Wulf Yularen was one of the most loyal and
respected Officers in the Republic Navy, serving side by side with the most renowned Generals,
including Ankain Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi… So why did he betray the Jedi and join the
Imperial Security bureau after the fall of the Republic? Well the answer is much more complicated than
you might think… So hit that subscribe button and lets break
down the reasons Why Wulf Yularen Betrayed the Jedi and Joined the Empire… ==NUMBER 1. Loyalty and Relationship with Palpatine== So to get a picture of who Yularen was as
a man, and as a military officer, we have to back to his days as a young man, and how
he grew to become incredibly close with Chancellor Palpatine. Yularen grew up as a very wealthy and well
connected young boy on the planet Coruscant, born to a prolific Navy instructor who lived
and breathed military tradition. His son continued this passion, eventually
atttending the Naval academy on the planet Presfbelt IV, leaving him with two main options
for his career. Since the Republic was demilitarised at this
time, before the Phantom Menace he could join the Republic Judicial Forces, which were sort
of like Galactic peacekeepers and inspectors when the Jedi couldn’t show up, or he could
join a planetary defence force. Being the huge military man that he was, Yularen
chose to join a planetary defence force, seeing it has having a far greater military tradition
than the toned down and frankly, pretty weak judicial forces. He saw the Judifical forces as pretty much
being a fake military that didn’t really get much done. As a result he joined the prestigious Kwymar
Sector forces in the OUter Rim, taking the position of Captain. Yularen absolutely loved the sense of pride
and military tradition that he was experiencing in this role, fighting everything from slavers,
to pirates and black market smugglers… His time with the Kwymar Fleet left him utterly
obsessed with uncovering corruption and ensuring that security and leaks were stopped at all
costs. If you’re familiar with where Wulf Yularen
ended up in Rebels, you’ll know this hatred of leakers stuck with him. This love of hunting corruption eventually
led him to a role in the Senate Bureau of Investigations, investing and uncovering corruption
among Senators… As you can imagine, this left him hated among
most Senators, but Palpatine took a liking to him. Supreme Chancellor Palpatine quickly appointed
him to an anti-corruption unit under his office, and as a result of this, the two came to admire
eachother greatly. They both formed similar views of how the
Galaxy should be ordered and soon Yularen found himself in Palpatine’s inner circle… Overall, the two simply couldn’t agree more
on how the Galaxy should operate. It was also during this time that Yularen
first encountered the renowned Separatist Admiral, Trench at the battle of Malastare
narrows, believing that he died there… Obviously this was later proven very scarily wrong. This wouldn’t last long however, as shortly
before the Clone Wars kicked off, the Senate defunded Palpatine’s anti-corruption unit,
believing he was overreaching the powers of his office, leaving Wulf Yularen bitter, angry
and into an early retirement. At this point, Yularen was frustrated and
lived his live on the remote world of Anaxes, wondering what to do with his life now that
his only purpose had been taken away… Luckily for him, the Clone Wars kicked off
not that long after, and Palpatine immediately offered him a role within in the new Grand
Army of the Republic Naval forces, giving him the rank of Admiral. This made him the youngest Admiral to ever
serve in the forces, once again strengthening the flourishing relationship between Wulf
Yularaen and Palpatine… Loyalthy that Yularen would be sure to pay
back… ==Number 2.== **This leads us onto number
two. Wulf Yularen really believed in the cause
of the Republic, and the Empire was only the natural continuation of this cause…** This funnily enough even extended to the Jedi
General he was assigned to serve with, Anakin Skywalker. If you remember from scenes in Attack of
the Clones, Revenge of the Sith and from the Citadel with Tarkin, it’s clear that Anakin
shares a pretty similar view of how the Galaxy should run with Yularen, contributing to them
getting along famously during the war. This reinforcement continued all the way throughout
the war, solidified Yularen’s belief that the Separatists were not simply people who
wanted to be treated fairly within the Republic, but instead extermists who wanted to throw
the Galaxy into Chaos. And this view was actually very widespread
by the end of the War. Most citizens of the Galaxy actually welcomed
the formation of the Empire because it put an end to the endless bloodshed and warfare
of the Clone Wars, who most blamed the separatists for. This was a big part of why the Empire punished
former Separatist worlds so much more harshly than the rest. **That then leads us to point number 3.**
Yularen 100% believed Palaptine’s story that the Jedi had attempted to perform a coup
and take power over the Galaxy… Because of his extremely good relationship
with Palpatine, his love of the Republic and his strict view on anti-corruption, Yularen
fully believed that the Jedi were traitors to the Republic and completely flipped from
being peacekeepers to attempting to take power from Palpatine. When Palpatine marked the Jedi traitors, Yularen
had no reason not to believe him. The two shared the same vision for the Galaxy,
the same hatred for corruption and he barely knew what the Jedi did before the war began. Being so disgusted with the Jedi’s attempted
coup, Yularen vowed to never let anything like that ever slip past him again, resigning
his post in the navy, and immediately moving to the Imperial security bureau. Here he would be able to fulfil his desire
to root out corruption in the brand new Empire, and ensure that nobody could plot to take
down Palpatine again like the Jedi had done. One of Yularen’s first major assignments
in his new role at the ISB was to investigate every single Senator who signed the Petition
of 2000, which was a document signed by 2000 senators, demanding that Palpatine give up
his emergency powers… This was seen in the deleted scenes of Revenge
of the Sith, and many prominent Senators like Padme Amidala and Bail Organa signed the petition
before the Empire was formed… Yularen was tasked with investigating and
intimidating everyone who signed it… In fact many were executed as a result of
these investigations. In a way, he probably saw this as payback
for all those years ago when the Senate dismantled his anti-corruption team, who was investigating
them. Either way, Yularen quickly rose to the rank
of Colonel within the ISB, and was in charge of the Empire’s most important and critical
intelligence operations. As part of this he even served alongside infamous
figures such as Grand Admiral Thrawn, Agent Kallus and Grand Moff Tarkin… And this leads us to the final reason, ********************************************************************************************************************************************************Wulf
Yularen didn’t really view his actions as a betrayal of the Jedi at all, in fact it
was likely the other way around.******************************************************************************************************************************************************** As said earlier, the Empire was simply the
continuation of the Republic, so him remaining a key figure in the Galactic government is
no surprise, and he certainly didn’t see it as him betraying his former allies from
the Jedi Order. By this point, he likely viewed the Jedi as
disgusting traitors who tried to overthrow Palpatine and take control for themselves. He knew nothing of their mystical ways and
only ever saw them as monks who probably shouldn’t be involved in the tactical planning of a
Galactic scale war. Although he did deeply respect his own Jedi
General, Ankain Skywalker for his courage on the battle field and willingness to lead
from the front. They also agreed on much about the state of
the Galaxy and how it should be run, which leaves us with the major question… Did Wulf Yularen know that Anakin Skywalker
was actually under the Darth Vader suit in the meeting room from a new hope. We know in the current Canon that Tarkin certainly
did, but did Yularen also? Well in Canon, we only have confirmation that
Tarkin knew, and the matter of Yularen knowing has not been touched. But considering his propensity and interest
in intelligence, as a member of the ISB, I’d say it’s pretty likely he put the pieces
together. Having served alongside Anakin for so long,
he would have seen some of the same battlefield tactics in Darth Vader… And this is actually one of the reasons that
made Tarkin realize Vader was Anakin, he saw Vader using many of the same battlefield tactics
as the former Jedi General… And with all that said, we finally get to
the most tragic point in the story. Colonel Wullf Yularen was sadly on board the
First Death Star when Luke Skywalker blew the battlestation up, killing everyone on
board. As you’ll know if you’ve read the lost
stars book, many Imperials who were not aboard the Death Star when it was destroyed viewed
this event as the worst attack in their history, and on par with the destruction of Alderaan. This emboldened many Imperials, just as the
destruction of Alderaan did for Rebels… Ultimately, we don’t know what Wullf Yularen
was doing in his final moments, but he certainly lived a fulfilling and respectable life, showing
that not all imperials are pure evil. Some truly believe in the cause. So that is why Wulff Yularen betrayed the
Jedi and joined the Empire. Thanks so much for watching, remember to leave
a like and subscribe and I will see you in the next one.
