Star Wars fans conflicted as Yoda's 'real name' revealed in prequel

It turns out that Star Wars might have revealed Yoda’s real name years ago, and fans are pretty torn.

Yoda is one of Star Wars’ most mysterious characters. He’s lived for 900 years, and there’s still so little we know about his past prior to the films.

Small elements of Yoda’s backstory have been filled in thanks to expanded stories and spin-offs, particularly when it comes to Legends material (Disney’s naming device for older Star Wars content that is no longer canon).

In Star Wars Tales #16, a comic titled "Heart of Darkness" featured what appears to be Yoda fighting a Dark Jedi on Dagobah, in an apparent prequel to the Jedi Master’s younger days.

However, Yoda is referred to as “Minch” in this tale, and it’s currently unknown if this is meant to actually be Yoda or a different character entirely.

For starters, the official publisher summary describes this as “a story from Yoda's past”, so it would stand to reason that Minch is actually Yoda.

To add more credence to this theory, the original story treatment for Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back gave Yoda the name “Minch Yoda”, before it was eventually shortened to just “Yoda”.

However, Lucasfilm has denied the claims that Minch and Yoda are the same character, despite the evidence suggesting otherwise. After Legends continuity was created, Minch was also added to The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia, giving him canon status.

Awkwardly, this creates a bit of a fumble in the timeline, because of how similar Minch and Yoda both are as characters.

“Thanks to this stupid retcon, now there are two events in which two separate members of Yoda's species (one of them being Yoda) pursue and defeat an evil Bpffashi leader on Dagobah,” reads one comment on Reddit.

“Which is much stupider than just.. saying that the event depicted in the comic is what it was meant to be, the story of young Yoda pursuing and killing the Bpfasshi leader on Dagobah.”

They also point out a similar inconsistency with regards to Ahsoka and Bail Organa, confirming that the Star Wars continuity can be a wishy-washy wave of nonsense sometimes.

Another fan writes: “I’m sure there’s plenty of reasons why it can’t be that I haven’t thought of, but in my headcanon, this IS a young Yoda adventure still.”

Whether or not you believe that Yoda’s real name is Minch, or that Minch is a separate character entirely, the truth is that after nearly 50 years of continuity, you’re bound to run into these kinds of retcons from time-to-time.