A snippet from a future chapter
Leia turned to face her fully. "The Jedi fell because they stopped listening."
"Listening to what?"
"To the Force itself." Leia's voice took on a different quality, not lecturing exactly, but something close to it. "They act like they're servants of the Force, but they're not. They're trying to control it. Bend it to their will. Make it conform to their rules and traditions and philosophies." She paused. "That only works if you're a Sith."
Padmé frowned. "I don't understand."
"The Jedi teach that you should follow the Force, trust it, let it guide you," Leia said. "But then they turn around and tell you exactly how you're allowed to feel, what you're allowed to want, who you're allowed to love. They're not listening to the Force—they're forcing their will onto it. Do you see the difference?"
"You're saying the Jedi are hypocrites."
"I'm saying they're wrong," Leia corrected. "About fundamental things. And the Force—if it's truly sentient, truly aware—it knows they're wrong."
"How do you know the Force is sentient?" Padmé asked.
"Because it created Anakin."
Padmé blinked. "What?"
"You know he's half-Force, right? Born of the Force itself, conceived without a father?" Leia's eyes were intent now. "If the Force is sentient enough to create life—to create a person—then it's sentient enough to make choices. To have intentions."
"I suppose that's true," Padmé said slowly.
"So if the Force wanted to create the Chosen One, the one who would bring balance and save the galaxy, it could have created him anywhere." Leia leaned forward. "Core worlds. Coruscant itself. Alderaan. Naboo. Places where he'd be found immediately by the Jedi. Where he'd be raised in the Temple from infancy, perfectly trained in all their traditions." She seems to think for a moment, “Well, not Naboo, no offence, but it would have made a terrible location, with the Sith living there and all, but there are other places.”
"But he wasn't," Padmé said, beginning to understand.
"He was born on Tatooine," Leia said. "Outer Rim. No Republic oversight. No Jedi presence. A slave planet where he'd grow up knowing nothing but chains and suffering and attachment to his mother. The one thing the Jedi forbid above all else—he was literally born into it."
Padmé felt something cold in her stomach. "You're saying the Force did that deliberately."
"What else could it be?" Leia asked. "Either the Force isn't actually sentient—it's just blind chance and coincidence, which means there's no Chosen One prophecy, no grand plan, nothing. Or the Force is sentient, made a choice, and chose to create Anakin on Tatooine specifically."
"Why would it do that?"
"Two options," Leia said. "One: the Force never wanted Anakin to be found by the Jedi at all. It wanted him to grow up outside their Order, outside their rules. To learn love and attachment and all the things they forbid. To become someone who could save the galaxy in a different way—not as a Jedi, but as something else. It means the Force is not all knowing, as Anakin was found eventually, it might also mean that the Jedi weren’t listening, because if they had, he would have never been found."
"And the second option?"
"The Force knew about the Sith plot," Leia said. "It knew Palpatine was manipulating events. It knew the Trade Federation would blockade Naboo, that you would flee, that you'd crash on Tatooine, and that Qui-Gon Jinn would find a nine-year-old slave boy and bring him to the Order." She paused. "The Force knew Anakin would be found, but found late. After he'd learned to love. After he'd formed attachments. After he was already everything the Jedi teach against."
Padmé's breath caught. "You're saying the Force gave them a test."
"Yes," Leia corrected. "The Force gave the Jedi a Chosen One who contradicted everything they believed. A boy who loved deeply, who formed attachments, who felt everything they taught him to suppress. And the Force waited to see what they would do."
"Would they adapt or would they try to force him into their mold," Padmé said slowly.
"Exactly." Leia's voice was cold now. "And they chose wrong. They took a traumatized nine-year-old slave and told him to let go of his mother. They took a teenager in love and told him it was forbidden. They took a young man drowning in fear and told him to meditate. They didn't adapt. They didn't change. They just kept insisting that their way was the only way."
"So he fell," Padmé whispered.
"So he fell," Leia agreed. "And if the Force is truly sentient, if it really knew all of this would happen, then it knew Anakin would fall. It knew that if the Jedi failed their test, failed to change, then Anakin would fall. Then the Chosen One would still bring balance. Just not the way they expected."
"By destroying them."
"By wiping them from existence," Leia said. "So the next generation could start over. Could learn from their mistakes. Could build something better."
The gardens felt very quiet suddenly.
"That's a terrifying thought," Padmé said.
"It's the logical conclusion," Leia said. "If you believe the Force is sentient. If you believe Anakin was created with intention. If you believe in the prophecy at all." She looked at Padmé. "Either the Jedi are working against the Force's will, against the prophecy, or the prophecy was about the Force deciding to eradicate the order from existence. Either way, it says something about how much confidence the Force has in the Jedi Order."
"You really think the Jedi are that lost?"
"I think they've forgotten how to listen," Leia said. "They're so certain they're right, so sure their traditions are correct, that they can't hear when the Force is trying to tell them something different. They've become exactly what they claim to fight against—rigid, dogmatic, forcing their will instead of flowing with the Force."
Padmé was quiet, processing. "Is that what Vader taught you? This philosophy?"
"No," Leia said. "Vader taught me to hate the Jedi for failing him. This—" She gestured vaguely. "This is what I figured out with L— With one of the future Jedi. We were trying to understand how it all went so wrong. How an entire Order could fall. How the Force could let it happen." She paused. "The only answer that makes sense is that the Force didn't just let it happen. It made it happen. Because they weren't listening."
"Then what should they do?" Padmé asked. "What does listening to the Force actually look like?"
"I don't know," Leia admitted. "I'm a Sith. We force our will onto the Force too, just more honestly about it."