Star Wars: The 10 Most Important Events In Jedi History

The Jedi Order is a staple of Star Wars continuity, and its history is full of fascinating events that helped define it through countless millennia.

You Are Reading :Star Wars The 10 Most Important Events In Jedi History

The Jedi Order is one of the key components in the Star Wars story and helps drive the narrative of the mystical Force. This ancient Order was built on shining, yet imperfect ideals that focused on the preservation of life, peace in opposition to the conflict, and a pacifist lifestyle. This was built up through thousands of years of history.

With so much to mention, it’s important to focus on the key historical events that took place over the course of many millennia. The Jedi Order has been through thick and thin, and has seen just as many defeats as they have victories. Through it all, they’ve managed to persevere, even on the brink of complete extinction.

10 The Dai Bendu

Thousands of years before Luke Skywalker’s time, the predecessors of the Jedi Order were taking their “first steps into a larger world” by seeking to unlock the mysteries of the Force. It was them who laid the first bricks of a foundation that would have lasting effects on the rest of the galaxy.

These descendants were known as the Dai Bendu, a religious order that set up a monastery on the planet Kijimi, which was featured in 2019’s The Rise of Skywalker. The title “Dai Bendu” is a reference to George Lucas’s original screenplay, where the Jedi were referred to as “Jedi-Bendu.” This screenplay was later adapted into a Dark Horse comic book.

9 Early Origins

There are two conflicting origin stories regarding the Jedi Order, the first of which is the Expanded Universe story, now relegated to “Legends” status by Disney. In that timeline, the order was founded by four Jedi Masters, who went on to lay the groundwork for its ideology, customs, and traditions.

In the now-canonical Disney timeline, the Prime Jedi founded the Order around 25,000 years before the Battle of Yavin in the first Star Wars film. This Jedi constructed the first temple on the planet Ahch-To, and highlighted the importance of balance in the Force, which would become a recurring theme in the story.

8 The Hundred-Year Darkness

The Jedi grew in size, strength, and knowledge for centuries, but they faced their first great catastrophe during an event known as the Hundred-Year Darkness. This was the moment when a schism took place within the Jedi Order, giving rise to what would eventually become the dreaded Sith, an Order that is shrouded in mystery to this very day.

It started when a lone Jedi named Ajunta Pall (in Legends canon) started meddling with the dark side of the Force and became corrupted by its temptations. He came to believe that ultimate power could be achieved through passion and aggression, a fact which had him exiled from the Order. With several acolytes joining his side, the Sith were born.

7 The Move To Coruscant

The Jedi Order had stationed its main temples on multiple worlds, but they made an official move to Coruscant about 5,000 years before the Battle of Yavin in an attempt to ingratiate the Order inside the galactic hub. From here, they worked closely with the Old Republic as peacekeepers and advisors.

However, this was the start of their troubles. According to the novel Tarkin, the Temple was built on the foundation of an ancient Sith shrine that radiated dark powers. Mistakenly believing that the darkness had been purged, it instead worked dark energies throughout the Jedi Temple, debilitating the Jedi Council for millennia.

6 The Mandalorian Wars

Star Wars is well known for showing several legendary battles, but few of them were as destructive as the fearsome Mandalorian Wars. It started when the Old Republic came into direct conflict with the Mandalorians, who were aggressively expanding across the galaxy. As the war dragged on, the Jedi became dragged into it.

This wasn’t the first time the Jedi got involved in galactic disputes, but it had lasting ramifications. The sheer brutality of the wars caused several prominent Jedi to fall to the dark side, most notably Revan and Malek, two of the best Old Republic-era Sith Lords. Together, they led a charge against the Old Republic, causing it to collapse. This led directly to the Great Jedi Purge, where the order nearly went extinct.

5 The Jedi-Sith War

Following the events of the Mandalorian Wars, both the Order and the Republic rose from the ashes to start anew. For a time, there was peace and prosperity, but that came to a grinding halt about 1,000 years before the Battle of Yavin. The Sith managed to conquer Coruscant and capture the Jedi Temple, causing a massive setback.

Eventually, the planet was liberated after a fierce and final battle that would permanently destroy the Sith Order, at least in theory. Infighting and lust for power had weakened the Sith long enough for the Jedi to score a victory, which prompted Darth Bane to retreat into secrecy and reform the Order with his infamous Rule of Two.

4 The Sifo-Dyas Rift

Little is known of the Jedi Master Sifo-Dyas, other than the fact that he contributed to the Jedi Order’s downfall without knowing it. As the Republic and the Jedi Order presided over a long reign of galactic peace, Sifo-Dyas believed that it was simply a precursor to a major disaster. As such, he urged the Council to support an initiative to create an army for the Republic to wield.

He was removed from his position for this supposedly extremist view, prompting him to take matters into his own hands. He contacted the Kaminoans and commissioned the production of a clone army on behalf of the Senate. Darth Sidious took advantage of this, later securing the army for his own plans after having Sifo-Dyas killed.

3 The Fall Of The Order

Darth Bane’s Rule of Two stipulated that the pure Sith Order would be comprised of only one Master, and one apprentice at any given time. Darth Sidious capitalized on Bane’s rule in a way the Star Wars movies do not mention when he secured the position of Supreme Chancellor of the Republic under his birth title, Sheev Palpatine.

Sidious was a master strategist and a cunning manipulator. He secretly orchestrated the Clone Wars, a conflict between the Republic and the Separatists, to thinly spread the Jedi out and leave them vulnerable. After turning star pupil Anakin Skywalker to the dark side, he initiated the infamous Order 66, and wiped out nearly all of the Jedi, effectively ending the Order. This gave rise to the Galactic Empire, a totalitarian regime with two Sith Lords at the helm.

2 Return Of The Jedi

For decades, the Galactic Empire ruled the galaxy with an iron fist, eroding the rights of sovereign worlds, oppressing numerous peoples, and building up a draconian war machine. Emperor Palpatine and Darth Vader worked diligently in the background to dissolve the Galactic Senate while crafting the dreaded Death Star as a deterrent against rebellion.

It was during this time that Luke Skywalker, descendent of Darth Vader himself, joined the conflict. It was he who destroyed the Death Star, capturing the attention of Palpatine in the process. After failing to turn Luke to the dark side of the Force, Palpatine was killed by a mortally wounded Darth Vader. This ended the Sith stranglehold on the galaxy and paved the way for a new Jedi Order to emerge.

1 The Post-Empire Order

Following the end of the Galactic Empire, the Jedi Order faced its own unique challenges. In the canonical Disney timeline, the Jedi were once again hunted to near-extinction by the First Order. This story has since been maligned by longtime fans who felt that the Legends timeline would have been a better fit.

In that series, Skywalker created a new Jedi Order on Yavin IV, trained Han and Leia’s Force-sensitive children, faced down the spirit of the dreaded Sith Lord Exar Kun, and fought against the Yuuzhan Vong and their catastrophic invasion of the galaxy. In the aftermath, it split from the Galactic Republic due to strained relations after Jacen Solo fell to the dark side and became Darth Caedus, one of the most powerful Force users in Legends canon.

Link Source : https://screenrant.com/star-wars-important-jedi-events-in-history/