Why the number of surviving Jedi in Star Wars is perfectly reasonable

With another Order 66 survivor set to appear in the upcoming Ahsoka series, a question has been raised: are there too many Jedi left in Star Wars?

It was recently revealed that Baylan Skoll, the late Ray Stevenson’s character in Ahsoka, is a survivor of Order 66 and has become a bounty hunter in the intervening years, giving Star Wars fans another former Jedi to learn about.

Fans of the original trilogy may have some gripes over the number of Jedi that are now gracing our screens, in various forms, with the likes of Kanan Jarrus, Ahsoka Tano, Grogu, Obi-Wan Kenobi and Cal Kestis all surviving the great Jedi purge that brought the Clone Wars to an end.

The original movies made it feel as if Obi-Wan, Yoda and Luke Skywalker were the only people left that could bring the Jedi Order back. However, there is of course the tease that Leia Organa could also do so since she is Luke’s sister, whereas modern media has given fans a range of new faces that are adept force and lightsaber wielders.

Star Wars debates often rage on social media and places such as Reddit, where some wonder if the number of Jedi surviving Order 66 might be too many and somewhat waters down the impact that emotional and memorable scene in Revenge of the Sith had, with so many alive in the years since and even beyond the fall of the second Death Star.

But in reality, having even in the range of around 50 Jedi survive the purge would not be a significant number and should still be considered reasonable by all accounts.

Originally mentioned in some of the Visual Dictionaries from movies such as The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones, and later made Disney Canon by Kanan in Rebels, at the time of the Clone Wars there were around 10,000 Jedi around the galaxy.

If 50 Jedi survived, not all of whom would have been full Knights and may have been Padawan learners, that would equate to just 0.5% of all Jedi surviving. By any measurement, if something is 99.5% effective, it should be considered wholly successful and accomplished exactly what it set out to do.

To make this even more apparent, consider the fact that those 50 (if there even is that many) are spread across thousands of star systems with no way of knowing who else survived, where they could be found, or even how they could be contacted without giving away their own presence to the Empire and the threat of the Inquisitorius.

The Inquisitors are there to effectively ensure the Jedi are entirely suppressed and that the tiny number of survivors have no thoughts of banding together or rebelling against Palpatine’s rule, which had mixed results.

However, with so few surviving, that in itself helped prevent the Jedi from making a concerted effort to fight back. While some stories are introducing more survivors, it does not really take away from the original Order.

Additionally, audiences are likely a key reason why more Jedi are being introduced in media set after the prequels, with many younger people enjoying those with lightsabers to those who appear ‘ordinary’ by Star Wars standards.

Despite having a wide-ranging demographic in its fanbase, Star Wars is still largely targeted at younger audiences and those will have a significant impact on story planning and ideas in all media forms, meaning more force users are likely to appear in video games, animated shows and even in live-action films and series.

A balance has been struck in some of the more recent shows and films, with darker storylines and visuals while including things like the cuteness of Grogu, and the amusing noises and movements of BB-8.

Having more surviving Jedi appear isn’t really a problem for Star Wars, despite what some may think on social media, as it does not overly affect the story on a grand scale and it continues to make the franchise interesting to a wider audience.

Andor‘s success, however, has shown that media can work without Jedi and there may be more opportunities to explore this in future, and those that are becoming fatigued or jaded with seeing more Order 66 survivors should certainly hold on to that hope.