Quote Originally Posted by pendell View Post
it seems like there's only so many stories you can tell with Jedi that don't
follow the pattern set by the original trilogy and by KOTOR. I wonder if there are any Jedi
tales that push the envelope beyond "Person discovers unlimited power, is tempted by the dark side,
lightsaber duels, phenomenal force abilities that push everyone else well into the background."
It's not nearly that limited. Force power isn't unlimited, and non-sensitives can and do defeat, murder, overshadow, and even outright embarrass Jedi. It is a level up though. Even weak force users are stronger than 'ordinary people' or even simple conscript soldiers. Force sensitivity is a ticket into the elite - best guess is the among most species sensitivity occurs at roughly a 1 in a 1,000,000 level, and Force users strong enough to become Jedi Knights only at 1 in 10,000,000 - and force users compete with other elites. Mando mows through ordinary opponents, especially once he upgrades his armor, at a rate little different from an average Jedi.

Stories about the Jedi are stories about elite characters taking on problems of elite scale that operate at an elite level. Stories about the best Jedi, like the members of the Jedi Council or most Force-using video game protagonists, do indeed go up a level and involve BDHs (Galen Marek pulling a Star Destroyer out of orbit is still dumb, even in the context of the rest of that game).

Smaller stories involving Jedi at various levels of power, do exist. The problem is, in terms of the EUs publication history, there was an extremely strong Big Three bias (Luke, Han, and Leia), who came with BDH baked in, and characters who were introduced to their orbit, most notably Mara Jade, had to be brought up to that level simply to keep pace. The various novels written in the Prequel Era, likewise, focused mostly on Jedi High Council members (the best dozen Jedi out of 10,000) or anomalies like Anakin. Smaller stories, very much including the Han Solo adventures, sold poorly and were difficult to get published.