I was thinking the other day about the Jedi when reading Exile, about how they evolved from a looser organization with a few schools of thought to one council with strict laws, then get destroyed and revived as an organization of one council with looser laws than the first, and that at a clear disadvantage against the Dark side. I'm first going to go through this and express my opinions on this issue, and would love to hear what you think about it.

4,000-3,000 BBY

By this time there was no single council, but academies independent from each other headed by a master. There were numerous of these, and each academy had it's own phiosophy on how to do things, from attachments to how to teach. By this time, the padawan Exar Kun began being curious about the dark side - specifically a holocron - and eventually became the Dark lord of the Sith, the first for 500 years. After his defeat, the Jedi began to explore a more strict system and the council became more popular, and there became less diverse teachings around.

I personally think this type of Jedi would have an advantage over others because it's a more freethinking society, but disadvantage because one of those could have a more dangerous way of doing things, such as Vodo Siosk-Baas keeping Dark side artifacts in the academy. Some Jedi may have a difficulty with sacrifices and attachments, such as Ulic Qel-Droma losing his master, but another may live a life without them. I think the most disadvantage here is that when evil is confronted, where is that line set at for all the Jedi?

Then came the Mandalorian War and the Jedi council stayed behind, while a new group broke away. There were then three groups - Covenant, Council and Revanchists. The covenant is misguided and ruled behind the scenes by a Dark Jedi, the Revanchists became the Sith Empire under Revan and then Malak - but the council was the only one left by the Jedi Civil War. The academies then had their own councils as before, but reported to the high council.

1,000- 19 BBY

Then we know how it worked in the movies, where the council was the sole Jedi body governing everything on it's own. They had only one school of thought, apart from gray Jedi who couldn't get a seat on the council because of their non-orthodox opinions, and due to necessity eventually sponsored Jedi generals to help with the war effort during the Clone Wars. All of that while the Dark side pulled the strings in front of their noses.

I personally think these have the best advantage against the Dark side because they have no conflicting opinions amongst themselves and thus are better at seeing the dark if they're confronted by it, but least because they have so rigid system. They see the force in one way only, and predictions are done by that same principle, while the earlier would have so many different ways to do things one master might see something the others don't, and as they all gathered in dangerous times they would be very co-operative regardless of that.

10-40 ABY

Then comes Luke's, and they all revert back to the looser rules. There's one council, but attachments are allowed, and their students get a bit more freedom than the prior incarnation. Adults are again given a chance there as well.

This incarnation I think has the worst shielding against the Sith, because they have one school of thought and don't limit attachments. The individual is less connected to principle, but is allowed to keep things which makes it more difficult for them to sacrifice. And obviously it had the worst defense, because they only lasted a few decades until being overtaken by the Sith again.

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So why, in chronological terms, would they go from loose to a strict, then destroyed and revived as a looser than the first? Luke didn't get any tutoring from Yoda and Ben? I mean, they obviously were better off with the council as the only body, and one school of thought instead of uncountable privately owned academies. The first had a Sith encounter three times with a 500 year break, the later had no Sith encounter for a thousand years before being tricked, and then the later incarnation gets confronted basically from within after only 30 years of existance. Did they think it was better to experiment with an old concept that obviously doesn't work as well?

A note: I'm not even half-way through Sacrifice, so please - don't spoil the ending of the series! Might be that it answers this question, and if it does then you can tell me if it does, but please don't tell me how it does that. I'm not as good with post-ROTJ than I am with pre-TPM.

Thanks a lot and thanks for reading, and hope that someone is as interested in this as I am.