“The Jedi were real?”

It's actually 53 years.

Furthermore there were only 10.000 Jedi during their prime. The majority of people (especially those who lived outside of the Republic areas) has never met or even seen a Jedi in person.

Just think about Watto or Han Solo. They didn't believe in Jedi as well.

 

Even at their peak during the High Republic era the Jedi were oddly insulated and isolated to certain circles. There are civilizations that actually fear the Jedi as some mythical wizards. They kept their distance as a rule from the general public and just like in the PT they were often used in tense and hostile situations which surely added to the mystery and skepticism. The story of Order 66 is the stuff of fantasy in itself and the reality of it was that the Empire went to great lengths to virtually erase any tangible evidence of the Jedi Order. Hell, even Imperial Officers who were frequently Force choked mocked Vader's Force abilities as some sort of weird sorcery.

To get real world and meta about it, from the opening of A New Hope, we are told that the Jedi are mystical and mythical. Rare. Special. They are supposed to be thought of as increasingly non-existent and the subject of tales and myths.

 

Han didn't believe in the Force but I don't recall him saying anything about Jedi not being real. I'd imagine he'd heard of them but didn't believe all the hype. As for Watto, I didn't get the impression he didn't believe in them. Maybe he didn't think Qui Gon was a Jedi but he knew about Jedi Mind Tricks and pointed out that it wouldn't work on him.

 

Perhaps(*) there was an Imperial effort to make the word 'Jedi' taboo, and definitively ban it to all.
It's believable on the part of a totalitarian government : I believe that in North Korea there are certain countries whose name it is better not to pronunce, and I don't know if they even know the internet.


(*) I don't know if this has been stated in Canon

 

I'm not at a quotable level of knowledge here, But you are right on with this. I know somewhere, I think in a comic run, Mas Ameda held a sort of ceremony destroying Jedi artifacts and had amassed a collection of lightsaber hilts following Order 66. It's also been mentioned in many locations that Emperor Palpatine had made any relics or symbols of the Jedi Order contraband. Tales of the Jedi as traitors to the Republic spread across the Galaxy, examples of this can be seen in the Ahsoka novel and her last entry in TOTJ, as well as the Inquisitor scenes early in the OWK series. Even Owen Lars' opinions on the Jedi, although also personal, were in line with common propaganda. So yes, even if it were not an actual mandate, I would say that the mere use of the word "Jedi" was considered a dangerous proposition.

 

Wise.
What Adolf Hitler did in Europe was 70 years ago. And yet his memory is still alive, despite the ban on representing any nazi sign.

 

But it's not forbidden to talk about Hitler and memory of that events were actively kept alive (in most cases in hopes to learn from history (we don't learn from history though, that learning from history fails on the long run too often)). And it's not that all symbols are forbidden per se. At least not here in Germany. You would find them in all the history books in school teaching that era.

 

Some people disbelieve the moon landings and that the earth is a globe.

Some people in the GFFA not being fully informed about the reality of the Jedi is perfectly plausible.

And that enhances the universe IMO. Having locations and circumstances that aren't influenced by knowledge of or the actions of the Jedi, The Empire, the Republic and so on allows for more diversity in the storylines. If wanted.

 

But what if you can't make anyone else believe you, or see what you saw?

 

Secretive is the wrong word, by isolated and insulated, what I meant was that they were not spread evenly throughout the Galaxy, they tended to be where they were needed, and they largely did not get attached to people or places. Even when we see them with outposts and temples on various planets, they are very hermit-like.

Ok, so excellent point, and for an in-universe parallel, I give you Dalna. There was a deadly and destructive incident on Dalna involving the Jedi, and more than a hundred years later, the people of Dalna knew of the Jedi, they were taught of the Jedi, and they did not like nor trust the Jedi. Surely there are other examples of this around the Galaxy. Yes, it does prove the existence of the Jedi to the Dalnans, but it starts the narrative of them as Boogymen, which is how truths can become thought of as myth and legend.

Exactly. It's a matter of scale. At their heights, the Jedi Order numbered in the tens of thousands. It was said that Trillions of beings died on Alderaan. So even if every Jedi in existence were on a single Core World of that size, they would be extremely rare. But they were spread across the Galaxy.

The Rey of it all is also a sign of the times. If you hold to the TFA/ANH formula, Luke surely heard wild tales and stories of Jedi around the spaceport. They had been all but extinct for less than 20 years. Add almost 30 years to that and in another Outer Rim spaceport, Rey hears far fewer stories and they are now thought of more as myth. Rey had heard of Jedi, it was just less realistic in her time and place.

 

Well it probably doesn't apply to the force (which is just an excuse to make things happen in a story and ordinary people struggling with belief in it does not really feature at all in Star Wars). I was thinking more generally. That an epiphany can be a curse if you cannot share it with others. Seeing and knowing things that others don't is one way of defining insanity.

 

I think about it as a Batman paradox. While Star Wars is advanced and Republic being pangalactic civilization, lot of the tech and how the people fare is retrofuturistic.
Starfighters being much like modded cars and easy to repair with wrench and bag of other mechanical tools with spare parts, like you could in your garage, media and information being relayed by oldschool satelite antennae by packets like in the times of dial up (Rogue One), besides the state controlled Holonet (being pretty much TV/Radio), but something like internet not existing. Most of the databases are closed circuit and everyone transfers the data on physical media like discs or computer spikes.

Like Batman - having a multibillionare masked vigilante in this day and age with the technological options we have is a nonsense in real life and Bruce wouldn't prevail for long.

I can see the Jedi being seen like a myth in this vastly underinformed society. There were tens of thousands of them, mostly operating in goverment issues and later in Clone Wars to be destroyed and their legacy and real info burried by propaganda, so I can see it being a myth, much like Stalin's metro, nonconclusive info on WW2 partysans and they are pretty much the Knights Templar. Looking at it from our perspective at this day and age, SW has aged in this regard, but we asume that everything is recorded or written and stored as a data. But it is already hard to investigate stuff for example from the 80s when lot of things were on paper. No paper, no info and myths circulate.
I guess that there might be some SW investigators, who would have to dig hard and come up with more potent theories, but I guess that larger public had whatever propaganda since the Empire days and by Force Awakens, Jedi were nonexistant for almost like 60 years as Revenge Of The Sith happened in 19 BBY and Force Awakens in 34 ABY.

The Jedi were kinda a myth or romanticized/mysticized already around the time of New Hope when Luke met Obi-Wan and Clone Wars being like 20 years old matter. That's quite a lot of time, like between both World Wars. I guess that there were fantastical stories about Jedi and they are indeed mentioned in the current books even during their heyday... Common folk doesn't understand the force and what they know are mostly myths and theories or their own logical explanations and misinterpreting the real deal.

 

It's a tendency of humans to romanticise extinct or obsolete/superseded ways of life. And that has a polarising effect on the people that those memories are handed down to.

Like if you heard about the old iced cream vendors who would push their carts around neighbourhoods during the summer. Those that cherish those days may regale younger generations with rose tinted memories of cheerful iced cream sellers on this long days and the collective joy of that aspect of their society. That audience is going to be split into those that are enthralled by this depiction of a different/better way of life, and those that see no evidence of this and are skeptical that it was really that good, and if they really existed in any significant numbers, or at all.

 

This thought process makes me fear that future generations will doubt the sheer awesomeness of Taco Trucks. I fear for a generation that doubts the pure beauty and rapture that is brought by Taco Trucks. I weep for the children.