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A question about Jedi
Do Jedi study warfare and tactics? I know they study dueling, but do they also look at more large-scale battles? I was thinking about the Clone Wars revival today and I was kinda wondering why the Republic entrusted their military power to what were essentially warrior monks. Was it just a case of “there’s literally no one else”?
I am not entirely sure in what time frame the new clone wars show will take place, but I'm a pretty big star wars fan and have been playing the Star Wars: The Old Republic MMORPG on and off since it first came out. One of the cool things I got when I preordered the game was this book that is written like a journal from the point of view of a Jedi Master. Not sure if this is canon, but he actually addresses this point really specifically.
Apparently, after the very first Force Wars (the first time that there was a divergence between groups of people deciding that access to the force meant they should rule vs. those who thought it should only be used for knowledge) that was the birth of the difference between Jedi and Sith. As a result of this very first fracturing of force users, the early Jedi studied self defense and the ways of the war only because they recognized the importance of protecting the secrets they discovered, and they correctly predicted that there would always be those who would want to use the Force for personal gain.
If that's the case, it makes sense that that type of teaching would be passed down and probably grown a lot more over the centuries to diverge away from the defensive aspect of it, and start incorporating more offensive tactics. So the hundreds of thousands of years later, as Jedi evolved, combat and tactics is most likely a huge part of their training.
Yeah, that's a good point. LOL.
This may be covered somewhere; I never paid much attention to EU prequel stuff, but did the Old Republic even have a military at the time of the clone wars?
It seems like the clone army was pretty much it. Since there was no standing army, there'd be no war colleges or academies where people study large scale strategy or wargaming. Did the Jedi just spend time wargaming with hypothetical armies that don't exist, fighting against an enemy that also may not exist? It seems like at the outbreak of the clone wars, the Jedi hit the ground running and were able to seamlessly act as field commanders and generals, so I imagine that has to be the case, right?
That's what I would assume. The Old Republic may not have had an army (I am not sure, tbh), but at the very least Jedi have been battling for their way of life for centuries - starting with the first Force Wars - so they have at least some basic knowledge. And the fact that it shows them pretty much just hitting the ground running kind of seals that idea in my head, too.
I always got the impression that the Jedi were very highly regarded across the galaxy. As a thousands-year old Order, they'd become a part of the Galactic culture. While they were not interventionists, they were valued for their wisdom, counsel, and guidance. They did have the knowledge of, and ability to utilize the Force, after all.
I think the Republic put the Jedi in charge because of that. Because they were seen as wise, noble, and were generally highly respected. They had an air of authority, stemming from the legitimacy of their teachings.
While the Jedi did function as a military several times in their history, and several competent strategists were among their ranks, I doubt that the order had an extensive military and tactical training.
Jedi were a peacekeeping force, and had not been in any kind of military structure for almost a millennia prior to the Clone Wars. Whatever the average Jedi knew about battlefield tactics seems to be little more than you could learn by skimming Sun Tzus The Art of War.
I mean, just look at the tactics they regularly employed during the clone wars. The first battle for Geonosis, for instance, was a huge mess. Having troops fight a full frontal assault against another, in a desert without much cover and regularly obstructed sight lines due to sand, as opposed to extracting the prisoners they came to rescue, retreating to their fleet in orbit and blockading the planet (which would not only have saved thousands of soldiers but also allowed them to bombard the droid factories and prevent the escape of pretty much all of the CIS leadership, thus ending the war in hours) was just bad tactics. It's fighting strong instead of smart, and just about what a warrior monk with no actual experience in military operations would most likely do.
Seems like in a real life star wars battle, the entire battle would be solely decided on gaining space superiority. The ground fighting doesn't really matter whatsoever if the enemy can just drop the equivelents of nukes on your forces over and over without any hope of ever stopping them (They'd be in space after all).
Yes, pretty much. Though there would be other factors in play, of course. Like keeping infrastructure you want to capture intact, planetary shields, orbital defenses, surface to space weapons, civilian populations...
Several of those usually make orbital strikes difficult for "the good guys". However, Geonosis had none of those, but was treated as if it had.
I would say that the Geonosians are a primarily subterranean species which might have something to do with it. If they are underground they might not be able to see or target or even reach the factories and such. Obviously there are entrances you can target from space but I think the invasion was actually necessary in this case because everything was underground. I'm trying to look at some scenes from the movie now to verify and I'm not really seeing anything big above ground. It's been a while since I watched that particular movie though as I find it to be the worst.