Twenty-one years ago today, Yoda: Dark Rendezvous by Sean Stewart dropped into the Star Wars Expanded Universe and immediately earned its reputation as one of the smartest, weirdest, and most heartfelt Clone Wars stories ever put to paper. It’s the rare Legends novel that fans still talk about with that “No, seriously, you have to read this one” energy—and for good reason. Released in 2004, the book stands as a shining example of just how rich Star Wars storytelling could be long before the Disney era. And now, at 21 years old, this chaotic, philosophical, occasionally unhinged little masterpiece deserves some celebration. Yoda at His Best (and Funniest) Most stories treat Yoda like a mystical space oracle, dropping cryptic wisdom between dramatic pauses. Dark Rendezvous flips that. Sean Stewart presents Yoda as: It’s Yoda at maximum personality—still wise, still deadly, but so much more alive than his usual “talk in…
