I've been meaning to comment on this link for a while. Way back in September, I discovered this great blog on the least competent Jedi in the Star Wars galaxy. Granted, it only talks about the "publicly known" Jedi, but it does mention some Extended Universe Jedi. It is an interesting list.
The 9 Least Competent Jedi
Everyone associated with Anakin Skywalker is listed at the top of the list. Except Anakin himself. Which is kinda weird. It is almost as if he is exempt from the list.
Yet he is quite incompetent himself. After all, he went to the dark side. He slaughtered Tuskin Raiders. He murdered a bunch of kids.
But here I have to add to the incompetency of the Jedi Council. How did Yoda let Anakin get away with murdering Tuskin Raiders? He felt the disturbance in the Force. He knew it happened. Why was Anakin never asked about this by the council? Even worse, Anakin admitted his actions to a member of the Senate. Padme knew what he did and never told anyone. Not even Obi-Wan. Was she afraid they would suspend Anakin? That's what should have happened. Unless Padme had little concern for the Sand People.
JUSTICE FOR THE SAND PEOPLE!
Here is an entire bulletin board conversation about the topic of Anakin and the Sand People. Interesting read.
So put me in the camp of those who think Yoda had a touch of incompetence.
The analysis of Luke Skywalker is also quite interesting. The rescue of Han Solo was unnecessarily complicated. Perhaps Luke doubted his ability to go in to Jabba's palace, kick ass, and rescue Han. Perhaps Leia was the only one who knew the code to unfreeze the carbonite - possible but unlikely considering it came from Lando's Cloud City. Chewbacca probably wanted in so bad, he wouldn't let the mission go forth without being a part. Interesting how he his confidence in Luke's plan has grown since the Death Star rescue plan in A New Hope - where Chewie was also a prisoner.
The strongest being on your team, and your plan (Twice!) is to put him in shackles. Makes perfect sense.
Sure, Luke wouldn't want to involve the entire Rebel Alliance in rescuing a former smuggler who really had little achievements outside of the Battle of Yavin at that point, but think about how his father would have faced Jabba. It would have been much different. Granted, Luke was never as strong as Anakin in the movies. Anakin was much more polished and stronger with the Force.
Maybe Luke wasn't much of a leader yet. Maybe everyone piled in their ideas and did what they wanted to do. Then when he realized no one else's plan worked, Luke walked into Jabba's palace and rescued everyone. Although the placement of the droids before Leia and Chewbacca does sort of counter that theory. Unless Artoo did in fact play "the wrong message".
Although, what if Jabba had traded the carbonite slab for the droids? Droids would have been much easier to rescue. They could have easily snuck themselves out. Not that hard. C-3P0 and R2-D2 had been in worse predicaments.
So Luke is not as good a planner as we thought, Yoda isn't a smart as we thought, and Qui-Gon's faults are pretty obvious.
Maybe the Jedi are indeed incompetent.
