If you were a padawan but somehow managed to read the writing for the wall about the mess the Order was, what do you think you’d do to avoid sipping the kool-aid and ending up dead as a doorknob? (Love your blog dude keep up the good work <3)

redrikki:

padawanlost:

I don’t
think so. The problem with indoctrination is that it prevents you from seeing
beyond what you’re told. It alters the way you think and they way react to things.
Any padawan’s reaction to seeing anything dubious about the Jedi Order would
include running to their masters and/or the Jedi Council to tell them. The
Council would either dismiss it or blame it on the “Dark Side” (because they
couldn’t see beyond what they themselves were told when they were first indoctrinated).

The Jedi
are good. Anything more complex than creates a problem. That’s why the Jedi
were so conflicted by the end of the war. They were seeing the truth about the
galaxy for the first time and that unbalanced them. They were told the Jedi
were beloved and respected throughout the galaxy but now people are picketing
the Temple. They were told the Force was always on their side but now there is
so much they can’t no longer see. They were told the Council represents the
will of the force but now the council is constantly making mistakes.

Their worldview
was so skewed they couldn’t conclude there was something wrong with the Order
even when facts hit them in the face. Acknowledging the Jedi Order was doomed
was a traumatic event for anyone indoctrinated by them. The ones who were able
to see it were so broken they left everything behind, turned dark side or just
accepted it.

Dooku, an
older and wiser master, saw exactly what was wrong with Order and how to fix
it. They didn’t listen. When the Clone Wars began, many Jedi left because they
knew it was wrong for them to become generals. They didn’t listen. Qui-Gon Jinn
knew the Order had serious internal problems but he stayed and decided to do
his own thing because he probably knew the Jedi order wasn’t prepared or
willing to change.  

The Jedi
were indoctrinated to be hard-or-die members. Living that “lifestyle” was
almost impossible without a traumatic event to force them into action. Many
Jedi only realized something was off after Order 66. Some Jedi failed to see
anything wrong even after they died.

And we are
talking about Jedi Masters and Knights. Experienced, somewhat self-sufficient
Jedi. For a padawan to realize all of this and leave would be nearly
impossible. The padawans we saw during the clone wars were not the usual
padawans. Prior to the war, padawans were forbidden to leave the Temple without
their master’s permission and they couldn’t have friendships with outsiders. Everything
they did and saw was regulated by the Jedi Council. The only reason Ashoka was
so self-reliable was Anakin’s teachings. He taught her about the real world outside
the temple. He taught her a trade. He allowed her to be educated outside the
Temple and foster friendships with non-Jedi. No other padawan had that kind of guidance.
And even so, it took the Council allowing her to be executed without any irrefutable
evidence to wake her up to their flaws.

That’s why I
don’t think a padawan would ever realize, by themselves, what was wrong with
the Jedi order and the tragedy that was coming their way. And even if they did,
I don’t think they would leave or do something drastic about without a major eye-opening
event forcing their hand.

PS: THANK
YOU ❤

In the Kanan comics, there’s some really great commentary on Jedi indoctrination. Caleb is know for continually asking questions about, well, everything. Reactions to his questions are, well, mixed. Here’s the exchange with Jocasta Nu during a class about how padawans are selected.

While some of is instructors and peers seemed to find his continually questioning the Order annoying or possibly threatening, his eventual master Depa Billaba chooses him for that exact reason. Towards the end of the war, she had come to believe that the Order’s decision to become officers had been the wrong one. Here’s his reaction:

It turns out she picked him because she wants to find a way to introduce peaceful dissent into the Order and thought he might be the one to do it. Of course, like, a minute later Order 66 happens, but points for effort.

There’s another panel where Caleb, lost on his own without money or friends, thinks about what he learned at the Temple.

It’s a pretty subtle but damning look at indoctrination within the Order and how questions of any sort were viewed.