Tales of the Jedi is Dave Filoni’s passion project. Over the course of the animated anthology series, the Clone Wars showrunner dives into two integral characters that never got their due: Count Dooku and Ahsoka Tano. Along the way, we see them interact with all sorts of other characters, including Ahsoka’s mom and a young Qui-Gon Jinn.
One of these cameos has the potential to do more than just provide a moment of fun for fans. It could change one of the key elements of Star Wars, and have huge implications for The Mandalorian Season 3.
A leak from Redditor Aesokas explains how Tales of the Jedi will handle the all-important subject of Order 66, but also discusses an oft-overlooked character, Yaddle, finally getting a fight scene. Yaddle was seen in the Jedi Council during the first two prequel movies, but disappeared by Revenge of the Sith. She briefly appeared in the Tales of the Jedi teaser shown at Star Wars Celebration, so her appearance itself isn’t a surprise, but the details of her role are still unknown.
According to the leak, Yaddle doesn’t speak like Yoda despite being from the same species. She instead speaks normally, in the same Basic as every other Jedi. She’s also a fierce fighter who’s more than able to hold her own against Count Dooku.
What does this mean for Star Wars? It implies that Yoda’s speech structure isn’t a trademark of his species, but is either something unique to the area where Yoda grew up, or maybe even unique to Yoda himself. Yoda and Yaddle are implied to have had different upbringings and, for all we know, Yoda is from his species’ equivalent of West Virginia.
This has big implications for The Mandalorian. Although Grogu’s about 50-years-old, his species ages at a glacial pace and he still hasn’t said his first word. When he eventually learns to speak, it’s more likely he’ll have the husky American accent of his adopted dad, Din Djarin, than the backwards speak of Yoda. He may be Baby Yoda, but Yoda didn’t raise him, and apparently Yoda’s speech comes from some element of his upbringing.
This means we probably won’t ever hear Yoda’s unique dialect in the Star Wars universe again, which makes sense. If Yaddle is younger than Yoda (which is implied by her hair) it’s likely she was raised within the Jedi, and she probably joined them before she even learned how to speak. Why would she have an accent from a place she never really knew? Well, the same goes for Grogu.
Tales of the Jedi may seem like it’s full of inconsequential one-off adventures from already established characters, but these smaller roles may actually have the biggest effect.
Tales of the Jedi premieres on Disney+ in 2022.
