Any self-respecting Star Wars fan remembers dressing up as their favorite character for Halloween year after year. Many were Luke Skywalker dressed in flowing white robes, some were Darth Vader with his badass red lightsaber, a few creative kids were even R2-D2 in a cardboard box covered in buttons. But if we’re being totally honest with ourselves, how many of us were Yoda for Halloween? How many of us remember playing pretend and copying the weird little froggy green guy? Sure, imitated his speech we might have, but we never really wished we were him.
That’s unfair, not only because Yoda is one of the coolest characters in Star Wars, but because Yoda is one of the coolest characters in any movie ever made. He’s an icon of wisdom and he’s pivotal to the plot of the most recognizable film franchise ever created. And on top of that, Yoda can pretty much do anything. So for those of us who may have at one time thought he was just some old green frog guy, it’s time to set the record straight and find out all the crazy cool things that Yoda can do. Here’s 15 Powers You Didn’t Know Yoda Had.
15. Deflect Force Lightning
There’s no doubt that Force Lightning is one of the coolest powers in the Star Wars universe. Not only does it look cool, but its damage capabilities far exceed those of most other Force-related powers. So you can imagine the shocked look on an opponent’s face when they throw some Force Lightning at Yoda and he deflects it right back at them; with his bare hands.
Stemming from his mastery of the Force, Yoda’s ability to deflect Force Lightning helps keep him protected even when he is without his lightsaber. Although this power was on full display during Yoda’s fight with Count Dooku in Episode II, the details of the power are still shrouded in a little bit of mystery. While we know that Yoda’s powers enable him to channel the electrical energy into his body through his fingertips and shoot it back out, what we’re left assuming – based on how infrequently it’s been seen in Star Wars material – is that this is an ability so rare that Yoda is one of the only Jedi to know how to accomplish the feat.
14. Strategic Mastery
Using the Force is all well and good, but there’s something inherently impressive about outwitting your opponents on the battlefield. Even more impressive is tactical outwitting, otherwise known as strategy. So although Yoda could drop any enemy he wanted with a swish of his hand and a little use of the Force, one of his most impressive powers is actually his mastery of strategy and his ability to play the game of war better than anyone else.
Though he’s displayed this power time and time again in battle and in life, Yoda’s strategic mastery is still a thing of amazement to behold. Whether he’s foreseeing his opponents probable moves and coming up with a counter plan or simply managing an army of Jedi with skill and intelligence, Yoda’s power of strategy is one that has saved countless lives and taught the dark side a valuable lesson: don’t mess with the little green guy.
13. Acting Skills
When you look like Yoda does it’s fair to assume that you often get underestimated. But when you’re as smart as Yoda is it’s fair to assume that you can use that underestimation to your advantage. And that’s exactly what Grand Master Yoda did the first time he met Luke Skywalker.
Never one to let a tactical advantage slip through his fingers, Yoda used his acting skills to fool Luke into thinking he was an incredibly annoying, insane, and outright useless swamp creature. This led to Luke finding him obnoxious, but ultimately it proved to Yoda that Luke had the right temperament for his training. By simply dealing with Yoda’s fake annoying persona and not flipping out or shunning him entirely, Luke showcased a Jedi’s ability to tune out the unimportant noise and focus on what matters. And Yoda showcased his ability to be an expert actor that can utilize his skills in a number of useful ways.
12. Indomitable Will
All great heroes have Indomitable Will included in a breakdown of their most essential powers. While it may not get the limelight as super-strength or bulletproof skin does, it’s still an important part of what makes our heroes who they are. Captain America, Green Lantern, Spider-Man, Thor; they all have unbreakable wills that help them resist the temptation of evil. And so does Yoda.
Although Yoda himself has said, “I carry a darkness within me,” it’s understood that he has rejected the call to the dark side time and time again. With his unbreakable will, one of Yoda’s powers is that he is unable to be corrupted by the dark side no matter what. This power was on full display in the Clone Wars when Yoda joined the dark side in order to discover what drew Dooku to it, and then when he came back to the light side without a single ounce of temptation in his tiny green body.
11. Battle Meditation
One of the more inventive powers on this list, it seems strange that Yoda’s abilities in Battle Meditation would be hidden among the more obscure stories in the Star Wars Universe. While it’s understandable that levitating aircraft using the Force would get more screen-time in the films, it’s still not right that this awesome power doesn’t get at least a cursory explanation if only so that more people will know about it.
Battle Meditation – at least when Yoda does it – is a very involved power that has limitless potential. Used in - you guessed it - battle, this power gives Yoda the ability to fill the spirits of those fighting on his side with hope and ideas of success. Simultaneously, it allows Yoda to crush the wills of those that oppose him thus giving them no strong reason to carry on fighting. The one-two punch of this power is something that’s extraordinarily cool and would look good in the arsenal of any superhero who’s ever had to fight a large scale battle with little more than strength and something lame like the power of flight.
10. Sensing Death
This is a tricky power shrouded in mystery and left largely unexplained in even the most detailed Star Wars materials. Still, it’s a worthy addition to Yoda’s powers and it makes perfect sense when considering his mastery of the Force. All told, Yoda’s ability to sense death may not be flashy or well-known, but what do know about it still makes it stand out enough to be a worthy entry on this list.
What we know about this power is that, using Force Light, Yoda is able to actually feel the deaths of various people throughout the universe. With this deep sense of empathy he is able to identify these people and connect with them in meaningful ways. So while this power may not be something essential to winning a battle or crushing an opponent with a lightsaber, it may very well be Yoda’s ability to sense death throughout the universe that makes him the sensitive and wise master that he is. And that’s a very big deal.
9. Force-Aided Acrobatics
If there’s a recurring theme on this list – and thus of Yoda’s career as a Grand Master – it’s “who would have thought this old frog guy could do that?” So while we’ve focused on powers involving Yoda’s superior mind and his use of the Force, some of his more impressive unknown powers come from his physical abilities. And one of those is his unparalleled skills in acrobatics.
Sure, if we’re splitting hairs we could argue that Yoda kinda cheats by using the Force here, but then again doesn’t every hero cheat by having their physical skills augmented with some experiment gone wrong or another? With Yoda’s force-aided acrobatics, Yoda is able to jump, flip, and spin through the air and land himself with pinpoint precision. Able to dodge lightsaber attacks and pretty much do anything a karate master could do, Yoda’s physical skills are something to be admired and feared, because if you’re on the wrong side of an incoming aerial-attack from Yoda it may be time to re-evaluate your life decisions.
8. Force Shockwave
We’ve talked about Yoda’s ability to deflect Force lightning earlier in this list, and while that’s one of the best defenses that any Jedi could have, it’s not exactly the most powerful offense. That’s where Force Shockwave comes in, a power of Yoda’s that enables him to zap anything he chooses in one of the most destructive ways imaginable.
Similar to Darth Vader’s abilities of Force Lightning but oh so different, Yoda is able to create an incredibly powerful wave of energy that he can blast out of his body and into anyone who dares challenge him. When the shockwave is sent out, the energy released has the power to destroy anything in its radius. What’s more, the radius of the shockwave seems to have no upper limit, and if Yoda really wanted – and had enough power – he could cause enough destruction in the universe so that no one would ever cross him again.
7. Remote Jedi Communication
When you know how to use the Force as well as Yoda does, it’s conceivable that no challenge is too great for you to handle. So when the challenge of speaking to his fellow Jedi arises when he’s physically isolated on Dagobah, Yoda pulls out yet another Force-induced power that every other Force user doesn’t simply have lying around in wait. The power is the ability to communicate remotely with other Jedi, and it’s something that Yoda is able to count on to get him out of trouble; and to keep other Jedi out of trouble as well.
Along with the power comes Yoda’s ability to track other Jedi using the Force and find out which ones are taking their Jedi duties seriously. Able to contact them telepathically no matter where they are in the universe, Yoda is the Grand Master equivalent of the teacher that sees everything you do. Except Yoda’s cool and he uses his power to save the galaxy rather than hand out detentions
6. Precognition
To the uninitiated precognition is a very cool power stemming from the Force that grants limitless potential to those that wield it. By seeing the future you can avoid and change all sorts of outcomes, and thus it can be argued that you have the ultimate power. However, to the initiated – at least in the Star Wars context – precognition is just another boring old power that any Force user has, and therefore how dare we include it in a list of Powers You Didn’t Know Yoda Has!?
Well, it’s included here because what many don’t know is just how extensive Yoda’s precognition powers are. While many who have Force visions are beholden to them coming randomly and without warning, Yoda’s precognition comes when he wants it to. Controllable and thus infinitely more useful, Yoda’s ability to see prophecies helped him see his own death as well as the Jedi loss in the Clone Wars, however, it was also his understanding that the future was not set in stone that helped him overcome these challenges and use his power of precognition to its full advantage.
5. Diplomatic Expert
To create a superhero you must ensure that your hero has superpowers that ensure they can destroy anyone, as well as superpowers that ensure no one can destroy them. Throw in some powers regarding transportation (flight, web-slinging, silver-surfing, etc.) and some personality and you have yourselves a hero. And while many of our greatest heroes are either rich, intelligent, or both, what’s often overlooked is the power of diplomacy; that is, being able to avoid a catastrophe rather than being able to save the world from one that’s already in progress.
Enter Yoda, a master in strategic planning and someone who has helped save the universe countless times without flashy interventions in alien-infested cities. Having helped the Jedi cause with numerous contributions to strategy at the highest level, Yoda is considered one of the universe’s best diplomats; he’s even been compared favourable to Windu in that regard. With the temperament to realize that sometimes the best won wars are the ones that don’t need to be fought, it’s Yoda’s diplomatic powers that compliment his physical ones and help him rise to the occasion and be one of the greatest heroes the galaxy has ever seen.
4. (Technically) Immortal
So, immortality is a tricky thing in the Star Wars universe. While there don’t seem to be any ridiculous Heroes-level powers regarding erasing death and brining on resurrection, there are a few ways that someone can technically outmaneuver death and survive long after they were meant to die. And that’s where this next power of Yoda’s comes in.
The ability to “cheat” death isn’t exactly that, but after Yoda’s death he was kept alive by maintaining his own consciousness even after his physical body perished. A power learned from Master Qui-Gon Jinn and eventually passed down from Yoda to Obi-Wan, Yoda is able to retain his identity and carry on living for eternity. So while this power may or may not just be a technicality, it’s safe to assume that it still counts. After all, when Yoda died he vanished, and then reappeared; and now he can’t be killed. We’ll go ahead and call that the power of immortality.
3. Mad Rap Skills
We’re now approaching the territory of "Powers You Didn’t Know Yoda Has And Couldn’t Possibly Understand Why He Has Them." So while acrobatics and Force Shockwaves and Precognition make perfect sense for a Grand Master, then why exactly is it necessary that Yoda should have the ability to rap? We have no idea either, but it’s still worth mentioning in this list, if only because he’s so good at rapping that it has to be considered a power.
Here’s the deal; when the Star Wars prequels were being released on home video, DVD was only taking its first little baby steps. And those steps included packing every single DVD with all the extras it could fit, including Easter eggs. One of these Easter eggs on the Revenge of the Sith DVD involved entering 1138 on your remote while selecting the THX symbol. From there, a video of Yoda appeared. On the video, Yoda rapped his little heart out and even breakdanced to the tune of The Roots’ “Don’t Day Nuthin.” It’s insane stuff that only in our wildest dreams would be considered cannon, but that doesn’t make it any less spectacular. Nor does his finale line in the video, when Yoda falls on the ground and says “That voice, hard on my throat it is.”
So there you go.
2. Lightsaber Impale
For a weapon as cool as the lightsaber, we don’t seem to see very many cool things done with it. Sure, there’s the overplayed trying to hit a combatant but repeatedly just hitting lightsabers together move, but what else is there? As we learned from Darth Vader’s unknown powers there’s the lightsaber boomerang, but Yoda can’t do that. Instead, what Yoda can do is way cooler, way more horrific, and a thousand times more badass.
As it turns out, Yoda is able to impale someone with his lightsaber, which is something so underrated and undiscussed among Star Wars fans that it leaves us scratching our heads in amazement. The act itself – called shiak – is something considered honorable by Jedi; despite how brutal it may seem. The move, something that very few aside from Yoda seem to be able to do, is something that brings instant and assured death to the victim, and thus it is one of the coolest and underappreciated powers that Yoda has at his disposal.
1. Toe Growing
Bear with us for a moment as we try to explain why Yoda’s little-known ability to grow an extra toe is actually something that should be considered a worthy power. You see, Yoda – fictional as he may be – is a creature rendered with such care and precision by Lucasfilm and The Jim Henson Company that you would assume he has remained anatomically consistent throughout all Star Wars media. Of course, considering the title of this final entry on the list, you’d be wrong.
As it turns out Yoda can’t seem to find any consistency when it comes to the number of toes that he is portrayed as having. Within the Star Wars films, as well as other material such as the Clone Wars cartoons and various comic books, Yoda ranges from having three toes to four toes. So while this may just be a mistake on the part of Yoda’s creators, when analyzing Yoda’s curious feet it actually turns out that his toes chronologically grew from three to four as time went on. Thus it’s reasonable to assume that this is actually a power that Yoda possesses; as he ages he grows more toes.
Although we have theories on why this may be necessary for him, after reviewing this list and seeing all the things that Yoda can accomplish, we’ve decided not to doubt him, underestimate him, or infer why having more toes may be an incredibly useful power. All we can do is sit back and be sure that Yoda’s ability to grow more toes is in fact something extremely useful that will one day be shown off in the coolest way imaginable.
We’re counting on you, Yoda.
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Which of these powers were you most surprised to find out about? Any powers we missed are there? In the comments, let us know!