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The Parallels Between 'The Acolyte' And The Prequels

Prequel and ACOLYTE POSTERS

Image Source: CultureSlate

It’s like poetry, it rhymes, which is something that has remained true when it comes to Star Wars. Recently, this quote can be used when it comes to The Acolyte and The Phantom Menace. Both are very different pieces of Star Wars media, but The Acolyte has a few parallels to the prequel film, that causes it to come full circle. 

One of the Jedi rules pertains to training older children. The majority of the time, the child is taken as a baby or a very young child, and they are raised and trained within the Jedi temple. There however have been cases where this hasn’t happened, and the Jedi Council has not been happy about it. The first case of this was with Anakin Skywalker.

Everyone knows the story of how Qui Gon Jinn stumbled across the child, who was a slave at the time, on the planet of Tatooine. Anakin was able to win his freedom, after winning a podrace. We find out he has a very high midichlorian count. When Qui Gon takes him back to Coruscant, the Council is not a fan of having him trained, due to his age. This wasn’t the last time this happened though, as we most recently saw this same thing happen in The Acolyte. Jedi Master Sol stumbled across two girls in the forest in their home of Brendok. The Jedi eventually confront the sister's coven, and chaos ensues. Osha, one of the girls, wants to train and be a Jedi. Master Indarra confronts the council about it, and they of, course, say no. Sol is not happy with this outcome but decides to do it anyway. Sol and Qui Gon were very alike in this way. They did not listen to the order, but sometimes they let their emotions take over. 

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OSHA

Image Source: IGN Nordic

Osha trained for as long as she could, but she couldn’t control her emotions like she was supposed to, eventually leaving the Jedi order. She’s like Anakin in a lot of ways, and this is one of them. Both of them struggled to suppress their emotions, and eventually, their emotions got the better of them, and they were lured to the Dark Side. Anakin’s love and obsession with protecting Padme drove him mad, that he was convinced to join the side opposite of the Jedi. Osha’s love for her sister caused her to never fully suppress her emotions, and when she found out what Master Sol did, that was the end of it for her, and where she fully gave herself over to the Dark Side. 

Another similarity between both Star Wars content is the creation of children from the force. Anakin doesn’t know who his father is. Fans have speculated for years, but nothing has ever been confirmed. In The Phantom Menace, Shmi, Anakin’s mother, explains to Qui Gon that it “just happened”. She woke up one day, and was pregnant with him, and doesn’t have an explanation as to why. This is a bit different from The Acolyte, but the same concept at the core. The twins, Osha and Mae, were created by their mother using Force. Mother Anasieya was able to manipulate the force and use it to her advantage to create her daughters. The twin's creation was different from Anakin’s, but the use of the Force remains the core of both of them. 

YOUNG ANAKIN

Image Source: IGN

Parallels have always existed in Star Wars. We also saw this in the original trilogy and the sequel trilogy. Luke and Rey’s stories are very similar and mirror each other. So it makes sense that other content would mirror each other as well. Hopefully, we get a season 2 of The Acolyte and see even more parallels between the show and previous content.

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