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Training Remote

Location: Coruscant

Date: 22 BBY

Training remotes were a staple tool for Jedi looking to maintain mental acuity as well as physical sharpness. Among the simplest forms of droid tech, they have remained nearly unchanged for centuries, despite numerous advances in technology and warfare.

When not in use, a remote resembles a toy sphere or some forgotten ship part, discarded by a mechanic in a rush. Switch one on, however, and this gadget becomes a combination of sparring partner and teacher. With a tracking sensor and shock-ray emitter, the remote follows its subject, firing off harmless bolts that sting but rarely cause any real pain.

Remotes were vital to young, would-be Jedi’s training. They helped them to hone their physical senses as well as attune them to the Force thrumming all around them. Classrooms of younglings would wield training sabers and practice combat forms as hovering remotes darted to and fro. Repulsorlifts lifted the remotes into the air, and bursts of compressed air enabled them to maneuver at speed and made them highly unpredictable in their movements.

When young users made a mistake, they were reproved by a puff of compressed air. For older students, a factory preset mode administered a mild electric shock. Remotes could be reset to a range of intensity levels for more advanced students.

Aged 19, Luke Skywalker was too old to begin lightsaber training by most Jedi standards. Thus a training remote was a vital aid in helping him to understand how the Force could be used to anticipate a blaster bolt.

Years later, Luke used a remote to get little Grogu hopping from rock to rock. General Leia Organa also used one with her Padawan Rey on a jungle obstacle course in the forests of Ajan Kloss. Some five decades after the fall of the Jedi, their tools were still employed to teach succeeding generations about the Force and its wonders.

DK