Dagobah - Film History

Film History

In the Star Wars storyline, after the Great Jedi Purge and his subsequent failure to defeat Darth Sidious and save the Republic, a devastated Jedi Master Yoda went into voluntary exile on Dagobah. Here, Yoda lived near a cave strong with the dark side of the Force which balanced out his light side and kept him from detection by Emperor Palpatine.

In The Empire Strikes Back, Luke Skywalker is visited on the ice planet Hoth by the ghost of Obi-Wan Kenobi, who tells him to seek Yoda on Dagobah to be trained as a Jedi. Skywalker flies to Dagobah with R2-D2 in his X-wing after Darth Vader and his stormtroopers overrun the Rebel Alliance base on Hoth. After training for a short while with Yoda, Skywalker leaves Dagobah early to attempt to rescue his friends, Han Solo, Princess Leia, and Chewbacca, whom he senses are in danger on the planet Bespin. Skywalker also briefly returns to Dagobah in Return of the Jedi, in which he has a final conversation with Yoda before Yoda's death. Luke then speaks to Obi-Wan Kenobi's ghost about the conflicting stories of Luke's parentage.

In Revenge of the Sith, Yoda spoke of going into exile, following his retreat from the battle with Darth Sidious. The film did not show how Yoda came to the planet in its theatrical version; however, this was portrayed in a deleted scene that George Lucas says was removed so that Revenge would not have "too many endings." The scene of Yoda arriving on Dagobah was rumored to be reinserted into the DVD release of the film in November 2005; however, the film's theatrical cut has been transferred to DVD intact, with the "Exile to Dagobah" scene featured in the "Deleted Scenes" section on Disc II instead. In the novel of the movie, it is stated that Yoda went to Dagobah in an escape pod launched from Bail Organa's starcruiser.