#The Acolyte critical

[short-wooloo]

Now that the trailer is out, it's probably best that I get this out of the way before acolyte releases

The Jedi are right about the Force and the dark side

The Jedi did not lose their way

The Jedi were not corrupted

The genocide of the Jedi was not their fault

The Jedi are not wrong for being part of the Republic, it is in fact a good thing

The Jedi are not arrogant for thinking the sith are gone

and while we're at it the sith are evil, always, end of discussion

The Jedi do not steal children

If someone wants to leave the Jedi, that's allowed, no one will stop them

The Jedi are right about attachment

Attachment is not love (SW uses the Buddhist definition because Lucas is a Buddhist and the Jedi are based off Buddhist monks, Buddhism defines attachment as being possessive or unwilling to let go of people or things)

The Jedi do not forbid emotions, they forbid being controlled by your emotions, you must control them

The Jedi are not forbidden from loving people, nor are they celibate, they just can't get married (big whup) because their duties must come first

Being peacekeepers doesn't preclude the Jedi from fighting in war, sometimes to keep the peace you have to fight back, especially when its against tyranny, see WWII (or Ukraine today)

Gray jedi are not a thing

The Jedi are not slavers or complicit in slavery

Oh and of course, the Jedi are not elitists for not training non Force sensitives, (Han voice) that's not how the Force works, dave filoni broke the rules so he could shoehorn sabine into a Jedi (to give the benefit of the doubt, I do believe sabine's role as ahsoka's apprentice was meant for an original character but things got condensed by executives, so maybe filoni isn't entirely to blame here)

(Edit)

The Jedi are not cops

The Jedi are not the government/the rulers of the Republic/galaxy

The Jedi do not persecute other Force groups

Padawans are not child soldiers

Feel free to add anything I forgot

Do not, DO NOT!! add anything Jedi critical, I'm done with it and won't hear it, don't have something nice to say? Then go away, I will block on sight, either reblog without comment (either in the reblog or the notes) or don't interact at all

[jonathanrogersartist]

How 'The Acolyte' Disappointed Me, and Why the Themes of 'Star Wars' Matter

Someone recently commented on my 'On the Dark Side, the Jedi and the Moral Decay of Star Wars' essay with these words: 

"A lot of words for saying 'I don't like the newer media, but I won't get into specifics as to why.'"

Okay! I shall then finally clarify those specifics....

That first essay has, so far, been my biggest success on this blog, and it's attracted a number of interesting responses. Full disclosure: I wrote that fresh off the heels of feeling depressed over how the Acolyte ended, and after reading/listening to several of Leslye Headland's interviews, where she went into great detail about her ideas behind the show's choices, the themes she's trying to get across, and what personal baggage she brings to Star Wars. 

Why was I depressed?

Because the show's finale ended with the deeply problematic implication that Osha, by killing Sol and joining Qimir, has achieved true self-actualization. As Leslye herself put it, it's a 'positive corruption arc.' Interesting way to phrase it. 

Furthermore, Vernestra's actions that frame Sol for several murders, all to protect her own reputation, and to avoid oversight by the Senate, confirmed one of the things that I was really worried this show would do as soon as we began learning plot details, which is that it's leaning into this very persistent edgelord take that the Jedi are actually big ol' bastards not worth seeing as heroes. 

It's the Dave Filoni gospel of the Jedi Order as a morally broken and fundamentally hypocritical institution, a decaying monument to religious hubris, who brought about their own destruction with their arrogance and so-called rejection of emotion making them lack empathy. 

This is, as many of my followers know already, a giant misreading of George's storyline in the prequels, and what he was actually telling us about the Jedi's philosophy and code. And in my experience, it gets us some vicious pushback when we try to inform fans of it, even if we back it up with proof of George's words. 

George really did intend the Jedi to be the ultimate example of what a brave, wise, and all-loving hero should be, and are very specifically inspired by Buddhist monks. They do not 'repress emotions': they learn to regulate their emotions, so as to not let the negative ones feed the Dark Side, and they have the moral fortitude to focus on their spiritual duty. They're professionals that have dedicated themselves to a higher calling, and who still feel and display the same emotions we all feel, unless I watched very different movies from everyone else. We see that Jedi characters can still crack jokes, cry when they are sad, become scared or anxious, feel strong love and loyalty to their peers, and can even be righteously angry in some situations BUT always knowing when to pull back.

The Jedi of the prequels were victims of manipulation by Palpatine, and were caught in between a rock-and-a-hard-place with the Clone War, and they were ultimately destroyed not by their own actions, but by the treachery of Anakin Skywalker, who failed to overcome his own flaws because he refused to really follow the Jedi teachings, and was gaslit by Palpatine for decades on top of that. 

Leslye's take on Star Wars, based on how she wrote the story of the Acolyte, is that "yup, the Jedi were doomed to destroy themselves by being hypocritical and tone-deaf space cops," and she also outright compared them to the Catholic Church (this reeks of Western bias and misunderstanding of Eastern religions). The one that really stunned me, was when she said she designed Qimir to be her own mouthpiece for the experience of being queer and suppressed, who isn't allowed to just be her authentic self in a restrictive world. Which, to me, implies that Leslye wanted to depict the Dark Side as actually a misunderstood path to self-actualization that the Jedi, in keeping with their dogma of repressing emotions, only smear as 'evil.' 

Let me remind you all: Qimir is officially referred to as a Sith Lord, by Manny Jacinto, by Leslye, etc. And what are the Sith, exactly? 

Space fascists. Intergalactic superpowered terrorists. Dark wizard Nazi-coded wannabe dictators, whose ideology is of might-makes-right, survival of the fittest, and the pursuit of power for power's sake. To depict followers of this creed as an analogy for marginalized people who have literally been targeted and murdered throughout history BY the real-life inspirations for the Sith.... I find revolting and tone-deaf by Leslye. 

SO.... seeing how that show ended, and reading up on how Leslye intended it to be interpreted (Osha's 'triumph' over the 'toxic paternalism' of Sol/the Jedi in general), really put me in a funk, because deep down, I could just sense that this was not at all compatible with the ethos of Star Wars. It made me go on a deep-dive into the BTS of the writing of the prequels and George's ideas about the Jedi, and it's how I discovered the truth that Dave Filoni has been pretty egregiously misrepresenting George's themes for several years now, usurping George's words with his own personal fanfic about the motivations of characters like Anakin, or Qui-Gon, or the Jedi Council, etc. 

His influence on the franchise has caused this completely baseless take on the Jedi to become so widespread as to rewrite history for modern fans. Who are utterly convinced now that this anti-Jedi messaging WAS George's vision all along, and they get real mad at you if you show them actual proof of that being a lie. 

And the Acolyte is perpetuating this twisting of the very core of Star Wars. This is what I meant by the 'moral decay of Star Wars.' 

The Star Wars saga was made by George Lucas in 1977 to accomplish these specific tasks: 

To remind people of what it really means to be good.

What evil actually looks like, and how it comes from our fears and greed.

To teach kids how to grow up and choose the right path that will make them loving, brave, honest people that stand up to tyrants.

To give the world a story that returns to classic mythological motifs and is fundamentally idealistic, to defy the uptick in cynical and nihilistic storytelling after the scandals of Vietnam and Watergate broke Americans' belief in there being such a thing as actual heroes anymore. 

THAT is the soul of Star Wars. That is what George meant for this remarkably creative universe to say with its storytelling. But I sincerely think that what the Acolyte told, was that morality is relative, the heroes of this saga are actually bastards, the fascist death-cult is misunderstood, and a young woman being gaslit into joining said death-cult is a triumphant girlboss moment. When it actually comes across as the tragedy of a broken person choosing the wrong path that will only make her miserable, full of hatred and powerlust, and hurt innocent people along the way. 

The Acolyte betrayed one of George's most critical lessons: that the Dark Side ruins people, and if you want to truly become your best self, you must choose the path of Light, and the Jedi are the ones who have best mastered that path. So if the future of Star Wars is to continue framing the Jedi and their teachings as some corrupt and immoral system that is making the galaxy worse, then I would rather stick to rewatching the classic scripture of Episode 1-6. George wrote a complete and satisfying story, that is thematically consistent, and in my opinion should have been allowed to rest. 

I will not hate on new fans that love the new material, but I will pity them if they really think any of this is actually faithful to George's vision (they may very well simply not care, either, which troubles me too), and I am afraid of a show like Acolyte teaching young people to see the Jedi's philosophy as wrong, and the Sith as having a point. 

(P.S. I have a moral duty to clarify this, given the discourse around the show: No, this is not a problem with 'wokeness,' or diversity, or representation; that side of the fandom is very sick in the head and not to be taken seriously. 

It's a problem with Leslye's themes and tastes as a storyteller, being fundamentally against the ethos of Star Wars and how it soured the entire show in hindsight for me... a show that I was actually really liking, before the finale dropped its thematic nuke.)

[antianakin]

It seems like the height of arrogance to look at a story like Star Wars with some of the most blatantly obvious and evil villains in the history of sci-fi/fantasy and when asked "What went wrong to cause the situation we see in the main story" the answer isn't "the villains were working for years to undermine the heroes from the shadows piece by piece until they were able to topple everything and murder everyone" but, somehow, "the heroes were actually the REAL villains all along because they have a religion they follow and don't immediately believe everything they're told point blank."

[furious-blueberry0]

I really need to understand who, in the fucking seven hells, not only designed this thing and thought it looked good, but also thought that it would have been a gown good enough for the fucking Galactic Senate of the Republic.

It looks so cheap, the symbol of the order looks like one of the patches I have on my backpack, the completely white textureless dress is boring as fuck, the shape of the cloak is atrocious and the material of it looks like an old curtain my grandma had, that was chewed by our dog.

I really don’t get how a serie with 180 million managed to have such cheap quality for literally everything.

Like, where the fuck did those millions go, to the mafia?

Both The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones had a budget of 115 million!!!! Just look at the stunning dresses that they made for those movies:

LOOK AT THE DETAILS!! AT THE TEXTURES!!!! AT THE SHAPES!!!!!! LOOK AT THEM.

And now they wanna make me believe that that thing Vernestra is wearing is supposed to be a Senatorial gown???? They could have at least tried to make the style more Jedi-like but no, they needed too much creativity for that I guess...

[mid-nighttiger]

the entire leslye headland collider interview is a hot mess but this exchange especially is driving out of my mind. in what galaxy are these people living?? in any other work, someone forgiving you even as you kill them would be the ultimate expression of compassion and unconditional love. that is so, so good! it's delicious and heart-wrenching, i love it!

but to these people, it's... taking away the killer's agency?? what??? so now luke skywalker throwing away his lightsaber and telling darth vader that he won't fight him in return of the jedi (1983) is taking away vader's agency? adding insult to injury? and not, i don't know, the other third guy in the shadows making them fight in the first place?

also, IN WHAT UNIVERSE ARE KILLS SUPPOSED TO BE SATISFACTORY. THIS ISN'T A VIDEO GAME!!!

[my-star-war-sblog]

Imma be for real for a moment here, the fandom's and newer Star Wars media's treatment of the Jedi genuinly killed of any interest I had in it. I mean, why should I keep being invested in a media that continuously keeps shitting on my favorite characters and tries to make them worse than they are? What reason do I have to continue interaction with a fandom that's not only toxic as hell but also irrationally hates my favorite characters? And ontop of that keeps harassing anyone who does like them about how "wrong" they are? I used to genuinly enjoy Star Wars, but now? Now it's like this one estranged uncle that used to be cool in your childhood until he fell into some weird politics. All I have left over for the media and his fandom is mild disgust and annoyance. And that sucks! Because I used to really like that stuff. And I'd have loved it if I was able to continue liking it. But with the way it's going right now I really can't.

[starbeltconstellation]

Ahh, and THERE it is… 🙃🙃

I have kept my opinions mostly to myself about The Acolyte, because I wasn’t planning on watching it until seeing where it went with the Jedi. Almost everything in SW media has an element of Jedi criticism (sadly 🙄), so I knew that would be a given with this show, so I was holding off on any total judgment until the end.

One thing I KNEW I would despise and would make me not ever watch it is if they actually made canon that the Jedi brutally murdered an entire coven of witches and COVERED UP A MASSACRE (wtf on that part, because they would NOT cover it up, even if they’d made a mistake). Apparently, it is not as bad as I feared, and they don’t destroy the Jedi Order’s characterization entirely.

But THIS line. 🥶🤢

With THIS line that is apparently written in the newest episode—that’s it. You’ve lost me.

Because THIS line is just straight up genocide apologia.

Ohhh, of course they don’t come outright and SAY, “Loool, those space wizards deserved what they got! 🤪🤪✊”, but the implication is pretty clear, all the same.

From the very beginning, I knew the showrunner of The Acolyte didn’t like the Jedi or their culture, and said that her show “wouldn’t be kind to them.”

And I could’ve lived with just the stupid vagueness of portraying the Jedi as a pompous bureaucracy (because it’s just an infectious opinion that’s spread through most of the fandom), without FULLY condemning The Acolyte and declaring the show a terrible portrayal of the Jedi and their morality and culture, along with the CANON aspects of the Dark Side being a cancer in The Force that does nothing but make people miserable and cause imbalance in The Force.

But with THIS LINE that is SO clearly a wink and a nudge to the SW fans who believe the Jedi ‘deserved what they got’… 🙄🤢… I’m sorry, but they’ve officially lost me. 😬🤷‍♀️

There are things that I’d probably like, if I ever can make myself stomach getting through the show: seeing how different cultures view The Force, seeing more of the Jedi Order/culture/Temple/how they teach their students, the characters Sol and Jecki and Yord and Osha—even seeing Jedi fighting style being so different and more defensive while trying to not use their lightsaber unless necessary, since they are in a time of peace.

But for the most part?

With THIS frankly DISGUSTING line, I can say with absolute certainty that The Acolyte is a show that I would never enjoy, and that is frankly not a welcome addition to the SW universe to me.

I appreciate the diversity inclusion, and I find myself relating to that meme that says something like: “When you hate a show, but then realize the other people that hate it are mostly bigots, 🙃🙃” because—unlike THOSE moronic dudebros—my criticism is for the story itself.

It’s a genuine shame. It’s such an interesting premise, getting to see the Jedi in the High Republic Era. But with this… I now know that The Acolyte is a show not worth my—or ANY OTHER pro Jedi fan’s time. 💔😔🤷‍♀️😬

Only thing I’ll say in defense of it: Mr. Sith (?) IS hot. 🔥❤️‍🔥

And that’s the only other praise I can give. 🤷‍♀️

Loool, sorry for the rant. I’m just so pissed off. 😭🤷‍♀️😂

[infinitepunches]

*watches Sith kill his friend with his bare hands*

"He dropped his saber. The Jedi Code demands that I let him recover and escape."

[short-wooloo]

I really hate that "eventually one of you is going to snap" bit, because it's obviously referring to Anakin while completely misunderstanding the point of Anakin

Anakin did not snap because he was forced to control his emotions (I mean you could say he snapped with the tuskens, but that's him snapping because he stopped trying to control himself), he chose the dark side, that's how it works, the dark side is not some thing you do subconsciously and have no control of and is therefore "not reeeeeaaaaally evil" (as headland so obviously believes), it's a choice, it's evil, it's giving up on being in control and indulging in your baser desires

Really Anakin only snapped AFTER he turned to the dark side, when he lost his shit and started strangling Padme, when he had already betrayed the Jedi/Republic, murdered children, and destroyed democracy

The idea that he snapped just seems like more of that "he wasn't really in control of himself therefore he's not culpable for his actions" crap

[jonathanrogersartist]

It's endlessly frustrating that The Acolyte did a number of things I 'did' want live-action Star Wars media to do: explore a different era, have pretty much all-new characters, give us actually competent lightsaber fights, and even gave me some stuff I didn't know I wanted but actually loved a lot (kung-fu Jedi!). But then it just had to completely kick George Lucas' thematic vision in the balls. Which meant, if I wanted to support a show boasting these other cool new things, I'd have to tolerate this other giant awful part that betrays the core of Star Wars, to me. Do I think it was ultimately a giant step in the wrong direction 'thematically'? Yes. Do I think many of the elements it had were very cool and deserved to be in a story that better respected Star Wars as a whole? Also yes. But now, it being a giant flop and canceled is going to send a huge message to Disney to just do constant empty Clone Wars fan service for another decade. As usual, corporations take the wrong lessons from their failures. "Hmm, diehard fans were fractured by this show being a huge insult to the Jedi and getting Lucas' themes dead-wrong. And the toxic assholes were SO LOUD that it scared away casuals who are tired of constantly seeing these stupid culture war things. But nah, it must 'really' have failed just because it doesn't have storm/clone troopers and Skywalkers and X-Wings."

[antianakin]

The argument that a story from a villain's perspective HAS to show the heroes in a bad light seems like such a small-minded way of looking at things. It is in fact possible to do a story from the point of view of a villain where the good guys are turned into antagonists without making the good guys "the evil institution" or "dogmatic" or being genuinely CRITICAL of the good guys. It is in fact possible to make a story about the bad guys without saying that the whole point of the source material is that the good guys were bad all along.

It just requires a good writer with some creativity and a solid understanding of the themes and messages of the franchise.

[jewishcissiekj]

can I say something. Headland was so caught up in Enemies to Lovers that she forgot to develop anything between the characters. ok that's it.

[mid-nighttiger]

the thing is that i don't think that every story has to be morally upstanding, or that liking 'problematic' stories necessarily reflects on your morals in real life. i personally love tragedies, corruption arcs, evil characters committing evil deeds without a single ounce of regret, things i would be horrified by and always strive to work against in real life

the problem arises when the creator and audience, out of universe, talk about the corruption and evil like they are things to aspire to in real life. the entire point of 'make each other worse and be actual villains together' stories is that it's bad. it's in the word. i enjoy these narratives because they're spectacles to me; i don't want to be them. acting like they're something to want to live and celebrate and not something dark and horrific that's been twisted by an unreliable narrator takes out everything that makes them appealing to me. your 'let's be villains together' message is completely undercut if at every turn you're insisting, 'no actually the jedi were the villains all along and their fall was good and justified'

i don't even think that every story in the star wars universe has to be morally upstanding. i would welcome a well-written story from the perspective of a sith. but headland seems to think that turning to the dark side and being a sith feels good

in the star wars universe, being a sith doesn't feel good. this is established canon through every sith in every continuity. being a sith feels terrible. it's killing your own loved ones and regretting it and stewing in your own despair for twenty years because you're in too deep and this is all that's left for you. it's being abandoned by your own master and suffering in a literal trash heap for a decade. it's brainwashing your own brother who hauls you out because this is the only companionship you know, only for him to be killed by your master and you to be abandoned a second time. it's feeling empty and killing to fill the hole in yourself, but all that does is make you feel emptier and you will never feel satisfied no matter how much you kill, no matter if you kill a whole planet, because killing. doesn't. heal you. it's forcing yourself to stay alive through pain and hatred and anger even as your body is falling apart around you. it's betrayal and backstabbing at every turn. and always, always, always, the consequences of your actions catch up to you

so really this entire series is adding insult to injury to me

[furious-blueberry0]

Personally I think the Acolyte should have been either:

A 20 episode serie (where they could have expanded on the mystery and the characters and their relationship with each other, add more things to the story and make me actually care about what’s going on, show more world building instead of just telling it in dubious dialogues),

Or a movie (cutting off unnecessary or slow scenes, making it more fast paced, actually making me feel the urgency to solve the mystery and get to Mae and Darth teeth before it’s too late).

The 8 episodes format just does not work, it feels flat, and it’s neither engaging or entertaining, the world building is not even that cool, and that’s the whole reason why I even try to watch these new series.

Overall, it’s kinda mediocre…

[corellianhounds]

The thing is, I’m disappointed in how the story in The Acolyte is being told, but because it has a diverse cast, I’m worried Disney executives are going to blame people’s criticisms and dislike of the show on the cast instead of the writing. I don’t want it to be a case of “See? People of color just don’t draw audiences in, it’s not financially beneficial to us to invest in stories with them as the leads”. It’s unfair to place blame on the cast when their presence is not the cause of a story’s failure. It’s clear the actors did what they could with what they were given but what they were given is mediocre and amateur writing and directing at best

[inquisitor-apologist]

Yeah guys, the visual for Sol’s Crystal turning red and the blade slowly changing WAS very cool and done well. But that’s not how you bleed a kyber crystal.

You can’t do it in the heat of the moment. You can’t do it without knowing it.

Kyber crystals are semi-sentient beings. They choose their wielders and they resist being turned to the Dark. In order to force one to the dark side, you need to break it, put it through so much pain and suffering and trauma that even if it’s eventually healed, it will never return to its original color.

It will scream and resist every step of the way. A darksider will be given up to three highly symbolic force visions essentially begging them not to do this extremely fucked up and evil thing, not to torture a living, feeling being for their own power.

In order to do it, you need to know what you’re doing, why you’re doing it, and how you’re going to do it. You have to meditate with it, completely defenseless because you can’t use the blade while you’re bleeding it (would break your concentration) and it’s nowhere near instantaneous.

If they wanted to have a cool moment to show Osha turning to evil, just make her eyes turn yellow, which is honestly a more well-know evil transformation imo (this is the first time we’ve actually seen a Kyber being bled in live action while Anakin’s eyes turning yellow is an iconic shot). Don’t ruin one of the coolest bits of Star Wars lore.