Star Wars/Characters/The Jedi Order

Yoda
"Voiced by: Frank Oz (Ep.I-VI)"



"Try not. Do or do not. There is no try."

A diminutive Jedi Master of unknown species from whom Luke seeks training in Episode V. Originally a spiritual (and very old) character drawing on the wizened Old Master tradition, he shows his true capabilities in Episodes II and III, in which (not coincidentally) he is of the Serkis Folk variety. In all other films, he is a puppet performed by the legendary Frank Oz, who also brought us Fozzie Bear, Miss Piggy and Grover.

"A Jedi uses the Force for knowledge and defense, never for attack."
 * Adventure Rebuff
 * Badass
 * Badass Grandpa
 * Proof of the above, there is.
 * One-Man Army
 * Retired Badass: By the time of the original trilogy.
 * Beware the Nice Ones
 * Big Good: The Grand Master of the Jedi Order.
 * Cool Old Guy
 * Doting Grandparent: To every warrior in the Jedi Order, younglings in particular ... when not giving them Training from Hell, that is.
 * Eccentric Mentor: A little eccentric, but still very capable and wise, he is.
 * Inexplicably Awesome: He's just a short, green, centuries-old alien who is quite possibly the most powerful Jedi alive. How he got that way is officially the one Noodle Incident the expanded universe will never touch.
 * Large Ham: In The Empire Strikes Back.
 * Little Green Men
 * Master Swordsman: As shown in Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith.
 * Meaningful Name: Yoda literally means "warrior" in Sanskrit, though we don't see him live up to his namesake until Episode II...
 * It also means "one who knows" in Hebrew.
 * Mentor Mascot: One of the most recognisable symbols of the series, he is, and he's a mentor to boot.
 * Mentor Occupational Hazard: Justified. Really freakin' old in Episode VI, he is. Die peacefully in his bed in his home, he does.
 * Obfuscating Stupidity: Pretends to be a wacky old hermit in The Empire Strikes Back as a test of Luke's patience and tolerance of strangers. Fail miserably, Luke does.
 * Old Master: To just about every single Jedi, but especially Luke.
 * One-Man Army
 * The Paladin: Wise and powerful.
 * Pint-Sized Powerhouse: Less than a meter tall but still one of the most powerful Force users and one of the best duelists in the Jedi Order.
 * Pointy Ears
 * Psychic Powers
 * Really Nine Hundred Years Old
 * Though he does look like it.
 * Reluctant Warrior:


 * Serkis Folk: In Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith.
 * In the 2011 Blue-ray release of The Phantom Menace.
 * As well as the 2012 3-D theatrical re-release.
 * Strange Syntax Speaker: Hmm, yes he is? Agree, you do.
 * Supporting Leader: During the assault on Geonosis in Attack of the Clones and the battle on Kashyyyk in Revenge of the Sith.
 * Technical Pacifist
 * There Is No Try: Trope Namer.
 * Throwing Your Sword Always Works: Threw his lightsaber into the chest of a clone trooper in Episode III.
 * Weapon of Choice: A small green lightsaber in Episode in Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith.

Mace Windu
"Played by: Samuel L. Jackson (Ep.I-III)"



Okay, it's Samuel L. Jackson in Jedi robes and without the swearing, but with a purple lightsaber; and if Yoda is the wise heart and soul of the Jedi Order, Mace is its invincible mailed fist. Though he bows to Yoda in matters of spirituality, he takes the lead in battle, and is the greatest warrior of his generation. Amongst the Jedi Council, he shows the greatest distrust towards Anakin, which proves ultimately well-founded, or at the very least a Self-Fulfilling Prophecy... unto his death.


 * Awesome, Dear Boy: Samuel L. Jackson signed on before even knowing what he was gonna play. In one interview he said he would have signed on even if his role was "Random Stormtrooper"
 * Badass
 * Badass Baritone: Whether he's played by Samuel L. Jackson or voiced by TC Carson, Mace's voice is always delightfully deep and powerful-sounding.
 * Bald of Awesome
 * One-Man Army: He was definitely this in the old EU, where an episode of Genndy Tartakovsky's Clone Wars had him demolishing entire platoons of Battle Droids by himself during the Battle of Coruscant. He's been scaled down in the modern EU/canon works, but is still a force to be reckoned with.
 * Balance Between Good and Evil: He is the deadliest fighter among the Jedi because he's Samuel L Jack—uh, sorry, because he practices a combat style that involves treading on the very edge of the Dark Side without actually succumbing.
 * Bald Black Leader Guy
 * Bling Bling Bang: His lightsaber hilt is studded with electrum, a gold-like precious metal, as part of his privileges as a high-ranking Jedi Master. There is debate over whether it has "Bad Motherfucker" engraved on it.
 * Create Your Own Villain: Downplayed: he's far from the only reason why Anakin fell to the Dark Side, but his refusal to trust Anakin and callous treatment of Ahsoka during and after being accused of murder certainly didn't help.
 * Cynical Mentor: Mace's world view is a lot more cynical than the rest of the Jedi council, and he was vocally opposed to letting young Anakin Skywalker become a Jedi.
 * Dark Is Not Evil: In a surprising twist, Mace bucks this trend in a franchise with clear-cut Black and White Morality: his fighting style, Vaapad, turns him into a Dark Side conduit by channeling his own inner darkness and that of his opponent without ever truly succumbing to the Dark Side. Most Vaapad practitioners, however, are not so lucky.
 * Death by Irony: After spending nearly two decades being suspicious of Anakin, he dies because he finally decides to have a little faith in the guy.
 * Fatal Flaw: Impulsiveness, which shines on two separate occassions: in Attack of the Clones, his assault on the Geonosis arena was sloppy and got a lot of Jedi killed before Yoda and the Clones swooped in to save the day. And in Revenge of the Sith, he immediately tries to kill Palpatine upon hearing that he's a Sith without consulting the Council, sounding an alarm, or doing anything that would make him look less like a crazy power-hungry asshole that tried to murder the leader of the Galactic Republic, which is exactly what Palpatine spun it as. Thanks to his recklessness, Mace pretty much doomed the Jedi to near-extinction thanks to kicking off Palpatine's issuing of Order 66.
 * Informed Ability: Though Word of God as made him out to be a crafty diplomat and politician, his onscreen representations almost exclusively focuses on his life as a warrior.
 * The attempted assassination of Palpatine raises doubts as to whether he cares any more than the other Jedi about what all those non-Force sensitive folks will think. And whether he's careful enough to consider that clouding of precognition on which Jedi rely too much could mask traps (and the entire Jedi Order already walked into the trap of Clone Wars), thus any rash moves increase risk of running into one. Especially when presence of a party naturally hostile to Jedi is suspected.
 * Jerkass Has a Point: Mace may be a bit of a dick, but he's rarely wrong about his observations.
 * Anakin was an emotionally volatile young man who was separated from his mother as a child raised as a slave. And not only was he older than most Younglings who joined the Jedi Order, but he had been through so much trauma that he wouldn't be able to have a handle over his emotions the way most Jedi would. And because Anakin's emotional instability allowed Palpatine to exploit and twist him into the Sith that helped usher in the end of the Galactic Republic and the near-extinction of the Jedi, his fears definitely weren't unfounded. However, his open distrust and rudeness towards Anakin certainly didn't help matters.
 * You also can't blame him for wanting to kill Palpatine on the spot instead of putting him on trial: the man is a dangerous Sith Lord who just killed three highly-skilled Jedi, orchestrated the Clone Wars from the shadows, and has an untold amount of underworld connections and influence over the Senate to keep himself from being punished.
 * Jerk With a Heart of Gold: Mace can be thoughtless, rude, and condescending, but the man isn't without his good points. He cares deeply for his Clone Troopers and go out of his way to prevent them from being killed, and while he came off as a tactless asshole, he was genuine about trying to reason with a murderous young Boba Fett despite being the target of his vengeance.
 * : Spectacularly so, in a case of
 * Knight Templar: Despite evidently not being as Holier Than Thou as the rest of the contemporary Jedi Order, he shares their notions of universal Omniscient Morality License. The most glaring display of it is when he threatens to murder senator Palpatine. Fine, he's an evildoer, but Anakin has a good point when he says Palpatine should be given a fair trial, rather than killing the guy in cold blood, which is not the Jedi way.
 * Worse, earlier in the film, Palpatine makes the same justification as to why Anakin should kill Dooku ("He's too dangerous to be left alive"), exactly the same reason Windu delivers to justify murdering the chancellor. It's clear that Windu and Palpatine are Not So Different in a way.
 * Master Swordsman: According to Word of God, he was literally Yoda's superior as a warrior. According to expanded universe sources, he's perfected Vapaad, a long incomplete and dangerous lightsaber fighting form.
 * Psychic Powers: Along with other Force powers, Mace is a rare practitioner of the Shatterpoint ability, which allows him to see the weakspots of things in the Force and hit them accordingly
 * Purple Is Powerful: His lightsaber is purple, which was requested by Jackson himself.
 * Scary Black Man: He's one of the most fearsome Jedi warriors around, and a force to be reckoned with during the Clone Wars. He also came this close to defeating Palpatine (Assuming, of course, that Palpatine didn't throw the fight to push Anakin over to the Dark Side).
 * The Stoic: He's very emotionally reserved and cool-headed. He also isn't much of a smiler, either.
 * Supporting Leader: During the Jedi assault on the arena of Geonosis in Attack of the Clones.
 * Technical Pacifist
 * Weapon of Choice: Purple lightsaber.

Qui-Gon Jinn
"Played by: Liam Neeson"

"Your focus determines your reality."



The master of Obi-Wan and the former apprentice of Dooku. Noted for his compassion for all living things and his unorthodox ways, it is his desire to train a young Anakin that leads to the events of the rest of the series.

""You will be a Jedi. I promise.""
 * Badass:
 * Ambadassador
 * Badass Beard
 * Badass Grandpa: Early drafts of the script has his age as 60.
 * Badass Long Hair
 * The Cassandra: His beliefs that the Sith have returned and Anakin is The Chosen One are dismissed by the Jedi at first but turn out to be true.
 * The Chooser of the One
 * Cool Old Guy: How many other Jedi would cheat at gambling to free a slave?
 * Decoy Protagonist
 * Honor Before Reason
 * Impaled with Extreme Prejudice
 * The Last DJ: If not for his unorthodox ways and his tendency to do things his own way, he would've been a member of the Jedi Council.
 * Looks Like Jesus: Even wears robes as part of his Jedi outfit.
 * Master Swordsman
 * Mentor Occupational Hazard
 * The Messiah
 * The Obi-Wan: To the man himself, no less.
 * Parental Substitute: To Obi-Wan, and Anakin.
 * Psychic Powers
 * The Quiet One: Is almost always softly spoken, compared to his two proteges.
 * Rapunzel Hair: Subverted. His hair is only kinda long, but it looks like this compared to all the other male characters.
 * Sacrificial Lion: His death shocks the Jedi into realizing the Sith have returned.
 * Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right:
 * Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right:


 * Supporting Leader
 * Technical Pacifist
 * Weapon of Choice: Green lightsaber.

Obi-Wan Kenobi
"Played by: Alec Guinness (Ep.IV-VI); Ewan McGregor (Ep.I-III)"



"If you strike me down I shall become more powerful than you can possibly imagine."

Introduced in Episode IV as "Ben Kenobi," Obi-Wan begins Luke's Jedi training and sets him on his course as savior of the galaxy. He fought in the Clone Wars and, as Anakin's teacher, was deeply involved in Anakin's fall to The Dark Side. While Anakin is indisputably the Main Character of the series, Obi-Wan runs a close second, and is one of only four characters to appear in every Film of the series.


 * Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence
 * The Atoner: For training the man who destroyed the Jedi Order.
 * Badass: The only Jedi to have fought three powerful Sith warriors and lived to tell the tale, of which he defeated two.
 * Ambadassador
 * Badass Beard
 * Badass Grandpa: Still retains some fighting skill despite his age in A New Hope.
 * One-Man Army: In his Glory Days. Took on General Grievous and his droid army alone and won.
 * Retired Badass: By the time of A New Hope.
 * Beware the Nice Ones: Described in the Revenge of the Sith novelisation as "the ulitmate Jedi" partially because he is "modest, centered and always kind". Nonetheless, if you push him far enough (like ), he is prepared to hack off your limbs and leave you alone to slowly burn to death (although he seems to show some remorse while doing so).
 * Big Brother Mentor: To Anakin.
 * Bond One-Liner: "So uncivilized."
 * Chessmaster: Subverted in that he is 1) a good character and 2) his attempts to steer the plot in the direction he wants by keeping information from Luke end up not working, as Luke screws up his plans for for the better.
 * Cool Old Guy: From A New Hope to Return of the Jedi.
 * Cool Starship: Delta-7 Aethersprite-class light interceptor in Attack of the Clones and Eta-2 Actis-class light interceptor in Revenge of the Sith.
 * Cynical Mentor: To Anakin again. Despite this, he still seemed pretty shocked when Anakin falls to The Dark Side.
 * Deadpan Snarker: Especially in the prequel trilogy. Ewan McGregor's Alec Guinness impersonation managed to produce some of the driest irony ever captured on celluloid.
 * Deuteragonist: Especially in the prequels.
 * Does Not Like Guns: Until he's forced to use one against Grievous.
 * Doomed by Canon: Or rather, obligated to stay alive to be killed by Vader in the original trilogy.
 * Fantastic Racism: Refers to Jar Jar as a "lower life form".
 * Foreshadowing:
 * From a Certain Point of View: The Trope Namer.
 * Glory Days: Only a pale shadow of the warrior he once was, much like Anakin is.
 * Guile Hero: His in-universe nickname is The Negotiator (which is slightly ironic when one of the senior Jedi that he reports to is played by Samuel L Jackson)
 * Heterosexual Life Partners: With Anakin, after the later becomes a Jedi Knight. The novelization of Episode III in particular really brings out the closeness of their friendship.
 * So does the Clone Wars animated series which shows them as a clear case of Vitriolic Best Buds.
 * Heroic Sacrifice: A subtler version when he throws the fight against Vader to allow his friends to escape.
 * Jedi Mind Trick: The Trope Maker.
 * Knight Errant: Will go where ever he's sent.
 * Manipulative Bastard: An interesting example, since Obi-Wan is ubiquitously on the side of the good, but he did attempt to manipulate  Although, Obi Wan himself would probably argue that that was only true From a Certain Point of View  . The EU brings out some of his more weasley, morally ambiguous moments as well.
 * Curious here. Which weasley, morally ambiguous moments are these?
 * And isn't using deception and manipulation for the Greater Good without any personal gain just part of his Guile Hero status anyway?
 * Martial Pacifist
 * Master Swordsman
 * Mentor Occupational Hazard
 * My Greatest Failure: Anakin's fall.
 * My Death Is Just the Beginning
 * Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Sneaking aboard Padme's ship as she leaves to Mustafar fills Anakin with such an anger when he sees him that Anakin
 * The Obi-Wan: Trope Namer.
 * Officer and a Gentleman
 * Old Master: In Episode IV.
 * The Paladin
 * Politically Incorrect Hero
 * Psychic Powers
 * The Stoic: Has one of the suckiest lives (and afterlife?) of any character in fiction, but remains calm, never complains, and usually keeps his emotions well in check. When he starts screaming or gets visibly upset, you know shit just got real.
 * Red Oni, Blue Oni: The blue to Anakin's red.
 * Spirit Advisor: To Luke after his death.
 * Stone Wall: The EU establishes that Obi-Wan is the definitive master of Soresu, the defensive lightsaber style. This allows him to perform feats like (during his fight with Grievous) blocking twelve lightsaber strikes a second.
 * Universal Pilot's Licence
 * Tragic Bromance: He never gets over what happened to Anakin Skywalker.
 * Weapon of Choice: Blue lightsaber.