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Spoilers ahead for The Acolyte.
Ever since I started watching The Acolyte, there’s been a particular path I hoped it would head down, but wasn’t particularly sure Disney would allow, at least not explicitly anyway. You see, in the original Star Wars trilogy, the Jedi weren’t really a thing, they were just forgotten history, so mostly the only idea anyone had of them were cool guys that fought the bad guys with glowing swords and magical powers. When the prequels came along, creator George Lucas was able to explore them in more depth though, right down to the political environment surrounding them (a bold move that didn’t entirely work out).
But in particular, it raised a question about the Jedi – are they actually good? Right from the first prequel film, The Phantom Menace, seeds are sown to suggest there’s something a bit off about them, actually. When Qui-Gon Jinn and co head to Tatooine, they’re not there to free any of the slaves that reside there. In fact, the only reason Qui-Gon Jinn saves anyone at all, one Anakin Skywalker, is because he believes the child is a prophesied one who will bring balance to the Force.
I admit there’s likely some more nuance to be had there, bureaucracy gets in the way a touch, but why should such a thing stop what is morally right? Jinn is also engaging in the classic Jedi act of taking a child away from his mother, despite the child being too old to be trained in the ways of the Jedi, which obviously sets off the events of the original trilogy in due time.
A lot of this, too, is repeated and re-examined in The Acolyte. When Sol, a character very directly inspired by Jinn, meets the young Force-sensitive twins Osha and Mae, he instantly feels like it’s his duty to take them and train to be Jedi, completely ignoring his companion Indara’s advice to do so. The twins are a part of a coven of Force witches after all, and once again they’re both technically too old to be trained as Jedi (or, perhaps, brainwashed as some might suggest).
When we get to episode seven, the penultimate episode of the series, we finally learn that Sol actually killed Osha and Mae’s mother, with Indara and two other Jedi taking part in the murder of all of the rest of the coven as well. It’s a brutal moment, and an obvious indictment over the Jedi, one I’m glad the series sought to explore. Even the Jedi back on Coruscant, the de facto homebase of the Jedi and the political centre of the Galactic Empire, end up lying about the events of the show in order to protect themselves.
It also took all season to get here, leaving a lot of setup for a second season that hasn’t been confirmed just yet. I think it’s safe to assume it will get one, we don’t know how successful it’s been thanks to the streaming era, but there’s still a lot more that needs to be said about the Jedi and their flawed practices. This being a prequel, I’m not expecting it to fix any of what they have done, they can’t, unless Disney wanted to create a completely separate canon. There’s still room narratively to make those criticisms though, and to move away from the original trilogy’s simple presentation of good versus evil that has continued to bog down much of the series.
It’s clear that showrunner Leslye Headland wants to dive into these themes, particularly because the big bad Qimir appears to be a lot more complex than Darth Sidious just wanting “unlimited power”, a presentation of the dark side of the Force I welcome with open arms. Qimir’s relationship with Osha too parallels the popular new trilogy ship Kylo Ren and Rey, but Osha turning to the dark side rather than Kylo turning good. It’s asking if there’s a world where there’s more room for different interpretations of the Force than just the Jedi’s, so really, I just hope season 2 delivers on this, because quite frankly, red lightsabers are cooler anyway.