How did the Jedi council not know about the Sith?

I posted this the other day, but now I can't find it, so sorry if the other one somehow shows up.
Anyway.....
When QGJ first went before the council in TPM and told them that he believed that his attacker on Tatooine was a Sith Lord everyone looked at each other in disbelief. The one master (don't know his name) said that the Sith had been extinct for a millenia. Mace then added that he didn't believe that the Sith could have returned without the Jedi knowing. Then QGJ told the council that he had encountered a vergence in the Force. Mace then replied "You refer to the one who will bring balance to the Force." So the council obvisously knew about the prophecy and that it had not yet been fullfilled. Then why did the Jedi believe that the Sith were extinct?

Your thoughts?

 

Have you heard of the Battle of Ruusan?

 

no I haven't

 

The Battle of Ruusan is where the Sith and Jedi armies fought a thousand years before TPM, all were destroyed, except for one, Darth Bane.

 

Why didn't the Council know? Arrogance, pure and simple. They thought they had everything figured out and figured the Sith would openly challenge them or, failing that, that they'd recognize the signs. Wily old Palpatine fooled them, as he fooled everyine else.

 

They were blinded by their own arrogance and confidence. Also Sidious/Palpatine used the dark side to cloud their minds so that they could not sense him.

 

I think each Jedi has his/her own opinion about the Sith. Mundi thinks they are completely wiped out, and Windu doesn't say whether they were wiped out or not, only that they couldn't rise to power without the Jedi sensing it. However, Yoda knows of the rule of two, which means that he knows they survived in small groups. It's hard to say.

 

isn't being arrogant considered to be a dark side trait? just wondering

 

Yeah I guess it can be. I'll say it this way: they were confident that all of the Sith were destroyed so they did no think they were any threat[so they weren't looking for them].

 

I see what everyone is saying about confidence and arrongence, but my point was why assume that the Sith are gone if the chosen one had not yet fullfilled the prophecy.

 

The sith covered themselves in the force,and there were only two everytime since the Sith were ''destroyed'' so it wasn't that hard to hide two.

Also,The darkside clouds the force, so it would be hard to sense exactly where the sith lord is.

 

That is actually quite a good question...

 

someone should make a list of all the contrivances and send them to lucas to get an 'official' answer

 

It is simple, if you see an entire army of Sith Lords, be destroyed, there is no one left, in their opinion, so they thought they were extinct.

 

It's not that simple. If the destruction of all the Sith was certain then the prophecy would not exist. The prophecy essentially asserts that the Sith will still be around. I would expect that when the prophecy was declared, the jedi would be aware that they did not destroy all of the Sith. With this knowledge, they could be prepared for the return of the Sith or hunt them down. It is a very good question and dare I say "plot hole"?

 

you could

 

Why wouldn't they know about the Sith? There would be information on the Sith within the confines of the archives of the Jedi Order.

 

It was said that one will bring balance to the force, but the Jedi weren't looking into it all the time, and it is said they were unsure of when it would occur, as it was made long ago. The factors pointed to the Sith were destroyed and over time the Jedi came to believe that.

 

Yes, but then when Qui-Gon mentions Anakin and his "birth", you'd think the Jedi would go "Oops, missed one."

In fact, AOTC's earlier drafts had Mace and Yoda talking about: "Our missing Sith" as being Dooku.

So, it portrayed them as looking into the matter over the years.

Unfortunately, the film itself omits this.

 

This is a great question! I think I asked this in another post somewhere a while back. I think that the re-emergence of Sith could happen even if all of the Sith had been destroyed a thousand years ago. All it would take is one Jedi to fall to the dark side and seek out Sith teachings or even some non Jedi to stumble across the Sith teachings in some way or another. For all we know, EU not included, the Sith line did die out and emerged on it's own. Maybe Plageius(sp?) was the first Sith in 500 years. Maybe Plageius was one of the lost twenty. Or maybe one of the lost twenty restarted the Sith during the thousand years that they were thought to be extinct. Just some theories.

Bottom line is that the Jedi could believe both that the Sith were totally wiped out and that there would be a chosen one to destroy the Sith because the Sith could have re-emerged in the form of a new Sith Lord who was not taught by a previous Sith Lord instead of having the Sith teachings being passed down over the generations.

I think this explains Mace Windu's line about how the Sith couldn't have returned without the Jedi knowing. I don't think he meant that they returned from some place but rather from non existence.

 

CadeFoster2000 posted:

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Bottom line is that the Jedi could believe both that the Sith were totally wiped out and that there would be a chosen one to destroy the Sith because the Sith could have re-emerged in the form of a new Sith Lord who was not taught by a previous Sith Lord instead of having the Sith teachings being passed down over the generations.
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What would be the point of having a chosen one if the Sith could die out and then re-emerge anytime they wanted to?

 

Also, it would've been neat to have the whole "chosen one" idea be a plant of the Sith; they really do excel at loooong range planning after all. Also, have Qui-Gon's unshakable belief in Anakin and his destiny be a result of Sith manipulation. Then the bullheadedness and inability of the Jedi to see the forest for the trees wouldn't be so inexplicable.

 

okay the jedi are idiots

 

You know what blows my mind? The meeting in the Chancellor's office between the Jedi and Palpatine in AOTC.

There were seven Jedi...SEVEN! Right there in fron of the Sith Lord and none of them could sense anything.

Though Yoda did look suspicious when Palpatine offered that Padme have Jedi protection.

 

I think the prophecy just said the chosen one would bring balance to the Force. Didn't say anything about destroying the Sith or anything.