How many Jedi knights did you think there were?

The novelization of TPM says that there were 10,000 Jedi knights. To some people this number seems either too small or too large. To others it seems about right.

What do you think? Before TPM came out, how many Jedi knights did you think were in the Old Republic during the young days of Kenobi? If possible, give reasons for your number.

 

Well, I always thought of the prologue to the Star wars novel which mentions a republic of a thousand-thousand worlds.

That meant to me there were perhaps hundreds of thousands, or a few million, Jedi throughout the galaxy.

And I always assumed they won the Clone Wars well before their demise.

That's what I always thought Luke was so skeptical of Obi-Wan being a Jedi, not that he was thinking they bought the farm during them.

 

I think 10,000 is a small enough number for such a big place, it could maybe be a bit smaller though, around 5,000 to 7,500?

 

How can the Jedi secure peace and justice in the Old Republic of a thousand-thousand worlds for a thousand generations with 5,000 members?

And he's asking what you thought before TPM came out, not arguing the logic of the canonical numbers.

 

Well, most planets have militia of their own to keep the peace, the Jedi would only need to be there in tight situations.

Would every single planet need a Jedi Knight? Also, a thousand thousand (a million) is a bit of an exaguration isn't it? There's not that many planets.

 

Wow, interesting question!

I think I had the number figured at around 10-50K.

I didn't think of the Jedi as, say, policemen or soldiers. More like special operatives who worked as benevolent rogues.

Y'know, like the A-Team.



Rick McCallum loves you!

 

Is the Star Wars novel exaggerating and you're not? You're right and it is wrong?

And please stop making excuses for what was revealed in TPM and answer the question!

What was your expectation of numbers of Jedi BEFORE TPM came out.

And where in TPM was it revealed each planet has its own militia?! Why do you think the Naboo were conquered?!

Panaka: We have NO ARMY.

The Jedi Knights were the protectors of the Old Republic.

Funny you mention how the Jedi weren't thought of as policemen prior to TPM Adam as that's what Lucas gave us in the PT.

Special Operations Traffic Cops.

 

I should fess up and admit that I never had an idea for how many Jedi there were. That's one of the reasons I'm so interested in what everyone else thought, and why.

 

i was thinking 25- 50 thousand but, now that its 10,000 in tpm and aotc...im kewl with that....now a question must be asked...do padawans count as jedi? are they counted when they decide how many knights there are?

 

I say about 6,000-7,000

 

I was thinking around a million. I thought they'd win the Clone Wars against the Mandalorians and then once Anakin turned Vader would wipe almost all of them out.

-Jedi Master Zax Starwalker

 

I figure that in "real life" it would be completely impossible to have a government that ruled an entire galaxy, so any number you want to come up with for anything, be it Jedi or Star Destroyers, is pretty much just for laughs.

10,000 or 50,000 Jedi sounds like a nice round number to me - small enough to feel elite and centralized. OTOH you could easily argue that even a couple billion Jedi wouldn't really be enough to make a difference in the day-to-day affairs of the galaxy.

 

Funny you mention how the Jedi weren't thought of as policemen prior to TPM Adam as that's what Lucas gave us in the PT.

Not really. Policemen are very common and every town has a bunch of them who handle everything.

The Jedi in the PT are dispatched by the government on special missions. There are not NEARLY enough of them to be the galaxy's police.

The main difference between the Jedi Lucas gave us and the Jedi in my imagination was the governmental connection. I assumed the Jedi were their own organization. Like Robin Hood and his Merry Men, or (I can't stress this enough) the A-Team.

It's ALL about the A-Team, and anyone who tells you that they don't want to see Mr. T play a crucial role in the SW saga is lying.



Rick McCallum pities the fool!

 

As a child in 1977-1982, I never really considered that there might be a specific number of them. Like the knights of King Arthur's court, the Jedi ranks were to me indefinite, always changing as members were killed off, new members joined the ranks, some changed sides, etc. That Kenobi said Vader hunted them down always implied to me they were an elite force--not as numerous as the common ranks, but still enough of them to kick *** when necessary.


Just like the A-Team.

 

I never really thought about it too much, but I think I thought there were only a few hundred.

 

Around the time period of AOTC, that ten thousand figure has dropped rather considerably, to roughly nine thousand or thereabouts.

And it's a very interesting trend to observe, re: the numbers of the Jedi...some four millennia earlier, they numbered in the hundreds of thousands, but when the "One Master, One Apprentice" rule went into effect, their numbers plummeted quite precipitously.

It seems that the Jedis' rather...aristocratic, exclusionary attitudes towards the training of their charges contributed in no small fashion to the diminishment of their ranks by the time of the Clone Wars.

 

I always figured there was around a hundred thousand.

 

I figured there were around 2 of them

 

Two, huh? Well, that's the lowest number I've ever heard. Anybody think one?

 

I would think there would be more in a galaxy with millions of worlds and an unimaginably large amount of beings. 10,000 is like less than the population of our small little Vermont town!

 

You do have to bear in mind that Jedi aren't keepers of the law, I would assume every planet or system would have their own police etc. (e.g CorSec). The Jedi would probably be the most elite of all peace keepers, and so only deal with the most important dilemmas.
Although I seem to remember something in the Ep.II visual dictionary about Jedi being assigned regions of space.

It's funny, before the PT, I imagined Jedi just travelling across the galaxy on their own, solving problems as they went.