Hidden Empire issue #1 | Choose Your Destiny: An Obi-Wan & Anakin Adventure
OH THIS IS A COOL LITTLE WORLDBUILDING THING!!
One of the most popular tropes in fic is the idea that Jedi can shield from each other and I find the idea fascinating, because it’s not really clear precisely how the Jedi’s psychic abilities work, but it primarily seems that they’re rarely directly telepathic (Saesee Tiin is listed as a telepath in the character encyclopedia, as his specific talent) and lean more towards being empathic, that they primarily sense feelings and intentions, occasionally flashes of imagery and insight.
But it’s further complicated by how each Jedi’s ability is unique to them, their talents depend on what they’re naturally gifted in and what they train hard to achieve, as well as the way Jedi bonds work in canon is more along the lines of, “The better you know this person, the more you naturally vibe with them. It’s not something to be created or broken, just like you can decide to get to know someone, but you have to spend time with them, and you can’t unknow them once you do.” Jedi bonds seem to be a forever thing.
Strong Force-users are probably better at reading the thoughts of others, Sith users probably just dive straight in and rip thoughts out of people’s heads–like Maul does to Jesse on Mandalore, he just tears right in there and pulls the thoughts out, without care for how it affects the person. In contrast, the Jedi don’t use the ability that way (the one time they tried, on Cad Bane, they stopped because going any further might damage his mind). And if you’re familiar with the person, there’s an even greater chance that thoughts will leak through.
So, where does that leave shielding? These are the only two instances that I know of and they’re only supplementary canon, but I think it makes sense. I love the idea that these might even be two different techniques, because one is coming from a Sith and one is coming from a Jedi.
Maul taught Qi’ra to cloud her mind to keep a Force-user from reading her emotions and intentions, to embrace confusion and chaos in her thoughts so that Palpatine couldn’t get a clean grip on her.
Mace says he was shielding, which would leave his thoughts still clear to himself, he would still remain calm and centered.
One is chaos, one is calm.
Both will hide your thoughts from a Force-user looking to see you through the Force, but their motivations and effects are totally different, because the Sith are out of control and they embrace that wildness, even when it means hurting others or themselves. This small trick isn’t going to hurt Qi’ra or Maul when they use it, but it’s part of a bigger methodology of how they use their emotions and we all know where that leads. No Sith is ever balanced or content, that’s baked into the premise of embracing the dark side.
Meanwhile, the Jedi embrace calm and balance, because the Force works based on the emotions you put into it, so they put calm and clarity into it and receive balance in return. They shield themselves, not cloud themselves.
The difference between the two is small but also extremely important and I love that a lot.
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