Hey, weird question. How come the Jedi don’t fight in coherent formations when there’s a large number of them? I don’t mean the battle formations of the regimental armies, I meant sword formations in which they could close ranks and work together so no one would have their back exposed. Instead we see them each dueling on their own, hacking and slashing. A formation would have been a lot more effective on Geonosis and the Jedi Temple. Just saying.
Hey! This
question is not weird at all, it’s actually a pretty important one. The fact
the Jedi were initially unequipped do face the droid army was one of the reason
why Palpatine wanted them to fight.
The Jedi
were not a military force. They were not soldiers nor they were trained to be.
They probably educated on military strategies but it would’ve been a purely theoretical
subject. Jedi were trained to be diplomats. And even before the peace times they never had
to operate like an army the way they did during the Clone Wars.
They went
to Geonosis as a “rescue” mission, they were not expecting nor were prepared to
face a droid army. They were outnumber, surrounded and were simply overwhelmed
by the situation. By the time Yoda arrived with the clone army most of them
were dead and the remaining had never led a military unit before which, of
course, led to massive clone casualties.
“You had to be able to cross that threshold and
be ready to do absolutely anything to win. Fierfek, if stupid Jedi hadn’t used you as infantry on Geonosis, every single
one of my commando batch would be alive today.” Triple Zero by Karen
Traviss.
By the time
Geonosis was over and the war was fully on the jedi were too spread out across
the galaxy to work as a unity. There weren’t even enough Jedi to command all
clone unities, let alone enough for the Order to create one made only of Jedi.
Jedi were
precious, they were given command positions despite having zero military
background whilst the clones who were bred for war became canon fodder. This was
not an accident. The Jedi were not qualified to be generals but, as Yoda said,
in their arrogance they jumped into a conflict they did not fully understand
(or bothered trying). Plus, Palatine needed the Jedi in charge and overwhelmed
for his plan to work and they played right into his hands.
Sorry, just my two favorite fandoms of Star Wars and Wuxia merging together every now and then. Somewhere deep in my mind, I see Star Wars as a Wuxia story with laser swords and complicated politics. It’s not something people usually think about. But since you chose to bite by answering this question. Let me explain a bit further.
The Sword Formation is a Taoist thing, and it isn’t for use in the battlefield, it’s more like a cooperative kata that can be used together by 2 or more people. To train together in formation builds trust and teaches the duelists to not just be individual swodsmen, but to work together as a cohesive enteity in the face of stronger adversaries. The monks of Shaolin have something similar with their staffs.
It’s actually a really good tactic, and you know, it kind of suits the harmonic vibe of the Jedi Order. But I suppose the Jedi may not be thinking about facing stronger adversaries since they believe the Sith to be extinct. Here are some examples:
See how the swordsmen would close ranks and each face a different direction so all sides are covered? Or how they would try to come at the enemy from different angles, so he can’t defend everywhere at once?
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