If there’s one thing Star Wars fans will never receive is the end of Star Wars content. The Acolyte is the latest of the Star Wars TV shows and it doesn’t have any connection to any of the previous movies or shows since it takes place 100 years before the events of Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace.
But that’s a good thing, right?
Those who think that would be correct because this way fans can tune in and get their fill of Star Wars content for the week without needing to turn on their brain, which will point out everything in the show that’s connected to the other plots and characters in the Star Wars universe. Fans can solely focus on the weekly episodes, follow the single plot, and enjoy the characters for who they are — not for why this happened years before to make the Jedi Counsel fall. Still, the shows that have been connected can be just as entertaining, possibly more depending on how this show goes.
For hardcore Star Wars fans, this might not be taken so well, since the previous shows connected to the overall franchise, which felt like a plus. Change can be difficult, but not always bad.
Nonetheless entertaining is the word to choose for The Acolyte. Leslye Headland, the creator of the series, hooks viewers immediately with the plot and action. Out of the gate, there is a fight involving a lightsaber, setting up everything else. One thing to note, though, is that the lightsaber wasn’t as bright compared to the movies — it didn’t light up the entire screen in a shade of that specific color. While having the lightsabers be brighter in the movies made some of the scenes aesthetically pleasing, this didn’t harm any of the scenes in The Acolyte.
The fight leaves questions to come up that will hopefully get answered before the show ends. The main two questions are why is Mae (Amandla Stenberg, The Hunger Games) killing only four Jedi, and did the Jedi start the fire to “rescue” Osha (also Amandla Stenberg) and train her as a Jedi?
The fire on Brendok with Osha’s family dying haunts her and is what prevented her from becoming a Jedi. So, with this being such a heavy topic, there must be more to the story than what the show is revealing. Osha makes it abundantly clear Mae started that fire, so that has to be wrong. There could be more to it than a simple fire being started, Osha being rescued by the Jedi who just happened to be there, and Mae then falling in the hands of a possible sith.
Of course, this is all speculation, but maybe not for long. Hopefully, there will be flashbacks on Brendok about what truly happened with the early aftermath of the events to follow.
It seemed like the show tried making it suspenseful that Osha has a twin sister who’s alive and is the person killing Jedi; however, if that was the goal, it is quite predictable. Yet this doesn’t affect the quality of the show, seeing as it’s revealed in the first episode when both twins received significant build up with their plot.
The “evil sister” Mae’s past has more questions that could be revealed in the possible flashbacks, unless the show decides to have one of the characters tell the story. Because Mae has more mystery around her, it makes her more of an interesting character than her sister.
Overall, the pacing of the first two episodes is good; nothing feels rushed or like it’s moving too slowly. And just like most of the Star Wars universe’s content, the CGI so far is as good as it can get. Let’s hope the entire show delivers to be a stand-alone action-packed time.
The Acolyte Premiere Episodes is now streaming on Disney+
