Saturday, August 24, 2024

Links - 24th August 2024 (2 - Star Wars: The Acolyte)

Grummz on X - "Rotten Tomatos burying user reviews on Star Wars today, and CrunchyRoll disabling comments. The trend is to remove your voice, and the choice of the informed consumer. They want you blind, ignorant, and consuming."

Manny Jacinto Wants to Be a Force for Change - "Star Wars, like many multibillion-dollar franchises with vast and vocal followings, struggles with the Dark Side of its online fanbase. Over the last decade, a small but loud segment of the audience has been notoriously resistant to change in the canon, often directing their anger toward the increasingly diverse casts of its films and series. Actors like Kelly Marie Tran, John Boyega, and Moses Ingram faced a barrage of racist attacks after joining the franchise. More recently, trolls have targeted The Acolyte, accusing it of having a “woke” agenda for prominently featuring people of colour and women in its cast and crew. The Leslye Headland-created series follows an investigation into a crime spree that pits a Jedi Master, played by Lee Jung-jae, against a mysterious warrior from his past, played by Amandla Stenberg... “I think the fans who have become older are trying to hold onto that feeling they experienced when they were younger, and when they see something different, it’s not the same feeling so they don’t appreciate it as much,” he says. “I have to remind myself that kids or younger teens can be inspired by this. What I hope to do with The Acolyte is to inspire those younger Asian boys who want to see themselves on screen. That’s what’s more important to me.”"
This adds credence to the theory that when the media and actors play the racism/sexism/bigotry card, they know it's going to fail, so they are preemptively preparing for it
Weird how rejecting change didn't happen with the Mandalorian, Andor and Rogue One. And that 9 years after The Force Awakens, it is not as beloved as The Phantom Menace was 9 years after it first came out

The Acolyte Falls Off Samba TV Ratings Charts With Episode 6, Big Dip With Lightsaber Episode - "Worth a note is that the episode follows Episode 5, which features that “big” lightsaber scene “everybody” was raving about.  We also see that Episode 5 took a dip in the charts, and with Episode 6, The Acolyte is no longer on Samba TV’s charts.   Samba TV actually claims to be a better data aggregator than Nielsen, and it is also known Disney is an investor in Samba TV...   So following that big lightsaber scene that is supposed to be the best lightsaber scene ever in Star Wars (according to some fans), it apparently didn’t do anything do increase viewership, but just the opposite. Not much happens in the episode.   What’s interesting is that Presumed Innocent has been neck and neck with The Acolyte, but Presumed Innocent is still making the Samba TV charts. So the argument that other movies and TV shows may have pushed The Acolyte out of the charts may not hold. This suggests Presumed Innocent has a stable audience, while the data apparently reveals The Acolyte has lost its audience.    Samba TV also used to release household viewership date for the Disney+ shows, but no longer does. I suspect this is at the request of Disney because the numbers are so low. Obviously, if the numbers were good, Disney would likely give Samba TV the greenlight to publish them in order to promote the show. However, that isn’t happening, and not only for The Acolyte, but Samba TV also didn’t report numbers for Marvel’s X-Men ’97 or any of the Disney+ Doctor Who episodes — both of which are a complete ratings disaster.    The Nielsen ratings also reveal nearly 75% of fans that watched The Mandalorian didn’t bother to watch The Acolyte."

Nobody Watches The Acolyte: Fails Again To Make Nielsen Ratings With Episode 6 - "The Acolyte again fails to make the Nielsen ratings charts for the third week in a row with Episode 6... At a cost reportedly north of $200 million, the show is a massive bust for Disney+. Bob Iger previously confirmed a $4 billion streaming loss for Disney."

The Acolyte Episode 7 Nowhere To Be Found On Nielsen Ratings Charts - "A quick reminder: The Nielsen ratings matter; Disney has them automatically turned on in your Disney+ accounts."

The Acolyte Season 2 Not Happening? - "Regarding The Acolyte Season 2, you know it’s bad when the show’s supporters admit things haven’t been good and turn their back.  I believe Grace Randolph, who was a big supporter of The Acolyte, has now changed her tune with the release of the latest episodes. Likewise, now a writer for Forbes, a “Senior Contributor,” has seen the light (welcome to the party, pal).  Oddly, the writer actually wasn’t a big fan of the first two episode premiere as he wrote an article titled, “The Acolyte’s Twin Concept Sputters In Its Debut.”  However, the writer quickly changed his tune and posted a slew of overwhelmingly supportive articles of The Acolyte, which also attacked the fanbase for not liking the show.  The articles written include, “The Acolyte’s 15% Audience Score Is Embarrassing, For The Audience Scorers” and “The Acolyte’ Star Reacts To Toxic Fan Attacks With A Music Video.” There is mention of a “Best Episode Yet,” “Sexiest Sith,” and even “Super-Sith.” Additional articles include “Professional ‘Acolyte’ Haters Fall For Fake Rotten Tomatoes Controversy,” and “‘The Acolyte’ Reveals Its True Villain At Last In A Stunning Episode.” Now things have changed... Showrunner Leslye Headland also previously doubted The Acolyte Season 2 would happen"

The Acolyte Episode 8 Review: Underdeveloped Garbage Writing, What Could Have Been - "I don’t like how Mae starts off the series as a complete badass but then changes her mind and thinks it’s okay if she tells the Jedi about whatever it is about Qimir (we still don’t know).  I don’t like how Qimir mind-wiped Mae. Why didn’t Mae just go with Qimir and Osha? They didn’t explain well enough why Mae didn’t want to stay with Qimir. If the argument is that Mae fails Qimir, then why wouldn’t Qimir still want Mae, especially since Osha had the Force Vision that showed Mae killing Sol? Qimir even mentions that Mae can kill without a weapon, so it’s unclear why he wouldn’t want her on his side. Additionally, they didn’t explain well enough why Qimir wants to find Mae. He agrees to go with Osha—was it to stop Mae from killing Sol so that Osha could do it instead and become his Padawan (that would’ve been cool)? They don’t even hint at such a thing. Or how about the apparent relationship between Osha and Qimir? They show their fingers touching, implying they have feelings for each other, but there was no onscreen chemistry that hinted at that. So, a full frontal scene makes you fall in love? What?! What was hinted at was that Osha and Jecki had feelings for one another, which Dafne Keen even mentioned in an interview. Maybe Osha is bi? Guess so.  Regarding why Mae acts the way she does, I’ve seen more than one fan suggest that Osha and Mae switch places. But why? There’s zero explanation for this. Is it because one has to be on the Light Side and the other on the Dark Side? So if one moves away from one side, the other moves to the opposite? Again, there are no hints or explanations, and it doesn’t even seem like Headland knows what the fuck is going on. Master Sol is a disappointment. He started off as the best character of the series, but quickly becomes a big bitch. More crying bullshit.  They needed to handle the ‘Sol killed your mother’ revelation better. It would have been more impactful if they had kept that from the audience and revealed it later, making it the show’s equivalent of ‘Luke, I am your father.’ Maybe that’s why they didn’t do it? The fight scene between Sol and Qimir was pretty good. I appreciate that The Acolyte avoided the acrobatic flips from the prequels. However, I didn’t like the slow-motion Crouching Tiger/Matrix-style effects. It looked fake as fuck, like they were on strings. And why didn’t Qimir just headbutt Sol’s lightsaber?  I also didn’t like that Osha was able to take away a lightsaber from a Master Jedi. There’s just no fucking way. Osha hasn’t trained in what? Years? I just can’t see it (we assume Mae trained with Qimir). Or how about Sol’s lightsaber breaking when it hits the ground? WTF? While it was cool to see Osha change Sol’s lightsaber from blue to red, the writing should have been much better. And something cool: So Osha is using the lightsaber that killed her mother!!! I also didn’t like the Rocket Raccoon wannabe stopping Sol from shooting down Mae. Why?  Here’s why: It’s because they couldn’t think of a better way to get Mae to the planet and separate her from Sol. The writing is simply horrible. What’s cool is what’s going on with Darth Plagueis, Vernestra, and David Harewood’s character.  This is what I was alluding to above: imagine if these characters had been more developed throughout the season or at least hinted at. It could have been fucking epic... Having Yoda and Darth Plaguis (again, likely added at the last minute?!) doesn’t make up for an entirely shitty series. It’s like going to your favorite restaurant, getting served a pile of shit, and then they serve you some ice cream—does the ice cream make up for the pile of shit? No fucking way. Bozo Redditors are already falling for it. You got shortchanged, motherfuckers!... The Acolyte Episode 8 is too little too late. It’s full of some cool moments, some fan service, but it’s far from making up for the awful story progression, character development and writing from previous episodes. At a cost of $200 million, I hope Bob Iger gets an audit done ASAP. The episode gets a 4/10 rating. The entire episode and series is also more “Jedi are bad” bullshit. Why can’t Disney give us the Jedi we all want?"

The Acolyte has a writer that had never seen Star Wars – here’s how they made the show even better in episode 3
No wonder it was so bad

Meme - The Bugle Daily @TheBugleDaily1: "Each single episode of the Acolyte cost double or a little over double the entire budget of Godzilla Minus One. #theacolyte"
Clearly, they needed even more money

Meme - Script Trooper @ScriptTrooper: "I’ll indulge the bleed the crystal nonsense despite finding it comically stupid whether it’s canon or not.  Look at the crystal.  See that part that broke out of the super weak saber Sol was using?  Whether she bleeds it or not as soon as she ignites it it’s going to shoot straight into her hand and arm."
Someone else pointed out there's no lens either, and the crystal is supposed to be between the emitter and lens
Left wing logic, as someone put it: "Erm, you see, this is a work of FICTION, it is all FAKE. Therefore it means there should be no thought or consideration regarding the workings of its fictitious elements whatsoever." See also: "Use the Force, Harry", Story Logic and the SJW Agenda, "You can accept dragons, elves and talking trees, but you can't accept a 2021 BMW 5 Series 530i with optional heated seating. Why are you so bigoted?"

Meme - Disney+ forcing Star Wars Fans' eyes open to watch: "Watch it, or you're a homophobic, misogynistic, bigot."
STAR WARS THE ACOLYTE

Meme - Grim Reaper: "IT IS TIME TO GO."
The Acolyte: "Was I a good show?"
Grim Reaper: "NO. YOU WERE ABSOLUTE DOG SHIT."

Meme - *Quit Having Fun*
Person on side: "IF YOU DONT LIKE ACOLYTE, THEN DON'T WATCH"
People playing games: "OK" *House of the Dragon*
Person on side: "ACOLYTE IS GREAT, YOU PEOPLE ARE TOXIC BIGOTS AND AREN'T STAR WARS"
People playing games: *Watching The Boys*
Person on side: "QUIT HAVING FUN. WHY DIDN'T YOU WATCH? IT'S YOUR FAULT ACOLYTE WASN'T RENEWED"
People playing games: *Watching FX's The Bear*

The Acolyte cancelled : r/GeeksGamersCommunity - "Basically half of the comments in the Acolyte Subreddit blaming it on the toxic fans and reviews bombing. Nah, the show just wasn't good, especially not of you hear it cost 180 mil to make."
The Acolyte cancelled : r/GeeksGamersCommunity - "Oh no, but what about all those bots people posting about how amazing their neilson ratings were! Viewership numbers were so high!  What about all those burning questions they left open!?"
"The real data came out and Disney realized they couldn’t keep pretending people were not watching it. It had less viewership than Ahsoka, which was low."
The Acolyte cancelled : r/GeeksGamersCommunity - "Yeah! This is "so unexpected"! They said it did really really really well! What happened?... Haaaaahahahahaaaaa! 😝"
Now the cope is going to be that all the "toxic" fans and reviewers and "review bombing" meant people never gave it a chance because they were brainwashed. This is how they can pretend that the "Fandom Menace" is a small minority

The Acolyte cancelled : r/GeeksGamersCommunity - "the power of manyyyyyy. first time I saw a clip of it, I thought it was a fake parody on youtube."
"When I first heard someone quoting that chant to poke fun at it, I thought it was just a meme. I was shocked to find out it wasn't just a joke."
"What do you expect from lesbian headlamp?"
"Yes! I thought it was a well dome parody. I went to show a friend and he was like..uh..thats the actual show ..lol"

Mollie Damon on X - "The worst part about hearing The Acolyte is cancelled is this will absolutely impact my ability to enjoy any more new projects for SW. I feel like everything I went through while the show was on was for nothing. I don’t enjoy being depressed and cynical about this fandom 😑"
These are the people who go on about "white fragility"

Rotem Rusak 🔜 NYCC on X - "Very surprised to hear about #TheAcolyte, the only Star Wars show I saw take over spaces I inhabit and cause excitement among folks who might not otherwise be or feel involved. I find it hard to imagine those folks were a minority against the naysayers."
When you spend all your time in your echo chamber and are literally unable to conceive of the real world that exists outside it

Maggie Lovitt on X - "I often joke that I have always felt represented in Star Wars because I’m a white brunette who sees myself everywhere in that franchise (Leia, Padmé, Jyn, Rey), but with #TheAcolyte my friends were finally seeing themselves in a franchise that means the world to them."
So it's settled, then. Representation is a losing strategy. Either that or she has very few friends, and they have no empathy

Meme - "DID YOU EVERY HEAR THE TRAGEDY OF DARTH PLAGUEIS THE WISE?"
"NO."
"I THOUGHT NOT."
"WHAT HAPPENED?"
"THE ACOLYTE GOT CANCELED."

Meme - Star Wars Addicts. Arthur Smith: "I can't stand Star Wars hater fans!! Yall managed to get one of the most brutal dark series The Acolyte season 2 canceled! WTF Some of us actually want to watch Star Wars yall out here trying to end Star Wars. All yall haters should be watching Star Trek"

Is 'The Acolyte' canceled? Answered | The Mary Sue (aka "Disney is happy to let the toxic dudebros win, I guess!")
Like clockwork, all the media outlets came out with articles claiming fans were upset it got cancelled. Amazing how the hivemind works (since they deny there's coordination since there's ethics in gaming journalism)
Clearly the huge dropoff of viewers after the premiere was because these viewers all got brainwashed by "toxic" fans into not watching
Comment: "So riddle me this Batman how is a show being cancelled from lack of viewership the fault of those who didn’t watch it? You should find the nearest tree and apologize for wasting its oxygen."

‘The Acolyte’ Views Grow To 11.1M On Disney+ After 5 Days Of Streaming – Update - "The Acolyte is off to a promising start on Disney+.  The new Star Wars series launched on June 4 with two episodes, generating 4.8M views in its first day on the streamer. That makes it the biggest series premiere on Disney+ this year"
Nielsen Data Shows 'The Acolyte' Had Second-Worst Premiere Ratings Of Any Disney Star Wars Series - "In offering a massive counter to the laughable mainstream narrative that the Leslye Headland-helmed series is an audience success, viewing data provided by The Nielsen Company appears to show that the premiere of The Acolyte was one of the least-watched in the history of Disney Star Wars television."
'The Acolyte' Confirmed Ratings Disaster, Disney Star Wars Series Disappears From Nielsen Charts After Just Three Weeks
The problem is, the shills actually believe their own narrative, that it was successful and well-rated. That's why they're so shocked when it got cancelled

Rebecca Henderson was awful : r/StarWars - "Her acting was just poor. In a show that was subpar with really bad writing, she even brought it down further with her really crappy acting."
"It’s almost as though she wasn’t hired on merit…"
"Amandla Stenberg, as well. The two of them are awful actresses."
"The only one worse than her was Stenberg"
"It's like they told her that Vernestra's only personality was "annoyed." It pains me because she was such a vibrant and fun character in the books. Her in the show is an angry green brick with no personality."

The Acolyte Nielsen Rating Analysis from a TV Industry Guy : r/saltierthancrait - "Let's go one more step here and look at the investment aspect from a financial standpoint. Maybe we don't necessarily care as viewers, but the money movers absolutely consider this. We are going to take the show's budget, divide it properly into the number of episodes, and then see how much a view costs Disney.
   **The Book of Boba Fett:** $4.21/view
   **Obi-Wan Kenobi:** $3.06/view
**Andor:** $8.71/view
   **Ahsoka:** $3.81/view
   **The Mandalorian S3:** $2.02/view
**The Acolyte:** $9.28/view"

They should of saved the Oshamir romance for season 2 : r/TheAcolyte - "I’m not opposed for the romance, but it felt extremely forced at the end. It made Osha seem extremely thirsty . We get it, manny has big sith energy, but he just killed your friends/colleagues and you witnessed all of it. You spend like one day with him, find out sol lied, kill the man that raised you, come back, and made us question if the rocks are wet because of the ocean or you.  Like you were with this man for a day. Not even enough time for Stockholm Syndrome to kick in. I wish we saw osha mourn or process what we all went through. It would have been a perfect character moment/devolpment for her during her stay with quimir. Was it her first experience with death? How is she processing watching everyone die? Was this her first combat experience? Is she developing PTSD? Emotionally I feel like she is the same before and after that insane climactic moment in episode 5. I feel like nothing changed and we were robbed of a crucial character moment.  In the second season, we could have explored the relationship more. OSHA having accepted the dark side but still reluctant from everything that just happened. Manny slowly starts cutting trough the void and slowly, through his teachings we can together come to understand him and oshas personas and overtime see the attraction and seduction develop between the two.  Quimir just grabbing osha hand at the last moment felt very YA/harry styles fan fiction vibes."
Naturally, this got downvoted, because if you don't shut up and consume, you're a bad person

The haters got their way. : r/StarWarsCirclejerk - "the power of one season, the power of two viewers, the power of maaaany plotholes."

Robert Meyer Burnett, Viceroy of Verisimilitude on X - "Remember, critics had NOTHING to do with the cancellation of THE ACOLYTE. Only analytics, metrics, corporate interests and most of all, viewership did. The show failed because it betrayed the brand, and put an agenda before legacy, characters, and sincere storytelling."

Meme - rasha *Palestinian flag* qimir's wife @anakinsdream: "i need star wars fans who hate the current star wars to just die to be honest"
It's only toxic, harassment and death threats if it pushes the left wing agenda

Every Acolyte Tie-In Star Wars Just Announced - "Lucasfilm has officially announced a delightful number of official transmedia tie-ins and spinoffs to The Acolyte. The future of Star Wars lies in the past; specifically, the tail-end of the High Republic Era, the golden age of the Jedi and the Republic."
From July. So much for that

Blame Modern TV For Star Wars: The Acolyte's Cancellation
Apparently there's Modern TV, but no Modern Audience
Kotaku is still playing the sexism and racism card of course

'The Acolyte' Canceled: No Season 2 For Disney+'s 'Star Wars' Series : r/StarWars - "I was just thinking about this the other day. The main draw of the show isn't Mae and Osha, it's Qimir/The Stranger.  They make this big thing about how Mae and Osha were born like it's a big reveal when it's really not that much of a mystery in the end, but they have this hugely charismatic bad guy with a mysterious past that they just barely dip their toe into. Like, what the fuck? Writers, hello?  Also, maybe don't advertise your show with Carrie Anne Moss and then immediately kill her in the very first scene. Absolutely baffling."
'The Acolyte' Canceled: No Season 2 For Disney+'s 'Star Wars' Series : r/StarWars - "Finally someone points this out; what were they thinking? Osha was boring, Mae was all over the map; they were constantly out done by the supporting cast and had more well known and better actors who could have been main charecters (like the lady who played Trinity from Matrix)  But then they just kill off ALL of them (except the stranger). Like, as cool as it was that a villain actually kill off people from core cast and we have some consequences, what were they hoping to do with this? Jecki gone, Jord gone, Sol is gone, Trintiy is gone, etc. ALl that was left is the unlikable green lady, twins played by a boring actor, and I guess the interesting Plagius and The Stranger."

'The Acolyte' Canceled: No Season 2 For Disney+'s 'Star Wars' Series : r/StarWars - "Im not a writer, but in this show even I could feel that there was just no point to it. It even went so far that I thought it’s already over after ep 6 I think.  Failing to establish clear goals and motivations for your characters is pretty much the worst mistake you can make."

'The Acolyte' Canceled: No Season 2 For Disney+'s 'Star Wars' Series : r/StarWars - "It pains me to agree. Amandla Stenberg was a big issue. She wasn’t bad but equally she just didn’t have the heft required to carry the main role(s).  For example: She sees her presumed dead sister for the first time in like 20 years and her reaction was more akin to running into an ex-colleague that she hasn’t seen for a while. She just didn’t sell the big moments."
'The Acolyte' Canceled: No Season 2 For Disney+'s 'Star Wars' Series : r/StarWars - "Hiring an actress that can't act to save her life will do that. She has one scene with Yord in the first episode where she displays some range and after that it's just one bland expression for the rest of the show."
'The Acolyte' Canceled: No Season 2 For Disney+'s 'Star Wars' Series : r/StarWars - "  Casting agents should have harnessed the power of mannyyyyyyy"

'The Acolyte' Canceled: No Season 2 For Disney+'s 'Star Wars' Series : r/StarWars - "Amandla played each twin pretty much the same, with each ones character constantly changing with no clear motivation. Leslye tried way too hard to make the Jedi evil or mean, and it just didn't fit. Characters made stupid decisions. The dialogue was boring, the pacing was terrible. The double 'twist' of Plagueis and Yoda were so 'on the nose', it felt so tacked on and was them begging for another season. There were so many things wrong it bad in this show, this should be used as a 'what not to do' when making a show. It's like it was written by someone that didn't understand Star Wars."

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