Greetings, intrepid readers! M. H. Barton here with another blog on the art and craft of storytelling. Now that we’re finally through the holiday season, I thought I’d take a little break from the high-intensity ranking blogs with lots of research involved. Instead, I’m just gonna kick back and wax philosophical a bit in this one as I explore the flaws behind one of my favorite heroic entities in storytelling – the Jedi. As anyone who knows me can attest, I love Star Wars. Like, frickin’ love it to death. It’s probably my biggest fandom and has been since elementary school. I haven’t always liked or agreed with the new directions the series has taken in recent years, but I still adore the concept of a high fantasy story told in a science fiction universe. And what’s a high fantasy story without knights in shining armor? Well, in this case, it’s more knights with shining lightsabers, but what’s the difference? Anyway, I wanted to explore the history behind this order of selfless warrior monks and explain why, in spite of their noble ways, I believe they’re always doomed to fall apart. This is, of course, only my opinion, but I do think a great many fans will share these views. I will try to stick to canon information, though there may be an occasional reference to the non-canon books, comics, and the like of the Expanded Universe. Anyway, that’s enough rambling. Time to do or do not.
Much of the origins of the Jedi remain a mystery, but we know the first Jedi Temple was built on the planet of Ahch-To. There, they wrote a set of ancient texts to outline their religion and set laws to govern the Jedi Order. Foremost among these was their faith in the Light Side of the Force, which drew power from peace, benevolence, and serenity. In time, a group of Jedi went rogue as they explored the Dark Side, drawing on anger, fear, and a lust for power in their efforts. These rogue Jedi eventually formed their own order, the Sith, and war soon followed, breaking out about 1,000 years before the events of Episode I. Despite their early success, the Sith were eventually wiped out to near extinction. This was not only due to the heroic efforts of the Jedi to beat them back but also because the ranks of the Sith began to cannibalize themselves as they betrayed each other for greater power. In the end, the core tenants of the Sith were their undoing. Only Darth Bane survived the war and decided to create the Rule of Two, stating there could only be two Sith – a master to amass power and an apprentice to covet that power. In this way, the enemies of the Jedi continued to survive in secret for a millennium.
But what of the Jedi following the war? This is where things get very interesting. While official information on how the Jedi Order changed in the postwar era is limited, it is reasonable to assume that they became far stricter in enforcing their laws. In the non-canon Expanded Universe, the time before this war was less regulated and each Master was allowed to teach their apprentices as they saw fit. Some Jedi even married and formed families. Once the war was won, however, it can be postulated that the Jedi High Council began to crack down on such deviations from official doctrine. This truly began the Order’s emphasis on avoiding attachments of any kind. Per the company line, Jedi are to be selfless and compassionate, always putting others above themselves. Allowing oneself to fall in love with another person interferes with this by introducing what the Order viewed as the start of a slippery slope – the fear of loss. Grand Master Yoda often spoke of this fear leading to anger and hate, specifically through jealousy at the prospect of losing a loved one to death. In but a few generations following the war, it seems clear that all dissension regarding this issue had been quashed or removed from the Order, ushering the Jedi into a golden age of stability. Or so they thought.
As previously stated, the Sith managed to survive for the millennium following the war thanks to the Rule of Two. Eventually, Sheev Palpatine, secretly the Sith Master Darth Sidious, began to ascend through the political ranks of the Republic, all while plotting the downfall of the Jedi Order. When the Jedi broke their rule of only accepting infants into their Order by admitting Anakin Skywalker, Palpatine saw his chance. Anakin had incredible potential with the Force and a desire to prove himself as a Jedi, yet also a great deal of anger at the continued enslavement of his mother. The Jedi teachings of letting go of this attachment were of no comfort to the angsty young man, allowing Palpatine to step in and form a seemingly innocent friendship with him. Thus, the stage was set for Darth Sidious to vanquish the ancient enemy of the Sith.
Ultimately, the Jedi were ruinously unprepared to train a student such as Anakin. After all, the only reason they broke their rule and admitted him into the Order was due to the belief that Anakin was the prophesized Chosen One. According to Jedi teachings, a Chosen One was to be born of no father, like Anakin, and would use his enormous skill to bring the Force into ultimate balance. With the pain and anger in Anakin’s past, he needed a teacher who could soften that pain and help him deal with it, someone like the renegade Jedi Qui-Gon Jinn. But with Jinn’s death, the task of training Anakin fell to Obi-Wan Kenobi. Kenobi is certainly one of the greatest Jedi in the history of the Order, but he still wasn’t the teacher Anakin needed. Kenobi was a company man through and through, believing in the Jedi Code with his all and without exception. Anakin’s frustrations with Kenobi’s unyielding belief in the Code caused him to further his friendship with Palpatine.
The beginning of the end happened when Anakin decided to break the Jedi Code, marrying Padmé Amidala and conceiving a child with her. He knew there was nobody in the Order he could confide in, so he kept this a secret for over three years as he fought in the Clone War. As the war raged on, Padmé and Palpatine continued to be Anakin’s only true friends, at least in his mind, yet Padmé held influence over Anakin that even Palpatine did not. Still, the Sith had a plan for this. Though never explicitly stated, it is heavily implied that Palpatine used the Dark Side to influence Anakin’s dreams. This first resulted in Anakin killing the Tuskin Raiders who killed his mother, starting his descent toward the Dark Side. The killing blow, literally and figuratively, came when he gave Anakin dreams of Padmé dying in childbirth. This was the ultimate motivation for Anakin to do whatever it took to save her, even turning on the Jedi Order. Yoda attempted to counsel Anakin in these matters, but without knowing the full extent of the dreams, his reply came off as tone-deaf and uncaring to young Anakin. With Yoda’s failure to see what was truly at play in Anakin’s dreams, the fate of the Jedi Order was officially sealed. The Order soon fell, allowing Palpatine to take absolute control of the galaxy with the Galactic Empire.
Over two decades later, the age of the Empire would finally come to an end thanks to the efforts of Luke Skywalker to redeem his father Anakin, now Darth Vader. With Anakin seemingly fulfilling the prophecy of the Chosen One by killing Palpatine and destroying the Sith, Luke then seized upon the opportunity to rebuild the Jedi Order as the New Republic rose. Of course, Luke’s Jedi training under Yoda was far from conventional, being little more than a crash course. Thus, Luke began to give his twin sister, Leia, the training of a true Jedi Knight. She nearly succeeded but chose to end her training when she had a vision of her son’s death signaling the completion of her training.
As this son, Ben Solo, came of age, Leia sent him to Luke for Jedi training, hoping to curb the darker influence of Solo’s grandfather, Anakin Skywalker. Though Leia’s career is certainly that of an exemplary leader, this was perhaps the greatest folly of her life. To entrust the volatile young grandson of Anakin Skywalker to a new Jedi Master who was still himself finding out what it meant to be a Jedi was a massive mistake. In his desire to rebuild the Jedi Order, Luke had steeped himself in their old teachings of avoiding attachment, isolating himself from the family he had found during his time with the Rebel Alliance. Ben proved to be a prodigy with the Force, but as he grew older and stronger, various forces worked to tempt him to the Dark Side. It is unclear how effective these forces were in their efforts, but what is clear is what ultimately sent him over the edge.
Master Luke Skywalker ultimately fell prey to the same mistake as his father – acting rashly on a vision that gave him only a small amount of information. In Luke’s case, he foresaw the dark warrior Ben Solo could become and resolved to kill the young man in his sleep. Though he stopped himself before he could strike, Ben woke up right then and saw what was about to happen. The result was a whirlwind of emotions for young Ben, who destroyed Luke’s Jedi academy and killed all the students in the process. With his own uncle seemingly against him, Ben quickly fell to the Dark Side and joined the First Order under Supreme Leader Snoke, bringing the second Jedi Order to a disastrous close. Luke, in his shame, retreated into exile on Ahch-To, discovering the sacred Jedi texts during his seclusion there. Of course, he was eventually found by Rey, who later defeated the First Order and redeemed Ben Solo, but we have yet to see if any Jedi Order will rise again from her efforts.
Ultimately, the Jedi Order will always fail because of their misunderstandings of a few key fundamental principles. First are their views on fear. They believe fear, any fear, to be a path to the Dark Side, but fear itself is natural and unavoidable. Instead, they should have focused on understanding fear and avoiding being ruled by it. The best-intentioned Jedi did attempt this to some extent, such as Grand Master Yoda, but it did no good in the end. Their Creed simply had no room to understand those in the Order who struggled with fear, leading to the tone-deaf attitude of the High Council.
The old Jedi Order was so obsessed with avoiding fear that they then forced their members to avoid anything that could possibly lead to fear, even those things that are normally good and healthy things for people. Foremost is the ability to have a romantic relationship with another. Curiously, George Lucas himself has said that Jedi aren’t forced to be celibate. It’s the emotional attachment that’s forbidden, not the physical act. In the non-canon stories, Master Ki-Adi-Mundi was even married to multiple wives due to the low birth rate of males of his species, though he still tried to refrain from emotional attachment to them. The Jedi didn’t just misunderstand fear, but also emotional intimacy itself. It isn’t a one-way street, as the Jedi treated it. It’s a constant two-lane road that must be traversed with purpose and care. Looking at the Jedi Order through the lens of religion, I see a number of parallels between the Jedi and our modern Catholic Church.
Full disclosure, I’m a Protestant, not a Catholic, so my understanding of Catholic affairs is limited, but I know a bit. Catholic priests are not allowed to marry at all in order to devote their entire being to God, but this has brought new problems to light in the modern day. There are many stories of priests breaking their vow by marrying and having children, some seeking backdoor permission to do so and others doing so in complete secret. Many of these individuals have been allowed to remain as priests after being discovered, even as they live with their wives, presumably acting as husbands and wives do with each other. And, of course, there is the widespread problem of serial child abuse among the priesthood, which has still not been properly dealt with, in my humble opinion. But I digress. My point is not to shame this as hypocrisy but to highlight that both the Jedi and the Catholic Church hold to ideals that are unrealistic and unhealthy. After all, the Bible itself says in Genesis that it is not good for Man to be alone. Whether in our real world or a Galaxy Far, Far Away, we are social creatures who need companionship and emotional intimacy to become our best selves.
What saddened me even more than the fall of the old Jedi Order was seeing how Luke structured his new Order. In his desire to give the new Jedi students as much conventional training as possible, Luke fell into the trap of failing to learn from the past. He had a prime opportunity to reform the Jedi Code and prevent it from being ruled by fear, but he instead doubled down on it. We see this clearly when he begins training the young Grogu, warning him against the attachment he has formed with Mandalorian warrior Din Djarin and forcing him to choose between family and the Jedi. I remember first watching that scene and feeling my heart break. Luke’s methods show that he has learned nothing, and it took the fall of his own Order for him to get it.
In his exile on Ahch-To, Luke finally understands the vanity and hubris of the Jedi. He understands their view of the Jedi being the keepers of the Light Side is folly because neither the Light Side nor the Dark Side can be destroyed. They exist in a balance, and even the old Jedi Order didn’t truly understand that balance. The Jedi Order had faith in a prophecy that a Chosen One would bring balance to the Force by destroying the Sith, but he instead brought balance by destroying nearly all the Jedi, bringing their numbers on par with the Sith. In the non-canon stories, there are former Jedi called Gray Jedi. They follow the Light Side while recognizing that the Dark Side will always exist alongside it. They fight for balance, to ensure the Dark does not overwhelm the Light, and to ensure the Light does not become oblivious to the true nature of the Dark. The films ended rather ambiguously with Rey as the last surviving Jedi after destroying the Sith, but I have some slight hope. I like to think she may try to take a different path going forward. Perhaps Rey could become something of a Gray Jedi, being a champion of balance and training future Jedi to do the same. Of course, I could be dead wrong, as she still keeps the sacred Jedi texts, but maybe this will finally be the moment the Jedi learn from their past mistakes. But as future Star Wars movies are on hold for a while, only time will tell.
And that’s going to do it for this bit of speculation. I hope my musings were interesting and entertaining, maybe even helpful to you in your efforts. Of course, I’d like to know what you think. Am I on point? Dead wrong? Feel free to let me know in the comments or reach out directly, especially if you have any ideas or requests for future entries. I’ve got an active running list of ideas, but I’m always open to more. I’d appreciate it if you’d leave a like and share this post on social media. And to stay up to date on future blog posts, you can sign up for my monthly newsletter on my website. Until the next story!