There is a key moment in Attack of the Clones when Palpatine caught Yoda’s attention. We think that Yoda is on to Palpatine’s true intentions and that he will take some action. Yet, Yoda remains silent on the issue. Why didn’t he speak out about his suspicions? The dark side is behind the answer.
Palpatine Caught Yoda’s Attention
In Attack of the Clones, we saw Palpatine interrupt Padme and complete her sentence. This prior discussion about this topic includes a clip from the scene. What we are zeroing in on is how this clearly caught Yoda’s attention. He looks intrigued, puzzled, suspicious, and untrusty all at once.
Many posts in the above forum indicate how Yoda was “reacting to Palpatine’s opinion” and “contemplating” it. That the “sentence ending was very predictable” and didn’t require Force powers. Ultimately, Palpatine was showing his political skills, and that’s what caught Yoda’s attention.
A recent forum, though, suggests that “Yoda sensed, in his gut, that Palpatine was dangerous.” If that is the case, why didn’t Yoda speak up then or soon afterward? Yoda “may not have known he was the Sith, but he knew something was deeply wrong” and should have done something, but he didn’t act.
If we go with that line of thought, Yoda’s inaction is confusing. Yet, fans are on the right track when they point out how the Jedi and Yoda “had lost some of their collective abilities at this point, including sensing Darksiders.” Their vision had become clouded over by the dark side influence, and they were blind to what lurked within their sight.
That’s one possible answer. Another viable explanation coincides with the first Reddit board. Namely, Yoda suspected something was wrong, but more like Palpatine wanted political power, not that he’s the hidden Sith lord. In other words, Yoda was suspicious of Palpatine’s path to power, but not of him as the true enemy of the Jedi.
Why Didn’t Yoda Voice His Suspicions
Evidence abounds for the first explanation. Fans are familiar with the idea that Palpatine was able to cloud over the Jedi’s perception of him. Taking advantage of the Jedi belief that the Sith were extinct, Sidious drew on Force clouding, or “a cloaking technique employed by the Sith to conceal their true nature from the Jedi,” to hide his identity.
Moreover, diving deeper into the comics, Palpatine drew on “the residual power of the dark side of the Force from the Sith Shrine” that was buried beneath the Jedi Temple. His powers thus served to mask him as the Sith lord the Jedi sought, and Yoda briefly suspected something, but his vision became clouded over again.
The second way to explain why Yoda didn’t voice his suspicions is that he thought Palpatine was interested in ordinary political power. And, we can see how this explanation actually flows from the first one.
As a fan phrased it here, “Yoda didn’t trust Palpatine,” nor did the other Jedi, but “the Dark Side was clouding their ability to sense Palpatine’s true nature.” Instead, “they knew he was power-hungry and showed no signs of willingly returning wartime power granted to him” by the time of Revenge of the Sith.
In essence, Yoda sensed something in this exchange with Padme, but he was left to conclude that it had to do with Palpatine’s thirst for political power, not something grander. With their limited vision, Yoda and the others eventually came to think that “Palpatine was under the control of Sidious,” but not the Sith boss himself.
In addition, as fans across forums have indicated, if Yoda had said something at this interval in Attack of the Clones, he could have added to claims that the Jedi were working against the Republic. And, this claim is what Palpatine came to level at them.
We can remember that Palpatine had been working toward this moment for a long time. He had been convincing Senators of Jedi corruption long before he announced “the plot of the Jedi” against them and the Republic. If Yoda had voiced his concerns, he would have added fuel to this building fire.
Yoda Was Suspicious but Powerless to Act
Although Yoda suspected something was amiss when Palpatine interrupted Padme, he was powerless to act. That is, Yoda’s thoughts had been clouded over by Sidious, and he could only conclude that Palpatine sought political power. If he had expressed these views openly, however, Yoda could have been accused of plotting with the Jedi to take over the Senate.