Review of Star Wars: The Acolyte
Technically my second review posted here. [Sep 5, 2024]
First, if you haven’t read Stumpside Chats #17 yet, you probably should.
Second, this is obviously going to contain a lot of spoilers for the show.
Alright, as you all probably expect, I did not like The Acolyte. There were parts of it I liked, mostly the characters and concepts that it introduced to the franchise, but I thought the plot was contrived and the writing was sub-par in most areas.
I have issues ranging from specific qualms with the lore to the political message of the show. I will also be including a few excerpts from interviews to illustrate some of these points, but most of what I talk about will be specifically from the show itself.
If any of you have not seen the show but still want to read this review, I will also give a brief synopsis of the show.
Synopsis
Setting
The show takes place in 132 BBY (Before the Battle of Yavin [A New Hope] which is the standard dating system of Star Wars), precisely 100 years prior to The Phantom Menace. It takes place at the tail end of the “High Republic” period (roughly 500 BBY to 100 BBY), which is essentially a golden age of expansion and exploration for the Jedi Order and the Galactic Republic. There are a number of references to the High Republic multimedia project within the show, but they aren’t really relevant for this review. This show is intended to show the end of the High Republic Era and the beginning of the decline of the Jedi Order.
Dramatis Personae
Verosha "Osha" Aniseya- Main character of the show. Former padawan of Jedi Master Sol, twin sister of Mae-ho "Mae" Aniseya (although technically the same person), and eventual apprentice of “The Stranger” (the Sith Lord featured in the show).
Mae-ho "Mae" Aniseya- Twin sister of Osha (see above), and prospective apprentice of “The Stranger” at the beginning of the show. Believed to be dead for most of her life, she is seeking vengeance against the Jedi Order. She started a fire that ended up burning down the witches’ coven she lived at. Eventually, however, she has her mind wiped and ends up in Jedi custody.
Jedi Master Sol- Former Jedi Master of Osha. He was part of the original Jedi team sent to Brendok (homeworld of the twins) and it is later revealed that he killed the twins’ mother. He ends up getting pinned for all the murders in the show by Vernestra Rwoh.
Jedi Master Vernestra Rwoh- Former Jedi Master of “The Stranger” and a high ranking Jedi within the Order. She has appeared in a number of previous High Republic works as a major character.
“The Stranger” (AKA: Qimir)- The main villain of the show. Eventually it is revealed that he is both the current Sith apprentice of Darth Plagueis, and the former Jedi padawan of Vernestra. He is searching for a Sith apprentice of his own, initially setting his sights on Mae, but eventually turning his gaze towards Osha (who does in fact become his apprentice).
Plot
The show starts off as a murder mystery with Mae trying to kill the 4 members of the Jedi team sent to Brendok. After the first murder, Osha is pinned as the culprit. Shortly after, it is revealed she was uninvolved. Mae goes on to kill the second Jedi. While trying to kill the third Jedi, Mae decides she no longer wants to be a Sith since all she really cared about was revenge for the death of her family (including Osha, who she believed was dead). It’s revealed that her companion is actually her Sith Master, operating under the guise of Qimir (ostensibly a scoundrel who is also in service of her Master). She plans to turn herself in to the third Jedi and traps Qimir to facilitate this. Qimir, actually a Sith Lord, easily frees himself and kills the Jedi that Mae was supposed to. He lies in wait for Mae to arrive. A large Jedi team, lead by Sol, arrives to protect the Jedi (who they do not realize is dead). The Stranger reveals himself and kills almost all of the Jedi team.
But, Sol and the Twins escape (though separated). The Stranger begins the process of seducing Osha to the Dark Side, while another Jedi investigation is launched by Vernestra to figure out what happened to the previous team. Vernestra begins to believe that perhaps Sol is responsible for all of the deaths, or at least most of them. Sol, the Twins, and The Stranger all return to Brendok. Sol and The Stranger engage in a final battle, with Sol gaining the upper hand. He prepares to kill The Stranger, before his interrupted by Mae. The Stranger tries to get Mae to kill Sol and complete her journey to the Dark Side, but she refuses and insists that he stand trial. Osha is watching from the shadows. Sol admits to killing the twins’ mother, something he kept from Osha all these years. Osha ends up Force Choking Sol to death in a rage.
Osha becomes The Stranger’s apprentice, in exchange for Mae’s freedom. Mae’s mind is wiped of all incriminating details. Osha departs with The Stranger to begin her Sith training. Meanwhile. Vernestra’s investigation leads her to Brendok. She misses the final duel by a few hours at most, and pieces together what actually happened. She senses the presence of her former padawan (The Stranger) and realizes that he fell to the Dark Side and is probably responsible for most of the murders. She decides to frame Sol for the murders anyways, because she wants to track down her former padawan on her own. Her investigators apprehend the recently mind-wiped Mae.
The show ends with a series of interviews and debriefs from a Republic Senate committee. A number of the members are concerned with potential Jedi overreach and want to institute external review in light of these murders. Vernestra insists that isn’t necessary. Afterwards, she personally interviews Mae and enlists her to help find her former padawan. The show ends with Vernestra approaching Yoda and saying they need to talk, though it does not show what they talk about.
A series of flashbacks throughout the show reveal a number of important details about the twins’ lives.
Osha and Mae are the “children” of a pair of Force witches who lead a coven on Brendok. They were created during a ritual that took place during a Vergence Event (otherwise known as a Force Nexus; essentially a place of immense power in the Force).
As mentioned, Sol killed the twins’ mother during the mission. The official story, which Osha was told, is that Mae started a fire (which she did) that ended up killing the entire coven of witches (which is still mostly true). Mae witnessed Sol kill her mother.
Both of the twins survived, but each believed that the other did not. Osha believed Mae was consumed by the fire that she started, and Mae either believed she died in the fire or that the Jedi killed her too.
That’s the broad strokes of the show. We’ll talk about some specific stuff in a moment, however.
The Good
Darth Plagueis
The single greatest thing about this show is the fact that it contained Darth Plagueis’ first and only on screen appearance. Unfortunately, you just watched the entirety of that appearance. This shot is what reveals the fact that Plagueis is the Sith Master of The Stranger (who is unaware of Plagueis’ presence). Presumably, Plagueis was spying on The Stranger and his attempts at getting an apprentice of his own (an indication that The Stranger is preparing an attempt at Plagueis’ life).
Despite the unfortunately short shot, a number of things can be inferred from this.
This whole affair is going to be the starting point in Plagueis' research into creating life via the Force. Obviously he knows something about the twins given what (we know) he saw. I would bet that some later source shows us that Plagueis established a lab on Brendok where he researched the Vergence's life creating properties. Eventually, he applied this knowledge towards creating Anakin.
It basically guarantees that The Stranger and Osha don't succeed in any real way, and most likely end up dead.
We are going to talk a lot more about the first point in the next section. As for the second section, there are some things to establish here.
As seen above, we know that Plagueis is still Palpatine’s Master, even in Canon. This was firmly established by the Darth Plagueis novel, but was always sort of implied by Palpatine’s telling of “The Tragedy of Darth Plagueis The Wise” and was also the intention of George Lucas when making that scene in Revenge of the Sith.
The important takeaway from this is that Palpatine is Plagueis’ successor. Not The Stranger. This means, at the very least, that The Stranger does not kill Plagueis and take his place as the true Master. By extent, Osha will never be a true Sith.
As mentioned previously, this means that The Stranger and Osha ultimately do not succeed in their goal of Sith Mastery, and we know this by virtue of Plagueis’ involvement. In all likelihood, The Stranger will end up dead as a direct result of his failed confrontation with Plagueis. Osha will either end up similarly dead, or she will abandon the Sith as she did the Jedi (which is not unlikely, since she isn’t really a ‘true believer’ of the Sith cause).
The Characters (But Only Some)
Sol
I liked Sol as a character quite a bit. He was probably my favorite character in the show. He was a deeply sympathetic character but the writers tried (and failed) to make him a bad guy, or at least morally grey (we will talk about this later). I’d like to see more of him, but since he dies at the end of the show that probably won’t happen. That being said, there is still a chance that we see more of him during his time as Osha’s Master or something.
The Stranger
Probably my second favorite character in the show. I’m disappointed that his story necessarily ends in failure, as mentioned above, but I still like him as a character. His Qimir personae is clearly based off of the fan theory that Jar Jar Binks was supposed to be a Sith in the prequels. Side note: that theory is pretty stupid but it’s interesting nonetheless. Anyways, Jar Jar and Qimir are both used as comic relief in the shows. Jar Jar is more blunt in the comic relief role, but Qimir is basically treated as a typical scoundrel who is basically only alive due to a combination of luck and groveling. While I predicted Qimir being the Sith, I still found the reveal satisfying and I was impressed by the actor’s versatility in playing both roles.
The Twins (Sort Of)
Osha and Mae are essentially the same person. Actually, they are literally the same person as is revealed by the show. They have a song that they sing together which overtly says this, and the Jedi’s Midi-chlorian test reveals that they have the exact same Midi-chlorians, something which should not be possible. The relationship is described as “one consciousness shared between two [identical] bodies.”
They are not really THAT different as characters either. They share a strong bond (obviously), but Mae embraces this more readily than Osha, who is a bit more of an independent spirit. Each one represents a specific perspective of the Force, with Osha initially representing the Light and Mae the Dark, though this is swapped by the end of the series.
Overall, I think their characterization is sort of mid to be honest. I’m more interested in the unique relationship between the two (?) than I am how they are characterized. But also this relationship is sort of the foundation of their character, so I guess it works out.
Also, I assume this is some sort of Force Dyad thing (first introduced in The Rise of Skywalker) but this is just speculation. Not going to be surprised if it eventually gets made explicitly Canon though.
The Bad
Sol Is Not A Bad Guy
The crux of the entire plotline is that what Sol did was wrong. Frankly, what he did was not wrong. Firstly, he didn't murder Aniseya (the mother of the twins). Aniseya did the Force equivalent of reaching for the officer's service gun during a traffic stop. She did some weird freaky magic hoodoo that Sol had every reason to believe was a threat. In fact, given that Koril (Aniseya’s lesbo lover and the one who carried the twins) did the same thing in an explicitly threatening context, it seems like she really was preparing for some sort of attack. Even if the writers intended for Sol to actually be in the wrong, they failed miserably in showing it.
Second, Aniseya did use the Force to create life and Sol did have a reasonable basis to think that she did. Creating life via the Force is like THE cardinal sin of Star Wars. That's why Plagueis was so wrong. That's why, in Legends, the Force lashed out and made Anakin the Chosen One. It is LITERALLY playing god and the ultimate example of trying to control the Force (which is ironic since Aniseya insists that its the Jedi who presume to control the Force). In a sort of Divine Justice sense, Aniseya should have died. On a more mundane level, it contributed to Sol's perception of Aniseya as an extremely dangerous and twisted individual which only further justifies his response.
Generally speaking, anything that seeks to create, mutate, or annihilate life is considered to be “of the Dark Side” to some degree, with the creation of life being the most serious perversion. You can sort of see this in the reactions of the Brendok team when the realize what the twins are, but it kind of gets swept under the rug.
Sol's only real mistake was failing to tell Osha what happened. That was just sort of stupid.
Side note: Koril was a Zabrak and Aniseya was a negress. Presumably, the twins should have been half Zabrak half groid, but they were just regular negresses.
Vernestra Is A Huge Hypocrite
As I mentioned in the plot synopsis, Vernestra pins everything on Sol and says that his guilt over the mission to Brendok drove him insane, and his desperation to cover it up led him to kill anyone who investigated. Vernestra, however, does not actually believe this because, as I also mentioned, she is just trying to shift blame from her former padawan.
However, she does believe that Sol was far too attached to Osha and that this caused a lot of grief, which she also relays to the Senate. This is completely retarded and doesn’t make sense. She suspects that her former apprentice killed a dozen Jedi, including some of her close friends, and still lies to the Senate committee (and potentially Yoda) to cover for him. How is this not attachment???? This is way worse than whatever attachment Sol had for Osha, because she actually has reason to believe that, at the very least, her former padawan is a rogue Dark Jedi who has killed a number of Jedi (she doesn’t know that he is a Sith, or at least has no real reason to).
This just annoys me, but I think it’s intentional. A big theme of the show is that the Jedi are not really heroes. A number of the Jedi are just sort of immature, and then there is of course the whole Brendok fiasco and Verenestra’s cover up of all the murders. Which brings me to the next issue…
“Erm Morality Is Gray And Good Guys Aren’t Real”
This "morally grey" trope is so tired in TV. Frankly, it was lame when GoT did it, but it's even more lame now that 8 bazillion other shows do the same thing. Sorry liberals, there are good guys and bad guys in real life. Not everyone is evil.
George Lucas has been insistent on this fact more than probably anything else, to the point where "balance in the Force" doesn't actually mean balance, it just means that the Jedi are the only Force Users out there. Because they are the good guys. Anything to the contrary is subversive to what Star Wars is.
The ENTIRE point of Star Wars is that the Jedi ARE the good guys. The Jedi are not morally grey. They are not an evil and oppressive neocolonial institution. They are the good guys. Heroes.
This isn’t the first time something like this has happened though. Karen Traviss, author of the Republic Commando book series (which the video game is based on) was infamous for doing something similar. In Karen Traviss' case she was trying to make Clones the good guys of Star Wars (lol), and in Headland's case I can only assume that it's an ex-universe political axe to grind.
What happens when you go to the dark side is it goes out of balance, and then you get really selfish... when you get selfish, you get stuff. Or you want stuff and when you want stuff, and you get stuff, then you get afraid somebody's going to take it away from you... Once you become afraid that somebody's going to take it away from you, or you're going to lose it, then you start to become angry... And that anger leads to hate, and hate leads to suffering...
[…]
But the pleasure factor of greed and of selfishness is a short-lived experience. Therefore, you're constantly trying to replenish it. But of course, the more you replenish it, the harder it is to, so you have to keep upping the ante.... So that is ultimately the core of the whole light side-dark side of the Force.
In fact, using the Dark Side physically corrupts your body until you end up looking like a scrotum, as was the case with Palpatine. The ultimate result of this Dark Side corruption is complete degradation of the body which is ultimately fatal. It can’t really get more clear than that.
Immaculate Conception
Honestly I don’t really like that they made the twins born without a father. Anakin’s immaculate conception was supposed to be unique because he is the messiah figure of Star Wars. Having the twins born in the same way opens the doors to even more people born of the Force. How did the witches of Brendok know the ritual to create the twins? Presumably they learned it from someone else, which implies additional miraculous births.
It devalues the Prophecy of the Chosen One in the same way that more virgin births would devalue Jesus’ miraculous conception. Jesus’ birth wouldn’t be special if other people were conceived without a father, and it would be much harder to figure out who the Chosen One is if other people were born without a father.
Canon also implies that Plagueis is ultimately responsible for creating Anakin, as he was in Legends, and as I mentioned before his presence in the show may open the doors for his experimentation via the Force which ultimately leads to Anakin’s birth. But that’s all just speculation right now since we don’t know if Plagueis actually does any of that.
If Plagueis does end up studying the ritual preformed by the witches of Brendok, then I would say this is probably the best way they could have written more miraculous births into Star Wars but I still believe it was a bad idea to do this.
It honestly seems like Headland is trying to create her own Chosen Ones via the twins to subvert the Aryan Overman of Anakin Skywalker with two empowered negress lesbos. Which is gay. Obviously.
Show Don’t Tell
Headland is really bad at actually showing what she intends. A recurring theme of the show is basically that the Jedi are not the good guys you think they are and that they are conflicted. The Senator who leads the committee in the last episode pops up before the committee meeting. He talks with Venestra about the same thing here: that the Jedi have too much power (both as individuals and as an organization) and that they need oversight. He plans on bringing this before the Senate soon (and ends up calling the emergency committee in light of the investigation).
I got the feeling that this was Headland speaking here. Perhaps not so much against the Jedi themselves (although I suspect she harbors resentment for the Jedi as some sort of oppressive neocolonial religious organization [big if true btw]) but more generally as a statement in support of bureaucracy and red tape. Liberals love red tape. Their answer to most things is to increase bureaucracy as much as possible. I got the impression that the Senate of the Galactic Republic was being used as a stand in for The Our Democracy (Thank Science) and that the Jedi may be a stand in for Republicans or something.
Anyway, they did a bad job of showing how the Jedi philosophy of trying to control emotions is bad and that the Jedi are too unregulated. The whole point of the show is that Sol and Venestra can't give up their attachments. They are both too attached to their former padawans. Venestra lied to the Senate and the Jedi Order (probably including Yoda himself) because she thinks she can save Qimir or something. Meanwhile Obi-Wan, Yoda, etc. all overcame their attachments and had no issues. Pretty safe to assume that 99% of Jedi are the same.
It's also just plain silly that they are saying the Jedi need external review. I mean I get why in-universe parties would say this, that part makes sense from a worldbuilding perspective. But I got the feeling that the whole scene with the Senate committee was basically just Headland/the writers injecting their own opinions. The Jedi are literally conduits of divine essence. By all means, they have every right to rule the galaxy but actively and consistently choose not to. The whole problem of the Prequels is that they are too subservient to the Senate. Dooku has a whole monologue about this in Jedi Lost, talking about how the Senate is abusing the Jedi and how it is preventing the Jedi from doing their job of helping people. It was a significant factor in his growing disillusionment with the Republic. We saw this same issue several other times in Legends as well.
Beyond that, there is also the fact that they just constantly berate the Jedi as mentally unstable. The Senator I mentioned specifically says that the Jedi are not capable of controlling their emotions (he says that nobody can) and that since the Jedi are so individually powerful, it is hard to stop them when they go off the deep end. Venestra responds by saying that the Jedi have always dealt with Dark Jedi or other fallen Force Users (which is true) and the Senator responds with some half hearted retort like “ok but what if THEY fall as well” which was written in a way that indicated that the writers thought it was poignant but it’s actually just retarded since probably less than 1% of Jedi fall to the Dark Side.
Anyway, this is best seen with Sol. In the second half of the show, everyone is basically calling him crazy. But he’s really not that crazy. He’s desperate, sure, but it’s kind of understandable. He’s still clearly dedicated to the Jedi cause though, and he’s in a good enough mental state to pretty handily defeat The Stranger in a duel. Which, for all you laymen out there, is generally a really good indicator of someone’s mental state. Force Users have a very hard time fighting when under serious emotional duress because it breaks their concentration. Even Sith, who rely on hatred and whatnot get sloppy when their emotions get to a certain point. Sure, they typically get a stat boost from all the anger or whatever, but their style becomes less refined and leaves them open. There is actually an entire fighting technique known as Dun Möch which is essentially just trolling your opponent into having a bad mental state to gain a fighting advantage. But, as I said, Sol beats The Stranger quite handily and his fighting is far from sloppy or erratic.
Additionally, as I mentioned previously, Sol was not really in the wrong for what he did. He was justified in killing Aniseya and the Force probably rewarded him with 72 virgins in the afterlife for what he did. He really shouldn’t have felt any guilt beyond the fact that he killed his padawan’s mom and is keeping it a secret from her. Which is admittedly pretty stupid, but there is never a reason given for why he did this. This isn’t the first time something similar has happened, and usually the Jedi will tell the kid once they are old enough to understand what it means.
Anyways I digress. The point is that they basically try to gaslight you into thinking Sol is crazy and evil. But he isn’t #IStandWithSol #AniseyaDeservedIt
The Ugly
First of all, Headland is a lesbo. She is also ugly and mannish. So you should bear this in mind when thinking about the show.
Second, she has very obvious daddy issues:
“HEADLAND: We also knew that it was always going to be the betrayal of the father, and I knew we had to juxtapose Luke's forgiveness and Vader's redemption. We're like, “This is a story about the Sith, so that's not gonna happen.” You're absolutely right. There's this thing that's called benign sexism, and part of it is this paternal protectionism — it seems like this good thing, but like you said, there's this, “I have to protect you from everything. I have to make sure you're okay. I have to tell you what track to get on, and then once you're on that track, I need to support you.”
Ultimately, what happens is — again, this is a father-daughter relationship — as women evolve in their lives and develop their own personalities separate from their fathers, at some point, they have to reject that protectionism.
Again, I'm so proud of it. I have so many favorite moments in the show. I have, like, 100, and I'm happy to go through all of them right now. One of my favorite moments is when he says, “I did everything because I love–” He's going to say, “I love you,” and not only is that a level of attachment that an unbalanced Jedi would have — he very clearly is losing it in the last half of the season — but that's also the justification for that kind of behavior between the father and the daughter.
The daughter has to surpass him in some way. She cannot stay a little girl or an adolescent or young adult. She has to, at some point, say, “I reject what you have told me I need to do to make you proud, to follow in your footsteps.” She has to do that.
I do think when he says, “It’s okay,” I think you're right. He is imposing on her agency at that point. But I do think, in a weird way, she needed it. She needed his acceptance. Not his approval, but his acceptance of his fate, I think, is what gives her that energy to do the final fist clench.”1
This is really the final piece of the puzzle. Understanding this about Headland brings everything about the show into focus.
Lesbo space witches? Her weird sex fantasy.
Sol is the bad guy for no obvious reason? Um, the patriarchy.
The show sucks? She’s a talentless diversity hire to get Disney more good boy points with Blackrock.
Bonus round: she used to be Harvey Weinstein’s assistant.2
Final Thoughts
Acolyte is largely symptomatic of the great DEI plague that has wreaked havoc on the Expanded Universe. Until this show, you didn’t really see this type of thing unless you read the books or comics. Headland, like Sam Maggs (mentioned in Stumpside Chats #17) is basically just there to sprinkle faggot dust all over Star Wars. It’s just that now normies are starting to realize just how bad it is.
On a brighter note, maybe James Luceno (author of the Darth Plagueis novel in Legends) will get to writer a Canon version of his book. That would be awesome and I would like it a lot.
#IStandWithSol #AniseyaDeservedIt
Banger