“The prequels Jedi were corrupt,” is something I’ve just stumbled upon, again.

How are they though? How? I want an example, a single example of corruption.

Do they take bribes? No they don’t, not that we ever see. What would they even do with bribes? They don’t pursue material wealth.

Do they influence politicians to gain power? Lol, Riyo Chuchi almost bosses Obi-Wan Kenobi, member of the High Council, around and only backs down because he makes a reasoned argument she agrees with. Padmé Amidala is literally the only politician we see getting influenced by a Jedi to a Jedi’s benefit (*cough* Anakin diverting her from her duties *cough*). The Council systematically gets shut down when they try to get something from the Senate (like when they try to get Palpatine not to bring the Zillo beast to Coruscant - Obi-Wan and Padmé *do* ask Anakin to speak to Palpatine, and it does precisely nothing.)

Do they accept a corrupt leadership? In a sense but they don’t benefit from it (since most of the Senate doesn’t trust them, drafted them into a war they never wanted to be part of, and essentially forces them to send their teenagers into battle because they are stretched so thin) which makes all the difference. They don’t enable the corrupt system because it profits them, they support it because the alternatives they have are worse (the Separatists during TCW, who are backed by mega corporations like the Commerce Guild, Techno Union and Trade Federation, and who enslave the Twi'Lek, the Mon Calamari and the Togruta onscreen, just for starters, and use weapons of mass destruction like the Malevolence or that defoliator thing they almost test on the Lurmen when Republic weapons are specifically made not to target organic beings - see the Zillo beast arc) and because the Senate has the authority to order the Jedi to kick people out (Ahsoka) or to drop investigations (Maul in s4, Kamino in s6), and can declare them all traitors. The Jedi don’t have the means to go against the whole Republic, and frankly making sure politicians aren’t corrupt should primarily be the job of the billions of citizens, not theirs (the 10000~ space monks who have kids to raise and Sith Lords to deal with and would very much like to spend their days meditating and being nerds (“I was going to study that!”) and helping people.)

Do they lie to their subordinates to get more power? The Council doesn’t lie about its beliefs, and its members actively practice what they preach (letting go of things, staying in control of yourself, protecting the helpless…) so no manipulation there, and while they do lie or cover up things from time to time it’s never to achieve power or to benefit themselves directly. The Rako Hardeen act? They lie to save the Supreme Chancellor of the Republic, who, as far they know at this point, is their legitimate Commander-in-Chief. OpSec isn’t corruption. They cover up the discovery that Dooku made the Clone Army to protect the Clones themselves (as stated by Yoda) and because the public would freak out and then they’d have a civil war on top of a galactic war to deal with. It doesn’t benefit them, exactly, because they explicitly say they’re not happy about the decision but don’t see another way out. (“The right path, no. The only path.”) Oh, and Obi-Wan literally tells Rex, Ahsoka and Bo-Katan about Sidious, because the Jedi aren’t secretive as a rule. They share intel easily if it’ll help people.

Do they seek power in any way? Ffs, when they go against Palpatine – the Sith Lord who orchestrated an entire and forced hundreds of them to for in it, along with hundreds of thousands of Clones and millions of civilians – Mace tried to arrest him twice in the name of the Senate. “In the name of the Galactic Senate, you’re under arrest” and after Palpatine kills three Council members “you’re under arrest, my Lord.” He only tries to kill him without a trial after Sheev blasts him full of lightning for like two freaking minutes. Talk about a coup. (By the way, arresting the Commander-in-Chief of your armies when you have proof of his own corruption, when he has given himself control over the banks (Clovis arc), gotten more emergency powers (RotS), holds power over the courts (Wrong Jedi arc) and has stayed in office for longer than his term? That’s not corruption, that’s actively fighting fascism.)

You could argue that Obi-Wan sending troops to Mandalore is a misuse of power, but there’s a Sith Lord there who could potentially tell them the identity of Sidious and this help end the war. Also, it doesn’t benefit him directly since it puts Ahsoka in danger, it divides his fleet and it could get him in trouble since he didn’t make the operation a secret in any way. The one time Obi-Wan does go to Mandalore for his own benefit, he does it without backup and without even using Republic property since he borrows Anakin’s ship.

So maybe the Jedi are corrupt because they distort their old ideals and preach a false image of the Force? They are corrupt in the sense that they are stagnant and the Dark Side corrupted them? But… Yoda is the Order’s greatest critic (see AotC) which points to self-awareness, as he’s one of their most important leader, the “fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate to suffering” credo is literally how Lucas describes the Force working (see @gffa ’s collection of quotes) so they are narratively correct on most of their doctrines (same goes for attachment as Lucas defines it, in opposition to love), and Yoda and Obi-Wan the quintessential Jedi are deemed worthy of immortality by non-Jedi entities. The Jedi constantly talk about how hard war is because it’s against who they are at their very core (“we are keepers of the peace, not soldiers,” “we are peace keepers,” “unfortunately war tends to distort our point of view; if we sacrifice our ideals, even for victory, we may lose that which is most important, our honor,” etc) and every decision they take is motivated by the need to protect civilians and the Order. They don’t join the war, they get drafted. Hear that, Rebels!Yoda? This is why I base my understanding of Star Wars on the movies and TCW alone, aka Lucas’ canon. I swear, idk wrote that part about “the Jedi joining the conflict swiftly in their arrogance” but that’s not what happens in the movies. They literally go save a high profile politician and two of their own from unlawful execution and try to arrest Dooku for being a terrorist (he hired people to kill a political opponent) and a threat to the safety of the Republic (he’s literally manufacturing entire armies and talking about going to war), and 200 of them get slaughtered for it, and then they get drafted as Generals despite having no military expertise and they can’t say no because again, the Senate can (and would) label them as traitors, and if they don’t fight the Clones have people like Tarkin leading them. (You know, just the guy who later commits genocide on a whole planet.)





Seriously, I want one, just one concrete example of the PT Order/Council being corrupt, because it’s such a common accusation that surely it must be grounded in canon somehow. Right? Right?