"For over a thousand generations the Jedi Knights were the guardians of peace and justice..."

They had spent countless years studying, yielding themselves to the Force... all in the hope of maintaining peace throughout the Galaxy. Where did they fail? How did their vast knowledge of the Force ultimately come crumbling down around them? So many wise beings sat on the Jedi High Council, yet each of them did not sense the great change that was growing in their midst. They failed to sense the darkness that was being slowly spun around them, unaware despite their power and wisdom.


Complacency in the Force


Perhaps their sin was a sense of certainty, a complacency that set in even as the darkness began to gather. Had all that knowledge, all those long years of training kept them so assured of their own abilities that they would fail to see the Force as a living entity? Even the wisest can find themselves complacent, unwilling or perhaps unable to sense the changes that were always taking place. For them the Force had become a rigid certainty, something that for thousands of years they had come to know... to control. But the Force was ever changing, as any living thing, and their own knowledge would not be enough.


"To understand the Great Mystery, one must study all its aspects... not just the dogmatic, narrow view of the Jedi..."


The deception of the Sith, the power of their deceit, resides in their ability to mix lies with truth. Had the Jedi Order, confident in their belief that the Sith were extinct, allowed themselves to become so wrapped up in tradition and rigid code that they failed to understand the danger the Darkside had always posed? The lure of untold power, the promise of something far beyond Jedi knowledge would have been more than enough to lure Jedi away from the strict beliefs of the Order. Anakin would fall to such a temptation, having seen the failures of the Jedi and finding himself wanting much more.

Yoda had sensed some of what was transpiring in the Order, sensing the growing number of Jedi that were falling into arrogance. If the Force was always changing, always growing around them, then the Jedi had failed to adapt to such changes. In their wisdom they would sever the Jedi from emotions and feelings, tearing them away from the very fabric that made the Force so powerful to begin with. This was perhaps their greatest failure of all. This too would have made temptation by the Darkside of the Force even more powerful, making it difficult even for the most powerful of Jedi to resist.

"If you strike me down, I will become more powerful than you could possibly imagine"


In Addition: (updated: Oct. 26th)
If the driving force behind the darkside were the emotions of hate, fear and anger then compassion, love and selflessness would be the force that powered the lightside. If a Jedi denied himself from the emotions essential to the Force, then would he not cut his very connection to it? Would he not diminish his own power in the Force? Anakin did not deny his emotions, and was indeed seduced by them... for fear and anger were truly his greatest emotions.



Only years later would the last remaining Jedi understand their failure, and begin to see the Force in its true nature. When Obi-Wan sacrificed himself for Luke, he proved that at last the Jedi understood the Force, and had grown with it. Both he and Yoda had let go of their wisdom, gathered over long years, and realized the true power that the Force represented. Perhaps the key to understanding the Force, was to realize the importance of growing with it... as opposed to the complacency that had doomed them. Through the understanding of these two Jedi their legacy was able to survive, and bring an end to the darkness that had swallowed the Galaxy in such violence.