Another question: jedi code evolution. When and why was the "emotion, yet peace" changed into classical "there is no emotion"?
Where does the whole "emotion, yet peace" come from anyway?
Wrong way around- the 'original' code (no idea where that originates from) was made out of verse after the classical one was made, so far as I can tell.
The classic one is, as near as I can tell, really old school. I can't actually confirm this because I can't find pdfs (and if anyone says to buy it, I wish that was possible, but the snarl of contract and copyright make it illegal to sell official copies of those old works- to this day you can't official pdfs for
any Star Wars roleplaying game, including the current one), but I think it originates from the 1st edition West End Game Corebook-
which means it predates Zahn's entry into the EU. Short of
Splinter of the Minds Eye, its hard to get more old school EU then that.
Also, the forth line-
There is no chaos, there is harmony- was added at some point. It's not in 2ed WEG- the oldest source I can find- or in d20 Star Wars Revised, both of which reference this Code:
There is no emotion, there is peace.
There is no ignorance, there is knowledge.
There is no passion, there is serenity.
There is no death, there is the Force.
As though it were the only one. The latter came out in 2000. The later sourcebook from the same line, The Power of the Jedi in 2002 also makes no references, but talks about the Potentium as a rogue sect (the Potentium first appeared in the 2000 novel
Rouge Planet by Greg Bear-
Traitor came out two years later. I though it was reversed!). The first reference I can find to that line is KOTOR (2003), which might be the origin point- it the first reference I can find to it, and they might have added it to allow them to mirror the Sith Code better. Wait, scratch that- it's from
Star Wars Gamer 1: Understanding the Jedi Code, at least if Wookiepedia is accurate in this instance. So it could be older then I think. Argh!
Ok gone into the Talk section for the Jedi Code in Wook, here's the breakdown:
In real life, the code was originally the 4 line code. As far as I know, the original 4 line version was first printed in the 1980s Star Wars Roleplaying Game by West End Games (WEG) (although they may have gotten it from a novel, I don't know for certain). Every version since then had been the 4 line version. In 1996 WEG published the supplement to "Tales of the Jedi" which had the 5-line version. KOTOR also featured that version. Since then, the 4 line version has still appeared again, and it is the 4 line version that is shown on the official starwars.com site. I'm not sure why the five line version was placed in a few sources so long after the 4 line version had been around, and why it was used again after. My guess is that some writer somewhere simply liked it and tried to weasel it into what s/he was working on for no good reason. However, if we are to make some sense out of this, then I suppose since the 5-line version happened to appear in products taking place in the distant Star Wars past, then we should explain it away by saying the 5-line code was the ancient one, and at some point before the films, the chaos line was dropped.. --66.64.26.92 16:51, 9 July 2008 (UTC)
Many thanks, Anon! Though I'll note that source (I found it later while writing this) actually refers to the 'original' code, which I'll talk about now.
The 'original' code... I know one fic associated it with Kyle Katarn and with
Jedi Outcast coming out in 2002 that would fit, but I haven't played that game so I can't confirm that it actually comes from there, or if the fic writer was assigning it to Kyle without researching (mind, this researching is a pain, so that's not a point against the story).
Ok, found the source- its from the back of
The Tales of the Jedi Companion, a 1996 WEG era supplement. And by back I mean
four pages from the end of the supplement, in a little tiny side bar of that code and nothing else. Thank god for Talk pages, I never would have found this otherwise. I'm not sure why they made it- probably to reinforce that feeling of a different time Tales worked so hard to create.
So in conclusion: four line version first, then probably the 'original' code, then the five line version of the first code, probably as a response to the 'original' code. Phew! Good to know there wasn't ever any real authorial intent that the 'original' code was more correct- it's just an EU clusterfuck centered on the Tales era.
Now, in verse the revised code was made by Jedi Master Odan-Urr, a Tales era Jedi and founder of the Great Jedi Library on Ossus sometime in his thousand year lifespan. His intent was to clarify it and make it easier to understand (apparently people were complaining about this). There's a whole bunch of sub-teachings in there as well-
worth a read if your interested. Which means it fell out of favor... oh, 4000 years before the prequals, give or take some centuries.
Where the 'original' code came from is undefined- head canon wise, from another like Odan-Urr or Yoda, trying to codify their teachings for younglings to follow.
In Disney canon, its another version of the code some Jedi follow or gets broken out for formal occasions- this happens in the Kanan comics, note.
Sorry to beat on the dead horse, but you would elaborate why? I have my own guesses, but I'm not sure if they're correct and I want confirmation.
"The more you tighten your grip, Tarkin, the more star systems will slip through your fingers."
And well, what we've seen out of insurgent fighters over the last couple decades: the threat of overwhelming firepower doesn't actually stop them, and can be an effective recruiting tool.
As to why it sounds good... you're doing something, it provides immediate, quantifiable results and it might even work in the short term, which is what your superiors are breathing down your neck about. It also provides justification for the massive Navy the Empire had- to preserve peace among the alien barbarians. The fact it doesn't work is just... quietly ignored, because funding and prestige is on the line.
