In The Acolyte, Jedi Master Sol takes the young Osha Aniseya away from her home on the planet Brendok to become a Jedi under his tutelage. Sol's name evokes the Latin "sol," meaning "sun," which befits his role in the story.
The most iconic image of a sun in Star Wars is the image of Luke Skywalker staring at Tatooine's binary sunset in A New Hope. The distant twin suns are representative of Luke's longing to leave his home and go on an adventure far away. Sol is to Osha as Tatooine's twin suns are to Luke: he is the embodiment of her desire to leave home and go on faraway adventures as a Jedi.
In the Republic, Plato uses the famous Allegory of the Cave as an image of the soul's ascent to enlightenment. Plato allegorizes the soul's intellectual ascent – away from material things and towards transcendent truth – as an ascent out of a dark and shadowy cave into the light of the sun. Like Plato, the Jedi prize unseen spiritual realities over the physical world, which deceives with appearances. In A New Hope, Obi-Wan Kenobi tells Luke, "Your eyes can deceive you. Don't trust them." Similarly, Sol is introduced telling Jedi younglings, "Close your eyes. Your eyes can deceive you. We must not trust them." As a Jedi, Sol beckons Osha to look past the physical world and focus on the spiritual realm; in Plato's terms, he calls her up out of the cave and into the light of the sun.
However, Sol's name also carries a darker connotation, evoking the Biblical name "Saul." There are two prominent Sauls in the Bible. In the Old Testament, Saul is Israel's first king. For a time, he acts as a father figure and mentor of sorts to the young David, taking him from his family and giving him a home in the palace. However, when Saul proves to be an insecure and anxious leader who disobeys God's commands, he loses his kingship and it is given to David instead, causing their relationship to deteriorate dramatically. The Saul of the New Testament is a member of the Pharisees, a zealous religious sect that is instrumental in the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. After Christ's death and resurrection, Saul's misguided zealotry leads him to persecute the early Christian church.
As a Biblical allusion to "Saul," Sol's name suggests the mixture of insecurity, anxiety, hypocrisy, and misguided religious zeal that leads him to disobey the Jedi code and persecute Mother Aniseya and her followers, ultimately causing the dramatic deterioration of his relationship with his student and surrogate daughter Osha.
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Characters: Osha Aniseya / Sol
Shows: The Acolyte
GO DEEPER INTO THE ARCHIVES…
Concepts: ascent and descent / home / Jedi / light and darkness / names / sight and blindness / teachers and students
Interpretive Tools: Tripartite Soul Theory
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