There is a Star Wars timeline where the Battle of Yavin does not end with a victory ceremony. The Death Star survives, Leia falls into Imperial hands, and Luke disappears long enough for the whole galaxy to change. Five years later, those broken pieces come back together over Coruscant. What follows gives Yoda one final mission that is nothing like his last fight with Darth Sidious in the films.
This Is An Official Alternate Story, Not Canon
The story is Star Wars: Infinities – A New Hope, a four-issue Dark Horse comic released in 2001. It was officially licensed, but it was created as a non-continuity experiment. It is not part of current Star Wars Canon, and it does not belong to the normal Legends timeline either.
That distinction matters because the comic changes one event and follows the damage from there. Luke Skywalker fires his proton torpedoes during the Battle of Yavin, but they detonate too early. The blast damages the Death Star without destroying it. The station fires on Yavin 4 at reduced power, devastates the Rebel base, and leaves the Empire in control of the battle.
The failure breaks Luke. He believes he has helped destroy the Rebellion, and his anger nearly turns him against Han Solo. Obi-Wan Kenobi’s spirit pulls him back before he goes too far and sends him to Dagobah. Luke begins training under Yoda much earlier than he does in The Empire Strikes Back.
Leia’s path moves in the opposite direction. The Empire captures her, takes her to Coruscant, and places her within Palpatine’s reach. Darth Vader begins shaping her into a dark-side apprentice while Luke remains hidden.
Five Years Give The Empire Time To Win
The story jumps ahead five years. The Rebellion has been crushed as an organized force, the Empire has tightened its grip on the galaxy, and the surviving Death Star has been renamed the Justice Star. Palpatine uses it above Coruscant as a symbol of permanent Imperial order.
Leia is now serving the regime. She has been trained in the dark side, but she has also convinced the dying Emperor to restore the Imperial Senate. It looks like political progress, yet the new body is filled with Imperial loyalists and cannot challenge the power behind it.
Luke has spent those same years with Yoda. Instead of rushing away from Dagobah after a few weeks of training, he has grown into a far more controlled Jedi. His final test forces him to face fear without letting fear choose his actions. The change becomes crucial when he meets Leia again, because winning will require him to refuse the fight Palpatine wants.
Han and Chewbacca discover that Leia is alive after seeing an Imperial broadcast. They return to Dagobah, where Yoda finally tells Luke the two truths that Obi-Wan kept from him: Darth Vader is his father, and Leia is his sister. The rescue mission that follows is therefore more than an attack on the Empire. Luke is going to recover the family Palpatine has torn apart.
Yoda Stops Acting Like A Hermit
Yoda knows he cannot remain on Dagobah while Luke handles everything. He tells Luke that he has been a teacher for a long time, but for the last time he will be a soldier of the Force.
The group divides its work. Luke, Han, and Chewbacca head toward the Imperial Palace to reach Leia. Yoda and R2-D2 board the Justice Star. Yoda does not attack the battle station with a fleet or fight through its corridors with a lightsaber. He walks into the heart of the weapon and uses the Empire’s obedience against itself.
Admiral Tarkin is commanding the station. Yoda reaches him and applies a Jedi mind trick powerful enough to make Tarkin accept him as an expected guest. Under Yoda’s influence, Tarkin gives him a tour and demonstrates the station’s systems. That access allows Yoda and R2-D2 to take control of the same machine that ended the Rebellion.
This is the key to Yoda’s victory. He does not suddenly become stronger than Sidious after years on Dagobah. He wins because he understands what Palpatine built. The Empire depends on fear, strict command, and enormous machines controlled by a small number of officers. Once Tarkin’s judgment is compromised, that concentration of power becomes a weakness.
Luke Refuses Palpatine’s Trap
Inside the palace, Luke finds Leia beside Darth Vader and Emperor Palpatine. Sidious gives Leia a lightsaber and pushes the twins into combat. His plan is simple: make them fight, feed their anger, and keep whichever Skywalker survives.
Luke refuses to follow the script. He shuts off his lightsaber and tells Leia the truth about their family. Palpatine tries to turn that truth into another weapon, but Luke asks Leia to trust what she can feel. She senses that he is not lying and stops fighting him.
The moment also changes Vader. He finally understands that he has both a son and a daughter standing in front of him. When Palpatine attacks Luke and Leia with Force lightning, Vader turns on his master. He grabs Sidious and tries to strangle him, giving his children time to escape.
This is not the same redemption shown in Return of the Jedi. Anakin makes the same basic choice, his children over the Emperor, but here Sidious is ready for him. Palpatine kills Anakin before Vader can finish the attack.
Anakin still accomplishes something important. Luke and Leia leave the throne room together, Han recovers C-3PO, and the group reaches the Millennium Falcon. Vader cannot kill the Emperor himself, but his last act keeps the twins alive long enough for Yoda’s plan to reach its final stage.
Yoda Turns The Justice Star Against The Empire
While the Skywalkers confront Palpatine, Yoda uses the Justice Star’s superlaser against the Imperial fleet. Warships that once protected the battle station are destroyed by their own ultimate weapon. Imperial crews eventually disable the station’s weapon systems, but by then the fleet has already been torn apart.
Palpatine contacts Yoda and mocks him. The Emperor believes the crisis is ending because his troops have stopped the superlaser. He orders Yoda to come and face him.
Yoda is already coming.
With R2-D2 helping control the station, Yoda sends the Justice Star down toward Coruscant. The battle station crashes into the Imperial Palace and kills Sidious. Yoda, R2, and Tarkin also die in the impact, while Anakin has already fallen during his attack on the Emperor. The Empire’s greatest weapon destroys the Emperor’s seat of power, and the Jedi Master gives his life to make sure Palpatine cannot escape.
This is why the title needs one correction. Yoda does kill Sidious, but there is no second lightsaber duel. In the main film story, their Senate battle ends with Yoda forced to retreat. In this alternate story, Yoda does not try to win the same kind of fight again. He turns the Justice Star into a planet-sized battering ram and brings it straight to Palpatine’s window.
The comic does not show every Imperial governor surrendering at the exact moment of impact. It presents Palpatine’s death, the destruction of the Justice Star, and the loss of the fleet as the blow that causes the Empire to fragment. The story then moves forward to a galaxy where the Empire has fallen.
The Ending Yoda Bought With His Life
The final pages move to Naboo years later. Leia has become Supreme Chancellor of the New Republic and is working to restore peace and justice. Her return from the dark side is complete, and Luke stands beside her as a Jedi rather than as the brother she was ordered to kill.
R2-D2 also returns. Before joining Yoda aboard the Justice Star, his memories were copied into the Millennium Falcon’s computer. Those memories are later installed in a replacement body, allowing him to reunite with C-3PO.
Luke and Leia then see the spirits of Obi-Wan Kenobi, Yoda, and Anakin Skywalker. Anakin appears redeemed after choosing his children over Sidious. Yoda appears after making sure their future could exist at all.
The strangest part of this ending is how perfectly Yoda defeats Palpatine without defeating him in combat. Sidious spends years turning the Death Star into a monument to fear. Yoda takes control of that monument, destroys the fleet around it, and drops it on the man who built the Empire around himself. In the films, Yoda’s final victory is preparing Luke to confront the Sith. In this alternate ending, he becomes a soldier one last time and personally removes Sidious from the board.