Star Wars: 15 Things The Movies Stole From The Expanded Universe

13. The Jedi Code (And The Jedi Monk Ideal) Wasn't Created For The Prequels

The Jedi Code played a massive part in the prequel trilogy, the rigid rulings on age, relationships and distant compassion eventually building to Anakin's turn to the Dark Side. Its rulings were never stated on screen (they were detailed in various bits of companion material), but the implications were very, very clear; although the exiled Yoda and Obi-Wan had had something restrained and spiritual about them (because exile), the entire Order were close to monks.

That's not some typical George Lucas misguided extrapolation though - the Jedi Code in its pure form comes from the EU.

It too first appeared in Heir To The Empire, a relic for Luke to learn from, and became the backbone of the stories of his New Jedi Order: "Emotion, yet peace; Ignorance, yet knowledge; Passion, yet serenity; Chaos, yet harmony; Death, yet the Force." Again, despite not being recited in the movies, the Code itself and the lessons it taught Luke greatly informed how the Jedi were mapped out on film. Had Lucas not followed this track, and instead gone with his earlier plans of Jedi being something close to crusading knights, then the prequels could have been very different indeed.

The only thing not explicitly in the code, and something that was retconned into it for Episode II, was the no-love clause - there was no mention of Jedi partners until that "forbidden love" story.