I think the biggest flaw in the modern Jedi Order, the one that we see in the Prequels and The Clone Wars, is their authoritarian control over dissemination of information and education within their own ranks.
We can talk all day about unrealistic expectations, hypocrisy, arrogance, or disconnect from the reality everyone else lives in, but at the end of the day it was their censorship that doomed them.
Historically the most successful iterations of the Jedi Order have been those focused on scholarship and creating and preserving the historical record of the Galaxy. This was the original purpose of the Jedi Order. The Jedi Archives are so massive because Knowledge is a key tenant of their code and order. They used to be glorified librarians.
As time progressed and the Jedi as an institution experienced more traumas and hardened its shell, it developed a greater emphasis on combat, defense, and diplomacy in order to defend itself and the Republic it wound up serving. And eventually serving as the Republicâs stewards became their main purpose, pushing the more scholarly pursuits to the side. In an attempt to guard against internal strife and corruption, after a few too many Jedi got curious about using the Force in ways the Jedi didnât teach and starting a few too many wars (it wasnât the curious ones starting the wars) they apparently decided that information on the Sith and many other Force Orders or practices were too dangerous to allow their more junior members to study independently.
As a result huge swaths of their archives became restricted to Jedi Masters, making it nearly impossible for younger members to self study more obscure techniques. This was their ultimate undoing.
Not only because it reduced the power and variety of techniques used by their members (though Iâm sure that was a big factor) but because itâs what ultimately drove Anakin into the arms of the Sith.
In refusing to make him a Master they dashed his hopes of gaining access to the full Jedi Archives, which he hoped would give him the tools to save PadmĂŠ. Which they probably would have done. But more than that, this emphasis on censure made Anakin ignorant to many things about himself and his abilities. Anakin was, by nature, an extremely curious child. And itâs never said, but it seems to me that it was the Jedi who squashed that aspect of his personality. You canât convince me that he didnât try to understand his own powers and abilities in the Force at a deeper level. Even as Vader he showed his inclination towards learning, understanding, researching. But we donât see that in his days as a Jedi. He expresses frustration when visiting the archives. Not because he dislikes learning or studying, but more likely because his access to it so restricted.
Anakinâs ignorance was a result of Jedi censorship and distrust of their own, and it was a major factor in his alienation from them. How exactly is someone so intelligent and powerful in the Force supposed to learn and understand themselves if they canât access more advanced material? Anakin was denied deeper understanding of the Force, the real theory behind the dogma, the ways he could potentially use it, and how it actually affected him. And that drove him mad.
I think everyone overlooks Anakinâs intelligence too much and miss this huge part of his character. Heâs definitely a bit oblivious, but thatâs through no fault of his own. When people arenât deliberately hiding things from him or redirecting his attention he picks up on things quickly and easily. Heâs a literal genius. And the places where heâs ignorant donât showcase his natural weaknesses, but where the people who trained him were deliberately hindering his education.
Anakin was never wrong about how the Jedi were holding him back out of fear. They were. They were afraid of him, of his power, of his upbringing. They were afraid heâd go Dark, and they did intentionally hinder his education so that he would be easier to control. Before the Jedi Anakin was a curious, independent thinker with authority issues and a rebellious streak a parsec wide. All things the Jedi feared in their students. While none of these traits were completely erased, they were definitely curbed and repressed, only coming out when heâs with people he truly trusts like PadmĂŠ, Rex, and Ahsoka. And to a lesser extent Obi-wan and Palpatine.
Anakin is smart. He has incredible instincts and intuition. Heâs observant, he notices details everyone else misses, but he can also see the bigger picture of how those details come together, as we can see from his expertise in mechanical engineering and battle strategy. Heâs good with people, both at understanding them and interacting with them in a way that yields the desired results. Not because heâs manipulative but because heâs incredibly empathetic. His weakness in galactic politics and in understanding Jedi and Sith masters is by design, of both Palpatine and the Jedi. Intelligence, when not properly nurtured, can be a curse. Seeing things better than others without the framework to contextualize it is confusing. Anakinâs mental instability makes a lot more sense when viewed in this context. Itâs not just emotional instability, itâs intellectual instability. Itâs a lack of understanding of whatâs happening around him that makes him question reality and his own instincts. His perception is warped not only by his powerful emotions but by confusion and different people telling him conflicting lies that donât align with the truth he perceives for himself.
If Anakin knew how to trust himself and advocate for his own education he wouldnât have become Darth Vader. It was Jedi enforced self-doubt and ignorance that caused his fall, more so than his emotional dissregulation.
