Master Yoda watched as his apprentice, his final apprentice, sat and meditated on the moist ground of Dagobah. The small green ancient Jedi Master had been teaching Luke several Force abilities, some of them extremely difficult and exceptionally hard to learn. Abilities which took a long time to learn, and required a patience many could not muster. The problem was the boy had a problem where he was so convinced he couldn't actually master any of the techniques. Many days had gone by and it was hard for Yoda to not wish Luke's family on Tatooine had allowed Obi-Wan to teach him a few things about the Force.
But Yoda knew there was more to it than a simple case of believing he was incapable. One of Luke's problems was because of his upbringing, he was geared to adventure and craved it. He wanted to rush through the training and succeed, believing he didn't have time for things like meditation. Yoda had needed to fight with Luke every step of the way, especially as old age was making it hard for him to handle such an impetuous young man. The good news was he was good with a lightsaber, but that was only a token of what a Jedi was.
Luke, sensing the session had ended, opened his eyes slowly.
"Learnt something, you have, young Skywalker?" Yoda asked.
"Yes, Master Yoda. I…did feel the Force, but there were so many things that I felt, and heard," Luke replied excitedly. Yoda nodded thoughtfully.
"Tell me, you will," Yoda instructed.
"Well, I caught a vision of a bald-headed dark-skinned man, wearing Jedi robes fighting against a younger, less scarred version of Palpatine," Luke surprised Yoda, "and I also saw a dark figure….storm the Jedi Temple, and cut down the Jedi there."
Yoda had given Luke a history of the Jedi Order. He had told him of the end of the last war with the Sith a thousand years before, how the Sith were believed to be extinct, before the Jedi felt the slow but growing power of the Dark Side, starting with the dark pulsar, echoing through the galaxy, at the same time of the expanding star in the Carosi system, and then the terrible way the Force 'screamed' in pain and rage when a small hole was torn into its fabric, decades later.
Yoda had also given Luke a more accurate accounting of the Clone Wars and the discovery the Sith still existed, before telling his apprentice of the final days of the war. Order 66, and Yoda's last stand against Darth Sidious. Using shared meditation, Yoda showed Luke exactly what the Sith Lord was capable of. He had done it to motivate Luke and make him buckle down. While it worked, Luke was irrationally determined to find a way of getting to Coruscant and cut off Palpatine's head.
The vision worried Yoda. But this vision surprised the old Jedi Master greatly.
"Seeing the past, you are," Yoda looked down and sighed. "Jedi Master Mace Windu, the bald man was. Great and powerful, he was. Oh yes. Very powerful. Dedicated to the order, he was."
"Who was he?" Luke asked, keen to know more about the Jedi of old before Vader destroyed it. And betrayed and murdered his father.
Yoda sensed where Luke's thoughts had strayed when he felt a slight burst of anger, and he rode it into Luke's mind. Sometimes he had to question the plan he had formed with Obi-Wan, to lie to the Skywalker twins about the truth of their paternity. In his exile, he had come to see there was more to Anakin's downfall than they were keen to see.
"Mace Windu. Master of the Order, he was. Strongly distrustful towards Palpatine, he was, especially as the Clone Wars drew to a close. Looking back now, see I that we failed. Oh yes, we failed," Yoda's eyes drooped sadly as he thought about the mistakes committed by the Jedi in the past.
"What mistakes did you make?" Luke asked.
Yoda sighed and looked solemnly into Luke's eyes. "A thousand years ago, believed we did the Sith of old had died. But one Sith Master survived and formed the Rule of Two, a master and an apprentice. For a thousand years, the Sith remained hidden, manipulating events from behind the scenes as they chipped away the Republic, orchestrating the Clone Wars and the Separatist crisis. While the Jedi remained the same, the Sith evolved. They had no choice; with only two members at any given time, they had to change. Unprepared, the Jedi were, when the Sith unleashed their revenge. Unprepared and blind. We had known the Sith had returned, but instead of preparing for it, did nothing we did. The Sith evolved behind the veil of the dark side, and the Jedi remained the same. Remaining adhered to the Code, we did. And that was a mistake."
"In what way?"
Yoda sighed again. "Married, your father was," he said to Luke's shock, quickly understanding the implications of Yoda's statement. "Against the rules, it was, but Anakin never cared for rules. Loved your mother, Padme Amidala, he did and knew too he would be expelled if anyone discovered the marriage. As I look back, wonder I do, if fall the Jedi would have done. So many Jedi temples on outlying planets were abandoned to unite under one council, to prevent more Jedi falling, and yet while it did work to a degree, some Jedi did still fall. Maybe expecting no Jedi to fall, a mistake it was."
"Master Yoda, what are you telling me?" Luke asked.
Yoda stared into Luke's face. "We are expecting you to rebuild the Jedi Order, you understand, after the end of the Sith," he said carefully so he didn't frighten Luke off with the scale of the tasks he had in front of him. "However, do not make the same mistakes the Jedi of old made. Failed to see, we did, how even with our anti-attachment rules, some Jedi still fell to the dark side. Failed, we did, to realise the galaxy was changing around us, that the Sith were evolving."
Luke was a little perturbed at how much was hanging on his shoulders. "How am I to change the Jedi?"
Yoda shook his head. "I do not know, Luke. Find your path, you must. Trust in the Force to help guide you."