19 Years After Revenge Of The Sith, Star Wars Finally Explains Why The Galaxy Turned Against The Jedi

Warning! This post contains SPOILERS for Star Wars: The Living Force by John Jackson Miller

19 years after Revenge of the Sith’s release and the tragedy of the Jedi Purge, Star Wars is finally revealing why it was so easy for the galaxy to turn on the Jedi who remained and forget their legacy altogether. After all, the Jedi were all but myth only 19 years after the end of the Clone Wars and the Fall of the Jedi Order. To that end, it’s been revealed that the Jedi were fairly removed from everyday galactic life in the years before The Phantom Menace.

In the new novel The Living Force by John Jackson Miller, Qui-Gon Jinn was one of the few Jedi Masters who recognized the negative impact the Jedi Order was having on the galaxy. Challenging the Jedi Council to focus more on the present Living Force rather than the bigger picture, Qui-Gon thankfully motivated a change in perspective for many Jedi. However, it was seemingly too late considering how much the galaxy shifted in the years that followed. Here are a few key reasons why the galaxy eventually turned on and forgot the Jedi Order following Revenge of the Sith.

The Jedi Retreated From The Galaxy After The High Republic Era

Jedi Outposts Were Gradually Closed Down

A few hundred years before the events of The Phantom Menace, the Jedi Order and the Republic were both enjoying an age of peace and prosperity known as the High Republic Era. To that end, “Great Works” were frequently being commissioned to improve the galaxy as the Republic expanded into the Outer Rim. This also included the Jedi constructing several key outposts on worlds as well as creating Starlight Beacon, a major satellite and shining symbol of the Jedi’s presence beyond the central Core World of Coruscant and their Jedi Temple.

However, a fast-forward beyond the High Republic Era to the years just before The Phantom Menace tells a very different story for the Jedi Order. Rather than aiding the supporting the Republic as an entity of protectors serving the light, the Jedi Order’s role became far too conflated with the whims of the Republic Senate and its various political agendas. Likewise, the Jedi Council began ordering the closure of several planetary outposts as the Order spent more and more time on Coruscant, a decision that resulted in several inadvertent consequences the rest of the galaxy certainly felt.

As The Jedi Retreated, The Galaxy Fell To Chaos

The Jedi Order’s Absence Left Voids And Bitterness

With every Jedi outpost closure, increased criminal activity frequently followed in the surrounding region as pirates and various crime syndicates grew bolder due to the Jedi’s perceived absence. After all, even if an outpost hadn’t been visited by the Jedi in years, the mere presence of the outpost itself had served as a deterrent for would-be criminals. As such, this led to some widespread resentment and bitterness from civilians toward the Jedi Order, something Qui-Gon Jinn came to discover along with his Padawan Obi-Wan Kenobi when they took a commercial spacecraft after closing down one such outpost.

Although the prequels’ Jedi Order did care about every being in the galaxy, they were inadvertently creating a dynamic where the ongoing perception was that the Jedi didn’t care. While this didn’t mean that the members of the Jedi Council had stopped working to keep the galaxy safe, the average being’s inability to see all that the Jedi were doing (and only what they hadn’t in their corner of the galaxy) led to these negative perceptions. Keeping that in mind, a big part of the Jedi Order’s problem during this era was their ongoing entanglements with the Republic Senate and its wishes rather than those who make up the galaxy itself.

People Could No Longer Look To The Jedi For Safety

The Jedi Made The Galaxy Feel Like They Didn’t Care

The Living Force helps redeem the Jedi Council by giving them a chance to leave Coruscant and help individuals at Qui-Gon’s urging. However, one can argue that much of the damage had already been done. Likewise, the Jedi Order didn’t distance itself from the Senate in the aftermath, and the imminent conflict of the Clone Wars certainly didn’t help which saw the Jedi agreeing to serve as generals and commanders of the Republic’s clone army.

The Jedi Order never made galaxy-spanning, lasting changes before The Phantom Menace, and they only became more compromised in their pride and hubris. As such, much of the resentment and bitterness toward the Jedi that had developed in various regions of the galaxy persisted. As a result, it sadly made it all too easy for the Jedi to be forgotten by many beings once the Order was wiped out with the rise of Palpatine’s Empire in Revenge of the Sith.