Star Wars creator George Lucas always wanted Grand Master Yoda to remain an enigma, which is more than evident in the fact that we’ve only ever seen two other creatures in his race through the entire history of the galaxy far, far away.
When the original trilogy first came out, the decision to adopt Joseph Campbell’s concept of the hero’s journey meant that the narrative had to incorporate a wise and old mentor figure to guide the protagonist in overcoming his fears and shouldering the enormous burden of saving the galaxy.
Luke Skywalker mercifully had two such personas in the form of Ben Kenobi and Yoda, though after the prequels and other works related to that era, the latter took on a much more prominent role in the story.
Frankly, though, as beloved as the sagacious leader of the Jedi Order is, Star Wars fans know practically nothing of his legendary past. And there are more than just a few quirks that make his character enigmatic and mystifying, among them his strange and unique way of talking.
Now, one fan has pointed out on Reddit that Lucasfilm has already given us an explanation as to why Yoda has that odd speech pattern.
In Dave Filoni’s Star Wars: The Clone Wars animated series, we meet an ancient droid who goes by the name of Professor Huyang. This Mark IV architect droid is one of the oldest robots on Coruscant, having trained a thousand generations of Jedi Knights and recorded every lightsaber and every Jedi who constructed it.
At one point, when talking to the Wookie Padawan called Gungi, Huyang says: “Rare you are to the Jedi, proud your people must be.”
As you can imagine, this has led Star Wars fans to surmise that the reason Yoda speaks so strangely is that the language of the Old Republic and the High Republic eras had different grammar, and the Grand Master is one of the few living creatures who still retains the old tongue due to his millennial lifespan.