How Many Jedi Died on Geonosis? (& How Many Survived?)

One of the most important battles in the history of Star Wars was the First Battle of Geonosis, a massive battle involving the Jedi Order and the Separatists that Count Dooku led. This battle occurred before the Republic started sending clones into war, which was why the Jedi struggled against the sheer number of droids that Dooku’s Separatists fielded. So, how many Jedi died on Geonosis, and how many of them survived?

Out of the 212 Jedi Knights and Masters that fought in the First Battle of Geonosis, 183 of them died. That means that only 29 Jedi were able to survive the First Battle of Geonosis out of the hundreds of Jedi that were fielded in that battle. This affected the Jedi Order’s numbers heading into the Clone Wars.

The thing about the Jedi Order is that, while thousands of Jedi were all over the galaxy, losing nearly 200 of them in one battle was a devastating loss as it was difficult and time-consuming to train a Jedi to be good enough. As such, the First Battle of Geonosis weakened the Jedi Order before the Clone Wars even started. That said, let’s look at how many Jedi died on Geonosis.

How many Jedi were in the First Battle of Geonosis?

If there’s one thing we know about the Clone Wars, it’s a huge galactic war between the Republic and the Confederacy of Independent Systems (Separatists). But this entire war broke out during the events of ‘Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones,’ which allowed us to see the First Battle of Geonosis.

In ‘Attack of the Clones,’ Obi-Wan Kenobi was investigating the attempted assassination of Senator Padmé Amidala. His investigations led him to Kamino, which was a planet that was deleted from the Jedi Archives. On Kamino, however, he noticed that the Kaminoans had been expecting the Jedi to arrive because a former Jedi named Sifo-Dyas ordered an army of clones that would serve the Republic. And the man that the clones were modeled after was a bounty hunter named Jango Fett.

When Jango Fett started acting suspiciously, Obi-Wan was ordered by the Jedi Council to take him in for questioning. That was when a fight between the two happened, and Jango managed to escape. Kenobi, however, was able to put a homing beacon on Jango’s ship as the bounty hunter led him to a planet called Geonosis.

Obi-Wan eavesdropped on a meeting between Count Dooku and the different members of the systems that had already separated from the Republic. That was when they were clearly planning to wage war on the Republic. Nevertheless, Obi-Wan got caught by the Geonosians just after he sent a transmission to Anakin Skywalker for help.

Anakin and Padmé came to Obi-Wan’s rescue after they had forwarded the transmission to the Jedi High Council. But Anakin and Padmé were also captured by the Geonosians. They were about to get executed in front of the Separatists and the people of Geonosis until the Jedi Order arrived to save them and Obi-Wan.

Mace Windu led the Jedi strike force of 212 well-trained Jedi already quite experienced. The goal was for the Jedi to rescue Obi-Wan, Anakin, and Padmé and to secure the arrest of Count Dooku and the other leaders of the Separatists. As such, a huge battle between the Jedi and the droids of the Separatists took place.

In most cases, 212 Jedi should be able to win a battle, especially because one Jedi was equal to an entire company of soldiers. The problem was that the droids outnumbered the Jedi a hundred to one, which meant that the Jedi Order was severely outnumbered during that battle. Still, despite the numbers favoring Count Dooku and the Separatists, they never gave up.

The death toll affected the Jedi Order’s numbers

During the early parts of the First Battle of Geonosis, the Jedi could valiantly quell the numbers of the Separatist droids. In truth, the droids were not too strong, as most B1 battle droids were not too much of a threat. But because many of those droids were firing their blasters from all angles, not even the most well-trained Jedi could block or deflect every shot. That means that many Jedi fell to the droids in that battle.

While the Jedi strike team was successful at destroying a lot of droids, the droids just kept coming at them because the Geonosians were able to prepare thousands or even millions of droids for an upcoming war against the Republic. That means the droids replenished their numbers faster than the Jedi could destroy them. And despite being overwhelmingly stronger than the droids, the Jedi could only do so much against the massive droid army firing from all angles.

It came to a point wherein the Jedi strike team had been reduced to around 31 Jedi that the droids had surrounded. Count Dooku realized he was about to win the fight as he praised Windu and the other Jedi for valiantly fighting. He was about to order the droids to execute the remaining Jedi until Jedi Master Yoda arrived just in time with the clone army he met in Kamino after Obi-Wan sent his transmission to the Jedi High Council.

The arrival of the clones shifted the tide of the battle to favor the Republic as the clones had the numbers and the training that allowed them to overwhelm the droids that the Separatists fielded. An even bigger planetary battle occurred as the Separatists were about to retreat from the planet, only for the clones to prevent many of the ships from taking orbit.

During that larger battle, it can be estimated that around two more Jedi perished. That means that out of the 212 Jedi that Mace Windu led to Geonosis, only around 29 of them were able to survive the First Battle of Geonosis.

Of course, we know that there were around 10,000 Jedi around the galaxy at that time, which means that there were more Jedi in different systems all over the galaxy. But losing 183 of the finest Jedi Knights and Masters that the Jedi Order had to offer devastated the Jedi Order, which was called to lead the clones in the Clone Wars.

In that regard, the numbers of the Jedi were affected by the First Battle of Geonosis, as this forced the Jedi Council to speed up the training of younglings and Padawans to replenish the Jedi lost in the First Battle of Geonosis.

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