Warning! SPOILERS for Star Wars: The Bad Batch season 2, episodes 7 & 8.Star Wars saga is expanding into the Dark Times of the Empire's reign, a period when Palpatine dominated politically, and insurgents were scattered and lacked coordination. Palpatine believed the light of the Jedi had been doused forever, and he set about ensuring the Force remained tilted towards the dark side. He established a regime where it was impossible to exist without a degree of corruption, indeed where success and prosperity depended upon it. Part of this involved ensuring there were victims of injustice, ranging from the alien races who were enslaved to the clone troopers who were abandoned and impoverished.
Star Wars: The Bad Batch episodes 7 and 8 showed the Obi-Wan Kenobi, and he was surely not an isolated example. But, although nobody stopped to reflect on it, Palpatine was only able to do this to the clones because of an older failing - one by the Jedi themselves.
The Jedi Should Have Fought For Clone Rights & Representation
The Clone Wars began in army of clone troopers they now led, with even some respected Jedi Masters dismissing them as mindless soldiers, the equivalent of droids, because they had been produced by an assembly line. As the years ed, though, many Jedi began to realize this was not the case. They encouraged the clones to pursue their individuality, to assign themselves names rather than numbers, and to have hobbies and interests outside war. They realized the clones were people.
For all that is the case, though, there is no evidence the Jedi ever petitioned the Republic to treat the clones as people. There were no clone rights campaigns, no conversations between Chancellor Palpatine and of the Jedi Council about getting the clones representation on the Senate. This is particularly remarkable given senior of the Council - including Grand Master Yoda - were among the Jedi who encouraged clones to pursue their individuality. If the Jedi truly believed the clones were people in their own right, they should have pressured the Republic to treat them as such.
The Jedi Were Distracted By The Clone Wars, Failing To Stand For Justice
There is, of course, a reason for this mistake. There is a disturbing sense in which the light of the Jedi had already been doused by the Clone Wars, for the Jedi became so absorbed in their role as generals that they forgot to consider matters of justice. The Jedi Council concerned itself with the progress of the war above all else, with the possible exception of training the next generation of Jedi. Palpatine used this to his advantage, with a propaganda campaign ensuring the public came to believe he was their champion rather than the Jedi, and he was able to use the lack of connection between the Jedi and Republic citizens to ultimately turn the public against their true guardians.
The Jedi Failure With The Clones Shows How Badly They Failed
The failure with the clones is perhaps the most shocking example, though. The Jedi served alongside clones every single day, and yet they remained blissfully unaware of a basic injustice affecting every one of them. It is possible some Jedi believed there would one day be a need for clone rights when the war was over, a short-term attitude likely encouraged by the clones themselves, who had been trained to never even notice their lack of representation and basic rights. If Jedi did think this, then they were foolish for doing so; Jedi are supposed to serve the light side in the present moment, not to push an inconvenient discussion into some hypothetical future.
In the end, of course, the Jedi fell because of the treachery of the Sith. Their defeat left the clones in a tremendously vulnerable position, one Palpatine had no qualms about exploiting to further tip the galaxy toward the dark side of the Force. Star Wars: The Bad Batch season 2 essentially showed the ultimate end of the Clone Wars, with the very soldiers who had fought for the Republic discarded with barely a second thought from most senators.
New episodes of Star Wars: The Bad Batch release every Wednesday on Disney+.