Why Yaddle Doesn’t Talk Like Yoda In Star Wars Canon
WARNING: This article contains SPOILERS for Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi.Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi has offered a better look at Yaddle than all Star Wars movies combined, revealing that Yaddle does not speak like Yoda in the process. While Ahsoka and Count Dooku were the focus of Tales of the Jedi season 1, the prospect of seeing Yaddle as an actual character rather than a background Jedi was one of the most exciting things about the anthology series. Before Grogu, Yaddle, the mysterious Jedi Master spotted in Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace, was the only other character from Yoda’s species in the Star Wars canon. However, Yaddle didn’t have a single line in The Phantom Menace, leading to much speculation about the character’s nature and background.
Yaddle had a presence in the Star Wars Expanded Universe, but when it comes to George Lucas’ Star Wars canon, The Phantom Menace was all there was about the character. Fortunately, Tales of the Jedi revisits Yaddle as part of Count Dooku’s backstory. Yaddle was voiced by long-time Star Wars collaborator Bryce Dallas Howard, and unlike many had theorized, Yaddle did not have the same speech pattern as Yoda. One possible explanation as to why Yaddle doesn’t speak like Yoda is that Yoda is much older than Yaddle, meaning that his species’ speech pattern may have changed between generations. The more likely explanation, however, is that Star Wars wants to keep Yoda as special and mysterious as possible – meaning that Yaddle shouldn’t answer all the questions audiences have about Yoda. As such, there are both narrative and practical reasons why Yaddle doesn’t speak like Yoda.
As with many Star Wars characters both from the original trilogy and the prequels, Yaddle was further explored in the old Expanded Universe now known as Legends. However, considering how different Yaddle’s death in Tales of the Jedi was compared to Legends, it does not seem like Star Wars plans to borrow a lot from Yaddle’s Legend stories. One major difference between Legends Yaddle and canon Yaddle is that the former used the same speech pattern as Yoda. It’s important to remember George Lucas never considered the Expanded Universe canon to his Star Wars, meaning that those decisions were taken by a different team and not Lucas. Therefore, the fact that Yaddle never spoke in The Phantom Menace left the door open for the Expanded Universe authors to assume Yaddle would speak just like Yoda.
From Grogu in The Mandalorian to Yaddle in Tales of the Jedi, Star Wars continues to keep Yoda and Yaddle’s species a mystery. In fact, the mystery of Yoda and Yaddle’s species traces back to the Star Wars Expanded Universe. Given how the Expanded Universe stories would create a large amount of lore for almost every character or location in the Star Wars universe, the lack of information on Yoda’s home planet or young years was always surprising. George Lucas reportedly made Yoda’s species an off-limits topic for the Expanded Universe, which makes sense given how Lucas himself never explained where Yoda and Yaddle came from in his Star Wars movies.
From the manifestation of the Whills to the very first Jedi, there are many theories that try to explain where Yoda, Yaddle, and Grogu come from and why are they so powerful in the Force. Given how the only three Star Wars characters from that species are Force-sensitives, it’s safe to assume Master Yoda’s species has some sort of special connection to the Force. However, as proven by Yaddle’s speech pattern in Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi, anything else about Yoda might have to do with the ancient Jedi Master only and not with his species as a whole.
