Yoda, the famous diminutive Jedi Master, is one of the most popular Star Wars characters of all time. One of the things that makes him iconic is his unique backwards way of speaking. Now, after over forty years, Star Wars creator George Lucas has revealed the reason why.
Why Does Yoda Speak Backwards?
At a 45th anniversary screening of The Empire Strikes Back during the TCM Classic Film Festival, Lucas discussed the reasoning behind Yoda’s unique speech pattern. Yoda often rearranges his syntax into memorable phrases such as “at an end, your reign is, and not short enough it was,” or “much anger in him, like his father.” According to Lucas, this was done to get people to listen. As he stated:
“It was done purposely, because if you were speaking regular English . . . people don’t listen that much. But if you have an accent or it’s really hard to understand what he’s saying, they focus on what he’s saying. And . . . he was basically the philosopher of the movie, so he was talking about all of the things, you know, in long talking scenes and stuff, to where I had to figure out a way to get people to actually listen, especially twelve-year-olds.”
Does Yoda’s Speech Pattern Succeed?
Yoda remains one of the most beloved Star Wars characters of all time, and his speech pattern has helped make him more memorable. Fans will quote him relentlessly, and some of them might even take his wisdom to heart and try to live by it. This could indeed mean that Lucas’s strategy to get people to listen has succeeded. Yoda isn’t just a character; he is a channel of wisdom and, as Lucas so aptly put it, a philosopher. He is also a favorite with young fans, showing that Lucas’s plan for kid appeal worked as well.
Conclusion
Yoda is such a fan favorite that sometimes he doesn’t even need to speak backwards for people to listen. One of his most iconic quotes is “Do or do not. There is no try,” which is spoken with proper syntax. It shows that when you have a character as firmly developed as Yoda, he can sometimes break his own rules.
