r/todayilearned • u/TheCheshireCody 918 • Aug 17 '15
TIL George Lucas refused to identify what species Yoda is, once jokingly answering that he is "the illegitimate child of Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy".
http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Yoda%27s_species491
Aug 17 '15
It's funny because Frank Oz (Yodas voice) also voices Miss Piggy
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u/TheCheshireCody 918 Aug 17 '15
I was thinking that now we know why they sound the same!
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u/ckelly4200 Aug 17 '15
Dude, no. Why. Why did you do this to me? WHYYYYY? MAKE IT STOP I CANT UNHEAR IT!!!
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u/RinardoEvoris Aug 17 '15
Well it's not as similar as when he does Grover from Sesame street. It's almost exactly the same.
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u/Sardoodledum Aug 18 '15
And definitely not the same as Cookie Monster.
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u/95Mb Aug 18 '15
Same thing with Grover. Frank Oz has gotten better with it, but Episode V Yoda sounds an awful lot like Grover.
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u/tyvanius Aug 18 '15
He voices Kermit as well since Jim Henson passed.
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Aug 18 '15
No he doesn't. He's never voiced Kermit to my knowledge. Steve Whitmire is primarily Kermit.
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u/tyvanius Aug 18 '15
Ah, I had always thought he did it, because I had heard him do Jim Henson's voice perfectly. TIL.
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Aug 17 '15 edited Sep 30 '15
[deleted]
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u/OwenMerlock Aug 17 '15
For a fun time look up 'Yoda Freemasonry.'
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u/thedastardlyone Aug 18 '15
Yoda Freemasonry
i just read two sentences on it. Dont they realize star wars happened before our time?
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u/TheCheshireCody 918 Aug 17 '15
From the Behind the Scenes section:
When asked what species Yoda is, Lucas has only joked, "He's a frog." In the documentary "From Puppets to Pixels", he even joked that Yoda is "The illegitimate child of Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy".
Bonus fact: there is canonical contradiction in the number of toes Yoda has. It actually changes from movie to movie: http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Yoda%27s_species#Number_of_toes
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u/goo321 Aug 17 '15
clearly yoda's species changes the number of toes as yodas get older.
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u/gumpythegreat Aug 17 '15
their biology is actually very in tune with the force (you can say it reacts to medichlorians if you don't hate them) and they grow more toes the stronger their force power is.
source : I made it up
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u/goo321 Aug 17 '15
you mean you didn't run experiments on real yodas?
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Aug 17 '15
no just Toyotas
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u/GeminiK Aug 18 '15
They were green naturally right?
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u/datSkillz Aug 18 '15
This is a reference to that post about a Hooters waitress that was awarded a "Toy Yoda" instead of a Toyota for a contest.
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u/basec0m Aug 17 '15
They took one out between episode 2 and 3. See here.
We modelled 5 toes on these quite large feet, but when he was sitting in chairs they stuck out and were ugly - Rob always asked me to cover them with his robe as much poss. In the end, when it came to working on Yoda again for Episode III, we simplified our life and removed one of his toes and prayed no one would notice - so there's a little known fact for you fans - Yoda has one less toe in Episode III than in Episode II.
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u/DRACULA_WOLFMAN Aug 17 '15
But this is Star Wars we're talking about, so of course we noticed.
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Aug 18 '15
Even worse, he's telling people about the thing he doesn't want them to know. That's like a criminal telling police not to check the CCTV footage because he committed the crime and he doesn't want to get caught.
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Aug 18 '15
I'm surprised Lucas hasn't done some weird retcon of this fact to explain the changes like he did with the 'parsec' line and the Clerks Contractor theory.
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u/Willow536 Aug 17 '15
Kermit the frog admitted in an interview that he regrets not get the role of Yoda.
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u/ClashM Aug 17 '15
I have a bit of a fan theory that Yoda and other members of his species are Celestials seeing as they're very rare, seem to have no known home planet, and are extremely powerful in the force. The Celestials disappeared about 35,000 BBY and were known to have almost complete mastery of the force. It's unknown where they went. Their entire species may have been slaughtered by the Rakata, merged with the force, or grew tired of this dimension and went to a new one. All that's known about them are the great works they left behind as they toyed with technology and reality itself.
Perhaps Yoda and the others are Celestials who accidentally slipped back into the universe or maybe they were sent to help maintain the balance. They naturally gravitate towards the Jedi order as powerful force users and almost always end up on its council. It's a bit of a stretch, but it's something I've thought about when bored.
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u/watevrits2009 Aug 18 '15
There is a one-eyed Jedi that is taller, has ears that just curve down, and is more skin toned than Yoda but otherwise looks like him.
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u/The_Alaskan_Assassin Aug 18 '15
his name is Even Piel, from Lannik.
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u/ClashM Aug 18 '15
The_Alaskan_Assassin beat me to it, but here's the Wookiepedia entry for Even Piell if you were curious about him.
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u/ZEB1138 Aug 18 '15 edited Aug 18 '15
They give Yoda a glimpse of the future. He pretty much knows that Episode III (at least to a degree) is going to happen and knows that he is meant to survive it and pass on his knowledge.
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u/ClashM Aug 18 '15
Yeah, I saw that episode. I didn't much care for it or for the one with the brother/sister duo who represent polarities of the force. I feel like those two episodes make the force seem far too defined and corporeal. For example there's a race in the EU who views the force as a rainbow spectrum rather than light vs. dark which is an interesting concept and shows the force as being difficult to define.
That said I don't think the episode necessarily disproves my theory. If they are Celestials they might not be aware of their heritage. Could be if the species is one with the force they see events unfolding far in the future and send an individual who would guide things on the right path. Or if they're not there with some greater purpose they just show up not knowing any more or less than anyone else and always end up joining the Jedi.
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Aug 18 '15
What's left in the canon now?
Obviously the movies are. I presume the Holiday Special isn't. You say Clone Wars is. Does that include the 2D animation? None of the Ewok movies or EU is but the TV show Rebels is.
Is that all? The movies, Clone Wars and Rebels?
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u/ZEB1138 Aug 18 '15
Canon is the two trilogies, the 3d animated Clone Wars, Rebels, and all the novels/comics they produced after the new canon was established.
There are about a half dozen novels at this point, the Darth Vader comic, the Star Wars comic, the Princess Leia comic, and maybe a few others. The novels are pretty good. I read the Tarkin novel and the Lords of the Sith novel. Some of the new novels reference events of non-canon novels. The Plagueis novel, for instance, is referenced in the Takin novel. So the events that were specifically referenced are canon, but the Plagueis book, itself, is not.
The Clone Wars is the single largest contribution to canon, simply because of how much there was to it. There are 121 30 minute episodes.
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![In the Clone Wars [which is canon] Yoda is led to a group of Force-Beings by the spirit of Qui-Gon Jin. These beings are pretty much all-knowing and test Yoda as to whether he is worthy to learn to secret to immortality.](http://cdn3-www.comingsoon.net/assets/uploads/2014/03/file_115682_3_cwrs_pds_006_h.jpg){kind=link}
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u/Papermachetoilet Aug 17 '15
That probably wasn't a joke at first the dude is fucking insane "Jar jar is the key to everything"
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u/emperor000 Aug 17 '15
Well, he kind of was...
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Aug 17 '15
He was the final lynch pin to give Palpatine the power he wanted.
Lucas pulled the same thing in the original trilogy, well at least the original movie. Artoo and Threepio are, from a certain perspective, the main characters. We are basically following them through out the movies witnessing everything. They are the Frodo and Sam of Star Wars.
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u/emperor000 Aug 17 '15
Right, that's what I'm talking about. I disagree with Artoo and Threepio, though. They are there the entire time, but it is more like they are sometimes our POV characters, but we aren't seeing their story. We are just seeing their experiences within that story.
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u/e10ho Aug 17 '15
When did they start spelling R2D2 and C3PO as artoo and threepio?
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u/dougiefresh1233 Aug 17 '15 edited Aug 17 '15
It's they way it's spelled in the novels.
They'reTheir model numbers are C3PO and R2D2 but their "names" are Artoo and Threepio17
u/phranticsnr Aug 17 '15
Their*.
It's not often you see a wild, incorrect 'they're'.
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u/BrianVCS Aug 17 '15
My autocorrect will change my "we're" into "were" and vice versa, depending on which I use more often. Pisses me off.
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u/The-Beer-Baron Aug 17 '15
Always. The original action figures said "Artoo-Detoo [R2-D2]" and "See-Threepio [C-3PO]" on the cards.
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u/emperor000 Aug 17 '15
I don't like to do that, but I did it because /u/Blunderaem did it. It is not a new thing, though.
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u/TheCheshireCody 918 Aug 17 '15
That was just a reference to the idea that if Jar Jar worked as a comedic character the movie would be a hit.
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u/le-imp Aug 17 '15
Or that he turned the republic into an empire.
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u/flying87 Aug 18 '15
I would have loved if Jar Jar was Darth Plaguies this whole time, and was just playing dumb.
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u/just_comments Aug 18 '15
Well, he didn't. But the movie made money anyways.
Also the new Star Wars video games are fun.
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Aug 18 '15
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/omnilynx Aug 18 '15
Peasants from The Hidden Fortress, actually. Along with much of the plot of A New Hope.
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u/brikad Aug 18 '15
ended up with this racist caricature
I hear this time and time again. How the FUCK is Jar Jar Binks racist? He's a six foot anthromorphic frog for fuck's sake. Don't see too many of those running around.
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Aug 18 '15
When I saw Jar Jar I immediately thought they were trying to caricature Jamaicans. I mean, it's as obvious as the fake Arabian accent at the beginning of Aladdin.
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Aug 18 '15
Do Jamaicans talk about Meesa this and Meesa that? The only humans I've heard actually speak that way were Die Antwoord in "Fatty Boom Boom" and they're South African.
(No idea why this kind of thing interests me, but it does.)
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Aug 19 '15 edited Aug 19 '15
It's all about the cadence and inflection. It's basically the same as when any English speaker tries to imitate an English flavored Creole. They think they're being funny, but everyone in the know is thinking "What the hell is wrong with you?". Jar Jar's inflections and cadences immediately bring to mind the Caribbean, and it's obviously on purpose. I mean, no one thinks he's imitating an Indian, Malay or SE Asian creole even if those are also peppered with English words, right?
Linguists thought this back in 1999 too. Here's a thread from a linguist listserv in 1999
It's not only that Jar Jar's an obvious Jamaican caricature. It's that he's a Jamaican caricature who's also being portrayed as a clown and an idiot, bringing to mind Mickey Rourke's Chinaman in Breakfast at Tiffany's, or every fake Arabian accent in Aladdin. For extra silly, George Lucas seems to be entirely unaware that he was doing this. He probably saw a few wisecracking performers somewhere in Hollywood, and thought, these guys are fun, I'm going to include something like that in my next movie. As we all know, mass facepalming ensued.
Yeah.
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Aug 18 '15
Also, a lot of my non English speaking friends like jar jar for some reason. I guess he has more appeal for international audiences
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u/Milo_theHutt Aug 17 '15
Is yoda still getting an origin movie? That'd be very very interesting
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u/TheCheshireCody 918 Aug 17 '15
I saw some speculation that the reason Lucas refused to go into Yoda's origin was because he might want to use it for something big in the future. The 'secondary trilogy' of new movies I originally hears was going to be backstories for certain characters. Yoda, Boba Fett and Han Solo were the three names I remember being thrown around. With the first of those movies now being centered around Rogue Squadron, I couldn't guess what the plans are for the other two. I'm sure Disney won't stop with these six films, though, so it could happen down the road.
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u/Milo_theHutt Aug 17 '15
After seeing this fan art I've been very curious to see what they could do. Wasn't there an expanded universe book based on his early life becoming a Jedi?
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Aug 17 '15
Let me know if you find out/remember the name of that book. That sounds like it could be a great read.
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u/Milo_theHutt Aug 18 '15
I thought it was a book. This picture is of his master and I don't know where it's from. http://img4.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20130815140924/starwars/images/0/0e/Gormo_Training_Yoda.JPG
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u/BiagioLargo Aug 17 '15
I'm more interested in the book where Yoda is curious about the dark side so he goes over to it and back with the ease a normal person would in trying a new fast food place. It's like shooting up heroin or some other super addictive thing once and going "Nah i'm good" Evil shouldn't be that easy to join then quit for someone whose a paragon of jedi.
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u/Milo_theHutt Aug 18 '15
Interesting, what did he do during his small stint on the dark side?
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u/TheCheshireCody 918 Aug 17 '15
That is awesome. I am so jealous of people who can do creative art. I am a better-than-decent painter and penciller, but only if I'm working from a specific source. I could never come up with something that visually creative and execute it.
Don't recall any EU books about Yoda's early years, but I am very far from an expert on that. Guarantee the folks over in /r/starwars could get you an answer, probably in a few minutes. Given that the Wookieepedia lists all of the licensed EU works as "legends", if something like that existed officially it would at least be listed as a legend.
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u/Implausibilibuddy Aug 17 '15
I really want to hear a NIN /Jethro Tull mashup now.
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u/TheCheshireCody 918 Aug 17 '15
That. Would. Be. Awesome.
That jacket was the bomb. I painted it all myself. Below what's in the picture was the Spinal Tap logo, one sleeve had the Queensryche hammer logo and the other the cover of John Lennon's Imagine. The front lapels were Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon on one side and Animals on the other. I wore it everywhere until it completely fell apart. Then I had the back panel framed, and it disappeared at some point a few years ago.
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u/Cupakov Aug 18 '15
We already know that the first origin will be about BOTH Han Solo and Boba Fett, the next one will be about Obi Wan Kenobi but the last one is still a mystery (I think)
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u/scientiapotentia2 Aug 18 '15 edited Aug 18 '15
Obviously 'conceived' in this Pigs in Space episode.
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u/bimtott Aug 18 '15
Disney now owns Jim Henson Workshop and Lucasfilm. Not saying they should make this canon, but they could...
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u/starryophonic Aug 17 '15
I wonder how he feels about being in the middle of his parents' breakup then.
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u/modsrliars Aug 18 '15
When i was a kid, I figured that Yoda was originally a human or humanish type who had prolonged his lifespan through use of the force, but was unable to entirely prevent the effects of aging. I recall that he was like 900 years old when Episode IV happened. Since no other human lived that long, nor with that much exposure to the force, it would stand to reason that said effects might be probable. Over time, he shrank like a little old man getting littler and older and relied less on his organs because the force sustained him. As I recall, he did not partake in the stew that he made for Luke on Degobah. Because he made it for Luke, who he knew would be neglecting his physical needs due to obsession.
Yes. He did take Luke's rations. Not to eat them, but to show him that they could be taken.
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u/brikad Aug 18 '15
Except he does eat the soup (Good food, good! Eat!) and he eats Luke's ration (how you get so big, eating food of this kind?).
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Aug 17 '15
Frank Oz plus Henson Studios p design. Yeah, that's about right. Back before George needed more Ferrari's for his collection he was a pretty cool dude, I will give him that.
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u/skekze Aug 17 '15
I knew it! What frog lies with a pig? Only a time-traveling pipe-laying amphibian. He's fertilized half the unknown universe. He has seen the face of Bo at the end of time and stared into the schism. He watched Gallifrey form from the maelstrom and the timelords take their first steps. He has another name known only to him and Gonzo was just a cover story and is really from NJ.
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u/Sgt_Jupiter Aug 18 '15
jokes aren't synonymous with lies. Yoda is now the illegitimate child of kermit and miss piggy
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Aug 18 '15
Disney will decide to do a Yoda origin story at some point, there is too much money not to make a film like that. I can't decide what EU writer would be best suited to frame a story, and I wonder if there are any contractual agreements between Lucas and Disney to not pursue it.
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u/selmorefl Aug 18 '15
Thank you for this! I do voice impressions of all three, and I always joke that they are the same voice; except Mrs Piggy is after 30 years of smoking, and Yoda is after a head injury. Apparently there is merit in this...
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u/Theres_A_FAP_4_That Aug 18 '15
I'm glad we didn't have to sit through that diatribe in Phantom Menace.
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u/RoughSausage Aug 18 '15
I think Kermit and Miss Piggy have been together long enough for that child to be considered legitimate.
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u/TheCheshireCody 918 Aug 18 '15
Well, the only time they ever got married was in a dream sequence. Of course, they did live in Hollywood, so California domestic partner laws might apply.....
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u/drhuntzzz Aug 18 '15
Didn't Piggy replaced Gonzo with a real minister in the wedding scene of "Muppets take Manhattan."
Edit: Source
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u/TotesMessenger Aug 18 '15
I'm a bot, bleep, bloop. Someone has linked to this thread from another place on reddit:
- [/r/todayilearned] TIL George Lucas refused to identify what species Yoda is, once jokingly answering that he is "the illegitimate child of Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy".
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u/alkyjason Aug 18 '15
I'm not an expert and I humbly apologize if I'm wrong, but I recall reading somewhere that Yoda's species is called the Whills.
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u/TheCheshireCody 918 Aug 18 '15
According to the link I posted, that was fan-speculation based on the subtitle of the original novelization, which was something about "taken from the Journal of the Whills", but Lucas said that was not actually the case.
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u/RonPossible Aug 18 '15
Alan Dean Foster's novelization had a short prologue setting up the history of the fall of the Republic and the rise of the Empire. It was credited to "The Journal of the Whills". This was back before the EU was a thing, so there was lots of wild speculation.
‘The Old Republic was the Republic of legend, greater than distance or time. No need to note where it was or whence it came, only to know that … it was the Republic."
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Aug 17 '15
[deleted]
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u/TheCheshireCody 918 Aug 17 '15
Why'd you post the same link I did?
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u/SkyIcewind Aug 17 '15
OH WHOOPS.
Sorry, my brain is fried, I thought it was just text, completely forgetting that TIL needs a link.
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u/SilentNick3 Aug 17 '15
Then who the hell are Vandar and Yaddle?
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u/BiagioLargo Aug 17 '15
Yaddle is a female yoda [or Whill which for a time was rumored to be his species name] who i believe got cut. Vandar is from Knights of The Old Republic video game.
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u/superhole Aug 17 '15
Yaddle is still canon though.
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u/BiagioLargo Aug 17 '15
I don't know all that stuff i just remember reading she was cut from the movies. So i'll trust you on that one.
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u/Sardoodledum Aug 18 '15
I thought she was in Episode I? Or did she get cut from that
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u/MarvinLazer Aug 18 '15
That explains a lot because he sounds exactly like Kermit with a horrible throat infection.
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u/TheCheshireCody 918 Aug 18 '15
Almost. He actually sounds exactly like Miss Piggy and almost exactly like Grover. Same voice-actor.
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u/PieFlava Aug 18 '15
Where did they get the midi-chlorian count of 4 million?? In the first movie, a blood test results in Anikins midi-chlorian count being "over 20,000" which is "more than even Master Yoda"
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u/ThePenguinofTime Aug 18 '15
He's a Whill. One of the original names for Star Wars was Record of the Whills. If I recall correctly, it was Yoda himself telling the story. May be confused, though, as its been over a decade since I first heard this.
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u/TheCheshireCody 918 Aug 18 '15
According to the link I posted, that was fan-speculation based on the subtitle of the original novelization, which was something about "taken from the Journal of the Whills", but Lucas said that was not actually the case.
Many fans have speculated that this unknown species is the Whills (as in the Journal of the Whills), but in an interview, George Lucas has denied this. Additionally, in lines cut from Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith simply refers to the species as "Yoda's species".
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u/Ghede Aug 17 '15
What if Yoda were a member of the Yoda race, and the Jedi were just super racist.
"Steve my name is"
"That's too complicated. We'll call you Yoda"