Yoda had grave misgivings about the potential student brought before him by maverick Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn. Nine-year-old Anakin Skywalker was indeed strong in the Force, but he was too old to begin training. Already, Skywalker had a deep emotional attachment to his mother, and was filled with fear of losing her. Yoda warned that fear is the path to the dark side.

After Qui-Gon Jinn died during the Battle of Naboo, the Jedi Council respected his final wish and granted permission for Obi-Wan Kenobi to begin training Anakin Skywalker. Yoda disagreed with this decision, and strongly cautioned Kenobi.

Qui-Gon Jinn had died at the hands of a Sith Lord. The Sith were believed to be extinct, wiped out a thousand years earlier through infighting and power struggles. But rumors remained that they had continued somehow, in the shadows. Yoda believed a Sith Lord was still at large, and quoted the rule of the Sith: "Always two there are, no more, no less: A master and an apprentice."

Ten years later, the Jedi still had no inkling as to the identity of the Sith Lord. Their ability to use the Force was somehow diminished, and the Force was unbalanced. In his meditation for answers, Yoda sensed Anakin in terrible pain as the young Padawan took his first steps into the dark side. Yoda also inexplicably heard the voice of Qui-Gon Jinn, crying out from beyond the grave.

The galaxy was pushed to the brink of war by a Separatist movement that created a massive droid army. The Jedi discovered a clone army secretly commissioned for their service. Yoda fetched these clones from Kamino, and brought thousands of troopers with him to Geonosis. Here, the clones clashed with the droids in the first battle of the Clone Wars, and Yoda served as a general.

The Separatist leader, Count Dooku, proved to be a Sith Lord. The dark warrior threatened to destroy Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi in a lightsaber duel, but Yoda intervened. Yoda drew his blade and engaged Dooku -- his former Padawan -- in spectacular combat.

Yoda worried about the recently-promoted Jedi Knight, Anakin Skywalker. Though he saw Anakin's potential, Yoda could not ignore the danger inherent in Anakin's unrestrained emotional attachments. To teach Anakin responsibility, Yoda assigned Skywalker a Padawan learner: Ahsoka Tano. Yoda knew there would come a time when Anakin had to let go of Ahsoka.

As the Clone Wars spread across the galaxy, the Republic and the Separatists vied to ensure neutral worlds joined their respective causes. On the coral moon of Rugosa, Yoda impressed Toydarian regent King Katuunko by facing down an entire droid army with only a trio of clone troopers by his side.

Yoda was instrumental in stopping a rampaging horror that threatened to tear apart a major section of the Coruscant cityscape. When the Zillo Beast, an ancient Malastarian monster unearthed by the Clone Wars, ran amuck in the Senate district, Yoda fearlessly plunged into the thick of the effort to stop the destruction.

Anakin Skywalker, plagued by nightmarish premonitions that a loved one would die, came to Yoda seeking guidance. Yoda warned Anakin to be wary of such visions, for the future is always in motion. Yoda stressed that Anakin needed to learn detachment, to learn how to let go what he feared losing the most.

Yoda's strong relations with the Wookiees helped him serve as the battlefield commander on Kashyyyk. During this battle, Supreme Chancellor Palpatine transmitted an executive order that branded the Jedi Knights as traitors who were to be executed immediately. Yoda deeply felt the loss of Jedi life across the galaxy, and was able to protect himself from a similar fate with the help of his Wookiee allies, Chewbacca and Tarfful.

When Imperial troopers conquered the Jedi Temple, they began transmitting a signal calling the Jedi to a trap on Coruscant. Yoda and Obi-Wan Kenobi battled their way into the Temple to deactivate the signal. There, Yoda discovered evidence that Anakin had fallen to the dark side, and was now a servant of Palpatine.

Chancellor Palpatine was, in truth, Darth Sidious, Sith Lord. Yoda confronted Sidious in the heart of the Senate chambers. This erupted into an intense duel between these masters of the Force, a fight that Yoda ultimately lost and was forced to flee.

With the Galactic Empire triumphant, Yoda and Obi-Wan were the last of the Jedi. Yoda recommended hiding the children of Anakin Skywalker, for they held the hope for the future. Leia would live as the adoptive daughter of Senator Bail Organa of Alderaan. Luke would live on the Lars moisture farm on Tatooine, with Obi-Wan nearby. Yoda hid on Dagobah, where he studied the secrets of immortality by communing with Qui-Gon Jinn's Force spirit.

A generation after the Clone Wars, Yoda would once again train a Jedi. Luke Skywalker, Rebel hero and son of Anakin, came to the swamp world of Dagobah, seeking a Jedi Master. What he found instead was an impish creature. Luke misjudged Yoda, and quickly grew impatient with the bizarre misfit. This was Yoda's way of testing Luke, and already, the youth was off to a bad start.

Eager to learn the ways of the Force, Luke persevered. He longed to confront and defeat Darth Vader. Yoda warned Luke that the Force best serves a Jedi when he is calm and at peace, but Skywalker proved too impetuous. Despite Yoda's strict instructions to the contrary, Skywalker abandoned his training when he discovered that his friends were in danger. Yoda feared that Luke's recklessness would lead him to the dark side.

Luke emerged from his confrontation with Darth Vader battered but stronger. Returning to Dagobah to complete his training, an ailing Yoda told Luke the terrible truth that Vader was his father, Anakin Skywalker. Rather than destroy his father, Luke sought to bring him back into the light. At 900 years old, Yoda passed away, telling Luke that there was another Skywalker.

Luke's faith in his father proved to be well placed. Anakin returned from the dark side to destroy the Emperor. When Anakin died, he at last brought the Force back into balance. Using the knowledge imparted by Qui-Gon Jinn from beyond the grave, Yoda preserved his spirit in the Force, reuniting with Anakin and Obi-Wan as shimmering apparitions who witnessed the galaxy finally brought back to a state of peace.