View source for Dagobah

{{Short description|Fictional planet in the Star Wars saga}}
{{distinguish|Dagoba (disambiguation){{!}}Dagoba}}
{{more citations needed|date=May 2019}}
{{Infobox fictional location
| name = Dagobah
| image = Dagobah.jpg
| caption = 
| source = [[Star Wars]]
| first = ''[[The Empire Strikes Back]]''
| last = ''[[Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008 TV series)|Star Wars: The Clone Wars]]''
| creator = [[George Lucas]]
| genre = [[Science-fiction]]
| type = [[Earth|Gaia]]-type world
| races = Tash
| characters = [[Yoda]]
| population = 
| blank_label = Terrain
| blank_data = {{ubl|[[Water]]|[[Forest]]ed|[[Petrified wood|Petrified forest]]|[[Bayou]]|Wetlands|Dry uplands}}
| blank_label1 = Oceans
| blank_data1 = 0
| blank_label2 = Sun(s)
| blank_data2 = Dagobah Prime
| blank_label3 = Grid Coordinates
| blank_data3 = N-25
| blank_label4 = XYZ Coordinates
| blank_data4 = 
}}

'''Dagobah''' is a fictional planet and eponymous [[star system]] appearing in the ''[[Star Wars]]'' films ''[[The Empire Strikes Back]]'', ''[[Return of the Jedi]]'', and ''[[Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith|Revenge of the Sith]]'', and other media. It is depicted as a world of murky [[swamps]], steaming [[bayous]], and [[jungle]]s,<ref name=db>{{Cite web|url=https://www.starwars.com/databank/dagobah|title=Dagobah|website=StarWars.com|language=en|access-date=2018-12-11}}</ref> resembling Earth during the [[Carboniferous]] period. Dagobah is 14,410 kilometers in diameter with an orbital period of 341 days. Dagobah's climate and atmosphere consists of two seasons: a dry season, where the uplands become too hot for most life forms to survive; and a wet season, consisting of violent lightning storms, dense fog, and long periods of torrential rainfall. The Tash were a sentient species native to Dagobah.

The Dagobah [[planetary system|System]] lies within the Dagobah subsector of the Sluis sector, located in the Outer Rim Territories [[galactic quadrant]] region, 50,250 light-years from [[Coruscant]]. The sun was called Dagobah Prime. It is noted as being one of the purest places in the galaxy, incredibly strong in the living force, and being chosen by [[Jedi]] [[Yoda]] as the planet to go into exile on to mask his presence and avoid discovery by the [[Galactic Empire (Star Wars)|Galactic Empire]].<ref name=db/>

==Depiction==
The similarly mono-thematic "swampy, fog-shrouded planet of Mimban" appearing in the novel ''[[Splinter of the Mind's Eye]]'', published between the films ''[[Star Wars (film)|Star Wars: A New Hope]] and'' [[The Empire Strikes Back]], "might have inspired the production design for Dagobah".<ref>{{cite book |last=Freeman |first=Matthew |editor-last1=Guynes |editor-first1=Sean |editor-last2=Hassler-Forest |editor-first2=Dan |date=2017 |title=''Star Wars'' and the History of Transmedia Storytelling |publisher=[[Amsterdam University Press]] |url=https://researchspace.bathspa.ac.uk/9365/1/9365.pdf |pages=69–70 |chapter=From Sequel to Quasi-Novelization: ''Splinter of the Mind's Eye'' and the 1970s Culture of Transmedia Contingency |isbn=9789462986213}}</ref><ref name=Booy>{{cite book |last=Booy |first=Miles |date=2021 |title=Interpreting Star Wars: Reading a Modern Film Franchise |publisher=[[Bloomsbury Publishing]] |pages=70, 85-86, 91 |isbn=978-1-5013-6475-4}}</ref>

===Film===
Dagobah was originally featured in the 1980 film ''The Empire Strikes Back''. In its first appearance, the main protagonist of the film, [[Luke Skywalker]], is attempting to land his [[X-wing]] starfighter on the planet and is met with a dense fog causing him to crash land in a small [[bayou]]. Shortly after his landing, the [[Jedi Master]] Yoda is introduced during his time in exile. Yoda reluctantly agrees to train Skywalker and during his training many aspects of the planet's environment are utilized. Moss-covered rocks are used for training in [[telekinesis]], the undergrowth makes treks through the jungles more challenging, and vines hanging from tall trees are used as means to get across small bodies of water and other obstacles. Skywalker is shown to sense the strength of the Force in a particular cave on the planet which Yoda tells him to go into. Inside the cave, Skywalker is met with a mental challenge the dark side of the Force developed for him.

The planet is also seen briefly in ''Return of the Jedi'' to depict Yoda's death and is featured in a deleted scene from ''Revenge of the Sith'' showing Yoda's arrival on the planet. [[George Lucas]] reportedly said it was removed so the film would not have "too many endings."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://starwarz.com/tbone/jedi-master-yoda/|title=Jedi Master Yoda|date=October 2, 2012|website=T-bone's Star Wars Universe|access-date=January 1, 2019}}</ref> The scene was released under the title "Exile to Dagobah" on the film's DVD.<ref>{{cite magazine|url=https://ew.com/article/2005/11/01/stars-wars-episode-iii-revenge-sith/|title=Stars Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith|last=Ross|first=Dalton|date=November 1, 2005|magazine=[[Entertainment Weekly]]|access-date=January 1, 2019}}</ref>

===Other media===
''[[Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008 TV series)|The Clone Wars]]'' featured Dagobah in a sixth-season episode, in which Yoda traveled to the planet as part of his own training to gain immortality through the Force.

In the [[Star Wars expanded to other media|''Star Wars'' expanded universe]], Yoda confronted a Bpfasshi [[Dark Jedi]] on Dagobah, some years before the events in ''The Empire Strikes Back'', and the cave where the Dark Jedi died became strong in the dark side of the Force. ''[[Star Wars Tales]]'' later retconned this event to take place earlier, with another Jedi of [[Yoda's species]] named Minch replacing Yoda.{{citation needed|date=May 2019}} Dagobah was also visited by the main characters of the ''[[Galaxy of Fear]]'' series, where it was home for a time to a tribe of cannibals. During the events of ''[[Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy]]'', a team of [[Jedi|Jedi Knights]] from the [[New Jedi Order]] visit Dagobah, to find the cave drained of its former menace.

Dagobah appears as a hub world in ''[[Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga]]''. <ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.thegamer.com/lego-star-wars-the-skywalker-saga-dagobah-kyber-bricks-locations-guide/|title=Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga - All Kyber Bricks Locations In Dagobah|last=Serin|first=Kaan|date=April 19, 2022|access-date=December 22, 2024|publisher=The Gamer}}</ref>

After the events of ''Return of the Jedi'', the [[New Republic (Star Wars)|New Republic]] founded a military base on one of the greatest mountains of the planet, named 'Mount Yoda' after the Jedi Master.<ref>Davids, H & Davids, P., ''Star Wars: Mission From Mount Yoda'', Bantam Spectra, 1993</ref>

==Description==
Largely looked over by the [[Galactic Republic]], Dagobah is the only habitable planet in the system of the same name within the Sluis sector. A cloudy and swampy world of dense foliage, countless living things of all sizes, including [[reptile]]s, [[amphibian]]s, and swarming insects, fill its environs with a hum of constant noise.<ref name=db/>{{sfn|Anderson|1995|pp=79–80}} All of its creatures appear completely [[Unconscious mind|unintelligent]].{{sfn|Anderson|1995|p=80}} Larger life-forms occupy cave-like hollows formed by petrified forests.{{sfn|Anderson|1995|p=81}} Carnivorous "gnarltrees" reproduce as spiderlike mobile creatures which eventually [[metamorphosis|metamorphose]] into their rooted form.{{sfn|Anderson|1995|pp=84–85}} The planet is also noted for being strong with [[the Force]].<ref name=db/>

==Analysis==
Several scholars have interpreted Dagobah as the station of initiation when applying [[Joseph Campbell]]'s schema of the [[hero's journey]], going back to ancient myths, to the character of Luke Skywalker:<ref name=Deyneka>{{cite book |last=Deyneka |first=Leah |editor-last1=Brode |editor-first1=Douglas |editor-last2=Deyneka |editor-first2=Leah |date=2012 |title=Myth, Media, and Culture in Star Wars: An Anthology |publisher=[[The Scarecrow Press]] |chapter=May the Myth Be with You, Always - Archetypes, Mythic Elements, and Aspects of Joseph Campbell's Heroic Monomyth in the Original ''Star Wars'' Trilogy |pages=37–39 |isbn=978-0-8108-8512-7}}</ref><ref name=Adams>{{cite book |last=Adams |first=Klara |date=2022 |title=Vom Artushof zum Palast der Saelde - Heldenreise und Raumkonzeption in der ''Crône'' Heinrichs von dem Türlin |publisher=[[University of Bamberg Press]] |pages=32–35 |isbn=978-3-86309-874-2 |doi=10.20378/irb-55263 |lang=de |trans-title=From the Court of Arthur to the Palace of Saelde - Hero's journey and conception of space in ''Diu Crône'' by Heinrich von dem Türlin |series=Bamberger germanistische Mittelalter- und Freuneuzeit-Studien |volume=5}}</ref><ref name=Booy/> the hero retreats "from society to a world of more primal symbols where he must conquer his own darkness and return to the social world with a new redemptive knowledge."<ref name=Booy/> Dagobah is described as "like something out of a dream" and corresponds to "a spiritual plane".<ref name=Deyneka/> This primordial and isolated place of power, which seems hostile to civilization - the technological R2-D2 "is spat out unceremoniously" - is "a sanctuary of nature" and "creates a space, which like no other, influences the conception and development of the hero".<ref name=Booy/><ref name=Adams/> Leah Deyneka linked the teeming nature of Dagobah with the "[[enchanted forest]] or [[sacred grove]]" which "figures frequently in fairy tales and myths; trees are believed to hold special powers and forests symbolize mastery and transformation."<ref name=Deyneka/> Miles Booy saw Dagobah as a "richly constructed [...] [[semiotic]] environment" which "does not point towards prior films but to widely circulated discourses concerning human consciousness". Its jungle and "dark swamp infested by reptiles" may be considered an image of the subconscious, with Yoda fulfilling the role of the analyst who "raises to the surface" what has been submerged.<ref name=Booy/>

Dan Catalano commented that Dagobah as "an eerie location filled with strange wildlife and shrouded in as much mystery as fog", removed from the technology-filled galaxy, is a fitting device to underline Yoda's status as a "[[Wise old man|Wise Man archetype]]" in the tradition of [[Merlin]], who likewise can be found in places of "wild nature" in [[Matter of Britain|Arthurian myths]].<ref>{{cite journal |last=Catalano |first=Dan |date=2012 |title=Wizards and Jedi: A Comparative Analysis Between Merlin and Mentors in ''Star Wars'' |url=https://digitalcommons.molloy.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=&httpsredir=1&filename=3&article=1000&context=eng_litmag&type=additional |journal=The Molloy Student Literary Magazine |volume=8 |pages=11–27 |access-date=6 October 2023}}</ref>

Booy commented that within ''Star Wars'' "[n]o other environment attempts such imagery as Dagobah is constructed of" and that "Dagobah would also come to be the basis for [...] the notion that the film constitutes a form of mythology."<ref name=Booy/>

==See also==
* [[List of Star Wars planets and moons|List of ''Star Wars'' planets and moons]]
* [[Carboniferous]]

==References==
<references />

===Sources===
* {{cite book|last=Anderson|first=Kevin J.|author-link=Kevin J. Anderson|title=The Illustrated Star Wars Universe|year=1995|publisher=Bantam Books|location=New York|isbn=0-553-09302-9}}

==External links==
* [https://www.starwars.com/explore/encyclopedia/locations/dagobah/ Dagobah in the ''Star Wars'' Databank]
* {{Wookieepedia|Dagobah}}

{{Star Wars universe|state=collapsed}}

[[Category:Star Wars planets]]
[[Category:Fictional planets]]
[[Category:Fictional elements introduced in 1980]]