Since the release of Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope in 1977, mystery and intrigue has surrounded the order of warrior monks know as the Jedi. Obi-Wan Kenobi drops a few hints at their role before the great purge in the film, “for over a thousand generations, the Jedi Knights were the guardians of peace and justice in the Old Republic.” Our imaginations went into overdrive trying to conceptualize how this great order would have looked during the peak of its influence. This was answered in the prequels.
Firstly, the prequel trilogy actually did some good. They visually opened up the Star Wars Universe for a lot of people, and laid the groundwork for a bunch of Expanded Universe stories, in as much as the look and feel of the Jedi Order in the SWEU.
We owe so much to the prequels for visual presentation of them in the video games and novels. The KOTOR series for example, plays with ideas from the prequels and creates a neat blend into something new but similar. The world of the novels like those based in the Old Republic and those based around the 67 B.B.Y. – 19 B.B.Y. time period, do the same (BBY is the established dating system in the SWEU. B.B.Y. refers to before the Battle of Yavin featured in A New Hope).
The good things that the prequels achieved are deeply undercut by the list of its gargantuan failures (see the Red Letter Media reviews for more). Yet I wish to discuss the failure of the Jedi Order to live up to their reputation as wise, guardians of the Republic. Instead, they end up dropping the ball, again and again, on a whole host of occassions. Here are 5 major examples…
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10 Comments
Yet another WC writer watched the Plinkett reviews and based an article around it.
I’d liked the Plinkett reviews, in fact I did mention them by name. However this was not a piece about the films but rather about the judgement of Jedi in them. If I based my article around the Red Letter Media reviews I never would have included anything about the SWEU, or written the conclusion that I did.
in all fairness to obi wan, he couldnt kill anakin cus hes darth vader, its just bad writing for them.
Good point. That was very much shoehorned in. That said, in the novel version this fight is actually done fairly nicely. I don’t hate the prequels by any stretch of the imagination but they do have some fatal flaws.
Don’t forget, If Obi-Wan killed Anakin, he would have saved himself as well.
Indeed. It is a result of writing yourself into a corner.
In the AOTC book, Anakin being assigned to protect Padme was more of a test
And Obi-Wan didn’t kill Anakin on Mustafar b/c he feared he would fall to the Dark Side if he had
There were ‘Star Wars’ prequels? Really, when did these happen… and what are these ‘Matrix’ sequels of which some have mentioned?
Good article. I would have added Yoda going to Kashyyyk right when they were investigating the Chancellor and expecting Sidious to reveal himself. Surely if you’re expecting to fight a Sith Lord reasonably soon, it’s best to keep your leader with you. Especially since there were already two other Jedi to supervise the Battle Of KAshyyyk
The biggest way that the Jedi messed up was how they handled Anakin. Yoda knew he had issues and yet, allows the newest Jedi Knight to train him. Why not assign him to someone who’s had experience in training padawans? Even when Yoda senses Anakin’s distress during the boy’s reaction to Shmi’s death, the Jedi master never addresses it. The Jedi have arguably, the strongest Force users in the galaxy and they never properly work with him. They couldn’t let him just go – not when they have proof the Sith have returned but why don’t they just get him some help? A little anger management?