"Standing before you is the daughter of Ryloth, the pride of the Twi'leks, one of the youngest Jedi Knights in the history of the Jedi Order, a master of lightsaber combat, mentor to the Chosen One—Lady Aayla Secura."
On August 14, Year 6 of the Galactic Standard Calendar, in Cloud City on Bespin, Max Vizsla made the introduction to the trio of former Nightsister initiates.
"Greetings, Master!" Shiri, Burli, and Daisha bowed respectfully in unison.
At that, Aayla looked utterly baffled. While using the Force to gently raise the three girls back to their feet, she turned to Max and asked, "What exactly is going on here?"
"These three girls are Force-sensitives I brought back from Dathomir—light-side Force-sensitives. To grow up on a world as steeped in dark side power as Dathomir and still keep such bright hearts is no small thing. I'm entrusting them to you, so don't go teaching them the wrong things."
"Heh." Aayla shot Max a look. "As long as they don't learn too much from you, they should be fine."
"Oh?" Max feigned surprise. "And wasn't I taught by you?"
"Heh."
After taking the three former initiates to the dormitory and getting them settled in, Aayla and Max continued their conversation.
"How did you manage it?" Aayla asked, genuinely curious. "Two hundred years ago, Master Yoda personally led a delegation to Dathomir to recruit students, and the witches drove them out."
"How did I manage it?" Max arched a brow. "Because I'm better than Master Yoda, obviously."
"Heh."
"Well, what else?"
Aayla rolled her eyes again and turned as if to leave.
"Say it or don't."
"Master." Max reached out and caught her arm. "I know the reason. I'm just not sure you'll enjoy hearing it."
Smack.
Aayla slapped his hand away.
"Don't make it look like some squabbling between sweethearts, all right? Go on. Jedi do not shy away from hard truths."
"Master, don't you think the Jedi Order's recruitment methods—separating children from their mothers and fathers—are immoral? Even inhuman to any civilized society of sentient beings?"
"There is no passion, there is serenity. The Jedi Code teaches us to keep our distance from intense attachment."
"And the Jedi Code is always right?"
"I believe it is." Aayla's tone turned fully serious. "Attachment to one's family is a powerful and selfish emotion. It is not something the Jedi Order encourages. What the Jedi uphold is compassion for the many, not the desires of the individual. The people of the galaxy are the Jedi's family; one's birth family is only a single part of that greater whole."
"But people are not saints. How many can truly be utterly selfless?"
"A Jedi should be selfless. A Jedi should strive to become something greater than ordinary people."
"Master... do you never miss your parents?"
For the briefest instant, Aayla's gaze wavered. Then it hardened again.
"Sometimes," she admitted. "But I can control that feeling. I do not allow private emotion to outweigh duty."
"That's dangerous, Master." Max looked straight into her eyes. "The more you suppress emotion, the more violently it surges back the next time."
"And what do you think should be done instead?" Aayla asked.
"I think things should be handled in a more human way."
"How?"
"Why not recruit the way ordinary schools do? Nurseries, primary schools, universities—why not let it work like that?"
"Max, my dear student." Aayla looked at him with the expression of a teacher staring at a disappointing pupil. "You are a statesman, the head of a nation—and yet suddenly you're talking like a child."
"Huh?"
"What do you mean, 'huh'?" That long-familiar look did not leave her face. "Do you have any idea how powerful the Jedi Order is? If Jedi were allowed to maintain close ties to their birth families, those families could easily use that connection to become privileged households in all but name. In time, that would create an entire class of entrenched privilege."
"That sort of thing could be controlled through better institutions and oversight, couldn't it?"
"And how exactly would you build such a system?"
...
In that debate on August 14, Year 6 of the Galactic Standard Calendar, neither Aayla Secura nor Max Vizsla managed to persuade the other.
And while that master and apprentice were crossing blades with words and principle, another master and apprentice—Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker—were following the trail of the name Skywalker to a remote world in the Outer Rim: Tatooine, Anakin Skywalker's homeworld.
"They moved?"
The words hit Anakin hard. Standing outside the Lars moisture farm, having only just managed to find the place, he looked crushed.
"Yes," said one of Cliegg Lars's neighbors, his eyes shifting just a little. "The whole family moved away. Said they were going to stay with Shmi's offworld relatives."
"That does make sense," Obi-Wan said to his apprentice, whose eyes had gone blank with shock. "The Skywalkers of Tatooine hardly sound like the kind who could pay the Zygerrians enough to buy a slave at such a price."
"You're right!" Anakin snapped back to himself and quickly asked the neighbor again, "Sir, do you know where they went?"
This time the neighbor's eyes did not shift.
He simply shook his head. "I don't."
"Master, my mother's offworld relatives must be the Skywalker who bought Captain Burda. We have to find them."
After taking their leave of Cliegg Lars's neighbor, Obi-Wan turned to his apprentice and spoke with great seriousness.
"There is no passion, there is serenity. Anakin, attachment to one's family is a powerful and selfish emotion. It is not something the Jedi Order encourages. What the Jedi uphold is compassion for the many, not the desires of the individual. The people of the galaxy are the Jedi's family; one's birth family is only a single part of that greater whole."
"Yes, Master Obi-Wan." // ("So even this is forbidden? Even this has to be controlled? The Jedi really do ignore what matters and meddle in what shouldn't be touched.")
PS: Whether in Legends or current canon, the Dathomiri Force-witch traditions such as the Nightsisters are relatively young Force-sensitive orders.
In 600 BBY, the fallen Jedi Allya—banished by the Jedi High Council—arrived on Dathomir. After reaching the planet, she began teaching the native women of Dathomir the ways of the Force and founded the earliest Dathomiri Force-witch tradition.
Within the Jedi Temple, no records concerning Allya can be found. Official canon has not explained whether those records were deleted, or whether Allya was merely an alias used by that fallen Jedi.
PPS: The story of Yoda leading a recruitment mission to Dathomir comes from Legends.
In truth, the Nightsisters of that era clashed violently with the visiting Jedi. Several Jedi were wounded or killed in the fighting, and even the Jedi training vessel Chu'unthor—a ship two thousand meters long and one thousand meters wide—was brought down on Dathomir.
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