Jolee Bindo is a character from Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. Voiced by Kevin Michael Richardson, who gave a great voice for the wise man. Jolee was an old hermit living on Kashyyyk. He was a consular, who was
wielding a green lightsaber, but many reference photos depict him with a blue one, which is the same mistake, that can be noticed with Bastila Shan with a green saber instead of a yellow.
Once, 
Jolee was a Jedi Padawan. He was headstrong, let's say stubborn. He wished to do some big thing, he was looking for trouble, and adventures. He did not always listen to his master's wise advices, but he always tried to follow the good path. When the tyrant ruler of Ukatis famished his people, and they were starving, Jolee Bindo decided to "get" food and other supplies, and to transport that to Ukatis, to help the people. He became a smuggler, he stole those goods to deliver it to the starving people. (For this, he was often told as a
Jedi Robin Hood.) After Revan (it means your main character) gains experience, Jolee will tell him how he was once a smuggler, and through this met his wife, Nayama. She was an Ukatis
soldier, in that system, to where Jolee often transported supplies. They met, and felt in love, which was forbidden for the Jedi. Jolee felt the Force in his wife, so he made an other large mistake. Against the wishes of the Jedi Council he trained her in the Jedi ways. She was then seduced to the Dark Side by Exar Kun, upon failing to convince Jolee to join Exar Kun as well. After the Sith brain wash, Nayama was so fooled, that she drew her lightsaber on her husband, attacking Jolee. Jolee had to protect himself, her wife let no choice for him, but to fight. He won the fight, but he was unable to bring himself to kill her. She escaped and went on to kill many Jedi. Jolee expected to be punished harshly for his mistakes, but the Council said he had learned his lessons the hard way, and even considered promoting him to knighthood. Disappointed with the Jedi's decision, Jolee left the Order and started wandering the galaxy before being crash-landed on 
Kashyyyk, and remained exploring the Shadowlands for the next twenty years. As he stranded there, he decided to protect the wookies, and help them against the Czerka Corporation, and the Mandalorians, who hunted them, and sold them to slavery.
Jolee built a shelter in an
uninhabited location of the Shadowlands, and like a ghost, he sometimes appeared, and saved a few wookies. At first, the Wookiees believed him to be a benevolent forest spirit, calling him "the hairless one", and so left gifts and fruits outside of his dwelling, until the old hermit explained the truth to them.
His shelter is very similar to Yoda's shelter, as it can be seen in some Dagobah scenes of the Empire Strikes back movie. Jolee remained a friend of the Wookiees, helping them protect the Shadowlands and its wildlife from poachers. Also, he spent his time of exile with learning, as Yoda suggested to Obi-wan in Episode III. His time in the Shadowlands enhanced his survival skills in every way. He
practiced his lightsaber skills, he meditated a lot, and learned many forms of Force Powers. (In their travels, Jolee will display his talent at Jedi Mind tricks, something he thought well in Kashyyyk, and which will serve them well when Admiral Saul 
Karath will ambush their ship, and if you will select him to be your Leviathan Prison Break agent. Jolee will Mind trick a Sith guard in front of the cell, to let him out, since his old bones are very cold in that cell, then he will push the stupid guard in the cell, re-activating the force field,
leaving the stupid soldier absolutely helpless, why he was sent into jail... Anyway, he still got the better part, because his fellow Sith soldier will be soon terminated by a half naked old man, who sent
five-six down with a single Force Push wave.) He had even learned to craft medicine from simple herbs, without any access to kolto or medical supplies.
He also learned how to speak Huttese during his exile. He lived there, where he meets Revan, when he came to Kashyyyk, as the human player's main character. When Revan first saw Jolee, he was fighting with some Katarns with a green lightsaber. Seeing his move,
his stance, his style Revan
immediately realized, he is a Jedi, or at least once was trained to be a Jedi. They escorted Jolee to his shelter, where they had a conversation. Revan wanted to get to know Jolee's past, and he asked some information on the location of the Kashyyyk Star Map. The old hermit offered his help, if Revan helped to get rid of some hunters. Commanded by an officer, called Dern they were operating an "alarm system", a sonic sensor, which emitted a voice non-hearable for the human ears, but it kept the wild animals, while they were hunting down the 
small monkey-like animals for their
glands. Jolee wanted a peaceful solution, not slaughtering the hunters, so Revan had to mind-trick the Dern's men, to tell the code of their sonic sensor. 
Once he got what he was curious for, he reprogrammed the sensors, which finished protecting the hunters, who ran like a crazy when the first Kashyyyk beast appeared near their camp. After successfully getting rid of those hunters 
Jolee remained with Revan's party. He can become a true and powerful Jedi Consular in KotOR1, he focuses on Force Powers, and has very good initial abilities on Charisma, and Wisdom. Bindo helped Revan get past a force shield that lead deeper into the Shadowlands to find the Star Map, which was guarded by a 
holographic Rakata. He tested Revan's identity, and
knowledge, and just after he answered the holo-Rakata's question, only then he was granted access to the Star Map. Before leaving the planet for good Jolee, Revan, and a random companion clear the woods from cloaked Mandalorian hunters, who were hunting wookies. They attacked when the wookies were unarmed, so you can only make them attack if you put away your weapons. But not a biggy, with your 
Force Powers you can deal with them easily. Jolee is strong, put your points on extra CHA and WIS levels, it worths, believe me. Jolee's Force Wave was so powerful, that this
Chuundar loyal traitor wookie was buried in the ground. :-) Yes, of course that is a bug, but anyways, it looks cool. After leaving Kashyyyk, Jolee told many wise things to Revan, but refused to be his Master, or act like that at all. Despite the fact that he followed the Jedi way and used the Force, Jolee did not consider himself part of the Order because of his history, or rather due to the fact that the Order had failed him. He never officially progressed beyond the rank of Padawan, although he explained to Revan once that he was to be knighted before he went into exile. he never considered himself Revan's teacher in any form. He often told Revan, "don't coddle me, child, I'm neither a Jedi or your master. I'm just an old man who's been lost in the woods for far too long". On his sarcastic sense of humor, Jolee often call himself a half senile old man. Once he told a story about a Jedi Master named Hortath (or possibly Hartoth, according to Jolee's own memory), who was blind but refused to believe he was, who met a Padawan who asked him for directions, not knowing that Hortath was blind. He followed the master's incorrect direction unthinkingly, and got lost. So Jolee said as a
metaphor, many people like pose in a status of a man, who know everything well, and who are blind to see his mistakes, his weakness, his wrong or even lack of sight. Jolee was wise, he had huge amount of life experiences, and saw a lot. Still, with this he admitted, a non-qualified teacher, a non-professional adviser, or consultant can make larger mistakes by interacting or involving a situation, then admitting his handicap of the very thing. 
Not only the loss of time is serious, which you can lose, if you follow a blind man or woman advises, who sends you to the wrong direction, but you must find you back to your take-off point, and if you found back, THEN you van continue to the right way. Jolee loved too much Revan, to cause him such a trouble. He volunteered to be his friend, he shared his experiences with him, he protected him, and secretly taught 
him much, but if something was over his
knowledge, he did not insisted to tell him empty phrases, or stupid things. But in every situation, he supported Revan, stayed with him, 
protected him with all of his power, and all of his
knowledge, never let him alone neither against the Dark Jedi, nor the Sith, or let it be even a Sith droid coming in pairs. Their connection was true, based own respect, goodwill, friendship, and faith and brotherhood in the Force.
Jolee Bindo is a unique Jedi in the fact that he believes in neither the light or dark side of the Force. He walks the line between them stating to Juhani he is rather grey. If we suppose that the Force, which created all
life forms, surrounds us, and is in the trees, in the stones, in everywhere, many says that in some way Force is a
metaphor of God. So if both the Sith and the Jedi serve the Force, but chose the two opposite side of it, we can say they are both the children of it, yet they are enemies from the origins. Jolee id fed up with this war. He urges everyone, to live in peace, with themselves, and with others. To love ourselves, and other. That is the rule of love. To love the Force (God), and to love each other, as ourselves. He did not cared about the dogmas of any of the opposite sides. He had done, what he felt to be good. If someone needed help, Jolee raced to help
immediately, even if the Jedi Order forbidden to intervene a conflict. If he had an enemy, he forgave her/his sins, and gave a second chance. He followed his instincts, and his feelings, not the rules. Jolee was meditating, and thinking on the things he had done, and on the things, that the Jedi
taught. He became wiser during those long years at Kashyyyk, but he had still disbelieves about the rules, about the dogmas. Jolee told Revan that he thinks the Jedi are wrong about love. Living the love is good, any living being seeks and wishes love, liked to be loved, and wants to love somebody. Feeling love does not mean passion, which is forbidden for the Jedi, but a require for the Sith. You can control your feelings, therefore you won't automatically fall to the Dark Side if you feel love. Jolee thinks that the way you treat and handle the bad side of your relationship determines your personality, and the
influence of the Dark Side to you. He thinks love causes at least that many sad moments that happy moments. It often causes sorrow, and pain. Sometimes a man and a woman is just not created for each other. If they have done everything to solve their problems, even so they can't live together, they must let the other go away with peace, say farewell, and don't ruin each other's life. These words are worth listening, they are up-to-date, these can help even for the men and women of the present. It seems Jolee Bindo was a reform-Jedi, his ideas will be followed in some elements by the late Yoda, and the Jedi Master, Academy leader Luke Skywalker.
If the player takes the path to the light Jolee will continue to be available in their party and continue to help in the fight against Darth Malak and to destroy the Star Forge. However, if Revan chooses to reclaim his title of Dark Lord, and chooses the Dark Side, Jolee had to make the most different decision of his life. If he lets his
protégé leave the good path, he becomes a part of his corruption, and failure. As a good father has to intervene, if his child is stepping in front of a car, or about to touch the hot stove, so as Jolee had to prevent his "child" to make himself burned, or hit by that car. So Jolee put in a word openly for the first time, for the good of Revan, almost begging him to stay in the light, not to spoil his whole life. But if Revan chooses to follow the Darkness and the evil, Jolee had no other choice but to attack Revan and Bastila. He does not want to take his life as Obi-wan did not want to kill Anakin, who was once his Padawan. But since Anakin ceased to be Anakin Skywalker, and became Darth
Vader, the same way a good Revan ceased to be Revan, and became Darth Revan, Lord of the Sith. And how Master Yoda explained it, the same way felt and told Juhani, so together the two Jedi had no other choice, but to stop the Sith to leave the Temple, if needed, with a heart broken, killing them. But the fate sentenced it an other way, then in the movie. Here in the game the evil became victorious, and Darth Revan and the dark Bastila killed both of the good Jedi, leaving the protectors of the peace, and the good dead on the floor, just in the Jedi Temple, after the
genocide of the Order 66.
Please take a look at my custom Jolee
Bindo figure!
Custom Jolee Bindo front view with two
green sabers
Custom Jolee Bindo front view with a
single lightsaber
Custom Jolee Bindo from the back
Thank you for your attention, visit CustomStarWars soon again!
written by: Norbert Rostas
2011.08.14. the figure was made years before
