To follow the light, must you be a Jedi? And what does it mean to be a Jedi?

While I generally like the practices of the TOTJ era Jedi more than the PT era Jedi, something I did notice was that as of KOTOR, they seem to think that the path of the Jedi is the only path to the light side. Maybe I?m reading into things that are not there, but I tried playing through KOTOR as a light side user who does not consider himself to be a Jedi and I found it very difficult to find appropriate dialog options at some points in the game (fortunately, I think that I made it through the whole Bastila redemption scene without mentioning the J-word).

As of the PT era, the Potentium was considered to have a dangerous set of beliefs. Does anyone have any figures at all about how many of the Potentium ended up falling to the dark side, or can name any names? Were they outlawed because they really were in greater danger of falling to the dark side, or because they disagreed with the orthodox Jedi beliefs?

In rebuilding the ?Church? from the ground up, Luke has been able to give the New Jedi Order his own personal philosophy as its guiding philosophical tenants, and it?s doubtful that the PT era Jedi Council would approve of his order.

So, I suppose my questions are, is the Jedi path the only path to remain on the light side? And what exactly is the Jedi path? We have two, maybe three or even four different versions of what it means to be a Jedi Knight, so, which is right? Is the Jedi tradition able to incorporate such widely divergent philosophies, or should Luke really be calling his order something other than Jedi? Or are their core tenements that all Jedi share (evil bad, good okay) enough? And shouldn?t followers of other Force traditions that share the same philosophical tenants rightfully be called Jedi then?

Is it being a member of the Jedi Order what makes someone a Jedi, or is having the philosophical beliefs of a Jedi what makes someone a Jedi?

 

To be a Jedi I think would probably translate literally to something (just from my impressions) as "To be a servant of the Light Side of the Force"

Quite literally the Jedi have no higher agenda than this purpose and it would result in them looking at you oddly if you were to suggest that being a servant of the Light Side of the Force takes you away from being a Jedi.

The Jedi Order may itself err (The Jedi are too humble to fail to recognize even at their worst that they are not infalliable) but the Jedi itself is designed around the idea of protecting life and knowledge.

The very essences of the Light Side.

They never put their own wills above the Will of the Light Side willingly (or at least knowingly)

As for the Potentium, its really now a matter of your perspective. Assuming EVERYTHING is canon now, the basic problem with the Potentium is the fact certain powers of the Force drive you insane. Luke identifies the Dark Side is evil and if you believe there is no such thing as evil, in the Star Wars universe you are wrong.

And thus vulnerable.

People like Dooku leaving the Jedi who are not corrupted is somewhat of a smack in the face of the Jedi order because it basically says that they have failed at least someone's expectations to being servants of the Light. The Potenium followers you may note were not treated poorly by the Jedi in Rogue Planet. Indeed their founder was quite respected.

Instead though they thought him in eerr, others might see them though as dangerously misguided or weak minded. Only one "Potenium" heresy follower has fallen to the Dark Side I know of and she was in "Tales of the Jedi" on the dangers of the Dark Side. She basically told some Sith Lord spirits 'I don't believe in the Dark Side' and then the Sith laughed at her and killed her before trapping her spirit.

Before they did, they showed her three Jedi Masters that had tried the same (though its debatable they came to learn Sith secrets) and were similiarly trapped.

I think its important though to note that Darth Revan is a former Jedi Knight in the story though and thus your 'character' will tend to think in patterns of a Jedi Knight or Sith, not another type of thinking

On the OTHER hand....

Jedi carries some very specific baggage and teachings.

 

Regarding the Potentium heresy, I believe it is mentioned somewhere (Rogue Planet?) that none of its followers ever fell to the dark side. However, this is more regarding the particular movement, not it's doctrine which denies the existence of evil. Interestingly, most of the Potentium's followers tend to use that doctrine more as an explanation of why there is suffering in the universe (it is all for a greater good, and not really evil) than as an excuse for their own actions. Perhaps this is why none of the Potentium sect members ever fell to the dark side, heretical though their beliefs may have been.

As to whether you MUST be a Jedi in order to serve the light, that really depends on your definition of a Jedi. Theoretically, one could be devoted to the light, even without an iota of force-sensitivity. In the broadest definition, you would technically be a Jedi, even if you never were inducted into the Jedi Order. In the more specific sense, it's not impossible, but I think it is probably a bit more difficult to serve the light side outside of the Jedi order. The Order provides a structure for one's life that is in accordance with the light side of the force. This isn't necessarily to say that it's the only one, but it does seem to be one with a long history of success. I won't deny that the Order has had several members fall away from the light, but it could be argued that they fell because of their rejection of Jedi doctrine.

It is possible for a society to develop its own light side force tradition in isolation from the Jedi Order, though unlikely. After all, as Mace Windu muses in Shatterpoint, the Jedi Order is all about going against nature, something that rarely crops up in isolated societies. Such societies are usually isolated due to harsh conditions. In such conditions in which survival hinges mainly upon acquiesence to nature, movements towards restraint are generally unlikely to appear until that society has gained some degree of control over its environment and is no longer at the environment's mercy. However, usually by that point, the society has come into contact with the outside galaxy (at least in the GFFA) and that tradition is subsumed into the Jedi Order.

 

"There are no Rules, but there are rules of thumb."
-I'm not sure who, possibly "teh Stover"

I'd say a working definition of the light side is serving others while the dark side harms others. They're only external in that people can be influenced by the ripples in the Force from helpful or harmful actions (we see this in Mace's journey through the jungle in SHATTERPOINT). This depends upon the receiver's Force sensitivity and self-control.

A Jedi is in essence a Force user who follows the light side as described above. The rest is a question of denomination. A hard-ass PT Jedi may look at Luke's wife and kid and the fact that he wasn't trained from birth, and decide Luke is like Kar Vastor, sort of a powerful Force barbarian. But let's step back and get a less "biased" viewpoint. A Sith Lord would probably consider Luke every bit the Jedi and natural enemy that Mace Windu is.

Now, obviously you don't have to be a Force user to help others. And you can do plenty of harm without being a Sith Lord. Actions may be of the light or dark side regardless of the actor's Force sensitivity.

But wait, you say, what if someone thinks they are doing good but are really inflicting harm? A Palpatine might only care about his own power, but an Anakin Skywalker might be doing what he thinks is right. Here we see the danger of emotions: they cloud your judgment. This can happen with any emotion, though anger and fear are probably the worst. What about love? Well, no one commits genocide directly out of love, but it can lead to the "darker" emotions. (See Anakin's slaughter of the Tuskens.) You can be light and still have emotions, even let them guide you, but be mindful where they lead ("They do you credit, but they could be made to serve the Emperor.").

That's the rule of thumb. If you want to get technical, Big Bird is right: "There is no dark side."

Hope that all made some sense; I'm too tired to know for sure.

 

A Jedi is in essence a Force user who follows the light side as described above. The rest is a question of denomination.

Good point, there MWCD. To use an example from our own Earth, it's sort of like the Protestant reformation. The hard-core pre-Vatican II Tridentian wing of the Catholic church looks at Vatican II as well as Lutherans, Methodists, et al. as heresy, and they in turn are viewed as heretics by many from the Eastern Orthodox tradition. The big difference in the GFFA is that most of the splinter groups never really went to war about it.

 

Sith are the followers of an ideal, not a race of fellas anymore.

My pencil sharpened point is, a definition of something can change over enough time and milleniums. To be a Jedi-class citizen once ago may be something different now.

 

I think the programmers made a mistake on this one. It seems to me possible for non-Force-sensitives to be able to follow either the light or the dark just as easily as Force-sensitives. I'd think Mon Mothma was following the light while Thracken Sal Solo was following the dark. Neither of them were Jedi and neither appeared Force-sensitive. Not being a Jedi, a Sith, a dark sider, or a Force-sensitive does not seem to automatically place one in the gray area between the two.

 

There is a simple logical answer to the first question.

Since the Force existed before the Jedi order came to be, then either there were no followers of the light before the Jedi existed, or it is not necessary to be a Jedi. Since the original Jedi must have been followers of the light before they created the Jedi order, then we know that it is possible to follow the light before being a Jedi.