The Acolyte Theory Points to the Show’s Best Jedi Actually Being a Sith Lord
The Yord Horde has risen, and they have some interesting thoughts about our favorite rule-abiding Jedi.
This article contains spoilers for The Acolyte episodes 1 and 2.
There are plenty of new characters for Star Wars fans to love in The Acolyte, but the internet seems to be especially fond of one Jedi in particular – Yord Fandar (Charlie Barnett). Affectionately dubbing themselves the “Yord Horde,” fans can’t help but love the nerdy awkwardness of Yord’s by-the-book adherence to Jedi rules and regulations. He’s the guy in class who reminds the teacher that they forgot to assign homework, and we love him for it.
But because Yord is a staunch rule-follower and devout member of the Jedi Order, there are some who believe that his black-and-white thinking could lead him down a path to the dark side, and not just because his name rhymes with Sith Lord. As @Tchalla_Fett on Twitter points out, a strict adherence to rules rarely turns out well. Characters like Yord cling onto rules tightly for a reason, and when they suddenly find reason to doubt them, it can cause them to question everything and spiral down a dark path.
It’s already pretty clear that Master Sol (Lee Jung-jae) is less than thrilled with the Order’s bureaucracy and may be willing to push the limits of the Order’s rules to track down Mae and her Master. Yord will likely have a strong reaction to this and to the truth of what really happened on Brendok as more information begins to come to light. Based on Master Torbin’s (Dean-Charles Chapman) willingness to take poison to absolve himself of his guilt, whatever happened there probably wasn’t on the up and up with the rules the Jedi claim to live by and that Yord follows like they’re gospel.
A Reddit theory also suggests that Yord has been a Sith Lord the whole time, rather than him turning to the dark side as the series progresses. They posit that Yord’s whole stick-in-the-mud routine is a ruse to keep suspicions off of him while he influences Osha and Mae (Amandla Stenberg). He was the only one to follow Osha when she had a vision of Mae on Olega. Sure it could just be a consequence of his teacher’s pet mentality, or maybe he was the one to plant the vision in the first place.
It doesn’t seem likely that Yord is the Master, as they seem to have plucked Mae from Brendok in the chaos of the fire just as the Jedi did Osha. They potentially withheld the truth from Mae, convincing her that Osha died and the Jedi were responsible. It’s not impossible that they could be someone closer to her age, Yord and Osha seem to have studied together in her time at the temple, making them fairly close, but this kind of scheming and manipulation feels more akin to someone much older than Mae than someone who is her peer.
Yord’s villain arc may or may not come to pass, but it’s certainly fun to think about as The Acolyte continues to examine the arrogance of the Jedi Order and complicated relationships with the Force. He’s the perfect example of how flawed and potentially dangerous this kind of strict teaching can be, even among the “good guys.” But until Yord the Sith Lord comes to pass, he’s just a guy trying his best, and looking hot while doing it, what more could we ask for?
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Brynna Arens (she/her) is a freelance writer who studies movies, TV, and pop culture through an intersectional feminist lens. She'll watch almost anything tbh, but it's…