Star Wars: The Acolyte official trailer

[ecarden]

The never-ending argument I'm aware of is that there are advocates like myself who say the Jedi were wrong to participate in the clone wars, at least the way they did, and I base this on the ROTS novelization, where the author directly called that out as a mistake.

Others, such as SapphireGuard, disagree. They point out that neutrality isn't a practical option for a group which has been the peacekeeping arm of the Republic; the most likely outcome (they argue) of neutrality is the entire galaxy hating them. There really is no easy way out of the dilemma.

We've reviewed the topic, as well as others, such as the blindness of the Jedi to events around them (Yoda noting that the force is clouded, and how they must be 'blind' not to foresee the cloud army. But what it really comes down to is what kind of story you think this is.

If you believe this is a story about institutional decay and failure of the constitutional order in the face of overwhelming evil, like me, you start finding fault with the Jedi council and their decisions.

If you believe this is a story about perfectly honorable, competent people just being completely overwhelmed by space wizard Palpatine who just beats them at everything regardless of what they do because he's just so much better at everything than even the greatest Jedi. If this is the kind of story you think Star Wars is, you're going to defend the actions of the Jedi. We've been having this conversation for years on this board and it all kind of blurs together at this point, but it does seem like there's pretty much nothing we can all accept as a flat-out failure or mistake on the part of the Jedi in the prequels. Whatever they do , be it showing up on Geonosis or their dealing with Anakin or sending Anakin, a teenage male, off for quality alone time with an attractive teenage female, or accepting command of the clone army, there is always a defense of some kind.

I'm not trying to pick on SapphireGuard or Peelee or the other people who disagree with me; they DO have some valid points. It's just that we've been to this movie so many times I'm just not interested in arguing the case any more, unless some new information presents itself.

There's a lot here that's right, but I'd phrase it slightly differently. The PT is definitely "about institutional decay and failure of the constitutional order in the face of overwhelming evil" but it's about the collapse of the Republic. The Jedi fail to save it, but that's a different failure. And the question is, I think was it an institutional/moral failure, or was it merely defeat?