Yoda’s Syntax:
Key:
“I want a sandwich.” Normal syntax for English. Includes fragments and sentences with “bad” grammar.
“A sandwich I want.” Object of the sentence precedes the subject of the sentence, regardless of prepositional phrases, articles, conjunctions, etc. Often splitting verb phrases in the process
“A sandwich want I.” Full reversal of syntax. Subject follows verb, verb follows object. Prepositional phrases, articles, conjunctions, etc. interjected as needed.
“Sandwich I want a.” The syntax is different from standard English, but not like the other two forms.
The Phantom Menace
[Council room, surrounded by his fellow council members, talking to them/Qui-Gon Jinn]
“Ah, hard to see the dark side is.”
“Master Qui-Gon, more to say have you?”
“A vergence you say?”
“But you do. Revealed your opinion is.”
“Oh, trained as a Jedi you request of him, hm?”
[Council room, surrounded by his fellow council members, talking to Anakin]
“How feel you?”
“Afraid are you?”
“See through you we can.”
“Afraid to lose her, I think.”
“Everything. Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering. I sense much fear in you.”
[Council room, surrounded by his fellow council members, talking to Qui-Gon/Obi-Wan]
“Clouded this boy’s future is.”
“An apprentice you have, Qui-Gon. Impossible to take on a second.”
“Our own council we will keep on who is ready.”
“Young Skywalker’s fate will be decided later.”
“May the Force be with you.”
[Theed, talking to Obi-Wan]
“Confer on you the level of Jedi Knight the council does. But agree with your taking of this boy as your padawan learner I do not.”
“The chosen one the boy may be. Nevertheless, grave danger I fear in his training.”
“Qui-gon’s defiance I sense in you. Need that you do not. Agree with you the council does. Your apprentice Skywalker will be.”
[Theed, at Qui-Gon’s funeral, talking to Mace Windu]
“Always two there are. No more, no less. A master and an apprentice.”
Attack of the Clones
[Chancellor’s office, to/around Mace, Padme, and Palpatine]
“The Dark Side clouds everything. Impossible to see the future is.”
“Senator Amidala, your tragedy on the landing platform, terrible. Seeing you alive brings warm feelings to my heart.”
“But, for a Certain Senator, in grave danger you are.”
[Council room, to/around Anakin, Obi-Wan, and fellow members]
“Track down this bounty hunter you must, Obi-Wan.”
“Handle that your padawan will.”
“Until caught this killer is, our judgment she must respect.”
[Training room, to/around the younglings and Obi-Wan]
“Reach out, sense the force around you, use your feelings you must. Younglings, younglings! A visitor we have.”
“What help can I be, Obi-Wan?”
“Lost a planet Master Obi-Wan has. How embarrassing. How embarrassing. Liam, the shades. Gather ‘round the map reader. Clear your mind and find Obi-Wan’s wayward planet we will.”
“Gravity’s silhouette remains, but the star and all the planets, disappeared they have. How can this be? Hm? A thought? Anyone?”
“Truly wonderful the mind of a child is. The padawan is right. Go to the center of gravity’s pull, and there find your planet you will. The data must have been erased.”
“Dangerous and disturbing this puzzle is. Only a Jedi could have erased those files. But who and why? Harder to answer. Meditate on this I will.”
[“Old Folk’s Home” (the meditation chamber; I just like that that’s the nickname for it), with/around Mace and a hologram of Obi-Wan]
“Do not assume anything, Obi-Wan. Clear your mind must be if you are to discover the real villain behind this plot.”
“Bring him here. Question him we will.”
“Blind we are if creation of this clone army we could not see.”
“Only the Dark Lord of the Sith knows of our weakness. If informed the senate is, multiply our adversaries will.”
[Chancellor’s office, to/around Mace]
“More happening on Geonosis I believe than is revealed.”
[Senate, to Mace]
“Visit I will the cloners on Kamino and see this army they have created for the Republic.”
[Arena, to Clone Bois]
“Around the survivors a perimeter create.”
[Geonosis battlefield, to Mace and Clone Bois]
“If Dooku escapes, rally more systems to his cause he will.”
“To the forward command center take me.”
“Very good. Very good.”
“Concentrate all your fire on the nearest starship.”
“Well done, Commander. Bring me a ship.”
[Hanger, to Dooku. (You know which scene this is. Best scene in the dang movie, that’s what it is!)]
“Count Dooku.”
“Powerful you have become, Dooku. The Dark Side I sense in you.”
“Much to learn you still have.”
“Fought well you have, my old Padawan.”
[Council room, to Mace and Obi-Wan]
“Join the Dark Side, Dooku has. Lies, deceit, creating mistrust are his ways now.”
“I agree.”
“Victory? Victory you say, Master Obi-Wan? Not victory. The shroud of the Dark Side has fallen. Begun the Clone War has.”
Revenge of the Sith
[“Old Folk’s Home”, to Anakin]
“Premonitions? Premonitions. Hm, these visions you have…”
“Yourself you speak of, or someone you know?”
“Close to you?”
“Careful you must be when sensing the future, Anakin. The fear of loss is a path to the Dark Side.”
“Death is a natural part of life. Rejoice for those around you who transform into the Force. Mourn them do not. Miss them do not. Attachment leads to jealousy. The shadow of greed that is.”
“Train yourself to let go of everything you fear to lose.”
[Council room, to Anakin and fellow members]
“Allow this appointment lightly the council does not. Disturbing is this move by Chancellor Palpatine.”
“Hiding in the Outer Rim Grievous is. The outlying systems you must sweep.”
“Go I will. Good relations with the Wookies I have.”
[LAAT Gunship, to Obi-Wan and Mace]
“A prophecy that misread could have been.”
“I hope right you are.”
[Kashyyyk/Council, to fellow members and Clone Boi]
“Act on this we must. The capture of General Grievous will end this war. Quickly and decisively we should proceed.”
“A master is needed, with more experience.”
“I agree.”
“Then now the time is, Commander.”
[War Room, to fellow members]
“To a dark place this line of thought will carry us. Hmm. Great care we must take.”
[Kashyyyk, to Tarfful and Chewbacca]
“Goodbye, Tarfful. Goodbye, Chewbacca. Miss you I will.”
[Tantive IV, to Obi-Wan and Bail Organa]
“Heard from no one have we.”
“Received a coded retreat message we have.”
“Hmm. Suggest dismantling the coded signal do you?”
“I agree. And a little more knowledge might light our way.”
[Jedi Temple, to Obi-Wan]
“Killed not by clones this Padawan. By a lightsaber he was.”
[Same, but later]
“For the clones to discover the recalibration a long time it will take.”
“If into the security recordings you go, only pain you will find.”
“Destroy the Sith we must.”
“To fight this Lord Sidious strong enough you are not.”
“Twisted by the Dark Side Young Skywalker has become. The boy you trained, gone he is. Consumed by Darth Vader.”
“Use your feelings, Obi-Wan, and find him you will.”
[Senate, to Palpatine]
“I hear a new apprentice you have, Emperor. Or should I call you Darth Sidious?”
“Surprised?”
“Not if anything to say about it I have. At an end your rule is. And not short enough it was. If so powerful you are, why leave?”
“Faith in your new apprentice misplaced it may be, as is your faith in the Dark Side of the Force.”
[Senate/Car, to Bail Organa]
“Hurry. Careful timing we will need.”
“Into exile I must go. Failed I have.”
[Tantive IV, to Obi-Wan and Bail Organa]
“Hidden, safe the children must be kept.”
“Hmm. Split up they should be.”
“To Tatooine. To his family send him.”
“Until the time is right, disappear we will. Master Kenobi, wait a moment. In your solitude on Tatooine, training I have for you.”
“An old friend has learned the path to immortality. One who has returned from the netherworld of the Force. Your old master.”
“How to commune with him I will teach you.”
{Yoda does not appear in A New Hope}
Empire Strikes Back
[Dagobah, to Luke and R2]
“Like what?”
“Away put your weapon. I mean you no harm. I am wondering, why are you here?”
“Looking? Found someone you have, I would say.”
“Help you I can, yes, hmm.”
“Great warrior? Wars not make one great, hmm.”
“How you get so big eating food of this kind?”
“Aw…’Cannot get your ship out…’ hehehehe”
“Mine, or I will help you not!”
“Mudhole? Slimy? My home this is!”
“Mine!” (repeated until R2 releases the light)
“No, no, no. Stay and help you I will. I’m your friend, hmm?”
“Oh, Jedi Master. Yoda. You seek Yoda.”
“Take you to him, I will. Yes, yes. But now, we must eat. Come, eat. Good food.”
[Hut, to Luke and the Ghost of Obi-Wan]
“Patience! For a Jedi it is time to eat as well! Eat, eat. Hot! Good food, hmm? Good, hmm?”
“Not far. Yoda not far. Patience! Soon, you will be with him. Root leaf. I cook. Why wish you become a Jedi? Hmm?”
“Ah, father. Powerful Jedi was he. Hmm. Powerful Jedi.”
“I cannot teach him. The boy has no patience.”
“Much anger in him, like his father.”
“No. He is not ready.”
“Ready, are you? What know you ready? For eight-hundred years have I trained Jedi. My own counsel I will keep on who is to be trained. A Jedi must have the deepest commitment, hmm? The most serious mind. This one a long time have I watched. All his life as he looked away to the future, to the horizon. Never his mind on where he was. Hmm? What he was doing. Adventure, ha. Excitement, ha. A Jedi craves not these things. You are reckless!”
“He is too old. Yes, too old to begin the training.”
“Will he finish what he begins?”
“You will be. You will be.”
[Dagobah, to Luke]
“Yes, run! Yes! A Jedi’s strength flows through the Force. But beware of the Dark Side: anger, fear, aggression—the Dark Side of the Force are they. Easily they flow, quick to join you in a fight. If once you start down the dark path, forever will it dominate your destiny, consume you it will, as it did Obi-Wan’s apprentice.”
“No, no. No. Quicker, easier, more seductive.”
“You will know when you are calm, at peace, passive. A Jedi uses the Force for knowledge and defense, never for attack.”
“No, no. There is no why. Nothing more will I teach you today. Clear your mind of questions.”
“That place is strong with the Dark Side of the Force. A domain of evil it is. In you must go.”
“Only what you take with you. Your weapons, you will not need them.”
[Same, but later]
“Use the Force, yes. Now, the stone. Feel it. ConcentraAAAATE!”
“So certain are you. Always with you it cannot be done. Hear you nothing that I say?”
“No! No different! Only different in your mind. You must unlearn what you have learned.”
“No! Try not. Do. Or do not. There is no try.”
“Size matters not. Look at me. Judge me by my size, do you? Hmm? And well you should not, for my ally is the Force. And a powerful ally it is. Life creates it, makes it grow. Its energy surrounds us and binds us. Luminous beings are we, not this crude matter. You must feel the Force around you—here, between you, me, the tree, the rock, everywhere! Yes, even between the land and the ship.”
“That is why you fail.”
[Same, but later]
“Concentrate. Feel the Force flow. Yes. Good. Calm. Yes. Through the Force, things you will see. Other place. The future. The past. Old friends long gone.”
“Control, control, you must learn control!”
“Friends you have there.”
“It is the future you see.”
“Difficult to see. Always in motion is the future.”
“Decide you must how to serve them best. If you leave now, help them you could, but you would destroy all for which they have fought and suffered.”
[Same, but later]
“Luke, you must complete the training.”
“You must not go.”
“Yes! Yes! To Obi-Wan you listen. The cave. Remember your failure at the cave!”
“Stopped they must be. On this all depends. Only a fully trained Jedi Knight, with the Force as his ally, will conquer Vader and his emperor. If you end your training now, if you choose the quick and easy path, as Vader did, you will become an agent of evil.”
“If you honor what they fight for, yes.”
“Strong is Vader. Mind what you have learned. Save you it can.”
“Told you I did. Reckless is he. Now, matters are worse.”
“No. There is another.”
Return of the Jedi
[Hut, to Luke]
“That face you make. Look I so old to young eyes?”
“I do. Yes I do. Sick have I become. Old and weak. When nine-hundred years old you reach, look as good you will not, hmm? Soon will I rest. Yes. Forever sleep. Earned it I have.”
“Strong am I with the Force, but not that strong. Twilight is upon me, and soon night must fall. That is the way of things, the way of the Force.”
“No more training do you require. Already know you that which you need.”
“Not yet. One thing remains: Vader. You must confront Vader. Then, only then, a Jedi will you be. And confront him you will.”
“Rest I need. Yes. Rest.”
“Your father he is. Told you did he?”
“Unexpected this is. And unfortunate.”
“No. Unfortunate that you rushed to face him, that incomplete was your training, that not ready for the burden were you.”
“Remember a Jedi’s strength flows from the Force. But beware anger, fear, aggression, the dark side are they. Once you start down the dark path, forever will it dominate your destiny. Luke. Luke. Do not…do not underestimate the powers of the emperor, or suffer your father’s fate you will. Luke. When gone am I, the last of the Jedi will you be. Luke. The Force runs strong in your family. Pass on what you have learned. Luke. There is…another…Skywalker.”
The Force Awakens
[Rey’s vision, line lifted from Empire]
“Its energy…surrounds us and binds us…”
The Last Jedi
“Young Skywalker.”
“Ah, Skywalker. Missed you have I.”
“Time it is for you to look past a pile of old books.”
“Read them have you? Page turners they were not. Yes, yes, yes. Wisdom they held. But that library contained nothing that the girl Rey does not already possess. Skywalker, still looking to the horizon. Never here, now. Hmm? The need in front of your nose.”
“Lost Ben Solo you did. Lose Rey we must not.”
“Heeded my words not, did you? Pass on what you have learned. Strength, mastery. But weakness, folly, failure also. Yes, failure most of all. The greatest teacher, failure is. Luke, we are what they grow beyond. That is the true burden of all masters.”
Rise of Skywalker
[Rey’s vision]
“No, alone never have you been.”
“Rise in the Force.”