heatherslibrary | #0032: Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace, by Terry Brooks (Reply)

Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace
by Terry Brooks

p.27 The Jedi Knights were peacemakers; that was the nature of their order and the dictate of their creed. For thousands of years they had served the Republic, a constant source of stability and order in a changing universe. Founded as a theological and philosophical study group so far back that its origins were the stuff of myth, the Jedi had only gradually become aware of the presence of the Force. Years had been spent in its study, in contemplation of its meaning, in mastery of its power. Slowly the order had evolved, abandoning its practice of and belief in a life of isolated meditation in favor of a more outward-looking commitment to social responsibility. Understanding the Force sufficiently to master its power required more than private study. It required service to a greater community and implementation of a system of laws that would guarantee equal justice to all. That battle was not yet won. It probably never would be. But the Jedi Knights would not see it lost for their lack of trying.

p.57-58 Like all of the Jedi Knights, Obi-Wan Kenobi had been identified and claimed early in his life from his birth parents. He no longer remembered anything of them now; the Jedi Knights were his family. Of those, he was closest to Qui-Gon Jinn, his mentor for more than a dozen years, wh o had become his most trusted friend.
     Qui-Gon understood his attachment and shared it. Obi-Wan was the son he would never have. He was the future he would leave behind when he died. His hopes for Obi-Wan were enormous, but he did not always share his student's beliefs.

p.81-82 What interested him was her youth. She was barely out of girlhood, certainly not a full-grown woman, and yet the people of Naboo had chosen her as their Queen. This wasn't one of those monarchies where blood determined the right of rule and dynasties prevailed. The Naboo chose the wisest among their people as their ruler by popular acclaim, and Queen Amidala governed at the sufferance of their people. Why they would choose someone so young and naive was a mystery to him.

p.134-135 The Sith had come into being almost two thousand years ago. They were a cult given over to the dark side of the Force, embracing fully the concept that power denied was power wasted. A rogue Jedi Knight had founded the Sith, a singular dissident in an order of harmonious followers, a rebel who understood from the beginning that the real power of the Force lay not in the light, but in the dark. Failing to gain approval for his beliefs from the Council, he had broken with the order, departing with his knowledge and his skills, swearing in secret that he could bring down those who had dismissed him.
     He was alone at first, but others from the Jedi order who believed as he did and hwo had followed him in his early study of the dark side soon came over. Others were recruited, and soon the ranks of the Sith swelled to more than fifty in number.
     Disdaining the concepts of cooperation and consensus, relying on the belief that acquistion of power in any form lends strength and yields control, the Sith began to build their cult in opposition to the Jedi. Theirs was not an order created to serve; theirs was an order created to dominate.
     Their war with the Jedi was vengeful and furious and ultimately doomed. The rogue Jedi who had founded the Sith was its nominal leader, but his ambition excluded any sharing of power. His disciples began to conspire against him and each other almost from the beginning, so the war they instigated was as much with each other as with he Jedi.
     In the end, the Sith destroyed themselves. They destroyed their leader first, then each other. What few survived the initial bloodbath were quickly dispatched by watchful Jedi. In a matter of weeks, all of them died.

p.241 "What are midi-chlorians?"
     Wind whipped at Qui-Gon's long hair, blowing strands of it across his strong face. "Midi-chlorians are microscopic life-forms that reside within the cells of all living things and communicate with the Force." "They live inside of me?" the boy asked. "In your cells." Qui-Gon paused. "We are symbionts with the midi-chlorians." "Symbi-what?" "Symbionts. Life-forms living together for mutual advantage. Without the midi-chlorians, life could not exist, and we would have no knowledge of the Force. Our midi-chlorians continually speak to us, Annie, telling us the will of the Force."

p.277 Somewhere in the back of his mind where he would admit such things privately, he knew how foolish it was even to make such a commitment. But he was young and brave at heart, and he lived his life pretty much on his own terms because to live it any other way would have broken him long ago.

NAMES: Eritaé, Padmé, Rabé, Billaba, Even, Piell, Malastare, Amedda, Mak, Obitoki, Ki-Adi-Mundi, Adi, Gallia, depa, Baranta, Sandage, Teemto, Pagalies, Elan, Xelbree, Cliegg, Holdfast, Bozzie, Wan, Aldar, Beedo, Ody, Mandrell, Guo, Panaka, Boles, Roor, Quandinaros, Fulumpasets, Motts, Peko Peko, Kitster, Haako, Valorum, Ikopi, Gasgano, Mos Espa, Rimkar, Watto, Anakin, Mawhonic