So I saw Star Wars Episode III, right?  Stop reading now if you haven’t seen it yet.

Anyway, it occurred to me that while Lucas was busy tying up loose ends, he left one dangling all over the floor, and it would have been terribly simple to have included it.  Ever since Episode I came out, I’ve been trying to figure out how Yoda can go from total badass to feeble old fart in the span of 17 years.  Up to this point I’ve just written it off by assuming that Yoda’s race just hits the wall extra hard when they reach it.  900 years of whoop-ass and then you trade in your light saber for a colostomy bag.

Well, that final lightning fight with Palpatine would have been the perfect excuse.  Hey, look what lightning did to Palpatine in the fight with Windu, and he was just PRETENDING to get the beat-down.  Yoda, on the other hand, truly got his little green heinie stomped.  But then he got up and crawled away.  Not an injured, dragging his limp, broken body away crawl, either.  This was a garden-variety "I’m gettin’ outta here" kind of crawl, and he would have been walking if he’d picked a larger escape route.  C’MON!  This was the chance to explain it.  Obviously SOME thought went into Yoda’s future or they wouldn’t have bothered with him talking about going into hiding.  All it would have taken was a shot of Jimmy Smitts picking Yoda up instead of just hovering there while he jumped into the car.

And furthermore, if the lightning fight had been in Lucas’ mind all along then he could have dispensed with the cane altogether for the forst two movies.  It always struck me as lame that Yoda walks with a cane until it’s time to fight.  You can say he’s hiding his prowess by pretending to be feeble to catch people off guard, and that may work on the random mugger in the alley, but even the StormTroopers figure it out when he throws the cane aside, ignites the saber and gives the "come get some" look.  The element of surprise is definitely lost by that point.

Blew that one, Lucas did, hmmm?
Other than that… Two thumbs up, Mel sez check it out.