Why Yoda K!lled his Best Friend During the Clone Wars [Legends]

If you’ve been around Star Wars long enough, you know Yoda as the wise, unshakable Grand Master — the kind of Jedi who seems above the messy, painful choices war can bring. But there’s a Legends story that completely flips that image for me. 

In the chaos of the Clone Wars, Yoda was forced into a choice no Jedi should ever face — killing his oldest friend to prevent a greater loss of life. 

This story plays out in Star Wars: Clone Wars — The Best Blades, a one-shot comic from 2004 in the Legends timeline, and it remains one of the most quietly devastating chapters of the Grand Master’s life.

The war had reached the far-flung world of Thustra, home to the near-human Sephi. Two Jedi Generals had already fallen there, leaving only their padawans, Cal and Pix, to lead weary clone forces.

The Jedi Council sent Yoda himself — not to crush the Separatist threat, but to talk. The Sephi king, Alaric, had been Yoda’s friend for over two centuries. If anyone could bring Thustra back from the brink, it would be him.

Yoda came with words, not armies, hoping their history would succeed where blasters would only destroy.

But the king Yoda found was not the friend he remembered. Alaric believed the Republic had rotted from within — corrupted by greed, indifferent to the needs of its citizens. To him, joining the Separatists was not treason, but the only way to protect his people.

Their talks were private and tense. Alaric’s respect for Yoda had not vanished, but his faith in the Republic was gone. And in the background, another hand moved the pieces — Alaric’s ambitious nephew, Senator Navi, eager for power and ready to spill blood to get it.

Navi’s schemes soon ignited the spark. He spread lies, turning Padawan Pix against the king, and in the streets outside the palace, Republic clones clashed with Sephi guards. Amid the fighting, Padawan Cal was killed defending Yoda.

Yoda went alone to confront Alaric one final time. No soldiers, no witnesses — just two old friends on opposite sides of a war neither wanted. But Alaric had made up his mind. He drew a blaster, forcing Yoda into an impossible choice: defend himself and kill his friend, or let himself fall and watch more Republic soldiers die.

Yoda parries the shot, and the bolt takes Alaric instead. The King falls, whispering that Yoda remember their friendship “as it was.”

Navi’s duplicity is exposed later in the Senate, but it hardly matters to Thustra. The Republic withdraws; Thustra secedes; and Yoda leaves having “won” nothing—only confirmed what the war is costing, friend by friend, value by value. It’s one of the bleakest Yoda stories in Legends because he doesn’t out‑duel a Sith or outwit a tyrant—he survives a no‑win choice crafted by politics and pride.