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Just some silly thoughts I had the other day after watching the first Kung-Fu Panda movie (again).
"How much Master Yoda and Master Shifu are alike!"
Both are "Honorable", "Venerable", "Ancient" Masters of some secret technique or style of fightingthough when it comes to age, Yoda beats Shifu by 800 years or so
Shifu and Yoda have both had to train students who had absolutely no prior experience and were not ready for what they were about to be put through........and in the case of Shifu, it was FAR WORSE what he had to work with/start with then what Yoda
had with Luke Skywalker! (Shifu to Po: "There is now a Level Zero").
Yoda was small and green with big ears, Shifu was small and furry with big ears.
Though generally regarded as "Too serious" or without a sense of humor, both could be extremely comical when they wanted to be
Shifu and Yoda have both known the heartache of having good pupils go bad: Yoda with Anakin Skywalker, Shifu with Tai Lung, and both have had to fight epic battles against their former students.
Po could have just as easily learned the ways of the force from Master Yoda as easily as Luke could have learned about Kung-Fu from Master Shifu.
Yoda only made it through two films. but Shifu has made it through three (right?).



Hope this was the right forum to post this silly thing in?

Actually Yoda made thru 5 films episodes 1-5 only dying at the start of Return of the Jedi (I know Episodes 1-3 were made later but chronologically they happen before), also Yoda never fought Anakin any of the movies Anaking Skywalker/Darth Vader fought Obi-Wan Kenobi and Luke Skywalker, while Yoda fought Count Dooku/Darth Tyrannus and Emperor Palpatine/Darth Sidious. Also Yoda was also Anakin's master in the loosest sense of the word Anakin's true master being Obi-Wan Kenobi (who did crappy job of it but still).

Ah, but Dooku was Yoda's padawan; Yoda comes out and says so in Episode II. Yoda didn't fight Anakin, nor did he train Anakin- but Anakin isn't who the OP was talking about.

I mean, it makes sense that they would be similar, since both are based off of older tropes in Eastern folklore. The archetype of a little old man who is more powerful than he appears due to mastery of some martial/spiritual form is ancient.

Although, I am curious about this statement:

Though generally regarded as "Too serious" or without a sense of humor, both could be extremely comical when they wanted to be

While this is true of Shifu, when did anyone ever regard Yoda as being "too serious" or without a sense of humor? The very first time he appears to audiences (referring to Empire Strikes Back) he is essentially a comic relief (again, referring back to the old master archetype, he is intentionally acting like a fool).

Indeed. Even as the Jedi Master, Yoda seemed to always have a strong sense of humor. Something that never went away. He was even cracking jokes while literally on his deathbed.

Yoda is also clearly based on Aikido founder Morihei Ueshiba to some degree. Presumably Shifu is also similar, though I haven't actually seen Kung Fu Panda(though I keep seeing trailers for the new one).

Adam Reynolds wrote:Indeed. Even as the Jedi Master, Yoda seemed to always have a strong sense of humor. Something that never went away. He was even cracking jokes while literally on his deathbed.

Yoda is also clearly based on Aikido founder Morihei Ueshiba to some degree. Presumably Shifu is also similar, though I haven't actually seen Kung Fu Panda(though I keep seeing trailers for the new one).

As an adult i am telling you, you should watch kung fu panda at your earliest convenience. Not the greatest kids movie ive seen in recent years but not the worst either.


But Yoda would wipe the floor with Shifu. He has the force to rely on, while Shifu has years of training, Yoda has a lot more experience,

You might say that Yoda benefits from... a Force multiplier.

I was indeed thinking of the first time that Yoda appears when I made that comment about him being "Too serious" and sometimes comical. And I stand corrected about Yoda fighting Anakin/Vader. It was indeed Obi-Wan who trained Anakin, so Yoda would not have been directly to blame, but i'm sure he felt the pain of it in an indirect manner. I did not know that about Dooku, which means I was right about Yoda having to fight a former student, but wrong about who that former student was.

Yoda also has a few centuries of experience over Master Shifu.

I don't think this versus should be about a fight. Yoda and Shifu are both too wise to get into a serious fight without excellent reason for doing so, and I honestly doubt such a reason for fighting could be found.

I think this versus should involve Yoda and Shifu competing in some other, more unusual way, that "old wise mystic masters" might compete.

I suggest a triathlon with three events:

1) Uttering cryptic but insightful advice that turns out to contain the key information needed to save the day.
2) Competitive hopeless-apprentice training, to see who can take the most useless individual and mold them into a competent warrior-monk
3) Maintaining serene meditation in the face of foolish distractions. This is a test of both their focus, and their sense of humor

Personally, I think Yoda wins on (1) and (3), but loses massively on (2).

I mean seriously, Yoda's idea of a hopeless apprentice is Luke Skywalker, the man who's already blown up a Death Star and telekinetically retrieved a lightsaber from a snowbank in time to survive wompa stomping. Shifu's idea of a hopeless apprentice... is Po.

I've not seen Kung Fu Panda fully but from the clips I've seen it seemed like Po is something of an Idiot Savant (it might not be the right term though), with huge natural talent not getting that and responding poorly to traditional training methods.

That said one the major faults of Yoda is that he's very much stuck to the traditions and unable to shift his perspective to match the demands of the situation when it comes to training using non-traditional methods.

Makes sense. When 900 years old you reach, set in your ways you become.

Shifu certainly had to adapt his training methods to deal with Po.