This article contains spoilers for Star Wars: The High Republic #11.
Marvel's Star Wars comics have revealed the Jedi's greatest fear. Servants of the light side of the Force, the Jedi have always eschewed emotion. "There is no emotion, there is peace," the Jedi Code declares. "There is no ignorance, there is knowledge. There is no passion, there is serenity. There is no chaos, there is harmony. There is no death, there is the Force." A Jedi strives to be in a state of absolute serenity, trusting in the will of the Force, anxious for nothing.
Yet, for all that's the case, Lucasfilm Publishing has long been warning the Star Wars: the High Republic transmedia initiative - set 200 years before the events of Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace - would reveal the Jedi's greatest fear. The Jedi may not like to admit it, but fear is a part of life, and no philosophical commitment can possibly conquer it. Little by little, comics have been honing in on the thing the Jedi fear most, a creature known as the Leveler that has been discovered by the space pirates known as the Nihil. A predator that preys on Force-sensitives, the Leveler consumes the Force in the area around it and can kill beings by drawing the midi-chlorians out of them. In Cavan Scott and Georges Jeanty's Star Wars: The High Republic #11, an encounter with the Leveler leads to the Jedi unwittingly confronting their greatest fear.
It seems the greatest fear of a Jedi is simple; to lose the Force. An encounter with the Leveler leaves newly-appointed Jedi Knight Keeve Trennis reeling, desperately attempting to persuade herself the Force is still with her even though she has lost all sense of its presence. The fear overwhelms Keeve as she sees the Leveler prey upon the Force energy of her fellow Jedi Terec, and she loses all ability to help, instead reduced to desperately attempting to flee. For Keeve Trennis, the loss of the Force means there is now nothing but fear.
It's a shocking twist, but it makes perfect sense. Like the Guardians of the Whills, the Jedi do not fear because the Force is with them. The loss of the Force strips a Jedi of the very core of their identity, of the companion that has been by their side all their lives, of the power that enables them to stand against their enemies. In the absence of the Force, the Jedi Code becomes meaningless. In place of peace, a Jedi has nothing but a storm of emotion; in place of serenity, they have only terror; and, in the absence of the Force, there is an overwhelming fear of death. Little wonder Keeve Trennis is broken by this experience.
This shocking twist reveals the hypocrisy that lies at the heart of the Jedi Order. The Jedi preach a doctrine of non-attachment, but in truth there is one thing they are attached to above all else; the Force itself. The Jedi are able to eschew all other attachments precisely because they have become one with the Force, choosing to create a bond that transcends all others. Stripped of this bond, a Jedi is reduced to nothing. Star Wars: The High Republic really has finally revealed the Jedi's greatest fear.
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November 16, 2021 at 11:55PM
