In the midst of Jedi Knights, rakish smugglers, tough-as-nails Mandalorians, and idealistic Rebels, I think sometimes it's easy to forget that most denizens of the Galaxy Far, Far Away don't lead lives of adventure. While reading this, I think it will help to keep in mind the lives of the characters we watch in the Star Wars movies and read about in the Expanded Universe. Because in this blog, I want to take a look at the average GFFA resident.

We'll call him Joe Kenobi.

Joe Kenobi is not a Jedi. He's never done anything super-illegal that would really get the government to come after him. And no, he's never bumped into Darth Vader at the supermarket.

First and foremost, Joe Kenobi's never killed anyone. In fact, he's never been in any encounter where his life was seriously threatened by someone else. Sure, while growing up, he took a few risks that could've gotten him killed, but he never had an encounter with someone else where the other person deliberately tried to take his life. Nor has he ever been anywhere near trying to take someone else's life.

Joe Kenobi lives on the same planet he was born on. He has been off-planet a smattering of times, but it was usually on business trips. He's also been off-planet with his family for several vacations. Each time, he had to ride coach in a transport. Sure, he owns an airspeeder, but it's not equipped for interplanetary travel. Additionally, it doesn't have any weapons systems on board.

Speaking of weapons, Joe Kenobi is in fact packing heat. That said, he's never used it, except at the firing range.

Perhaps surprisingly, the state of constant war the galaxy finds itself in has had very little effect on Joe Kenobi's everyday life. For his entire life, no battle of galactic consequence has even been fought anywhere near his system. Even the Clone Wars had little impact on Joe Kenobi's life. The switch in government from the Republic to the Empire had some effects, sure, and so did the switch back to the New Republic. While the Empire reigned, Joe Kenobi did see his quality of life deteriorate some, and he did grumble about the Empire's willingness to change the rules whenever it suited them and use of a very top-down approach with little care for its impact on actual Imperial citizens (think of it as a variation of Lando Calrissian's, "This deal's getting worse all the time."). But since the toppling of the Empire, Joe Kenobi could care less whether the government calls itself the New Republic or the Galactic Alliance or something else entirely.

But whether it was an internal war or the galaxy was facing some other threat, the only real time Joe Kenobi ever felt a serious sense of concern over intergalactic affairs was during the Yuuzhan Vong invasion. That was the only intergalactic threat that really seemed like it might seriously impact his everyday way of life. But even in the midst of that, the Vong never came anywhere near his system.

Also worth noting--Joe Kenobi's never seen a Jedi before. Sure, he's heard of them, and he does know a couple of individuals who swear up and down that they've encountered one. But Joe Kenobi himself? No, he's never never met a Jedi. And personally, he's okay with that--he'd be just as excited to meet a holostar as he would a Force-user.

In short, Joe Kenobi's a lot like you. A lot like me. In fact, he's probably got more in common with you or me than he does with Luke Skywalker or Han Solo. Because when all things are said and done, the life for the Average Joe Kenobi in a Galaxy Far, Far Away isn't so different from life for the Average Joe here on Planet Earth.