The Clone Wars and the Jedi Purge
by Andrew Liptak

 

As many EU fans know, a vast majority of the Jedi population in the galaxy were killed by Darth Vader, Senator- Turned-Emperor Palpatine and their agents. For a long time, it was assumed that Vader & company were responsible for all of the deaths, and that they killed off the Jedi after the Clone Wars ended, or sometime in that time period.

It is becoming apparent that the Jedi Purge and the Clone Wars are not so separate, and may have even intermixed. There are many instances where Jedi died in the Clone Wars, so is it too far a stretch to think that the Clone Wars might have been one stage of the Jedi Purge?

Hints of the Jedi Purge have come through the grapevine, so to speak, in the EU. No author has really been able to work with it much, but it has been mentioned often, particularly in Timothy Zahn's, Michael Stackpole's and Kevin J. Anderson's works.

It became apparent in Kevin J. Anderson's trilogy, The Jedi Academy Trilogy, that Vader had a team of agents that searched for not only Jedi, but to people who had Force potential and could thus provide a new threat to the Empire. Special scanners were created and used to detect Jedi.

Timothy Zahn's Thrawn Trilogy has many references to the Clone Wars and Jedi Purge, ranging from the Spaari Cloning Cylinders, the Katana Fleet and the Outbound Flight Project. Two of these items have or will be shortly addressed in the EU. The first item, the Spaari Cylinders, have been covered in Timothy Zahn's trilogy Hero of Cartao, where we see that the Spaari Cylinders were created for the Republic's use, and were transported to Wayland after the plant that made them were destroyed. The Outbound Flight Project is slated to be covered in a pair of novels by Timothy Zahn, one coming out next year, called Survivor's Quest.

Finally, many of Michael Stackpole's works refer to the Clone Wars. In the X-Wing series, Stackpole's character Corran Horn is captured by the Imperials, and upon escaping, stumbles across a storage area in which Palpatine held remnants from the Jedi Purge, including Corran's grandfather. In Stackpole's book, I, Jedi, we learn more about Corran's grandfather, and a little of the Clone Wars while there.

In Zahn's Thrawn Trilogy, one of his characters, Joruus C'both, tells Luke a little about the Jedi Purge, saying that the Emperor and Vader could not have wiped out the Jedi without approval of the citizens. The galaxy, he told him, turned on the Jedi, afraid of their powers and influence.

It is very possible that the Jedi Purge began shortly before the Clone Wars began, with the Outbound Flight Project. Onboard, a team of eight Jedi masters were on a mission to make contact with life outside the galaxy, and was destroyed shortly after it left known space. It seems that the chance to destroy eight Jedi masters was great, and certainly weakened the Jedi's position in the war to some degree.

In Zahn's newest trilogy, we can see that this is coming true. At the end of the Hero of Cartao trilogy, the Spaari Plant was destroyed, apparently by the Jedi. It's destruction ruined the planet's economy and the entire region in general, and the blame fell upon the Jedi. Sideous made a point to his agent, Kinman Doriana, that the Jedi would be hated for their actions, and if they were killed, there would be few that would be saddened by their passing.

In the Dark Horse series arch, the Battle of Jabiim, we see a pair of Jabiim soldiers who are talking about the Jedi, and it is easy to see how the Jedi's image is not very good in may areas of the galaxy. They are seen as killers, not healers.

I think that the Republic has engineered this position. Because Palpatine asked the Jedi masters to become Generals in the Army of the Republic, he has also placed them in a position of blame. There, they can be found at fault for the failure of battles, and judging from the events in Shatterpoint, evidence of war crimes could be brought in under the Jedi. Thus, it would be easy to blame the war's costs in human lives and credits, against the Jedi, claiming that they prolonged the war to work to their own advantage. It might seem hard to comprehend for many in the Republic, but given the influence of the senate and Palpatine, it would be easy to place the blame more freely.

It was mentioned in the Hero of Cartao series that the Jedi Council and the Supreme Chancellor's office were becoming increasingly at odds with each other about how the war was going. And with parts of the galaxy beginning to hate the Jedi for their actions, the blame placed on the Jedi would be sucked up rapidly. More systems and regions would hate the Jedi until nearly everyone hated the Jedi. It seems that two planets, Caamas and Alderaan were two planets that honored the Jedi Order. Covert elements of the Empire and a team of Bothans later destroyed Caamas and Alderaan was destroyed by the Death Star.

After the Clone Wars were over, and the blame was placed on the Jedi, it would be easier for Vader, Palpatine and their agents to hunt down the remaining Jedi and kill them. After the devastation of the Clone Wars killed many Jedi, as many as up to twenty a battle, the remaining Jedi would be easier to kill, and now their numbers were small enough for Vader & company to kill them. The galaxy did not object as a whole, for the Jedi were now seen as monsters and war criminals.

Thus it seems that the Clone Wars was a major operation orchestrated to rid the galaxy of the Jedi and bring the Sith back to power as the masters of the galaxy, at the head of an organization that carried out their wishes without question. The Sith succeeded. The Jedi were destroyed for the most part, and the Empire was in power for a relatively short time before the surviving Jedi trained one final Knight and brought him against Darth Vader and Emperor Palpatine.

---