okay but things i’ve been thinking about that the internet has not been able to supply me an answer for: is it ever clarified where jedi get their robes? because i’ve read every relevant wikia and wikipedia and wookeepedia page and so on and NOTHING.
it’s only ever said that jedi “get” robes. that their robes are fitted sometimes to their climates or styles. but i don’t think they can just walk up into the star-wal-mart on naboo to pick up some jedi robes. (and yes, while other people wore styles LIKE jedi robes in the original trilogy, it was the prequels and so on that established that the robes ben kenobi was wearing and so on were fashioned in traditional jedi style and that was what was usual for them, as jedi would walk somewhere and people would KNOW they were jedi)
so where? was it a specific jedi’s job to make the robes? like that was his or her or their trade? or more likely, did each jedi have to make their own robes? as a friend suggested, with the monastic style of the jedi, you can imagine them saying you need to make their own clothes. therefore, sewing was a required jedi skill.
and now all i can think about is obi wan kenobi leaning over a sewing machine peacefully hemming his robes on a friday night with a cup of tea.
(and as justin put in my head, anakin frustrated to the ends of the earth because “WHY DO I NEED TO HEM IT IF IT’S JUST GOING TO GET DESTROYED AGAIN”)
Given the diplomatic duties and general “running around the galaxy, getting shot at” nature of the Jedi, I imagine there is a supply office, run by a quartermaster, where Jedi get fitted for robes. You grow out of them? Returned and reused by someone else. I like to imagine that styles and colours change over the years, but because the robes are always being recycled, this is why you get so many different “looks” to different Jedi (along with different styles and cuts depending on species, genders, and occupation).
They also have the standard two sizes: too big and too small, which explains Obi-Wan’s cloak in TPM.
I also like the idea that obi-wan actually fits the “too small” robe, but is either a) wearing a spare of qui-gons because his keep getting shredded or lost (the habit started early, okay) and the quartermaster won’t give him a new one until he proves he can care for it, or he pick it as a teenager in a desperate HOPE that he would grow into it. (Spoilers–he never does but he hangs onto it for Anakin)
But I’m over here still thinking about supply depots and stuff and it’s probably the job of someone (some group more like) in the Service Corp to help keep track of this and they’re doing paperwork and there’s a betting pool now in that section of the Corps about how long it will be before Kenobi puts in for ANOTHER fucking robe. And if that trait is going to rub off on his Padawan.
*nods*
I always figured it was the job of a subdivision of the Service Corp too. @jhaernyl actually had the brilliant idea of there being a Jedi Administrative Corps (the AdminCorps for short) that deals with all of the internal day-to-day bureaucratic issues: paperwork, budgeting, investing the Order’s funds, legal matters, ordering and organizing the production and distribution of food and cloth goods, hiring and training Temple workers, and so forth, and I’ve since more or less incorporated that into my headcanon.
And since the Jedi are very much into the communal thing, it makes perfect sense to me that outgrown robes would be passed around and reused. For some reason, I’ve always had it in my head that Jedi get their robes from the quartermaster/robe master/whomever, but that once they have them, they’re responsible for doing the bulk of their own mending and any special tailoring that they so desire (and possibly cleaning them too, but I tend to think that’s just an in-the-field type of thing).
Also: you can pry the headcanon of betting pools about when Obi-Wan is going to lose his next robe (and how many total robes he’s going to lose in a calendar year) from my cold dead hands. Personally, I think several Council members are secretly in on it… especially once Obi-Wan becomes part of the Council himself.
I could have sworn I wrote a short little not-fic on this exact topic, in fact, but now I can’t seem to find it; bet it’s hiding somewhere deeeeep in my drafts folder lol.I also headcanoned that the Corps and the Knights would have different buildings they lived on, while the Jedi Temple we see in the movie was more of an administrative / representative seat (and as to why they live and train padawans there, think of it as only the best of the best being housed and trained there, because that’s who you want any potential Senate visitor to see), commonly (and erroneously) known as the Jedi Districts and the Corps District (actually, they are the Knights Compound and the Jedi Compound, as all members of the Corps are Jedi they just are not Knights, but those names are long lost from vernacular language and are relegated to historical tomes that even in portable shape feel like you are lugging around something the size of a crate).
I’m bringing this up because in my idea of the Order (which has expanded to include Excel documents with formulas to calculate the size of an actual Galaxy-worth Order, with exceedingly low numbers that are still more reasonable than the canon ones) the Jedi were given air rights to the space above the original compounds as part of the Ruusaan Reformation deal (I play in Legends as a playground, let this be your warning) and so as Coruscant kept shooting up and up in the sky, so did their buildings.
And in the Jedi Compound / Corps District, that means you have hundreds of levels were all the kids who are not chosen to be padawans and are sent to the Agricorps are not only housed but also trained. How would you train them?
Why, by having artificial recreations of alien environments from planets where the Agricorps are a presence / were a presence with imported local fauna and flora, so that they can work up from the really easy worlds and chores to being able to deal with terraforming hostile places and bringing agriculture back even in desperate conditions.
(I have rules and stuff about how apprentiships in the Corps work and how 90% you start out Agricorps and then a lot of people join other branches and how they have their own name for apprentices that are not padawans and how they learn in group and — okay I will shut up and get back to the point).
That’s relevant to the discourse at hand because one of the side effects of this, is that the Jedi Compound / Corps District produces huge amounts of vegetables, meat and goods that are later prepared and distributed to the Knights Compound / Jedi District, the Temple and the various assistance centers that are disposed one every hundred levels or so on the lenght of the Jedi Compound / Corps District.
(Think of these centers as sort of a cross between a free medical center, a neutral ground, a shelter and a detox facility, as these are all services they offer; they basically are places where if you are in trouble or hurt or just you don’t have where to go for the night, you can check into [no questions asked] and get treated for whatever ails you and then drop your clothes, shower, get some warm food in you and sleep and then the next morning or, honestly, whenever you are able to leave under your own will, you can get your clothes back or choose between all the stores of clothes they have there, some of them donated and some of them left behind and a lot of them, not in any Jedi style but in contemporary or semi-contemporary very basic styles, provided by the AgriCorps).
So that’s where I headcanon the cloth and make of the Jedi clothes happens (I also headcanon each Corp as having their own style of robes that is relatively distinct and should help identify them or letting them identify each other) insofar as the Jedi on Coruscant are concerned. I also agree to the fact that each Jedi personalizes his or hers or hirs appearance as better suits them, but again they can request those materials from the AgriCorps and then either do the modification themselves (and thus learn to sew or carve or whatever) or ask someone in the Corps who has dedicated hirs, hers or his life to making clothes, because that is where the path that makes them happy lies, and thus they enjoy a challenge.
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