One of the most heroic, fan made Jedi can be found on a Clone Wars battlefield, on the run from the Empire…or in the bowels of Fenway Park- meet Olisendri Nevve.
To continue our Holonet Heroes series I sat down to chat with Sendri herself, or Jammthejedi as she’s known on the net.
“Every time I watch or read something related to the Clone Wars era my heart always sinks a little bit just thinking about the Jedi,” said Jamie aka Jammthejedi. “There is no way that there were so few survivors, and we’ve gotten much more of that in-between content recently. I wanted my own character to love and I wanted them to be a survivor of that era, well that’s how Sendri came to be.”
Jamie then launches into a backstory that I’ve heard a handful of times and yet it’s somehow slightly different each time.
She explains that the beauty of an original character is, if you don’t like something about it you have the space to change it. Her Jedi has been revised a few times backstory wise, and is always evolving and growing as well.
“It’s a little symbolic of one’s self I think,” she said. “You can craft something that’s a goal of yours. Or you can make it something totally different than yourself. I feel so close to Sendri because she’s a reflection of myself and what I would want to be if I was a Jedi.”
Jamie has made two outfits for Sendri, so far she is quick to add in. A padawan variation, with a tunic that is grey and a light blue and of course a padawan learner’s braid.
“It bothers me sometimes that my Padawan braid will be a different length, compared to the last time I wore it,” said Jamie. “Usually shorter. I’m not that committed to the Padawan look though, to leave one really long section of my hair.”
She then goes on to talk about the Rey hairstyle for a few minutes, how the trio of buns in The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi are much different than the trio of buns in The Rise of Skywalker. “They’re bubbles really.” She explains about the TROS hair, and mentions she hasn’t really nailed down doing that hairstyle yet.
The look she truly loves the most is her Jedi General outfit. A dark blue tunic and tabards, with gray accents, and the white armor of the clones on her forearms. “The Jedi General one was what I wanted to make first, before the Padawan.” She explains that both Jedi outfits she’s made on her own, of her own designs, from the fabric she’s collected over the past few years. A few things were purchased new but most was just what I had. What she doesn’t tell you is she had also been stockpiling fabric for this exact reason the past few years anyway.
“I knew in coming up with the character of Sendri, I wanted her to be a survivor of Order 66,” Jamie said while sipping at some iced coffee. “So that made me look back and ask, well what was she doing during the Clone Wars? What position would she be in? It naturally fell into place that she’d be a General, right in the middle of the action. There were so many campaigns during the Clone Wars, the series only covers the main characters. So of course there’s room to add yourself right in.”
We went over what was the big draw of making her own character. She explains that even though this is one of her favorite eras in the timeline, there is a lack of female character available.
“I love Padme, I love Ahsoka but they’re not what I want to do. Not yet at least,” she adds in saying she’d love to do Ahsoka or one of Padme’s grand dresses as a cosplay one day. “Sendri came about, because she was a necessity for me. I wanted a Jedi who could rub elbows with the usual suspects in the Clone Wars and not relegated to just a few scenes in the background.”
She started into a rant about Aayla Secura immediately after.
“I love Aayla. What did we hear about her in the movies? Nothing. She’s in the background of a few scenes walking by, and we see her death. She has a few episodes in the show, but it’s not much.”
I asked if Sendri and Aayla ever worked together on a mission.
“Of course they did,” she said without hesitation. “Making it my mission to learn about every canon Clone Wars female Jedi and bringing their stories to life. It starts with the ones everyone knows, Aayla, Depa, Adi, Shaak Ti, Luminara and Barris, and Ahsoka of course. But it will grow from there.”
Jamie explains to me the main story of Sendri.
“Actually, her name is Olisendri,” She cuts in, saying that Sendri is just a nickname but most call her that. Except the Jedi Council because they are “a bunch of sticks in the mud,” as Sendri would explain it.
Born on an ecumenopolis, either Taris or Eufornis Major but she explains that this changes depending on the mood and it’s really not that important of a fact, and was found by the Jedi very early on as most Jedi. Learns the ways of the force, and begins a learning track to become a Jedi Librarian but is “too reckless” to be left alone in the library and be responsible for the entire archive one day.
Around the time she’s booted from the Librarian program she takes on a Padawan of her own, a human from Kuat, Esso Blank. She says about Esso, “He’s lowkey Ahsoka’s biggest competition. They were in the same learning group as younglings, and they were super competitive with one another. But also would not hesitate to help each other when it comes up.”
Sendri and Esso are a well-matched duo, he’s a little reckless as well and it’s safe to say if they’re not out on a mission, any time spent at the temple is a task that’s a punishment from the Jedi Council. The Clone Wars could not have come at a better time for them both, as she immediately volunteered to lead a unit.
Thus the 702nd Legion was born. Jamie tells me that she picked the number 702 as it’s the date she applied to the Rebel Legion, July 7th. (With a Rey costume though, not Sendri until a year later.) Jedi Knight Olisendri Nevve becomes, General Nevve and brings along Esso who quickly learns to be Commander.
“Something I wish the Clone Wars expanded on, but never did at great lengths, was what was the relationship of a Jedi Knight with a Padawan during the war,” she said. “We have only a few examples of this super important part in the development of all Jedi! Ahsoka was experienced enough to be a Commander, but Cal Kestis was too young to leave the cruiser. And then we have Caleb Dume, who only became Depa’s padawan sometime during the war, who was on the battlefield with her as a very young learner. It’s inconsistent, and something that I’ve been interested in for awhile. Sendri and Esso are about 10 years apart in age and it’s a brother sister relationship, like Anakin and Ahsoka. Sendri might be reckless, but she’s nothing like Anakin that’s for sure.”
One of her favorite parts about creating Sendri was sharing the story with others. It’d be one thing making this backstory and making the costume and sharing photos with friends.
“It’s another thing as well to spark a friend’s creativity and want to share in that experience,” she says.
Jamie goes on about how she’s inspired friends to create their characters and woven them into her own timeline.
“This story has grown so much,” she says with joy. “Friends have jumped in with their own original Jedi, like Scott’s Jedi Thrace. And Esso is real, well the guy who is Esso is real. Esso will always be real to me.” She laughs for a bit over it. “I have a friend who created his own Clone captain years ago, just design-wise, and so we blended stories together. I picked the 702nd, and he gave the squad the informal name Reaper Squad.”
So what about after order 66?
“Still really unwritten,” said Jamie. “It’s one of those, I know a few things. She changes her name, like Kanan did. So she’s Tai Cyn of Anoat post order 66. So Tai’s post 66 journey is spent with a Mandalorian, a character who again came from close friend of mine irl and we’ve blended stories together. What we’re doing in the story, not sure yet. ”
She goes on to explain that one of her favorite eras of Star Wars is this post-Clone Wars era because it is so “wild west.”
“With your own Star Wars story you can add and remove anything in it. I’m constantly rewriting how the heck Sendri survived Order 66. I know that she does, and Esso might be possessed by a Sith artifact and he dies. Maybe not? He might become an Inquisitor. That was a solid idea for a while, then Fallen Order stole it from me,” she laughs.
She explains she’s always been interested in the broader universe of Star Wars. There’s so much room to make your own path in this universe, and with just a few pulls from different stories and timelines you can personalize it.
“It’s always changing. Always in motion!”
For more about her ever unfolding universe find her on Instagram at @jammthejedi.
