In the time of the original Star Wars trilogy, the Jedi Knights were long since wiped out and had faded into myth. While the Jedi loomed large over the original trilogy, we saw only fragments of the Order as it once was, such as exiled Jedi Masters Obi-Wan Kenobi and Yoda.
The chance to finally see the Jedi at the height of their powers was one Star Wars had long clamored for, and were of course ecstatic when the prequel trilogy granted just that opportunity. While the prequels introduced us to many new Jedi, which ones measure up to the heights the Order is supposed to reach? Let's find out.
10 Best: Obi-Wan Kenobi
The first Jedi Knight we ever meet in a Star Wars film, Obi-Wan's exploits in the prequel era further demonstrate why he's the ideal of what a Jedi should be. Kind, wise, patient, courageous, able to control his passions without suppressing them to an inhuman degree, and a skilled warrior when he needs to be but one who never chooses violence first. He was also consistently the most fair-minded of the Jedi Council, breaking with his fellow Masters on expelling Ahsoka Tano or ordering the assassination of Count Dooku. Most of all, Obi-Wan was the only Jedi Anakin Skywalker truly trusted, to such a degree that Palpatine orchestrated events so that Obi-Wan would be off Coruscant when he sprang his trap. Had Obi-Wan been there when Anakin most needed help, it's likely the Star Wars saga would've played out very differently.
9 Worst: Pong Krell
During the invasion of Umbara, Anakin Skywalker was abruptly called back to Coruscant, leaving his Clone Trooper division, the 501st, under the command of bellicose general Pong Krell. Showing a callous disregard for the clones' lives, Krell initially appears to simply be belligerent and dismissive of the clones' humanity, but he turns out to be something much worse. Having fallen to the Dark Side when he sensed the Jedi Order's coming destruction, Krell actively sabotaged the Republic effort on Umbara in hopes of defecting to the Separatists and becoming Dooku's new apprentice. The 501st discovered Krell's treachery after he tricked them into attacking fellow Clone battalion the 212th, and Krell was ultimately "fragged" by clone Trooper Dogma. Couldn't have happened to a nicer Jedi.
8 Best:Â Shaak Ti
A female Togruta, the same species as the more famous Jedi Ahsoka Tano, Shaak Ti was one of the more outwardly kind members of the Jedi Council. Assigned to oversee the training of clone cadets on Kamino, Ti showed a maternal affection for the clones entirely unfound in their Kaminoan creators or several other Jedi. She gave the struggling Domino Squad several chances to prove themselves, and again vouched for the clone Fives when he came close (though only close) to discovering the Order 66 sub-routines implanted in the Clones.
Shaak Ti was also a skilled warrior, facing General Grievous during the Battle of Coruscant and surviving her encounter with the Separatist Cyborg. Though she was killed by the newly christened Darth Vader during the Jedi Temple massacre, Shaak Ti's influence did not end with her death, for in her final moments, she recorded Jedi teachings to a holocron that would one day be found by Luke Skywalker.
7 Worst: Ki-Adi Mundi
One of the more consistently prominent members of the Jedi council during Prequel-era stories, Ki-Adi Mundi is in many ways emblematic of the Order's failings in its final years of existence. A dogmatist who was all too eager to play the contrarian, Mundi wrongfully doubted the continued existence of the Sith or Count Dooku's capacity for murder, and was among the most hardline of the Jedi council to vote in favor of expelling Ahsoka Tano. How tragically fitting then, that the Cerean Jedi Master met his end during Order 66, too blinded to see his impending doom until it was too late.
6 Best: Plo Koon
Hailing from the planet Kel Dor, Master Plo Koon was one of the most compassionate members of the Jedi Council, though with a wit not unlike Obi-Wan's. He had a close friendship with Ahsoka Tano, having found her and brought her to the Jedi Temple when she was a child, but his relationship with the clones who served under him in the 104th, aka "The Wolf Pack," speaks even better of Plo. Master Plo was like a father to the troopers who affectionally called themselves "Plo's bros;" when a clone reminded him that they were designed to be expendable, Plo only replied "Not to me." This makes Plo's betrayal and death during Order 66 by these very Clones all the more tragic.
5 Worst: Luminara Unduli
The Jedi Order of the prequel era had deemed emotional attachments strictly forbidden, and no individual Jedi of this era embodied this better (for lack of a better word) than Mirialan Master Luminara Unduli. Luminara's strict adherence to the Jedi way morphed her into an unintentionally callous woman.
After accidentally orphaning the Martez sisters she offered only a pithy "the force will be with you" as condolence, and she was willing to abandon her own Padawan Barriss Offee to die on Geonosis. Given her detachment from Barriss, it's not surprising that Luminara was unable to sense her own apprentice's fall to the dark side.
4 Best: Kit Fisto
Compared to his uptight and dogmatic comrades on the Jedi council, Kit Fisto was a decidedly friendlier and more laid-back. Never afraid to crack a joke or flash his trademark smile, Kit Fisto proved that utterly purging oneself's of pathos didn't preclude them from becoming a great Jedi. Fisto was also one of the Jedi most un-corrupted by the Clone Wars. While a highly skilled Lightsaber duelist, his first impulse was never violence, as shown when he unsuccessfully attempted to reign in his former Padawan Nahdar Vebb, who had become obsessed with defeating General Grievous.
3 Worst: Sifo-Dyas
While relatively little has been explored of Sifo-Dyas' life in canon, he earns a place on this list for allowing himself to be tricked into contributing to the Jedi's destruction. A close friend of Dooku before the Count of Sereno left the Jedi Order, Sifo-Dyas had premonitions of the coming Clone Wars and tried to persuaded the Jedi Council into creating an army. When he was refused, Sifo-Dyas, at the urging of his now fallen friend, went to Kamino and order the creation of a Clone Army at the Republic's behest. Shortly thereafter, Sifo-Dyas was assassinated by the Pyke Syndicate, hired by Dooku himself. By listening to Dooku, Sifo-Dyas handed the Sith the means to destroy the Order and the Republic he'd been trying to protect.
2 Best: Yoda
The other Jedi Master to debut in the Original Trilogy, the Prequel trilogy offered us a chance to see Yoda before his exile to Dagobah. The leader of the Jedi council, and the oldest and wisest among them, Yoda often cautioned against the darker paths the council pursued during the Clone Wars, and was the only one of the council the post-mortem Qui-Gon Jinn trusted with the secret to immortality.
In addition to his vast wisdom, Yoda's diminutive frame hid one of the most powerful Force-users of his time; for he overpower his former apprentice Dooku on Geonosis and drew with Darth Sidious, feats no single Jedi can boast of having both attained.
1 Worst: Mace Windu
In terms of raw power, Mace Windu was certainly the strongest Jedi of his time. Possibly even more powerful than Yoda, Windu defeated Darth Sidious and would've ended the Dark Lord permanently had he not been surprised by an attack from Anakin Skywalker. However, there's more to a Jedi than simple power, and Windu's reign saw the order's corruption and dogmatism calcify. Windu often served as a devil-on-the-shoulder of the Jedi council, adopting a utilitarian outlook and urging darker actions in the name of ending the war. More than anything, his consistent distrust of Anakin Skywalker brought the Jedi Order to an end.