Characters The Jedi Way - Jedi Discussion Thread - Jedi and the Force in The Clone Wars

The Jedi see the Force as an absolution.

That would make them Catholics.

 

I laughed at that one. They see the Force as EVERYTHING...in that IT is the source of meaning to life...it gives life...it is the primary reason they live.

I think the Sith see the Force as a tool to use.

The way the Force is understood must have a great deal to do with how it is perceived in moments of trial...

 

I'm glad you laughed at that. I was nervous you'd take offense, and I didn't mean it as an insult or anything. Just when I saw absolution, it reminded me of the Catholic faith.

I knew what you meant though. It's basically what I had said before only put into different words.

 

And there are Jedi like Qui-Gon who are atuned to the Living Force and I have written OC's with another view on the Force

 

I occasionally get a real kick out of writing ghost-Qui-Gon getting in touch with the Unifying Force perspective. I should probably do it a bit more formally at some point and actually post something.

 

Absolutely.(uh, there might be pun in there somewhere) That really seems to be the big difference between Jedi and Sith.

The Jedi do use the Force, but that is only in the service of others. The Force gives them great powers, so they are expected to use it for the benefit of others.

The Sith use the Force as a tool to achieve their ambitions. From their perspective it's there to be used. But when does that stop?

I suppose this is why the Jedi Code is so strict. No possessions, no attachments. If you start using the Force for personal gain it gets to be a habit. Yoda talked about 'once you go down the dark path.....' It seems to be universally believed by the Jedi that once you went Sith you never went back. I assume that historically for the Jedi that's been true, until Aankin came along.

I've written ghostly Qui-Gon. He can be amusing.

 

I've written ghostly Qui-gon as well, but only as a guest appearance in a current fic I'm writing, told from Obi-wan's POV. Yeah, Qui-gon can be quite amusing.

 

I am writing 'ghostly' Qui-Gon and I have painted him and my next painting is him again. (on the fanart board)

[image=http://i279.photobucket.com/albums/kk124/earlybird-obi-wan/forcenetart/ghost7.jpg]

 

You know, for all intents and purposes, there is a certain lack of Qui-Gon Jinn stories out there, and I think that Qui-Gon is one of the best representations of the Jedi of the earlydays of the republic.

*He's compassionate for others

* He doesn't always agree with the Jedi Council, but he neve goes and outright goes out of his way to cross the line.

Many more examples, heck, even ones as more detailed than mine may exist, but Qui-Gon shoud be the poster boy for future jedi.

No, for all you authors out there, besides Qui-Gon, do you ever write stories concerning other Jedi's views on the force?

 

I've got a question regarding the Order's economic policies. I was wondering if a Jedi is injured in the line of duty for the Order, and a certain Jedi had been requested would it be acceptable for donations to the Order to be given in the said injured's name, to the Order as a whole? Like when Obi-Wan was requested specifically by Palpatine to protect Padme, if he had gotten injured in the line of duty, would a donation by Senator Palpatine or Amidala to the Order be acceptable or even agreed upon in a contract form?

 

I assume that, as I bought up earlier in this thread, the senate approves a budget for the Jedi every year, much like how conngress approves money for the military in our world. Money from that is put into a " Jedi Injury" deposit, so that if a Jedi were to get injured, their medical bills are paid for, or somebody else, if they were generous, agreed to pay for that particular Jedi's injuries.

 

I think so, too. I think Qui-Gon was meant to be one type of an 'ideal' example of a Jedi in TPM, since he's so prominent and this is where we're introduced to the Old Republic Jedi Order. That's one reason why I like to write him.

I agree with Darthbane2007 that any costs that a Jedi might incur would be covered by the Senate. This would not just be injuries, but also anything that a Jedi might damage or blow up in the line of duty as well.

I think that if you closely examined the GFFA economy it would fall apart. But given the way it is presented, they have a huge excess of energy and labor (droids). Given that, the Jedi Order is probably a tiny discretionary expense in the budget of the Galactic Republic anyway.

 

The Jedi Order does not pay for itself. They might have a fund where if people wanted to donate, they can make the deposit to it.

Anyway, this might be a crazy question, but how does life inside the temple go daily? Do the jedi do their own laundry, their own shopping, or do droids do it all for them?

 

Not a crazy question at all. I have pondered all kinds of things about it. Because its the GFFA and the Jedi Temple is on Coruscant, I assume that all the day-to-day maintenance labor in the Temple is done by droids. Floor cleaning and dusting and laundry and cooking. We know they use them from the 'analysis droid' scene that got cut in ATOC. And the GFFA just has lots of droids in it anyway.

I assume that all of the physical activities of Jedi is directed toward their training and missions and that their Force abilities really do need full-time maintenance.

I did a test scenario of what a typical day for a humanoid Jedi might be like for story background. It looked like this (assuming a 24 hour day):

- 6-8 hours sleep (how much sleep does a person need in the GFFA?)
- up at 0600
- 0600-0800, morning stuff, meditation - Force training
- 0800-0900, breakfast and free time
- 0900-1200, general excercise and fighting practice
- 1200-1300, lunch and free time
- 1300-1500, reading, studying, current events, meetings, seminars, whatever
- 1500-1600, afternoon meal and free time
- 1600-1900, physical discipline and exercise and Force training
- 1900-2000, evening meal and free time
- 2000-2200, reading studying, current events, whatever
- 2200-0600, free time and rest

 

Nice response, but i don't think the droids do all of the maintenace. The jedi probably do their own cooking, laundry, and maintenace. Those skills would be useful if they were stuck on some backwater planet.

 

Oh, I am sure that all Jedi are trained in doing all of those things. But their lifestyle of traveling and going on missions would make it impossible to always be there to do it.

I always picture Jedi eating communally instead of doing their own cooking on a regular basis since the issue of food spoilage while they're gone is a problem.

Laundry doesn't spoil but I am uncomfortable with a Jedi returning to the Temple, tired after a strenuous mission, to face a pile of dirty towels and sheets that didn't get done because he or she had to leave with no advance notice. And that Jedi may be required to be available to leave at any time again In a galaxy where droids are used for everything, that doesn't make sense to me.

It might be interesting to write a fic about what the cooking classes are like. And who has to sample the results. There would probably be other training about living without droids, cleaning and laundry and such. Not bathing for two weeks, just to know what it's like. But I wonder if that might be done outside of the Temple?

For maintenance of the Temple itself, they would have to use droids for labor. The Temple is just huge, like a small city. I picture Jedi who do not go on missions much running everything, but the droids would do the grunt work.

The reason why I picture droids doing so much is because there are supposed to be an extremely limited number of Jedi and a whole galaxy to serve. Jedi would do mostly the things that only Jedi can do, like:

- bringing new younglings to the Temple
- teaching younglings, padawans
- missions, defending peace and justice and all that
- studying the Force
- Jedi training and everything related to that

Add in that Jedi are probably allowed some free time to just do things they like and the day gets very full. I would put all the cooking and cleaning and washing things in the training.

 

Nice, but I think that skills such as cooking, laundering, and all that stuff they teach as well. Say a Jedi was stuck on a planet such as Endor for a week or 2? depending on the availible livestock, plants, and whatnot, that could keep the Jedi nourished until help would arrive. Laundry too.

Now getting on, how do the Jedi choose what type of robes to wear? We see that people such as Qui-Gon, Obi-Wan, Mace, Adi Gallia, etc.. wore the traditionial robes/tunics of the Jedi, but we see with people such as Barris Offee, Shaak Ti, Plo Koon, etc.. wear robes that are of a different variation. I read on wookiepedia that some Jedi wore robes similar to their culture's/species' clothing.

 

I think that there's probably a mix of who does what. For example, most Jedi would probably eat communally but some may like cooking, or have issues with "mass-produced" food (allergies, tolerances because they're a rare species, etc.). If that's the case, and they have to go on missions, a friend could stop by and make sure that everything was ready. Still, I think most Jedi would rely on droids to do much of the work, simply because there isn't enough time to do everything.

As for robes, it's personal preference within the allowed range. I can't really see them forcing anything on an older Padawan, and certainly not on a Knight or Master. When they're younger, certainly, to teach them Jedi conformity, etc. But as the person grows older, they should be allowed growth. Look at Anakin- he wears about the darkest brown possible before it becomes black, and his tabards are leather to boot. But Obi-Wan is more traditional. It just depends on the person and the species, and their personal comfort zone.

 

As for Anakin's dress sense, I never really got it? I mean, Anakin's a very practical guy, if there's no use for it, why lift a finger? So I don't get the whole, oh, I'm gonna endeavor to make my saber look different to Obi's, or, I'm gonna whack these strips I cut from Windu's jacket on my tunic cuz their cool. Sure enough, it all points to the Vader-esque thing, but it never seemed to be really part of his character?

I think the Jedi are taught to do the mundane. Lets face it, a lot of their education is mundane, and any opportunity to buck up and deal with it is good. And, some mundane activities are sometimes considered light meditation, show me a grumpy gardener!

I think droids would certainly do all sorts of things, like maintaining the apartment during a Jedi's mission, but, when they return home, I think they'd do their own chores. But think of it this way. They don't have many possessions that could get out of hand, so there wouldn't really be much to take care of. Look at the Monks from Tibet, they're allowed a blanket, three sets of robes, a bowl, and a razor. They take care of themselves with no help at all, but they still have plenty of time to practice their religion. I don't think the chores the Jedi do are separate from their occupation, it's like a ballerina standing at the bus stop, even though she's not dancing, she's still maintaining perfect posture. Being a Jedi is their whole life, every little moment is important for Masters, Knights and Padawans alike.

As for how certain Jedi perceive the force, I'm not sure about Obi-wan, but I always thought that for Anakin it would be like thousands of light sources, and then for Vader it would be all the darkness behind those light sources. The same for Luke, "I could almost see the remote," he closes his eyes and let the force show him where everything is, sorta like x-ray vision. And I think that Anakin would get the whole gut-feeling thing, taking into account his ah, condition of relation with the force itself. I always thought also that if he'd have a force-restraint on him or be cut of from the force, he'd deteriorate because the force is such a central part of him, sorta like really low blood sugar levels when all you can do is shake, him being the Chosen One and all.

And true, the taxpayers do pay for the Jedi's bread and butter.

Mmm, all that really made no narrative sense. Oh! Someone should do a Clone Wars propaganda fic! "For those sentients that don't abide by the law and pay their taxes, there'll be no Hero With No Fear to save you when Grevious comes knocking at your door."

Cheers_Cazza

 

Hi.
I'm new to all this Jedi stuff and the one thing that really makes me wonder is how to describe the Force. i mean, there's reachingn out with it and doing things, and using it as alarm clock or early warning, but what about pure Force?
How do people appear in it, how do their emotions and personalities get displayed?

So far, i tried the garbled, synaesthetic approach to describe how the Force feels. But I would like to know how others approach that problem.


EDIT: Just realized I will have the same issue with the Sith.
Any differences there?

Like, would you rather use fire in that context, dianethx?

 

I tend to describe the Force as a river or other water analogy so when the Jedi are feeling the Force, it's a cool lake or a river choked with debris. That sort of thing.

For people and emotions, I go with colors - the red of anger, the blue of contentment, orange for excitement, yellow for bright joy. Of course, I do other things but the colors are always at the back of my mind.

 

Hmmmmmmmmmm, I suppose there are small maintenance things that a Jedi always does.

- cleaning and tending to own body
- picking things up and keeping their rooms tidy (I picture them having small rooms)
- cleaning after themselves for any project; cooking, building anything
- maintaining their own lightsabers (that job would NEVER be given to a droid)

One wonders if Jedi have any cleaning rituals, but they are very minimalist, so I doubt it, but I'm sure that they have cleaning meditations. Gardening or tinkering would be maintenance tasks that some Jedi might just enjoy doing and could be part of their routines. But I still think of the day-to-day Temple maintenance operations being done by droids. Especially cleaning those huge floors. And the windows.

For Force perceptions, I think that Qui-Gon, Obi-Wan and Anakin would be very sight and sound dependent. I picture Force perceptions as being through the Jedi's normal senses, but like a shadow image. Luke could 'see' the remote with his eyes covered. 'Disturbances' might be felt as discomfort or tenseness that a Jedi is trained to recognize. Perhaps Jedi imagine themselves as being part of the things around them. Perhaps when Luke picks up a rock, he imagines what the rock feels like being picked up, hanging in air?

Other species might use different senses for perceiving the Force. A Wookiee might be more smell dependent, so they would perceive the Force with a range of different phantom smells.

 

So a disturbance in the Force would smell to a Wookie something like a forest burning, and a sense of peace be kind of like the sent freshly cleaned linen or something like that.

 

Oh no. I bet the windows are wiped by younglings/padawnas as practice in telekinesis. With Yoda floating around the windows pointing out where thei missed spots.

"More to the right, move your mop, young Skywalker. Missed a spot there, you have..."[face_laugh]

 

1. Out of Universe explanation: I think this was George Lucas' way of showing the Jedi as different then one another.

In Universe explanation: I think in the earlier years of the Jedi Order's existence, they may have worn similar robes such as the ones worn by Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan in the PT. But over time, as Jedi came from all over the galaxy, the robes changed. Odan-Urr appeared to wear some armor with some type of Jewelry/Gold mixed in, and the Jedi Covenant wore those stylized and Colorful robes.

2. I think that Jedi are taught the mundane stuff, however boring it is, to help them better understand life and the galaxy itself. It wouldn't be Jedilike for them to say " Don't worry, droids will do everything for you, so just sit back and relax." Sure, droids help them like in the archives and stuff, but for stuff like cooking, cleaning, or vehicle repair, Jedi are supposed to rely on themselves for those roles.