Yoda is one of the wisest Jedi who ever lived. After all, you don’t make it to 900 without learning a thing or two. But even when he was a sprightly 870, Yoda may have had a plan in mind that not only proves why the Jedi will always be more in touch with the Force than the Sith, but that also explains the strangest part of The Rise of Skywalker.
Star Wars TikToker _element7_ posted a theory inspired by the new Star Wars Timelines book, pointing to a passage explaining the “I am all Jedi” scene in Rise of Skywalker. At the movie’s climax, Rey summons the spirits of all the fallen Jedi through the Living Force and uses their power to defeat Palpatine. The finer points of how this ability works were up for debate, but Timelines canonized the explanation of the moment.
In the novelization of Rise of Skywalker, this scene is described as Rey “staring through a window to somewhere else, a place within places.” That “place within places” could only refer to The World Between Worlds, the ethereal plane conducive to time travel we saw Ezra Bridger visit in Rebels.
In The Clone Wars, Yoda was given in-depth knowledge of the Living Force through the spirit of Qui-Gon. In his training, Yoda is told he comes “with light in his heart,” which makes him one with the Living Force. Basically, if a Jedi dies while holding on to their good intentions, their spirit can survive death, hence all the Force ghosts we’re seen hanging around over the years.
So Yoda knew that all the Jedi who died would still be accessible through the Living Force via the World Between Worlds. No matter how much bloodshed lay ahead, the power of the Jedi would be, even after death, enough to vanquish the Sith altogether. It’s why Obi-Wan taunts Vader with, “If you strike me down, I shall become more powerful than you could possibly imagine.” He becomes powerful because he becomes one with the Living Force.
This explains what Yoda says to Mace Windu in The Clone Wars:
“No longer certain that one ever does win a war, I am. For in fighting the battles; the bloodshed; already lost, we have. Yet open to us a path remains, that unknown to the Sith is. Through this path, victory we may yet find. Not victory in the Clone Wars. But victory… For all time.”
This little trick is unknown to the Sith, because there’s no way those jerks can be accused of having light in their heart. All the angry and bitter Sith masters of old can’t join together like the Jedi did with Rey.
The theory isn’t perfect, as it claims the World Between Worlds is where all Jedi go when they die, even though canon says that’s the Netherworld of the Force. But we also don’t really know how the World Between Worlds works. Maybe the two are simply connected.
It would be quite the stretch to say Dave Filoni and the Clone Wars writers were planning this Rise of Skywalker moment, but that’s not what fan theories are about. Just as all Jedi are connected through the Force, Star Wars fans can connect disparate parts of Star Wars and give them a greater meaning. Or at least fix weird scenes in bad sequels.
