The Jedi Order of Star Wars is characterized by many harsh rules its adherents must follow, and perhaps the hardest to obey is the rule against attachments. The Jedi recruited children as early as possible in order to keep them from forming attachments that might lure them into temptation and darkness. However, there is one species who didn't obey this rule, since there was no way the Jedi could enforce it.
This is demonstrated in Star Wars: The High Republic - The Blade #3, by Charles Soule and Jethro Morales. In the issue, Barash Silvain reveals to fellow Jedi Porter Engle that her people, the Kage, their lives from birth. That means that despite being taken as a child, she re the love and care of her family and is seeking to recreate it. Indeed, the existence of a species like the Kage that have evolved an ability for hyperthymesic memory from birth alongside Force potential shows how restrictive and unnecessary the Jedi Code has always been.
The Kage Can Be Jedi Despite Lifelong Attachments
The Jedi Code forbids attachment, though it is encouraged that Jedi should love others in a general and comionate sense. On the surface this rule is meant to keep Jedi from becoming possessive of people and objects, which is an emotional path that often leads to the dark side, but in practice it usually means outright forbidding romantic or familial love among the Order. In theory, a Jedi’s life is not supposed to be devoted to family or romance or even friendship, but to the Order and the Force itself, though in reality many Jedi played the system to excuse their own attachments.
The Order Could Never Stop Jedi Developing Attachments
Setting hard and fast rules for any group that includes hundreds of different species is inherently absurd, and shows how the Jedi Code isn't just harmful to individual , but also human-centric in its design. There is more to emotional dependence than just familial or romantic relationships. In fact, the bonds between friends, especially between Jedi who have fought side-by-side, can be just as strong. Barash has already proved that she can game the Jedi Order's rules so that her and Porter can stay together by faking lesser abilities when apart. As a Kage, she not only re her past attachments but longs to recreate them, showing how the Order expects the impossible from some species, and carefully ignores disobedience when convenient.
Hardcore fans know that Barash will become famous for beginning the tradition of the Barash Vow, which sees struggling Jedi step away into exile for long periods to better commune with the Force. This is a sign of how the Order's rules harmed those who didn't fit its 'one size fits all' approach, even before the ban on attachments eventually contributed to Anakin Skywalker's fall and the Order's destruction. As Rey Skywalker builds a new Jedi Order in continuing Star Wars canon, perhaps the most essential change she needs to make is not to expect different species to act exactly the same, as Star Wars: The High Republic - The Blade shows the toll being a Jedi takes on a Kage.
