Yoda And Obi-Wan Are Cowards
Yoda and Obi-Wan Kenobi might just be the biggest cowards in the entire Star Wars franchise. There, I said it. How else do you explain the fact that they hid in exile for almost twenty years, waiting for one kid to grow up enough to do their dirty work for them?
Leaning On The Order 66 Crutch
I don’t care how much new context Lucasfilm introduces into the canon—The Obi-Wan Kenobi Disney+ series, etc.—-the fact remains that the two most powerful Jedi in the universe twiddled their thumbs while the Galaxy fell deeper and deeper into despair. I know Yoda and Obi-Wan had to go into exile immediately following Order 66 and the Jedi purge, but surely, at some point over the next 18 years, things cooled down enough for them to do something about Palpatine. We’re talking about the most talented force-wielders in the galaxy, and they put everything on the shoulders of some dumb farm boy?
At least Obi-Wan left exile when his services were requested. Yoda—possibly the most dangerous force in the galaxy next to Palpatine—never even left Dagobah. He hid there, waited for Luke to seek him out, trained him—begrudgingly I might add—and then died. With Yoda and Obi-Wan as his mentors, is it any wonder that Luke turned his back on the Jedi order?
Withholding Information Out Of Cowardice
Even Obi-Wan, the slightly more active of the two hermits, wasn’t all that helpful. He stayed on Tatooine to “protect” Luke as he grew, but couldn’t he have taught him a few force tricks while he was there? Sure, we all know how Luke’s uncle felt about him becoming a Jedi like his dad, but so what? If Owen and Beru never died, and Princess Leia never sent her S.O.S., were Yoda and Obi-Wan just going to leave Luke alone and never inform him of his destiny?
Considering how both of the cowardly Jedi ended up explaining everything to Luke, it’s not hard to imagine them never bothering in the first place. Both Yoda and Obi-Wan lied to the kid about his real father just to get him to do the thing they were both too afraid to do.
Yoda Clearly Has Skills That Kill
Yoda and Obi-Wan not only did Luke Skywalker dirty, but the entire galaxy. Disney slowly adding even more original trilogy-era Jedi survivors like Cal Kestis to the lore only makes the two Jedi look more cowardly. Kanan Jarrus—technically still a Padawan—is out there with his small Rebel Cell, doing his best to be a thorn in the Empire’s side. Meanwhile, the guy who single-handedly beat both Anakin Skywalker and Darth Maul in one-on-one combat and a Jedi Grand Master are hiding in a metaphorical closet like Shaggy and Scooby, trying to avoid helping the rest of Mystery Inc.
Less Hiding, More Fighting
“But what about Order 66?” What about it? Look, the Rebellion/Resistance faced losses that reduced their ranks to a number comparable to the amount of Jedi who survived the purge. The difference is that Princess Leia, Mon Mothma, and the other Rebel leaders didn’t run away like Yoda and Obi-Wan when defeat seemed inevitable; they kept fighting.
Use The Force Already!
And don’t try to tell me that Yoda and Obi-Wan let the Force guide their exile. For one thing, the entire Star Wars saga is full of Force users telling people that the future is cloudy and hard to predict. In addition to that, the fact that Yoda in Empire Strikes Back makes such a big deal about Luke choosing to leave Dagobah to help his friends means that the Jedi Master still believes in free will.
In short, the Force could have nudged the two into hiding, but it didn’t make them stay hidden for years while the galaxy went to hell around them. Yoda and Obi-Wan Kenobi were cowards, pure and simple.
