Updated February 11, 2021 24.6K votes 5.2K voters 388.0K views
Over 5.2K Ranker voters have come together to rank this list of 20 Powerful Jedi Who Broke Bad And Turned To The Dark Side
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Vote up the most tragic falls from the light side to the dark side in 'Star Wars.'
There are quite a few Star Wars stories about Jedi who turned to the dark side. If you’re a fan, you’re probably very familiar with some of these, such as Anakin Skywalker’s turn to Darth Vader, or the fall of Quinlan Vos, a Jedi who went rogue in order to defeat Count Dooku and end the Clone Wars. Despite the fact that their number one role is serving as peacekeepers of the galaxy, the dark side’s influence has caused many former Jedi to plunge the galaxy into darkness.
Many of the Jedi here sought power and used the dark side to attain it, while other fallen heroes were pushed towards evil through personal tragedy. Whatever the case, we're here to examine the Jedi who turned to evil and abandoned everything they used to believe in. Some of these Jedi even became Sith, the sworn enemy of their Order. Prepare for some of the most tragic stories from a galaxy far, far away...
Anakin Skywalker is easily the most infamous Jedi to ever turn to the dark side. Jedi Knight Qui-Gon Jinn discovered young Anakin on the desert planet of Tatooine and believed the boy was the Chosen One who would finally bring balance to the Force. But there was too much darkness in Anakin, and the boy began training as a Jedi at a much older age than most Padawan learners. He was known to be capricious and reckless, and often disobeyed his master, Obi-Wan Kenobi.
His emotional attachment to his mother, Shmi Skywalker, and his secret wife, Padme Amidala, eventually led him to the dark side. He slaughtered the village of Sand People who kidnapped and tortured his mother to death and joined the Sith in order to save Padme, whom he believed would perish during childbirth. In trying to save those he loved, Anakin only found more pain and eventually became the feared Darth Vader.
Revan was a controversial Jedi Knight who lived thousands of years before the prequel trilogy. He was the leader of a faction within the Order called the Revanchists, a group of Jedi Knights who decided to fight for the Republic during the Mandalorian Wars. The Mandalorians were a fierce enemy, devastating planets throughout the galaxy, and Revan had grown frustrated with the Order’s unwillingness to get involved in the fight.
While Revan eventually defeated the Mandalorian forces and was hailed as a hero of the Republic, all of this fighting eventually led to his fall to the dark side. After the defeat of Mandalore the Ultimate, the Mandalorian leader, Revan traveled to the Unknown Regions of space to investigate a possible Sith connection to the Mandalorian threat. It was in the farthest edges of space he encountered a resurgent Sith Empire.
When the Jedi hero of the Republic returned to known space, it was as a new Dark Lord of the Sith, ready to fight against his former allies.
Jacen Solo was the son of Han and Leia. He was a great Jedi hero and fought to protect the New Republic on several occasions. Most notably, he fought in the Yuuzhan Vong War, during which he was captured and forced into submitting to the dark side before reconciling with the light side. As he grew older, Jacen became more determined to lead an increasingly fractured galaxy into an era of peace.
After experiencing a vision of a tyrant who would take over the galaxy and foreseeing the end of Luke Skywalker, Jacen joined forces with the Dark Lady Lumiya, the resurgent leader of the Sith, and became Darth Caedus. As a Sith Lord, Jacen took control of the Galactic Alliance, tormented Luke’s son, and slew his aunt. Jacen became the evil he had once tried to prevent. In the tragic climax of the Legacy of the Force book series, Jaina, Jacen’s twin sister, is forced to take her brother's life in order to save the galaxy from his reign of terror.
Photo: Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones / 20th Century Fox
Dooku was once a great Jedi Master, but he left the Order after becoming disillusioned with the corruption within the Galactic Republic. He became a member of the Lost Twenty, a group of Jedi Masters who had renounced the Order and its teachings throughout history. Despite having trained under Yoda, one of the greatest Jedi Masters of all time, Dooku still felt the pull of the dark side.
He eventually crossed paths with Darth Sidious and became his loyal apprentice. With Dooku’s help, Sidious was able to fight against the Galactic Republic that engulfed most of the known galaxy. Unfortunately for Dooku, Sidious disposed of him as soon as he found a more powerful apprentice in Anakin Skywalker.
Asajj Ventress was born on the planet Dathomir, the home to a clan of witches known as the Nightsisters. Ventress spent most of her early life as a slave on the wartorn planet Rattatak, a world which was ruled by pirates. Upon meeting a Jedi Knight named Ky Narec who was fighting back the pirates, Ventress discovered she was strong in the Force. Narec decided to train her as his apprentice while they continued to fight the pirates.
Unfortunately, Narec was eventually slain and Ventress was left without guidance. She embraced the dark side and eventually joined Count Dooku as a hired lightsaber for the Sith. During the Clone Wars, Ventress became known as one of the Separatists’ most feared agents, amassing quite the body count along the way.
Ulic Qel-Droma’s story is about as tragic as they come. He was born into a family of Jedi. His mother was powerful in the Force, and so was his brother, Cay. It made sense, then, when Ulic joined the Order and fought in the Beast Wars on the planet Onderon, which was ruled by a royal family that worshipped the dark side. Later, Ulic was part of a mission to defeat an evil cult known as the Krath in the Empress Teta system, where he witnessed the demise of his master.
A grief-stricken Ulic swore to avenge his master and embarked on an undercover mission to infiltrate the Krath and wipe them out. However, Ulic fell to the dark side and became the new leader of the cult. When his brother tried to stop him from committing any more cruel acts, Ulic slew Cay in cold blood in front of all of his former friends. Eventually, he became Exar Kun’s Sith apprentice.
Nomi Sunrider, one of his former friends, was forced to sever Ulic’s connection to the Force, leaving him powerless and broken. Ulic lived out the rest of his days in exile.
