George Lucas created the epic space opera franchise Star Wars, which takes place in a galaxy far, far away. As a result, the franchise is populated with several unique and interesting characters with their own traits. One of the most popular characters in the franchise is Master Yoda, who first appeared in 1980’s The Empire Strikes Back.
Over the years, Yoda has remained a beloved and revered figure among the fanbase with several aspects of his backstory still shrouded in mystery. The aspect of Yoda’s characterization that made him an instant hit, especially with children is his unique speech pattern which makes it seem like he is talking backwards. Here is why Lucas made this choice with Yoda’s speech pattern and why it works.
George Lucas had a practical reason for Yoda’s speech pattern in Star Wars
Master Yoda first appeared in the second installment of the original trilogy The Empire Strikes Back. The character is a Jedi Master in self-exile on plane Dagobah who serves as a mentor to the protagonist Luke Skywalker, played by Mark Hamill. The character was an instant hit with the fans primarily because of his speech pattern.
Over the years, Yoda has appeared in multiple Star Wars projects and is known for delivering some of the best dialogues in the franchise. As a result, it is safe to say that George Lucas hit the bullseye with Yoda’s speech pattern. However, the filmmaker had a more practical reason behind the choice.
He had a lot of dialogue. So, I had to come up with a language that was alien, but still understandable.
Lucas made the above statement in Paul Duncan’s book The Star Wars Archives (via Looper), explaining his choice to make Yoda talk backward in his first appearance.
The director explained that several speech patterns for the character were developed based on foreign languages. However, he did not want viewers to read subtitles since Yoda had a lot of dialogue. Instead, Lucas wanted the language to be alien but also make viewers focus on the boring, philosophical lessons the character passed on.
There could be a canon reason for Yoda’s speech pattern in Star Wars
Although much about Yoda’s species remains a mystery even after decades, it is important to note that the Jedi Master’s speech pattern isn’t unique to his alien species. Instead, Yaddle, a female Jedi of Yoda’s species is capable of speaking in a normal speech pattern.
In an interview with Nerdist, Dave Filoni recalled Yoda voice actor Frank Oz telling him about his backstory for why the character spoke differently. Filoni made the following comment about Yoda’s speech pattern being unique to the Jedi Master:
Frank Oz told me once that Yoda speaks that way specifically in honor of his own master.
Furthermore, the canon comic miniseries Star Wars: Yoda confirmed (via Giant Freakin Robot) that Yoda was capable of speaking in a normal speech pattern but chose to invert his verbs and subjects, presumably in honor of his master as Oz suggested.
The prequels established that Yoda was a key figure in training Jedi younglings, which plays into Lucas’ reasoning for the green alien to adopt a speech pattern that would make children listen to his lessons. Hence, all signs point to Yoda having a canon reason behind the way he speaks.
The Star Wars movies and TV shows are streaming on Disney+.
This post belongs to FandomWire and first appeared on FandomWire
