V for Viennetta on X - "There's something a little off about this new Disney cut! 🤔 @Nerdrotics @LadyGravemaster @KenobiStig"
"If you only knew the power of mAnNnyYy" - YouTube
Meme - "Jedi Master: Dies by fruit knife
Random girl: Impaled by lightsaber, flesh wound."
*The Acolyte's Master Indara vs Ahsoka's Sabine Wren*
Why Does Every Star Wars Villain Have A Helmet Now? - "in the last decade things have changed. Star Wars has tried to cash in on our collective nostalgia with a new trilogy of films and a slew of TV series that are far too numerous for any person to have seen them all... What’s worse than the quantity of these shows is how they trade solely in that nostalgia. Nearly every series forgoes a satisfying conclusion in lieu of bringing back a familiar face from some other show or movie. There’s no catharsis, no real endings. Every show is just a sizzle reel for the next one, context for the wider universe... There are exceptions, of course. The first season of The Mandalorian was just Din Djarin doing stuff. It was great. Then Luke Skywalker turned up. Ironically, Andor was excellent too. The Star Wars show that’s specifically a prequel to a movie that cashed in on a single line of the original film is more original and interesting than nearly every original idea that Lucasfilm has tried to make stick in the past ten years. This is why I was excited for The Acolyte. I was hoping for another Star Wars show that was wholly original, separate from the wider universe. I don’t want every protagonist to be a Skywalker or impact the fate of the universe. I want some people just to save their friends or their mum. But The Acolyte fell into another trap that modern Star Wars has fallen into: The Curse of the Helmet. Every Star Wars villain wears a helmet now. Kylo Ren kicked off the trend, but he had fair reasons. The narrative metaphor of trying to erase all traces of Ben Solo, face included, is strong. He’s also trying to ape his grandfather, Darth Vader. The Force Awakens dealt so strongly in nostalgia that it rehashed the plot of the original movie practically beat for beat, but I didn’t mind Ren’s helmet. His followers, however, were a different story. Aside from the fact that the Knights of Ren were ruined by the hotswapping directors with seemingly no communication between them, why did they have helmets? Because their boss does? Because they were meant to be fleshed out with proper actors with real faces in later films but the idea was scrapped in favour of Palpatine returning? Sadly, The Acolyte’s villain wears a helmet. And not just any helmet, a real goofy number with… teeth? There’s a reason for The Stranger’s helmet – it’s entirely created in order to create the big reveal of the Sith lord’s true identity as that bloke from that shop in the episode before. However, I think there’s another reason. How has Star Wars made all its money? Hint: it’s not through movies. It’s through toys and merchandise. Why did they make a baby Yoda? To sell baby Yoda toys. Why is there always a new droid companion to every protagonist? To sell new droid companion toys. Why is every villain wearing a helmet? To sell toy helmets. This has the knock-on effect of making The Stranger toys cheaper, too. Back in the ‘70s, Lucasfilm could probably get away with paying Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, and Harrison Ford a few quid for the rights to slap their likeness on a plastic doll, but these days actors will charge a (deserved) premium. Popping a helmet on a character means you have to pay them less (and often nothing) to make toys of their character. It also makes it easier to find actors to play them at the Star Wars theme parks. There’s a reason Kylo Ren stalks around Galaxy’s Edge, rather than Ben Solo."
Meme - Star Wars: Gamers: "Occupational Safety and Health Administration"
"Disney: We need a name for the protagonist of The Acolyte.
Kathleen Kennedy: Say no more *Osha*"
Meme - "If YOU ARE TELLING A STORY ABOUT SOMETHING YOU KNEW AND YOU DIDN'T DO ANYTHING ABOUT IT YOU ARE NOT A WITNESS, YOU ARE AN ACCOMPLICE" - DL HUGHLY *Leslye Headland with Harvey Weinstein*
It should be "DL HUGHLEY". But this only applies when it pushes the left wing agenda
Star Wars: The Acolyte Subverts Fan Expectations and Not in a Good Way - "Indara's death is devasting and plays into a trope that is not a good one. Master Indara was at the forefront of a lot of the marketing for The Acolyte. This was partially because Carrie-Ann Moss was one of the biggest stars in the cast list and partially because fans assumed that Indara was going to be a significant part of the plot. This has followed a modern trope of using big-name actors as a marketing tool, only to immediately kill them or remove them from the project. This most famously happened with 2014's Godzilla when Bryan Cranston was marketed as the star of the film, only to be killed in the early moments of the movie. It also happened with She-Hulk, when Daredevil was used to market the show, only to be in one episode. This strategy leaves many fans feeling deceived and upset that the actors were used purely to stoke fan excitement for the movie or TV show. It creates distrust between the audience and the show's creators."
‘The Acolyte’ Star Manny Jacinto: 12 Facts About The Star Wars Actor - "Audiences have been praising Jacinto’s performance in The Acolyte, with many commenting on his incredible range, onscreen charisma and, um, muscular arms."
‘The Acolyte’ Shows The Seductive Power Of The Dark Side - "A running joke about Star Wars is that the Dark Side is deeply unappealing — traditionally, young Jedi are manipulated by disfigured, decrepit old men, the kind of guys you wouldn’t sit next to on the subway. The fact that almost every advocate for the Dark Side has been horribly mutilated should be something of a red flag, yet the Sith always find new recruits... The Acolyte depicts its Dark Side “influencer” as charismatic and seductive."
According to the author, being against bad writing makes you "reactionary"
‘The Acolyte’ Episode 6 Recap And Review: These Short Episodes Were A Big Mistake - "I’m just not loving anything about the twin plotline. I think it’s by far the weakest link in this series, and it’s the central storyline so that’s problematic. (The other big issue with this show is one that I’ve had with Star Wars for a long time now: The gradual decline of the Jedi as a cool, mysterious order of badasses into a stuffy, rather bland bureaucracy). The second pupil/master subplot follows Mae and Sol (Lee Jung-jae) as they escape Khoftar and she tries to dig into what really happened when she and her sister were girls. The show has been dragging that mystery out far, far too long and continues to do so here. It’s quite annoying since it’s not an actual mystery that needs to be solved. Sol just has to tell Mae and/or Osha (and the audience) what happened. He continues to delay doing that so that the mystery is dragged out onscreen... Ultimately, not much happens this episode and then it ends. I’m left feeling completely underwhelmed. I think the episode lengths are a big problem here. Either they need to be longer and meatier, or Disney should have released them three at a time or all at once (I don’t like the binge model, but I think this show might have benefited from it). Almost every episode this season has ended too soon and each time it’s felt kind of rushed and sudden. This episode—following the show’s most action-packed and deadly—lost whatever momentum and sense of urgency we’d picked up last week. It’s all a bit jarring... We have just two episodes remaining and frankly I don’t know how this ends in a satisfying way unless both those episodes are a lot longer and the story starts moving. If the season ends with an irritating cliffhanger, don’t say I didn’t warn you. This show has a lot of potential but I can’t help but feel it’s pretty half-baked in its current state. It needed a lot more time in the oven."
Meme - "STAR WARS. THE BLACK SERIES. Only at Walmart. Star Wars: The Acolyte. The Stranger *naked Qimir*"
Meme - Austin Medeiros @austin_medz: "My reaction to Episode 7 *stunned witches (from Episode 7)*"
Meme - "STAR WARS. THE ACOLYTE. JUST TWO STRONG FEMALES USING THE FORCE TO MAKE A CHILD * Jenna Sativa and Shyla Jennings*"
StarWarsTheory on X - "Osha and Mae meet at the bridge, and by far the most amazing writing of the show, Sol struggles to use the force to hold the bridge with the sisters, instead of just, oh you know, use the force to hold the little girls in the air, instead of the super heavy metal bridges that are creaking, implying he's holding them up. And then when he fails to do that simple task, he lets go of Mae, and saves Osha, by letting go of the bridges with the force, only to scream and run to Osha as she falls to her death to grab her physically with his arm outstretched, when he could have simply just used the force to save her, heck, save both. This is the worst writing of anything I’ve ever seen. $180M"
Erik 'daibo' Kain on X - "There's this entire sect of Star Wars fans who, whenever anything is changed for the worse (like adding a hip hop song in the credits of The Acolyte) ask "WHY ARE STAR WARS FANS SO MAD AT THIS IT'S GREAT I LOVE THIS SONG THEIR [sic] SO TOXIC". It's this really hostile, really stubborn refusal to even try to understand why it might bother a lot of fans who grew up on John Williams scores and a very distinct aesthetic that we hope to preserve. Yet somehow old-school fans of the franchise are the bad guys.
The angry replies to this tweet are pure gold. From accusations of racism, to people telling me to "just not watch" to gross misrepresentation of what I'm saying, each and every one proves my point better than I could have without them. Thank you."
If you don't shut up and consume, you're "toxic". But if you harass people who refuse to consume quietly, you are a good person
Valliant Renegade on X - "The Acolyte was said to make us question the Jedi’s moral high ground and smear the lines of good and evil. BUT…. The writing however was SO BAD in achieving that end that Episode 7 actually showed why the Jedi’s actions were JUSTIFIED, which therefore renders the entire rest of the attempted “mystery” story arc utterly POINTLESS. It’s unreal what a MESS this show is."
Archer Bird 🇺🇸 on X - "They basically tried to paint the Jedi as a cop who shot a poc reaching for their glove box at a traffic stop. Except they made the Jedi look entirely reasonable for their actions."
Valliant Renegade on X - "Not a glovebox. Reaching for a GUN."
‘The Acolyte’ Episode 8 Recap And Review: A Dreadful Season Finale And The Cameos Can’t Save It - "The Acolyte was a mess from start to finish and Tuesday night’s jumbled season finale only strengthens my belief that this was a show that needed about three more drafts before going to production. Everything about this show is rough and messy, and the two very fun cameos in the finale (which we’ll discuss below) can’t save it from itself... I suppose we shouldn’t be surprised that Osha goes to the Dark Side this episode, and that Mae—by dint of losing her memory—goes over to the good guys. After all, Osha was wearing black by this point and Mae was all in white. How subtle! Then again, it’s hard to tell who the good guys are anymore, or who the bad guys are, because The Acolyte is just so angsty and edgy. It’s Star Wars for adults! Or something. Let’s be real, subverting expectations and deconstructing the Jedi is just so 2017. The Acolyte seems hellbent on portraying the Jedi in the worst possible light and I might be able to accept this if it were just the coverup at the end when Vernestra somewhat bizarrely pins all the killings on Sol when she goes before the Senate tribunal. But this show wants very badly for us to think that what the Jedi did on Brendok is some horrific crime, when I’m right there with Sol: He was trying to protect children from what very much appeared to be a terrifying Dark Side witch cult. Of course, when Osha and Mae confront Sol after he does a little lightsaber ballet with The Stranger, they don’t bother to get his side of the story and he doesn’t bother to tell it beyond “I did the right thing. I was trying to protect you.” I guess there was no room in the script for Osha to ask “Why?” and for him to say “Well she turned into a freaky smoke monster and started to evaporate your sister so I did what anyone would do and acted in self-defense.” I will say that I was pretty darn surprised when Osha force-choked Sol to death Vader-style, though it’s so out of left field that it comes across as incredibly goofy rather than disturbing. I was probably already annoyed when, moments earlier, the Sith and Mae exchange banter copy/pasted right out of Return of the Jedi. “Feel your anger,” Qimir says, sounding woefully less scary and intimidating than Palpatine. “This is the source of your pain. Strike him down and your journey will be complete.”... The problem with all of this isn’t merely how derivative it is—though that is a good chunk of what I find irksome—but how poorly it’s executed. Disney and the show’s creators promised us something new, something different, something unique. On all counts, they failed. Hey look, we’re in the High Republic, 100 years before the Skywalker saga! But let’s just do the same Jedi stuff as before, right down to paraphrasing famous snippets of dialogue, only this time we’ll make the Sith look more sympathetic and the Jedi seem conniving and awful. For reasons. Vernestra is genuine villain material at this point. Everyone theorized that she was the Sith’s Jedi Master last week and everyone was right. She senses him on Brendok and he sense her, quickly putting on his mind-control-blocking helmet. She covers everything up, most likely to cover up her own crimes or failings, though it’s not really clear yet (the episode ends with a bunch of loose ends, so we basically need a Season 2 to get any kind of closure, but I can’t say I think a second season would be good for Star Wars as a whole). In any case, she takes her concerns to this fuzzy fella, and I just can’t wait for Leslye Headland and crew to “deconstruct” Yoda some more. What Star Wars needs more of is a corrupt Yoda who helps coverup Jedi crimes and frames dead Jedi Masters for things they didn’t actually do. Fun!... If we do get a Season 2 and this story does lead to explaining Anakin’s origins, I’ll be pretty annoyed. I’ve been discussing this a lot lately, but I just don’t think we need to explain everything. We don’t need origin stories for everything. Or backstories. We don’t need to fill in all the details. We don’t need midichlorians. We don’t need to show so much of the Jedi to the point they’re no longer cool or mysterious. Finally, I’m incredibly letdown by the big emotional apex of this episode. When Osha kills Sol—because she’s apparently so powerful she can kill a Jedi Master with ease—she has next to no expression on her face. It’s basically the one expression Mae and Osha wear on their faces throughout the entire show, unchanging. I hate to say this, but it’s just not great acting. We needed her to be seething with hatred at this point. We needed her to rage, to drip her hatred all over the ground, to become hate itself, ruinous and feral. Instead, she sort of looks like she’s concentrating hard, but not even that hard. Many of this show’s problems come down to the script and direction, but this moment really showed how lacking some of the acting has been also. You can get away with a good script and bad acting or good acting and a bad script but both? That’s a problem...
The Jedi on Brendok look like LARPers. They’re just goofy. Vernestra tells them to set up a perimeter but then they all just follow Bazil instead. Okay dummies.
The one Senator who came to Vernestra to tell her he mistrusts the Jedi Order makes a lot of sense given how utterly awful the Jedi are in this show, but this just perpetuates one of the biggest mistakes the House of Mouse has made since acquiring Lucasfilm: Making the Jedi suck. This is not how you sell cool Star Wars toys, Bob Iger...
I alluded to this above, but who is this show actually for exactly? It’s not smart or adult enough to be Star Wars For Grownups the way Andor is. But it’s not fun or upbeat enough to be Star Wars For Kids. So then who is it for? Consultants? People who have a sort of vague appreciation of Star Wars ever since they caught Rise Of Skywalker on at a friend’s dorm room shindig? I just don’t know who this is for. Not dads and not kids, and frankly those are the two big demographics when it comes to Star Wars, no matter how you spin things...
Why couldn’t Mae just go with Qimir and Osha? Wouldn’t that be an easier solution than wiping her memory and allowing the Jedi to capture her? What if they manage to restore her memory?
Another point I’m curious about. If we’re supposed to sympathize with the Sith, does that mean we ought to sympathize with the product of the Sith lords’ long centuries of planning? The Galactic Empire is the end-result of everything the Sith stand for, and it’s a direct analogue for fascism in our world right down to the Nazi uniforms. I thought The Acolyte was supposed to be some paean to progressivism, but now I’m wondering if I’ve just been missing the alt-right subtext"
Self-defense is evil and contemptible, because good guys aren't allowed to defend themselves if people could get hurt. Which is left wing logic they apply in the real world, after all. The good guys are actually bad and the bad guys are actually good
‘The Acolyte’ Season 2? The Good News And Bad News - "we have a number of third party analytics firms estimating that The Acolyte is likely the lowest-viewed Star Wars show Disney has produced, below even Andor, which was the least-watched before this"
Clearly, review bombing is the reason why audience ratings are low
Why ‘The Acolyte’ Season 2 Looks Increasingly Unlikely - "Estimates of the cost of The Acolyte put it at $180 million for what are effectively eight, thirty minute episodes. That’s an absolutely wild amount of money for a Star Wars thing that is nowhere near theaters, but rather the sixth Disney live-action Star Wars series instead. And while I think the show has a solid aesthetic, no, it does not look like a $180 million production, and you have to wonder where much of that money went. Then there’s viewership, where if it was a breakout smash hit, it might be worth spending that for another season. But it’s just not there, based on what we know. Disney does not give out official numbers but Nielsen says its premiere was half the viewership of Ahsoka and 75% lower than The Mandalorian. Reportedly, it’s the second-least watched show, also behind The Book of Boba Fett and Obi-Wan. I cannot imagine it surged in popularity from there."
From a supporter of the show, no less. When I read this article he hadn't given his thoughts on the shit finale, which was the worst episode of a mediocre show
The Acolyte Fans are Confused at [SPOILER] Switching Sides in the Finale - "Despite Sol seemingly trying to get his point across to Mae on why he had to bring her and her twin sister Osha to the council, the former decides to make her timely escape by stealing one of the ships on board. On Sol's attempt to get Mae back on the main ride, he ends up tempted to shoot down her ship. This is when Bazil is shown agitated in the background. He opens up the engine's system to hack into Sol's drive and then sabotages the ship's missiles. Even the Jedi Master is dumbfounded in his seat. So, what gives? Generally speaking, it was uncharacteristic to see Bazil switch sides when all The Acolyte has been showing is that he is a part of the Jedi team. When he knew it wasn't Osha who boarded with Sol, he kept her away from stealing or manipulating anything from their place."
Meme - "Watching The Acolyte for the plot. The plot:
EPISODE 4 *Jedi fighting*
EPISODE 5 *Masked Manny Jacinto*
EPISODE 5 *Manny Jacinto fighting*
EPISODE 6 *Topless Manny Jacinto*"
Meme - Paul Tassi @PaulTassi: "I don't care what anyone says. The last three episodes of this have established it as an incredibly solid piece of Star Wars content that absolutely is going to need a second season"
"@realswtheory said it's worse than the last Jedi"
Paul Tassi @PaulTassi: "cool he's an idiot"
StarWarsTheory: "I'm an idiot because I don't like a show? Please tell me more about how inclusive and tolerant you are."
Insulting people who disagree with you doesn't make you "toxic" - only refusing to simp for a big corporation does
Meme - Rachel Leishman @RachelLeishman: "Ohhhhhh Star Wars Theory decided to do a "reaction" video to my interview because if he isn't fucking gritting off of Star Wars, he's gifting off of women and sending his minions after them. Fuck off and go build some faulty lightsabers while crying on camera.
to be clear: I really don't give a fuck. anyone who resorts to calling a woman a "cow" because of a star wars show is literally pathetic. I just didn't understand why i've had to delete 100s of comments all of the sudden and it's because of this jagoff"
Johnny @JGColtsfan28: "He did not call you anything stop lying. And if people are harassing you, that's not ok. However, Theory has been diligent in literally every episode he has talked about the show telling his followers to be civil and respectful when they voice their opinions. He's not the problem"
John A. Douglas @BlkCrownAuthor: "She didn't even watch it to verify"
John Acevedo WY @johnnyjohrj...: "Did Theory diss you or insult you in any way in his video?"
Rachel Leishman @RachelLeishman: "I mean this with the utmost respect: do you think I watched that shit? All his "fans" have been leaving incredibly gross comments on my interview because of that he said so"
Meme - Celestial Gardevoir: "Disney Star Wars has confirmed that Lightsabers turn red if their user is filled with too many negative emotions. Like mood rings. So like....Anakin betraying the Jedi, killing Younglings, choking his pregnant wife and fighting Obi-Wan was all done gleefully i guess? ~Nation"
Jerry Dalton: "Just look at the raw rage, hate, fear and pure passion on her face. The storm of emotion swirling into explosive power. As she blankly stares at her weapon turning red. Cinematic"
Meme - Mae: "You killed my mother"
Sol: "Mae, you literally started a fire, the witches had their weapons drawn on us, and your mother was turning into a ghost demon! I striked her out of pure instinct! I thought she was trying to kill us and I feared for your safety. We never intended for things to end like that. All we wanted was a peaceful resolution, but the witches became hostile and made the situation worse! Still, I know I made a mistake, but that doesn't mean you can go on murder spree!"
Joseph Michael Terracina: "Don't forget, the lesbian space witch could have said at the very beginning that Osha could go with them rather than letting a situation escalate."
Why The Acolyte is the WORST of Star Wars | Video Essay - YouTube - "I even had people on my last video of The Acolyte say that I'm ruining this show for myself because I'm thinking about it too much like literally saying don't use your brain just sit there and consume otherwise it's your fault... Mae is a terribly written character and makes no sense. Her actions are just completely unjustifiable half the time. She changes her entire world philosophy on a moment's notice, like literally throws her life mission away when she betrays Qimir in episode 4 which was abrupt and dumb as hell in of itself but then backflips on that betrayal 10 minutes later by fighting the Jedi that she'd said she'd surrendered to and then she becomes bad again going undercover as her sister but then becomes good again because the script says so because Osha needs to be the bad one now... how almost every single character can be so poorly written is honestly impressive... in the early episodes I was really enjoying the character of Sol but by the end I was just left scratching my head. This dude is crazy obsessed with Osha and it's never really explained beyond: I feel a connection... Osha kills Sol after he confesses to her that he killed her mother but instead of seeking any form of answer as to why, you know pretty important stuff, you'd think, Osha just chokes out the dude who was a father figure to her instead of you know asking one simple question that would have provided necessary context... Sol is dead just so we can pin everything on him so the Ki-Adi Mundi line in the Phantom Menace can somehow make a little bit of sense but oh wait it doesn't because Vernestra is seemingly about to tell Yoda all about it in the final shot of the show. It's just a complete disaster at this point... Bazil the little beaver thing cuts the chase off so Sol can't pursue Mae. Why he did this I have no idea. I have watched it back several times and it still doesn't make sense. There is literally no answer. There's barely even a slightly logical interpretation. This little rat thing pulls the wires out to stop the chase because reasons. The script says so. You could at least try and bullshit a reason but no... Qimir pretty much kills everyone that Osha knows and is friends with... within like legitimately one day she's standing on a beach with him basically holding hands after killing her father figure. Are we serious? Do we just not want to give these characters time to develop? Is is it that hard to do? Is it not deemed necessary by these writers? This is like Rey going from nobody to whooping everyone's ass in less than a week. The common denominator here is writing. Character arcs need time to develop especially when they are as drastic as what this show is trying to pull off. That's one of the perks of a TV show. You actually get the time to develop the characters... There is nothing here that warrants Torbin swearing a vow of silence and taking his own life. Like he swears silence and takes his own life because he got a little homesick and a Jedi he was with killed the evil witch lady that was disintegrating a child. Like what. Not to mention Aniseya's line after Sol stabs her is the biggest gaslighting moment I've ever seen... this show's story structure is all over the place. You begin as a murder mystery but basically all the characters are killed off around halfway through the show despite the fact we don't really know who they are at all. And in the third episode you introduce a perspective flashback that conveniently leaves key pieces of information out for no logical reason other than hiding the rest of the edit so you can reveal it later. And then in the penultimate episode you essentially retell the third episode again but with the parts you left out and provide answers that don't justify the actions we've seen from the characters prior. And then you spend the last episode attempting to wrap up the twin plot and actually give Osha something to do finally despite her literally being a passenger in a story in which it tries to revolve around her and her sister... it changed from episode to episode making the show feel like a disconnected blend of whatever the writers were feeling on that specific day and I think that's one of the biggest problems with this show. It tries to do a lot but excels at nothing... the twins offer nothing but problems in this show. It doesn't help that the actress playing these twins was really really bad. There's a lot of bad acting in this show in general to be honest but at least it might have had a little bit of focus as a result of dropping the twins out of the story... this show had 10 writers across its 8 episodes and it all just started to make sense. This show was one person's vision split across 10 writers varying from episode to episode. It's no wonder why this show feels all over the place... more often than not Star Wars has become a cameo simulator. Something that helps patch over the gaping cracks that is modern Star Wars writing... it's people like this that are the reason why Disney think they can keep serving up this slop and get away with it. Because they don't have standards. Because one cameo can erase all the bad writing that made the show suck in the first place... notice how every single scene in the Jedi Temple is claustrophobic. No big sweeping wides, nothing. Every single shot is so contained and so claustrophobic. Compare that to the prequels and you'll notice a massive difference. They've shot these Jedi Temple, seems like they have no budget at all and I just ask why where did this money go? Say what you want about the prequels but at least you got a sense of the scale of the world and I think the Jedi Temple is a perfect comparison of why this is a problem. In The Acolyte you don't feel the money being pumped into this show... there were moments where I was like, okay you've actually got a cool idea here, challenging the Jedi as being flawed. But you stop and realize and it's like wait we've already done this. Did you watch the prequels? Like who is this show? For what characters are we rooting for? It's not like it delivers on the profound nature of confusing the viewer on who the good guys are and who the bad guys are and where does it begin and end? Because the writing isn't smart enough to pull that kind of thing off... I wanted to like this show but this show is everything wrong with Star Wars and a whole new low for Star Wars under Disney"
