Was Yoda the "one" that cheated death? (A Rosie's Revisions Essay)

Ok..let's see where this goes:  In Episode III, Palpatine mentioned that only one person had ever figured out how to use The Force to cheat death.  Many fans assumed that this referred to Darth Plagieus.  I think even some of the legendary Extended Universe novels confirms that Plagieus was the individual who Palpatine was referring to.

But what if it was Yoda who was the being who had learnt to cheat Death?   Maybe that is why there was a Dark Cave on Dagobah.   

In the films, they say that the Sith have been vanquished for a thousand years.  Well what if that was approximate?   With a time gap that long, it would be easy to be off by a few hundred years.   Say that Darth Bane actually started the Rule of 2 not 1,000 years ago, but, say 870 years ago.   (I know this has no correlation in the Legends books about Bane...but I am just going with what is shown in the movies and in The Clone Wars series)

Anyways, if THAT were the time of Bane's life and death, then Yoda could have been among the Jedi who hunted him down and defeated the Sith.  Yoda would have been about 30 years old.

Now, say, during the climax of this final battle to defeat the Sith, Yoda participates with an elite squad of Jedi to eliminate the Sith leader, Darth Bane and the last of Bane's apprentices.  They chase the remaining Sith to the solar system holding Bane's secret sanctum in a cave complex on a distant, uncharted planet called Dagobah.   Bane has selected this planet because although it is uninhabited by sentient beings, it is teeming with life...life that using Dark rituals, Bane tapped into to siphon off of and to strengthen his ties to the Dark Side and, thus, his own power. 

Recall that the cave had parts with formed concrete-like door arches and  relatively smooth walls.  Someone built a lasting structure there ages ago.

Ok...back to 870 years ago...

After a fierce and deadly firefight above the planet, the remaining combatants either landed on whatever solid ground they could find or survived their crashes.  Both sides converged on each other for a final lightsaber confrontation.   

Fierce duels erupted and for days both sides drew on The Force in an all out melee to finally put an end to their opponents.

Eventually, only two remained.   Yoda and Bane.   Although nearing utter exhaustion, the two continued to duel for hours...each knowing the the other's death would bring lasting victory for their side.

Bane finally bests Yoda, cutting a gash in his leg and stabbing the young Jedi Master through the chest and leaves him for dead.   Bane realized that in the aftermath of the slaughter of the Sith at the hands of the Jedi still vast in number throughout the Galaxy, Bane was now alone in the universe. Only through guile and deception could the Sith ever hope to gain enough strength to return to their former glory.

Bane overconfidently whispered his new Rule of Two into Yoda's ear thinking his secret plan would go to the grave with his defeated pursuer to torture him in his last few moments.   Bane kicked Yoda's limp body into the cave and left him in what he believed would soon be Yoda's tomb.

As the sound of the thrusters of Bane's escaping ship fades into the natural muffled sounds of the Dagobah wilderness, Yoda weakly reaches out to The Force begging for a chance to prevent the implementation of Bane's horrors.

He knew that it would be up to him to make sure that the Jedi remain strong enough to be prepared for the return of Bane's followers and the inevitable Revenge of the Sith.  The Jedi must know that the Sith remained and would return someday stronger than ever to get their revenge.

Having no other options, Yoda desperately tapped into the deepest reaches of The Force searching through the Light and then in sheer desperation opened his heart to the Dark for any chance to fight death so he can live long enough to train the Jedi for the coming battles...to watch and wait until the One who has been Chosen to bring balance to The Force is finally revealed.

Yoda sacrifices his own purity with this one ultimate act of Dark Force.  By consuming the vast life forms surrounding him on Dagobah, this dark, unnatural act, which would go on to sustain the Jedi Master's life far beyond his time would imprint The Cave forever with echos of its Dark past.

Yoda's silent torment of his dark sacrifice burned through his every moment for the millennium that follows.   This is how he knew, first-hand, that once you walk down the dark path, forever will it dominate your destiny.   It consumed him.   He wrapped himself in a mask of shame for what he had done, hiding this dark secret from even his closest of allies.

But he carried on knowing that his sacrifice must not be in vain.   He blocked out the Darkness that forever burned at his soul.   He knew that he must live on until he could train the Chosen One...whenever that may be.

Over 800 years passed and he would go on to train generation after generation of Jedi.   Eventually, with the fall of the Jedi after Order 66, he thought that he HAD trained the Chosen One, but because he had blinded himself to the Power he was not able to protect him or to teach him to protect himself for the Dark temptations...until it was too late.

The only thing that protected Yoda during the Dark Times of the Empire during his hiding and exile following Order 66 was his return to Dagobah...the location of his greatest failure and self-sacrifice.  As bright a Light that Yoda was during his long life, there would have been nowhere in the Galaxy that he could hide from one as powerful as Darth Vader or Emperor Palpatine would could reach out into the Force and sense others strong in The Force...especially one as strong as Yoda.  The Darkness of the Cave and Brightness of Yoda's Spirit balanced one another and cancelled themselves out,  obscuring him from their distant gazing reaching out through and with the Dark Side of the Force.  From Vader's point of view...Dagobah was a blank...a void...a nothing,  like the rest of the Galaxy.

Just as Obi-wan built a home by the remains of the Tusken Raiders that Anakin had slaughtered to mask himself, so too did Yoda remain hidden from any sensitive to The Force.

In his final hours, after centuries of torment, Yoda realized that it would be Luke who would be able to fulfill the ancient promise of bringing balance to The Force.  He would finally be able let go of his crude matter and with balance restored could finally become one with The Force.

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And if Kathleen Kennedy uses this as the story for one of the Anthology films, all I want is a guarantee that Mark Hamill voices Darth Bane under the mask and that I get to go to the premiere and sit next to him.  I will leave it up to Ms. Kennedy to decide between Frank Oz and Tom Kane for the voice of Yoda.  I'd be happy with both.  However...my head might explode if I sat between Mr. Oz and Mr. Hamill at the premiere...so, for my safety, it probably aught to be Mr. Kane.  Nah...if that's how I die...I'd be happy with that.  Either way...it'll be a hell of a night!

Expectations of Episode VII - Part One (The Tone)

What are my expectations the Episode VII?

I agree that one's opinion of the Original Trilogy (OT) and the Prequel Trilogy (PT) greatly depends on your point of view (in other words...how old you were when you saw the films, and in what order).  But there WERE some key differences between the OT and the PT they differentiate between the two eras.   I think the most significant is character interaction and storytelling style.

The characters in the OT related to one another organically.   They were just fun.   Had it only been the 1977 film, Star Wars could have been a one-shot classic like Jaws or The Goonies.   That enough would have locked it in our collective subconsciousness.  But what made the saga so long lived were the pathos and relatable trials of the heroes in ESB and ROTJ.

Luke was shown as he grew as a man from an impetuous, cocky, idealistic youth into a...ok...he was still pretty impetuous, cocky, idealistic and young by the end of ESB, but you could SEE through his many failures (the cave, the ship in the swamp, the duel on Cloud City, etc.) how he gained the wisdom and patience to begin to truly face his demons in ROTJ.   The films SHOWED the steps of his journey and where his turning points were.

Anakin's story never quite left the outline stage.   His story was TOLD to the audience through exposition.   The action on the screen rarely showed his developmental story.   Sure, there were a few sequences that showed his character (pod racer = bravery; Coruscant speeder chase = determination; sand people slaughter = giving in to hate, etc.).  But very little was conveyed more than very superficial concepts.