A Risen Temple
Before we cut to a shot of Master Sol (Squid Game’s Lee Jung-jae) inside the Jedi Temple on Coruscant, we get to see its exterior for the first time in this period of the Star Wars timeline—and it’s quite fascinating. Of course, the temple still looks like the temple, but it’s the surroundings that are what’s compelling here: the city levels of Corsucant are still below it, just 100 years before the temple is practically consumed by throngs of buildings up and around it.
It’s a very evocative visual even beyond the logistical fact of us getting to see Coruscant’s cityscape grow over Star Wars—the Jedi Order, still in what it believes is the apex of its might in the High Republic, literally having its seat of power be raised up above the people that it serves… and in time, having Coruscant itself, the representation of the Republic’s hubris and corruption, rise up and begin to envelop it the closer we get to The Phantom Menace. That’s symbolism, folks.
