Editor’s Note: The following contains spoilers for Episodes 1 and 2 ofThe Acolyte.
After just two episodes, the plot is already thickening inThe Acolyte. The Jedi’s investigation into the murder of Master Indara (Carrie-Anne Moss) takes them to the planet Olega, where another assassination attempt takes place. Inside the local Jedi Temple, Mae (Amandla Stenberg) convinces the silent Master Torbin (Dean-Charles Chapman) to commit suicide by poison, revealing the pattern in Mae’s victims. While Master Sol (Lee Jung-jae)and his teamnow deal with another murder, it’s mentioned thatTorbin hasn’t spoken to anyone in over ten years, when he first “took the Barash.“This is a reference to the Barash Vow, a deep-cut piece ofStar Warslore that says a lot about why Torbin chose to die.
The Acolyte
The Acolyte is a mystery-thriller that will take viewers into a galaxy of shadowy secrets and emerging dark-side powers in the final days of the High Republic era. A former Padawan reunites with her Jedi Master to investigate a series of crimes, but the forces they confront are more sinister than they ever anticipated.
The Barash Vow Is a Jedi Tradition From the High Republic Era
The High Republic has quickly become one of the most important eras inStar Warshistory. Exclusive to the Disney canon, it introduced many iconic characters and epic events andbecame the birthplaceof many important traditions in lore, such as the Barash Vow. InThe Acolyte,Master Torbin is said to have taken it and is shown locked in a perpetual meditative statethat’s so powerful that not even Mae’s attempts to kill him could get through to him. But he is present and listening.
The Acolyteis set at the end of the High Republic era, not that far in time from when the Barash Vow itself was created. Just a little over two centuries before the events of the new series, a pair of Jedi siblings, Masters Barash Silvain and Porter Engle, were sent to the city of Firevale, on the planet Gansevor, to settle a dispute around the exploration of a natural resource, as shown inThe High Republic — The Bladecomics. As the issue progressed, Silvain and Engle tried to act as mediators between Firevale and the rest of the planet, but, eventually, an all-out conflict ensued, with many casualties. ButSilvain considered that the conflict itself happened because of a mistake she made, letting her mind be clouded by memories from her past. She held herself accountable for all the deaths and decided to continue being a Jedi, but set out on her own to strengthen her connection to the Force itself.She cut contact with the Council, the rest of the Order, and even her brother.
Barash Silvain started the tradition of the vow that took on her name among the Jedi, and her reasons are usually the same that lead most Jedi to take it.She felt responsible for the deaths on Gansevorand that she needed to attune her actions to the will of the Force. There is no right way of taking the Barash, but most Jedi see it as a form of atonement for past actions or mistakes, which is why Master Torbin chose to do it. Also, those who take it usually choose to remove themselves completely from Jedi life, sothe Barash also became a sort of exile.
The Barash Vow Was Introduced in Canon in a Darth Vader Comic
Because those who took the Barash Vow often chose to exile themselves from the Jedi Order,it led to some rather unusual situations. Like, for example, in the first issues of the excellent 2017Darth Vadercomics. Immediately after the events ofRevenge of the Sith, Darth Sidious (Ian McDiarmid) gave Darth Vader (James Earl Jones) his first mission as a Sith Lord: building his new lightsaber. However, a Sith’s kyber crystal must be earned by killing a Jedi and thenbleeding their crystal. So Vader had the difficult mission of finding a living Jedi right after theGreat Jedi Purgetook place.
What Darth Vader did, then, was to research Jedi who had taken the Barash Vow prior to the Purge, the logic being thatthose who took the Barash would likely be exiled and not aware of what happened, even if they felt it through the Force. This is how he foundMaster Kirak Infil’aon the moon of Al’doleem. Infil’a was an old Jedi who took the Barash Vow in the waning days of the Nihil Crisis in the High Republic after he realized his purpose in the Jedi Order had become only to fight. A mighty warrior, he took the Barash and exiled himself, training his body with the help of a droid, but spending most of his time in a meditative state, which prolonged his life by some decades. When Darth Vader finally found him, Infil’a was at the height of his power andnearly beat the Sith Lord.
In the end, Vader defeated Kirak Infil’a after a battle that lasted for two whole issues of the comics. It didn’t take much for Infil’a to realize that Vader was once a Jedi and that it was he who caused the Jedi Purge, and he made Vader’s life hell.The Sith Lord lost most of his limbs again and took one of his heaviest beatings ever, but ultimately, overpowered the Jedi Master using his deep hatred for himself. When he finally got his hands on Infil’a’s kyber crystal,Vader bled itand went on a spiritual journey. Only after all this could he finally build his first lightsaber as a Sith Lord.
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Torbin’s Reasons To Take the Barash Vow Are Related to Mae’s Motivations
InThe Acolyte, Mae targets Master Torbin due to his part in a tragedy that took place 16 years before the events of the series. He and masters Indara, Sol, and Kelnacca (Joonas Suotamo) were stationed at the Jedi outpost on the planet Brendok, where twins Mae and Osha (also Stenberg) lived with their family. It’s said that Mae caused a fire thatburned down the twins' villageand killed their family and that Sol could only save Osha. So far, each of the Jedi involved in the Brendok incident displays a lot of regret about what happened, but Torbin seems the most affected.
The Jedi who seek the Barash Vow often do it as a form of penitence, a way for them to repent towards the Force for their past actions and mistakes. In this sense,Torbin taking the Barash reveals a lot about how he feels about his part in the Brendok incident, alluding to the idea that things didn’t play out exactly as Sol has said so far.This being the case, Mae is probably justified in her anger towards the Jedi. In fact, theofficialStar Warsdatabasementions that Brendok was the home of a coven of Force-sensitive witches led by Mother Aniseya (Jodie Turner-Smith), who shares her name with the twins. Seeing thatJedi aren’t very receptive to beings that use the Force in their own way, this is likely what led to the incident, meaning the Jedi may have covered it up and blamed it on Mae, whom they probably saw as a dark person. If this is how it happened, then Torbin has a very good reason for taking the Barash Vow.
The first two episodes ofThe Acolyteare available on Disney+. New episodes air weekly on Wednesdays.
