Star Wars Reveals Yoda and Dooku’s Earliest Known Lightsaber Duel
Star Wars Poked Fun at Princess Leia’s Mary Poppins Moment
Leia Organa in Star Wars: The Last Jedi
For Star Wars fans, the brief remark was a bit of subtle commentary. Princess Leia made waves when she floated through space like Mary Poppins in The Last Jedi. Some people tried to validate the scene, but it was largely viewed as a flop. The idea of anyone floating through the vacuum of space, while unconscious, was pretty out there. At that point in the story, fans weren’t aware that Leia had trained as a Jedi at all, so the idea that she could unconsciously call on the Force and save herself didn’t vibe with a lot of people. In Star Wars, some characters are naturally strong with the Force, but using it and controlling it take years and years of practice.
For example, Legends Luke Skywalker is largely believed to be the most powerful Jedi ever. However, he couldn’t even lift his X-Wing out of the Dagobah swamp during The Empire Strikes Back. He simply hadn’t awakened his powers enough to use them effectively. He had to train with Yoda, quiet the distractions and learn how to focus. That’s why Princess Leia’s Mary Poppins moment didn’t work. Sure, it looked ridiculous, but the main problem was that she didn’t have the training to accomplish that type of feat. In Legends, there were a few times when a powerful Force user could briefly make a cocoon around themselves to survive in Space. However, the fact that Star Wars is now poking fun at the moment is an obvious callback to a sillier moment in Star Wars history.
Interestingly, one of the Jedi Initiates present for the lesson appears to be none other than the Togorian Jedi Jak’zin. This is of note, as Jak’zin previously recalled witnessing Yoda and Dooku’s lightsaber battle demonstrations in the 2019 Marvel Comics release Star Wars: Age of Republic – Count Dooku #1 — complete with another flashback. In that comic’s flashback, however, Dooku was visibly older and had gray hair. In Yoda #4’s flashback, meanwhile, Dooku’s hair still has its original, darker color.
Yoda Famously Battled Count Dooku in Attack of the Clones
So, it would appear that Yoda #4 features the earliest known instance of Yoda and Dooku clashing blades in Star Wars canon. Granted, given that Yoda and Dooku were once master and apprentice, one could reasonably assume that they had sparred well before this, even if said hypothetical instances have never been depicted in a canonical, visual medium. At any rate, the pair’s most famous lightsaber battle was far from a friendly lesson. Fans first saw Yoda and Dooku come to blows in the climax of the 2002 film Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones, by which point in the timeline Dooku had already fallen to the dark side.
Star Wars canon has made it a point to explore more of Dooku’s Jedi days as of late, with Yoda #4 being only the latest example. In fact, young Dooku was prominently featured in Lucasfilm’s animated anthology miniseries Tales of the Jedi, which premiered on Disney+ last year. Tales of the Jedi revealed that a key stop on Dooku’s journey to the dark side was his slaying of Jedi Master Yaddle — another member of Yoda’s mysterious species — shortly after the events of 1999’s Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace.
