The Jedi

The Jedi are characters in the Star Wars universe and the series' main protagonists. They use a power known as the Force, and weapons called lightsabers that emit a controlled energy flow in the shape of a sword, to serve and protect the Republic and the whole galaxy from conflict or government instability. They sometimes moderate peace negotiations between planets and, if necessary, use their formidable fighting skills to quickly end unrest. The Jedi are led by a Council of 12 members consisting of the most powerful and wise members of the order. The Jedi are bound to a code of morality and justice and are trained in the use of the light side of the force but not the Dark side.

Background and origins

The Jedi are first introduced in the 1977 film Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope as an order of warrior monks who serve as "the guardians of peace and justice in the galaxy" and embrace the mystical Force. Obi-Wan Kenobi (Alec Guinness) explains that the Galactic Empire had all but exterminated the Jedi some twenty years before the events of the film, and seeks to train Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) to be the Order's last hope. Darth Vader (David Prowse/James Earl Jones) is also established as the Jedi's main enemy. By the end of the film, Luke is on the path to becoming a Jedi. In the sequel, The Empire Strikes Back, Luke receives extensive Jedi training from the elderly (and only surviving) Jedi Master Yoda (Frank Oz), even as he learns that Vader is in fact his father, former Jedi Anakin Skywalker. The third film in the original trilogy, Return of the Jedi, ends with Luke redeeming Vader and helping to destroy the Empire, thus fulfilling his destiny as a Jedi.

The prequel films depict the Jedi as troubled by the resurgence of the dark side of the Force and determined to fight their mortal enemies, the Sith. In Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace (1999), Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn (Liam Neeson) discovers nine year old Anakin Skywalker (Jake Lloyd), whom he believes to be the "Chosen One" of Jedi prophecy who is destined to bring balance to the Force; the boy is eventually paired with Qui-Gon's apprentice, the young Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor), who promises to train him. The sequel, Attack of the Clones, establishes that the Jedi forswear all emotional attachments, including romantic love, which proves problematic when the now 19 year old Anakin (Hayden Christensen) falls in love with Padmé AmidalaNatalie Portman), whom Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan Kenobi had served ten years before. In Revenge of the Sith, Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid), who is really the Sith Lord Darth Sidious, manipulates Anakin's love for Padmé in order to turn him to the dark side and become his apprentice, Darth Vader. Once corrupted, Vader helps Palpatine hunt down and destroy nearly all of the Jedi.

The Jedi's history before and after the time-line of the films is established within several novels, comic books and video games in the Expanded Universe of Star Wars media.

Ranks of Jedi

Members of the order progress through four tiers of rank, at times referred to as levels:

  • Youngling: A Jedi Youngling is a child, a Jedi-in-training, learning to control the Force and wield a lightsaber. The title of "Youngling" is the first part of a Jedi training. Younglings were seen training with Jedi Grand Master Yoda in a scene from Attack of the Clones and when Anakin Skywalker turns to the dark side in Revenge of the Sith.
  • Padawan:A Youngling who successfully completes training then undergoes Padawan training under the tutelage of a Jedi Knight (or Jedi Master in some cases). These are also called "Apprentices" and "Padawan Learners". As a rite of passage and the final test before the trials to knighthood, Padawans must build their own lightsabers. In the Old Republic, Padawans usually wore a hair braid on the right side of their head which was removed with a lightsaber upon attaining knighthood. They also served as commanders in the Clone Wars.
  • Jedi Knight: Disciplined and experienced, Jedi Knights become so only when they have completed "the trials" (final tests). This, the most common rank, is interchangeably referred to as "Jedi", "Jedi Knight" and "Master Jedi" (although the latter only used by Younglings and Padawans when addressing Jedi Knights or above). The five tests are usually known as Trial of Skill, the Trial of Courage, the Trial of the Flesh, the Trial of Spirit, and the Trial of Insight or Knowledge.[1] In Return Of The Jedi, Master Yoda gives his apprentice, Luke Skywalker, the trial of confronting Darth Vader for a second time so he might become a full-fledged Knight. Occasionally, performing an extraordinary (usually heroic) act can earn a Padawan learner Jedi status, such as when Obi-Wan Kenobi defeats the Sith Lord Darth Maul. By the time of the movies distinct battle classes were not necessary as the Republic had not seen war in over a thousand years, and the title of Knight was simply a rank once again.
  • Jedi Master: A Jedi Knight may become a Jedi Master after successfully training a Padawan learner to Knight status. Though this is the most common manner, there are other ways of attaining the rank. Also, "Master Jedi" is the common honorific.
  • 'Jedi Grand Master: Grand Master is usually the oldest, most experienced and best trained of all Jedi. A Grand Master is chosen by the Jedi council. In Star Wars, Yoda is the grand master.
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Additional statures

  • High Council Member: A Jedi Master may be granted the further stature of a position on the Jedi High Council (known less formally as simply the 'Jedi Council'). When a Council Member vacates his or her seat, the council looks for an exemplary Jedi Master to fill the empty position. Presiding Council Members elect prospective candidates when openings become available. According to the Dorling Kindersley guide to Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace, some members retained permanent positions on the council (like Yoda and Mace Windu), while the rest served limited terms, after which they stepped down and another member would be elected in their place. There have been occasional exceptions to the requirement that Jedi attain the Master rank prior to gaining a council seat, such as Anakin Skywalker and Ki Adi Mundi.
  • General: During the Clone Wars, many Jedi Knights and Masters were commissioned into the Grand Army of the Republic with the rank of General. Princess Leia addresses Obi-Wan as "General Kenobi" in the original film, reminding him of his service to her adoptive father, Senator Bail Organa.
  • Commander: The Padawan learners were also commissioned into the Grand Army of the Republic and were given this rank, officially out ranking all clones however subordinate to their Jedi masters

Jedi Temple

In the Star Wars saga, the Jedi Temple is the official Jedi headquarters/school/monastery for Jedi. Located in the "Galactic City," the capital, Coruscant.

In the Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith film, the temple is attacked. Even though the temple was severely damaged and most of the Jedi perished, it was not completely destroyed, and is visible in the celebrations on Coruscant at the end of Return of the Jedi over twenty-five years later. The New Jedi Order indicates that the Jedi Temple on Coruscant is no longer standing but it is rebuilt as a gift to Jedi for their services and achievements during the Yuuzhan Vong invasion. The new temple is in the form of a massive pyramid made from stone and transparisteel that is designed to fit into the new look of Coruscant, though internally it is identical to the design seen in Revenge of the Sith.

Architects' Journal rated the temple third on its top-ten architecture of Star Wars list behind the second Death Star and Jabba the Hutt’s palace on Tatooine, and ahead of Coruscant, capital city of the Old Republic. The temple is described in the article as adapting "the robust typology of Mayan temples, with durasteel cladding specified for the external stone walls for improved defensive strength" and said to be a ziggurat that "is built above a Force-nexus and has ample room for training facilities, accommodation and the Jedi Archive." The temple has five towers, the tallest is Tranquillity Spire, that are stylistically similar to the minarets surrounding the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul. Star Wars Insider listed it as the one hundredth greatest thing about Star Wars in its one hundredth issue special.

 

Equipment

 

A lightsaber is a fictional weapon in the Star Wars universe, a "laser sword." It consists of a polished metal hilt which projects a blade of plasma about 1.33 metres long. The lightsaber is the signature weapon of the Jedi order and their Sith counterparts, both of whom can use them for close combat, or to deflect blaster bolts. Its distinct appearance was created using rotoscoping for the original Star Wars films, and digitally for the prequel trilogy. The lightsaber first appeared in the original Star Wars film (1977) and every Star Wars movie to date (except The Star Wars Holiday Special) features at least one lightsaber duel. In 2008, a survey of approximately 2,000 film fans found it to be the most popular film weapon in history.

The lightsaber's blade cuts through most substances without resistance. It leaves cauterized wounds in flesh, but can be deflected by another lightsaber's blade, or by energy shields. Some exotic saber-proof materials have been introduced in the Expanded Universe. An active lightsaber gives off a distinctive hum, which rises in pitch and volume as the blade is moved rapidly through the air. Bringing the blade into contact with an object or another lightsaber's blade produces a loud crackle.

The term "lightsaber" has been applied to other similar weapons in science fiction.

Production

Visual effects

Animator Nelson Shin was tasked with drawing the lightsaber to match the film scenes that the film producers brought.[when?] Shin explained to the people from Lucasfilm that since a lightsaber is made of light, the sword should look "a little shaky" like a fluorescent tube. He suggested inserting one frame that was much lighter than the others while printing the film on an optical printer, making the light seem to vibrate. Shin also recommended adding a degausserX-Acto knife to give the lightsaber a very sharp look. sound on top of the other sounds for the weapon since the sound would be reminiscent of a magnetic field. The whole process took one week, surprising his company, and Lucasfilm demonstrated the film to him, having followed his suggestions, including using an X-Acto knife to give the lightsaber a very sharp look.

Sound

The lightsaber sound effect was developed by sound designer Ben Burtt as a combination of the hum of idling interlock motors in aged movie projectors and interference caused by a television set on an unshielded microphone. Burtt discovered the latter accidentally as he was looking for a buzzing, sparkling sound to add to the projector motor hum.

The pitch changes of lightsaber movement were produced by playing the basic lightsaber tone on a loudspeaker and recording it on a moving microphone, generating Doppler shift to mimic a moving sound source.

Prop construction

For A New Hope, the original film prop hilts were constructed by John Stears from old press camera flash battery packs and other pieces of hardware. The "switched-on" sword props were designed with the intention of creating an "in-camera" glowing effect. The "blade" was three-sided and coated with a retroreflector array, the same sort used for highway signs. A lamp was positioned to the side of the taking camera and reflected towards the subject through 45-degree angled glass so that the sword would appear to glow from the camera's point of view.

Set Decorator Roger Christian found the handles for the Graflex Flash Gun in a photography shop in Great Marlborough Street, in London's West End. He then added cabinet T-track to the handles, securely attaching them with cyanoacrylate glue. Adding a few "greebles" (surface details), Christian managed to hand-make the first prototype of a lightsaber prop for Luke before prep production began. George decided he wanted to add a clip to the handle, so that Luke could hang it on his belt. Once George Lucas felt the handle was up to his standards, it went to John Steers to create the wooden dowel rod with front-projection paint so that the animators would have a glow of light to enhance later on in post production. Due to lack of preparation time, Christian's prototype and a second spare were used for the shooting in Tunisia, where Star Wars filming began.

Depiction

Lightsabers were present in the earliest drafts as mundane laser weapons that were used alongside laser guns. The introduction of the Force in a later revision made the Jedi and the Sith supernaturally skilled, eventually the only swordsmen. There were some variations of the lightsaber that were sometimes used by non-Force-sensitive beings, called the light rapier. The lightsaber became the Force-user's tool, described in A New Hope by Obi-Wan Kenobi as "not as clumsy or random as a blaster. An elegant weapon, from a more civilized age."

Types

Lightsabers are described as hand-built as part of a Jedi's or Sith's training regimen. Each light-saber is as unique as the one who built it, though some may bear resemblance to others (such as those utilized by Obi-Wan Kenobi and Luke Skywalker). Light-sabers can be wielded as either one-handed or two-handed weapons. Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace introduced a double-bladed lightsaber — essentially two lightsabers bound together at the pommels — for Darth Maul, and Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones introduced a lightsaber with a curved hilt, wielded by Count Dooku. The video game Star Wars: The Force Unleashed introduced a light-saber pike; a light-saber with a shorter blade but a long handle, resembling a spear.

The series' "Expanded Universe" of novels, comic books and video games adds several lightsaber types, including short and dual-phase (adjustable length) weapons.

Colors

Lightsabers depicted in the first two released films, A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back, had blades that were colored either blue (for the Jedi) or red (for the Sith). In Return of the Jedi, Luke Skywalker's newly-constructed lightsaber was colored blue during the initial editing of the film, and appears so in both an early movie trailer and the official theatrical posters, but the film reveals that it was ultimately colored green in order to better stand out against the blue sky of Tatooine in outdoor scenes and also in the re-release posters. Green would later become one of the standard blade colors for Jedi lightsabers in the Star Wars prequel trilogy. Mace Windu's amethyst-bladed lightsaber, as first seen in Attack of the Clones, was requested by the actor Samuel L. Jackson as a way to make his character stand out among other Jedi. Jackson's favorite color is purple and he frequently requests that the characters he plays use an item of that color.

A multitude of blade colors appear in the Expanded Universe and in other Star Wars products. The original Kenner figure of Luke Skywalker in his Tatooine costume from Star Wars was released with a yellow-bladed lightsaber. While no yellow-bladed or purple-bladed lightsabers appear in the films before 2002, they have appeared in several computer games, such as Jedi Knight, Jedi Outcast, The Force Unleashed, and Jedi Academy. The Knights of the Old Republic video games further expand the number of colors, adding cyan, viridian, violet, silver, and orange, and The Force Unleashed video game adds black, gold, and pink in the Nintendo DS version. With the release of The Clone Wars film and TV series, a build-your-own lightsaber kit was released in toy stores, and included red, blue and green shards along with light filters that colorized the blade when turned on.

 

Religion

One of the enduring influences the Star Wars saga has had in popular culture is the idea of the fictional Jedi values being interpreted as a modern philosophical path or religion, spawning various movements such as the controversial Jediism (religious) and the Jedi census phenomenon.

In popular culture

Jedi Knights have made their way into certain areas of pop culture, most notably: "Weird Al" Yankovic's song "The Saga Begins", a parody of "American Pie". The Jedi influence begins with the lyrics from "American Pie", This'll be the day that I die changed to Soon I'm gonna be a Jedi.

The 2009 film The Men Who Stare at Goats stars Ewan McGregor as a reporter named Bob Wilton who trains to become a member of the "Jedi warriors", a nickname for psychic spies in the US military. McGregor previously starred as Jedi Knight Obi-Wan Kenobi in the prequel trilogy.