#je'daii

I was listening to the audio book of “Dawn of the Jedi: Into the void”

I heard them refer to Qigong Kesh

and I couldn’t help but think to myself that sounds awfully like Qui-gon

This brought me to the Idea that maybe in universe, Qui-gon was named after this temple

but it’s a terribly old temple, not anyone would know about it

Maybe some historians, archaeologists or archivists, at least the ones that concentrate on Jedi history

So that’s where my headcanon comes in:

If you stick to what George Lucas said, in Star Wars a person being "balanced" is someone who accepts their inner darkness and resists its pull nonetheless.

When fans mention the Je'daii, it's usually in the context of:

"The Jedi downgraded from the Je'daii, limited their studies of the Force, refusing to study the Dark Side was a mistake. It was an original sin that caused them to create an imbalance within them."

Which is weird, to me, because the whole point of the comic's narrative is that:

the Je’daii Order’s way was doomed to fail.

Introduced in the Legends comic series Dawn of the Jedi (2012), the Je'daii are the predecessors of the Jedi. They are an order of Force users who studied and practiced both the Light Side and the Dark Side in hopes of finding Balance.

The reasoning is simple: everyone has a bit of good and bad in them, you learn to master the good and the bad sides inside of you, indulging them equally. But while this method seems sound on paper… it didn't work.

Consider that they’re already dabbling with the Dark Side...

... but hey, at least they’re aware of its dangers, they’re trying to be responsible about it.

There's a support system where they all warn each other when they're about to cross a line. But even then, there's many who've fallen and been exiled to a moon, to be rehabilitated.

Suddenly, circumstances compel all of them to use the Forcesaber, a weapon that only activates when you draw on the Dark Side.

And that does something to them. Over the course of a year, they all become increasingly aggressive.

Soon, a faction breaks off because they no longer want to stop using the Forcesaber. They’re addicted to the Dark Side.

A war ensues, at the end of which the Jedi Order is born, a group of Force users who:

acknowledge and accept their inner darkness,

while also striving to overcome it rather than give it power.

So that’s the moral of the whole Je’daii story.

Their idea of "Balance by wielding both" was actually so fragile and difficult to maintain that all it took was a little push for them to become vulnerable to the Dark Side's temptation.

Hell, even after the Jedi Order was established, one of its founders, Master Rajivari - who in Dawn of the Jedi (2012) is framed as a wise ex-general who, albeit strict, spends his days meditating and philosophizing - he goes to the Dark Side too! 

Because that's how the Dark Side works.

The Dark Side isn’t just "negative feelings" or a "bad guy superpower" that you can mix with a "good guy superpower" to unleash the ultimate 'Force blast'. This isn’t an anime.

The Dark Side is a drugs/smoking/drinking addiction.

It's selfish, temporary pleasure. The more you consume it...

... the more you get addicted...

... and the more it consumes you right back...

... until nothing remains.

Jon Ostrander, who wrote Dawn of the Jedi (2012), echoed this sentiment multiple times:

“As I see it, those working on the light side work with the Force, channeling it, open and sensitive to what it tells them. They serve it. Those on the dark side try to impose their will on the Force, to make it do their will, to make it serve them. The Je’daii believe in a balance between the light and the dark side and so attempt to use both. Problem is, a balance is hard to maintain and the dark side is so very seductive.” - John Ostrander, LA Times, 2012

“The Je'daii aren't light side or dark side, although they know and are aware of both. Instead they seek a balance in the Force between light and dark. Balance, however, is a difficult thing to maintain and there is always the danger of falling wholly to the dark side — and some Je'daii have done so.” - John Ostrander, Newsarama, 2012

And this is a recurring theme throughout all of Ostrander’s comics, by the way. Be it with the Je’daii, but also with Quinlan Vos or Cade Skywalker, the point remains the same: 

"Yes, wielding the Dark Side gives you great power, and you get to show off some badass new tricks...

… but it ultimately destroys you and everyone around you."

Remember: if it weren’t for Cade or Quin’s loved ones, neither of them would have come back from the Dark Side. They aren't badasses because they can use Force Lightning, they're badasses because they found the strength to give that up.

So if you genuinely think the Jedi "downgraded" by refusing to give the Dark Side more power than it already has on them... you're missing the point.

“It’s not about ripping things out of the sky using the Force or Force Lightning. A lot of people, they think “oh look how powerful Vader is, look how powerful the Emperor is, I want to play be the bad guy because I get these powers”. It’s an empty feeling, at the end of the day, after the moment. [...] The Dark Side is a spiral downward that you’re trapped in.” - Dave Filoni, “Force of Rebellion”, 2018

It was an upgrade.

Framing "balance" as "equal Dark and Light Side" is like consuming one (1) salad a day and one (1) whole bottle of vodka and calling that "balanced". No, buddy, that'll kill you. Because:

The vodka is better at being destructive than the salad is at making you healthy.

It's won't stay just one bottle per day. It'll eventually become two, three, etc.

Because as George Lucas stated time and again, resisting the Dark Side is a constant struggle.

So that's my two cents.

You've probably already heard about the recent announcement of a Dawn of the Jedi feature film, a biblical epic that will be directed by James Mangold.

And truth be told... it scares me SO much that we came THIS close to an Episode IX: Duel of the Fates that framed "balance" as - you guessed it - giving equal power to your light and darkness.

Like, how did this ⬆️ get as far as it did? Did nobody think to sit Colin Trevorrow down and explain to him that he fundamentally misunderstands how the Force works?

Dawn of the Jedi by Tim Lebbon Dawn of the Jedi is not the typical lightsaber wielding and Force finessed focused books that we are used to in the modern knowledge of Jedi. Rather, we are brought along on a detective search for answers and people long believed dead. All while struggling with memories and destroyed hope that things can change.

We follow Lanoree Brock, a young Je’daii Ranger, on her journey to find her once thought dead younger brother, Dalen Brock, before he unleashes dark matter that could tear apart the Tython system as they know it. The book changes between the present, of Lanoree and her picked up Twilek companion, Tre, who are following the evidence of Dalen’s cult research and plans, to her childhood, where Lanoree first sees her brother’s fall to what he has become. Through their mission, we are introduced to many characters who have their own reasons for helping or hindering their search.

Despite being siblings and the children of 2 Force sensitive users, Lanoree and Dalen differ on many levels. For one, Dalen has no connection to the Force unlike the rest of his immediate family. He relies on blasters and brute strength as he gets older. He’s also quite intelligent, even if it leans to the side of fanaticism of something he doesn’t even know to be true. Meanwhile, Lanoree is seen as strong in the Force and, as she travels on the Pilgrammage to the other Temples, her skills in Force understanding, combat, and her interest in the scientific fields that this era of Je’daii show, become even stronger. She is the Golden Child while Dalen is constantly being pressured to become something he’s not…mostly from his sister.

This book has very polarized opinions by readers and reviewers alike, and many believe that it does not deserve the title of Dawn of the Jedi. However, I disagree. If you stay in the thinking of the modern Jedi age then I can understand where those feelings come from, but if you approach the book as the first and the start of the entire story of the Force, then I believe the title fits nicely. Let me explain.

Lanoree and the other Rangers and Masters are called Je’daii and have a clear belief that the light side, Ashla, and the dark side, Bogan, must be in balance with one another. To be fully Ashla, Je’daii cannot do what is necessary to rid the Tython system of dangers, and in this story that includes their own people. Meanwhile, dealing too much in Bogan leads to hurting for hurtings sake and not for the betterment of their society. That belief is not shared in modern day Jedi’s teachings. Any bit of the dark side is shunned. But the Je’daii use Bogan to excel their experiments and produce ways to perserve themselves and others, like in the sense of Lanoree almost dying and using her alchemy of the flesh to save her own life. I’d go so far to say that this creating life is millennia ahead of The Immortal Emperor in the Old Republic and even Darth Plageius’ abilities. Dawn of the Jedi gives us loose ties to how the Je’daii could split not necessarily because one side wanted to hurt people and be “evil” but because they wanted to continue their experiments that others deemed evil and wrong. It shows the start of the polarized beliefs of the Light and Dark side followings. I think, had it not been cut from canon, this line of thinking would have been helped with the following 2 books that were planned at the time, and either I’d be proven wrong or they would’ve given more hints to solidify this connection. I am aware of the comics that are alluded to at the end of this book, but my reading challenge and subsequent reviews will be pulling on strings and information from the novels alone.

In saying that, it’s disappointing to know that there were more books planned at the time of this one’s release, but were cut due to canon changes. Kara, a wealthy and collector of sorts, is someone I would have loved to read more about because all of her moves were calculated for something beyond what this single book was focused on. However, maybe that’s just me reaching for more history and answers to something that was always meant to be secretive.

Major Spoilers ahead: