Cloud City to save Han and Leia. Yoda almost refused to train Luke due to that lack of patience, and even after the training progressed, the Jedi master still had to control Luke’s eagerness for fast results. In an interesting parallel, Palpatine accuses Anakin Skywalker of lacking patience in Revenge of the Sith, although with very different goals. Palpatine wanted to highlight Anakin’s patience and anger issues but not to help him solve them. Instead, the Sith Lord Dark Sidious secretly wanted Anakin to nurture those feelings.

Yoda And Palpatine’s Lessons Show How Similar Luke And Anakin Are

The Skywalkers were the galaxy’s most powerful family, but they could also be difficult people. Anakin’s arc in Revenge of the Sith is almost exactly the same as Luke’s in The Empire Strikes Back, including the haunting visions of a loved one in danger. The tragic difference between the stories was the masters. Whereas Luke trusted Yoda’s teachings, Anakin let Chancellor Palpatine be the one to guide him for most of his life. Both Luke and Anakin were impulsive, reckless, and had a great fear of losing their loved ones. For Yoda, that was a synonym for a challenging student. For Palpatine, that was an opportunity to bring someone to the dark side. At the end of Return of the Jedi, Luke Skywalker had embraced Yoda’s teachings, to the point he would even throw his lightsaber away in the middle of a fight. In contrast, at the end of Revenge of the Sith, Anakin is impatient enough to surrender himself to the dark side in order to save Padmé.

Yoda and Palpatine represent, in many ways, opposite sides of the Star Wars universe. That is reflected through their respective most powerful apprentices, Luke and Anakin Skywalker. The stories of father and son rhyme in both the chronologically and by-release Star Wars watch order, especially regarding how each differently they were taught about the Force in The Empire Strikes Back and Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith. Luke and Anakin had the same issues and potential, but their respective most trustable teachers could not have been more different.