So what's up with people in the Star Wars universe not knowing about the Jedi or the Force or thinking it's stuff of legends when they should know?

[AuthenticM]

This is something super weird that happened first with the trailer for The Force Awakens. Rey and Finn are like "we've heard stories..." and Harrison Ford is all "it's true... all of it".

Then in The Mandalorian, which takes place five years after Return of the Jedi, has a character say something about baby Yoda like "I've heard of such people; they can do stuff with their minds".

like, what the fuck is this? They are talking like the Jedi and the Force are a relic from an ancient JRPG civilization or some shit. It doesn't make any sense. The Jedi was part of the government!

Every schmuck has the technology for a space ship and to jump through slipspace, but none of you assholes have the Internet? Is the Empire actually AT&T from the future?

 

[Kalentan]

Propaganda works.

 

[Dr Doom]

I mean Era doesn't believe in God.
have you seen the Catholic threads.

can't believe what you don't see.

can't see The Force

 

[Platy]

Return of the Jedi is like 40 years after jedis were a common presence in the galaxy ..

also the galaxy is a BIG place

 

[BDS]

The Empire engaged in a systemic propaganda campaign to erase memory of the Jedi by destroying their artifacts and cultural centers, killing people who talked about them publicly, etc.

 

[Disclaimer]

The galaxy is a big place except when it's not.

 

[matrix-cat]

Nobody in Star Wars has seen Star Wars.

 

[FF Seraphim]

This is extremely weird especially for the Mandalorians who literally had a war with the Jedi and almost all their traditions and skills are based off fighting said Jedi. They should know about the force since they actually pass down stories of such things. The Darksaber isn't even that long ago when it was "lost".

 

[Piichan]

Star Wars is dumb and poorly written, is the answer you're looking for.

 

[MechaMarmaset]

I don't know shit about most the religions in the world and I'm on the same planet. You expect different species lightyears away from each other to all know about a small group of space knights that kinda move things around with their minds?

 

[boontobias]

Theres a billion planets and we saw like 200 jedi across 9 movies, 5 canon games, and 3 canon shows

 

[Team_Feisar]

Even in the OT, the Jedi are known as an ancient religion and several people (Han, "i find your lack of faith disturbing"-officer) treat the force as some religious BS.
We get to know the galaxy from the perspective of the Jedi and from the Start see the force as a real thing. It´s not so far fetched that most of the galaxies population has never actually seen a Jedi or witnessed the force being used.
There were around 10.000 Jedi at the height of the Republic, which is not much considering the size of a complete Galaxy.
And afaik the Jedi Order was mainly seen as some kind of warrior monks, i don´t think they were going around showing of force tricks on Galaxy-Youtube.
Still, the mere existance of the Jedi should not be that big of a mystery at the time of the ST, i agree with that.

 

[Donos]

vast galaxy and ep 4-6 was already a long while after order 66... or magnets

 

[FlintSpace]

Just like SW1, SW7 was made for newcomer kids. I can imagine parents taking their kids to see Star Wars and the line " it's true... all of it" resonated with them. I believe that's what director had in mind.

Also, stop analyzing the movies. We know they were crap and not for us. I have gone numb.

 

[Jodez99]

Star Wars is dumb and poorly written, is the answer you're looking for.

Click to shrink...

.

 

[Nugnip]

Look how fucking hard it is to send a message or data in that universe. No they obviously don't have any equivalent of the Internet.

 

[Crossing Eden]

-In the two decades between the PT and the OT, nearly all records of the Jedi were redacted or erased, with the only information being propaganda from the empire about how they're traitors. The galaxy is a big place and the Jedi were dwindling to begin with by the time of the PT.

-In the 30 years between the OT and the ST, again, emphasis that this is a post Jedi extinction period, Luke Skywalker kept to himself as he searched the galaxy for Jedi lore. Instead of establishing himself as a major presence during the New Republic. His temple was in a hidden location that few people knew about. So consider that in a galaxy, very little people had actually seen Jedi, they had only heard of them. And because of that a lot of the stories were exaggerated. Especially stories about Luke's accomplishments. And no, SW doesn't really have an internet social media age equivalent.


That's the lore answer, the real answer is that when the first film was originally written, the idea was that the destruction of the Jedi had happened a lot longer ago than twenty years ago.

 

[JonnyDBrit]

Return of the Jedi is like 40 years after jedis were a common presence in the galaxy ..

also the galaxy is a BIG place

Click to shrink...

25 or so. A New Hope is set about 20 years after the Purge, so The Mandalorian takes place at the 30 or so mark.

The longstanding rationalisation of this has been that while the Jedi were a thing people technically knew existed, due to the sheer scale of galactic civilisation, the average person never really saw much of them. Then with a subsequent propaganda game by the Empire, that made people increasingly chalk up what stories they had heard as being nonsense.

I mean, if you wanted an analogy, it'd be a bit like Shinto priests were legit capable of contacting spirits, performing exorcisms, so on. You might know they technically exist, but you'd be given to being doubtful of their abilities until if/when one showed up and did their stuff, which is unlikely given they're largely localised to one part of the world

Out of universe, it's to help maintain people being amazed by the force, and ignorant of what it's capable of

 

[Couscous]

You didn't even mention the worst one. The Mandalorian armour smith didn't know shit about the Jedi even though the Jedi helped Mandalore during the Clone Wars 30 years before the events of The Mandalorian. How does she not know about that? TCW season 7 will have a full arc dedicated to the Siege of Mandalore lol.

 

[Deleted member 21339]

Nobody in Star Wars has seen Star Wars.

Click to shrink...

Except Rey. She had the trilogy on blu ray. ROTJ was her favorite

 

[NekoNeko]

I don't know shit about most the religions in the world and I'm on the same planet. You expect different species lightyears away from each other to all know about a small group of space knights that kinda move things around with their minds?

Click to shrink...

if people from Cheondoism could move stuff with their mind you'd better believe i knew everything about them.

 

[Soda]

Even in the OT, the Jedi are known as an ancient religion and several people (Han, "i find your lack of faith disturbing"-officer) treat the force as some religious BS.
We get to know the galaxy from the perspective of the Jedi and from the Start see the force as a real thing. It´s not so far fetched that most of the galaxies population has never actually seen a Jedi or witnessed the force being used.
There were around 10.000 Jedi at the height of the Republic, which is not much considering the size of a complete Galaxy.
And afaik the Jedi Order was mainly seen as some kind of warrior monks, i don´t think they were going around showing of force tricks on Galaxy-Youtube.
Still, the mere existance of the Jedi should not be that big of a mystery at the time of the ST, i agree with that.

Click to shrink...

Jedi showboating their tricks on Galaxy-Youtube?

Holy shit. I want the next SW movie to star Ryan Reynolds as a Jedi that doesn't care about fighting or tHe ReSiStAnCe and just uses his skills for pure profiteering and gags.

 

[PanzerKraken]

It's a galaxy of millions of planets. There was only a couple thousand jedi at their height, and the Jedi kept their activities mostly down low, they weren't going around on TV doing magic tricks and such.

There was less jedi than the population of some large towns for a massive galaxy. Even during the Clone Wars ppl who would see a jedi in action were shocked and awed cause they never seen such a thing in person, it's all mostly just stories and such. The Jedi also were essentially diplomats and enforcers for the Republic which was at peace for like 1000 years, so the jedi were pretty low key. To many of the out rim planets who were not part of the republic, the Jedi were nothing.

After ROTJ especially the Empire did everything to remove the jedi from the galaxy destroying anything that was there and erasing their past, as well as propaganda.

This is extremely weird especially for the Mandalorians who literally had a war with the Jedi and almost all their traditions and skills are based off fighting said Jedi. They should know about the force since they actually pass down stories of such things. The Darksaber isn't even that long ago when it was "lost".

Click to shrink...

A war of thousands of soldiers on both sides, and you got 2-3 jedi involved. During the Clone Wars often there was no jedi present and battles and even when there was, it would be one typically leading as a General at best. The jedi were not that prolific as folks like to think, it's just that the shows and such would focus on those characters who are a tiny part of a huge galactic conflict involving millions

 

[Disclaimer]

The longstanding rationalisation of this has been that while the Jedi were a thing people technically knew existed, due to the sheer scale of galactic civilisation, the average person never really saw much of them. Then with a subsequent propaganda game by the Empire, that made people increasingly chalk up what stories they had heard as being nonsense.

Click to shrink...

And the number of people who interacted with the Jedi Order really would have been quite low, even in wartime, considering the Clone Wars' combatants were primarily comprised of (1) droids and (2) clone troopers with accelerated aging.

 

[Sander VF]

If Star Wars didn't have magic faster than light communications and travel, distant planets not knowing jack shit would actually be pretty reasonable and realistic.

Here's the thing, without magic FTL nonsense, a galaxy- spanning civilization will be so damn divergent, parts of it will have zero contact with each other and, given enough time, won't resemble each other even if they are the same species.

Weird tentacle beasts from planet kapux? Yeah those are human. Mechanical beings from planet Drabul? Human. A massive Matrioshka Brain God Entity built around a star? Trillions of humans uploaded into a single hive-mind.

 

[Pop-O-Matic]

I mean, the Jedi and the Force were treated the same way back in ANH, when just a couple of decades prior they were essentially the Republic's primary law enforcement agents. Hell, we had a high-ranking Imperial officer question the existence of the Force and call Darth Vader superstitious to his face in that movie.

I think the simple answer is that George didn't think things through when he wrote the Prequels.

 

[caliph95]

The people in the Sequel trilogy i can buy thinking jedis are a myth honestly

I did found the Armorer being like "i heard about these wizards call Jedi" super weird because Mandalorians history has been fighting jedi and The Darksabre being a holy relic snd wasn't that long ago since Rebels where Sabine was The Mandalore

 

[BDS]

The Mandalorian armour smith didn't know shit about the Jedi even though the Jedi helped Mandalore during the Clone Wars 30 years before the events of The Mandalorian. How does she not know about it? TCW season 7 will have a full arc dedicated to the Siege of Mandalore lol.

Click to shrink...

What do you mean, she didn't know shit? She was the only one who did know anything about the Jedi, and she told Mando and the others about them. She was likely a child when the siege of Mandalore happened.

 

[Deleted member 17207]

It's a galaxy of millions of planets. There was only a couple thousand jedi at their height, and the Jedi kept their activities mostly down low, they weren't going around on TV doing magic tricks and such.

There was less jedi than the population of some large towns for a massive galaxy. Even during the Clone Wars ppl who would see a jedi in action were shocked and awed cause they never seen such a thing in person, it's all mostly just stories and such. The Jedi also were essentially diplomats and enforcers for the Republic which was at peace for like 1000 years, so the jedi were pretty low key. To many of the out rim planets who were not part of the republic, the Jedi were nothing.

After ROTJ especially the Empire did everything to remove the jedi from the galaxy destroying anything that was there and erasing their past, as well as propaganda.



A war of thousands of soldiers on both sides, and you got 2-3 jedi involved. During the Clone Wars often there was no jedi present and battles and even when there was, it would be one typically leading as a General at best. The jedi were not that prolific as folks like to think, it's just that the shows and such would focus on those characters who are a tiny part of a huge galactic conflict involving millions

Click to shrink...

This.

Also - let's not forget people - this is fantasy, suspend your disbelief a little bit and just have fun.

 

[sirap]

They don't have our internet.

I believe a lot of conflict in that universe could've been avoided if they just had easy access to porn.

 

[Crossing Eden]

If Star Wars didn't have magic faster than light communications and travel, distant planets not knowing jack shit would actually be pretty reasonable and realistic.

Click to shrink...

You're assuming that the average citizen can afford light speed travel to different planets. Or even leave the planet they're born on.

 

[Mivey]

I mean Era doesn't believe in God.
have you seen the Catholic threads.

can't believe what you don't see.

can't see The Force

Click to shrink...

Except the Force is real, and can kill you. The Catholic church wouldn't have problems with people leaving if the Pope could shoot lightning from his hands.
The Jedi are not a religion in the sense that they expect you to have faith, after all everyone can see that they have magical abilities.

 

[Deleted member 9932]

If there's one thing lucas was never able to capture and display is the vastness of the galaxy.

 

[SABO.]

Aww I didnt want to know Baby Yoda isnt Baby Yoda.

 

[Couscous]

What do you mean, she didn't know shit? She was the only one who did know anything about the Jedi, and she told Mando and the others about them. She was likely a child when the siege of Mandalore happened.

Click to shrink...

She knew about Jedi fighting Mandalorians hundreds of years ago and called them enemies of Mandalorians even though the Jedi liberated Mandalore (with the help of clone troopers) during the Clone Wars whilst she was probably alive.

 

[Sander VF]

You're assuming that the average citizen can afford light speed travel to different planets.

Click to shrink...

They don't really need to with FTL communications. They can get news in minutes, rather than months, years or even centuries it would take at subluminal.

 

[NekoFever]

There are a few thousand Jedi in a galaxy of trillions and trillions of people. Most would never see one, maybe even never be on the same planet as one. Even at their height, in TPM, they go to an Outer Rim planet in Tattooine and find people are at best indifferent and dismissive to them.

Add a decades-long campaign of propaganda aimed at painting them as traitors and then completely erasing them. And even when they came back in ROTJ, Luke's Jedi Order (canon and Legends) wasn't huge.

And there's all kinds of weird, supernatural (to us) stuff in the Star Wars galaxy, so I'm sure they weren't the only people with telekinesis, etc.

 

[Crossing Eden]

Except the Force is real, and can kill you. The Catholic church wouldn't have problems with people leaving if the Pope could shoot lightning from his hands. It's not a religion in the sense that it expects you to have faith.

Click to shrink...

In a galaxy with trillions of people only 10K Jedi were active. Most people didn't even know that the force could cause lightning.

 

[Pop-O-Matic]

If there's one thing lucas was never able to capture and display is the vastness of the galaxy.

Click to shrink...

The Star Wars universe is ridiculously small. Literally no comic, novel, video game, audio drama, action figure character profile, cereal commercial, etc, etc. can be more than two degrees removed from some shit from the Saga films.

 

[caliph95]

She knew about Jedi fighting Mandalorians hundreds of years ago and called them enemies of Mandalorians even though the Jedi liberated Mandalore (with the help of clone troopers) during the Clone Wars whilst she was probably alive.

Click to shrink...

The armorer acting like it's a legend is just weird

Everyone else i can get but from her it's weird

 

[Kain]

The Empire engaged in a systemic propaganda campaign to erase memory of the Jedi by destroying their artifacts and cultural centers, killing people who talked about them publicly, etc.

Click to shrink...

This is the only thing the empire is adept at, apparently

 

[PeskyToaster]

because the universe is huge, a lot of the stories take place in the outer rim which is even more isolated. While an extreme example, we still have groups of people on Earth that haven't been exposed to the modern world. I don't think it's a huge leap to say that there are people who wouldn't know about the Clone Wars or even the Republic in the Outer Rim.

I mean, the Jedi and the Force were treated the same way back in ANH, when just a couple of decades prior they were essentially the Republic's primary law enforcement agents. Hell, we had a high-ranking Imperial officer question the existence of the Force and call Darth Vader superstitious to his face in that movie.

I think the simple answer is that George didn't think things through when he wrote the Prequels.

Click to shrink...

It's 100% that the prequels took place too soon before the OT which crunched the timeline. Does anyone have any information on why that particular timeframe was chosen for the prequels. It's kind of interesting now that I think about it more.

If Star Wars didn't have magic faster than light communications and travel, distant planets not knowing jack shit would actually be pretty reasonable and realistic.

Here's the thing, without magic FTL nonsense, a galaxy- spanning civilization will be so damn divergent, parts of it will have zero contact with each other and, given enough time, won't resemble each other even they are the same species.

Weird tentacle beasts from planet kapux? Yeah those are human. Mechanical beings from planet Drabul? Human. A massive Matrioshka Brain God Entity built around a star? Trillions of humans uploaded into a single hive-mind.

Click to shrink...

Yeah but just think about our own planet with our own ability to instantly communicate across it and what people still don't know about and don't believe happened. It's certainly plausible though I think they could've made it more plausible by settings the PT, OT, and ST further apart.

 

[Heart of Poumn]

Jedi mind tricks.

 

[Reizzz]

It's a galaxy....


There are ppl in real life that think the earth is flat..

 

[Deleted member 17207]

The Star Wars universe is ridiculously small. Literally no comic, novel, video game, audio drama, action figure character profile, cereal commercial, etc, etc. can be more than two degrees removed from some shit from the Saga films.

Click to shrink...

Mandalorian says hi tho

 

[Scarlet Spider]

Random Resistance nobodies in ROS knew about the Sith and them being the only ones capable of cloning despite Kamino engineering Clonetroopers during the Galactic Republic.

 

[Mivey]

In a galaxy with trillions of people only 10K Jedi were active. Most people didn't even know that the force could cause lightning.

Click to shrink...

I'll grant you lightning, but there's many times during the Clone War period where a lot of high-level force users were doing crazy stunts, in public too. They don't have any video recordings of stuff that happened a few decades ago? What about Space Wikipedia that could just tell you "yeah, this is real, here's a never ending list of recorded, confirmed public sightings and other irrefutable, public evidence"

 

[Yerffej]

Because apparently in a universe where lightspeed travel exists, along with laser swords, hover vehicles, and all other forms of crazy high tech stuff, there's no form of mass media or broad communications. It's hilarious, really.

 

[Kinggroin]

It's like Era, and God.

Spoiler

*snicker*

Because apparently in a universe where lightspeed travel exists, along with laser swords, hover vehicles, and all other forms of crazy high tech stuff, there's no form of mass media or broad communications. It's hilarious, really.

Click to shrink...

Haha. Yeah.

 

[Deleted member 60096]

Even in the OT, the Jedi are known as an ancient religion and several people (Han, "i find your lack of faith disturbing"-officer) treat the force as some religious BS.
We get to know the galaxy from the perspective of the Jedi and from the Start see the force as a real thing. It´s not so far fetched that most of the galaxies population has never actually seen a Jedi or witnessed the force being used.
There were around 10.000 Jedi at the height of the Republic, which is not much considering the size of a complete Galaxy.
And afaik the Jedi Order was mainly seen as some kind of warrior monks, i don´t think they were going around showing of force tricks on Galaxy-Youtube.
Still, the mere existance of the Jedi should not be that big of a mystery at the time of the ST, i agree with that.

Click to shrink...

Tbf people knew of the Jedi, it's just that in First Order controlled areas were presented with propoganda making them out to be just a myth. Which is why Han says "the stories are true" in TFA. The knowledge is out there, it's just to many it is assumed to be fake