ray_afraid said:
DuracellEnergizer said:
ray_afraid said:
DuracellEnergizer said:
My belief is that the farther from the centre of the Republic/Empire you got, the less people knew of/believed in the Jedi and their powers.
But what about Han?
Han Solo said:
Kid, I've flown <span style="text-decoration: underline;">from one side of this galaxy to the other</span>, and I've seen a lot of strange stuff, but I've never seen anything to make me believe that there's one all-powerful Force controlling everything.
Surely he's no stranger to the central hub of activity in the galaxy and he doesn't believe.
Well, following the Jedi Purge, any remaining Jedi would be few and far between and in hiding. I doubt Han would have come across any in his travels.
But judging by the prequels (or at least what I remember) Jedi were everywhere and known to everyone, even those far from the center of the galaxy. Even little Annikin knew Qui-Gon was a Jedi without him having to say so. So Jedi were well known, widely believed, trusted and relied upon until Han was about 20 years old. I just can't buy that the entire galaxy would not only suddenly turn against the Jedi, but completely forget about them.
Well, if you consult the TPM novelization, which is considered "official canon", there were about 10,000 Jedi in existence at that point. 10,000 isn't a very big number on Earth, let alone an entire populated galaxy. The Jedi shouldn't be well known amoung the general populace, very prominent, or have a large impact/influence on the Republic at large.
Of course, Lucas has proven incapable of fashioning a cohesive narrative that makes any logical sense, and if the "10,000 Jedi" comes directly from him and wasn't just an invention of the novelization's author, then he sure bizarrelly contrasted that by making the Jedi as prominent, important, and popular as they appear to be in the PT.
If we go by my personal canon, though, things make much more sense ;-)