Why does TOTJO allow multiple apprentices?

I know that Jediism is not inextricably based from the lore of Jedi in the Star Wars Mythology. However it is very clear that multiple apprentices is forbidden.

Now, I'm not criticizing this decision in the least. I don't think that we should "stay true to the original source".

But I am curious as to why this divergence was chosen.

Was the motivation utilitarian? In the sense that this way more people can be trained into the Jedi arts on a shorter time span?

This is simply for my own curiosity.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Phidelter wrote: I know that Jediism is not inextricably based from the lore of Jedi in the Star Wars Mythology. However it is very clear that multiple apprentices is forbidden.

Now, I'm not criticizing this decision in the least. I don't think that we should "stay true to the original source".

But I am curious as to why this divergence was chosen.

Was the motivation utilitarian? In the sense that this way more people can be trained into the Jedi arts on a shorter time span?

This is simply for my own curiosity.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

In the early days we had one teacher for one apprentice at a time. There was enough to go around. Now The Order is so active there are so many who've completed the Initiates Program compared to the available teachers there would be long waits. We tried (with the consent of both teacher and apprentice) to allow more than one at a time and it worked well. Nobody felt neglected or overworked. We discovered there's no good reason to limit a teacher to one apprentice at a time. We're interested in what's best for The Order. Real life worked out differently than the movies.

This is a valid question and one I've thought about before, too.

While I'll throw out an unofficial answer that it appears to be a utilitarian motivation as you mentioned, it's also up to the Training Master how many Apprentices they are willing to take.

You may decide, upon Knighthood, presuming you go through the Initiate Program, to train 0, 1 or more.

MTFBWY,
LTK

During my relatively short time here, I have noticed that there have been periods where there have been quite a 'backlog' of Initiates, and that's even with people taking on more than one at a time. Imagine how long everyone would be waiting around if Masters did only take one at a time?!

I don't know whether it ever explained in any of the EU materials why multiple apprentices were forbidden. As far as I remember it didn't actually explain the thinking behind it in the films, it just said it wasn't allowed. I would imagine that it was due to the demands of the Master/Apprentice relationship, which would last for many years and take them to many (often dangerous) places across the galaxy, and become almost like a parent/child relationship.

With the greatest of respect to the system that we have here, it isn't quite the same. The bonds between Master and Apprentice can still be very strong, but if the Master has enough time available to dedicate themselves to more than one Apprentice, it is possible to do so, as it is not a 24/7 living together kind of thing, as it is in the films.

Or that's my take on it anyway Please bear in mind that that's obviously not an 'official' answer...


Edit: looks like the official answer beat me to it whilst I was posting!

V-Tog wrote:
Edit: looks like the official answer beat me to it whilst I was posting!

haha -- yup. me, too, V-Tog.

Hey, Edit -- you're not allowed to Edit!!

(I'm JUST KIDDING. Sorry, couldn't resist, haha.)

According to Lucas there is no story beyond the Battle of Endor, but other Star Wars "canon" shows circumstances of the New Jedi Order built up starting with Luke Skywalker where a master had multiple apprentices because of precisely the same situation we have here today. There were plenty of force-sensitives (Initiates in our terms) who had to be trained for the Order to grow and survive and only a few Jedi (starting with Skywalker himself who supposedly was the only one at some point) who could train them.
This is a weak reason to copy it at real Jedi Orders such as TOTJO, but at least this is a point where our way is not that contrary to Star Wars...

You want to be on good terms with your apprentice and be able to talk with them and guide them and help them as much as they need it

However that only takes so much time... of course the amount of time it takes varies, but if you find that while you're training one apprentice you have enough spare time to put as much effort into another apprentice then there's no reason against it

Thank you all for your responses.

They have given me a fairly comprehensive understanding of both the reasoning and reality behind this decision.

Thank you for your considerations.

You'll also find that the handfull of training knights and masters are so well oganized now that it would be possiblebfor each to train a classfull of apprentices if it was prudent to do so and we didn't have other obligations as well

When you think about it though...even in the fiction at some point there was only one master and several apprentices...there had to be or it wouldn't have been able to spread....even the buddha had multiple apprentices...

I think they did the whole one master to one apprentice thing as a sort of homage to old kung fu movies with the hermit sage that decides to train a single student to be his legacy....

Gisteron wrote: According to Lucas there is no story beyond the Battle of Endor, but other Star Wars "canon" shows circumstances of the New Jedi Order built up starting with Luke Skywalker where a master had multiple apprentices because of precisely the same situation we have here today. There were plenty of force-sensitives (Initiates in our terms) who had to be trained for the Order to grow and survive and only a few Jedi (starting with Skywalker himself who supposedly was the only one at some point) who could train them.
This is a weak reason to copy it at real Jedi Orders such as TOTJO, but at least this is a point where our way is not that contrary to Star Wars...

Aw nuts, this is what I was going to say. :laugh: