‘The Acolyte’ Proves That the Jedi Have Always Been Like This

Star Wars fans believe, at a young age, that the Jedi are cool. They have light swords and wear cool robes. But the older you get, the more you may realize that the Jedi are far from a perfect community. In fact, a lot of the time, they ruin their own plans.

The Acolyte premiered on Disney+ this week, and I was excited to see what the golden age of the Jedi looked like. Why I didn’t assume it’d be the Jedi making a mess of things, I don’t know, but I love how much the Jedi just … never learn—or better yet, how they’ve just always been that way. The Jedi have rules that they believe need to be followed to make the order work. They do not have emotional connections, they have to follow what the council says, and they cannot just use their weapons without reason. (Well, unless you need to see where you’re going and then you can use your lightsaber as a lantern like Yord Fandar does.)

But all of that just gets in their way. Master Indara (Carrie-Anne Moss) dies because she doesn’t want to fight back against Mae (Amandla Stenberg). The Jedi way of thinking is exactly why Torbin (Dean-Charles Chapman) opts to take poison. Even more than that, the Jedi are so strict about their procedures that they almost lose all the leads they have in trying to track down Mae! If it wasn’t for Master Sol (Lee Jung-jae) essentially just doing it anyway, they’d be lost. Well, Vernestra (Rebecca Henderson) does allow them to do it, but there are still too many steps.

Seeing how even the best of the Jedi still have to triple check their every move with the council makes me laugh because they’re the same way in the prequels, which results in their downfall.

The Jedi have really always been like that

I had this idea in my mind that the prequels were the Jedi trying their hardest to hold onto anything that worked, but … no, they really were just always the biggest rule followers out there. To be fair, there’s nothing wrong with following rules, but it does make the Jedi so boring. I get why Osha (Stenberg) left and why Anakin Skywalker said “Ugh whatever” to their rules.

This situation with Mae and Osha could easily have been fixed if there were not so many steps to it. They could have probably saved Torbin if they just split up or didn’t have to ask the Jedi about taking action, and yet he’s dead.

What we saw of Kelnacca at least shows a Wookiee who can at least defend himself, so maybe he’ll be survive Mae’s attacks. But what I love about this show is that it doesn’t try to change who the Jedi are. They’re still losers who follow rules to a T and don’t budge from them, and I think that’s just kind of cool.