In the Star Wars Legends continuity, Luke Skywalker establishes the New Jedi Order, a vastly-improved successor to the prequel-era Jedi Order that can serve as a model for Rey’s generation of Jedi in the current canon. Rey is the last living Jedi in the final scene of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, and since the Star Wars galaxy is now in nearly the same position as it was at the end of Return of the Jedi, Rey is in the perfect position to rebuild the Order and fix its many flaws. The current canon’s Luke failed to improve the Jedi, but perhaps Rey will succeed in doing so.
The Star Wars prequels portrayed a highly-flawed Jedi Order that the Sith destroyed at the end of the Clone Wars. In Return of the Jedi, Luke Skywalker grows beyond their failings and becomes the first of a new type of Jedi. The Legends continuity respects this character trajectory and has Luke establish the New Jedi Order with healthier practices, while the current canon gives Luke a weaker reiteration of his Return of the Jedi arc, forgoing the opportunity to depict his reformed Jedi. This opportunity has returned with the announcement of a new Star Wars film starring Rey, allowing her to potentially give the New Jedi Order its canon equivalent.
Luke’s Jedi Join At Any Age
The old Jedi Order typically chose its initiates, finding Force-sensitives throughout the galaxy and taking them from their families as infants, raising them in the Jedi Temple on Coruscant before they can form attachments. This controversial practice was notably criticized by Palpatine in the novelization of Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith by Matthew Stover, as it could easily be interpreted as a form of indoctrination. Moreover, while this practice brings beings from all over the galaxy (regardless of their social standing or bloodline) into the Order, it only allows those deemed strong enough in the Force to become Jedi.
Legends-era Star Wars material eschews this practice in Luke’s New Jedi Order. Any being of any age and level of strength in the Force may join the New Jedi Order voluntarily, and all are treated as potentially valuable. This is a vast improvement over the prequel-era Jedi Order, as it is far more inclusive and sees the potential in every being. Although the original and prequel Star Wars trilogies already made this point quite clear, the sequel trilogy often reiterates that anybody can potentially become a Jedi. Luke’s Legends-era New Jedi Order embodies this ideal, and Rey’s generation of Jedi ought to introduce this mindset to the current canon.
Luke’s Jedi Remain In Touch With The Star Wars Galaxy
The belief that anyone can be a Jedi is further explored in Legends. In Luke’s New Jedi Order, it is not enough that anyone can be a Jedi, a Jedi should also be anyone. Roger MacBride Allen’s 1995 novel Ambush at Corellia includes one of Legends’ most important scenes regarding the New Jedi Order’s philosophy. Luke Skywalker and Mon Mothma discuss the role of the Jedi in the New Republic and the galaxy writ large. Luke and his Jedi are not to become an elite priesthood like their predecessors, but instead remain in touch with the common people of the galaxy because they are the common people of the galaxy.
Luke’s Jedi strive to have a presence on as many worlds, and even cities, as possible, maintaining their ordinary lives and jobs (from soldiers and doctors to pilots and politicians) alongside their duties as Jedi Knights. One of the reasons why the old Jedi Order grew unbalanced is that it lost touch with the Republic’s citizenry and became an oversight-free arm of its government. The New Jedi Order’s Knights were one with the people they served, keeping them grounded. Just as Luke Skywalker was a farmboy before he became a Jedi, Rey was a scavenger, and thus ought to maintain this Legends-era philosophy in her iteration of the Jedi.
The New Jedi Order Allows (& Encourages) Healthy Attachment
Another fault in the prequel-era Jedi Order is their practice of suppressing their emotions, instead of controlling them. Attachments were forbidden, preventing normal and emotionally healthy friendships and romantic relationships. As shown in the prequels, one of the biggest factors in Anakin Skywalker’s fall to the dark side was his desire to protect Padmé, with whom he was secretly married. Luke Skywalker not only allowed attachments in the Legends-era New Jedi Order, but also encouraged them, promoting healthy attachments rather than forbidding them. Luke Skywalker and fellow Jedi Mara Jade married in Legends, and the New Jedi Order’s views on attachment led to the creation of Jedi wedding ceremonies.
Mara Jade’s death at the hands of Darth Caedus did not, ultimately, lead to Luke falling to the dark side, nor did the apparent death of Jan Ors lead to Kyle Katarn’s fall (before Ors was revealed to be alive), proving that Jedi should form attachments if they are healthy. Rey’s romance with Kylo Ren was largely an abusive and unhealthy relationship, but she may pursue another, healthier, love-interest in her upcoming film (perhaps with fellow Force-sensitive, Finn). If this is the case, she should permit healthy attachments in her generation of Jedi.
The Dark Side No Longer Dominates One’s Destiny
Before Luke formed the New Jedi Order in Legends, he helped Darth Vader become Anakin Skywalker once again and, during the events of Tom Veitch’s Dark Empire, came dangerously close to falling to the dark side himself. Mara Jade, who is one of Luke Skywalker’s best friends and eventual wife, was raised by Emperor Palpatine himself as an Emperor’s Hand (and a Sith in all but name) before she became a Jedi Knight. Due to this, Luke eschewed the old Jedi philosophy that anyone who has fallen to the dark side can never return from it.
While Luke’s New Jedi Order is aware that the dark side is a corruption of the Force with no redeeming qualities, they also recognize it as comparable to an addictive substance, and thus endeavor to break its influence on Force users rather than kill them by default. Rey attempted to convince Kylo Ren to become Ben Solo once more in the current canon’s sequel trilogy, but only succeeded (with the help of Leia and the memory of Han Solo) in The Rise of Skywalker. Like the Legends-era Luke, Rey must know that dark side users can potentially turn over a new leaf and reflect this perspective in her Jedi Order.
Lightsabers Are Built Differently In Luke’s Jedi Order
A relatively minor, yet notable difference between Luke’s New Jedi Order and the prequel-era Jedi is how they build their lightsabers. In Legends, the Galactic Empire destroyed most natural sources of lightsaber crystals throughout the galaxy, making synthetic lightsaber crystals the norm in the New Jedi Order. Moreover, Luke Skywalker all but eliminated the lightsaber’s vulnerability to water by making waterproofing a standard practice in lightsaber construction. This is one of the few improvements that Rey cannot make to her Jedi Order, as all generations of lightsabers appear to be waterproof in the current canon, and natural sources of Kyber crystals appear to still exist after the Empire’s reign.
Luke Skywalker Used His Experiences To Form The New Jedi Path
Luke Skywalker’s Jedi path in the Star Wars original trilogy is extremely different from that of the prequel-era Jedi, as he began his journey as a young adult after the Jedi Order was destroyed. Luke’s unorthodox path to Jedi Knighthood became the norm in the Legends-era New Jedi Order, whose members explored the galaxy and learned about themselves and the Force through action, rather than theory (though classes were held in Luke’s temple). This led to Jedi forming unique connections to the Force and becoming experienced protectors of the galaxy far sooner, and this practice may be replicated in Rey’s generation of Jedi, reflecting her journey in the Star Wars sequels.
