Why are jedi trained so young?

It isn't right for the Jedi to take babies, because parents don't always know what is best for the child. I wouldn't like the entire course of my life to be set out from infancy.

 

I don?t think Qui-Gon did anything wrong.
You said he kidnapped him, but he didn?t.
He made clear to his mother, what his life would be,
and she decided to let the boy choose.
Surely, if she thought this life was better for him she wouldn?t.

About him doing wrong by fixing that die:
He thought Anakin was the chosen one.
The one who can bring the force back in to balance and
expose this DLOTS.
I?d say that?s reason enough to fix it.

 

Yeah, sure. And as soon as Qui Gon was a mile out of town, Anakin would have his slave bomb reinstalled. He had no choice but to leave. Why do people act like Anakin made an adult decision? He didn't. He was a child, and probably was illiterate and uneducated, to boot.

haha, first it's wrong because the kids aren't allowed to make the decision for themselves, then when one does it doesn't count

And he was literate and educated enough to know how to build his own pod racer, building something like that takes intelligence and he had to learn it somewhere so I don't see how he'd be illiterate because i doubt Watto taught him so he had to read about it

 

What's with you people? He's 9. That is a baby. Don't have kids. I hope you don't think 9 year olds are able to move out and buy a house and get a job. NO a kid that age can't make their way on their own. It's never happened. Kids that are homeless at that age turn to prostitution, and die eventually. He had no choice. He basically won his own freedom, and a queen and a Jedi master and tons of so called warriors asat on their butts, and he saved them again in Naboo's atmosphere. This "won" him a life of indentured servitude with the Jedi Order.

 

You're really over-analyzing this stuff, the Jedi are the good guys

 

You're really over-analyzing this stuff, the Jedi are the good guys

I would say that the post ROTJ Jedi and the TOTJ Jedi are the good guys, and the PT era Jedi are the not bad guys.

 

He was a child, and probably was illiterate and uneducated, to boot.

That does not necessarily mean he was stupid.

 

Based on the OT and post-ROTJ novels(pre-NJO) I'd say that Jedi are the good guys. Prequel wise, some of the Tales stories, and NJO I wouldn't be so sure with saying they are good guys. They aren't bad guys that's for sure. Its just things about them. A group of people going off and interfereing where they see fit and doing what they want and only answering their own Jedi order doesn't really seem good to me. Maybe I'm just looking at it wrong.

 

NO a kid that age can't make their way on their own. It's never happened.

During the age of sail there would have been cabin boys as young as nine making their way in the world. And it has been documented during the Civil War that there were boys about nine serving as drummer boys and buglers on both sides of the war. They were paid for their services.

 

I think that the real reason is that George Lucas wanted TPM to be more of a kids movie and thus wanted to make Anakin a kid, yet too old to begin the training. In my opinion, the "Jedi trained from birth" thing is revisionist.

It seems to be implied in the OT that Jedi may have started young (adolescent), but not that young. Luke being 20, I don't see why Yoda would have even bothered. The only possible help to this idea would be if Obi-Wan was secretly training Luke when he was really young, but stopped at toddler age, when Luke was too young to remember.

 

I have speculated about this on a thread related to the aftermath of the TALES OF THE JEDI graphic novel series and the KNIGHTS OF THE OLD REPUBLIC video game for the X-Box.

It should also be noted that Star Wars: KNIGHTS OF THE OLD REPUBLIC is set about 40 years after the TOTJ saga and the Exar Kun war.

As a theorist about these sort of things, it does not take a lot of imagination on my part to piece together how things that occured in TOTJ had a ripple effect all the way to the Prequel Era.

For example, in TOTJ, the Jedi World of Ossus is destroyed. At first they moved their operations to Dantoonine (which would be symbolic of why Moff Tarkin believed Leia when she said that is where the Rebel Alliance went).

However, we all saw the event in THE SITH WAR, where Exar Kun, using his powers as a sith Lord, was able to stroll on into the Halls of the Galactic Senate when Ulic Qel-Droma was being tried for his crimes against the Galactic Republic. Using his Sith Might, he literally placed the entire Senate in Stasis. I can only imagine these proceedings were being covered by the Press of this era, meaning the entire Galactic Republic got to see the Entire Senate (or perhaps, just the Senate's Judiciary Branch) as well as the Supreme Chancellor murdered at the hands of Exar Kun.

I theorized that in the aftermath of the Sith War, that the Senate probably decided to better protect the Senate, that the Jedi should move their operations to Coruscant to better protect the Senate. I imagine the Jedi may not have particularly been thrilled with this move, but probably did so anyway to better serve the Republic.

Similarly, I imagine there were all kinds of hearings into what exactly happened to cause the Sith War to happen. I am sure that people like Tott DOneeta, Nomi Sunrider, and Sylvar were all called to testify and I am sure it was discovered that Exar Kun had long had a cruel streak within him. Add to it that the Jedi let him examine the Sith Lore and consistently let Ulic and Exar remain free to pursue their slide to the dark side and slide on things when it was clear what they were doing.

THis is going to prompt a very big question from the Senators to Tott Doneeta, Nomi Sunrider, and Syvlar.....How did someone like Exar KUN EVER become a Jedi?

and I can imagine the Senate again probably ordered the Jedi to take steps to tighten their membership, to make sure others don't 'slip' thru the cracks again.

In the aftermath, I imagine that is where they started doing it where you had to be young to be trained as a Jedi, eventually reaching the point where you had to be given up to the Jedi Order practically at birth in order to be trained. I also imagine that the Jedi created the Padawan rule and the decision that a Jedi Master could only have one apprentice at a time, instead of several in the TALES OF THE JEDI era.

From the Senate's (and probably the public) viewpoint, these moves were neccesary to ensure that the Jedi never again had someone like Exar Kun or Ulic Qel-Drohma into it's ranks ever again. From the Jedi's viewpoint, they had an obligation to accept such decisions by the Republic, and also there may well have been consent on the Jedi's part to agree to the above, to better manage their young charges and to better shape them to be good Jedi.

 

It still feels like the parents sell their children into slavery in the prequel era. The Jedi kids have no choice in the matter, and by the time they reach an age of choice, they've been so indoctrinated in the ways of the Jedi and so sheltered, they don't know much about other opportunities in the outside world.

 

Thats pretty valid, Kevin, no doubt about it. However, I would point out the damage done by rogue Jedi in the TALES OF THE JEDI and KNIGHTS OF THE OLD REPUBLIC saga's. I think after what Exar Kun, Ulic-Qel Droma, Darth Revan and Darth Malak did to the Republic, they are going to want measures in place to make sure that Jedi never do to the REpublic again what happened. While I realize it is an extreme measure, I imagine if a parent absolutely did not want to give up a child, I can imagine that going to the Media and raising a stink about it would work.

 

Sounds conspicuously like the Emperor and his Hands...

 

I don't know if the actual question was answered, so I'll answer it.

Jedi are trained at an early age so that they do not grow attached to their parents, family, etc., in the community in which they were born. If a small child were torn away from his/her family at the age of 8, this could impact her in a horrible way and start her on the path of the Dark Side early in life.

That's about it.

 

I think the basic reason is what IkritMan said above. However arguably taking the children away at such a young age could have cause just as much problem if not more than the 'emotinal connection' to parents. It would be naturally for many of the jedi children to want to go and find out about where they came from, after all they are not emotionless droids. So the jedi could just say no which in itself could cause problems or they could let them, which of course could cause problems. Letting the children see thier parents while they train and teaching them how to control thier emotions is the best way to go really.

 

Personally I think it would be best if they made it like boarding school and the kids would go away for 9 months of the years with visits, and stay home for the summer.

It's pretty well documented that the most stable individuals are typically those that had normal family units growing up.

 

I think it is also for perspective: I think they want Jedi trained from the earliest ages to make sure they DON'T fall into the rut's that happened to Ulic Qel-Droma, Exar Kun, and Darth Revan and Darth Malak. Those 4 were all Jedi Knights, all fell to the dark side primarily because of worldly things, and did uncalculable damage to the Republic and in the loss of lives. So I think after those events, the Jedi may have decided that training Jedi's from the earliest of ages was a better way to make sure they would not fall like the Jedi above did.

 

It did not seeem to matter for Dooku and the rest of the Lost 20.

 

So how do people here feel about Buddhist Llamas?

 

Are you refering to the the belief that after the Dalhi Lama dies he is reincarnated and a search is made for the "reborn" lama who is then taken to be trained as the religous leader? I see parellels, but I'm not as sure that's the same thing. On the one hand you could have the parents of the new Lama joyfully give their child over because of what it means to their beliefs. On the other, if they are not that religous or do not follow the Dalhi Lama's religon, they could very well be resentful of folks coming and saying "you have to give over your son because he is the reincarnated form of the Dalhi Lama." With the Jedi it's much less about religon. It's more like "You must give your child over so that they can be trained to protect peace in the galaxy."

 

Is it so different really? If one views the Jedi as a religious order, it is EXACTLY the same in some respects.