Yoda was defeated by palpatine for the same reason windu and the other jedi masters were killed by palpatine: The jedi were complacent (this is a common theme throughout the prequel trilogy) and knew next to nothing of the sith plot (or even that palpatine was a sith!) until the last minute, whereas palpatine had a long time to prepare for his. Aotc yoda vs aotc palpatine: Rots yoda vs rots palpatine: Closest match of them all but while yoda definitively had sidious beat in lightsaber combat (it wasn't even close, palpatine would probably be outdueled by maul or anakin if their powers were equalized), sidious seemed to have the stamina advantage by the end of the. Darth sidious from tros was immensely powerful and probably twice as powerful if not more than the version of himself in rots. After sidious healed himself by stealing ben and rey’s force dyad, sidious was completely healed and seemed to have gained an overwhelmingly amount of p. Finally the two are blown back and palpatine manages to hold on while yoda plummets to the ground. I like sidious far more than yoda and that’s why i hate this fight. It is really a slap in the face to palpatine who usually looks strained, afraid or generally unimpressive for most of the battle.