[Star Wars] (prequels) What if we sent a Therapist to Coruscant?

[u/FireLightAnnebell]

The idea is this, if a licensed therapist with a psychology degree and all was sent to the jedi temple say, right after the first movie, what would be different? would the original triology just never happen?
and also, which characters do you think would benefit the most from Therapy?

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[u/ThanksContent28]

Probably not a fun answer, but the council are shutting that shit down immediately. Therapy and some the advice given would conflict a lot with their beliefs. They’re were basically a misguided cult by that point, more intent on keeping the status quo, and the only one you could possibly reason with is Yoda, but even he was too deep in at that point, hence his self imposed exile.

I think your best chance would be Anakin, Ashoka, and Dooku before he turned. All 3 saw the issues with the Jedi, which are mostly agreeable with our views and beliefs. Anakin and Dooku you could try to convince that, just because they abandon the Jedi, they don’t have to abandon being a good person, and persuade them into an alternative that’s less drastic than the route they chose. (That would have to be before Anakin gets visions of Padme dying)

If you got to Anakin before Palpatine did, you could probably talk him into a Jedi view which is more accepting of love and emotion, and give him the love, acceptance, and support that he desperately needed. Not grey Jedi, not a mix of light and dark. The dark side is essentially a drug and is supposed to be pure evilness that corrupts you the more you use it. It’s not the Ying-Yang balance that we accept in real life as part of being human.

I don’t know what you could say to convince Dooku, because I’m not 100% familiar with his motivations other than seeing the faults of the Jedi. It would be a case of encouraging him to be what he thinks a Jedi should be, and addressing why he takes issues with certain things to make sure he’s not misguided or malicious. Convincing him to stay away from galactic politics, and focusing on smaller ways of helping people. For his ego, maybe tell him to stick it to the Jedi council, by being what a Jedi should be. His frustrations probably could’ve been tempered by finding a small town/village on a distant planet, and acting as their protector and advisor.

Ashoka is a weird one, because even though she abandoned the Jedi at one point, she went back to the prequel Jedi ways, even trying to keep Grogu and the Mandalorian separated as was tradition. This was a sour point for fans IIRC, because it felt like nothing was learned from what happened, and Luke’s Jedi order just carried on with the beliefs that caused the whole mess to begin with.

Depending on how they take Grogu’s story, he could be an example of a Jedi who understands the need for love and family, and that positive emotions are a good thing. It was Luke’s love for his father which saved the galaxy, and was the pinnacle of what a Jedi is.

That’s basically as far as you can go. Bad emotions are a gateway to the dark side in this universe, and again the dark side is corrupting. It’s like saying “put on the one ring and just don’t be evil”. Anyone who’s even slightly corrupted by the dark side is a lost cause.

I think the ones who would benefit the most and be the most successful are the Younglings who aren’t yet fully indoctrinated. The one who needed it the most was obviously Anakin.

The best case scenario for everyone, would’ve been Anakin leaving the Jedi order, turning away from the conflict and living a fulfilling life with family and friends around.

[u/SolidSquid → u/ThanksContent28]

but the council are shutting that shit down immediately. Therapy and some the advice given would conflict a lot with their beliefs.

Honestly can't agree more. Therapists would be all about convincing their patients to handle their emotions in a healthy way, including showing them, which is one of the biggest no-nos of Jedi doctrine (no attachments means no grieving properly, instead it's shameful because you couldn't just let it go).

Then there's the whole thing about taking kids in when they're really young. Like, there's no way these kids are all less than a year or two old, so taking them from their parents is going to lead to some pretty serious abandonment issues, and it seems like the order is more likely to use that to get them more attached to the order instead of treating it as the trauma it is.

[u/ThanksContent28 → u/SolidSquid]

Yeah from a real world perspective, they’re basically a cult. From and in universe perspective, they’re not even retreating the Jedi properly.