Yoda and the Whills

[BadSamaritan]

Ok, this has beothered me since I started reading Star Wars novels. We know who Yoda is, but never, and I mean ever, get wind of what speces he is. And we have only heard of the Whills a few times, and never get to meet them.

 

Why is this? Does GL have some grand scheme in the long run for the novels? Is their some dark secret about these species?

 

My guess is that Yoda IS a Whill, and that they are a very old, very powerfull force sensitive race. What are your guesses/theories?

[Darth_Rob]

I have never heard a reference to the Whills before, but I never read past Vision of the Future. As for Yoda, I have often wondered what race he is. I believe that in TPM, one of the floating Senate seats represents a group of Yoda-looking aliens (though different skin color), which leads me to believe that Yoda's home planet is a populated system that accepted the Republic (unless of course that those aliens I spotted were not related to Yoda's race).

[Trejiuvanat]

There is another member of Yoda's Species, she is Yaddle, another Jedi Master, although she is much younger than Yoda.

 

As for the Whills. It is not even known if the Whills are a species, a cult or something else. They are found when referred to the Journal of the Whills, in the A New Hope novelization. In the prologue rather when a phrase of Leia is quoted from the Journal of the Whills. (Something along the lines of "They were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Naturally they became heroes".)

 

So there no clear reference at all to Whills, and assuming that Yoda is one of them is a rather bold move. Yoda probably didn't exist not even as a concept when the Whills were first referred to. The Whills might be some lingering concept from Lucas's first writings, that Foster decided to build in his novelization. I think that Lucas intended the Journal to be the 'storyteller' that the whole saga would be as read from a journal or something alike, eventually I think that his mind preferred having Threepio and Artoo as the storytellers of the saga.

 

From a 'in-universe' POV we see that the whole saga is found in the Journal of the Whills, thus the journal must have been naturally compiled after the events of the Saga took place, and we haven't seen any other Yoda like creature after ROTJ.

[Mad78]

I shall simply quote what the SW.com databank says

Yoda

Homeworld:

Unknown

 

Concerning the whills I found nothing on SW.com but CUSWE had this to say:

Whills

this was an ancient order of Force-sensitive beings, who supposedly died out generations before the birth of the Old Republic. It was believed that the shamans of the Whills could attain a unity with the Force that transcended death, allowing the shamans to influence the living world from beyond the grave. The ability could only be attained for oneself, and only through great compassion. Qui-Gon Jinn managed to discover the technique, and his spirit returned from dead years later to transfer the knowledge to Yoda and Obi-Wan Kenobi.

 

The Journal of the Whills

this legendary set of stories is believed to have been told by a higher order of beings, and recounted the events leading up to the advent of the New Order and continuing to tell the story of the Galactic Civil War. It was believed to have had either six or nine chapters, or episodes.

 

 

At no moment do they say that Yoda may be one.

[MDk]

Well, recently I am getting used, to look many questions about the Star Wars Universe at Wikipedia.com. I did it again with Yoda and the Whills, and I stepped over some points of interest:

 

1) The wise wikipedia says, that the species of Yoda and Co. are kept secret intentionally by George Lucas. Why, would he do something like this? Perhaps to make people discuss questions as we do right know. Or perhaps it might be something like a strange sense of humour. Wikipedia also says, that Lucas did negate Yoda being of a race called Whills.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoda

 

2) The enlightened wikipedia is naming "The Ancient Order of the Whills" as an organisation like the Jedi Order, a group of force users with different philosophies and traditions than the Jedi. However, that is not much know about the Whills.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Force_%28Star_Wars%29

 

3) The all knowing wikipedia mentioned, that the where quite a lot of working titles for "Star Wars: A New Hope". One of this working titles was "The Adventures of Luke Starkiller, As Taken form the 'Journals of the Whills' (Saga 1) Star Wars". This working title might be the source of many speculations about who the Whills might be, so that some fans did create a imagined link between Yoda and the Whills.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Working_title

[Defender_16]

Perhaps Lucas just didn't come up with the name of a species and doesn't really want to.

 

Lucas: "Damn fans always wanting to know about every little detail. Well screw them, I just won't tell them that I never came up with a name for Yoda's species."

My distraught Lucas impersonation.

[Mad78]

That theorie is actually rather convincing

[DarthTofu]

Yoda iss reallly just a hologram left behind. No, honestly. He started out as a living person, then left an artificial intelligance behind that pretended to be him, and taught Luke about the force... and pretended to be the real Yoda when it lifted Luke's X-wing out of the swamp... And dissapeared... Personally, I wonder if Yoda and Yaddle weren't test tube babies, or something. OSme experiment gone dreadfully wrong (or, possibly, right), mayhaps? I mean, since we never see anyone but Yaddle that is the same species as Yoda, we can logically assume that they are unique in the Universe. Galaxy, my bad, galaxy. Maybe the Yuzhan Vong left him behind! That's it... Except that he isn't void in the force... I'll stop contradicting myself, now, and let other people argue.

[Mad78]

... ... Well... I guess that is a theorie. But not one that i like much.

[DarthTofu]

It was more of a joke

[Mad78]

I had understood that.

[DarthTofu]

Oh. Your smily looked confused.