Jedi vs. Sith: The Essential Guide to the Force is a book I always enjoy going back to. For my post today I’m going to cover the pages Affect Mind / Jedi Mind Trick and Morichro. The first is a Force ability commonly used by the Jedi, and the second is an ability which use is generally frowned upon by the Jedi Council of this particular time period.
It is Jedi Master Yarel Poof who provides us with some wisdom on the use of the Jedi Mind Trick, and rightly points out the moral implications attached to entering someone’s mind. His holocron recording to future padawans elucidates the dangers of this seemingly innocuous ability. He lays out some ways a Jedi may use this trick on a guard, and then goes over how the Jedi’s best intentions could turn out disastrous for the victim. Ultimately however, Master Yarel Poof implies to the padawans that if a Jedi must resort to this ability, then he or she has, in some small manner, failed at their other forms of subterfuge.
What I found most interesting about the description of the Affect Mind ability was the illustration of Yarel Poof’s masterful use of it: “He was capable of making himself invisible to fellow Jedi. He was also able to quickly determine an opponent’s fears through the use of the Force, and could create illusions that were perceived by entire armies” (67). Remarkably, this sounds very similar to Darth Zannah’s use of Sith sorcery. She was also able to play on an opponent’s fears, and could quickly send someone into madness by creating illusions that could make someone believe their deepest fears had become incarnate. I think it neat that the lightside of the Force also has this option. Hopefully though, a Jedi would not intentionally send their opponent into madness, but only play on their fears so long as they stopped their enemy.
Though it seems the lightside of the Force has its own response to the Sith’s branch of sorcery, it may be the case that the darkside does not have a response to Morichro, the ability to paralyze an opponent. Morichro is the ability to put anyone into a trace indefinitely. Its coincidence that this ability is described shortly after Sever Force (the most powerful attack to all force users, but only accessible by lightsiders), as I think that after the Sever Force ability this is one of the most powerful non-lethal attacks the lightside has to offer. The problem with it is that it has the potential to be lethal if a Jedi does not take his target out of the trance he has placed him in. I also love that Yaddle is one of the Jedi who has mastered this ability, and managed to master its use after studying different parts of ancient scroll sand holocrons: “Learned of Morichro from a single source, I did not. Barley hinted at, three holocrons did. Partially described over many ancient scrolls and tomes, it was” (82). Yaddle has become one of my favorite Jedi, along with Gorlan Palladane. They seem to both fully understand what a Jedi is meant to be.
Have these powers ever been demonstrated in a story I have yet to cover, because besides the Jedi Mind Trick I don’t think we’ve seen the Affect Mind ability demonstrated to the extent that Master Yarel Poof has it mastered. I’d also love to see Morichro in action as well, since besides this particular mention of it in this text it has yet to be demonstrated by a Jedi, that I know od anyway. Do either of these abilities show up in later stories? Let me know.
For my next post I’m going to cover the RPG article from the magazine Challenge 58: The Battle for Mandalore. Until then my friends, may the Force be with you.
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