Space Wars

We [Twi’lek] females are virtually bred to be frivolous – good only as slaves, playthings, or pampered princesses!

I’m going to lie to you: it’s a mess.Officially, Barriss story ended with TCW. Nothing about her or her fate was published afterwards. So we don’t really know what happened to help (which it’sa shame, imo, because I want to know too).

If we are talking Legends, things get messier:

In 2004/2005 a comic strip called Reversal of Fortune was published. Inever read it myself, but it was supposed to be during ROTS and in itBarriss remains a Jedi, going on missions and all. The comic’s information isbeing disputed on Wookieepedia, so who knows how canon it ever was? In thiscomic, Barriss is killed in Felucia right before Aayla Secura. So, if you takethis comic as canon, Barriss remained a Jedi fighting in the war and was killedby clones during Order 66.

However, The Clone Wars (2008) made everything that was published beforeits release not canon. by that rule, this comic is not canon (not even by Legends standard)so technically, Barriss is still alive and we still have no idea what happenedto her.

  Well, Barriss’ death was seen in Revenge of the Sith #3 comics adaptation, what was part of canon before TCW mess, if any one is interested.                    

Ooh, that’sa good one! The EU (both Legends and Canon) offer contradicting informations onthis.

It’s hardto say if it’s appropriation, reclamation or something else entirely because wedon’t know how it works, that aspect of the Jedi Order has not been explored yet. Personally,I don’t think any of those terms adequately fit the Order’s situation.Appropriation doesn’t quite fit because it’s the individual’s own culture andthere is no imbalance of power between the individuals, the power theirrepresent and their home planets. And they not really reclaiming anyhthingbecause it was never taken or used against them.

Consideringhow educated in galactic culture and politics they Jedi were, I assume everyJedi knew from childhood about their home planets and culture. Some of them,the children of powerful and wealthy families, were even allowed to know whatwas going on in their families. They were also allowed to keep their lastnames, which means the Order was okay with them researching themselves andtheir past (of course, they were too indoctrinated to want to but that’s notthe point). So I don’t think they were deliberately kept from their culture,the way they were kept from the families. I think they were allowed to experiencetheir home culture, the same way they were allowed to “love”: on a superficiallevel, because they weren’t allowed to fully immerse themselves in their homeplanet’s culture (by engaging with their peers, by owing objects not considerednecessary, by exchanging experiences, etc).

I don’tthink they were encouraged to search for their home life/culture because itwould lead to individuality and attachments but it was something theyrespected. I don’t see anyone going out of their way to tell a youngling “hey!This is your culture and you need to show how proud you are of it” but if thatyoungling decided for themselves they want to do it, I don’t think they would discourageit. I don’t think anyone ordered Ahsoka to wear that Akul-tooth headdress but onceshe decided to wear it, no one was against it. As long as it didn’t influencethe Jedi in a way they didn’t approve of (Anakin Skywalker/slavery), they wereallowed to keep their culture, traditions and individuality.

If the Jediwere against people expressing their culture/traditions I don’t think theywould’ve allowed Luminara to train Barrissis. The fact Barriss was a fellow Mirialaninfluenced her decision since she wanted to keep the tradition of Mirialanstraining Mirialans.

The one exampleof reclamation I could think of is Anakin and his slave background. The JediOrder went out of their way to bury his cultural background because, unlike theothers, his past made him “dangerous”. And if Anakin had left, went back toTatooine and reclaimed his identity as in “Yes, I’m the son of a slave and that’sNOT a bad thing” then, he would be reclaiming something. Of course, that neverhappened :(

But like padawanlost already mentioned, overall there is little solid informations about Jedi approach and these available may not be the best way to measure the whole, complex phenomenon. Frankly, (Legends) EU actually gives the impression, that Council is more keen to allow Jedi keep his/her/their culture & traditions  (in more attachment way?) if person in question is somehow related to at least one member of Council.

Ki-Adi-Mundi, due to low rate of birth of male members of his species, was allowed to have one bond-wife and  4 honor-wives and 7 children and he keep in touch with them all. The duty to family didn’t stand in a way to grant Ki-Adi-Mundi a seat in Council. After all, he was Yoda’s padawan.

Later, Ki-Adi-Mundi took A’Sharad Hett as his padawan. Hett was a son of great Jedi but was born and grew up on Tattooine and brought to Jedi Temple really late. Biologically speaking, Hett was human but he saw himself as Tusken. Because of that, Tusken culture was very important for him, and he wasn’t shy about talking about Tusken Raiders (and their traditions, values, ideology, knowledge, and so on) (x)(x)(x). 

I’m pretty sure there was more examples of such nepotism. But I would also mention a different approach that was handy for Jedi Council, but may not be a happy experience for individual Jedi.

In star wars universum, female twi’leks belongs to really marginalized group. Such women are frequently sexualized, seen as “stupid and easy girls” among others things. Aayla Secura, though very respected and skilled Jedi Knight herself, when send on undercover missions (at least the one shown in Legends) usually played (slave-ish?) servant girl, or some spoiled princess or posed as a down-on-her-luck mechanic. All of her roles were based on stereotypical perception of female twi’leks and demanded from her either being “ submissive” or flirtatious - even if she didn’t like. She even once snapped at master Tholme and Dark Woman (who accompanied her during mission):

What must be unwelcome feeling, especially if one keep in mind her own words she told to some sexist bullshit how she can’t be Jedi if she is female Twi’lek:

I am a female, I am a Twi’lek, and I am a Jedi. The galaxy is wider than your prejudices, little one.

Like, sure, Council didn’t argue that and in Jedi Order no one looked down on female twi’leks, but at the same time, Aayla was forced to rely on stereotypical perception of her native culture & society during missions asigned her by Council. The “culture” she didn’t agree with nor support.

What frankly is similar to Anakin. Council saw a small boy with years of slavery experiences as something dangerous yet the moment when they needed someone with understanding of how to deal with slavers, suddenly Anakin was the best choice.At least twice! With no worries about how it will affect him.