It means that lifting spaceships with your brain doesn’t work very well if you’re doing it half-heartedly. Luke’s choice of words betrayed his lack of confidence, which is why Yoda corrected him. At the end of the scene Yoda explicitly states that the reason Luke failed was because he didn’t believe that he could do it.
In the Product Placement version of Star Wars, Yoda will be shown holding a can of Mountain Dew in one hand and a generic cola in the other.
“Dew, or Dew Not. There is no trei.”
The dialogue in ESB is so sharp that even the presence of Muppets doesn’t diminish the movie.
"Moichandising!
Kind of like Yoda did, or did not, defeat Palpatine in the light saber duel just a few years before, when the universe was also at stake? Or did Yoda merely try to defeat Palpatine?
Hey, I didn’t write these movies.
Its a mental thing. He didnt go into the fight with Palpy thinking he was going try his best. He went in thinking he was the best damned jedi in the galaxy and was going to kick some ass. That he lost simply means Palpatine had the advantage.
All yoda was saying with the do or do not speech was if you let the possibility of failure enter your heart, you most certainly will fail. Apparently the force doesnt work if you don’t believe in it.
See, that’s the thing. In ESB, Yoda is a bitter, defeated old man. He failed to detect a Sith Lord, gaining power directly under his nose, despite repeated contact, despite all the events leading up to that point. He played right into it.
When the shit hit the fan, he failed to take out Palpatine, thus enabling the further existence of the Empire and the death of all he’d lived for.
So he chose the most god forsaken shithole of a planet to live on, all alone without any natives, in penance for his sins.
That’s why he’s so tough on Luke. All the Jedi failed and died. He failed and lived. There is only one last hope, Vader’s child. And the bitter old muppet has only a short period of time to train this boy to face his father, after the only other old Jedi he knows of was killed by Vader.
It also explains why Yoda dies in RotJ. He’s held onto life just long enough to complete Luke’s training. He’s done the only thing he can do to atone for his own failures.
There is success, and there is failure. If you fail, do not expect to be congratulated because you “tried.” There is no try.
You’ll do yourself a great service to watch more Muppets.
The writing staff for the Muppets are quite sharp and were especially so during the period we’re discussing. I happen to agree with those posting here that there was some great dialogue in The Empire Strikes Back, but compare it to The Great Muppet Caper, which came out the following year. If we’re critiquing dialogue, Caper leaves Empire in the dust.
Piggy: Why are you telling me all this?
Lady Holiday: It’s plot exposition, it has to go somewhere.
my fav. line is vader’s “all too easy.” i use it when ever i trick the cats. (which is not too easy sometimes.)
Sound of all the muppets in the room arguing amongst themselves until they’re shhhhhed into silence by Kermit except Janice who is still arguing
Janice: Look mother if I want to go and join a love group and hang around all day naked them that’s MY decision, okay?
My understanding is that Lawrence Kasdan wrote the bulk of the movie, and credit was given to Leigh Brackett (who died after completing a rough first draft) only out of respect and kindness. Kasdan has said that he bareluy read her draft.
Willard and Gloria Hyuck have recently been acknowledged as writing a lot of the dialogue for the original “Star Wars” (A New Hope, and all that). I’ve never heard of a source stating that they contributed anything to ESB.
Sir Rhosis
It means that, when you add it all up, the results from trying something and failing are the same as not doing it at all. Harsh, perhaps, but there’s a real point there.
Exactly.
Luke (the punk) Skywalker: I’m not afraid.
Yoda: Eh? You will be, you will be!
Point taken. I should not have implied that Muppets and good dialogue are mutually exclusive. That was wrong of me. However, I feel strongly that Lucas later turned to Muppetry as a substitute for good dialogue. Muppets, like midgets, are a tool that can be used for good, or for evil.
Hmm, you’re right. I misread the paragraph I was looking at.
That’s the point, isn’t it? Yoda, in the “latter” episodes is an almost mythical being, who can’t fail. But the characterization of the “early” episodes turns him into a liar who pushes Luke past the point he was able to attain himself.
The same happens to Obi Wan Kenobi, (even though he was characterized pretty inconsistently even in the “latter” 3 episodes).
Over all? Lucas never really had an overarching story to tell. He was making it up as he went along.
It’s unfortunate that this line was cut from Episode One.
A moronic attitude for real life, but I can see its point in that particular story.