Star Wars/Characters/The Jedi Order

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.



The Jedi Council members from founding to fall

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 Elderly Sensei 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.

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.
  • Killed Off for Real: Spectacularly so, in a case of Destination Defenestration
  • 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.

Jedi Masters

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."

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.

Jedi Knights

Jedi Student/Padawans

Fallen Jedi

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