Part 1 covered the lightsaber duel. This will cover the Force aspect and most importantly the final lightning battle. Without any further ado, let us get to it.
First, let's address the opening scene where Sidious blasts Yoda with lightning.
Sidious blasts Yoda across the room before he can put a defense.
Cut to 1:16 Yoda then Force blasts Sidious across the room.
Now some people take the beginning to mean Sidious is superior since he struck Yoda before he could react and could have finished him while he was down.
This however sort of runs in the face directors intent. First of all, much like Kenobi blitzing Maul, this is a clear instance of PIS. Yoda is perfectly capable of reacting to Sidious's lightning in the later portions of the fight and there's no in-universe reason for him to be taken off-guard. Moreover, as soon as Yoda gets up Yoda returns in kind and Sidious decides to not take a chance and cut his loses.
Most likely Lucas intended the scene to convey both Yoda and Sidious as equals hence both of them scoring hits on each other and Sidious deciding this battle was to close to risk everything on.
Some might argue that Yoda only scored a Force blast on Sidious because he was too engrossed in the moment and this is true to an extent, but there are several things to consider.
One, while I've maintained that Force barriers in TCW and PT are impassive and one needs to adopt an active guard stance - hence Anakin both being hit and deflecting TK from Ventress on Kamino, if we do go with the idea Force users can activate a Force shield quickly Sidious has no excuse. Let us compare Sidious's example with one from the Bane Trilogy:
"And therein lies the problem." Bane lashed out with the dark side, seizing Qordis in an immobilizing, crushing grip. His opponent tried to protect himself, throwing up a field to deflect the incoming assault, but Bane's attack tore through the pitiful defense, wiping it away as if it hadn't even been there." ~ Darth Bane: Path of Destruction
Qordis was on his knees offering fidelity to Bane, yet even when he was taken off-guard by Bane's sudden attack, he was still able to raise a Force barrier. If we are going by these mechanics Sidious has no excuse not to have raised a Force barrier in time.
Either way, it doesn't matter because in any case Sidious takes Yoda's attack very seriously and decides to cut his loses. If Yoda can only score a hit on Sidious because he was lucky why would Sidious flee? This is a clear indication both opponents are closely matched and Sidious can't just stomp Yoda with lightning whenever he wants.
So far Yoda and Sidious have each scored one hit on each other. No superiority for either side.
I already covered the duel in part 1 so we will cut straight to the most heavily contested portion - the lightning battle. Did Sidious truly overpower Yoda's Force barrier?
Before I make my case I'm going to briefly address a few secondary quotes often used to prove Yoda was overmatched:
Inside the spacious interior of the Galactic Senate chamber, Yoda challenged the Emperor. The two engaged in a spectacular duel—a contest between the most powerful practitioners of the Force’s Light and Dark Sides. The Emperor proved too powerful to defeat.
--The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia
The Jedi Master and the Sith Lord dueled in the Senate chamber, but Sidious was too strong for Yoda to defeat.
--Databank: Coruscant History Gallery
A fierce duel commenced. Yoda and Darth Sidious each used his side of the Force to try to defeat the other. But the Sith Lord's powers were too strong.
--Revenge of the Sith Canon junior novelization
Yoda went after Palpatine in the empty Senate chamber, but could not defeat the most powerful Sith Lord in history.
--The New Essential Chronology
His true criminal colors revealed after Order 66 wipes out the Jedi Order on a galactic scale, Chancellor Palpatine accepts the title of Darth Sidious and all that goes with it. Reveling in his power, he is challenged by a feisty Yoda in the empty Coruscant Senate chamber. It’s a furious, unprecedented battle royale, with both adversaries hurling and dodging chamber pods. Ultimately, an overmatched Yoda flees to fight another day.
--Star Wars Trading Card Game
Though Yoda is a tough combatant, the Emperor uses his Sith powers to release lightning bolts and hurl floating platforms at his foe. Ultimately the battle proves too much for Yoda, who barely escapes and is whisked away to safety by Senator Bail Organa.
--Ultimate Star Wars
Yoda confronted Sidious in the heart of the Senate chambers. This erupted into an intense duel between these masters of the Force, a fight that Yoda ultimately lost and was forced to flee.
--Databank: Yoda
Master Yoda made a last-ditch attempt to stop him, and their fight spilled over into the now-empty Senate rotunda. Darth Sidious overwhelmed Master Yoda with the destructive energy of the dark side, and the Jedi Master fled Coruscant.
--Databank: Emperor Palpatine/Darth Sidious
Yoda is eventually outmatched by Sidious.
--Revenge of the Sith Story Gallery
Most of these are just general summaries. Yoda lost because he failed his mission and failed to defeat Sidious. Moreover, as with the sources that say Dooku stalemated Yoda - when really Yoda was winning, Visual guides, trading cards games, and encyclopedias, have a tendency to oversimplify the general scenario. They aren't primary sources. They're helpful but if they contradict the Film and Novels we shouldn't beholden ourselves to them. I mean no one's going to argue Dooku is equal to Yoda as a Force user just because one third party source said so right?
Anyways onto the primary sources.
Sidious blasts Yoda's lightsaber out of his hands, while Yoda deflects Sidious's Force lightning.
3:38 - 3:45 Yoda is clearly on the losing end.
3:48 Yoda seems to have gained a second wind. Hence him going from visibly struggling to adopt a look of determination. And Sidious's face goes from being on the cusp of overpowering his enemy to outright shock and horror as he looses control.
Now going purely by the Film, I think it should be pretty obvious Sidious didn't overpower Yoda. Yoda lost in the end because he was sent flying along with Sidious via an explosion neither could control. Technically you can say Sidious won, but that's like me winning on Pokemon Showdown because my opponent lost due to inactivity. It don't mean I'm a better player, I just met the victory conditions, same with Sidious.
But there are many who insist that Sidious overpowered Yoda hence the cause of the explosion. Let's look at that for a moment. What happens when lighting overpowers a Force barrier? Let's look at some examples:
"Farfalla saw the Sith Lord turn toward him, sensing the intervention that had saved Raskta's life. Bane unleashed a barrage of Sith lightning, gathering and releasing his power at the speed of thought. The Jedi threw up a Force barrier to shield himself, but the electricity tore right through it and arced toward him. Then suddenly Raskta was there to save his life, repaying a debt that was only a few seconds old as she threw herself in front of him. Fueled by Worror's battle meditation, she switched styles seamlessly, and her arms and blades became a blur as they carved figure eights in the air to catch and absorb the bolts of dark side energy." ~ Darth Bane: Rule of Two
That's an example of lightning overpowering a barrier outright. Bane outright overpowered the barrier and Farfalla would have been dead had Raskta not blocked it with her lightsabers. He wasn't blown back by an explosion he couldn't control.
"Palpatine raised his spidery arms toward Luke: blinding white bolts of energy coruscated from his fingers, shot across the room like sorcerous lightning, and tore through the boy’s insides, looking for ground. The young Jedi was all at once confounded and in agony—he’d never heard of such a power, such a corruption of the Force, let alone experienced it. But if it was Force-generated, it could be Force-repelled. Luke raised his arms to deflect the bolts. Initially, he was successful—the lightning rebounded from his touch, harmlessly into the walls. Soon, though, the shocks came with such speed and power, they coursed over and into him, and he could only shrink before them, convulsed with pain, his knees buckling, his powers at ebb." ~ RotJ SN
Even here when Luke was initially successful, when lightning overpowered his barrier it didn't cause an explosion and throw the Emporer back - it simply tore through and struck Luke.
"As MACE stares at ANAKIN in shock, PALPATINE springs to life. The full force of PALPATINE's powerful Bolts blasts MACE. He attempts to deflect them with his one good hand, but the force is too great. As blue rays engulf his body, he is flung out the window and falls twenty stories to his death. No more screams. No more moans. PALPATINE lowers his arm." ~ RotS Script
When Sidious overpowers Mace's Force barrier it simply tears through and engulfs him with electricity. Same movie as the Yoda example. That doesn't happen with Yoda. His barrier isn't torn through and he isn't engulfed in electricity like the above examples. The difference between overpowering an opponent and losing control of your power.
If Sidious overpowered Yoda's Force barrier it would have torn through and blasted him with lighting just like the above examples. It didn't it just overloaded and caused an explosion that sent both flying. It was a stalemate. Force lighting doesn't send both combatants flying when one overpowers the others barrier.
Now let's look at the Novels. First I will address the Senior Novel as it is the one most used to prove Sidious overpowered Yoda.
"It came when Yoda found himself alone against the dark.
In that lightning-speared tornado of feet and fists and blades and bashing machines, his vision finally pierced the darkness that had clouded the Force.
Finally, he saw the truth.
This truth: that he, the avatar of light, Supreme Master of the Jedi Order, the fiercest, most implacable, most devastatingly powerful foe the darkness had ever known...
just-
didn't-
have it.
He'd never had it. He had lost before he started.
He had lost before he was born.
The Sith had changed. The Sith had grown, had adapted, had invested a thousand years' intensive study into every aspect of not only the Force but Jedi lore itself, in preparation for exactly this day. The Sith had remade themselves.
They had become new.
While the Jedi-
The Jedi had spent that same millenium training to refight the last war.
The new Sith could not be destroyed with a lightsaber; they could not be burned away by any torch of the Force. The brighter his light, the darker their shadow. How could one with a war against the dark, when war itself had become the dark's own weapon?
He knew, at that instant, that this insight held the hope of the galaxy. But if he fell here, that hope would die with him. Hmmm, Yoda thought. A problem this is..." ~ RotS SN
Several things: One this is in-universe and Yoda's perspective. Matthew Stover also wrote Mace as having a self-deprecating view of himself in regards to Vaster and Bilaba, yet by feats in his own work, it's questionable if Mace is correct. Two this doesn't conflict with the Film portrayal of Yoda initially loosing but later regaining the initiative. Three this passage is a literary device called metaphor, you may have remembered learning it in your high school English class. Metaphors aren't meant to be taken literally. This passage isn't just referring to Yoda and Sidious's physical fight. The metaphor is in reference for how the Sith as a whole has evolved and how the Jedi Order failed because they have become complacent. Obviously, Sidious can still be killed by a lightsaber, he's still a mortal. Stover himself admitted that he wanted to downplay the physical aspect and focus on the internal narrative.
"The end came with astonishing suddenness. The shadow could feel how much it cost the little green freak to bend back his lightnings into the cage of energy that enclosed them both; the creature had reached the limits of his strength. The shadow released its power for an instant, long enough only to whirl away through the air and alight upon one of the delegation pods as it flew past, and the creature leapt to follow—
Half a second too slow.
The shadow unleashed its lightning while the creature was still in the air, and the little green freak took its full power. The shock blasted him backward to crash against the podium, and he fell.
He fell a long way." ~ RotS SN
The first part is accurate to the Movie - Sidious really does push Yoda to the edge of his limits. However, even here Sidious doesn't outright overpower his barrier. "The Shadow released its power for an instant". Sidious pulls off his attack and leaps for the pods, then he zaps Yoda when he leaps after him. When you are attacking, particularly if you are in mid-air and in less of a position to defend yourself, you are more susceptible to counterattacks. Moreover, the act drained Sidious and he didn't have to endure a 100-meter fall like Yoda:
"The base of the Arena was a hundred meters below, littered with twisted scraps and jags of metal from the pods destroyed in the battle, and as the little green freak fell, finally, above, the victorious shadow became once again only Palpatine: a very old, very tired man, gasping for air as he leaned on the pod’s rail."~ RotS SN
In anycase the Senior Novel's version of Yoda being blasted with lightning is contradicted by the Film. Nor does it's passage confirm Sidious overpowered Yoda's Force barrier.
Now let's look to the Junior Novel:
"Yoda caught it. The blue energy built into a glowing ball in his hand, ready to throw back at the Sith Lord the moment his attack stopped. But Palpatine didn't stop; the Force lightning came in a steady crackle, building more and more, until neither of them could hold it any longer, and the blast knocked them both out of the pod. Palpatine was larger and heavier; he managed to catch hold of the edge of the pad as he fell. But Yoda was small and light. The explosion threw him high into the air, with nothing to grab to break his fall. Half-stunned, he began the long fall to the Senate floor." ~ RotS JN
The author makes a clear it was a stalemate and that neither could control the explosion. If Sidious overpowered Yoda only Yoda would have been sent flying and he would have been blasted with lighting.
Now let's look at the Script, Lucas's own words:
"YODA leaps after him, but PALPATINE quickly turns and aims the full force of his energy bolts at the tiny green Jedi, catching him in mid-air and throwing him back hard against the Podium. The force causes YODA to drop his lightsaber. YODA blocks the lightning and throws PALPATINE backwards off the podium. YODA is knocked off the Podium and falls several hundred feet to the base of the Podium. PALPATINE follows in his pod, searching for YODA." ~ RotS Script
Interestingly the G-Canon Script actually suggests Yoda initiated the explosion, not Sidious overpowering his barrier - "Yoda blocks the lighting and throws Palpatine backwards". Honestly, this actually lines up with the Film portrayal of Yoda's determined look after he regains his composer and Sidious's loss of control right before the explosion occurs.
So no Sidious didn't overpower Yoda. G-Canon and C-Canon say otherwise.
This doesn't diminish Sidious. He still pushed Yoda to his limits and his RotJ-DE Scaling still puts him over him. This isn't a blow to his Holiness.
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