Skirmish in the Senate

"At last; the Jedi are no more.''" "Not if anything to say about it, I'' have!"

- Darth Sidious and Yoda

The Skirmish in the Senate was fought in the year 19 BBY, just following the conclusion of the Clone War between the Galactic Republic and the Confederacy of Independent Systems. The skirmish was a duel between the Dark Lord of the Sith Darth Sidious and the Jedi Grand Master Yoda.

They clashed in the Senate Building on the planet Coruscant, battling among the pods of the Grand Convocation Chamber after the Sith Lord had all but extinguished the Jedi Order by ordering the clone troopers, who had fought alongside the Jedi during the war, to turn on their Jedi Generals, and kill them without hesitation. Sidious also orchestrated the fall of one of the Order's most illustrious Knights, Anakin Skywalker, making him his apprentice and commanding him to attack the Jedi Temple and kill all inside. Yoda had survived the purge alongside another Jedi Master, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and the two set out to end the Sith insurrection by fighting the master and apprentice respectively, Kenobi traveling to the planet Mustafar to face Skywalker, who had been transformed into Darth Vader, Sidious' servant.

Meanwhile, Yoda infiltrated the headquarters of the Galactic Senate and forced his way into the room Sidious was using as his office and engaged him.

Throughout the confrontation, the two masters of the Force engaged in deadly lightsaber combat, with each making liberal use of their Force powers; this resulted in considerable damage to the Grand Convocation Chamber. Even though the pair were evenly matched, they were forced to cut their confrontation short when clone troopers responded to the disturbance, forcing Yoda to flee into exile while the Dark Lord rushed to Mustafar, in the aftermath, to rescue Vader, who'd been grievously injured by Kenobi during their duel.

Prelude
"Destroy the Sith, we must."

- Yoda to Obi-Wan Kenobi

The aftermath of the duel between Jedi Master Mace Windu and Dark Lord of the Sith Darth Sidious left young Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker in turmoil&mdash;torn between his loyalty to the Jedi, already reluctantly broken, due to his betrayal of his fellow Jedi High Council member, and his wish to save his secret wife, Padmé Amidala, from dying while giving birth to his child, as he had seen in visions.

After Windu was killed, at the hands of both Skywalker and Sidious, Skywalker saw no other option for himself than to forsake his ties to the Order and join the Dark Lord's cause, and, so, he swore himself to the Sith Lord's will. Sidious, who had played the role of a mentor to the boy in his public life as Supreme Chancellor Palpatine for many years, swayed Skywalker to his side by tempting him with the power to save his wife from death, using a power only available to him through the dark side of the Force. At that moment, Skywalker kneeled before Sidious and was christened a Sith under the name Darth Vader. Sidious then sent him to the Jedi Temple with the 501st Legion and orders to kill all the Jedi there. The Dark Lord also enacted Order 66, a measure implanted in the clone troopers fighting alongside Jedi in the Clone Wars against a separatist movement that commanded them to eliminate any and all Jedi around them. These two actions virtually eradicated all Jedi from the galaxy and, following them, Vader was sent to the planet Mustafar to kill the leaders of the separatist faction, ending their war against the Republic.

Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi and Yoda, the Jedi Grand Master, managed to enter the Jedi Temple a day after it was cleansed of Jedi. The two ensured that no surviving Jedi would return to the Temple seeking shelter, as a garrison had been put in place to trap any who unwittingly did so. Kenobi and Yoda looked through security holocron footage to discover who had perpetrated the act, only to find that it was Skywalker, Kenobi's former Padawan learner. The two knew that both Sith must be stopped, or the survivor would simply restore their rule, so Kenobi volunteered to take on Sidious while Yoda would fight Vader, though Yoda pointed out that Kenobi was not powerful enough to fight Sidious. Kenobi, on Yoda's orders, left to find Vader on Mustafar while Yoda entered the Chancellery Secretariat undetected, determined to kill Sidious, who had proclaimed himself ruler of a new Galactic Empire.

Inside the Galactic Senate Chamber Holding Office of the Senate Building, the Grand Master came face to face with the Dark Lord of the Sith after making short work of his guards. Realizing that a battle between two masters of the Force was imminent, Senate Vice Chair Mas Amedda promptly left the office.

The duel
"You will not stop me; Darth Vader will become more powerful than either of us.''" "''Faith in your new apprentice, misplaced, may be&mdash;as is your faith in the dark side of the Force."

- Darth Sidious and Yoda

The battle started with the Emperor blasting Yoda with Force lightning, sending him flying across the chamber and slamming into a wall. Yoda quickly recovered, and ignoring Sidious' tauntings, retaliated with a powerful Force push that sent the Sith crashing behind his desk. Not wanting to take any risks at his moment of triumph, Palpatine attempted to flee but Yoda blocked his way, igniting his lightsaber. Realizing he would have to fight the Jedi Master blade-to-blade, Palpatine ignited his hold-out lightsaber, and the two engaged in intense lightsaber combat.

Their battle raged through the office, with neither opponent able to gain an advantage. As the fight moved to the Chancellor's Podium, the platform rose through the retractable ceiling into the Grand Convocation Chamber itself. The duel continued, increasing in speed and ferocity, but Sidious became more and more hard-pressed, as he was hampered in his movements by the confines of the pod, while Yoda could easily jump around him. Facing serious danger, Sidious decided to change tactics. Laughing, he took the higher ground, jumping to one of the Senate pods on an upper level. Palpatine attempted to overpower Yoda with an avalanche of levitating various pods but Yoda was able to avoid being crushed by the improvised projectiles, using his own powers to dodge from one pod to another while being unable to close in on the Dark Lord again.

It was at this very moment, during a match between polar sides of the Force, that Yoda accepted a truth: he had lost the fight even before it had started. In the last millennium, the Sith had changed and adapted, becoming a new entity; while the Jedi Order, under his leadership, spent the same time merely training to re-fight the last war.

Yoda understood that this new Sith Order could not be destroyed by merely killing Sidious; with this new insight, Yoda realized he had to share this discovery. Shaking away his doubts, the tiny Jedi focused himself on an oncoming pod and stopped it in the air before him. Sidious' laughter died and was replaced by a frown of annoyance as he realized that he had stretched his telekinetic powers too far. Yoda had taken control of the projectile and was hurling it right back at him.

With this, Yoda saw a chance to re-engage him at close quarters, once Sidious had jumped off his pod, and leapt at the Sith Lord. Sidious unleashed a blast of Force lightning at Yoda before he could strike, tearing Yoda's lightsaber from his grasp. Sidious felt triumphant with his opponent disarmed, believing all that remained was to barrage Yoda with more Force lightning and the Jedi leader would be eliminated. His laughter died as he saw that Yoda managed to stop his lightning barehanded, and his expression turned to alarm as Yoda started sending the energy back. As both masters were of equal strength, the energy started building up between the two, forming a ball of lightning that exploded, catapulting both backwards.

While Yoda fell down to the Holding Office, Palpatine managed to grab and hold on to the edge of a pod. Knowing that Sidious would be too powerful to overcome, Yoda was forced to flee while the Emperor cackled behind him, but was too tired to give pursuit. Yoda crawled through the ventilation shafts and eventually dropped into Senator Bail Prestor Organa's airspeeder, escaping into exile.

Aftermath
"Into exile I must go; failed, I have."

- Yoda, to Bail Prestor Organa

Shock troopers led by Commander Thire were not able to recover Yoda's body, and Mas Amedda was convinced that the Jedi Grand Master had escaped. Emperor Palpatine had no choice but to assign Thire for the search, as he had to leave for Mustafar immediately&mdash;he sensed that his apprentice, Lord Vader, was in mortal danger. On Mustafar, the Dark Lord found his apprentice near death due to the recent duel where Obi-Wan Kenobi dealt him what seemed mortal wounds. However, Sidious ultimately managed to save his apprentice.

The magnitude of damage in the Senate Rotunda caught the eyes of the Senators. Rumors circulated in the Senate that Jedi Grand Master Yoda had led an attack on Emperor Palpatine himself, and that the ancient Jedi Master had been killed. Through Wookiee Senator Yarua, the rumor found its way to Kashyyyk, including the ears of Chewbacca and Tarfful. Eventually the rumor reached Olee Starstone and her team of fugitive Jedi.

Having not been able to defeat Sidious, Yoda chose self-imposed exile to the swamp planet of Dagobah, where he would wait until the offspring of Anakin Skywalker, the twins, Luke and Leia, would be of age to turn their father back from the Dark Side and return the balance to the Force that their father failed to do. Years later, on Dagobah, Yoda would train Luke in the ways of the Force. Luke would ultimately go on to rescue his father from the dark side and inspire the latter to defeat Palpatine, bringing balance to the Force.

Behind the scenes
This lightsaber duel in the Senate Rotunda was created for the 2005 film, Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. It was unnamed in the film, but an official Hasbro Star Wars Miniatures pack that depicted the duel identified it as the Skirmish in the Senate. According to The Making of Star Wars Revenge of the Sith, Senate hovercams were meant to broadcast the duel across the galaxy on the HoloNet, but this idea was later dropped.

In the novelization, Yoda entered the office from another direction, so no Royal Guards attempted to stop him. Mas Amedda left the office before any exchange was made. Palpatine's Force lightning was deflected by Yoda which blasted the guards into unconsciousness instead of himself being knocked across the room. Yoda then knocked Palpatine to the floor with his physical body instead of a Force Push. At the end of the battle, the lightning energy ball did not explode. Sidious safely leaped to a nearby podium and Yoda followed. Sidious then turned around and blasted Yoda, who was still in the air, back against another podium who fell down to the bottom. Sidious was not knocked over by any blast, he was described as "a very old, very tired man" after the epic battle. In the novelization, Yoda apparently does not lose his lightsaber in the battle as he is described as slicing his way through the ventilation shafts.

In the comic, the first half of the duel is a combination of scenes in the movie and the novelization. Yoda entered the office the way he did in the novel, but was blasted by Palpatine as shown in the movie. The Red Guards and Mas Amedda mysteriously vanished after the battle started, and Yoda knocked Palpatine down with his body as shown in the novel. The duel in the comic ends after Yoda disarms Darth Sidious and gets blasted into the air.

In a DVD commentary, Rob Coleman stated that the Emperor's use of Senate pods as weapons was a metaphor for the fall of freedom and democracy brought about by Palpatine's victory.

There is a contradiction between two official sources about whether Yoda truly fainted or was merely playing weak when Sidious shot him with lightning and sent him flying across the office; the screenplay described Yoda as "stunned," while the junior novelization stated that Yoda faked it to surprise Darth Sidious. As the screenplay is G-canon, it is the official version.

Appearances

 * Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith
 * Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith novelization
 * Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith junior novelization
 * Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith comic
 * Dark Lord: The Rise of Darth Vader
 * Star Wars: Purge
 * Robot Chicken: Star Wars