Before Ahsoka: 5 best arcs in Star Wars: The Clone Wars, ranked
3. Yoda’s spirit journey
The final arc of season 6 sees Yoda contacted by the long-dead Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn, who was killed by Darth Maul in The Phantom Menace. Disturbed by this development, Yoda is clearly distracted in a Jedi council meeting, which scares the others who have never seen the grand master this out of sorts. Realizing that it is impossible for a dead person to be talking to him, Yoda informs the council that he does not trust his feelings and the entire council meditates together. However, none of the other members seem to be experiencing the same thing he is.
Jedi Ki-Adi-Mundi suspects that the Sith are trying to control Yoda, so they take him to the temple’s doctor. After another incorrect hypothesis by Ki-Adi-Mundi, the group puts Yoda in a sensory deprivation chamber, where Qui-Gon again makes contact and instructs Yoda to go to Dagobah alone. Mace Windu orders temple guards to be placed in Yoda’s room until they know what’s going on, but Yoda enlists Anakin to help him escape the temple and get to a ship. Anakin gets Yoda to the temple’s hangar bay and has R2 bring him to a ship. When Yoda finally makes it to Dagobah, Qui-Gon appears to Yoda in the form of floating lights.
The deceased Jedi explains that he is a manifestation of the Force and that there is a thing called the cosmic force. Everything that dies apparently feeds into the cosmic force, and since Dagobah is strong with the Force, Qui-Gon can communicate with Yoda there. He leads Yoda to the same tree that Luke Skywalker enters in The Empire Strikes Back, where Yoda sees visions of the Jedi order being wiped out by Darth Sidious. After leaving the tree, Qui-Gon says that he has been tasked with guiding Yoda forward and that there is always hope. Yoda has also been chosen to learn how to preserve his life force after death, just like Qui-Gon before him.
Qui-Gon sends Yoda into unknown space, where he and R2 find a planet covered in cosmic gas. Yoda leaves R2 on the surface and follows the gas deeper into a trippy force underworld with floating islands. There he is greeted by a floating being dressed in black robes who says she will judge his worthiness. Four other similar beings known as Force Priestesses with different emotions on their faces appear to begin his light side training. The beings explain that they are in a place called the Wellspring of Life, which is the birthplace of midi-chlorians and where the living and cosmic force connect.
The training consists of Yoda having a series of terrible visions. The first is Yoda being confronted by a dark version of himself that resembles Gollum from The Lord of the Rings. After rejecting his inner darkness, Yoda is presented with a vision of all the Jedi lying dead in the temple with Ahsoka whimpering on the verge of death. He tries to console her but she perishes in his arms. The padawan Kituni appears and guides him to a different vision where all of the Jedi are gathered by the tree outside the temple. Even dead Jedi like Qui-Gon Jin and Adi Galia are present as well as Count Dooku. Yoda correctly identifies these visions as falsehoods before the illusion fades and he is returned to the Wellspring of Life. The priestesses appear and tell Yoda that the final destination on his journey is the ancient Sith homeworld of Moraband.
R2 and Yoda make their way to the deserted Sith planet and land at an abandoned temple. Yoda enters and sees more spooky images of dead bad guys. Eventually he finds a tomb that belongs to the ancient Sith Lord Darth Bane (voiced by Mark Hamill). Bane’s spirit talks with Yoda and tries to scare him to leave, but Yoda carries on. The priestesses appear once again and warn Yoda that he about to enter a chamber where Sith used to sacrifice Jedi, and that everything moving forward will be out of their control.
Meanwhile, Sidious and Count Dooku sense that Yoda is on Moraband and meet with each other to take advantage of the situation. They begin conducting a dark side ritual to present themselves to Yoda on Moraband as the dead Jedi Sifo-Dyas. The Jedi recently discovered that Count Dooku ordered the production of the Clones through Sifo-Dyas and that Darth Sidious is controlling the war. However, they do not yet know who Sidious is or how to stop him. Yoda recognizes Dyas to be another illusion before he is transported onto a Republic gunship with Anakin and a group of clones. A confused Yoda finds himself in the middle of a mission to intercept Dooku while he meets with Sidious.
Anakin and Dooku duel and he decapitates the Sith Lord, much as he does in Revenge of the Sith. Yoda and Sidious then duel on a catwalk outside, but when Anakin tries to come help, Sidious knocks him out with lightning. Yoda has to choose between saving Anakin or holding off Sidious’ lightning attacks. However, Yoda decides that he is ready to sacrifice everything and he and Sidious find themselves plummeting to the ground.
This is also an illusion. Back in the real world, Sidious and Dooku realize that they failed to break Yoda and they will need more time for their plan to work.
Yoda wakes up on Moraband and the priestess tells him that Qui-Gon will continue to guide Yoda through his immortality training so he can keep his consciousness after death. Before leaving him, the priestess says that there is another Skywalker, hinting that Luke is indeed the chosen one, not Anakin. Yoda returns to Coruscant with R2 and refuses to tell everyone else what exactly happened to him. He explains to Mace and Obi-Wan that they will probably not win the Clone Wars, but there is a path for the light to win for all time.