Jedi

You may be looking for the Star Wars print zine Jedi.

Synonyms:	Jedi Order, Jedism
See also:	Star Wars, Force Bond
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The Jedi, followers of the Jedi Order, are the main protagonists in the Star Wars universe. They are depicted as an ancient monastic, academic, meritocratic and paramilitary organization whose origin dates back approximately 25,000 years before the events of the first film released in the franchise. Their traditional weapon is the lightsaber.

Canon

History

The Jedi have been around since before the Galactic Republic, and therefore have a long history. Key parts of it include the multiple Jedi-Sith Wars, which eventually culminated in the Great Peace. During this time, the Republic was formed, and the Jedi became peacekeepers. It was believed that the Sith were wiped out during the Great Peace.

At the beginning of the Star Wars Prequels, it is revealed that the Sith are not dead. Over the next decade, the Sith gain more and more power, manipulating intergalactic politics to increase conflicts. This eventually leads to the Clone Wars, which is ended by Order 66, an order to kill all Jedi. The result is a genocide of the Jedi Order, leaving few survivors, all of whom have to go into hiding.

Later, the Jedi are reestablished by Luke Skywalker.

The Jedi Code

The Jedi follow the Jedi Code:

When there is no emotion, there is peace.

When there is no ignorance, there is knowledge. When there is no passion, there is serenity. When there is no chaos, there is harmony. When there is no death, there is the Force.

— The Jedi Code, Dark Disciple

Notable Jedi

Canon (Disney)

• Ezra Bridger
• Kanan Jarrus
• Qui-Gon Jinn
• Obi-Wan Kenobi
• Mace Windu
• Rey
• Anakin Skywalker
• Luke Skywalker
• Ahsoka Tano
• Yoda

Legends

• Mara Jade
• Callista Masana
• Corran Horn
• Kyp Durron
• Jaina Solo
• Tenel Ka Djo

Fandom

Examples Wanted: Editors are encouraged to add more examples or a wider variety of examples.

Common Tropes & Storylines

• Sparring and meditation are common elements of fanworks that follow the process of becoming a Jedi.
• In fanworks Force Bonds may also exist between a Jedi and another force user (who may or may not be a Jedi), similar to how this narrative trope is used in canon.
• Jedi Academy fics are often set at Luke's Jedi academy, and closely resemble Academy Fics by focusing on the pre-canon training of Jedi in the source material. Some of these works are full blown AUs while others are canon divergent. In earlier Star Wars works, Padawans often trained at a Jedi temple.
• Crafting a lightsaber using force-sensitive crystals is often an important moment in a padawan's training, that requires isolation, meditation and sometimes a quest to discover their kyber crystal.
• Works featuring Order 66 are very often fix-its, with some employing time travel. They are also canon divergent fics, where the Order was unsuccessful and works set in No Order 66 AUs. Works focused on Jedi characters who survive Order 66 are often dark, and deal with the grief and guilt of survivors.
• Force Ghosts often appear to Jedi characters, providing guidance and closure to characters.
• The symbolism of Padawan braids and the braid cutting ceremony that accompanied a Padawan becoming a Jedi Knight.
• An increasingly popular element of some fanworks is the inclusion of Dai Bendu, a fanmade Conlang used by the Jedi.

Fanon

Alignment

There are three main types of Jedi characters in fanworks: Light, Dark, and Gray. While the first two are fairly straightforward, and those terms are frequently used in the films, the Expanded Universe, and Legends materials, "Gray Jedi" have their origins in the RPG-style mechanics of the Knights of the Old Republic video games. From there, the concept of "Gray Jedi" has expanded into fanon, with no one fixed definition.

I think there’s two different flavors of “grey jedi” that people mean when they use the term. One is the “Jedi that doesn’t follow the [old] rules or left the Order but didn’t fall to the dark side” idea - usually applied to Qui-Gon in the first case, also Luke to an extent, and Ahsoka in the second. I don’t think this use of the term is claiming these characters are in some hypothetical grey area in between light and dark - I think they’re just using the term as convenient shorthand for “Jedi/Force users I personally approve of”. Either that or they interpret the Jedi through a fixed mindset, viewing characters through as inherently being lightside, being darkside, and if they don’t fit whatever they think those static concepts are, those characters must be grey - rather than through a growth mindset, where the light is about active resistance of the dark, continually striving to be a better person, and the dark is about giving in to temptation and defeatism.

Despite not appearing in canon, Gray Jedi are a popular fanworks, particularly for those who are unsatisfied with the Jedi Order presented in the prequels or who want their protagonists to be "edgy" without actually being evil. However, there are also many fans who dislike the term.

Jedi Criticism

Since the release of the prequels, an increasingly common view among Star Wars fans (especially on Tumblr)^{[citation needed]} is that the Jedi Order is a deeply flawed and corrupt institution--actively misguided, if not outright evil. Some things these fans criticize include the Jedi allowing child Padawans onto the warfront during the Clone Wars, the dismissal of Anakin's feelings and fears about his mother, and others.

Some Jedi-critical fans also draw from parts of Star Wars Legends fandom - for example, comparing the way the Jedi take Force-sensitive children from their homes and families to be raised in the Order to child kidnapping. This has contributed to the controversy, as not all fans agree if Legends texts are canonical.

However, a number of people have responded to this view with commentary and meta in defense of the Jedi, and in defense of the Order not only as an institution, but as a culture:

One of the things that most profoundly affected how I saw the Jedi Order was when I stopped seeing them just as some “organization” and started seeing them as a culture and heritage.

They have art, they have history, they have philosophy, they have rituals, they have values, they have symbols, they have sayings, they have traditions, they have fashion, they have evolution of all those things.

Whatever things they do or don’t deserve criticism for, whatever things I would ask them to change or not change, now come with the context and understanding that I’m not asking some extended boarding school or some day job organization to change their rules.

But that I’m asking a living, breathing culture to change and that carries a different weight to it.

—tumblr user gffa; full post can be found here

Jedi AU

Main Article: Jedi AU

In a Jedi AU fanwork, characters who are not Jedi are imagined as Jedi. This could change characters who are Force-sensitive but aren't Jedi into Jedi, characters who are not Force-sensitive into Jedi, or characters from other media being put into an alternate universe where the Jedi exist.

There is also a Jedi Academy AU.

Events

• Jedi June

Example Fanworks

Fanfiction

• A Jedi's Life, a Qui-Gon/Obi-Wan story by Mac.
• The Phantom Menace Alternate Universe by Katana-Geldar, Follows the story of The Phantom Menace if Padme was a Jedi, as well as a few changes (2005)

• Loopholes by Emila-Wan Kenobi - "In this AU the Jedi Order has a strict Code governing sexual conduct, but Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan find a few loopholes they can exploit."

Fanart

• (It was a home, a school, and a place of worship), ^{Archived version} by amarcia

Meta

• Taking a Closer Look at the Jedi Order in Star Wars Canon (Meta/Reference Guide) by gffa (2019, Canon EU)
• It Is Time for the Grey Jedi to End by Sarah Dempster

External Links

• Jedi on Wookieepedia, the Star Wars Wiki
• Jedi Order on StarWars.com