The cop role is only placed on them due to the events of the show. But they are depicted as academics more than anything. Every other [british, for some reason] Jedi we meet is pointedly this dorky, book-ish archetype - Vernestra doesn't even like being out in the field. The Jedi crew that start all of this are literally just doing botanical/archaeological surveys - not enforcing law, not even being diplomats.
See, this is weird in of itself. The definition of a "
knight" is "a mounted man-at-arms serving a feudal superior." Obi-Wan said "the Jedi Knights were the guardians of peace and justice in the Old Republic," not "botanists and archaeological surveyors." Lucas didn't call them Jedi
Monks for just that reason.
Now, could I buy that the Old Jedi Order included a corps of Monks for non-combat purposes, and that Knights might retire to such roles? Sure, and sure, younger Jedi should be exposed to such activities. But Knights, even Knight Padawans, should first and foremost be peacekeepers/diplomats/protectors/enforcers of justice.
But, more than that, apart from the pre-Tatooine bits of
TPM (bits which where poisoned by lots of Jar-Jar), this was the first time live-action
SW had depicted classic Jedi in the Old Republic era... and the TPTB thought that portraying them "literally just doing botanical/archaeological surveys" was a good move? This reeks of bad judgment through and through - see below.
I think they were rather quite vague about all that to be honest. The way these witches produced these girls was not really specified. Also, we know that Qimir was doing some manipulations somehow, and we also know that other dude was hiding in the cave there, which quite easily could have been the actual responsible parties for the girls, as the legend goes?
This all sounds like an excellent cure for insomnia.
The Jedi go from impartial advisors helping resolve domestic disputes to armed enforcers suppressing secessionists on behalf of the senate to actively attempting to dispose the head of state and take direct control of the government. It's like if the supreme court formed their own paramilitary, stormed parliament and tried to assassinate the king.
I
reeeeaaally don't want to be put in the position of defending the PT, which I loathe (always have, always will), but I think you overstate your case. I don't think the Jedi were trying to "take direct control of the government"; they were trying to apprehend a war criminal. (Chancellor or not, being a Sith lord makes one subject to arrest.) A closer analogy might be if a sitting president committed murder, and an FBI team went to detain them.
A SW story about the Jedi order overstepping their bounds and alienating the people of the Galaxy could be super interesting if it was done right.
I don't
entirely disagree with this. Also, the premise of
The Book of Boba Fett - a ruthless, amoral bounty hunter trying to become a benevolent community leader, albeit by force as much as representation, was "interesting." Heck, in
TLJ, Luke renouncing the Jedi way and its legacy was
interesting.
Buuuuuuuut, here's the thing:
interesting ≠ fun. And, IMHO,
Star Wars should always first be
fun.
Star Trek can, and should, be interesting first and fun second, because it's a philosophical adventure franchise at its core.
Star Wars, however, is a fantasy fairy tale at its core. It can absolutely aspire to be interesting
as well as fun at times, as with
Andor: that series is interesting because of how thoroughly it examines and explains how fascist systems are built and maintained, but it's always first and foremost
fun, because it's a survival tale. Andor, Mon Mothma, and the rest may live in wildly different circumstances, but they're all a slip-up or careless mistake away from being killed at all times. That kind of fun may appeal to adults much more than children, but it's still fun. I'm quite certain Tony Gilroy didn't write
Andor as nail-bitingly tense by accident.
And, that's really the core problem here, not just with this show, but with Kennedy's whole tenure, IMO. She hired Rian Johnson, who wrote a script that, whether one loves it or not, and praises its philosophical meta-analyses of the franchise or not, just wasn't
fun. She approved a story arc for
TBoBF that was acutely short on fun.
Obi-Wan Kenobi's few attempts to be fun here and there were downright embarrassing.
Mando S3 and
Ahsoka sound to me like exercises in boredom, courtesy of Filoni being more interested in building out lore than crafting compelling characters. (How the f*** can you have Thrawn be a major character, and the most sinister thing he does for a whole season is
load cargo and let the heroes go?!) And now we have
The Acolyte, which sounds muddled, slowly paced, and generally not very fun. (Say what one likes about Abrams, and I'll readily say he's a hack, but
TRoS is at least a movie that's trying its best to entertain.)
Meanwhile, two years after the wild success of
Top Gun: Maverick (with Cruise taking his sweet personal time making more), Lucasfilm
still can't be bothered to get a
Rogue Squadron movie into production anytime in the next few years, and that concept should be the easiest layup in Hollywood, given that it can be filmed mostly inside, and requires no particular big-name actors/characters.
It's just nuts.
