History Literature / DarkRendezvous

[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/yoda_dark_rendezvous_cover.jpg]]

->''"Tomorrow, go you must, into the darkness between the stars. But home always will this place be. If ever lost you are, look back into this garden. A candle will I light, for you to find your way home."''
-->-- '''Yoda''', to young Dooku

''Yoda: Dark Rendezvous'' is a Franchise/StarWarsLegends novel by Sean Stewart. Thirty months after [[Film/AttackOfTheClones the Battle of Geonosis]], [[FallenHero Count Dooku]] sends a message to [[BigGood Master Yoda]], claiming to be tired of a war that has spun out of control and caused untold devastation to the galaxy. Dooku offers to meet with Yoda in person to negotiate an end to the conflict, and despite the likelihood of treachery, Yoda decides that the possibility of ending the war and redeeming his former apprentice is worth the risk.

The book delves into the complex relationship between Dooku and Yoda, as well as some of the philosophical differences between the Force and its dark side. There's also a related B-plot that involves two young Jedi apprentices named [[TheDeterminator Scout]] and [[BornWinner Whie Malreaux]], both of whom have their own struggles to deal with even as they and their Masters are assigned to join Yoda's titular dark rendezvous with Dooku on the planet [[DeathWorld Vjun]].

Also, despite the title, there are a number of light-hearted and humorous scenes in the book involving "goofball Yoda," which harken back to the scene in ''Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack'' when Luke Skywalker first meets Yoda.

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!!''Yoda: Dark Rendezvous'' provides examples of the following tropes:
* ActionFilmQuietDramaScene: A standout is Scout and Whie's discussion of his two recent [[DreamingOfThingsToCome prophetic dreams]] while they're fixing the ship, and whether (as Whie believes) they indicate that he will fall to the dark side.
* TheAllegedCar: After Ventress attacks a spaceport to get to them, Yoda's party buys a used freighter rather than continue to rely on public transportation. Yoda insists on using as little of the Temple's money as possible, and they end up with a piece of junk so old it can't even get off the ground until the Padawans spend a whole day repairing it.
* AllThereInTheManual: Supplementary material divulges that Scout is close friends with [[WesternAnimation/StarWarsTheCloneWars Ahsoka Tano]], [[AlphaBitch Hanna]] is actually terrified that she will die on the battlefield and lashes out at Scout in an attempt to cover for it, and Whie is actually the young boy that [[spoiler:Anakin is seen killing in the holo recording during ''Film/RevengeOfTheSith'']].
* TheAntiNihilist: Surprisingly, perhaps, Yoda expresses this philosophy in response to Whie's angst over Ventress's nihilism. Yoda admits that in his darkest moments he doubts that the Force has a greater hope for the galaxy, but then, what difference does that make? One must live life to the fullest anyway.
-->'''Yoda:''' Grief in the galaxy, is there? Oh, yes. Oceans of it. Worlds. And darkness? ''[points to a star map]'' There you see: darkness, darkness everywhere, and a few stars. A few points of light. If no plan there is, no fate, no destiny, no providence, no Force: then what is left? Nothing but our choices, ''hmm''?
* ArmorPiercingQuestion:
** Ventress asks one to Dooku about his relationship with Sidious. Despite his charisma, Dooku can't come up with any response, and changes the subject.
--->'''Ventress:''' Fine, fine, take your shots. You're just buying time now, because I'm right. Ask yourself one question--ask it from the dark side, look at it clear-eyed, Count. Your master uses you now because he is beset by dangers. ''What happens when you are the most dangerous being left standing?''
** Yoda also has one for Dooku, regarding himself and Sidious, which Dooku again is unable to answer:
--->'''Yoda:''' Which of us loves you better?
* BadassBoast: Yoda gets a couple. He tells Dooku that not killing him when he had a chance was a mistake.
-->'''Yoda:''' Eight hundred years has Yoda survived, through dangers you could not dream.\\
'''Dooku:''' I know how to kill!\\
'''Yoda:''' Yes, but Yoda knows how to live!
* BadBoss: Darth Sidious embodies this trope, in a spectacular combination of MeanBoss, ManipulativeBastard, and ForTheEvulz, as he plays cruel mind games with Dooku throughout the novel:
-->“Ridiculous?” his Master had said, in that soft, terrible voice of his. “I hardly think so.” And then, his voice like honeyed poison, “A good student always loves his teacher.”
-->There was always a risk, talking with Sidious. Sometimes the conversation would go badly, and Dooku would fail to please somehow. It was a terrible thing, failing to please his Master.
* BatmanGambit:
** The book's premise is this. Dooku and Sidious rely on Yoda's enduring affection for Dooku and earnest desire to end the Clone Wars to orchestrate the rendezvous on Vjun with the goal of corrupting or killing the Jedi Master.
** It's also implied that Palpatine pushing Mace Windu to send Anakin to Vjun is really Sidious pulling this on Dooku--he knows Yoda has a fair chance of redeeming Dooku, so he sends Anakin (whom the Count is jealous of) to spoil the process. [[TheBadGuyWins It works.]]
** Yoda haggles to buy a ship at an excellent price, with a number of excellent qualities. The one thing it doesn't do is fly, requiring the Padawans to fix it up. This gives them heavy manual labor to do, which will in turn wear them out enough that they'll have something to focus on other than losing their Masters, and when they go to sleep they'll be tired enough to crash without dreaming.
* BeingEvilSucks:
** A running theme throughout the novel. Despite Dooku's political influence, extraordinary wealth, prodigious skill, and extraordinary Force power... he's a perpetually miserable pawn in his Master's schemes. As he himself muses:
---> He imagined Yoda tumbling through the air, bloody and insensible, dashing his brains out on the flagstones far below. Then it would all be mercifully over and Dooku wouldn’t have to feel this strange, jumbled confusion. His hands would stop shaking and he would be dry inside and tight: dry and tight and empty as a drum, just a drum for Darth Sidious to play. How easy that would be.
** Similarly, despite how powerful and deadly Ventress is, she in turn is nothing more than just a useful tool for Dooku. And deep down, she knows it.
--->'''Ventress:''' [Sidious is] going to use you up, Count. He’ll drain the blood from you and throw you aside. He’ll pick someone younger, weaker, easier to influence.\\
'''Dooku:''' Someone like you?\\
'''Ventress:''' I wish. No, when you go, I’ll be swept aside. I’m just one of your creatures to him. Maybe to you, too. Loyalty runs stronger up than it does down, in case you hadn’t noticed.
** Despite all the might of the Dark Side, it still can't create anything beautiful.
--->'''Yoda:''' I want... I want a rose.\\
'''Dooku:''' Be serious.\\
'''Yoda:''' Serious am I! Another rose, make for me!\\
'''Dooku:''' The dark side springs from the heart. It isn't a handbook for cheap conjuror's tricks.\\
'''Yoda:''' But like this trick, do I! The trick that brings the flower from the ground. The trick that sets the sun on fire.
** The BadassBoast duel they have later really sums it up:
--->'''Dooku:''' I know how to kill!\\
'''Yoda:''' Yes, but Yoda knows how to live!
* BewareTheSillyOnes: Yoda is funny, and silly, and eccentric, and has very strange taste in food...but he's also a master of the Force and the lightsaber, and you ''really'' don't want to invoke his wrath.
* BigBad: Darth Sidious, natch.
* BilingualBonus: Chateau Malreaux. Also a [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast name to run away from]], since "Malreaux" is only a few letters away from "malheureux", which is French for "unhappiness".
* BittersweetEnding:
** On the one hand: Dooku's plot to corrupt or kill Yoda fails at the last moment, Whie overcomes his deepest anxieties, Scout is recognized as a proper Jedi, and Padmé is briefly reunited with Anakin on Coruscant.
** On the other hand: Yoda's effort to redeem or kill Dooku fails at the last moment, Jedi Masters Max Leem and Jai Maruk are killed in action, and the Clone Wars continue per the design of Darth Sidious.
* {{Bookends}}: The novel opens on a symbolically rich Coruscanti sunset, while Padmé watches a ship land at the Jedi Temple, disappointed that it's not Anakin's. The last passage is [[CueTheSun dawn on Coruscant]], as Padmé finally sees Anakin's ship returning home.
* BornWinner:
** Whie Malreaux is said to be just one step below Anakin Skywalker in terms of potential, but carries it better--pays more attention to detail, doesn't show as much pride or temper.
** Deconstructed with Dooku himself. Born to considerable privilege and wealth, he was abandoned by his parents to the ascetic life of a Jedi. [[TheAce Once considered the Jedi's greatest student,]] [[FallenHero he has become one of its greatest threats.]] Despite exceptional power, skill, and influence, he's become an [[BeingEvilSucks insecure, lonely, petty old man plagued with doubt.]]
* BreakingSpeech: Yoda and Count Dooku get ''dueling'' speeches that also serve as each other's ShutUpHannibal.
* CallForward: Common in Prequel-era books.
** Obi-Wan knows Anakin has someone back on Coruscant and covers for him, though he knows Anakin won't thank him for it later.
** Dooku's housekeeper Whirry offhandedly foresees Dooku's demise as "death from a high place" and "the easy destruction of a faithful servant," which is mentioned again by Ventress when she tells the Count that Sidious will kill him when he's not useful anymore.
** Master Maruk, saddled with Scout as a Padawan, thinks that she's incredibly brave and determined but will probably be dead in six months--the book is set exactly six months before ''Film/RevengeOfTheSith''. (Ironically, Scout does survive Order 66, getting rescued by the [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy Mandalorians]] in ''[[Literature/RepublicCommandoSeries Imperial Commando: 501st]]''.)
** In a conversation with Maks Leem, Yoda half-jokingly suggests moving the Jedi Temple off Coruscant, to "Somewhere wet. Somewhere wild," with fewer machines and artificial structures. In about six months, Yoda will go into exile and spend the rest of his days in one such place (Dagobah), and later, [[Literature/JediAcademyTrilogy Luke Skywalker will establish a new Jedi Academy]] in another (Yavin 4).
** The ecological disaster on Honoghr was introduced in ''Literature/TheThrawnTrilogy'', and while it was established that the original incident was during the Clone Wars, and that the Empire uses the disaster to manipulate the native ProudWarriorRace, whether it was deliberate or an accident is not known. In this book, the Jedi decry the Separatists' devastation of the world, which is mentioned offhand by Dooku to be quite deliberate--a test run by General Grievous of a bioweapon he wants to use in the Outer Rim campaigns.
* CassandraTruth: Both Whirry and Ventress warn Dooku that Sidious is eventually going to screw him over.
* ChokeHolds: WeakButSkilled Padawan Scout has a particular move where she can grab someone's throat, cut off the blood flow, and render them unconscious in seconds without permanently damaging them. She uses it in Padawan tournaments to great effect.
* ColonCancer: The book's full title is ''Star Wars: Yoda: Dark Rendezvous'', plus the subtitle "A Clone Wars Novel" on its cover and title page, but not the copyright page.
* CombatPragmatist:
** Scout. Her less-than-average sensitivity to the Force has led her to learn, research, and utilize every dirty trick she can in order to keep up with her classmates.
** Dooku himself is this when pressed. 99 times out of 100, [[OldMaster the Count]] outclasses any opponent with respect to raw power and skill. But on the 100th occasion, when he's up against [[AlwaysSomeoneBetter Yoda]], Dooku's willing to fight dirty.
* ComplexityAddiction: Dooku thinks Sidious suffers from this, musing that it would be simpler to just allow the Separatists' droid army ''win'' the Clone Wars outright rather than go through so many covert manipulations.
* CoolOldGuy: Not only is Yoda as wise as ever, he allows himself to be more eccentric and fun-loving than usual.
* DeathWorld: Vjun, which is steeped in TheDarkSide thanks to an atrocity that killed everyone on the planet and rendered most of it otherwise uninhabitable anyway.
* {{Determinator}}: Scout is weak in the Force, but refuses to fail. She's kind of the Jedi equivalent of Franchise/{{Batman}}--Scout makes up for her weak, unreliable powers by training harder than anyone else, at everything, and by the time the tournament comes around she's studied all of the other Padawans and made plans for how to take them down. She's spent time burning herself with her own lightsaber in order to get used to the pain.
* DidYouThinkICantFeel: Whie lashes out at Yoda in grief after [[spoiler: Maks Leem's]] death, accusing him of not caring since he's seen so many Jedi come and go. Yoda sets him straight--he cares just as much as Whie does, multiplied by every Jedi he's lost over the centuries, and carries on anyway.
-->"Teach me about pain, think you can?" Yoda said softly. "Think the old Master cannot care, ''mmm''? Forgotten who I am, have you? Old, I am, yes. Mm. Loved more than you, have I, Padawan. Lost more. Hated more. ''Killed'' more." The green eyes narrowed to gleaming slits under heavy lids. Dragon eyes, old and terrible. "Think wisdom comes at no ''cost''? The dark side, yes--it is easier for them. The pain grows too great, and they eat the darkness to flee from it. Not Yoda. Yoda loves and suffers for it, loves and suffers."
* DoomedByCanon: The audience knows Dooku is never going to turn back to the Light. [[{{Tearjerker}} He comes close, though]].
* DoYouWantToHaggle: Yoda does, every chance he can get. It's very hard to get the better of a Jedi Master of Yoda's caliber, and he quite enjoys this fact. In this case, he gets a fantastic bargain on a used freighter--because [[TheAllegedCar it doesn't fly anymore]]. But that's okay, Scout and Whie can fix it up in no time!
-->Yoda was a gleeful, cranky, relentless bargainer who thought haggling was ''fun''. So much of bargaining is about patience, and bazaar-stand shysters on a hundred planets had learned to their sorrow that one doesn't know what patience is until one has tried to outlast an eight-hundred-plus-year-old Jedi skinflint.
* TheDragon: Dooku to Sidious, Ventress to Dooku.
* TheDreaded:
** Sidious to Dooku, Ventress to the Jedi Order at large—especially the Padawans.
** Yoda briefly supplants Sidious as this to Dooku at the end of the book, when the good Count experiences a Force vision of what Yoda might become if he fell to the dark side.
* DreamingOfThingsToCome: A special Force talent of Whie Malreaux. The dreams are described as terrifying—while he's dreaming, he's stuck in his future-self's head, and says it's like being buried alive in his own body. Sometimes the panic is strong enough to wake him up.
* DrowningMySorrows: Whirry Malreaux, which doesn't help her madness at all.
* EccentricMentor: Yoda seldom shows off the lighter side of his personality in other ''Legends'' works, but here, the "kooky little green gnome" persona from ''Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack'' isn't an act, but truly how he behaves when he can afford to be less than serious. He teases other Jedi, fights a cafeteria droid who tries to take away his "inedible" food, steals some kid's soda, speaks in the third person, and haggles gleefully over [[TheAllegedCar a ship that can't fly]]. Consider this bit of wisdom, which Yoda delivers as only he can:
-->"A band around her heart there has been, years on years. And now she feels it loose, and the blood running back into her heart: stings it does!"\\
"Yes!" Scout cried between sniffles. "Yes, exactly! ... How did you know?"\\
Yoda scrambled up onto the bed and sat beside her, letting his little legs dangle in space. His ears perked. "Secret, shall I tell you?" He leaned in close, so she could feel his whiskers rasping against her face. "Grand Master of Jedi Order am I!" he said loudly right in her ear. "Won this job in a raffle I did, think you?" He snuffled and waved his stubby fingers in the air. ''"How did you know, how did you know, Master Yoda?"'' he said mincingly, followed by another snort. "Master Yoda knows these things. His job it is."
* EvenEvilHasStandards: The Count gets hit with many of these throughout the book:
** In his introductory scene, Dooku wistfully euologizes Jedi Master Jang Li-Li, an old friend and Ventress's most recent victim, after disapprovingly remarking on his disciple's callousness and cavalier attitude.
** Shortly after, Sidious orders Dooku to string along envoys from the planet Troxar who seek reinforcements for their desperate war of attrition against Republic invaders. When a disgusted Dooku silently muses "how casually we betray our creatures," an eerily aware Sidious asks Dooku if he's having an attack of conscience.
** Dooku gets a glimpse of what would happen if Yoda ever fell to the Dark Side: a Sith of such immense power and so corrupt and evil that Sidious himself would be annihilated before him. [[OhCrap He doesn't like what he saw.]]
* EvilerThanThou: Dooku realizes he was a fool for trying to turn Yoda to the Dark Side for this exact reason: if Yoda ever fell to the Dark Side, he concludes that ''Darth Sidious himself'' would be nothing in comparison to a Yoda "gone rotten."
* FlawExploitation: A good part of how Scout wins.
* {{Foreshadowing}}:
** Ventress' ArmorPiercingQuestion is going to come back to haunt Dooku in a major way in six months' time, not to mention Whie's "I'm so glad you're not here to kill me!" statement to Anakin.
** It's mentioned early in the book that between the Jedi's losses and their deployment to countless battlefronts, the Temple is practically empty at this point in the Clone Wars. [[spoiler: With so few defenders on site, the Jedi Temple is unprepared for a major assault, which of course will come in 6 months.]]
** In his message exetending the invitation to Yoda, Dooku warns him that the Jedi are betrayed more profoundly than they realize. [[spoiler: He's of course talking about Palpatine being Sidious.]]
* GoodFeelsGood: More subtle than the BeingEvilSucks theme, but it's certainly there. Jai Maruk [[spoiler: chooses to stay in the Light as he dies rather than give into despair, and dies smiling.]] By the end of the book, Scout and Whie, despite everything they've been through, are content because they've chosen to stay on the Jedi Path. And Yoda, despite all of his losses, is still able to smile and laugh.
* GracefulLoser: Pax, the young apprentice Scout beats in the first round of the tournament using trickery [[note]] the rules stated that fighting will continue until one person is hit three times with a training saber or until one forfeits, Scout deactivated her saber and held her hand out to shake his but never actually stated she was forfeiting [[/note]] . He holds no grudge against her for it and even when another apprentice speaks up saying Scout should be disqualified he quickly defends her actions saying it's his fault for forgetting the rules and she won fairly. After [[spoiler: Scout wins the tournament he cheers for her and tells her how much she taught him about being a great Jedi]].
* GrandFinale: For the literary side of the ''Clone Wars'' multimedia campaign--while ''Literature/LabyrinthOfEvil'' would follow ''Dark Rendezvous'''s release, it's technically classified as an Episode III prelude rather than another ''Clone Wars'' novel.
* TheGreatestStoryNeverTold:
-->Nobody would ever know how close [[spoiler:Jai]] had come to giving in to the dark side. Nobody but [[spoiler:Maks]] would ever know he had resisted at the end. In a few minutes they would both be dead, and to the universe, his choice would make no difference at all.\\
To [[spoiler:Jai Maruk]], it meant everything.\\
For the next thirty seconds he fought more beautifully than he had in his life, and when Asajj finally cut him down, he was smiling.
* GunsAkimbo: When Anakin and Obi-Wan arrive at Vjun, the former leaps out of their ship and attacks a squad of battle droids in this way. Considering that he has a lightsaber, this is a rather odd thing for him to do. Perhaps he's just [[CherryTapping showing off]].
* TheHeavy: Asajj Ventress, on Count Dooku's behalf.
* HeelFaceDoorSlam: Dooku seriously contemplates turning back to the Light and Yoda makes a serious effort to convince him to do so. [[ForegoneConclusion He ultimately doesn't.]]
* HorrifyingTheHorror: Count Dooku is an exceptional person on a galactic scale: extraordinarily charismatic, influential, wealthy; a master swordsman and one of the most powerful Force users alive. He awes or terrifies almost everybody he encounters. And yet even he's utterly horrified [[OhCrap when he's treated to a vision of what would happen if Yoda fell to the dark side]].
* IDontLikeTheSoundOfThatPlace: Vjun seems to specialize in these. The Chateau Malreaux, built across the Bay of Tears from the city of Bitter End, right next to the mouth of the River Weeping? [[SarcasmMode Best vacation spot EVER!]] The Chateau's own cellar is known as the Crying Room, for some reason.
* IKnowYouKnowIKnow: The premise of the novel. Dooku has set a trap for Yoda under the pretense that he wants to [[HeelFaceTurn return to the Light Side]], or is at least willing to negotiate. Yoda knows it's a trap but goes in the hope that he can turn him anyway, since as [[SpiritAdvisor Qui-Gon]] puts it, "He thinks he is lying," but really ''does'' sort of regret becoming an evil Sith Lord. Of course, Dooku knows that Yoda will know it's a trap and knows that Yoda is only coming because he wants to turn him, and in turn Dooku wants to turn Yoda to the ''Dark'' Side and possibly justify himself to his old master, since he secretly sort-of knows that he really does want to turn back to the good guys...
* ISurrenderSuckers: Scout sort of pulls this to win a match in an apprentice competition, dropping her lightsaber and bowing to her opponent, then grabbing him when he goes to shake her hand. "Sort of" because she doesn't give the actual surrender signal, which would of course automatically end the match. Her opponent, being a friend and a gracious (and slightly naieve) type, takes this as a useful lesson in paying attention.
* JediMindTrick: The novel twice shows us the perspective of the tricked.
** In her first round of the apprentice tournament, Scout is up against a boy who's hard to fight because he's just so likable. Before the match starts, she gets the idea that she could throw the fight, stop worrying about the tournament, and share in the enjoyment of her foe's victory. It seems like such a good notion that she almost goes through with it, until (it is implied) Yoda breaks his hold over her. He didn't mean to influence her; he just radiates likability in the Force. Scout gets him back with the ISurrenderSuckers trick. A ContinuityNod is given to the TropeNamer from ''Film/ANewHope''.
--->'''Scout:''' ''[laughs and waves her hand]'' This is not the victory you were seeking.
** PlayedForLaughs when Yoda goes out looking for food on a starliner, disguised as an R2 unit.
--->Donni gulped as the top of the little R2 swiveled around and locked onto his eyes. A queer, almost glassy feeling came over him, and then, as if by magic, two ideas popped vividly into his head, one after another. The first was that actually, when you got right down to it, Chuck was kind of a creep, and it would serve him right if some R2 unit stole his drink. The second was: ''What drink?''
** [[KicktheDog Sinisterly played with]] when Dooku meets with diplomatic envoys from the [[UnwittingPawn Separatist-aligned planet Troxar.]] Sidious has ordered Dooku to persuade Troxar to continue resisting Republic invaders in order to [[WeHaveReserves "chew up resources"]] from both sides. But instead of mind-tricking them, Dooku prompts the diplomats with mere rhetoric and then once they've naturally arrived at the desired conclusion, he nudges them with the Force.
--->Count Dooku’s meeting with the Troxan delegation went well. He made a cold kind of game of it, trying to see how little he could say, letting them do all the lying for him. “There are new battle droids in production,” he had remarked. That was all it took; they did the rest. [...] Each of these fine hopes he reinforced with a smile and pushed into their minds with the Force, like a seal pressed into warm wax, so it felt like certainty.
* {{Jerkass}}: Darth Sidious, more than usual. Jai Maruk, Mace Windu, and Padawan Hanna to a lesser extent.
* LastSecondChance: For Dooku to perform a HeelFaceTurn.
* ManipulativeBastard: Dooku, Ventress, Scout, and Sidious all have their moments.
** Dooku exploits both Yoda's eagerness to end the war and their personal history to lure him to Vjun.
** Ventress exploits Whie's affection for Scout and Fidelis during their confrontation.
** In her sparring battles with Pax and Whie, Scout exploits their kindness to win the contest.
** Sidious exploits Dooku's jealousy of Anakin by sending Anakin to support Yoda, ensuring that Dooku will be too angry to return to the Jedi.
* MoodWhiplash:
** This novel gets ''silly'' at times. And then Ventress and her assassin droids storm in and start killing people to get at our main cast.
** Yoda and Fidelis's feast for the Padawans swings between appreciation of the food, a somber toast ToAbsentFriends [[spoiler:Maks Leem and Jai Maruk]], Whie and Scout shouting at each other over the loss, fear of Yoda when he demonstrates his power after Whie shouts at ''him'', and Whie falling into despair, only for Yoda to shake him out of it by laying out his views as TheAntiNihilist. All in the course of four pages.
** Yoda and Dooku's conversation goes from levity to despair over two pages, then becomes genuinely frightening. Yoda is merrily stringing Dooku along, asking for the dark side to grant him things that sound ridiculous on the face of it. Dooku exhorts him to wish for something else, such as to be safe and free from fear, and suddenly Yoda is bitterly recounting all that he has loved and lost, knowing he will never be safe from loss like that. When Dooku encourages him to be angry about it, then, Yoda uses lighting and his voice and a touch of the Force to [[OhCrap grant Dooku a vision of just what would happen if he did fall to the dark]].
* MundaneUtility: Yoda, fed up with how long the Padawans are taking to get lunch, uses a JediMindTrick to swipe a soft drink from a kid (it's okay, 'cause the guy's kind of a jerk). However, he refuses to do the same while haggling over the cost of a used starship, a far more important task, saying it would disrespect the Force and his opponent. The Padawans suspect that the real reason is that Yoda thinks [[DoYouWantToHaggle haggling]] is ''fun'', and doesn't want to ruin the experience by cheating.
* MusclesAreMeaningful: Scout is a RareFemaleExample; to compensate for being weaker in the Force, she has developed as much muscle mass as a slim-built girl of fourteen can have in order to gain as much of an edge as possible in close quarters combat.
* NiceGuy: Pax Chizzik is described as such with Scout saying "Everyone liked Pax". However, even though he's extremely charming and friendly, he also doesn't seem to fully control his powers yet and subconsciously uses the Force to ''make'' people like him.[[note]]He almost unintentionally made Scout want to lose against him using this power until it's implied Yoda subtlety broke the connection.[[/note]]
* NiceJobBreakingItHero:
** Thanks to nudging from Palpatine, Anakin and Obi-Wan go to try and help Yoda. Count Dooku learns of this while in the middle of deciding which Master he should ultimately follow, knowing that Sidious will discard him eventually and Yoda will forgive, and when he finds out, his jealousy of the young prodigy and of the attention both Yoda and Sidious give Anakin is sufficient to prevent Dooku from completing a HeelFaceTurn; he and Yoda stop debating and start fighting. [[spoiler: Of course, Palpatine is Sidious, so this isn't a straight example, not so much because the BigBad instigated it as because Dooku might have deduced who ''really'' sent them (then or later) and knew that Sidious was reminding him just how tight the leash is.]]
** Anakin, facing droids that have cover and a superior position, tosses a grenade into their cave without considering who else might be inside. He ends up collapsing most of the cave system, nearly killing Scout and Whie, and unknowingly driving them into Ventress's clutches that much more quickly.
* NoMoreForMe: Yoda, disguised inside a droid chassis, uses the Force to telekinetically seal a security droid inside a bathroom stall after failing to evade pursuit by said droid. This strange sight is witnessed by a heavily intoxicated onlooker, who promptly pours the remainder of his drink down the drain.
* NoodleImplements: An AI operating a security camera on the low-end commercial transport the Jedi are using is dim enough to be little more than a glorified smoke detector, and ignores any suspicious activity not involving a fire risk, including "several spectacular thefts and one rather amusing con game featuring a fish, a diamond, and two deaf-mutes."
* NostalgiaFilter: Maks Leem, a Gran Jedi who goes with Yoda, doesn't like how the Jedi seem to be moving away from being peacekeepers and towards being soldiers. She often waxes nostalgic about how the students used to have time for gardening, hand-mending their robes, and games; now they have to spend all that time on hand-to-hand combat, small-unit tactical training, and military infiltration exercises.
* NotSoDifferentRemark: In a rare moment of candor, Dooku suggests to Yoda that this may be the reason he dislikes Anakin.
* OddFriendship: For a while, the 900-year-old Grand Master of the Jedi and a droid Footman of the Malreaux line.
* OhCrap:
** Dooku, when he gets just a glimpse of what it might be like if '''Yoda''' ever went to the dark side.
** Anakin, when the whole cave system begins to collapse because of the grenade he had thrown.
* OnlyKnownByTheirNickname: "Scout" whose full name is Tallisibeth Enwandung-Esterhazy is called by her nickname by almost everyone even Mace Windu and the other council members. Notable Jai Maruk specifically tries to avert this by forcing himself to refer to her as "Padawan Enwandung-Esterhazy" because he dosen't want to form an emotional attachment by using nicknames.
* OverlyLongName: Tallisibeth Enwandung-Esterhazy. No wonder people call her Scout.
* PlaceOfPower: Vjun's population had always had a high percentage of Force-sensitives, and then the Viscount Malreaux conducted an experiment to unlock Force potential in the rest. It [[GoneHorriblyRight went horribly right]]; those who weren't killed outright went mad and murdered each other. Vjun is now steeped in the dark side, one of the reasons Dooku chooses it as a retreat. All Jedi visitors, even the WeakButSkilled Scout, have their powers amplified on Vjun, and those who are already strong and prone to the lure of the dark, such as Whie and Anakin Skywalker, find themselves capable of amazing feats.
* PleaseDontLeaveMe: Scout, to [[spoiler:Jai Maruk]], when he falls in battle [[spoiler:just after they'd finally connected as Master and Padawan]].
-->[[spoiler:He was smiling. She didn't think she'd [[SternTeacher ever seen him smile before]]. Tears welled up inside Scout. "Don't try to talk. It will be all right, Master. Master Yoda will be here soon to take care of you." Tears dropped from her eyes onto his shattered chest. There was a long hitch in his breathing. His eyes closed. "Master Maruk? Master Maruk! Don't go," Scout cried. "Don't leave me!"]]\\
[[spoiler:His eyes opened, and he smiled again. "Never...," he whispered. "... my Padawan."]]\\
[[spoiler:His eyes closed, and he was gone.]]
* PressurePoint: Another specialty of Scout's in Padawan tournaments. An apprentice's lightsaber doesn't do him much good if his arm is too numb to hold it.
* PropheciesAreAlwaysRight: Whie's [[DreamingOfThingsToCome dreams of the future]] may be confusing or lacking in detail, but they invariably come true sooner or later.
* ProphecyTwist: Whie knows he'll be killed by a Jedi, and that he'll be surprised. He thinks this means that he'll go to the Dark Side and someone he knows will kill him. In actuality, [[spoiler:he gets killed by Darth Vader/Anakin Skywalker in the Jedi Temple, as witnessed after the fact by Obi-Wan]] in ''Film/RevengeOfTheSith''.
* RefugeInAudacity: Invoked by Scout, who makes up for her lack of strength in the Force by doing things her opponents don't expect, such as [[spoiler:grabbing their (training) lightsaber by the blade]].
* SadisticChoice:
** Dooku sets one up for Yoda as his escape plan, in the same way he did during their duel in ''Film/AttackOfTheClones'' but on a larger scale--he launches a missile at his own castle, and gives Yoda the choice of killing him and allowing the missile to hit, or saving the other Jedi while Dooku escapes. Yoda is briefly tempted to choose the former, but in the end easily nudges the missile off course while Dooku makes his getaway.
** Several minutes earlier, he uses a similar tactic, throwing Whirry out of the window and making Yoda divert his attention to saving her, while Dooku attacks him. Seems to be his trademark tactic when confronting [[AlwaysSomeoneBetter Yoda]].
*** As Qui-Gon notes, Dooku is a fencer. Leverage and tactical advantage are second nature to him.
* SarcasmMode: Being in an almost constant state of this is the Phindian species' [[PlanetOfHats hat]]. Even the synthesized voice reading out security announcements over the speakers at Phindar Spaceport gets in on it: ''"If you want your droids seized and searched by all means let them wander around unaccompanied."''
-->'''Major Quecks:''' I ''love'' your sense of humor. Those of us in security love jokes about blaster cannons from juvenile aliens travelling with dangerous droids. It's our favorite thing in the world.
* ShoutOut:
** The character of Evan Chan is a reference to a murder victim in the AlternateRealityGame ''The Beast'' (used to promote the movie ''Film/AIArtificialIntelligence''), for which Stewart was the head writer.
** Dooku says that the Force isn't a "handbook for cheap conjuror's tricks," a subtle one to [[Literature/LordOfTheRings Gandalf's]] famous line: "Do not take me for some conjuror of cheap tricks."
* SimpleYetAwesome:
** Scout's combat philosophy in a nutshell. She can't beat many of her fellow apprentices in straight-up lightsaber skill or Force powers, so she compensates by taking advantage of their weak points.
** The Light Side of the Force may not be able to pull flashy tricks like Force lightning, but it's the part of the Force that makes the sun shine and flowers grow.
* SpaceElves: The Arkanians are well known for their arrogance; two Arkanian Jedi each display it in their own way. The Padawan Hanna Ding looks down on Scout for her weakness in the Force and {{Combat Pragmatis|t}}m, and an Arkanian Knight leaves the Order over conscientious objection to the war. Obi-Wan and Anakin try to change her mind, but their arguments are [[CantArgueWithElves rather easily defeated]].
* SpiritAdvisor: Building off the quick hint in ''Film/AttackOfTheClones'', this novel contains a scene in which Yoda and the Force ghost of Qui-Gon Jinn confer over the sincerity of Count Dooku's offer of peace. Being both one with the Force and Dooku's former apprentice, Qui-Gon has a dual insight into the Sith Lord's state of mind. Qui-Gon concludes "Dooku ''thinks'' he is lying" about the peace offer.
* StealthMentor: Yoda, pretty much always. There are many instances throughout the book, but one in particular is when he instructs the Padawans to lift and carry extraordinarily heavy casks of water into the spaceship. When Fidelis offers to help, Yoda tells him not to: He and Fidelis are old, and wise, and have lost many friends. But the teenagers are young, and full of grief and guilt, and if they sweat and toil a lot, they might actually be able to get some sleep that night. It also gives Scout and Whie a chance to be by themselves and away from Yoda, who, for all his beneficence, is the Grand Master and more than a little intimidating at times.
* ThirdPersonPerson: Yoda occasionally refers to himself in the third person during his more eccentric moments.
* ToAbsentFriends: After [[spoiler:Maks Leem and Jai Maruk]] fall to Ventress, as soon as Yoda's remaining party gets a moment of peace, Yoda arranges a small feast and a (non-alcoholic) toast in their honor, taking advantage of Fidelis's cooking skills.
* {{Tradesnark}}: Played for dark humor when Solis learns what it means to hate.
-->The great thing about Einblatz/Docker ultrahigh-fidelity auditory sensors with built-in real-time sonographic analysis software and [=HyperBolic=]™ directional virtual-mike capability, Solis thought savagely from his hiding place on the other side of the cellar door--as [[spoiler:Fidelis's]] death scream went on and on--is that one can set them to mute.
* WhatIf: Dooku gets a look at "What if Yoda fell to the Dark Side?" He'd become a Sith of such unbelievable power and evil that Darth Sidious himself would be completely annihilated. [[EvenEvilHasStandards Dooku is horrified.]]
* WeakButSkilled: Scout ''is'' this trope. The Force comes to her intermittently and with great effort, and so Scout has learned every skill and scrap of knowledge she can in order to remain a Jedi Padawan without relying on it.
* WeCanRuleTogether: In a rare example of the weaker party offering this (and not doing so out of desperation), Ventress offers this to Dooku, offering to team up to kill Sidious together because Ventress knows she'll be thrown out with Dooku. [[spoiler:He doesn't take it.]]
* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: [[GenreSavvy Ventress]] warns [[TheDragon Dooku]] that [[BadBoss Sidious]] will eventually pull this on him. He doesn't listen.
----

* BadassGrandpa: Yoda and Dooku.

* BewareTheSillyOnes: Yoda is funny, and silly, and eccentric, and has very strange taste in food...but he's also a master of the Force and the lightsaber, and you ''really'' do not want to get him angry.

** Dooku himself is this when pressed. 99 times out of 100, [[BadassGrandpa the Count]] outclasses any opponent with respect to raw power and skill. But on the 100th occasion, when he's up against [[AlwaysSomeoneBetter Yoda]], Dooku's willing to fight dirty.

* CoolOldGuy: '''YODA.'''

* {{Determinator}}: Scout is weak in the Force, but refuses to fail. She's kind of the Jedi Franchise/{{Batman}}--Scout makes up for her weak, unreliable powers by training harder than anyone else, at everything, and by the time the tournament comes around she's studied all of the other Padawans and made plans for how to take them down. She's spent time burning herself with her own lightsaber in order to get used to the pain.

* EccentricMentor: Yoda seldom shows off the lighter side of his personality in other ''Legends'' works, but here, the "kooky little green gnome" persona from ''Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack'' is not an act, but truly how he behaves when he can afford to be less than serious. He teases other Jedi, fights a cafeteria droid who tries to take away his "inedible" food, steals some kid's soda, and haggles gleefully over [[TheAllegedCar a ship that can't fly]]. Consider this bit of wisdom, which Yoda delivers as only he can:

* HeelFaceDoorSlam: Dooku seriously contemplates turning back to the Light and Yoda makes a serious effort to convince him to do so. [[SarcasmMode Spoiler]]--[[ForegoneConclusion he doesn't.]]
* HorrifyingTheHorror: Count Dooku is an exceptional person on a galactic scale: extraordinarily charismatic, influential, wealthy; a master swordsman and one of the most powerful Force users alive. He awes or terrifies almost everybody he encounters. And yet even he needs a change of underwear [[OhCrap when he's treated to a vision of what would happen if Yoda fell to the dark side]].

* NiceGuy: Pax Chizzik is described as such with Scout saying "Everyone liked Pax", however even though he is extremely charming and friendly he also does not seem to fully control his powers yet and subconsciously uses the Force to MAKE people like him.[[note]]He almost unintentionally made Scout want to lose against him using this power until it is implied Yoda subtlety broke the connection[[/note]]

* {{Tearjerker}}: The scene where [[spoiler: Master Maruk]] dies.

* WeCanRuleTogether: In a rare example of the weaker party offering this (and not doing so out of desperation), Ventress offers this to Dooku, offering to team up to kill Sidious together because Ventress knows she'll be thrown out with Dooku. [[spoiler: he doesn't take it.]]

* ArmorPiercingQuestion: Ventress asks one to Dooku about his relationship with Sidious. Despite his charisma, Dooku can't come up with any response, and changes the subject.
-->'''Ventress:''' Fine, fine, take your shots. You're just buying time now, because I'm right. Ask yourself one question--ask it from the dark side, look at it clear-eyed, Count. Your master uses you now because he is beset by dangers. ''What happens when you are the most dangerous being left standing?''

-->'''Yoda:''' Which of us loves you better?

-->'''Yoda:''' Eight hundred years has Yoda survived, through dangers you could not dream.
-->'''Dooku:''' I know how to kill!
-->'''Yoda:''' Yes, but Yoda knows how to live!

* BatmanGambit: The book's premise is this. Dooku and Sidious rely on Yoda's enduring affection for Dooku and earnest desire to end the Clone Wars to orchestrate the rendezvous on Vjun with the goal of corrupting or killing the Jedi Master.

* BeingEvilSucks: A running theme throughout the novel. Despite Dooku's political influence, extraordinary wealth, prodigious skill, and extraordinary Force power... he's a perpetually miserable pawn in his Master's schemes. As he himself muses:
--> He imagined Yoda tumbling through the air, bloody and insensible, dashing his brains out on the flagstones far below. Then it would all be mercifully over and Dooku wouldn’t have to feel this strange, jumbled confusion. His hands would stop shaking and he would be dry inside and tight: dry and tight and empty as a drum, just a drum for Darth Sidious to play. How easy that would be.

-->'''Ventress:''' [Sidious is] going to use you up, Count. He’ll drain the blood from you and throw you aside. He’ll pick someone younger, weaker, easier to influence.\\

-->'''Yoda:''' I want... I want a rose.\\

-->'''Dooku:''' I know how to kill!
-->'''Yoda:''' Yes, but Yoda knows how to live!

* BittersweetEnding: On the one hand: Dooku's plot to corrupt or kill Yoda fails at the last moment, Whie overcomes his deepest anxieties, Scout is recognized as a proper Jedi, and Padmé is briefly reunited with Anakin on Coruscant.

* BornWinner: Whie Malreaux is said to be just one step below Anakin Skywalker in terms of potential, but carries it better--pays more attention to detail, doesn't show as much pride or temper.

* CombatPragmatist: Scout. Her less-than-average sensitivity to the Force has led her to learn, research, and utilize every dirty trick she can in order to keep up with her classmates.

* TheDreaded: Sidious to Dooku, Ventress to the Jedi Order at large—especially the Padawans.

* MoodWhiplash: This novel gets ''silly'' at times. And then Ventress and her assassin droids storm in and start killing people to get at our main cast.

* StealthMentor: Yoda, pretty much always. There are many instances throughout the book, but one in particular is when he instructs the Padawans to lift and carry extraordinarily heavy casks of water into the spaceship. When Fidelis offers to help, Yoda tells him not to: He and Fidelis are old, and wise, and have lost many friends. But the teenagers are young, and full of grief and guilt, and if they sweat and toil a lot, they might actually be able to get some sleep that night.
** It also gives Scout and Whie a chance to be by themselves and away from Yoda, who, for all his beneficence, is the Grand Master and more than a little intimidating at times.

** Thanks to nudging from Palpatine, Anakin and Obi-Wan go to try and help Yoda. Count Dooku learns of this while in the middle of deciding which Master he should ultimately follow, knowing that Sidious will discard him eventually and Yoda will forgive, and when he finds out, his jealousy of the young prodigy and of the attention both Yoda and Sidious give Anakin is sufficient to prevent Dooku from completing a HeelFaceTurn; he and Yoda stop debating and start fighting. [[spoiler: Of course, [[ItWasHisSled Palpatine is Sidious]], so this is possibly a subversion, not so much because the BigBad instigated it as because Dooku might have deduced who ''really'' sent them (then or later) and knew that Sidious was reminding him just how tight the leash is.]]

** Ventress' ArmorPiercingQuestion is going to come back to haunt Dooku in a major way in six months' time, not to mention Whie's "I'm so glad you're not here to kill me!" statement.

'''Ventress:''' I wish. No, when you go, I’ll be swept aside. I’m just one of your creatures. to him. Maybe to you, too. Loyalty runs stronger up than it does down, in case you hadn’t noticed.

** Yoda haggles to buy a ship at an excellent price, with a number of excellent qualities. The one thing it doesn't do is fly, requiring the Padawans to fix it up. This gives them heavy manual labor to do, which will in turn wear them out enough that they'll have something to focus on other than losing their Masters, and when they go to sleep they'll be tired enough to crash.

* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: [[GenreSavvy Ventress]] warns [[TheDragon Dooku]] that [[BadBoss Sidious]] will eventually pull this on him. [[spoiler: He doesn't listen.]]

* {{Jerkass}}: Darth Sidious, [[UpToEleven more than usual]]. Jai Maruk, Mace Windu, and Padawan Hanna to a lesser extent.

** It's mentioned early in the book that between the Jedi's losses and their deployment to countless battlefronts, the Temple is practically empty at this point in the Clone Wars. [[spoiler: With so few defenders on site, the Jedi Temple is unprepared for a major siege, which of course will come in 6 months.]]
* GracefulLoser: Pax the young apprentice Scout beats in the first round of the tournament using trickery [[note]] the rules stated that fighting will continue until one person is hit three times with a training saber or until one forfeits, Scout deactivated her saber and held her hand out to shake his but never actually stated she was forfeiting [[/note]] . He holds no grudge against her for it and even when another apprentice speaks up saying Scout should be disqualified he quickly defends her actions saying it's his fault for forgetting the rules and she won fairly. After [[spoiler: Scout wins the tournament he cheers for her and tells her how much she taught him about being a great Jedi]].