One ancient Jedi prophecy revealed in Star Wars perfectly encapsulates the cyclical nature of the Skywalker saga. The “Chosen One” prophecy became vital to Star Wars’ storytelling in Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace, as Qui-Gon Jinn believed that Anakin Skywalker was the Chosen One; the one who was promised to bring balance to the Force. Still, the movies never truly divulged the exact context of the prophecy. More importantly, however, the Chosen One prophecy isn’t the only prophecy in Star Wars. There’s another prophecy – one the Jedi should arguably have paid closer attention to.

Claudia Gray’s novel Master & Apprentice sheds further light on Obi-Wan Kenobi’s relationship with Qui-Gon Jinn, Qui-Gon’s relationship with Count Dooku, and Dooku’s unnatural (but ultimately useful) obsession with the Jedi’s ancient prophecies. Master & Apprentice revealed that there was another prophecy alongside the prophecy of the Chosen One, one which could have potentially warned the Jedi of the danger still to come once Palpatine rose to power.

One Jedi Prophecy Speaks Of The Threats Of The Past

Of course, the Star Wars prequel trilogy, Star Wars: The Clone Wars, and even the stories told in Star Wars’ relatively new High Republic era all explore why the Jedi were eventually decimated. They became embroiled in the Republic’s politics, wrongly believed the Sith were extinct, and refused to view the dark side as a natural part of the Force. Interestingly enough, the second prophecy revealed in Master & Apprentice could have warned the Jedi of the dangers to come had they been willing to interpret and study it rather than dismiss it outright.

That second prophecy reads: “The danger of the past is not past, but sleeps in an egg. When the egg cracks, it will threaten the galaxy entire.” If the Jedi of the prequel era had only heeded this prophecy as a warning of the danger to come and allowed themselves to believe that the Sith were not truly extinct, plenty of heartbreak could have been avoided. But it’s not just ancient battles between the Jedi and the Sith that may be referenced by this prophecy. “Star Wars is like poetry,” after all – “it rhymes.”

Star Wars Is Always About Realizing Evil Is Never Truly Gone

The Jedi believed the Sith had been vanquished over a thousand years ago, but they lay in wait in the shadows, waiting for the egg to crack. The Sith aren’t the only threats the galaxy faced during the Skywalker saga, though. In fact, one could even argue that they were only a small part of it. Palpatine may have been in charge, but the Empire, and all its outposts and resources, is what truly had the galaxy in a chokehold. At one point, both Palpatine and the Empire fell, and some may have rashly wanted to believe that would be the end.

It wasn’t, of course. Both Palpatine and the Empire survived and were reborn, re-emerging years later as a clone variant and the First Order respectively. “No one is ever really gone,” Luke Skywalker said in Star Wars: The Last Jedi – that’s true for the people the characters mourn, but it’s also true for the evils they face. The Jedi Order, similarly, will rise again in Rey’s New Jedi Order movie, but some force of evil will emerge once more to greet her, too, whether that be some new version of the Sith, the Empire, or a different dark side-wielding group altogether.

The prophecy laid out in Master & Apprentice doesn’t just perfectly summarize the Skywalker saga’s story, however. Other modern Star Wars stories have been influenced by this rinse-and-repeat structure as well. The Dathomirian Nightsisters were meant to be eradicated after the Clone Wars, after all, and yet they’re about to re-emerge in the galaxy as a powerful entity once more, as the Great Mothers have returned with Grand Admiral Thrawn from another galaxy in Ahsoka. Other familiar or ancient dark forces may be appearing from Peridea soon as well, as suggested by the appearances of the Mortis Gods statues. Will the galaxy be ready?

Something similar has happened in The High Republic, too. The High Republic’s publishing initiative is split into three phases. Phase I takes place 200 years before the prequel trilogy, Phase II takes place 150 years before Phase I, and Phase III picks up where Phase I left off. A common thread between the phases is the Force-eating creatures called the Nameless, which attack and leave the Jedi as desiccated husks. The Jedi faced them in Phase II and yet did not know they existed in Phase I. Did the Jedi suppress their knowledge? Did they believe they had completely eradicated them?

This Is Star Wars’ True Lesson: That Democracy & Justice Should Never Be Taken For Granted

The lesson of the prophecy is clear, of course. History is doomed to repeat itself. And yet the Jedi and the New Republic were never seemingly ready, or even expecting, the return of their enemies. The Jedi in The Phantom Menace were adamant that the Sith couldn’t have returned, and even after Darth Maul and Count Dooku’s appearances and the mayhem of the Clone Wars, they couldn’t fathom that someone in their midst, someone they may have trusted, could turn against them. They were blinded by their arrogance, and the galaxy was conquered by the Empire as a result.

The same thing happened years later, when the Imperial Remnant and, by extension, the First Order, began to amass resources and make their presence known in the galaxy once more. The New Republic had decommissioned some of its most usable defensive ships and infrastructure – this was shown in The Mandalorian season 3 – claiming that keeping the spoils of war was inviting that darkness to remain in the galaxy. Ideologically, Mon Mothma and the New Republic had a point. The galaxy was tired of war and wanted to let go of the pain of the past.

Clearly, though, they weren’t prepared, and the First Order and Emperor Palpatine very nearly rose to complete power in the galaxy once more. Trillions of lives were lost in the process, and the last hope of the Jedi was very nearly crushed. The prophecy could genuinely have been referring to any moment in the Skywalker saga, and it could be referencing something still to come, as well. Will Rey be able to learn from the mistakes of the past as she tries to rebuild what was lost?

The lesson of the prophecy and Star Wars as a whole is clear. Democracy, justice, and peace should never be taken for granted. The darkness doesn’t need to be actively pursued, but to believe that it’s been eradicated in its entirety is inherently foolish. Something will always be waiting in the shadows. Hopefully, the Jedi and the Republic of Star Wars‘ future will finally have learned the ultimate lesson, a lesson so succinctly summarized in that ancient Jedi prophecy.