Jedi Massacre or a slow painful death?

[Jedieb]

How do you think the end of the Jedi order will come about? Will we see a gradual extermination of the Jedi or will Palpatine stage some kind of grand betrayal in which thousands of Jedi are killed at once?

I think we may see a combination of the two. We might see a few Jedi get picked off one by one by a combination of Sith and Bounty Hunters. And then maybe the Clone Wars will kill off hundreds if not thousands of other Jedis. Either way, dark and bloody times await us.

[Jedi Master Kyle]

I think we'll see the Jedi that we know (Plo Koon, Ki Adi Mundi etc...) get killed one by one, and we'll also see thousands of nameless jedi get killed at once. Or we'll "hear" that they were killed like the people of Naboo in TPM, which IMO would suck. We need to see these massacres in order to feel like they actually happened.

[Doc Milo]

I think we'll see a combination of the two. I believe, starting with Episode II, we'll see a combination of bounty hunters hired as assassins to kill off select Jedi or their padawan learners, but once Anakin turns, we'll see him play both sides of the fence. He'll turn dark without the Jedi knowing it, and lead a great assault that should "turn the tide of the war" in the Jedi's favor, but which is a trap set by Anakin/Vader. Once he leads a horde of Jedi into this bloodbath, word of his betrayal will spread to the remaining Jedi -- the surviving council members and Obi-Wan Kenobi. Vader will hunt down the council, while Kenobi hunts down Anakin...

[Hart3584]

I think they'll let most of the popular Jedi, like the ones on the Council, die from one-on-one fights, but there will probably be mass killings. Maybe thousands are on ships that were destroyed in a space battle. If one ship explodes, then hundreds if not thousands of Jedi could potentially die at a time.

[obiwan shinobi]

considering the fact that the Jedi are supposed to be the most powerful people in the galaxy, i have always found it strange that they were wiped out so completely - i can understand Vader hunting the Jedi down one by one and slowing killing them off, but even he couldn't take down every single one

which leads me to think that there must be some sort of masscre where many Jedi are killed in one shot - perhaps they are on a ship and it is ambushed, or a bomb is placed inside the Jedi Temple (that sort of thing)

[Jedi Master Kyle]

Maybe their "overconfidence was their weakness" to quote another Jedi. Perhaps the Jedi thought they were so untouchable that nothing could ever get to them. Especially considering they didn't even see the Sith rise up from right under their noses.

[Doc Milo]

Good points Kyle -- it could also have something to do with the imbalance in the Force...

[Jedieb]

I never quite liked the whole "imbalance to the force" concept. I mean if the Sith have been silent for a 1,000 years with just a couple of Sith Lords lurking in the shadows of 10,000 Jedi then that seems to be a major "imbalance" right there. Much more of an imbalance than having 2 sith lords and 4 Jedi (Luke, Ben, Yoda, Leia). Especially when you consider that at the end of ROTJ you have 1 Jedi and 1 potential Jedi against 2 Sith Lords. That seems like a perfect balance to me. Where's the balance once Vader kills off the Emperor? You're back to Good Guys positive, Bad Guys non-existent.

Maybe the imbalance was in the evil that the Empire represented but still, there's no balance at the end of ROTJ. You're back to where you were at the beginning of TPM. Good guys 2, bad guys 0! How is that balance?!

[Doc Milo]

Because balance has nothing to do with the numbers, Jedieb. The balance spoken of has to do with a spiritual concept. Lucas explained this in an interview I read. It has to do with the line separating good and evil being clear and distinct. That there is a moral black and white.

The imbalance comes in when the line is blurred -- grayed. For instance, an imbalance might occur when the Jedi start thinking they can use the dark side of the Force for good purposes. (The ends justifies the means, so to speak.)

So, when Luke turns away from that (killing Vader, on the surface, would be a good thing for the galaxy . . . except that it would mean Luke takes Vader's place, and brings about a worse evil ...) he essentially restores the balance. He being the lone Jedi left (and his act of selflessness also redeems his father, turning the tide of the darkside back...) he then teaches others what he has learned of the balance between light and dark. That the dark side cannot be used for good purposes. Thus, the corruptive element (the Sith) are destroyed, and balance is restored in the Jedi.

[Force Master Hunter]

Well said Doc. Exactly what Lucas said.