The Downfall of the Jedi and Public Opinion
by Andrew Liptak

Luke Skywalker: "I thought it was the Empire and a few Dark Jedi who exterminated the Jedi."

Joruus C'baoth: "Do you truly believe that even the Emperor could have succeeded in such a task without the consent of the entire galaxy? No Luke. They hated us-- all the lesser beings did. Hated us for our power, and our knowledge and our wisdom."

There have been debates about the nature of the Jedi Purge, but the fact remains that the Jedi were exterminated in part by Emperor Palpatine and his new agent, Darth Vader. At the time of The Phantom Menace, nearly ten thousand Jedi existed in the galaxy. This number includes Jedi Masters, Jedi Knights and Jedi Apprentices. So how then, could the entire Jedi order be virtually eliminated in the span of a decade or less? It hardly stands to reason that several Dark Jedi could best all of them in combat.

Joruus C'baoth puts the most logical theory forward. The Jedi weren't killed just by the Empire; they were killed by the Empire with the blessing of a vast majority of the Republic/Empire.

How could this happen? For a thousand generations, the Jedi stood as peacekeepers and were respected as such during that time. How could public opinion of the galaxy swing in such a dramatic fashion?

The reason, I think, stems from a large number of incidents, some revolving around the Clone Wars, some from other incidents around the same time period.
One of the first incidents occurred shortly before the Clone Wars broke out. On a war torn world, Jedi healers and investigators found a surviving child-- a child with force potential. Normally, children are taken from their homes with the parent's consent. However, the child's parents were nowhere to be found, and presumed dead. The child was taken in to the Jedi temple for training. Shortly after, the mother surfaced, and demanded her child back. By now, the child had begun his training, enough that it would be dangerous to release him back into normal life. The event was highly publicized and regular opinion from citizens was that the Jedi overstepped their bounds. The Jedi were now child-snatchers.

Event number two is the battle of Cartao. The Republic moved onto the world of Cartao, and occupied it's manufacturing plants to produce cloning cylinders to aid in the war effort. The move was not popular with the planet government, but they reluctantly accepted it, so long as the plants, the planet's main source of income, was unharmed in the occupation. The Trade Federation landed, and a fierce ground battle ensured. Towards the end of the battle, word came from space that a transport full of Jedi were on the way to help with the battle. The transport swooped down, and fired on the plant, ignoring the orders from the ground commanders on the ground. The transport crashed and destroyed the plant, as well as the planet's economy. The Republic and Jedi left hated by the planet, and much of the sector that they were in.

Both incidents like the child and Cartao were undoubtedly repeated several times throughout the galaxy. Word would have spread throughout the galaxy, or in certain places of strategic value to the Empire. It would be easy to come to hate the Jedi after a while. This can be summed up nicely with a conversation seen in Republic 55, Storm Chasers:

From the conversation, the seeds of hatred have been cast for the Jedi. Notice that the Jedi grow the soldiers in vats, not the Republic who bought them. It was the Jedi who grew the army. Growing an army can be considered unethical at best, and it certainly doesn't help the Jedi to be stuck with the burden as the cloners.

Further more, it was the Jedi who were stuck with leading the Republic Military. By who? Supreme Chancellor Palpatine himself. Why? Because he thought that the Jedi would be the best group to lead the military, in a war that was sure to go poorly for the Republic in the long run. The Kamino Cloners only produced over a million clones. That's a far smaller military than the United States employs, and that's for one country, on one planet. By putting the Jedi at the head of the military, Palpatine could do a number of things with them. First, he can distance his (and the senate's) responsibility over the military. Should a battle or campaign go wrong, the senate would not be the ones responsible for the losses. The Jedi would be and loosing a war is not good publicly. Second, the Jedi and senate would become constantly at odds with each other on how to run the military and campaigns. As noted in The Hero of Cartao, the Supreme Chancellor's Office and the Jedi Council were already distancing themselves after six months. Third, leading a war goes against many Jedis personal beliefs and as seen in the comic, Jedi: Mace Windu, several attempted to take no part in the military action. They could become cannon fodder for propagandists who could theoretically claim that the Jedi were not all on the Republic's side. Furthermore, Quinlan Vos left the Jedi order (on an intelligence mission and manufacture) which could have been highly publicized. The public would undoubtedly miss the fact that only a couple Jedi were having second thoughts, and lumped them all together and would think that they're not pulling their own weight.

Lastly, as seen in X-WING: Wedge's Gamble, people thought that the Jedi were attempting to take over the Republic, based on their powers. This was due to the propaganda efforts of the Imperials, but was nonetheless effective. Is it possible that the Jedi realized who Chancellor Palpatine was, and attacked him, only to fail and have Palpatine claim that they were trying to take over his seat as leader of the Republic? I think that it's highly possible. If that happened, it would be easy for him to lead the Senate to authorize the arrest or execution of every Jedi out there. With the incidents and events listed above, and with more that hasn't been covered, I think that it would be extremely easy for the Senate to pass such a bill. By that time, the people would have hated the Jedi, and as a result, the Jedi would be able to find few havens where they could exist without being hated for what they are.

Thus, the destruction of the Jedi was not an isolated event, but rather a series of events that resulted in their destruction. It is possible that the Clone Wars was an event designed to destroy the Jedi, and given the evidence that is presented above, I think that the possibility is certainly there.

1. Zahn, Timothy, Dark Force Rising, page 247-248, Bantam Spectra

2. Blackman, Ching, Llamas, Star Wars Republic 55: Storm Chasers, page 1, Dark Horse Comics