#everyone lauds him as the 'perfect jedi everyone should aspire to be'

[poelya]

a lot of the discussions around the acolyte feel very reductive and boring for me, particularly when it always boils down to that argument between mae and osha when they're children: "the jedi are good!" "the jedi are bad!" and how either of those perspectives mean the show is any good or not.

frankly, i love the jedi. love 'em, but i could not care less what the hell a story has to say about them if it's an interesting well-told story, and if it makes sense. the acolyte is an origin about a dark sider, of course it doesn't paint them across as great, but I also don't think making five jedi extremely flawed counts as the show saying "el em ah oh! yeah they all deserved to get got!" like girl check your reading comprehension for a min...

anyway, I think the most interesting thing about this show to me is how it's typically the Jedi who break the rules and act like they're above the council, that fuck up in drastic ways. Indara is the sole voice of reason, initially, on Brendok, wanting to only perform a wellness check and abide by the Council's decision of "no, they're fine, we're not messing with another culture because we respect their privacy and we're not taking two eight year olds from their mother" - a decision that Sol ignores, because of his own attachment. Torbin also ignores the Council's decision for his own benefit, in an effort to prove the vergence existed. and then of course, Vernestra - I'll admit, I haven't read any of the books with her in it, so I don't know anything abt her besides she's aroace and gifted kid burnout rep - is so focused on the Jedi's political enemies, that she decides to purposely act without the Council's knowledge, and later continue the cycle began by Indara and the others, by covering up what truly happened across the series.

The Brendok team's choices, and Vernestra's, by ignoring the Council and acting out on their own by believing they know what is best, winds up having drastic consequences and making the Sith stronger. By comparison, earlier in the season, we had Jecki and Yord, both of whom are described as by the book and "Jedi-Jedi" basically in various interviews/articles about the series, and I think honestly, they do embody the best things about the Order.

When confronted with the possibility that the person he grew up with, loved, was close friends with, potentially murdered another Jedi Yord likely knew and respected alongside Osha, and is given irrefutable evidence that Osha is guilty (seeing as he doesn't know Osha and Mae were twins) - he lets go of his personal feelings on the matter, and does what he believes is right. He doesn't let his feelings for Osha, or their bond, cloud his judgment. And even Jecki is presented routinely as level-headed, and her initial criticism of Sol lingering on the past and Osha is proven correct: Sol does struggle with attachment, and specifically attachment to Osha.

In my opinion, the show has a lot more to say about Jedi who think they're above the rules of the organization than it does the Jedi as a whole. A lot of what that Senator says is just condensed anti-Jedi rhetoric, certainly, but his statement about what happens if someone with that much power snaps and no one can stop them is simultaneously a wonderful bit of tragic foreshadowing of Anakin, and returns us back to the initial thesis that Aniseya gives the girls: this is about power, and who is allowed to wield it.

The (main) Jedi we view in this series, beyond Jecki and Yord and initially Indara, believe that they are above the rules. That they know better than the Council does, or the rules that are in place for a goddamned reason, because unchecked the Jedi could be extremely dangerous, that's what happens when you're basically demi-god levels of powerful.

And that belief gets a lot of people killed. Just like it will again, a hundred years from now.