Star Wars: The Acolyte official trailer

[Errorname]

I have to admit, I find it kind of weird how much of the discussion of the prequel era seems to come back to crapping on the Jedi, when they were pretty much the only group in the entire galaxy who seem to have been consistently trying to make things better. The Senate reacted to Palpatine declaring himself emperor by giving him a standing ovation, the CIS literally started a galaxy-wide civil war, but apparently it's all the fault of the Jedi Council for being "arrogant" or something?

I think it's the disappointment. The Original Trilogy makes the Jedi seem truly mythical, noble protectors from better days, but when we actually meet them in the Prequels they're a staid bureaucracy who spend the entire trilogy fumbling in the dark while Palpatine spins the ball on his finger.

People expected nothing from the Senate and nothing from the bad guys, but the Jedi were supposed to be cool and wise and they really weren't.

If the solution is to pull out of the war, it kind of hits a snag if Palpatine has the ingenious idea of saying no, and sends the very betrayed feeling Clones to conscript them. The Separatists also can continue to attack whenever they want.

There is a reasonable argument that they're completely cooked by the end of AOTC. Like Palpatine has them in complete checkmate and are only spared as long as they are because Palpatine has other business to tend to that needs to happen before he goes full mask off.

That said, yes pulling out of the war is literally their only good option. It will still be disastrous, but they might be able to hold the actual order together and retreat to the Outer Rim.

The Jedi live in a mushroom shaped temple, seem to own like two sets of clothing, one laser sword, and don't really want anything else. They are not your cool bro, and if the Jedi are right, you aren't. Basically they're space vegans, and nothing is more off putting in a self indulgent consumerist culture than somebody deliberately making their lives harder for moral reasons that give them no tangible benefit and which you refuse to adopt. Which is why everybody whines about vegans*, and the Jedi have to be arrogant and stupid and cruel.

I do think "are the Jedi right" is a pretty fair question to be asking. Stuff like the Jedi recruiting force sensitive children and taking them from their families is pretty questionable in ways the film clearly wants to explore. I do not think we are meant to understand Anakin leaving Shmi behind as a good thing, ultimately.

And it's already really attractive to pick at the Jedi, and the notion that you can do everything right and still get obliterated is deeply uncomfortable so the Jedi have to be flawed.

Again, did the Jedi do everything right. Accepting an army of slave soldiers no questions asked and appointing yourselves generals is pretty dubious, and that choice gets the vast majority of the Jedi killed.

To win, Mace and the Council need to persuade Anakin, to win him over to supporting their decisions (and make better decisions at the same time). And I don't think they can, because there's too much water under that bridge.

It basically has to be Obi-Wan. He's the only one who has enough of a connection to Anakin that he could sway him, which is why George writes him as being somewhere else.

Clone Wars also makes Ahsoka viable, and she is also conveniently elsewhere.