Lineage is secretly a big deal to the Jedi and the Sith. From Dooku to Mace ‘Purple Lightsabers are rad’ Windu, dive deeper into your favorite lineage here.
Jedi lineage might not seem like a big deal to many, but with a proper look, even the most flawless Jedi weren’t exactly flawless themselves. Most Jedi lines began with Yoda, but on closer inspection, there were separate lines that spawned some rather familiar Jedi turned Sith. Others were part of lineages where the founding member was often much harder on other Jedi than on their own student.
Majority of the time, the Jedi who founded the lineage, didn’t teach most of the Jedi in their line. Also, some lines are so complex they need to be broken down into smaller ones.
For the sake of this editorial, Yoda won’t be included as he also taught the younglings.
Dooku
Photo credit: Lucasfilm
Only known by his last name, the individual known as Dooku started his life as a Jedi before he fell to the temptation of the Dark Side. Once the padawan of Grand Master Yoda, Dooku would take on a young Qui-Gon Jinn as his own padawan.
After Qui-Gon’s demise during the Invasion of Naboo, Dooku became Darth Sidious a.k.a Palpatine’s apprentice. Over time he would secretly train three other apprentices. His first unofficial apprentice was Asajj Ventress while the second was the cyborg General Grievous of whom he taught lightsaber combat. The third was the Dathomirian Zabrak Savage Opress, the brother of Sidious’s thought-to-be deceased apprentice, Maul.
Dooku was later killed by Anakin Skywalker on Grievous’s flagship The Invisible Hand. Unbeknownst to Skywalker, his slaughter of Dooku meant he would soon take up a position as Sidious’s apprentice and top enforcer.
Qui-Gon Jinn
During his time as a Jedi, Dooku became the master of Qui-Gon Jinn. Qui-Gon developed an alternative attitude towards the Jedi Teachings and was never granted the title of Jedi Master because of his views. He often clashed with his padawan Obi-Wan Kenobi over the issue, which often forced Kenobi to apologize.
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Asajj Ventress
After Qui-Gon’s death, Dooku became disillusioned by the Jedi Order and decided to leave. He eventually joined the ranks of the Sith and become the second apprentice of Darth Sidious. Because of the Sith rule of two, Dooku wasn’t allowed to take on another apprentice, so he took on Dathomirian Nightsister, Asajj Ventress.
Because of the Rule of Two, Ventress was only trained in the ways of the Dark Side and wasn’t allowed to take a Sith name. Instead of being a Sith, Ventress was only loyal to them and served as an assassin. She was a former Jedi who had lost her way after losing her beloved master Ky Narec some years before the onslaught of the Clone Wars.
Savage Oppress
The most infamous of Dooku’s Dark Side apprentices was Savage Oppress, a Dathomirian Zabrak and Nightbrother from Dathomir. Savage was never a Jedi, but he was strong in the Force. Along with his brother, Maul who had once been the Sith apprentice of Darth Sidious, Savage knew only darkness.
Savage was chosen by Ventress to be her servant during her journey to reap revenge on Dooku. Savage later deflected from Dooku’s teachings and joined with his brother to create their own Sith Order.
In the eyes of Maul’s former master Darth Sidious, the brothers were a threat to his own Sith Order and he took them on in a two-on-one fight. He was able to kill Savage in front of Maul, prompting his former apprentice to become enraged and vengeful.
General Grievous
Like Ventress, Dooku was never allowed to teach Grievous in the Sith ways officially. Instead, Dooku chose to teach Grievous lightsaber combat. These skills would become a curse for any opponent that went up against the cyborg general. Most of his opponents were Jedi whom he killed and took their lightsabers as trophies of his kills.
Grievous was later cut down by Obi-Wan during their frightening duel on Utapau.
Obi-Wan Kenobi
Photo Credit: Lucasfilm
After being taught by Qui-Gon and then having to watch his master die at Maul’s hand, Obi-Wan became a master pretty quickly in the wake of his master’s death.
Anakin Skywalker
Like his own relationship with Qui-Gon, Obi-Wan didn’t always get along with Anakin. In the early days of their partnership, Anakin viewed Obi-Wan as the father he never had. As The Clone Wars wore on, they became like brothers as they often fought alongside each other.
While Anakin annoyed him, Obi-Wan loved getting back at his former student. One such case was him agreeing with Master Yoda to assign Ahsoka Tano to Anakin as his padawan. It only took Anakin a few moments to realise that Obi-Wan had been behind Ahsoka’s assignment to him and that he had covered it up.
Over the course of the war, Obi-Wan often found himself getting into just as much trouble as Anakin. The reason? Anakin started the trouble, to begin with. If anything, the friends only became closer because they had one thing in common: they both had strong bonds with their students.
But at the end of the war, Anakin fell to the Dark Side and became Darth Vader. Obi-Wan discovered the news after looking through the security holograms at the Temple with Yoda after discovering the slaughter. Piecing together what he knew of Anakin’s relationship with Padmé Amidala, Obi-Wan went to her in hopes she knew where Anakin had gone.
The senator bluntly refused to believe her husband and the father of her unborn child had killed younglings and had fallen to the Dark Side. Obi-Wan indirectly revealed to her what he knew about her and Anakin, but Padmé still wouldn’t talk. Before he left, Obi-Wan asked if Anakin was the father of her unborn child. Taking her silence as confirmation, he apologised and left.
After Padmé’s death and having the Skywalker twins separated, Obi-Wan watched over young Luke to ensure he wouldn’t turn into a carbon copy of his father.
Ahsoka Tano
Photo Credit: Lucasfilm
Despite being Anakin’s padawan, Ahsoka is very much a part of Obi-Wan’s line of Jedi. Because she was Anakin’s apprentice, she joined the long of Force users who were linked to Obi-Wan.
Luke Skywalker
As Anakin’s son, Obi-Wan believed it was his responsibility to watch over the boy. Having failed to prevent Anakin’s fall to the Dark side, Obi-Wan saw Luke as his only hope in being able to make up for what happened to the boy’s father.
For nineteen years, Obi-Wan stayed away from Luke because it had been on Owen Lars’s instructions. While Obi-Wan was perfectly fine with this arrangement, watching Luke was torture for the self-exiled Jedi. Seeing the Skywalker boy grow up was like watching Anakin grow up all over again.
When Luke gets into trouble out in the harsh environment of the Tatooine desert, Obi-Wan saves him and decides its time for Luke to know the truth about his father. Obi-Wan reveals Anakin was a Jedi and a good friend. He even decides the best course of action is to give Luke his father’s lightsaber, knowing he would have wanted his son to have it.
Obi-Wan ultimately sacrificed himself for Luke aboard the first Death Star going up against Anakin for the final time. Obi-Wan’s death devastated Luke. Years later, Luke’s sister, Leia and her husband Han named their only son, Ben after Anakin and Luke’s mentor, the man who brought them and Luke together.
Ben Solo
While Obi-Wan was long dead when Anakin’s grandson, Ben started training with his Uncle Luke, Ben is considered a part of Obi-Wan’s Jedi lineage. The reason for this is simple: Luke was his Jedi teacher and was one of Obi-Wan’s students.
Rey
Luke’s final student, the Jakku scavenger Rey is the final person in Obi-Wan’s lineage. Like with Ben Solo, Luke being Rey’s teacher means she earns a place in the lineage since Luke’s death was the reason the lineage ended.
Mace Windu
Samuel L Jackson. (Photo by Stuart C. Wilson/Getty Images)
Mace Windu was a hard Jedi to please. While Yoda loved teaching the Younglings, Windu was a deeply admired Jedi known to follow the Jedi Code to a tee. He was an admired General during the Clone Wars with his methods being remembered by Twi’lek leader Cham Syndulla.
Windu was also a Jedi Master who created his own line of Jedi.
Depa Billaba
Billaba was a beloved Jedi Master who practiced wisdom and spirituality. She was the padawan of Mace Windu and the master of Caleb Dume, who later took the name Kanan Jarrus during the time of the Galactic Empire.
She and Dume were close and she sacrificed herself for him during Order 66, which would go on to haunt him for years afterwards. Billaba’s teachings were remembered by Dume who later taught his own apprentice, Ezra Bridger.
Caleb Dume/Kanan Jarrus
Caleb was a precocious child who thought outside the box. This kind of thinking was what inspired Master Depa Billaba to take the young boy on as her padawan. They came to share a close connection as student and teacher as Depa often knew what he was thinking. They were together then their Clone Troopers suddenly turned on them during Order 66.
Billaba told Caleb to run and that she would be with him soon. She was gunned down, causing Caleb, when he was known as Kanan, to hate Clone Troopers.
Kanan would grow used to having Captain Rex, a former clone captain of the 501st Clone Battalion hanging around. Rex was an old friend of Ahsoka’s from her time as Anakin Skywalker’s padawan. When Ahsoka instructed Kanan, Ezra, Sabine and Zeb to ‘find her friend’, she told them to trust her friend.
As a master to young Ezra, Caleb tried to reenact the way his own master had taught him. However, there were lessons that he was taught that he still didn’t understand. One of those was Master Yoda’s philosophy of ‘Do or do not. There is no try.’ He admitted his confusion to Ezra when he tried to use it on his student during a training session.
Ezra Bridger
The only surviving member of Depa’s line of Jedi, Ezra was the apprentice of Depa’s student, Caleb Dume, better known as Kanan Jarrus to Ezra. Ezra showed great strength with the Force but was known to have dark tendencies in the early days of his training. He was even able to open a Sith Holocron when he shouldn’t have been able to.
As he continued down his path to becoming a Jedi, he made a number of friends as well as enemies, including the former Sith known only as Maul. He even inspired Ahsoka when she joined forces with Phoenix Squadron. It was apparent she saw herself at 14 in Ezra and the struggles she endured as Anakin’s apprentice.
There are many lineages throughout Star Wars. These were just the well–known ones seen on screen. While every Jedi Knight or Master who founded their own lines followed was they believed to be the rightful Jedi (or Sith) code, no one lineage was superior from another.
Do you have a favourite Jedi or Sith lineage? Share your thoughts with us!