#I think I may have misunderstood the entire point of THE ACOLYTE

[shameonpretzel]

I came into THE ACOLYTE expecting a compelling deconstruction of the Jedi / Sith dynamic but there's one episode left and I'm just wondering how many Sol/Osha fanfics are gonna pop up after the season ends.

[antianakin]

If YOU were to write The Acolyte, what would you do?

This question assumes I'd write a Sith-centric story if given the opportunity to write for Star Wars at any point, but personally I just wouldn't write a Sith story. I don't find the Sith interesting beyond what they represent in the larger cosmic themes of the franchise. I'm generally not invested in any of the Sith characters ever (aside from occasionally finding Palpatine amusing, which isn't enough to write a whole show around).

This is also a difficult question to answer without having SEEN the show in order to really delve into the pieces of it that I think could be re-worked into a better show and the pieces that would have to go no matter what. Given that Headland's ENTIRE PREMISE for this show is "where did the Jedi go wrong to make them become the Prequels Jedi", I'm inclined to just scrap the whole thing. Get rid of all of it, every single character, every plot beat, everything.

So what I'll answer instead is: What would I prefer to see out of any generic Sith-centric show?

Personally, I think anyone making a Sith-centric story NEEDS to actually understand the central theme of Lucas's Star Wars better than Headland does. I think anyone making a Sith-centric story cannot see the Sith as "underdogs" and the Jedi as "the institution." The Sith are still the VILLAINS and the Jedi the HEROES. Even if the Sith are the protagonists of the story (and the Jedi antagonists by necessity), it should still be VERY VERY FUCKING CLEAR that the Sith are unquestionably selfish, greedy, awful people and that the Jedi are entirely correct to oppose them. This obviously makes it a LOT harder to root for your protagonists or to relate to them or whatever. It's a much more complicated storyline to try to tell than what Headland is actually going for in her show. Personally, given what we know of Headland, I don't think she's capable of the kind of nuance a Sith story should require.

Any Sith story should be crystal fucking clear that Sith CHOOSE to be this way. They CHOOSE this life. And that they could choose to do OTHERWISE if they wanted to.

Ideally, a Sith story would understand that balance means recognizing your own darkness in order to choose to reject it and control your own behavior so that you don't cause pain and misery to other people. Balance means accepting that darkness exists and choosing to be compassionate and selfless ANYWAY. Without this understanding of what balance means, any Star Wars story is doomed to failure.

So yeah, I think the Acolyte misunderstood so many things that are crucial to telling a good Star Wars story and so therefore it just fails entirely at being a Star Wars story at all. It may have been more successful as an original sci-fi story than a Star Wars story, and I'm getting really tired of Star Wars stories that clearly should've been an original sci-fi story instead.