Both @jedi-order-apologist and @chancecraz are bringing up a lot of good points–and I want to make it clear that I really enjoyed all of them, I think a lot of us are probably closer to being on the same page on some of this than it might sound like, as well as we’re not trying to overwrite anyone else’s views, but that this is a discussion where, eh, if we wind up agreeing to disagree, then that’s fine, we’ve all come from places of good faith and give interesting viewpoints put forth. (Ie, I LOVE EVERYONE IN THIS BAR, YOU GUYS HAVE BEEN SO SWEET.)
I tend to agree with @ladytodd about Anakin never really gave the Jedi way a fair shot, that it’s backed up by George Lucas saying that Anakin didn’t want to accept their teachings emotionally:
“The fact that everything must change and that things come and go through his life and that he can’t hold onto things, which is a basic Jedi philosophy that he isn’t willing to accept emotionally.” (Attack of the Clones commentary)
In addition to that, we see Obi-Wan reaching out to Anakin more than once to talk, like in the Age of Republic comics (both the Obi-Wan and Anakin ones), in Attack of the Clones, in Revenge of the Sith, in The Clone Wars (like in the Rush Clovis arc and the Crystal Crisis arc, off the top of my head), and that usually it’s Anakin who pushes him away or lashes out, because he doesn’t want to.
And, ultimately, Anakin knew that he could walk away at any time, he even very nearly did at least once. The Jedi are open about people leaving–they have the Lost Twenty busts out in the open in the Archives, in Dooku: Jedi Lost a youngling asks about them and Yoda makes a point to stop and talk about them, how they just wanted different things, some of them go on to be leaders or teachers, some of them just go live quiet lives. We saw in the Dooku issue of Age of the Republic that Jakzin still thinks highly of Dooku after he left and indicated that most thought he was forming his own Force teachings school and were fine with it, Attack of the Clones had them defending Dooku until it was clear that he was behind the Separatists. There was no stigma over leaving, so it seems entirely reasonable to think that the Jedi were trusting Anakin to make that choice for himself–if their path didn’t work for him, he knew he didn’t have to stay. They trusted him to make that decision for himself, whatever advice they gave. (Obi-Wan advises him to stay, because he sees Anakin as needing the structure, but he also makes it clear that it’s absolutely Anakin’s choice and it will be respected.)
Which makes me think that, even if the Jedi had “reformed” their ways to change for Anakin, it wouldn’t actually have made a difference. Look at his relationship with Padme–she poured every ounce of love into him that she had and he still couldn’t trust that it was enough, he still couldn’t escape his fears that she would leave him, either through betrayal or death. The Jedi suddenly saying, sure, you can get married wouldn’t have changed anything re: Anakin, imo.
We don’t actually see much of Anakin’s training, we don’t really know why the Jedi changed their minds–was it because Obi-Wan was going to leave? The Council seemed to have decided to vote for training Anakin before Obi-Wan said any such thing? My feeling is that they were like, shit, the Sith are back, we absolutely have to protect this kid and not let him fall into their hands, even if we think there’s a much higher chance than usual that he won’t want to accept our ways–so it’s hard to say how much the Jedi ways did or didn’t work for Anakin and what they knew of that.
We don’t see much of a young Anakin interacting with others, but we do know that he at least attended classes with other younglings and that, when Obi-Wan had a mission, he said “You can continue your training with Master Yoda.” and that Yoda talked to Obi-Wan about Anakin because Obi-Wan’s not sure about a lot of stuff, helping nudge Obi-Wan back on track. Also, when they’re at odds in Choose Your Destiny: An Obi-Wan & Anakin Adventure, Mace and Yoda and Bant all also intervene to help get them back on track, which indicates to me that other Jedi were at least monitoring things and helping out when needed.
As for the political stuff, chance has a great point about the Jedi vs the Jedi Order being somewhat separate things, even as I think it’s complicated, because what the goal of the Order is is at heart of who the Jedi are, which is why there absolutely is a difference between the two, but that they’re not wholly divorcable, either. Also, I think context creates massive amounts of pressure that the Jedi were under–like, we all agree that being soldiers in a war really sucked for them, they weren’t meant for it, they were being pushed to their limits (Obi-Wan himself says this in TCW, that they’re all being pushed to/past their limits in this war). So, it’s easy to say that they shouldn’t have fought in the war, that they shouldn’t have been any kind of political entity within the Republic.
But how could they not? When the Separatists started the war, when they started invading planets and oppressing populations, should the Jedi have just said no? Should they have let those people die? Should they have left the clones alone, who had no real experience yet, even with their training on Kamino (which presumably wouldn’t have yet had the same training programs set up that we see in TCW, because the Jedi weren’t aware of them until AOTC, and Jango basically says he has nothing to do with the clones), as the clones point out to Depa, that they needed a chain of command, because otherwise people were going to get killed? Hera Syndulla was one of the people that the Jedi and clones saved on Ryloth, because the Jedi and the clones worked together.
How could the Jedi separate themselves from being a political entity within the Republic, when that would almost assuredly mean that they couldn’t go around helping anyone? The Guardians of the Whills existed similarly to the Jedi, as far as we know, they seemed to help people on Jedha, but look how small their reach was. They seemed to mostly keep to themselves, nobody really knew who they were because they weren’t out there, helping people. The Jedi were. (And ultimately it didn’t save the Guardians from the Empire wiping out their Temples and their home anyway.)
And the Jedi were allowed to do that precisely because they were a political entity within the Republic. Queen’s Shadow does a really good illustration of how going around the Senate is a bad idea. The Clone Wars shows a really good illustration of why Mandalore spurning the Republic and the Separatists was a bad idea. You’re cut off if you don’t work with the system, you can’t help anyone who really needs your help within that system of government, if you don’t work with them. And there was no way they would be able to do it on their own, they wouldn’t have money for ships, fuel, food, their home, etc., unless they wanted to charge people money for it and the people who needed their help the most were the ones who couldn’t have paid them.
Being cut off is probably the most charitable interpretation–I mean, look at what happened with Mandalore when it looked like Death Watch was a threat: The Republic was going to forcibly invade the planet. Look at what happened when it looked like the neutral Scipio and the Banking Clans were going to be under control of the Separatists: The Republic forcibly invaded.
There’s no way the Republic or the Separatists were going to let a bunch of super powered space monks just sit there and do nothing, when they could have turned any number of tides in the war. The Jedi were getting drawn into the politics of the war, just by the very nature of their abilities, one way or the other, whether they were affiliated with the Republic government or not.
So, I actually do agree that being a political entity within the Republic is what really strangled the Jedi to death, that Order 66 was able to happen because of all the politics stuff, but I also think that I don’t know a better choice, not with the Jedi still being able to help the people who needed their help. And this isn’t even getting into how they absolutely needed to have oversight in the eyes of the galaxy because a trained Force user could do so much damage.
Ultimately, I’m less, “The Jedi were perfect and this was absolutely the right path!” and more “I genuinely don’t see any other path that they could possibly have taken re: being a political entity within the Republic that would have still allowed to them to help the people they wanted to help.” That the bigger context and consequences of the other paths are really important for why the Jedi didn’t try those options, why they didn’t just leave their position in the Republic.
One of my real criticisms is that–despite that I get why they didn’t, because we see them shot down for it again and again and again–I do think the Jedi could have pushed harder for reform within the system. I do think they were trying, we see Mace trying to save the Zillo Beast and he gets overriden. Yoda tries to ask for files on Sifo-Dyas and Palpatine overrides him and Yoda’s like, “That went exactly the same as always, sigh.” Mace tries to object to Palpatine talking with Anakin, but has no grounds to stand on and is overriden. They try to object to sending Anakin and Ahsoka to Tatooine in TCW and are overriden. Mace tries to ask for leniency for Boba and the Judiciary overrides him. Shaak Ti practically breaks her back trying to get Tup and Fives to be taken to the Jedi Temple and is overriden at nearly every turn.
They don’t have nearly the political clout that we wish they did and I do think they did try for internal reform, but I think they should have leaned harder into politics even more than they were already, because if you’re part of a system, you have a responsibility to make it better and hold people accountable. That includes the Jedi! But also I think they were still doing more than the general public was doing and I’m not going to rake them over the coals when they were at least genuinely trying, if imperfectly. If the general public had actually done something about all of this shit that affected them, then the galaxy wouldn’t have been in the state it was, either.
Yoda has a line in “The Lost One” when they’re trying to unravel the big mystery of what happened with Sifo-Dyas and the clone army:
“Are you sure we are taking the right path?”
“Hmm, the right path, no. The only path, yes.”
That’s my feelings on the Jedi–the right path? Not really. The only path, given all the other context? Yes.