#we don't really know much about kelnacca or the other members of the coven so idk what to say about them

[thylacinetears]

I'm still deciding how I feel about The Acolyte ep7, but I think I overall liked it. It's interesting seeing everyone's different interpretations on it. But I'm getting pretty annoyed by people who are like "X did nothing wrong, Y was totally at fault!". Because here's my hot take:

Every single main character in The Acolyte ep7 had good intentions, but made bad decisions that contributed to the tragedy. Every. Single. One. And that is the point of the whole episode.

Starting with the Jedi - Indara is one of the most level-headed characters in the episode. She consistently demonstrated the best values, and tried to defuse the situation whenever possible. But she underestimated Torbin's pain, and clearly did not do enough to make sure her own padawan was okay - leaving a vulnerable spot for Aniseya to exploit. And she should have done more to find out about the coven besides "ask a little kid some leading questions"I also think that her continued insistence on waiting to contact the Council was more of a weakness than a strength - because no good decisions could be made, until it was too late and the situation was dire.

For the most part, Sol really was just motivated by trying to ensure the twins' safety. When he looked at the coven, he saw a dangerous cult - and in a lot of ways, he's right. (As shitty as the Jedi are, at least padawans get other kids to interact with, and get taught other things than just fighting.) But he let his emotional attachment to Osha cloud his judgement, which was the source of many problems. And he was often reckless, especially when talking/testing Osha, and he probably should have tried some other way to deal with Aniseya rather than just stabbing her.

Torbin was thrust into a difficult situation, that his master clearly did not properly prepare him for. That allowed him to be manipulated by a Force user far more powerful than him. All the same, the final confrontation would not have happened if he hadn't run off. It's okay to be inexperienced, but it's not okay to decide that you know better than all the experienced people. (Though evidently they made terrible decisions too).

Mother Aniseya obviously wanted to look out for her kids and her community. Despite her people's history of discrimination, she was willing to let Osha follow her dream, even if it meant she'd never see Osha again. But she harmed Torbin - intentionally targeting the weakest (and least responsible) member of the group. She essentially threw the first punch, and if she hadn't done that, the Jedi wouldn't have been so concerned. Not only that, but her choices in the final confrontation were very much a mistake. It was a tense situation, Sol and Torbin had about 20 archers with deadly weapons pointed right at them, and she decided the best way to defuse the situation was to use dark magic on/with a tearful Mae. There's no way it could have been interpreted as anything other than a deadly threat.

Koril... is probably the least sympathetic character in the episode, but she also was generally motivated by protecting the twins and her community. She decided that the best way to ensure their safety was to teach them defense, which isn't a bad thing in itself. But she was way, WAY too hard on them, which is what concerned Sol in the first place. Not only that, she encouraged Mae's temper, unhealthy attachments, and paranoia, which is what led Mae to start the fire.

And, whilst they can't really be responsible because they were just children, Osha and Mae contributed as well. Osha should have been able to follow her dreams, and in some ways she seemed to be a bit of the unfavourite in her family. But she knew, to some extent, that revealing herself to the Jedi would endanger her family, and that decision caused the rest of the events. Meanwhile, Mae just wanted her family to be together. But she was possessive and unhealthy about it (encouraged by Koril), which of course led to her starting the fire.

It's a perfect storm, a tragedy that seems avoidable to the viewer, but was inescapable to the characters. So it's definitely annoying me when people reduce that to just "Jedi bad" or "Jedi good"!

[bereft-of-frogs]

I kind of just want to ramble about the spell scene because I really liked the spell scene

it was pretty spooky. I dug it.

I was really curious how they were going to cover that whole confrontation, considering it's fairly long and we'd seen all the dialogue before, but having Torbin fading in and out was both a great way to cover the runtime and added to the creepy factor.

It's also interesting we don't actually see his perspective on the spell itself: this seems to just all be the lead-up, the way Aniseya gets past his defenses. It cuts out of his perspective once she fully takes over and I wonder what the actual spell felt like. It doesn't look particularly comfortable, but also maybe it was just like skipping forward in time, like missing a beat.

I am so happy they stuck with Torbin's big secret desire Aniseya was exploiting being...literally to just go home. For like a split second I was afraid they were going to imply there was like a secret lover back on Coruscant or take it in a different direction (especially after uh, stuff last week...), but nope, kid was just really homesick. (Confirmed in the Nerdist interview, literally no other implications other than a kid being like 'I want out of this situation, I want to go back to Coruscant' welcome back Reath Silas.)

I could probably break down a whole bunch of how Aniseya wore him down, from picking information about his past out of his mind, stoking his fear and feeling of being trapped ('do you want to escape this planet'), to being forced to submit by asking her, inviting her in...argh there's so much.

Also for a bit I was like, Aniseya, you made a bit of a tactical error with this move. And I still think that it was technically a mistake but I also completely get why she did it and why she thought it would work.

First off, the mistake aspect: I mean right off the bat, it is a violation and an escalation and that's not a great opening move. Seeing Torbin's perspective makes it clear Aniseya starts working on him pretty much as soon as they enter. Before anyone actually gets to say anything, she's identified the youngest, weakest member of their party and started invading his mind so she can use him as leverage against them. Not great. Like I get she's feeling justifiably defensive, but she's already got a while bunch of armed guards that pretty dramatically outnumber the Jedi, maybe a bit of overkill to essentially take a padawan as a psychic hostage to manipulate his master.

It also tips her hand and shows off her power really early. You'd think she'd want to keep that in reserve, to prevent them from finding ways to counter it. Because I think that's probably exactly what happens. I'm straying slightly into the realm of 'headcanon' but I do think it's a fair logical leap to make that Indara, as his teacher, was the one to help Torbin 'fortify his mind' after, which does a couple things: 1) Aniseya has fewer people she can target with this spell, now that her primary target has specifically worked on blocking her out, and 2) this might have given Indara insight into the nature of the spell. Insight which she could then used to free Kelnacca and inadvertently kill the entire coven (also confirmed by the same interview, Indara did not intentionally kill them, she just chose to act without knowing what the consequences would be). But I think she just underestimated Indara (honestly not unlike the audience, we've been giving Sol credit for his telepathic prowess, when it was her this whole time) and possibly didn't think the Jedi would figure out her spell and how to counter it so quickly.

But I also totally get why Aniseya did this and why she thought it would work and that fits into the conflict between what each side thought was going on. The coven does not realize the Jedi are essentially concerned about the girls' safety and doing a welfare check. They think the Jedi are here for recruitment. So I could see how she might believe that a strong initial show of power would get them to back down. It's a very defensive maneuver, showing the Jedi that the girls have a strong family protecting them and it's not worth the risk to push harder...and might have worked...

...if the Jedi hadn't had a completely different idea of what was going on. Instead of chasing them off, it makes Sol double down on his idea that the girls are in danger and the aggressive opening move starts to sow doubt in what could have been Aniseya's ally.

(There really is a better version of this timeline where Indara puts her foot down on going in alone and diffuses the situation. Her going in by herself would have looked less threatening and had less weak spots, she probably wouldn't have fallen to Aniseya's spell so quickly, maybe they could have talked it out.)

But Aniseya has no way of knowing the conflict between Sol and Indara, and this direct, immediate threat to the youngest and most vulnerable member of their group would actually make them more convinced the girls were in danger. Instead of making them back off, it makes them feel like they can't back off without leaving the girls in a dangerous situation.

...and Aniseya doesn't know Indara had been defending the coven's right to be left alone, and that what she does to Torbin would make Indara doubt her convictions. The whole testing scene she's clearly starting to be like 'ok this maybe isn't great...' but she's clearly trying to stay fair, and there's this moment while Sol is talking to Osha, when she glances over at Torbin with this look on her face. There are probably multiple interpretations of this small, wordless exchange, but I took it to be like the deepest point of her doubt. She still follows the Council, but this does seem to be the point at which she stops trying to give them the benefit of the doubt while Sol gets more and more riled up about the girls' safety. (Will have to confirm on rewatch but I think up until that moment, she's still countering Sol's arguments with specific defenses of the coven, and then after that she just falls back to 'the Council said no'. This also might have contributed to her own willingness to use what turned out to be deadly force, or at least not care so much about the consequences.)

So yeah I think it was technically a tactical error, but it's an understandable one that fits into the theme of differing perspectives on the same event. IF what Aniseya thought was going on was really going on (the Jedi drifting by looking for recruits) it might have worked to get them to back off. But it was a mistake in light of how the Jedi had interpreted what they saw.

Anyway, I'm sorry so little of this conversation about the spell has been about Kelnacca, given he's really the biggest victim of it. It's just hard to analyze a character the audience can't understand. It is sad he looks so guilty in the final scene. Poor guy. Also really nothing in this contradicted my little theory/headcanon that Kelnacca and Torbin are generally more fucked up by the experience because of the mind invasion thing. (Especially if we consider....Koril possibly surviving........maybe the spell isn't quite so broken....) (ok now we've really gone off a theory deep end XD )

tldr: I liked how spooky and in-character the spell scene was, I would have liked to get more about what the actual moment of the spell felt like, and potentially its aftereffects but........might have to cover that myself *opens word document*

(just kidding....I use scrivener and I've been working on fic with the tentative hope I was not abysmally wrong on characterization for weeks.)