What you describe sounds exactly how I imagine the beginnings of the Sith. A group of Jedi that thought they know best and therefore they are entitled to rule. From there on it became a slippery slope leading to the attempts at world domination.
The prequel Jedi had seemingly forsaken all political power. On the political scene they function merely as mediators and advisors. It's up in the air if that how have always been or if they had gone for the other extreme in reaction to the Sith.
I am of two minds about at what point they started preferring children over adults. You are certainly right that recruiting adults would have been easier, since they wouldn't have to take part in raising them and deal with their parents and regulations about child protection and so on. OTOH the attractiveness of being a Jedi for someone not raised as one depends on the palatability of their philosophy and rules - could they own things? How about getting married?
I think that by necessity they would have taken only adult members in their beginnings. The only children they taught would have been their own kids, nephews, nieces, orphans they took in etc. I mean, who would have sent them their kid for training anyway? It might make sense for the inhabitants of Jedha to send some of their children to the Guardians of the Whills since they are familiar with their ways. OTOH Force sensitive children are born all over the galaxy and their parents have most likely never even heard of the Jedi.
So I think that only after they became a stable, respectable institution, they would have been able to start some sort of a prep school with the government's backing. That prep school would have ultimately evolved into what we see in the prequels.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
timeasmymeasure
Re: Recruiting
Date: 2019-02-08 09:01 pm (UTC)The prequel Jedi had seemingly forsaken all political power. On the political scene they function merely as mediators and advisors. It's up in the air if that how have always been or if they had gone for the other extreme in reaction to the Sith.
I am of two minds about at what point they started preferring children over adults. You are certainly right that recruiting adults would have been easier, since they wouldn't have to take part in raising them and deal with their parents and regulations about child protection and so on. OTOH the attractiveness of being a Jedi for someone not raised as one depends on the palatability of their philosophy and rules - could they own things? How about getting married?
I think that by necessity they would have taken only adult members in their beginnings. The only children they taught would have been their own kids, nephews, nieces, orphans they took in etc. I mean, who would have sent them their kid for training anyway? It might make sense for the inhabitants of Jedha to send some of their children to the Guardians of the Whills since they are familiar with their ways. OTOH Force sensitive children are born all over the galaxy and their parents have most likely never even heard of the Jedi.
So I think that only after they became a stable, respectable institution, they would have been able to start some sort of a prep school with the government's backing. That prep school would have ultimately evolved into what we see in the prequels.