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Great Jedi Purge

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Battle before: Battle of Utapau and Battle of Kashyyyk (Clone Wars)
Battle after: Battle of Yavin
Great Jedi Purge
Conflict Galactic Civil War
Date 19 - c. 1 BBY
Place Boz Pity, Cato Neimoidia, Coruscant, Felucia, Kashyyyk, Mygeeto, Saleucami, Utapau, and other places throughout the galaxy
Result Imperial victory; near destruction of the Jedi Order
Casualties Almost all of Jedi Order, all Separist forces, many clonetroopers, many Wookiees, Commander Appo, Commander Gree, CIS leadership

The Great Jedi Purge was the fictional extermination of the Jedi by the Sith-led Galactic Empire and the start of the Galactic Civil War in Star Wars. This conflict, also known as the Jedi Holocaust, was first documented in Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith.

Template:Spoiler

The Fall of the Jedi

The Purge began shortly after the end of the Clone Wars, which had really been from their conception only part of a grand scheme by Darth Sidious to eliminate the Jedi.

Apparently at some point between Episodes II and III, members of the Jedi council began to suspect Chancellor Palpatine possessed dark ambitions. Though they were not sure what his goals were, they could feel in the force that something was very wrong. Jedi Master Mace Windu stated openly to other Jedi that he no longer trusted the Chancellor.

Shortly after the Battle of Coruscant, Anakin Skywalker found out that Palpatine was Darth Sidious and revealed this information to Jedi Master Mace Windu who then led a small posse of masters to apprehend Sidious, comprised of himself, Agen Kolar, Kit Fisto, and Saesee Tiin. Sidious killed Agen Kolar immediately, followed by Saesee Tiin and with some greater effort Kit Fisto. In the ensuing fight Mace Windu disarmed Sidious, who then attempted to ward off Windu through the use of Force lightning. Windu deflected the lightning back, causing a deformation of Palpatine's face. Anakin arrived, and after some apparent inward hesitation, was driven to incapacitate Windu in order to save Palpatine, whom Anakin believed was the only one with sufficient knowledge of the Force to save his wife Padme from death. Palpatine uses a final blast of lightning to kill Mace Windu and took Anakin as his Sith apprentice, Darth Vader. Palpatine told Vader that the Jedi had been plotting to betray the Republic and ordered him to lead the 501st Legion of Special Ops Clone Troopers to attack the Jedi Temple. Vader and the clones slew every Jedi there, including the Jedi children (the "younglings") and their instructors.

Palpatine ordered the Army of the Republic to execute Order 66 - an emergency protocol known by all clone trooper commanders to be issued in the event of a Jedi rebellion. Believing their Jedi generals to be traitors, the clone commanders turned on them. Clone regiments turned against their Jedi generals and slew them, almost universally to the surprise of the Jedi, e.g. shot from behind either on the ground or in starfighters. Even in the cases when the Jedi realized the situation and tried to defend themselves, they succumbed to the sheer firepower unleashed upon them. Although a Jedi's lightsaber will deflect blaster bolts, the Jedi can not sustain this defense forever, especially against two armies (the droids of the Separatists and Palpatine's clone troopers). Among the most notable Jedi killed at the very beginning of the purge were Ki-Adi-Mundi, Aayla Secura, Barriss Offee, Luminara Unduli, Plo Koon, Stass Allie, and Quinlan Vos. Returning to Coruscant, two of the surviving Jedi, Yoda and Obi-Wan Kenobi entered the Jedi Temple long enough to prepare a secret signal with the in-house communications warning all surviving Jedi about the treachery and to take precautions. During this slaughter, Palpatine declared himself emperor. Among the few survivors of Order 66 were Obi-Wan Kenobi (battling on Utapau), and head of the Jedi Council Yoda (stationed on Kashyyyk).

Following this catastrophic turn of events for the Jedi, Obi-Wan Kenobi and Yoda set about to end the Sith rule. Kenobi confronted Darth Vader on the fiery Confederate world of Mustafar, while Yoda faced Darth Sidious in the Galactic Senate. Though Yoda was forced to withdraw, Vader was so scarred by his battle with Kenobi that he was put into a mechanical suit to keep him alive. With this new physical identity, Vader was was given a new task: to hunt down and kill the remaining Jedi scattered throughout the galaxy. Vader traveled from system to system, hunting down and destroying the Jedi until they were all but extinct.

Survivors

Both Yoda and Kenobi survived the initial purge and were picked up by Senator Bail Organa of Alderaan (who had remained loyal to the Jedi) aboard his diplomatic cruiser, the Tantive IV. Realizing they were in no position to oppose the Empire for now, Kenobi and Yoda decided to go into hiding. Additionally, they decided that the children of Anakin and the late Padmé Amidala, Luke and Leia, would need to be raised in hiding with the hope that they could help oppose their father in the future. Bail Organa volunteered to adopt Leia with his wife on Alderaan. Kenobi committed to watching over Luke on Tatooine (Luke would be raised by his real family there). Yoda chose to hide on the planet Dagobah.

Although both Kenobi and Yoda logically had no choice but to go into hiding, both considered their remaining lives to be more in the tone of self-imposed exile. Both of them sorrowfully stated their failures at the end of the Clone War: Yoda said he had failed to defeat Darth Sidious, while Kenobi said he had failed Anakin in general. However, when the story returns to them in later Episodes IV and V, it is seen that these immensely difficult times have affected neither their clarity of mind nor their faith in the future of the galaxy and the Force.

In the remaining years, Darth Vader helped the Emperor to hunt down the last remaining Jedi, becoming a symbol for the oppressive might of the Empire. By the time that Luke Skywalker came of age, only a handful of Jedi still remained.

The Great Purge was temporarily successful, in the sense that the influence of the Jedi was completely purged from the galaxy, at least until the Battle of Yavin (19 years after) when Luke Skywalker began his journey to becoming the first of the new Jedi.

Expanded Universe

The Expanded Universe series of books indicates that other Jedi also survived the purge, though few of these Jedi lived to see the fall of the Empire.

According to the New Jedi Order series, Palpatine began killing Jedi before the Great Jedi Purge occurred. Shortly after the Battle of Naboo, the Jedi Council approved the "Outbound Flight Project". A group of Jedi masters would travel to the edge of the galaxy and attempt to use the Force to punch through the hyperspace turbulence surrounding the galaxy, thereby allowing them to attempt contact with life in other galaxies.

The ship was intercepted on Palpatine's command and all hope of contacting life outside the galaxy shattered. It is known that the Chiss who would become Imperial Grand Admiral Thrawn was involved in the interception of this ship. It is possible that, had the mission been a success, the Republic would have had early warning to the approaching Yuuzhan Vong. Timothy Zahn has two new novels, the first of which is due out in October, to further elaborate the Outbound Flight Project.

One of those Jedi Masters killed by Thrawn was Jorus C'Baoth. His clone, which served the Dark Side, was Joruus C'Baoth, but unlike the original, the clone was subject to fits of insanity and eventually betrayed Admiral Thrawn in the Heir to the Empire series.

X-Wing Rogue Squadron pilot Corran Horn discovered a museum chronicling members of the Jedi Order whom Palpatine had killed, filled with mutilated statues of former Jedi on Coruscant. It is generally assumed to have been a personal "playroom" for Palpatine to celebrate the success of the purge.

In the strategy game Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds, after crashlanding on the planet of Krant, Princess Leia Organa and C-3PO, along with a small group of rebels, discover a Jedi who survived the purge, Echuu Shen-Jon. He helped them make many victories on Krant, then traveled with them to the asteroid of Geddes to reclaim a Jedi artifact. When they landed there, they were helped by a small army of Wookiees. In this mission, he was killed by Darth Vader, sacrificing himself so Leia and the other Rebels could escape.

In the expansion, it is learned that he stayed on Krant because after the battle on Geonosis, he lost his Padawan, Stam Reath, and tried to avenge him by following the killer, Sev'Rance Tann, to Krant. His Padawan for this mission was Naat Reath, Stam's sister. Naat was captured and Echuu attacked Sev'Rance and her droid army, overtaken by the dark side. Helping him in this was a small group of Wookiees, who were left on Krant when their leaders evacuated. He succeeded in killing the Dark Jedi, but at the cost of many clones and wookiees. After realizing that he let the dark side overtake him, he stayed on Krant in self-exile, narrowly avoiding the Great Jedi Purge, which he refers to it as "the Jedi Massacre."

The Great Jedi Purge can ultimately be viewed as a failure, given the creation of the New Jedi Order by Luke Skywalker in the years following Palpatine's death. The knowledge of the Jedi, their temple, and their formalized learning structure, however, were nearly all lost to future generations, which probably would have given the late Palpatine a small measure of satisfaction.

Recorded Purge Victims

Survivors of the Purge

Note: This list does not necessarily reflect those Jedi who survived to join the New Jedi Order. Indeed, many of these Jedi were ultimately killed by the Empire. This list only reflects those who, according to the Expanded Universe, survived the eighteen-year hunt by Darth Vader and the Jedi hunters of the Galactic Empire. The actual "Jedi purge" might only concievably be considered to have ended with the final death of Palpatine seven years after the Battle of Endor.


Traitors to the Knighthood

In many cases, escaping the wrath of the Emperor's Jedi hunters by wit and guile alone proved too taxing for the Jedi outlaws. Many Jedi fell to the dark side during the Purge, and several actually joined the ranks of those who made a living persecuting their former comrades. Anakin Skywalker was the first of these, of course, but nowhere near the last.

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