Unarmed combat: Sidious vs Yoda

Sidious. He's said to have mastered a number of esoteric martial arts and taught Maul everything he knows. Sidious and Yoda should have a similar level of Force augmentation, so martial arts mastery and physical advantages such as height and reach should be enough for Sidious to take this.

@NotAA3

I never said the specific mechanics of Lightsaber combat translate into wrestling, so this explanation is totally pointless.

It isn't. You're using Yoda's performance in blade locks to determine how he'd perform against Palpatine physically when the threat of a lightsaber isn't present.

The two situations aren't comparable in terms of performance.

Speed and agility play a bigger part in lightsaber combat than pure physicality since a lightsaber fight normally ends with one strike.

I'm not familiar with the specific mechanics of wresting, but I'm sure if I Googled I could find multiple examples of a considerably smaller wrestler overcoming a bigger one through technical skill.

Not likely. There's a reason why we have Light Weight and Heavy Weight Divisions in Wrestling and Boxing.

Contrary to Hollywood's portrayal, sheer size and strength are often the determining factors in a fight, not skill.

Also, this is a not a unarmed fight, but wrestling match.

In a purely unarmed fight, I'd give Yoda a chance based on his speed and the claws he has on his feet and hands.

I'd still lean Palpatine, but that would entail different variables.

His body proportions don't favour H2H, sure, and he may not have spent the same percentage of his lifetime studying it as Palpatine has, but given that the little green freak has been alive for 900 years that's hardly disadvantageous for him.

It's visually apparent. Palpatine has reach, height, and weight advantages too great to overcome.

What if an Ewok faced a wookie in a basket ball match? Obviously the ewok loses.

Ewoks have dense muscle tissue, are very capable warriors in H2H combat with melee weapons and are stronger than the average human (a chimp can chew your face off and kill a man).

However, in basketball physicals matter. The wookie has the height and reach advantage.

Ewoks are not built for that kind of contest.

Your response in that thread based on your answers here would be that "I don't know how ewoks perform on a basketball court therefore I can't assume the wookie automatically wins".

Yoda is a 2 feet tall compared to Emperor's 5'9-510.


How is Yoda going to win with his stubby arms? How is he going to "pin" the Emperor down? How is he going to put him in an arm lock and make him submit with his small arms?

That's how you traditionally win a wrestling match. Submission or pin.

For what it's worth you can actually see a physical representation of their sizes as they lock up momentarily.

3:50

Given that I never claimed Yoda's power is "tied to his physicality" there's nothing to address here.

There's a broader point to that which is why I brought it up - Authorial Intent.

George Lucas created Yoda to be small and unimposing to demonstrate that while he was physically inferior to Luke he was much more powerful.

Given that Luke's knowledge of lightsaber combat and martial arts pales in comparison to Palpatine, logical inferences can be made.

Yoda was not intended to be a warrior in terms of H2H skills. That's literally the point of the character. Yoda was a great "warrior" because of his wisdom and his sheer strength in the Force despite his limited size.

In ATOC Yoda could get way with using a lightsaber because you don't need a strong physical skill set to use a lightsaber. You just need to be fast enough to land a single strike on an opponent.

There's a reason why in the Clone War animated series Yoda is never shown in a lot of physical combat outside of jumping around. It's not what he's made for.

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And the problem for me is that there isn't enough info to assess the outcome, given that the third variable is unknown.

You're over thinking something fairly obvious on visual inspection and one that's inherent in the concept and creation of Yoda by George Lucas.

You're seriously stating that Yoda who is half the size of the Emperor and at best equal to him with the Force could maybe pin or make the Emperor submit in a wrestling match.

You don't have enough information with all we know about these characters after 40 years because you haven't seen Yoda fist fight or wrestle?

This is a classic case of you're missing the forest for the trees:

An expression used of someone who is too involved in the details of a problem to look at the situation as a whole.

to not understand or appreciate a larger situation, problem, etc., because one is considering only a few parts of it

This has been fun, but I'm done with this thread now.

We'll agree to disagree on this one. I'll catch you on the next one.