Yoda

Over eight centuries old, Yoda leads the Jedi Council on Coruscant. Testing young Anakin Skywalker, he senses too much fear in the boy and votes against training him. After Qui-Gon's death on Naboo, he gives in, raises Obi-Wan Kenobi to the rank of Knight and allows him to teach Anakin, though without conviction.

Ten years later, the Force is clouded and the Jedi can't see the enemy. Yoda goes to Kamino, finds the clone army ordered in the Republic's name and takes it to Geonosis to save the surrounded Jedi. There he faces his former apprentice, Count Dooku, in a duel where he shows for the first time the agility hidden in his frail body. Dooku escapes, and Yoda understands the war has begun.

During the war, Yoda commands troops and decides to give Anakin an apprentice, Ahsoka Tano, betting that the responsibility would help the Knight mature. On Rugosa, he takes on Asajj Ventress's droid army alone, with only a few clones.

Yoda starts hearing the voice of Qui-Gon, dead for years. Following that call, he travels in secret from the Council to a planet guarded by Force priestesses, where he goes through trials that put him face to face with his own shadow. Then he heads to Moraband, the ancient Sith world, and faces an illusion created by Sidious.

On this journey he learns the way to keep his consciousness after death, knowledge he later passes on to Obi-Wan. He comes back convinced the war is already lost in another way: the Jedi have become soldiers.

Yoda is on Kashyyyk alongside the Wookiees when the clones receive Order 66. He feels the Jedi dying through the Force and takes out the troopers trying to kill him. Back on Coruscant, he faces Darth Sidious in the Senate and can't defeat him. He admits failure, decides with Bail Organa and Obi-Wan to hide Anakin's twins and goes into isolation on Dagobah.

Before the exile, Yoda tells Obi-Wan that Qui-Gon found a way to keep existing after death and that he'll teach it to him. It's the link between the Clone Wars arc and Obi-Wan's appearances as a spirit in the original trilogy. On Dagobah, he spends the following decades alone, in a mud hut, waiting for the day one of the twins will be ready.

Even in hiding, Yoda speaks to the apprentice Ezra Bridger through the Force, inside the Jedi temple on Lothal. The first time, he helps the boy pass the temple's test. The second time, he admits the old Order's mistakes and points the way to Malachor.

Luke arrives on Dagobah looking for a great warrior and finds an annoying little creature rummaging through his stuff. Yoda tests the young man's patience before accepting him. He trains Luke's body and mind, lifts the X-wing out of the swamp with the Force and teaches that size matters not. He warns that leaving his training to save his friends is a risk, but he can't stop him. When Luke asks if the dark side is stronger, Yoda says no: it's just quicker and easier, and that's why it seduces.

When Luke returns, Yoda is sick and at the end of his life. He confirms Vader is Luke's father, tells him he'll only be a Jedi after facing Vader again and says there is another Skywalker. Then he dies and vanishes into the Force. After the victory on Endor, he appears as a spirit alongside Obi-Wan and Anakin.

Decades later, Yoda's spirit appears to a bitter Luke on Ahch-To. He calls down a bolt of lightning that sets fire to the tree where the Jedi texts were kept and reminds his former student that failure is the greatest teacher. In The Rise of Skywalker, his voice is among those of the Jedi who speak to Rey on Exegol.

Neither Yoda's species nor his home planet is revealed in canon. Marvel's Yoda comic series shows episodes from different stages of his long life as a Jedi.