Joining the MSU Jedi Council may be voluntary, but the force is strong with this student organization.
This close-knit group of “Star Wars” enthusiasts gathers every Thursday in 1420 Biomedical and Physical Sciences to watch or discuss anything “Star Wars” related.
Jedi Council President Erik Dudek, who helped found the club in 2012, said they like to watch the two “Star Wars” trilogies in a specific order.
“There (are) only six “Star Wars” movies so usually we start out the year by watching the movies in order: four, five, one, two, three and six. That way you kind of get the whole big reveal, Darth Vader is Luke’s father and then you kind of go back, ‘Oh, here’s how he became Darth Vader.’ We like that order, it’s a lot of fun,” Dudek said.
According to Dudek, the meetings usually consist of 20–25 people, but they are always looking for new members.
Outside of the meetings, the group records “Star Wars” podcasts in which they will talk about the latest “Star Wars” news and then put the podcasts in the iTunes store. Another thing the group does to switch it up is watch fan edits of the movies.
“We’ll go online and we’ll find different fan edits that we think might be cool and we kind of show it to the club and see how people react to them and how they like them,” Dudek said.
Dudek said one of the Jedi Council members works at Abrams Planetarium, which has given them access to watch both “The Empire Strikes Back” and “Return of the Jedi” on the full-dome projection.
Many of the different “Star Wars” discussions the group facilitates come up regularly in “Star Wars” debates. The group collectively agrees that Han Solo shot first in a hotly-debated scene in “Episode IV,” that midi-chlorians (which are used measure the amount of force in a Jedi) don’t exist and they all have a distaste for “Star Wars” character Jar Jar Binks.
“I hate Jar Jar Binks with a burning passion,” biological science junior Kristin Tyll said.
Dudek said the MSU Jedi Council isn’t just all about “Star Wars,” however. He said sometimes they will play video games rather than watch a movie.
He also said that they will be starting off spring semester with a showing of “Space Jam.”
When asked what his favorite part about being in the Jedi Council is, Dudek said he really enjoys the people.
“You get to meet a lot of people. Everybody is really enthusiastic about “Star Wars.” Basically, you get to expand what your knowledge of “Star Wars” is and to hang out with people who have the same kind of interests as you. So, maybe not just talk about “Star Wars,” but make new friendships and meet new people,” Dudek said.
