Do the Jedi abduct children?

[Lord Falcon]

You hit the nail on the head, Scrib. What the Jedi preach is all wrong. They draft babies into what is basically a life of public service without enjoyment. Their religion rules them. I'm reminded of Kreia in KOTOR 2 preaching about how to believe in a thing is to be willing to betray it. She goes on to say that the Jedi are chained to the light side, much in the same manner the Sith are slaves to the dark side. The Jedi are conformists. In a way, they are like the Federation. They are all for the masses, the collective, and individual rights are a low priority for them. To this degree, they force all of their members to not form attachments, when it is not attachments that are dangerous, but not letting go of them. It is misguided and stupid. Palpatine was very accurate in telling Anakin in the ROTS noevlization that they tell their children what they are supposed to want. They seem to be so heavily indoctrinated that they cannot accept life without the Order. Look at Olee Starstone in The Rise of Darth Vader. She arrogantly boasts with an air of smug superiority that only Padawans have left the Jedi Order and makes it look like living a normal life full of love and happiness is a mistake. Would you want your children to be a part of an organization like that? Think Communists combined with religious fanatics.

[Scrib]

To this degree, they force all of their members to not form attachments, when it is not attachments that are dangerous, but not letting go of them. It is misguided and stupid.

I don't know. It's one of the main problems that I have with the Jedi. Theoretically I should hate them but I'm not so sure that they're wrong. Wherever you see attachments you'll find people that can't let go of them. This is human nature. And the Jedi have to deal with other races that may be far more empathetic or socially dependent, having them have one foot in the Order is not a good idea. I think their philosophy makes sense, you can have attachments, but you have to be able to shed them. How will you be able to do so? By not letting them go too far or seeing them as something important.

The Jedi play a big role in their government, having them be attached is not really a good idea. We've seen cases where this leads to the death of a lot of people. If Luke had killed Jacen when he should have many lives may have been saved, but first he was worried about his son being mad at him, then he was swayed by his wife with the weak reasoning that Jacen was the way he was because he was in love, then he was afraid that his son would fall to the dark side. Mara literally sat around after having Ben because she didn't want to leave him until Luke talked some sense into her. She then did a completely stupid thing to protect Ben and got herself killed, leaving a renegade Sith Lord alive to continue ruling the galaxy. Hell, even said Sith Lord gets it, he totally let himself lose because of his attachment to his daughter. Now, we know that this is a good thing but he believed that he was the only person that could save the GFFA...yet he risked it for some kids. Didn't Kyp blow up a planet because he thought his son was dead?

Jedi are extremely powerful beings, and as we've seen attachment hasn't been that good to them imo. I don't think that the Old Jedi Order saw living a happy, attached life as inferior so much as they saw it to be too much of a risk for a Jedi. It simply wasn't the path for them. They could too easily be corrupted. Why would any creature capable of the feats of the Jedi and with their responsibilities not use it to help those they loved? Simply put, their brainwashing seems to have worked. And it seems odious to you and I but we don't have to deal with creatures that can predict the future, move things with their mind, kill with a thought and bend the thoughts of us mere mortals to their will.

The problem is that the Old Republic Jedi tried to have it both ways with Anakin. They knew all along that such brainwashing only really made sense when a child was too young to know better, yet they went ahead for their own reasons.

[Jedipilot24]

Jacen Solo comes to mind (although to be fair to the NJO there was very little they could do then considering that they hadn't quite begun their democracy-subverting ways)

Au Contraire, what do you call the Election of 28 ABY?
http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/New_Repu ... on,_28_ABY

[Replicant]

When I read the little self speech of Yoda I don't see it is being true. Yes he lost a duel, but it was a close duel that could have been won. Mace would have won his fight if not for Anakin. So but for a couple lucky points the Jedi may have defeated the Sith again.

To me that little speech is just whining self pity from a guy who lost a fight he had been preparing his whole life to fight. Suck it up and try again, why did Yoda think he had one chance then had to run like a rabbit.

[The Romulan Republic]

I suspect he had to run because clones would show up soon and while he might be able to fight Sideous, I doubt he could fight a bunch of clones at the same time.

Edit: And if he came back later, Sideous would probably have better security.

[Jedipilot24]

When I read the little self speech of Yoda I don't see it is being true. Yes he lost a duel, but it was a close duel that could have been won. Mace would have won his fight if not for Anakin. So but for a couple lucky points the Jedi may have defeated the Sith again.

To me that little speech is just whining self pity from a guy who lost a fight he had been preparing his whole life to fight. Suck it up and try again, why did Yoda think he had one chance then had to run like a rabbit.

Well you should read it again; in fact, read the whole book again, in particular section on how to build a Jedi Trap. The Clone Wars were a Jedi Trap on a galactic scale; merely by fighting at all the Jedi had already lost. Yoda hadn't been preparing his life for this particular fight; he and all the other Jedi had spent the past century preparing to fight the Brotherhood of Darkness. Problem is, that was no longer the enemy they were facing. Yoda was facing the culmination of the Banite Sith and they were a very different enemy than the Brotherhood of Darkness. The Sith had changed and evolved while the Jedi had remained stagnant. The Sith had spent the past 1000 years preparing for the downfall of the Jedi; the Jedi had spent most of that time living in total ignorance of the Sith's continued existence, such that they couldn't even sense Palpatine's evil when they were standing in the same room as him! Yoda's inner monologue is him finally figuring all this out.
As for Windu, it's also made quite clear in the novel that the most he could do with Vaapad was stalemate Palpatine and even that's only for a limited time; at the "he's the traitor"scene, Windu realizes that even Vaapad has limits which is why he calls out to Anakin.

I suspect he had to run because clones would show up soon and while he might be able to fight Sideous, I doubt he could fight a bunch of clones at the same time.

Edit: And if he came back later, Sideous would probably have better security.

Perhaps but that's not the only reason, see above.

[Irbis]

No. The Jedi recruit children from willing parents or from those found in orphanages. The idea that Jedi kidnapped children was purposeful misinformation from Holonet News (a fake news site operated by Lucas Films to make canon articles of Star Wars news) where they wanted an article about a pointless happening that the news media would latch onto.

Misinformation?

So, the whole comic about bounty hunter who was hired by parents to recover their 'liberated' by Jedi kid, said bounty hunter running into Mace Windu who almost executed her for her trouble and only let her and child go (illegally, it is implied) because he remembered touching scene is also misinformation? The comic was published before Traviss appeared on SW scene, BTW.