#(not acolyte era jedi)

[digitalwizard01]

I love how in The Acolyte, the older and wiser Jedi rarely use their lightsabers. Indara only pulls it as a last resort, and Sol and Torbin haven't used theirs at all. Meanwhile, Yord, who's younger, seems much more keen to draw his weapon. I just really appreciate that it's showing the gradual changing of the Order's beliefs through the different generations of Jedi as they move toward the prequel era

[short-wooloo]

So the take goin around right now is that acolyte shows how its era of Jedi are better than the prequel ones because they're less quick to draw their lightsabers

Yeah, gotta disagree on this

1. The prequel Jedi really aren't overly quick on the saber draw (there are certainly individuals who are, but they're people like Anakin/ahsoka/etc, sucky Jedi/people taught by sucky Jedi), pretty much any time they take their sabers out its because the situations call for it, which brings me to...

2. There is a fundamental difference in the times between the prequels and acolyte

Acolyte is in a time of peace and a peace that will last another century

The prequels are a time of rising tensions and war, the Jedi here must always be on guard

And on that note

3. Personally I'd say that the fact that the acolyte Jedi aren't drawing their sabers in response to a threat shows that they're not taking this as seriously as they should, that they're treating the situation with kids gloves, in contrast to the prequel Jedi who are responding appropriately to the danger to their lives an lives of others by not hesitating and dealing with the situation as quickly and efficiently as possible

It's all so ironic, this show is very much trying to go for a "this is how the Jedi messed up and became the prequel Jedi" message, but because it's based upon a fundamental misunderstanding of what the prequel Jedi are, it actually ends up making these Jedi from a century prior to the prequels seem worse

In other words, the acolyte era Jedi are complacent and arrogant, while the prequel Jedi have adapted with the times

[anthony-crowleys]

POV: you're thinking about all the lost potential that The Acolyte had

[adore-the-stars-in-her-eyes]

Fresh ideas will never prosper with Star Wars as long as they listen to toxic ass fans boys.

[thislightsaberkillsfascists]

Pro Jedi in that I'm pro Jedi being little freaks who fuck up big-time

[bikananjarrus]

i finally started reading the high republic books! i finished light of the jedi last night, so here are a few of my (non-spoilery) thoughts:

jedi doing cool shit with the force is my favorite thing and there is SO much good jedi doing cool shit with the force content

also the way the force was described was just, really beautiful. it's been a while since any visual star wars medium has really made me feel in awe of the force, but this did the job so well.

the little worldbuilding aspects were really cool. (hypserspace travel still being developed, bacta isn't mass-produced yet, etc.) this book was just a really nice reminder about how cool and strange and fun the star wars galaxy can be (when actual effort is put into making it that way)

on that note, god it felt good to have good star wars content. like this was SO. GOOD. (and i'm so so excited to move onto the next books, but i kind of didn't want this one to end bc charles soule is such a beautiful writer. and he made every pov interesting and engaging; i was never bored)

i think maybe my favorite pov to read from was bell's. he made me laugh, and soule wrote him in such a way that was youthful but not childish, and it was just such a joy reading his pov. i felt so connected to him immediately, and was so proud of him by the end of the book! can't wait to see where his story goes. (also i love his and loden's relationship and i have SO many feelings about the end of the book like..... iykyk.)

avar and elzar. avar and elzar. AVAR AND ELZAR. they've got me down so. bad. help.....i love both of them individually, and their dynamic together is everything to me actually. (i have so many more thoughts on them, but i’ll come back to them later)

another bullet point to again say how much i LOVE jedi doing cool shit with the force, and relating it to elzar and a) how he describes the force as an endless sea.... yeah. i'm in love w that description; and b) him wanting to push boundaries, explore all that the force is capable, is just really really cool.

the epilogue. I have not stopped thinking about it. like i got yearning and terrifying force visions all in one chapter?? charles soule did that for ME <3

i'm reading the main books for phase one in order, so next up is test of courage, then into the dark. (even though i reallyyyy want to just go right to the rising storm lol)

[lowcountry-gothic]

Not super thrilled with the whole “Jedi as an elite, powerful institution” take that the trailer for The Acolyte seems to be adopting; although I recognize that the monologue is coming from one specific character expressing their own viewpoint within the story; likely the Sith character, so we’re probably not supposed to agree with their take. Obviously I’m going to give the show a chance and come to it in good faith with a completely open mind.

But I will be disappointed if this is ultimately the idea they’re going with. The Jedi aren’t perfect, and can’t be, and of course they have their flaws and it’s interesting to explore that, as well as the ways in which the Order declined in certain aspects before its fall. But ultimately the Jedi have to be good—they have to be a source of light and wisdom and justice in the Galaxy—or else they’re just not interesting. If they’re not good, then they’re just religious cops with a dangerous amount of power, and at that point suddenly none of Star Wars makes any sense, its entire story logic falls apart.

[laz-laz-ace-pilot]

'But so many Jedi were killed! They can't ignore that! People have to notice this threat!'

Side eyes the Jedi killed by the Open Hand, the Jedi killed in the Battle of Jedha, the Night of Sorrows Jedi Massacre, Jedi killed in space 9/11 one, two and three, Jedi killed by the Drengir, Jedi killed in the Occlusion Zone, Jedi killed by the Blight-

I think we'll be lucky if they get an obituary in the local Khofar news

[dapurinthos]

well at least the investigation on khofar and the main bal'demnic scenes are in the same episode of the acolyte because i need to check both of them to find out what happened to the gauntlet. yord smashes it right off of qimir's arm before he gets killed.

(to shreds, you say? /professor farnsworth. yes. to shreds pieces.)

thanks for the 0.31x, vlc, so i could really see the process (after i lightened the caps). that gauntlet's gone. onto 'teach/corrupt' to see the investigation team, now that i am satisfied that it's possible that a piece of the gauntlet could have been left behind.

yes, acolyte, you may have decided that ki-adi-mundi was the best cameo but i know that tera sinube was around here, in his investigative prime (a couple centuries after infiltrating a pirate gang by dying himself nearly barbie pink).

[engagemythrusters]

delightfully intrigued by acolyte! but also i thought this was the one with the mirialan protag? was i wrong? was that a different one? oops...

[ao3org]

Tag Changes are Coming to The High Republic

Hello! In the very near future, the Star Wars wrangling team is going to be doing what people have been asking for: we’re making The High Republic novels into series instead of individual book fandoms.

These fandoms are going to be:

Star Wars: The High Republic: Phase I - Various Authors

Star Wars: The High Republic: Phase II - Various Authors

Star Wars: The High Republic: Phase III - Various Authors

Read on for more details about this decision and all the related tag changes we’ll be making to help ease this transition.

Why is this change being made?

People have been using Star Wars: The High Republic: Light of the Jedi - Charles Soule as a makeshift series tag, and we want how we wrangle these fandoms to reflect actual tagging practices. Also, the High Republic books are much more intertwined than wranglers initially foresaw.

Why did you split the fandom into phases? I wanted a single THR tag. :(

The problem with making a single tag for all the books is that the High Republic era is 400 years long and if we make one tag, then every book that takes place from 500 BBY to 100 BBY would be part of it, even if they have no relation to each other. These series tags are only going to contain the novels announced as part of this initial multimedia project, ending with the books published in Spring 2025. There might not be any THR books after that, but we live in hope. (Novel about Yord and Osha as padawans, anyone?)

If it makes you feel better, you can imagine that the separation between Phase I and III is Marchion Ro's fault. The Occlusion Zone is so powerful it extends to affecting AO3.

What about the comics and Tales of Light and Life?

Due to the fact that AO3 tag wranglers generally no longer make new AO3 fandoms that mix media types, the comics will remain their own fandoms, and any books that span more than one phase (such as Tales of Light and Life, which contains stories set in Phase I and Phase II) will remain their own fandoms, and won’t be renamed. These fandoms won’t be connected to the phase tags in any way. This also extends to Young Jedi Adventures and The Acolyte as well as its related tie-in media.

What will happen if I just tag "Star Wars: The High Republic" without specifying a phase in the fandom field?

Your story will only appear under "Star Wars - All Media Types", which is what currently happens. We’re able to move the majority of tags currently synonymous with the Star Wars - All Media Types to the era that best represents the majority of the works tagged with them, but Star Wars: The High Republic remains synonymous with Star Wars - All Media Types, as its usage is too mixed between phases.

In instances where a generic High Republic fandom tag that doesn't specify a particular phase of this era is used, it’s likely that wranglers will make that tag a synonym of the fandom tag that best represents the content of the majority of the fanworks tagged with it. Consequently, there may be at least a few works showing up in a phase they seemingly don't belong in, because they've made use of a generic High Republic fandom tag.

I still want tags that tell my readers what book the fic is connected to! What do I do?

You can still keep the fandom tag currently on your works if you want! There’s absolutely no need to edit your works. However, if you want to tag the books in freeforms/additional tags instead, we’ve got you covered with these canonical tags you can put in the "Additional Tags" field:

Books now part of Star Wars: The High Republic: Phase I - Various Authors

Book: Star Wars: The High Republic: Starlight Stories - Various Authors

Book: Star Wars: The High Republic: Light of the Jedi - Charles Soule

Book: Star Wars: The High Republic: Into the Dark - Claudia Gray

Book: Star Wars: The High Republic: A Test of Courage - Justina Ireland

Book: Star Wars: The High Republic: The Rising Storm - Cavan Scott

Book: Star Wars: The High Republic: Race to Crashpoint Tower - Daniel José Older

Book: Star Wars: The High Republic: Out of the Shadows - Justina Ireland

Book: Star Wars: The High Republic: Tempest Runner - Cavan Scott

Book: Star Wars: The High Republic: Mission to Disaster - Justina Ireland

Book: Star Wars: The High Republic: The Fallen Star - Claudia Gray

Book: Star Wars: The High Republic: Midnight Horizon - Daniel José Older

Books now part of Star Wars: The High Republic: Phase II - Various Authors

Book: Star Wars: The High Republic: Quest for the Hidden City - George Mann

Book: Star Wars: The High Republic: Convergence - Zoraida Córdova

Book: Star Wars: The High Republic: Path of Deceit - Tessa Gratton and Justina Ireland

Book: Star Wars: The High Republic: Tales of Enlightenment - George Mann

Book: Star Wars: The High Republic: The Battle of Jedha - George Mann

Book: Star Wars: The High Republic: Quest for Planet X - Tessa Gratton

Book: Star Wars: The High Republic: Cataclysm - Lydia Kang

Book: Star Wars: The High Republic: Path of Vengeance - Cavan Scott

Books now part of Star Wars: The High Republic: Phase III - Various Authors

Book: Star Wars: The High Republic: Chronicles from the Occlusion Zone - Lydia Kang

Book: Star Wars: The High Republic: Escape From Valo - Daniel José Older and Alyssa Wong

Book: Star Wars: The High Republic: The Eye of Darkness - George Mann

Book: Star Wars: The High Republic: Defy the Storm - Tessa Gratton and Justina Ireland

Book: Star Wars: The High Republic: Temptation of the Force - Tessa Gratton

Additional canonical tags will be added as more books are published.

(From time to time, ao3org posts announcements of recent or upcoming wrangling changes on behalf of the Tag Wrangling Committee.)

[charmwasjess]

That One About the Temple Clones AU

Here's an underexplored and juicy plot point in the prequels that I can't stop thinking about! Because Sifo-Dyas was killed so early in the new canon timeline of the creation of the clones, with Dooku impersonating him to handle the subsequent details, we don’t even know exactly what he intended the clone army to be.

I think there’s even an argument to be made that Sifo-Dyas intended the clones to be culturally Jedi. Raised and trained in the Jedi Temple(s), learning Jedi skills and ways of life, growing up in a shared community alongside the Jedi. The clones serving not as an emergency button to hit in case of war, but as a support to the overstretched, under resourced Jedi Order in an increasingly violent, chaotic galaxy, one that might prevent the war he foresaw from ever even happening.

To begin, I’ll briefly touch on the galactic situation immediately before The Phantom Menace. Time and time again, we’re given a picture of the Jedi Order that is being stretched to its limit. All across the galaxy, Jedi temples such as the ones we see operating in the High Republic era in the Acolyte, are being shut down because the Jedi just can’t staff them. The novel The Living Force, set immediately before TPM, deals with the repercussions of these shut downs for the people living in those sectors - destabilization, a vacuum where the power hungry and corrupt can come into the space left and make life awful for the people. Problems arise, these systems go to the Republic for help, the Republic can't help due to bureaucratic red tape and lack of Jedi resources, and this creates more bad feelings about the Jedi and a great environment to grow the Separatist cause.

"I always heard so much about the Jedi. I never saw one, but they told me that was because you saved people -- and then you left!" - The Living Force

Enter Sifo-Dyas. As a member of the Jedi Council in this era, he would have overseen dozens of these painful but unavoidable closures. More, he was trained by Lene Kostana, a High Republic era Jedi, who remembered the golden age of the Jedi, all of these Jedi outposts, temples, and cultural centers being open and thriving, and surely filled her Padawan’s head with these stories. When Sifo-Dyas foresaw a coming cataclysmic war that would destroy the Jedi Order, it's not hard to see where he might have made a connection between the pervasive problem that was a lack of Jedi resources, and the galaxy falling further into darkness. In fact, it's exactly what happens in the prequels with a little push from the Sith.

The Living Force novel tells us outright that Sifo-Dyas’s original plan before deciding on the clones was to use his role as a Jedi Seeker to fill the Jedi Order with as many new Jedi as possible to counter the coming threats:

“(Sifo-Dyas) was always in a big damn hurry. Like the Republic would end if he didn’t swell the ranks.” - The Living Force 

Wow, Even Piell, that line aged like milk, buddy!

 Ki-Adi Mundi frowned. “Indeed, sometimes those he brought to us were not even viable candidates.”  - The Living Force 

So, Sifo-Dyas was originally trying to bring as many kids into the Order as possible, and didn’t particularly care if they were very Force sensitive. An intriguing detail, when considering how closely he might have imagined the non-Force-sensitive clones to work in Jedi roles.

Interestingly, he didn’t actually abandon that “swell the ranks” plan - he got his ass fired, so he couldn’t bring any more Jedi in the conventional way. Sifo-Dyas is in a desperate situation here, he feels he's running out of time, and he needs to get as many people into the Jedi Order as quickly as possible. I think you might see where I'm going with this.

“The future should remain unseen, but unfortunately, Sifo-Dyas has little choice in the matter.”  -Lene Kostana, Dooku Jedi Lost

We know he arranged the initial order for the clones, but not how he intended to use them, or saw their role, or even if he would have agreed with Jango as the DNA donor, since that part came in from Dooku.  If Sifo-Dyas, lifelong Jedi and true believer in the Order, was creating something to help defend his people in their darkest hour, it stands to reason that he might look within his own culture for their training, instead of outside of it.

Did he see them as a secret weapon, a surprise help in the hour of greatest need, as they would ultimately function as on Geonosis? Or did he envision the clones being raised with Jedi involvement on every level of their development, growing into keepers of the peace to fill those hundreds of empty temples and outposts and restabilize a galaxy sliding toward darkness?

I think an important clue that supports the latter argument is that as Sifo-Dyas is literally falling out of the sky to his death, he is busy trying to get a message to the Council that he ordered the clones via a recording: 

I've seen a vision of the future that I feel warrants an army. You've disagreed with me, but I felt I had no choice. Therefore I have ordered one: a clone army from the Kaminoans. Something must be done, and I made that decision. - Sifo-Dyas, Force Collector

He's hardly trying to keep the (currently embryonic!) clones a secret here. He seems to think he's done his part and the Council has no choice but to take it from there, and follow through with his unmentioned plan. He has delivered the needed personnel. And bear in mind, Sifo-Dyas did not expect his death to be a 10 year old mystery. He seems to have spent his very last breaths protecting Sillman and therefore leaving a witness to everything that happened. His last words are literally “Come find me!” 

These are not the actions of a man who has set his plan into perfect motion and a magic army will appear just at the right time in ten years. This is a man who is facing his unexpected death and realizing that he needs to tell the Council, who disagreed with him but he clearly still trusts, what he did because he won't be there to handle the details himself. It's almost poignant.

-

I worried about making this post at all because I’m not actually interested in blorbo apologism. Sifo-Dyas’s story is much more interesting if he is a good man forced to go to desperate, awful lengths to keep the apocalypse from happening. Whatever he intended the clones to be, it ended in Order 66; in a way, it doesn't even matter.  And yet, I think there’s something compelling there too, and I think canon gives us just enough - at least make an argument for a culturally-Jedi clone army what-if.

[adore-the-stars-in-her-eyes]

Some of the best Star Wars content in a long time that was shaky (honestly, that's a lie cause all it needed was more episode), the best fight scenes, live action darth plagueis, and finally, some high republic era live action and it was canceled because of toxic ass fans. I fucking hate this.

[maidenvault]

Remember that one time we ever saw some Jedi sent by the Senate to do something shady and cop-like (rescue a well-treated hostage being held by rebels only because they’re being oppressed) and they ended up standing with all these villagers against their Senator and the authorities?

I did not just see someone say the Jedi are cops

[stealingpotatoes]

my star wars hot take will always be that rebels would have worked better in another era. i like some of the characters in rebels but the fundamental concept of “this very small group of people who do everything” works super well for the republic era (where things were actually fought by a small group of separatists and their droids vs the soldiers of the republic) and not for the galactic civil war era which was masses of ordinary people coming together. it would have been cool if they’d set it in the same sort of era as the acolyte or even before that. i like rebels as a story, but i fundamentally disagree with where it’s set.

i promise in every other situation a jedi who wears bright orange to a stealth ops mission, steals from people and makes a lightsaber/gun fusion is my dream character.

i just wanna preface my answer to this with I LOVE REBELS AND I HOPE YOU GUYS HAVE WORKED THAT OUT FROM HOW MUCH I DRAW IT but anon's like... almost right here. rebels' concept isnt "like 6 people who do literally everything" rebels' concept is supposed to be "this hopelessly outmatched and motley group of outcasts try to rebel in whatever way they can". but it comes across as what anon said cause the fundamental issue w this show is that most the time, it's a kids saturday morning cartoon first and story/drama second. which often makes the show/characters feel very tonally inconsistent w its (VERY DARK) setting a lot of the time. and dont get me wrong rebels has some GREAT arcs that feel more in-place with the "6 people help fight galactic fascism" tone and i love this show but i do get what you're saying

[maingh0st]

i know i'm not the first to say this, but the acolyte's cancellation has confirmed how tired i am of disney's decision-making when it comes to their content. i know nostalgia is the easiest way to a big payout, but we can only take so many spinoffs before the universe starts to feel too small. but then fresh content—content that's building on the canon by looking to old star wars lore while asking new questions—fizzles out.

it's the sequel trilogy all over again. we're promised something new, something that actually expands the canon rather than just recycling it, even bringing in concepts from legends, and then the rug is ripped out from underneath us & we're punished for ever caring about any of it. silly babygirl! palpatine was always the big bad (don't worry about the fact that this is thematically nonsense and not foreshadowed in any way), and rey isn't a nobody ("your parents sold you because they loved you"), and this isn't a story about how the force transcends human categories and dynasties (represented by a grey jedi force dyad between a legacy skywalker and a nobody orphan from a backwater planet, fulfilling not only balance between light and dark but also transcending the old to become something new). silly idiot!!! rey's a palpatine by birth and a skywalker by self-adoption and god forbid she create her own identity outside of these names our fans recognize. watch as she stands alone on a sand planet that has no personal significance to her, ending her arc almost exactly as she began. but look!! two suns! neat

i don't even know if fanservice is the right word. at a certain point, it just starts to feel like they're quaking in their boots at the thought of doing anything new. i had my gripes with some of the choices in the acolyte, but at least it was unique. it explored a new era and asked questions that star wars has only ever flirted with. like: what happens to the children who are uprooted from their homes at such a young age, yet can't find their place in the jedi order? how does one survive in a supposedly honorable system that nevertheless relies on the repression of some of humanity's most fundamental emotions? is it possible that an organization dictating exactly how one ought to interact with the very life force of the universe... could perhaps be faulty and shortsighted? what happens when the ways of that order clash with other cultures and worldviews? (spoilers: space colonialism). and that's not even to mention the ideas they play with re: the force itself (vergences! plagueis! force witches!)

i know not everyone loved the show, but a lot of people really did care about it. a lot of people, like me, were excited to see these new questions being raised. but forget it—the disney gods have decreed that it didn't hit some magical threshold of streaming hours or reach a "broad enough" audience in the two months it's been out. but don't worry guys. turn your brains off and tune in for the next spinoff 2 chewy 2 bacca