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THE JEDI PROBLEM
🕑 Added 2024-05-24 09:46:25 +0000 UTC
In the trailer to the latest Star Wars TV offering, “The Acolyte”, we are treated to the sight of a load of Jedi, in their flowing robes and multi-coloured lightsabres, or “laser-swords” as Lucas would call them, leaping around in slickly choregraphed motions, while also barking about prophecy and fate, or some such shit, and all I could think was that we’ve seen all of this before. Sure, there will be a different twist on it, but visually, it’s so played out.
Most of the reason why the Prequels feel like such a drag is that the entire narrative is bent towards the Jedi credo; being a bunch of boring fucking hippies who sit around in a dark room talking about things, and essentially doing nothing. Even when they do leap into action, it’s a cold, over-choregraphed sword fight that hold little to no interest. Same with the Obi-Wan show, which felt more like a fan film that had somehow ended up on Disney+.
Even their very look, which I am still sure is an admin error, as the costume of a Jedi seems to be solely based on Obi-Wan in A New Hope, when he is in hiding; attempting to blend in on a planet full of moisture farmers, is boring. Space-monks, wandering about mumbling about caution and bad vibes, while the closest they get to combat is opening a door with a pointed finger. These lads should be the Space S.A.S., storming in when some bad galactic slag needs a good shoeing. Instead they toddle into situations and reach for the herbal tea.
A show that everyone loved was Andor, and the reason why is that there were no Jedi, (See also Rogue One), and it felt like it had fallen out of A New Hope, with the 70s-centric production design and amazing central performances, allied with incredible writing. This is what Star Wars could, and should, be; a big knife cutting the stayed and familiar wide open, showing the viewer what lies inside and not just treading over the same things. In the case of Andor it was the rancid state of the all-conquering Empire, and how the Rebellion was forming within like an incubating egg. There was not one scene of a hippy sat in the corner meditating about problems. There was, however, a thrilling heist, a genuinely heart-wrenching prison sequence, and one of the best ending monologues in TV for many a year.
Obviously The Acolyte may be amazing, and break new ground all over, but with each new clip and image, it feels like the same old same old.
Comments
David Crewe
I've always wondered how the Jedi who were meant to have been around for ages (want to say millenia) before palpatine executed order 66 are treated like a myth in under 20 years. If the Catholic church died out tomorrow, we wouldn't in 20 years time be saying that no one has ever heard or believed in them like they were a myth.
Neil Peart, Lord of Drums
There's a lot to unpack here, but. man, right there in the first sentence: " treated to the sight of a load of Jedi...." I immediately heard your voice saying, "not like that." But that is how it feels, eh? EDIT: Also, Andor is the only Space Battles-product I've seen since The Force Awakens, and it's because a friend told me I absolutely needed to watch it. Aside from what you said, what really put it over the top for me was how there was a sense of realism to the story. First, the guy who becomes the antagonist is shown to be a mere functionary in the Empire, like an office worker in a cubicle (there's even that huge shot that shows where he works to be exactly that). He works there not because he wants to work for the "bad guys," but because he wants to get out of his mom's house and get her to stop bothering him about getting a job. He never becomes evil; he's just slowly ground down by the machine until he abandons his clearly-doomed attempt to get his corporate (sorry, Empire) overlords to give a shit about "justice." He just stops caring. And our protagonist has the opposite arc: he doesn't really give a shit about the Empire until he's exposed to how brutal it can be outside of his previous cone of vision.
