(Omake) Next Week, Today (Canon)
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- The internet
Next Week, Today
"And in other news today, Admiral of the Republic Fleet and living CGI project Wilfhuff Tarkin, was reportedly very disappointed that he was unable to convict that "Alien rat" for the Jedi Temple Bombing. He perked up when he learned that a different nonhuman was responsible." The Bothan John Sei'lar says to good natured laughs and applause as a horrible CGI caricature of Tarkin appeared behind him.
"Now, cracks about Admiral Tarkin's blatant speciesism aside, the Jedi bombing is a very serious matter. Now I could act like some news organizations and try to deal with this tragic event by fearmongering, declaring that all is lost and demanding that yet more power be given to Chancellor Palpatine, but I think you all know me better than that by now." He pauses as the studio audience breaks some into applause. "No, we're going to indulge in a staple of this program and the Corusca Intelligencer more generally, hard hitting, insightful reporting. So tonight, I'd like to welcome you all to the first part of our many part segment on the Force. First stop the Coruscant or Temple Jedi Sect."
A series of graphics show up behind John Sei'lar, showing the Jedi Temple and the Sigil of the Jedi order.
"Now some of you are probably confused, and are asking yourself questions like "Temple Jedi?" What's that? I thought there was only the one Jedi Order? And "what the hell's a Sith." I certainly thought so when I started researching this segment, and it turns out that I couldn't have been more wrong. Not only are there multiple Jedi Sects, and there are many organizations of non Jedi force users as well." A variety of sigils appears behind him, each representing a force order. "There's a rich history behind each of them and relations and grudges going back thousands of years. Frankly, I have no idea what the hell's going on. Here to tell me what the hell's going on is our special guest, and the leader of the second largest force organization in the Galaxy. Everyone, please give a warm welcome to Jedi Lord Cerulian!"
The Crowd jumps to their feet in applause as a pleasant looking, gray haired, man in a green robe enters the building.
He waves cheerfully at the crowd "Hello, hello everyone. Its wonderful to be here."
John gets up and shakes the Jedi's hand vigorously "Good to have you hear Lord Cerulian. We're grateful that you accepted our invitation."
Iroh smiles easily as he sits across the table from John. "I'm just here for the tea really."
The audience erupts into laughter as the Jedi grins cheekily before taking a sip of the tea that the bothan offers him. "Very nice. Zsajhira berries tea, I think?"
John nods "Yes. I'm a bit of a tea fan myself you see." He pauses, then asks his guest "So Lord Cerulian, what the hell is going on?"
"Well John, that's a bit of a complex question. To start off, we have to go back 1000 years."
The audience visibly groans at that, and Cerulian makes a shushing notion "Oh hush you. Most of this stuff goes back thousands of years, I'm simplifying it enormously."
John manages a grin "Well, I imagine my viewers thank you enormously for that."
The Jedi nods, taking a sip of his tea "Yes. Well, this whole thing started with the new Sith Wars. The Sith were, or are, a dark mirror of the Jedi. Passion instead of peace. Strength, instead of knowledge. Power, instead of serenity. Seeking victory, not harmony." He takes another sip. For around a thousand years there was a constant wave of Sith rising up, forming an Empire, and fragmenting." He shakes his head sadly "By all accounts it was a terrible time. Worlds were bombed, species driven to near extinction, the entire galactic civilization nearly collapsed."
He waves his arms for emphasis as he continues. "Eventually, the Jedi gained more and more power over the Republic, reverting to an almost feudal structure in an attempt to keep Galactic Civilization from collapsing under the strain of unrelenting war. Eventually, during the Seventh Battle of Ruusan the Sith were completely wiped out at the cost of near total casualties among the Jedi, including by far the bulk of the non Corscuant based Jedi."
John leanes in "So what happened next?"
"The Coruscant Jedi decided to that with the Sith seemingly eliminated it was time for internal reform. To prevent another group of Jedi splitting off and starting the whole mess all over again the conservatives in charge of the main Jedi Temple on Coruscant decided to centralize. Most Jedi assets outside the core ones they controlled would be nationalized, and all training academies outside the one on Coruscant would be closed. All future Jedi would be trained under their supervision under a program that emphasized conformity and avoiding even a hint of the dark side." At this Cerulian pauses and grins wryly "Needless to say, their more progressive opponents at the other Jedi outposts were... less than thrilled with the suggestion, but they had taken too many casualties and lacked the means to oppose the measure." At this he tugged his bear awkwardly "With one rather notable exception in Corellia."
"And that's the foundation of your order?" John asks.
"The modern form certainly." At this the Jedi barks a laugh "Although a more wild Corellia has been clashing with conservative, upper crust Coruscant since the dawn of recorded history. You don't need to be a Jedi to know that."
Laughter sweeps the audience chambers before John waves them down.
"So you think the temple Jedi were wrong?"
The Jedi lord shrugs diffidently "While I certainly disagree with some of their philosophy, their idea of reducing the temporal power of the Jedi Order certainly had merit. Consecutive Jedi Supreme Chancellors is a worrying trend." Then he smiles "But I'm sure your audience isn't interested in musty old spats like this, are they?"
Some of the audience laughs.
"No, the important thing is that the main Jedi Order's current form is a reaction to those tumultuous times one thousand years ago. They limited their power deliberately to prevent them from dominating the Republic. They limited their capability to make war, limited their intelligence agency the Sentinels and attempted to enforce ideological conformity in order to prevent the reemergence of the Sith. While it was largely successful for the last 1000 years I fear that the current form of the main Jedi order is nearly unsustainable."
Muttering breaks out in the crowd as John Sei'lar asks "How so?"
"Well, they're currently in an existential war, even if one nowhere near as bad as the old sith lords. Their structure simply isn't built to handle that. Furthermore, the current conformist structure has caused a spectacular backlash recently as dischanted jedi search for answers. And some of whom sadly find them in exactly the wrong places. Something clearly must change. Or I fear the Jedi Order will not survive much longer."
A hushed silence descends. After a long moment John asked quietly. "So, what would you do?"
The Jedi Lord pauses thoughtfully "It is important to draw wisdom from different places. If you take it from only one place it become rigid and stale. The Jedi have drawn their wisdom for the past 1000 years from the Telosian strain of Jedi Philosophy first espoused by Jedi master Atris. It has become stale. It's time to seek out new wisdom, not forgetting the past, but learning from others." After a moment, he shrugs "Or at least that's what this old man thinks."
A/N: So, I've been looking at the Corellian/Green Jedi and while they do have substantially more information available about them than a lot of force orders. Unfortunately, the only canon Green Jedi from this time is Nejaa Halcyon. And while he's an interesting guy with a pretty solid number of actual appearances, if one with a somewhat schizophrenic backstory, he's dead at this point. Specifically, he died in 19.5 BBY, or turn 25-27.
Or possibly 22 BBY, because legends can't into consistency
And while I do like the man personally, he has a fairly massive overlap with Djiin Altis and Ciaran from a story telling perspective. His main appearance in Jedi Trial serves as a more relaxed foil to orthodox Jedi and a trusted confidant to Anaken for his Padme issues. So I've come up with a new face to the Green Jedi, and I'm not sorry.
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