Page 21 - Star Wars Insider #187

THE SKYWALKER SAGA
For the first time, we see why Kenobi
later remembers Anakin as the best pilot
in the galaxy and a cunning warrior.
crisis a decade earlier is renewed.
But any relationship between them
would violate Anakin’s pledge to
the Jedi Order—a commitment that
Padmé, who has just lost a close
confidant to galactic machinations,
believes is too important to break.
Then Anakin’s nightmares
come roaring back, and he cannot
resist responding to his fears over
his mother’s safety. Padmé travels
with the Jedi to Tatooine, but it is
too late to save Shmi Skywalker.
Her death in his arms releases
an uncontrolled fury in Anakin,
opening his soul to the dark side of
the Force as he massacres an entire
Tusken Raider village in vengeance.
Though Padmé is horrified by his
admission of this deed, perhaps she
can relate to the blame he places
on himself for failing to save his
mother, just as she had failed to
prevent the death of Cordé, or the
04
suffering of the people of Naboo
during the Trade Federation’s
occupation. And when they learn
that Obi-Wan is in mortal peril, too,
Padmé is unwilling to let her friend
lose both of his parental fi gures in
a matter of days.
The Jedi Entrapped
While a story of love and its
burdens unfolds on Naboo and
Tatooine, Jedi Master Obi-Wan
Kenobi seeks to solve a mystery.
What he learns along the way,
however, exposes the ethical
morass into which the Jedi Order
has inadvertently descended—to
a point where it may be too late
to prevent their moral collapse.
Diner chef Dexter Jettster
reminds Obi-Wan that there is
a difference between knowledge
and wisdom, a hint that the Jedi
are falling short on the latter.
COUNT DOOKU
FALLEN JEDI, SITH LORD
After Obi-Wan Kenobi defeated Darth
Maul, Palpatine needed a new apprentice
to help propel his evil plan to lay waste to
the Jedi Order and wrest control of the
galaxy. While Maul represented a new
menace threatening a thousand years of
peace under the protection of the Jedi,
Attack of the Clones’ new villain establishes
that the Order was not only blind to
external threats from the Sith, but also
among its own peers. Even though Count
Dooku opposes the Republic as the leader
of the Separatist faction, and stands beside
greedy malevolent factions such as the
Banking Clan and Trade Federation, the
Jedi Council cannot conceive of the former
Jedi as an agent of evil. Even after two
assassination attempts on Senator Amidala,
the Council continues to view Dooku as a
good man on the wrong side of a political
disagreement—until Obi-Wan Kenobi is
captured in the process of uncovering the
nefarious plot on Geonosis to manufacture
a droid army.
While The Clone Wars animated series
elaborates on the many ways that Dooku
served as a master manipulator, Attack of
the Clones concisely boils down why the
Jedi were so vulnerable from within their
own ranks. The clone army was not a Sith
scheme, but one hatched from within the
Jedi Order—and then ultimately used
against them when the information came
into Sith hands. The movie highlights
Dooku’s prowess with a blade and reveals
that skills as a warrior were valued by the
Jedi Order, perhaps more so than their
role as peacekeepers and negotiators.
Unlike the savage visage of Darth Maul,
the Separatist leader presents a formal
and dignifi ed face, one that the Jedi aren’t
inclined to see as the enemy until it is far
too late.
The battle between Yoda and Dooku
shows how compromised the Jedi are.
The greatest living Jedi Master could
likely have defeated Sith Lord Tyranus
in a fi ght, but Dooku knows his former
mentor’s weakness. Tyranus is willing to
sacrifi ce wounded Skywalker and Kenobi
as much as Yoda isn’t willing to accept
their loss. Although Yoda and his mentor
peers counsel against attachment, they
haven’t recognized it as something that
is unavoidable. In that moment, Yoda is
confronted with the unbelievable truth that
something he has nourished in the light
could become so inextricably tangled in
the dark.
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