Dagobah: Difference between revisions

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Dagobah is both a planet and the system in which it resides, in the Star Wars universe. It appears in the films The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. It also makes an appearance in a deleted scene from Revenge of the Sith.

Dagobah, in the Sluis sector, is a world of murky swamps, steaming bayous, and petrified gnarltree forests. The ubiquitous white spiders that roam the swamps are actually newly sprouted seedlings of the gnarltrees that will take root and grow.

After the extermination of the Jedi and his subsequent failure to defeat Darth Sidious and save the republic, Jedi Master Yoda went into voluntary exile on Dagobah. Here, Yoda lived near a cave strong with the dark side of the Force which balanced out his good side and kept him from detection by the Emperor. In The Empire Strikes Back, Luke Skywalker is visited on the ice planet Hoth by the ghost of Obi-Wan Kenobi, who tells him to seek Yoda on Dagobah to be trained as a Jedi. Skywalker flies to Dagobah with R2-D2 in his X-wing after Darth Vader and his stormtroopers overrun the Rebel Alliance base on Hoth. Skywalker leaves Dagobah early to attempt to rescue Han Solo, Princess Leia, and Chewbacca who he feels are in danger on the planet Bespin. Skywalker also briefly returns to Dagobah in Return of the Jedi, in which he has a final conversation with Yoda, and speaks extensively to Obi-Wan Kenobi's ghost about the conflicting stories of Luke's parentage.

In Revenge of the Sith, Yoda spoke of going into exile, following his retreat from the battle with Darth Sidious. The film did not show how Yoda came to the planet in its theatrical version; however, this was portrayed in a deleted scene that George Lucas says was removed so that Revenge would not have "too many endings". The scene of Yoda arriving on Dagobah was rumored to be reinserted into the DVD release of the film in November 2005, however, the film's theatrical cut has been transferred to DVD intact, with the "Exile to Dagobah" scene featured in the "Deleted Scenes" section on Disc II instead. In the novel of the movie, it is stated that Yoda went to Dagobah in an escape pod launched from Bail Organa's starcruiser.

Although Luke Skywalker had never visited Dagobah at any time in his life, having been delivered to the Lars family by Obi-Wan Kenobi, in The Empire Strikes Back he sensed a familiarity with the planet. This familiarity could possibly have been due to sensing Yoda's presence. Whilst not yet a Jedi, the Force was strong with Luke. Yoda was present at Luke's birth, so Luke could have retained a vestigial sense of his presence from that time. Alternatively, Luke may have had the affinity of sensing the presence of any Jedi in his proximity.

Dagobah appears to be a harsh, humid environment, mostly covered in water. It is inhabited by many predators, including reptiles such as snakes, lizards, and bats and others that are actually portrayed by a monitor lizard. None of these build or use tools; Yoda is the only civilized (and possibly only sentient) inhabitant. Given Lucas's penchant for portraying planets as a uniform environment, one can assume that the swampy marshland that surrounds Yoda's hut is representative of the entire planet.

In the Expanded Universe, a Jedi of Yoda's race confronted a Bpfasshi Dark Jedi on Dagobah some millennia before the events in The Empire Strikes Back. Eventually, the Jedi defeated the Dark Jedi, who died on Dagobah. The cave where the Dark Jedi died became strong in the dark side of the Force, and Yoda used this spot to hide from the Emperor and Darth Vader. This is a retcon of an earlier idea that Yoda himself slew a Dark Jedi there, causing the cave to become evil, since this explanation was contradicted by the Clone Wars animated series, which portrayed Qui Gon Jinn (via a flashback) taking the child Anakin to the cave to be tested, as Luke would later be, and the evil presence was there at that time as well.

During the events of Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy for the PC, a team of Jedi Knights from the New Jedi Order visit Dagobah. However, it, like many other sites high in Force energy, has been drained in its dark Force power, leaving it less volatile and lush.

After the events of Episode VI, the New Republic founds a military base on one of the greatest mountains of the planet, named Mount Yoda in memory and in honor of the great Jedi Master.^{[citation needed]}, although the books where this happens are usually considered non-canonical.

This article contains a list of miscellaneous information. Please relocate any relevant information into other sections or articles. (February 2008)

• The word Dagobah comes from a Sri Lankan term for a Buddhist stupa, or reliquary monument.

• In Cracked magazine's parody The Empire Strikes Out, Dagobah becomes the planet Doggybag. Obi-Wan Kenobi appears to Luke Skywalker on Hoth, to bring him a travel brochure. (Luke finds Yoda in the Doggybag swamps, perched on a stove: "Haven't you ever seen a gnome on the range?")

• After the release of The Phantom Menace a tongue-in-cheek theory started circulating in fandom that Dagobah was a war-ravaged Naboo. This theory was disproven by the DVD version of Return of the Jedi.

• In the Futurama video game, the planet Bogad is a parody of Dagobah (remove the last two letters and spell Dagobah backwards and you get Bogad). On the planet lives Adoy, an obvious parody of Yoda (again, spell Yoda backwards and you get Adoy) with a memory problem.

• In an episode of Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Shake claims to come from the Dagobah System (Episode: Diet).

• In a scene from Family Guy-The Blue Harvest, the planet Dagobah is explored in an attempt to find a master who can teach the Family how to use their powers.

• Dagobah in the StarWars.com Databank
• Dagobah on Wookieepedia, a Star Wars wiki