Star Wars: The High Republic Writer Explains The Importance of Young Yoda, Addresses Controversy

Star Wars: The High Republic comic writer Cavan Scott sat down with our ComicBook Nation podcast to explain the importance of “Young Yoda” and address some of the fan “controversy” surrounding him. The High Republic is set 200 years before the Skywalker Saga begins in the Star Wars Prequels – a time when Yoda is younger, and part of a much bigger and more active Jedi Order. And yet, Yoda’s word and presence still carry just as much weight as it always has – a detail that has rekindled debate in the Star Wars fandom, about whether Yoda is truly a heroic figure at all.

The Star Wars Prequel Trilogy ends with Yoda’s literal and figurative fall from grace, as Dark Sidious rises and conquers the galaxy in the name of the Sith and the Galactic Empire. Yoda’s role in the Original Trilogy (a recluse how trains Luke Skywalker to be a Jedi), shows him humbled by his own hubris to stop Sidious and Anakin Skywalker’s transformation into Darth Vader. Know how the ancient Jedi Master’s arc ends has caused some Star Wars fans to view Yoda as less a hero and more an ironically tragic figure (at best), or the arrogant first crack in the foundation of the Jedi Order’s beliefs.

However, Cavan Scott makes it clear that Yoda is nothing but a revered figure to the creators of Star Wars: The High Republic – and that his views of the Jedi Order in Force are as noble as they’ve always been:

“I mean when Yoda talks about life, you know, the Force being a force through nature through the trees, the rocks, the everything – that’s still exactly how the Jedi view the Force,” Scott says. “It’s it’s not so much that it hasn’t become like the doctrine of The Order, it’s more the fact that, again, different people are interpreting their way to tap into the Force in a different way. But yeah, it’s still this the idea that the Force is through everything and it’s the energy field that… binds everything together within the galaxy and is where a Jedi gets his/her power from, by tapping into that.”

That said, Cavan Scott also acknowledges that he’s seen the online discussion about how Yoda fits into The High Republic:

“So yeah, there has been there’s been a lot of discussion about Yoda online and Yoda’s part and The High Republic and the sense that Yoda is somehow to blame for what’s happened. But I don’t think we’ve ever said that. And I don’t think we ever would because that’s not what we believe. And we spend a lot of time talking about Yoda… and every time Yoda’s in a scene he’s the most important person in that scene. So we’ve been very careful how we treated Yoda and tried very much to treat him with respect.”

The key seems to be carefully doling out how and when Yoda is seen and used in The High Republic. As Cavan Scott explains, so far the Jedi Master’s presence is enough to propel things along:

“[Yoda] is in a slightly different position in the High Republic. He is on the council, but has decided to take a bit of sabbatical from that and is teaching Padawans, which is what we know he loves doing. So there is also a sense that when Yoda isn’t there the rest of the Jedi – our Jedi we’ve created – are going, ‘I wish Yoda was here,’ because they all still look to him and there’s a familiarity with them and Yoda because he’s their peer in a lot of ways, but he’s still also a master. He’s more trained in some way or another than most of these people, because let’s face it: even though he’s in High Republic, and we keep talking about ‘Young Yoda,’ he’s still quite old and he’s been around for a very long time.”

Star Wars: The High Republic comic series is available from Marvel Comics. The tie-in novels can be ordered HERE.

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