Knights of the Jedi Order

I've written about Star Wars recently, I am aware. Working on a chapter in my dissertation which examines Ahsoka in particular, and loving The Acolyte's extension of Jedi lore has me hyper-focused and driven. To that end, I have made my way through the majority of the High Republic publishing initiative, and am starting to examine some of the new canon texts published in the last year or two by LucasArts. There are some really interesting patterns and systems of authority being explored here, and the connections the Star Wars narrative has to medieval Arthuriana are only being deepened. As a medievalist and life-long Star Wars fanboy, this is incredibly exciting.

The High Republic refers to an era of Jedi prominence in the galaxy approximately two centuries before the events of The Phantom Menace (1999) begin. Star Wars has always been a story told out of order, the middle, the beginning, and then the end; we are simply exploring more of the beginning than ever before. There are some really fascinating implications about the Jedi, the Sith, and disparate Force-users throughout the galaxy present in these new texts, and they resonate across time and space to impact the way I understand Star Wars as a whole.

Also, I understand loving Star Wars in its entirety is a controversial opinion to have. The fandom is...toxic to say the least, and getting involved in online discourse surrounding any aspect of the series can be contentious and exhausting. But, I come back to something a friend of mine said recently, that I explained an aspect of The Last Jedi in a way which made them able to love aspects of it, too, and I'm reminded of something I heard once which essentially boils down to even if someone else has already written it, they didn't write your version...and I think, perhaps, since I can't keep myself from copious note-taking and re-watching anyway, I'll guide you through the Star Wars worlds as an undertaking of love, with a critical lens built from so many things.

Jedi Knights, the Order, and the Round Table

At its peak, the Jedi Order contains thousands out of trillions upon trillions in the known galaxy. It's important to point out the known galaxy part of this statistic as well: there are both grand swaths of unexplored areas known cleverly as the Unknown Regions, which are explored in The Rise of Skywalker, and a whole new galaxy opened up in Ahsoka.

The entire Order can be counted only in the thousands, in a galaxy containing trillions upon trillions. The Jedi can't save everyone. The Jedi can only make sure that wherever they are, the light is protected.

—'All Jedi Walk Their Own Path' by Charles Soule in Tales of Light and Life

But, the timeline of the High Republic is the most current in the chronological timeline of our world; these are prequel stories, the mythology upon which Luke Skywalker and his father before him based their understanding of heroic Jedi attributes. Authors of the High Republic Publishing Initiative, enchantingly named Project Luminous, work to explore those mythologies and show the nuance inherent to an entire galaxy.

What I love most about this era is the dedication to love itself. Like the courtly romances of the medieval period, the idea of love is explored as it relates to the Jedi (Knights) and what it means to their vows (oaths). Because the story as we understood it begins with the middle in A New Hope (1977), there are built in expectations to what it means to be a Jedi, to live a live of compassion, yet free of attachments. In fact, this compassion/attachment dichotomy is, in my opinion, the central force of the prequel trilogy; but, we will explore that in depth when we get there in the Star Wars chronology.

It is impossible to explore the High Republic without an awareness of what the Jedi Order would grow to become by the prequel and original trilogy eras; I have grown up with the franchise and am indelibly connected to its story-worlds. Even those who haven't seen as much, or even any, Star Wars entry are at least passingly familiar with its overarching idea-it's so much a part of Americana at this point. So, I approach the High Republic with the fragments of the Old Republic, now part of the Legends timeline and thus non-canonical, in mind, as well as the main themes of the central Skywalker Saga—and my understanding of the Force, my favorite part of the narrative, is all the richer for it.

The Jedi of the High Republic are, quintessentially, Arthurian knights. Their design, especially of their beautiful and diverse lightsaber hilts, are especially created to reflect such medievalism. I am very much looking forward to the release of the reference book Star Wars: High Republic: The Lightsaber Collection in October, which will give more insight into the design and creation of this era; but I'm not exaggerating the feel of the designs. You can explore a really fascinating article which acts as a press release for the forthcoming text here, but I would like to highlight this quote from Lucasfilm Publishing creative director Michael Siglain:

We wanted to make the Jedi distinctive and instantly recognizable as Jedi Knights of the High Republic, and that applies not only to their clothing but to their lightsabers, as well… Internally, we often refer to the Jedi of this era as ‘the Jedi Knights of the Round Table.’ Taking that idea one step further, their sabers can be viewed as their own versions of Excalibur.

So, the connection to medieval knights is intentional, and especially Arthurian medieval knights. Because I am a romance specialist, I immediately think of the ideals of courtly love and how those ideals are transposed into the Jedi Order. This is a nuanced and complex idea that arises in the 12th century, and, because of its initial connection to French author Chretien de Troyes and his addition of Lancelot's adulterous affair to the Arthurian mythos, carried into modern fantasy medievalism a taint of something not quite acceptable. The inherent tension of an affair at the center of an ennobling love is a fascinating aspect of medieval romances, and carried with it a built-in structure for attaining your lady-love. Essentially, a knight must prove himself to a lady through quest or deed, and then they may secretly consummate their love. They usually aren't married, she is indeed often already married to another, less noble, man, because marriage for love simply wasn't what the noble classes were doing in the medieval period. Hence, love, true love, despite its association with adultery, could become acceptable in a way, if only in the literature of the time. And yet, as romance itself speaks to something beyond stories of love in its romanz roots (think romance language, the languages of the people vs. the academic language of Latin, the language of the Church) to explore familial connections and other visions of love, the Star Wars franchise is expanding to do similar work.

All this to say, as I read through the High Republic materials, save the forthcoming final texts through this fall and spring of 2025, I keep seeing these questions of love and duty, and indeed examinations of what love truly is, throughout these disparate texts. You can peruse the list and the reasoning behind the publishing order here, but allow me to highlight a few notables before we move on to The Acolyte, the next canon installment chronologically.

The Star Wars: Timelines book released in 2023 lays out the history of the galaxy in a chronological fasion. It is HUGE. But, reading through the timeline as a coffee-table book allows to explore certain areas in space or time, check for specific characters, or check in on the Jedi Order at various times in their history. It's worth it to peruse, especially if you aren't interested or able to read the whole extended universe of tie-in media.

Chronologically, the High Republic era begins roughly 350 years before the events of the Skywalker Saga, and extends roughly to the century between The Acolyte and The Phantom Menace. Jedi have spread throughout the galaxy, and there are Jedi Temples, way-finders, and a diversity of Force-sensitive religious practices beyond the dichotomy of the Jedi and the Sith. Over the course of three centuries, a series of disasters, consistent chaos sewn by dark side practitioners on the fringes of culture, and the complications of a galaxy-wide Republic are explored to illuminate how the Jedi go from their peak to what we see in the PT.

Tales of Light and Life

As a short story collection comprised of authors whose contributions make up the majority of the High Republic publishing initiative, this book offers a chance to get a kind of snapshot of the timeline without as much of a heavy commitment to reading the myriad adult, YA, and children's novels (not to mention the comics!).

The Force didn't provide answers. It didn't tell you what to do. Decisions were made by people.
-'All Jedi Walk Their Own Path' by Charles Soule in Tales of Light and Life

Masters take the time throughout these disparate texts to teach their Padawan's about the uniqueness of each Jedi's path, an idea which resonates only sub-textually later in the franchise—the idea that there are these paths every Force-user can take, the most famous of which is: Fear is the path to the Dark Side. But, when the Jedi are at their peak, the uniqueness of each Jedi's path still, ultimately, returns them to the Light; this is what links all Jedi together.

I appreciate that the response to this wisdom, in this particular short story, is for the student to question their Master: 'what other path would they walk?' Master Loden Greatstorm clarifies:

The one the Jedi Council think[s] we should.
-'All Jedi Walk Their Own Path'

Of course the Jedi Council exists to govern the function of the Jedi Order. At its peak, with tens of thousands of Jedi in the Galaxy, they're less centralized than we see by The Phantom Menace; but the Council on Coruscant nevertheless exhibits a kind of central authority; as Arthur is the High King, other Kings swear to him.

Shadows of Starlight; The Blade

Many of the comic book runs were particularly enjoyable in my estimation, as well. I have trouble with media tie-in fiction, often, which I think comes down to a prose style that I feel doesn't translate between screenplay writing and novels. This is rectified in the visual medium of graphic novels, however. In Shadows of Starlight the Jedi respond to the destruction of the Starlight Beacon, a massive undertaking by the Republic to spread the Light of the Jedi to the Outer Rim.

In this comic, Master Yoda seeks the means to save the Jedi Order, and the Galaxy itself, and locates one of the Lost Twenty; a fallen Jedi who left the Order and later turned to the dark side. I'll come back to this when I review The Acolyte in its entirety next.

The Blade introduces a long-lived Jedi named Porter Engle who appears throughout the Phases of the High Republic Era. He also, by the time he appears in the novels surrounding the fall of the Starlight Beacon a century after the events of The Blade, is mourning the murder of his adopted sister a century earlier, Barash Silvain. I will return to Porter and Barash again when we discuss The Acolyte because, while Acolyte didn't invent the idea of the Barash Vow (that would be the now-familiar Charles Soule in Darth Vader (2017)) there is a significant instance of the vow in action that I think has some fascinating implications.

Final thoughts

For now, I am going to leave the High Republic here. Look forward to next week to get a deeper dive into the most recent book in the High Republic timeline, The Temptation of the Force by Tessa Gratton, which I think really codifies the ideas seeded throughout these earlier texts.

I have loved the initiative of Project Luminous which sought to put out a variety of extra-media materials that enhance our love of Star Wars. By using authors from a variety of genres who hadn't typically been known as tie-in writers, such as some of my favorites Tessa Gratton, Zoraida Cordova, Justina Ireland and Claudia Gray, as well as emphasizing an over-arching narrative that can be jumped into at a variety of points, I think there's a really cool story-world being explored. You can find a genre, story, or author that appeals to you, rather than needing to read every entry in the timeline to follow the events, and that is a particular strength of the initiative.