The final installment in the Star Wars prequel trilogy, Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith, delivered a much-anticipated duel between Yoda and the Sith Lord Darth Sidious, aka Emperor Palpatine, but the Jedi Master was forced to flee from the fight. The Star Wars prequels finally gave viewers the chance to see Yoda in action, showing just what he was capable of with a lightsaber and the Force in combat. But while Yoda may have had the upper-hand in his duel with Count Dooku in Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones, before his opponent fled, it was he who ran away from his battle with Palpatine.
Up until Yoda's departure, the clash with Palpatine delivered much of what you'd expect from two of the most powerful Force-users in all of Star Wars going toe-to-toe. Force lightning was fired, and even absorbed and fired back; lightsaber blades clashed; podiums swirled and flew through the air. But while Yoda and Palpatine seemed evenly matched for a time, it was the Emperor who gained the advantage, with Yoda sent tumbling down the Senate. Battered and bruised Yoda decided to flee rather than continue facing Darth Sidious.
While on the floor of the Senate, looking up at the cackling Emperor above him, Yoda clearly realized that he couldn't beat Palpatine in one-on-one combat; that as considerable as his own power in the Force was, Palpatine's at that moment was even greater, and to continue fighting would likely only result in his demise. Not only would Yoda be weakened and having to face Palpatine again, a duel that was already a difficult one, but re-enforcements were arriving too, meaning he also would've been outnumbered. Yoda instead chose to leave and eventually exile himself, serving as punishment for the Jedi Master allowing the Sith to rise once more, but crucially it also meant he at least remained alive, and so was around to train Luke Skywalker, the next great hope, when the time came.
Yoda was not only weakened physically, but mentally and emotionally he was reeling too after the execution of Order 66, and deaths of so many Jedi. He may have had the light side of the Force with him, but at this moment it was no match for the dark side. Yoda himself insists that the dark side isn't stronger, but does note that it's "quicker, easier" - in terms of this duel, that's important, because it means Palpatine can more quickly gain the advantage. Light may win out in the long run, but the dark side strikes harder first.
The novelization of Revenge of the Sith, written by Matthew Stover, provides further context for Yoda's decision to run away from the duel with Palpatine, putting it not just in the light of his individual failings, but the failings of the Jedi as a whole. Yoda in that moment understood that the Sith had learned and grown, while the Jedi had been stuck in their ways and blinded to what was really happening. Stover writes:
"Finally, he saw the truth. This truth: that he, the avatar of light, Supreme Master of the Jedi Order, the fiercest, most implacable, most devastatingly powerful foe the darkness had ever known... just didn't have it. He had never had it. He had lost before he started... before he was born. The Sith had changed. The Sith had grown, had adapted, had invested a thousand years' intensive study into every aspect of not only the Force but Jedi lore itself, in preparation for this exact day. The Sith had remade themselves. They had become new... The Jedi had spent the same millennium trying to re-fight the last war. The new Sith could not be destroyed by a lightsaber; they could not be burned away by any torch of the Force."
The Sith had played the long game, and it paid off. Yoda knew in this moment that even if he were to defeat Palpatine - and that itself was a big if at the time - the Sith themselves wouldn't be defeated so easily. The Jedi, or what was left of them, had to re-group, and learn how to be different just as the Sith had. The old ways that had served them in helping rule the galaxy for so long were over, and Yoda understood that better than anyone in Star Wars as he watched Palpatine continue his ascendancy, unable to stop the Sith from rising. What Yoda had to do was wait, until the Jedi came who could defeat Palpatine and the Sith, even if it came at a great cost - and that's exactly what he did.
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