JOLEE BINDO:

You're going to sit down, shut up, and listen to me, Carth.

Yes, I knew what Seeria was...not the precise entity, but I did catch a glimpse or two that let me know there was more to the story than she could tell. I kept quiet because it was something she needs to understand and deal with on her own. You think you're shaken? Well, of course you are. I've been in your boots, young man. And that's why you're going to wait in this room while I tell you a story I've told no one in nearly forty years. It's a story you need to hear and I need to tell, so indulge a decrepit old man.

One thing I will - very reluctantly - grant the Sith is that the messier baggage of being a sentient can scare a Jedi out of their mind. It's something the Lightsiders would rather run from than face. That's why they started in with the restrictions like discouraging marriages, taking kids from the cradle, elevating the council to a near-deity status, etcetera. Bastila is their best example of the Jedi they want, and she's so brittle that we probably won't be able to rescue her. Hell, even if we do rescue Bastila from the Dark Side, and stop the Sith this time, they'll be back. They always come back. It's next to blasphemy for me to admit this, but the Force likes balance, I've noticed. Doesn't like one extreme or another. 

I will have to admit that what Malak makes up in cruelty what Exar Kun had in cunning. I don't relish watching the Republic fall...Oh, it'll fall one day, Carth. Everything dies and is reborn eventually. Trust someone who's already got a foot in the grave. I used to think none of it mattered. That's why you saw me in the Shadowlands. I had been just waiting for the forest to claim me...but I'm here because I looked at you and Seeira and saw something I hadn't seen in so long I'd forgotten all about it. Made me think that I could be wrong for once.  

Like you, I married a great woman and lost her. Might have been better to lose her as you lost her, but the Force decided it wanted to be nasty that day. She joined the war with Exar Kun - as a Sith. I couldn't stop her. All that fighting, all that madness, and in the big picture, it didn't seem to make a damn bit of difference. After all, the Sith are still here, right?

I will say this only once, Carth. What I see in you and Seeira is more courage than I ever had. The two of you walked into darkness willingly and together to try and fight it. You both got yourselves beat down and destroyed by the Sith. But unlike me, who took his saber and walked into the woods with aspirations of oblivion, I've seen you do the bravest thing someone can do  - start over and keep going.

Not everyone has the guts it takes to learn to laugh again, learn to trust your friends and face your enemies. Appreciate what you have and remember you're still alive. More importantly is that I know damn well what you are to each other, and it's the most beautiful, rare, and terrifying thing in the universe. It won't amount to bantha pats if you turn away from it now. She needs you now - more than she's ever needed you.

You need her, too.

Don't do what I did.

Now, lecture's over. Get the hell out of this room, and you think about what I said.