Saga How did the Jedi recruit new younglings?

I'm rewatching the TCW episode "Children of the Force", where Cad Bane has a Jedi holocron with a list of Force-sensitive children and is running around the galaxy dressed like a Jedi kidnapping said children for Darth Sidious, and it makes me wonder: how do the Jedi actually know about Force-sensitive children?

"Children of the Force" pretty much establishes that when a child is identified as Force-sensitive, the Order contacts the parents of said child to tell them their children would be taken to raise as a Jedi once they reach a certain age (so apparently they're not taken as toddlers), but it doesn't touch on how they identify such children in the first place, and I can't find anything about it on Wookieepedia on the pages for the Jedi Order and Force-sensitives. I know you can tell from midi-chlorian count (egh), but you have to do a blood test for that, and surely the Jedi aren't having blood drawn from every single infant from Coruscant to Rodia. So how can they detect it?

 

Jedi can just feel if someone is force-sensitive by being around them. Qui-Gon felt Anakin's force sensitivity just by being around him on Tatooine. After he felt it, he then took a midi-chlorian count

 

Well, it's a bit more complicated. Qui-gon stated that children born within the Republic's borders would be identified early enough. As far as I'm aware of, it is never said if there was a required testing of children or not. At least within the show. In the old EU, most parents would either make a pilgrimage to the Temple ("Darth Maul: Shadow Hunter"), or contact the Temple to request that their child be tested ("Jedi Apprentice: The Fight For Truth"). The Council would then decide to train or not, based on what the parents consent to. The Holocron Codex was designed to keep track of potentials, but not all on that list would be trained. The Sith wanted that list to make it either to eliminate potential threats.

 

Wait, so parents just volunteer their kids to be tested? How would the parents know if the kid was Force-sensitive? Do they just think "Hm, you know, on the off-chance that our kid is strong with the Force, it would be just neato if we could give them away never to see them again!"

 

Some parents couldn't afford to raise their children. Some believed it was a great honor to have a child who was a Jedi. Those who didn't know would contact the Jedi to have them tested. In "The Fight For Truth", the parents of one potential contact the Temple to have their daughter tested. Obi-wan, Qui-gon, Adi Gallia and Siri Tachi were sent to assess the situation. In "The Dark Rival", Qui-gon tells Obi-wan the story of his former Padawan Xanatos, whose father had contacted the Temple asking for his child to be tested. He was in no position to raise him and as it turned out, he was a candidate to be trained. In "Shadow Hunter", Lorn Pavan worked for the Temple and agreed to have his son Jax tested.

The Jedi in question would then inform the parents of what their rights would be, if they choose to let them be trained. Once it was agreed upon, the Jedi would leave and the matter would be closed. The Jedi would warn that contact would be forbidden and stress if they are certain or not.

 

I didn't know that, thanks--I was under the impression that the Jedi had some way of knowing which children were potentials and had the legal right to just sort of take them away for training (I'm not sure where from).

It still bothers me a bit; it seems like an absurdly inefficient system, doesn't it? I thought Force-sensitives were incredibly rare, too rare for the Jedi to just rely on volunteers--especially since, unless the Republic is running PSAs about Force-sensitivity markers in infants, most wouldn't even think about it at all. And besides that, that system would seem to miss a whole bunch of potential Jedi; shouldn't there be way more non-Jedi Force users in the galaxy? I know most Force users are actually trained, but really, lifting a soda can with your mind doesn't require any magic words or special knowledge, it just requires clearing your mind and thinking really hard at the can.

 

they are rare. during tpm and aotc there only about 10,000 jedi knights. this is compared to an entire galaxy of uncountable beings. the jedi can't search the galaxy for fs kids, it's too big. they must be brought to the jedi's attention by the parents or by the force itself.

that's like saying, "here's all the grains of sand on a miles long beach. now go find the blue grain of sand."

 

thejeditraitor

I realize that, but I'd always assumed there was some method of knowing when Force-sensitive children were born--that's why earlier I mentioned blood testing, since although Jedi can sense people who are powerful in the Force, they can't be everywhere...and if they rely on someone being Force-sensitive (super rare) and being volunteered by their parents (which, while I understand that there are reasons someone might do that, has still got to be really rare) to get recruited, I don't understand how they can keep up their numbers.

 

Indeed. That's where the Sith come from. They were overlooked by the Jedi, but were found by the then current Sith Masters. Case in point, Darth Plagueis found Sheev Palpatine on Naboo and trained him to be Darth Sidious, with the Council none the wiser. Palpatine went to Dathomir and found the child who would become Darth Maul and chose him over his brother Savage Opress. In fact, Dathomir has a significant population of Force users. Likewise, the Jedi had once gone to the planet Bardotta who seek a potential, but wound up clashing with the Dagoyan Masters, who accused them of kidnapping children.

Years later, Darth Sidious told Darth Vader to inform the Inquisitors to hunt down the children of the Force.

VADER: "The Jedi Knights are all but destroyed. Yet your task is not complete, Inquisitor. The Emperor has foreseen a new threat rising against him: the children of the Force. They must not become Jedi."

THE GRAND INQUISITOR: "Yes, Lord Vader."

VADER: "Hunt down this new enemy. And if they will not serve the Empire, eliminate them along with any surviving Jedi who trained them. This is my Master's command.

THE GRAND INQUISITOR: "And so it will be done."

Certain techniques can be instinctively learned. But others require time and training, such as we saw with Luke. He was able to figure out how to lift a Lightsaber, though barely.



But not his X-Wing.



What's more important in training is making sure that one does not fall to the dark side.

 

Maybe "birth blood testing" is like getting your blood type identified at birth is, in our world?

 

The Jedi had no celibacy requirment. This means that Jedi could have children.

 

darth-sinister
Wow, that's a much more thorough answer than I thought I would get--thanks for that!

darklordoftech
While that is technically true, I've never really bought it. To me, it feels like it's implied that the Jedi were celibate, and it's never been touched on by either EU so far as I know--unless I'm wrong? I'm not the biggest expert on the Legends verse (clearly).

 

In the old EU, Kit Fisto and Aayla Secura were lovers. Neeja Halcyon had chose to break the rules of the Temple and not only got involved with a non member of the Jedi Order and had a child, who then had another child. Ki-Adi-Mundi was given special consideration as his race had a low male to female ratio and he was allowed to marry and father a few children. The marriage being forbidden only really cropped up in the old EU, around the time of Darth Bane. This was to account for earlier marriages and offspring set in the "Tales Of The Jedi" era.

In current canon, Obi-wan told Anakin that he fell in love with Satine Krayze, when they were young, but he couldn't bring himself to leave the Jedi Order. It is never outright stated, but there is distinct possibility that they had slept together at some point. Obi-wan also said that the Council didn't say it was wrong to feel love towards another person, but that it could no further.

 

With candy and an unmarked van.

 

Pretty much this. It's not really far-fetched that Republic worlds would have a test implemented to search for that at birth. I thought Qui-Gon's line pretty clearly establishes that they do blood testing for midi-chlorian counts everywhere in the Republic.

 

This makes sense. In fact, it's the reason I don't hate midichlorians. It shows the corruption of the Jedi. In ancient times, I suspect Jedi would travel the galaxy and if they encountered somebody strong in the Force, they might choose to train them. As mentioned already, parents would also make pilgrimages to Jedi temples around the galaxy, hoping that their child would be seen by a Jedi Master and be deemed worthy of training. Finding someone strong in the Force would be a holy event, steeped in ritual and be a deep focus of the Jedi.

When it was discovered that midichlorians appeared in greater numbers in people strong in the Force, it changed everything. As guardians of the Republic, the Jedi had the ear of the Senate. In times past, it might have taken years to find just one Jedi potential, now, thanks to the Republic, every child could be tested for high midichlorian counts and brought to Coruscant to be tested. It streamlined the whole process of finding new Jedi. It made it quicker and easier and I believe it played a part in corrupting the Jedi. The use of galaxy-wide blood tests was the quick and easy path. Parents would no longer have to make long journeys in the hope that their child would be chosen. Jedi would no longer have to travel the galaxy in search of apprentices. Thanks to midichlorians, the Jedi had conveyor belt of potential recruits.

 

I was thinking duct tape and a hessian bag

 

This probably isn't the correct thread, but has their ever been anything written or discussed about the babies and small children who start in training? Who takes care of them so young? Are they doing any jedi training so young or are they just taken so they aren't attached? Wouldn't they get attached to their care-givers?

 

The Jedi Path: A Manual for Students of the Force addresses both of these points. At least in the Old Republic, the blood tests were mandatory and they did have that legal right (although where in the old EU the creator of these books got that information from, I do not know). And yes, there are Jedi who do nothing but take care of babies and small children. The question of becoming attached to their caretakers isn't directly addressed, but since said caretakers are themselves Jedi, they presumably do their part to discourage it.

 

To answer the question posed in the thread title:

Baby-snatching.

 

Thanks for answering!! Very interesting indeed.

 

Well, the ages varied in the old EU. Some of the Younglings were old enough to remember their families a little bit. Characters like Dooku, Xanatos and Ki-Adi-Mundi were between two and four when they were recruited. So it wasn't strictly babies, but the majority of the time it was.

 

You're welcome!