Palpatine never really acts like he’s afraid of the Jedi. Even when the Order is at its strongest, he plays them like they’re just another piece on the board, smiling in the Senate, offering sympathy, letting them think they’re still in control.
So the idea that he might “fear” Jedi with yellow lightsabers sounds weird at first. But in Legends, yellow isn’t just a random color choice. It gets linked to a certain kind of Jedi and that connection changes what the question is really asking.
Yellow Lightsabers Were Linked to Jedi Sentinels in Legends
In Legends, the cleanest place this idea shows up is the Knights of the Old Republic era. When the game explains Jedi “paths,” yellow is directly tied to the Jedi Sentinel—the middle-ground branch between the Guardian and the Consular. And The Jedi Path backs up the same association in plain language, noting that while Sentinels rarely need to draw a weapon, they still carry one like any Jedi—and “a Sentinel’s lightsaber usually bears a yellow blade.”
However, it wasn’t the yellow lightsaber itself that would’ve worried Palpatine—it was the kind of Jedi often associated with it. Sentinels are usually framed as more practical Jedi, balancing combat and the Force with skills like security, computers, and stealth that help them operate outside the Temple.
Why Jedi Sentinels Were a Problem for Palpatine
Like I mentioned earlier, Legends breaks the Jedi down in a more detailed way than just Padawan → Knight → Master path we usually see in Canon. On top of rank, there are also the three main “paths”: Jedi Consular, Jedi Guardian, and Jedi Sentinel—different lanes built for different kinds of missions.
We’re not here to explore the Consular or the Guardian. The one that matters for this topic is the Jedi Sentinel, and why a Sith like Palpatine would have good reason to dislike them getting too close.
In The Jedi Path, the Sentinel path branches into specialties like Slicer, Tech Expert, Security Expert, and Jedi Shadow. And the title that really explains the fear factor is the Jedi Shadow. The book describes their job in blunt terms: “The role of Jedi Shadows is to seek out and vanquish any traces of the dark side…”
That’s the nightmare scenario for Palpatine. His entire game during the Clone Wars depends on the Sith hiding in plain sight—inside the Republic, inside the war, right next to the Jedi. A Jedi trained specifically to look for dark-side traces, and willing to operate like an investigator to find them, is exactly the type who could’ve pulled the mask off early.
How Jedi Shadows Actually Operated
As described in The Jedi Path, Jedi Shadows were a specialized offshoot of the Sentinel path. They didn’t serve in the open or defend political institutions. Their job was to investigate dark side cults, track down hidden Sith, and destroy any trace of dark side corruption—no matter where it hid.
Shadows operated alone or in small teams, and their methods weren’t always “by the book.” They relied on stealth, deception, and deep investigation—using the Force to sense traces of darkness that others couldn’t. If needed, they could infiltrate cults, dismantle Sith relic caches, or eliminate rogue Force users before they grew into a larger threat.
In Star Wars: Republic #59, Jedi Master Tholme is shown using Shadow-like methods—investigating black market Force artifacts, operating in the criminal underworld, and using disguise to avoid detection. While he’s never officially labeled a “Shadow,” his mission reflects their exact tactics.
Another example is found in the Darth Bane trilogy. Before the Rule of Two was rediscovered, Jedi like Master Johun Othone were tasked with pursuing surviving Sith cults after the Brotherhood of Darkness fell. Though he wasn’t trained as a Shadow, he was assigned Shadow-like duties to confirm whether any Sith had survived the destruction at Ruusan.
The key trait was vigilance. Jedi Shadows didn’t wait for the dark side to strike. They hunted it. And that’s what made them so dangerous to Sith like Palpatine. Because even if his political plans were flawless, a Jedi trained to sense the faintest echoes of the dark side—and act without public ceremony—was a true threat to the Sith Grand Plan.