Summary
- Emperor Palpatine's secret orchestration of the Clone Wars eerily mirrors an ancient war between Jedi and Sith.
- The Sith evolved into the infamous Rule of Two, while the complacent Jedi fell victim to Sith machinations.
- Palpatine's genius strategies as a politician brought down the Jedi and Republic, echoing past conflicts in the Star Wars universe.
Through his secret orchestration of the Clone Wars, Emperor Palpatine all but destroyed the Jedi in the Sith Lords were a master and apprentice, who would operate in secret to undermine the Jedi. While the Sith evolved and grew deadlier, the Jedi became complacent, making them especially vulnerable to Sith machinations.
Although the “Grand Plan” of Darth Bane’s Sith Order was generations in the making, it was Palpatine’s genius strategies and masterful manipulations that brought down the Jedi and the Republic. Although Palpatine is the most powerful and skilled Sith Lord in Bane’s lineage, he did far more damage as a politician than as a warrior, controlling both the Republic and Separatists in secret, turning the Republic against the Jedi and convincing them to grant him ever-increasing emergency powers. The Clone Wars, in some regards, mirrors the last full-scale galactic war, only this time, the Jedi were destroyed.
Star Wars Movies In Order: How To Watch Release Order, Chronologically & With The TV Shows
What's the best way to watch Star Wars? Here's everything you need to know to watch in release or timeline order, and how to include the TV shows.
The Clone Wars Parallel The "New Sith Wars"
New Sith Wars |
|
|---|---|
Date |
2,000-1,000 BBY |
Beginning |
Jedi Master Phanius falls to the dark side and re-establishes the Sith |
Ending |
The Battle of Ruusan |
The New Sith Wars – the last war between the Jedi and Sith before the latter’s apparent destruction – all but destroyed the Republic itself. Outside the Core Worlds, the Republic existed in name only, and even in the capital, it was all but completely run by the Jedi. On Coruscant, Jedi served as senators and even as Supreme Chancellors at times while outside of the Core Worlds, Jedi served as Lords, Barons, and Kings. The Republic’s military was also led by the Jedi, who formed the Army of Light to battle the Sith Brotherhood of Darkness in Ruusan.
The New Sith Wars are explored throroughly in Star Wars Legends, which was the official Star Wars timeline until the franchise's partial reboot in 2014.
The Jedi relinquished their emergency powers once the Sith were seemingly dead at the conclusion of the Ruusan campaign. The Ruusan Reformations reestablished the Republic as a functioning, galaxy-spanning, democracy and removed the Jedi from politics and the military. For the next millennium, the Jedi were mostly apolitical peacekeepers, though they would grow to be used functionally as a paramilitary force in the prequel era as the Republic grew more corrupt.
Did Palpatine Deliberately Copy A Past Conflict?
Palpatine’s prequel-era plot was, of course, pragmatic, but the similarities between the two conflicts could have been intentional. The Clone Wars was the first full-scale galactic war since the New Sith Wars, and it too led to emergency powers being granted to the Supreme Chancellor. The Ruusan Reformation’s removal of Jedi from positions of political power was to prevent them from fully taking over the Republic, which is precisely what Palpatine framed the Jedi Order as attempting to do at the end of the Clone Wars. Whether intentional or not, Palpatine’s scheme brought the ancient Star Wars conflict full circle.
