After the horrid betrayal of the Clone Troopers in Order 66, Master Yoda was forced to go into exile on the swampy world of Dagobah to both hide and to reflect on his failure as leader. In his exile, Yoda made a promise to himself that would alter the way he lived for the rest of his life, turning away from his old Jedi ways… So lets break down why Yoda vowed to never use a lightsaber again after Order 66.

So the story begins at Yoda’s hut on the misty surface of Dagobah. Inside, Yoda is sleeping and just like every night since he arrived on the planet, his dreams are clouded by the dark side. He is haunted by the emotions of anger, hate and suffering. This jolts the old Grandmaster out of his bed, and he realizes that the dark side surrounds Dagobah in ways he has never felt before.

After this, Yoda leaves his home to begin gathering food for the day. The trek is extremely long and harsh, even for an agile force user such as himself.

Following this, Yoda comes across a heard of creatures which he knew would make a perfect meal. At this point though, Yoda was stopped in his tracks by his memories of the old Order, completely stunned in silence.

Yoda would usually just ignite his green shoto-lightsaber and charge after the creatures, but at this point in his life that was no longer an option. Some time after arriving on Dagobah, Yoda vowed to never use his lightsaber to hunt for food as it would devalue the weapon of a Jedi. On top of this, he didn’t feel that he was worthy to hold such a weapon after his failure, which led to the Jedi Order being wiped out. He admits that he was blind and arrogant during his time as the Grand Master. Yoda believed he had to repent for his failures, and as a result, he gave himself the punishment of never using a Jedi’s blade again. So from that point on wards, he vowed to never wield another lightsaber, no matter what… Even though he had a second saber stashed inside of his hut. We know his first one was stolen away and melted down by Mas Amedda in the Darth Vader comics, but he did keep one on Dagobah, which eventually ended up with Luke Skywalker and Grogu.