The fall of the Jedi, inevitable?

Once we choose a path of violence to overcome our enemies, what dangers await us along that road?

Mandalorian Sergeant Kal Skirata once commented: "If you sharpen a knife to its limits, you run the risk of cutting your own hand. The knife has no choice but to be as sharp as you made it."

The clone army is a perfect example of this principle. (Indeed, he may have been referring to it.)

Many have debated whether the Jedi were wise to so quickly embrace their role as Jedi Generals of the Grand Army. Certainly, there was an immediate threat on Geonosis that required military intervention. But what about afterwards?

We can look to Yoda, who comments at the end of Attack of the Clones: "Master Obi-Wan, not victory. The shroud of the dark side has fallen. Begun, the Clone War has!"

Why is he so negative?

Maybe Yoda understands the old martial arts tenet: Never use a weapon that can be turned against you.

The clone army, once deployed as agents of war, became a weapon which was ultimately turned against the Jedi themselves. Perhaps this is why the Jedi had limited themselves to being "keepers of the peace, not warriors."


So my question to all of you: Was this outcome inevitable? Did the Jedi begin to pull away from their basic belief in defense and knowledge, when they embarked on a path of war? Were they complicit in their own fall-- turning ever so slightly from the Light Side, step by step?




Emporer Gerner Dark Lord of the Sith

 

No, I do not believe it was inevitable. It could have been avoided, if things had played out more in their favor, and if there hadn't been an evil genius named Darth Sidious to plan their demise so carefully.

 

Nothing is inevitable in the Saga except for the prophecy.

"The overriding philosophy in Episode I?and in all the Star Wars movies, for that matter?is the balance between good and evil. The Force itself breaks into two sides: the living Force and a greater, cosmic Force. The living Force makes you sensitive to other living things, makes you intuitive, and allows you to read other people's minds, etc. But the greater Force has to do with destiny. In working with the Force, you can find your destiny and you can choose to either follow it or not."

? George Lucas, quoted in L. Bouzereau, Star Wars: The Making of Episode I, 1999

The Jedi chose...poorly.

 

Well, it's inevitable that everything that has a beginning has an end. I guess it was meant to happen at some point, but it certainly would've gone on longer than it did if it wasn't for Palpatine.

 

No, I don't think it was inevitable. Their fall could have been avoided . . . or not. Nothing in life is certain.

 

Well, in this context I liked these lines in the RotS novel "The Clone Wars were the perfect Jedi trap. By fighting at all, the Jedi lost."

And in another way, I'd also say the fall of the Jedi was inevitable: The Prophecy. Sure, it's debatable if it really entailed the (near-)extinction of the Jedi, but imho (and that's partly to my personal beliefs) it had to happen. The choices the Jedi (including Anakin) can make, influence ... well, only details. Single outcomes to key situations. Sure they had plenty of choices (Anakin most of them) but the way Sidious played the Jedi (and the Senate and the Seperatists) forced a lot of decisions.

Both Sidious and the Jedi made it inevitable. In itself, it probably wasn't (i.e. didn't happen because the Prophecy said so (especially how we don't really know what exactly the Prophecy even says)).

 

we all knew that anakin would turn to the dark side but what palpatine planned was that anakin would committ the attrocities and woukld never redeem himself untill episode 6 but my question is why did the said jedi turn not to the dark side of the force and help the jedi fight palpatine?

 

But if the Jedi refuse to fight in the Clone Wars, they will still lose because it'll give Palpatine an excuse to convince the Senate to agree on killing off the entire Jedi Order. The Jedi were doomed no matter what action they commit but their downfall was not inevitable, it was 100% avoidable.

 

They Jedi just had to put two and two together, realize that Jango Fett was playing both sides against each other, and realize that bounty hunters usually don't mastermind galactic wars, and realize that SOMEONE WAS FREAKING MANIPULATING THEIR EVERY MOVE.

Yeah, in Labyrinth of Evil, they finally find out someone in the Republic is messing with them, but it really shouldn't have taken them so long to figure it out.