Dooku Was Right (Mostly)

The six-episode animated anthology Tales of the Jedi isn’t required Star Wars viewing, particularly when in comparison with its marvelous up to date Andor. But for 3 of its episodes, it affords an essential if abridged reminder: The Jedi are horrible and Count Dooku was proper to turn into disillusioned and depart the Order.

Now, ought to Dooku have turn into a Sith Lord? No, and Tales of the Jedi doesn’t do a terrific job of explaining how he went from ex-Jedi to a person who would homicide Yaddle, if considerably reluctantly, though a terrific many lies and guarantees from Palpatine had been presumably concerned. But the Star Wars franchise has repeatedly proven the various, many flaws of the Jedi system, and why characters like Dooku, Ahsoka, and a number of other of the Jedi who ended up changing into Sith Inquisitors would discover it irretrievably damaged.

The first two of Dooku’s episodes in Tales, “Justice” and “Choices,” are set earlier than his look as Darth Tyranus in Attack of the Clones, earlier than he left the Jedi to turn into the brand new Count of his residence planet of Seranno. Both episodes additionally function corrupt Galactic senators who exploit and abuse their individuals, however notably, Dooku was not despatched to assist these individuals both time. In the primary, he’s despatched to rescue the Senator’s son who was kidnapped to protest their abuse, and within the second, he’s despatched to retrieve the physique of a murdered Jedi, however in opposition to the Jedi High Council’s instructions decides to analyze it and discovers but extra Senatorial corruption.

“We serve the people of the Republic,” Dooku idealistically tells a kind of senators, however that’s clearly not true. As Mace Windu makes abundantly clear in “Choices,” he feels they shouldn’t examine their fellow Jedi’s homicide or why it may need occurred, which not solely appears discompassionate however actively silly, given they’re ignoring issues which can be getting their members killed.

Of course, it’s hardly the one time the Jedi ignore issues proper underneath their noses. Much has been fabricated from the Jedi’s utter incapacity to detect the rise of the Sith proper underneath their proverbial noses within the prequels, permitting one to not solely take cost of the Republic, however remodel it right into a totalitarian Empire. And it’s not just like the Jedi didn’t have warnings that one thing was up—within the third Dooku episode in Tales, “The Sith Lord,” Qui-Gon Jinn tells his former Master about encountering a Sith Lord in the course of the occasions of The Phantom Menace. Yaddle says it’s not that the Jedi High Council disbelieves Qui-Gon, but it surely doesn’t wish to elevate “undue alarm”—alarm that probably the most patently evil power within the galaxy has reappeared. It’s not simply blindness, however willful ignorance, and it prices many, many individuals all through the galaxy their lives.

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Even earlier than the autumn of the Republic, this occurs a number of instances within the novel Dooku: Lost Jedi. Jedi Lene Kostana warns the council of the sudden inflow of Sith artifacts that appeared to be reemerging by way of the galaxy, to no avail. When Dooku’s good friend and fellow Jedi Sifo-Dyas has a premonition of the destruction of the agricultural world of Protobranch, Yoda and Council forbid them from heading there to mitigate the destruction based mostly solely on a imaginative and prescient; Dooku, Sifo-Dyas, and Kostana disobey the order however sadly arrive too late to assist the entire planet’s inhabitants.

Dooku sums up the issue with the Jedi—as epitomized by the supposedly wisest amongst them, Yoda—completely within the novelization of The Clone Wars:

“The Jedi Order’s problem is Yoda. No being can wield that kind of power for centuries without becoming complacent at best or corrupt at worst. He has no idea that it’s overtaken him; he no longer sees all the little cumulative evils that the Republic tolerates and fosters, from slavery to endless wars, and he never asks, ‘Why are we not acting to stop this?’ Live alongside corruption for too long, and you no longer notice the stench.”

This quote can be a terrific instance of a significant drawback with Star Wars: It is aware of the Jedi are horrible, however doesn’t have the braveness to outright admit it. We’re proven time and time once more how the Jedi have failed—Anakin, the Republic, Ben Solo, and so many others—however the one two individuals to seemingly understand the Jedi are a basically damaged establishment are Luke Skywalker and Yoda in The Last Jedi, however even then the film pulls again because the Force Ghost of Yoda destroys Jedi texts and Uneti tree on Ahch-To.

Luke: “So it is time for the Jedi Order to end.”

Yoda: “Time it is… for you to look past a pile of old books. … Pass on what you have learned. Strength. Mastery. But weakness, folly, failure also. Yes, failure most of all. The greatest teacher, failure is. Luke, we are what they grow beyond. That is the true burden of all masters.”

No one has failed more durable than the Jedi order, from The Phantom Menace to Luke’s second of concern and weak point when he practically murdered his nephew, sending him careening down the trail of the Dark Side. But neither Luke nor Yoda ever admits the Jedi had been incorrect to serve politicians over individuals, to disregard injustice like slavery, or to disclaim its followers the liberty to type attachments. How a lot of the horrors of the Empire might have been prevented if Anakin didn’t have to cover his marriage to Padmé? How for much longer would the Empire have gone on if Luke’s attachment to his father—his continued perception there was good nonetheless in him—hadn’t introduced him again to the Light?

It’s no surprise that some Jedi, like Dooku, grew to become disillusioned with the Jedi and give up the order. But Star Wars has had a foul behavior of getting them fall to the Dark Side, as if discovering fault with the Jedi robotically turned one evil. Dooku is the prime instance, even contemplating his want to do proper regardless of the constrictions positioned upon him in Tales of the Jedi and Jedi Lost. But lots of the Sith Inquisitors which have been operating round Disney’s Star Wars canon are additionally described as former Jedi who doubted their order, together with the Grand Inquisitor, the Fifth Brother, the Sixth Brother, the Seventh Sister, the Eighth Brother, the Tenth Brother, and maybe extra. That’s lots of people!

In reality, the one foremost character to understand the Jedi had been horrible and never flip evil was Ahsoka after being falsely accused of bombing the Jedi Temple… however by The Book of Boba Fett, she’s palling round with Luke Skywalker as he begins to rebuild the Jedi, as if all they wanted was new administration.

But Count Dooku knew earlier than nearly anyone that the Jedi Order was basically damaged, and that he couldn’t impact change from inside it. Did he over-correct after which find yourself murdering lots of people? Yes, positively. But that doesn’t imply he was incorrect about Jedi.

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