Some Star Wars fans like to swim against the tide, even when it comes to tragedies like the fall of the Jedi Order.
An intrepid Redditor called Lohlein took to r/StarWars to comment about one of Emperor Palpatine’s most devious schemes, publishing a post with the controversial caption, “Unpopular Opinion: Order 66 was a good thing.”
Order 66 is shorthand for Clone Protocol 66, a directive by Palpatine informing the Grand Army of the Republic that the Jedi Order was an apostate organization and commanding the execution of its members.
Incredibly, OP defended Order 66 with strong criticism of the Jedi Order, making the case that they had it coming due to moral decline and corruption within its ranks. They also suggested that the Jedi had abandoned their values to become government enforcers, ordering political assassinations and exploiting the people, especially the Skywalker family.
Though the post received no upvotes, it stoked a lively debate. Another Redditor called kingzilch wondered why OP thought that the massacre of the Jedi was a valid solution to the problem.
Criminyjingles blasted OP’s logic:
OP did not back down. They hit back with the argument that the younglings underwent psychological conditioning to represent everything wrong with the Jedi:
KainZeuxis stated the obvious, pointing out that genocide is never a good thing:
OP maintained that genocide could be a good thing, depending on who got killed:
It’s easy to make the mistake of using the wrong language to describe a person or an event. However, the consequence of this kind of error is that it impairs our ability to see things as they are. Fortunately, the members of the r/StarWars subreddit saw right through the distortion.
Ultimately, Order 66 failed, as a number of Jedi knights survived Palpatine’s plan, and their journeys are some of the most compelling narratives in the franchise.
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