Finally, it's time again for another blog written for YOU, the non-gamer, who has never played Knights of the Old Republic. I don't know how you live without it, and Jolee Bindo is one of the reasons why. (By the way, this blog is very long. If I were you, I'd just watch the videos at the bottom, and get your info straight from the source, instead of listening to me paraphrasing everything he's ever said.)

He's one of my personal favorite characters from the game. He's funny, capable, wise, and the most interesting old guy ever.

In the game, you meet him living in the Shadowlands of Kashyyyk, in a log house. Yes, the Shadowlands, the dark, dangerous surface of Kashyyk itself. No, not a house made of logs, a house carved out of one big log.

My gosh, I forget to even mention that he's a Jedi! Actually, he's only sort of a Jedi. You see, one of the things that makes Jolee so unique among Jedi is that he's what you might call a "Gray Jedi." In game, his alignment is neutral. Make no mistake, though, he's as good a guy as you can get. Not a hint of the Dark Side in him. What makes him not-so-light is that he's not a Jedi as the Jedi Order would consider one. He was once a member of the Order, but no longer. He had his disagreements with the Order's ways, but still remained good.

A short conversation with Bastila Shan, Jedi Princess Do-Good reveals a lot.

History
But who is this man, and how did he end up on Kashyyyk alone?
It started long before...
"Well, let's just say that I was a strapping young lad with a full head of hair and Coruscant was a small town with a well, heh heh."
--Jolee Bindo
In fact, why not listen to him tell his own story? Click the links and don't listen to my paraphrasing, if you so wish.

Jolee was a Jedi Padawan. He had his adventures as a rambunctious, rebellious scamp who often found himself at odds with the Jedi Order.

Well, eventually he started a little Robin Hood smuggling operation to help the oppressed people of the Ukatis System. He did well, for a while.

But one day, a woman named Nayama shot him down. Despite their initial conflicts on opposite sides of the law, they fell in love, eventually, and they were married. More than that, though, she was force sensitive. Against the wishes of the Jedi Council, Jolee trained her in secret.

But then Exar Kun started his war. Nayama wanted to join him, and Jolee was unable to convince her otherwise. They fought, and Jolee won, but was unable to kill her. She went on to kill other Jedi, but eventually died at the end of the war. Afterwards, there was a Jedi trial for Jolee.

They found him innocent. In his mind, that was the greatest injustice of them all. They had decided to promote him to Jedi Knight at last, but he felt it was wrong, and left the Jedi for good, but the way he says it, the Jedi Order left him.

After that, he wandered the galaxy aimlessly. Eventually, he ended up on the outskirts of the galaxy, when he crashed on Kashyyyk. Instead of fixing up and leaving, he decided to stay. He made a living off the Shadowlands, and helped out the wookiees on their hunting parties, and protected them from Czerka slavers when he could. The wookiees mistook him for a benevolent forest god at first, but he set that straight, after some tribulation. Eventually, he gained a rapport with them. But when the new wookiee Chieftan started dealing with slavers himself, Jolee felt that it wasn't worth saving them from their own follies.

Years of that, and that's about when your character in KOTOR shows up and meets Jolee, who joins along. He'd spent enough time on Kashyyyk, he wanted something new, and was curious to see more about your own destiny.

Lessons
Hmmm, destiny. Jolee once adventured with a guy who had such a great destiny that "the Force swirled around him like a hurricane." Makes a great story. Andor Vex was his name. Him and Jolee were captured by the Dimeans, and taken tot he bridge. Andor, thinking he was infallible, made a bunch of demands, until the Dimean leader got tired of him and threw him into an energy intake port. Well, something went wrong, and Adnor's body ended up blowing up the ship, effectively ending the Dimean threat for centuries.

Jolee never made it explicit to the main character why exactly he went along with him. But he does tell an interesting story. You know what, this one, I'm not even paraphrasing it. It's an interesting fable about a Young Man and a Snake, and I'm not letting anyone else but Jolee himself tell it.

Jolee tells more than stories, though. Like any talkative old person, he's filled with opinions, about the Jedi, the Sith, and Love.

The Jedi are just as fallible as anyone else. They do try harder, but they can still be wrong, and not just when they fall to the Dark Side. Like kindly old Master Hortath. Great guy, but he couldn't see. He refused to believe his eyes were failing. But one day, a young padawan meets Hortath in a courtyard, and asks for directions to the council. But Hortath confidently and mistakenly gave directions straight out of the courtyard. Reluctantly, the young man went that way, and left the Order forever.

Jolee knew plenty about the Sith, because he fought in Exar Kun's war. Remember, during that war, and during the game, the Sith are plentiful and widespread. The game takes place 4,000 years before the movies, before the rule of two was even invented by Darth Bane.

Love. Jolee has had plenty of experience in that, too. He doesn't fear it like the Jedi do, though.
"Love doesn't lead to the Dark Side. Passion can lead to rage and fear, and can be controlled, but passion is not the same thing as love. Controlling your passions while being in love, that's what they should teach you to beware. But love itself will save you, not condemn you."
Quite insightful. Imagine what Anakin's fate would have been if the Jedi had adopted such a view on love and passion. That is really at the core of the Jedi teachings that drove Anakin to make the choices he did.

**KOTOR SPOILERS**
The big secret in KOTOR, the big twist, is that you, the main character, is really Darth Revan. Revan was the big bad guy who unleashed the Sith on the Republic, and Darth Malak, the current big cheese of the Sith, used to be Revan's apprentice, before Malak turned on him. You are Revan after a memory wipe, being used by the Jedi council to retrace Revan's steps before the war to find out the secret to the Sith's power. One of the things you need is on Kashyyyk, that's why you go there. Since Revan was there before, Jolee knew all along who you were. Yet he didn't mention it, and he didn't fear you. He reminds me of Obi-Wan in that regard. He slyly and casually keeps a BIG secret. This is Jolee's reaction to the "revelation."
**END SPOILERS**


Why do I love Jolee so much? If you only read what I said, he may just seem like an interesting guy. But he's so much more than that. Listen to him talk and you hear his humor, his pride at being an old coot, his jocular mockery of the young, and his truly profound wisdom. He really does remind me of Obi-Wan Kenobi. They're old guys with secrets and quirks. They're very different, and I love them for different reasons, but I do love them both.

It is certainly true that in game, Jolee is a very useful character, but more than that, he's a good man to listen to. He's funny, he's wise. He is a great guy.

And that's why I want to introduce him to everyone who's never hung out with him personally.


Here's a list of all the videos of him, in order that they are in game, (unlike the order I gave them above)
Andor Vex
Why he left Kashyyyk
Love
Smuggling
The Jedi
The Sith
Jolee's Wife
Time on Kashyyyk
The Man and the Snake

Jolee and Bastila
The Revelation

Off Topic: Featured blog of the day! Woo! And I'm at 50% allotted space .