Do the Jedi know more than they’re letting on?
I’d like to talk about a theory I’ve been working on, regarding Jedi secrets.
I’m sure you all remember Qui-Gon Jinn getting attacked by a clearly lightsaber trained assassin, identified to the audience by that point as Darth Maul.
And presenting his (correct) theory to the Jedi High Council, upon returning to the temple on Coruscant.
At first they dismiss it, because the Sith, as noted by Ki-Adi-Mundi, AKA Jedi Master Potato-Head, the Sith were supposedly wiped out during a war a thousand years earlier. Sadly, they are forced to conclude that Jinn’s theory was correct, after his death.
Now here’s where things get sus. During the funeral, Yoda notes that there are always two Sith. Now at the time, this likely just meant that at their height, the Sith operated in master and apprentice pairs, same as the Jedi. But then, as the Sith were fleshed out in expanded materials, we learn that Yoda was referring to the Rule of Two.
Darth Bane, the last surviving Sith, established the Rule of Two moving forward, in order to prevent the in-fighting that hampered the Sith’s efforts against the Jedi, as well as take advantage of it, with a focus on quality over quantity.
The Rule of Two states that there shall only ever be two Sith at a time. A master and a single apprentice, who will only become a master themselves when they’re able to kill their predecessor, and then take on an apprentice of their own.
Admittedly, a few Sith Masters (most notably Palpatine/Darth Sidious) have bent this rule by training Sith Assassins, Acolytes, and Inquisitors to serve as manpower and as candidates for the next apprentice, but the Rule of Two has served as doctrine for the Sith for the last millennium.
Now the problem here is that Bane was a survivor of the aforementioned war, and therefore established the Rule of Two after the point where the Jedi believe that the Sith were driven to extinction.
So, how the hell do they know about it?!
To return to the council meeting, you’ll note that Jedi Master Potato-Head is the only one who outright dismisses the possibility. Mace Windu is skeptical, not of their survival, but of them returning (or becoming active again) without the Jedi noticing, while Yoda initially stays silent, before countering that the dark side might be easier to miss than Windu believes.
My theory, this isn’t the first time the Jedi have encountered the Sith in the last thousand years. Even if we assume that the Rule of Two cycle was carried out two to three times a century, that’s still between twenty and thirty Sith masters, and who knows how many failed apprentices like Maul. What are the odds that none of them had a run in with the Jedi, in all that time, that didn’t leave a Jedi survivor? What are the odds that no masters tried to corrupt a Jedi into becoming their apprentice and failed, alerting the Jedi?
Windu and Yoda are the Master of the Order and Grandmaster, respectively, which are basically the two highest positions it’s possible to reach in the Order. If anyone’s going to have access to the secrets that the Jedi Order has chosen to suppress, even from the other council members, it’s them, especially given Yoda’s long lifespan, he likely had a few firsthand experiences.
There’s been a greater examination of the Jedi’s failings and poor decisions in recent years, so their making an active effort to suppress knowledge of Sith survivors could be a prime example of a long standing example.
