Good day, my Wookiee brothers and sisters! Episode #5 of Star Wars: The Acolyte is TONIGHT so I figured I’d take a few minutes to share my overall review of the first half of the season and offer my (probably wrong) predictions for the 2nd half.
If I’m wrong in my predictions feel free to come at me on social media and let me know.
This is just for fun and I think my predictions would lead to a fantastic finish to a show that, to me, has struggled to find its footing for the most part thus far.
But first… a disclaimer.
IMPORTANT – READ THIS FOR VOID’s SAKE
Before I go any further I want to say a few things about the discourse surrounding The Acolyte and reviews in general.
You shouldn’t give a kark about my opinion Pt. 1 – My opinions are my opinions and only YOU are an expert on what you like and dislike. Whether or not I like something should have no impact on whether or not you do.
Reviews are fun to read but it’s silly to let them impact how YOU personally feel about the show. If you love it… love it. If you don’t… don’t.
You shouldn’t give a kark about my opinion Pt. 2 – At the same time, if you like the show MORE or LESS than I do and get ANGRY at my thoughts to the point of insulting me, then you need to get a life.
It’s ok to like or dislike something. It’s ok to debate points and vocalize that you disagree. But it’s not ok to berate someone else about their opinions. If you wish ill will, harm, or harass anyone because their opinion is different than yours you are a massive loser and need to seek therapy.
- Not every person that likes the show is a shill or a bot
- Not every person who dislikes the show is a bigot or racist
Just be cool. Choose the light side. Feel how you feel but be nice, respectful, and mature. It’s Star Wars. It’s not that important. And that’s coming from a guy who runs a blog about Star Wars.
Ok, with that said, on to the review.
I’ve been rating each episode out of 10 since week one. So far the grades have been:
- 7/10 for episodes 1 and 2 combined
- 6.5/10 for episode 3
- 7.5/10 for episode 4
So overall, that puts me the first half of Star Wars: The Acolyte Season 1 at 7/10 for me. Honestly, I may have been a little too high on episodes 1 & 2 when I rated it.
Ultimately though, that score will be changed dramatically based on how the 2nd half of the season goes. There are some great threads throughout the show story but they need to pay off or the show won’t be a success in my opinion. There are also some things I really didn’t like that may make sense by the end of the show. So this review is subject to change based on how well the show follows through.
Also, I’m going into this thing with the assumption that you’ve watched the show and know what it’s about. I won’t be doing a “The Acolyte is an 8-episode show on DisneyPlus by Leslye Headlead that delves us into the world of the dark…” kind of summary. Mainly because I don’t want to. 🙂
Instead of going episode by episode, I want to talk about the first half as a whole and discuss the elements that I liked/disliked.
To start, let’s talk about the negatives for me.
Star Wars: The Acolyte Episodes 1-4 Criticisms
Dialogue – My biggest issue with the show so far has been the dialogue. I thought it was much better in episode 4 but was ROUGH in the first 3. In particular, episode 3 was pretty bad for me. Many of the lines felt like placeholder lines that were intended to be revisited down the road. Exposition and dialogue take shows from entertaining enough to watch to brilliant in a way that action and effects can not. I don’t expect Andor levels of dialogue, but I would like more depth than what we’ve got so far.
Also I feel like the force is not talked enough by the Jedi or team Dark side. It’s almost never brought up. In the High Republic books and the prequels (the era where the Jedi order existed) the force is talked about constantly.
Master Sol – I feel like I’m the minority here but I have not liked how emotional Master Sol has been when talking to-and-about Osha and Mae. In contrast to someone like Qui-Gon (who is always stoic and focused), Sol sometimes looks and sounds like he’s going to cry.
I promise this isn’t coming from a place of hate, I like the actor, I just think Sol should be more poised. Now, if this is intentional and there is a payoff for it down the road then I’ll shut my dumb mouth.
Mae and Osha (children) – I don’t like that they used non-identical actresses considering one of the main points of episodes 1 & 2 was that they looked pretty much indistinguishable. Unless this was intentional. I would have also focused less on the child actresses in this episode to give the adults more play. Adults can give more dynamic performances than children (typically) can and it would have given you room to build up the lore about the witches more. We really only got to know the two mothers.
Cinematography – This one is weird. Some shots look incredible and then others right next to them look cheap and CW-ish. Not sure how to explain but it’s how I feel.
Star Wars: The Acolyte Episodes 1-4 Positives
Choreography – I think the fights have been fantastic. I like that it’s been a different style than we’ve seen in the Prequels, OT, and Sequels. The “force-fu” is landing with me.
Story Outline – I have no issues so far with the big-picture story. I like the core motivations of the characters. My issues have been mostly around the execution being inconsistent so far. Especially with that budget. But overall I’m on board with the plot points.
Cinematography – Same as above in the negatives section. Some shots look amazing to me but others do not. But the ones that wok, REALLY work for me. I’ve really liked the forest and the street scenes on Olega.
Mystery? – Not sure what word to use but I do like that it seems like we’re not being told a direct story. We’re getting the story in chunks. I think some of the issues in the plot at the moment are there intentionally. Like how the fire “killed” the witches even though they weren’t really anywhere near it OR on burned. Or why Torbin was willing to kill himself for Mae. We’re getting select scenes that make you feel a certain way but we’ll get clarity soon on what is really going on. It’s got elements from Russian Doll. I don’t know if they’ve nailed all of this but I do like that they’re trying to be creative.
Star Wars: The Acolyte 2nd Half Predictions
I put my predictions on social media the other day but I’ll add some context here. Here’s what I put on Instagram.
Here’s what I think – want – hope is going to go down.
Every New Jedi Will Die
“They ded.” I don’t think a single Jedi who entered that forest will make it out alive. As much as I love Wookiees, I was fine with the way they killed off Kelnacca. Qimir hyped him up as Mae’s biggest challenge. He’s big, strong, and powerful. The way they killed him, and his descriptions before, tell me they wanted to let the audience know how powerful Smilo Ren is. He was able to kill Kelnacca without a struggle. This is setting up the deaths of the other Jedi. Yes, that means Sol, Jecki, Yord, and the gang of unnamed Jedi cannon fodder are goners.
The unamed Jedi will probably all die in episode 5 while the named characters get picked off in a more emotional fashion between episodes 6 and 8.
Ki-Adi-Mundi getting a cameo but not being included in the mission was a slight nod to this. They are aware Ki-Ad-Mundi’s “sith have been extinct for a millennia” line from The Phantom Menace. They also acknowledged in his scene in the Acolyte that they have no idea who’s behind Mae’s attacks. Their one theory was that it was a splinter cell of corrupted Jedi.
The Jedi will all die and no word of that red lightsaber will reach the temple halls on Coruscant.
Osha And Mae Will Die As Well
All signs point to Mae wanting to reconnect with her sister. The presence of her master will complicate that. They will eventually be reconnected and try to fight the Sith… but will fail.
Smilo Ren aka Darth Teeth Wins
I’m on the fence about whether or not Qimir is the Sith we saw in episode 4. The show has given us every reason to think he is though. Why is he serving Mae’s master? Why is he a part of this at all? If he’s not the master how is he tracking Jedi like Kelnacca? Why is he reciting Sith code lines? Where did he go right before Mae found Kelnacca dead?? So, it could be him, but I’m thinking he may be a red herring.
Regardless, that Sith, the one with the big smile on their helmet, will hunt down every Jedi in that forest and take them out one-by-one. People will say that Disney won’t have the teeth to do it. But I disagree.
Vernestra Will Investigate
At some point Vernestra will try to contact the Jedi on Khofar. But they don’t answer. Or they answer and it’s muffled or cutting out. So she’ll leave to go investigate on her own. She’ll use her lightwhip on the big bug things that Sol killed in episode 4. She’ll find nothing else for the most part. No bodies. Just some lightsaber burns on trees that could have easily been the Jedi taking out the bugs or other creatures.
She may find a small clue that makes her suspect something sinister went down but won’t be able to convince the council. This has already been set up by mentioning how dangerous and difficult to navigate the forest is.
The Sith Master is Revealed
Smilo (Qimir or otherwise) will be the apprentice of this story. Their motivations with Mae is to recruit her as an Acolyte (i.e. intern) to test her abilities before taking her on as a full apprentice. All with the hope overthrowing his master. I think we’ll learn this in the finale after the battle is done. The master learns that Smilo revealed themselves to the Jedi.
My hope is that this is either Tenebrous or Plagueis. I’d like Tenebrous more though.
Master Kills Apprentice
Even though Osha and Mae are dead, Smilo thinks their master will be proud of them. But instead of a pat on the back they get killed for being reckless. Exposing yourself to the Jedi could have ruined the entire Sith revenge agenda that’s been progressing slowly since Bane was struck down. There’s no fight. There’s no choreography. Just an execution and a display raw power.
The Sith Knew About The Witches of Brendok
I believe the Sith either worked with the Witches to make Mae and Osha using a combination of Sith force abilities and dark magic OR they were aware of what happened and were trying to use them to replicate the process for their own use. But nothing worked. Mae and Osha were either an anomaly or a lie.
But this information eventually makes it to Plagueis in the future and is the cause of his obsession with creating life and immortality with the Force.
A Few Odds and Ends
Here are a few other predictions/observations that didn’t really fit into the main points above.
- The same director who did episode 3 is the director on episode 7. That will be another flashback episode to tell us the rest of the Brendok coven incident with the Jedi and Witches.
- Mother Aniseya thinks the Jedi started the fire and attacks the Jedi (who see the fire and run up to help) with a hypnotized Kelnacca. We see Kelnacca fighting both Torbin and Sol in the trailers and Torbin has a big scar on his face after the Brendok disaster.
- Aniseya’s baby momma and main squueze, Mother Koril, sees the Jedi kill Aniseya to stop Kelnacca from killing them and goes into a rage. She tries to rally the witches but, as we’ve heard them say in ep 3, they’re scared an refuse to fight. So Aniseya uses some force power to blow up the reactor on the bottom level. Killing them for being their unwillingness to help her avenge her fallen wife and protect her two children.
- With nearly everyone dead season two will feature the new Sith Master, Qimir (if he’s not Smilo), and maybe a young Plagueis playing out the events that lead up to the Plagueis novel.
That’s it. That’s all I have. I’m probably at least wrong on some of this but I do think it would be a fantastic ending that would explain a lot of the behavior so far in the first half of the season.
The way a show starts is way less important than how it finishes in my opinion.
For light and life,
Grand Admiral Frik
