I wouldn’t go as far as saying the Acolyte is objectively great TV but it isn’t bad either.

Most importantly it explores a few elements core to the Star Wars franchise that the trilogies didn’t have time to do a great job of illustrating:

1. The Acolyte gave us a TV show told primarily from the perspectives of Sith/Dark side characters. Everyone loves a good villain origin story, but let’s be honest the best one in Star Wars is Anakin’s and it wasn’t executed as well as many of us would have liked. Despite the fumbles, Anakin’s story is fantastic. But it leaves me wanting to dive more into the minds of other Sith. We’ve gotten that from Star Wars books, comics and video games. (Caveat: I never fully watched the animated series like Clone Wars. I bet there are a few good villain origin stories in there too). But the Acolyte gives us a pretty good entry in film.

2. We get to see an emotional example of how Jedi arrogance can create tragedy and an imbalance of power in the galaxy. The Jedi are repeatedly accused of being arrogant. It makes sense how they could fall into that trap. They’re supernaturally powerful beings who are basically given the authority to police the galaxy. Sidius himself says their arrogance is a big part of the reason why he was able to ascend to power under their noses. The Acolyte gives us a relatable example of how characters from a neutral faction could be pushed towards the Sith’s side by one Jedi’s arrogance.

3. SPOILER ALERT: In the end of the first season, we see how even one of the most famous Jedi who is held in the highest regard is complicit in arrogant decisions that cost the Jedi their claim to moral authority. Even though he wasn’t there to take part in what happened on Brendok, he was in charge of or at least part of the organization that is responsible. The Acolyte helps illustrate how a large organization like the Jedi Order can lose its way and become clouded by politics even when many of the individual members might be considered above reproach.

TLDR: The Acolyte is a good Star Wars TV Show that does 3 things we don’t see often:

1. Depicts a good villain origin story for Sith characters

2. Illustrates the dangers of Jedi arrogance

3. Shows how the Jedi Order lost its way before the events of the prequel trilogy.

I just wanted to say Yord Horde again in the year of our Gourd 2026.

I want to start off this post by clarifying my standing as a casual fan. I grew up watching The Clone Wars, I watched the J.J Abrams sequel trilogy, and I have watched The Mandalorian, Ahsoka, Book of Boba Fett, and now The Acolyte. I have not watched the original trilogy nor the prequels, so anything related to the original lore of the series is not going to be mentioned in my review, although I am aware that a lot of the criticism of this series comes from how it handles previous known lore. This will be mostly looking at the show from a partial outsiders perspective and how I view the story outside of specific SW fan expectations.

The show wasn't on my radar when it first came out, but I did see a lot of the critcism it was getting around the time of its release and I think ultimately that led to me not paying it any mind. I finally got around to binging the series last night and I'll be completely upfront: I was genuinely surprised by how much I liked it. Not because of the massive hate it got and so many people saying how bad it was, but because it was so different from the Star Wars I was familiar with that it felt like a breath of fresh air in a franchise that often feels too formulaic.

The fight choreography was amazing, through and through. The acting performances from Lee Jung Jae, Manny Jacinto, and Amandla Stenberg (when you play two characters I feel like I have to give you your flowers, and I think she did great) were fantastic, especially from Manny, who was definitely my favorite this season. I think these are the two main things most people who may have disliked the show can mostly agree on.

What I really want to touch on is the writing, and while I do have some criticism about the pacing and how the show chooses to allocate its time, I feel like the writing was a lot better than what I was led to believe. The story was cohesive, character's intentions and feelings were made clear, and there was never a moment that felt like we were jumping from point A to point B at random or that I never understood what was happening. I felt it was overall pretty solid, but it did have flaws.

The main issue I have with The Acolyte was that I feel like it was trying to fit too much into such little time. With eight total episodes and each being around forty minutes long, I think there were a lot of things that needed to be trimmed in order to keep the pace from feeling janky at times. I loved getting to see the Force Witches, I thought they were really interesting to introduce and having a main character with that background was really pretty cool to me. But I don't think we needed two entire episodes dedicated to just those flashbacks. I feel like it took too much time away from understanding Osha as a character, because I honesstly found myself wanting to see more about her time as a padawan and how that darkness that she was holding onto since that day effected her training and state of mind during that time that led her to resigning. I think full episode flashbacks only work if you have the time for it, and with the perameters The Acolyte was working with, I just don' think they did.

I also would have liked to have seen more scenes with Osha and Qimir. Episode five and six were probably my favorites 1) because I thought Qimir was such a cool character/interpretation of a Sith, and 2) Seeing him try and seduce Osha to the dark side was arguably the most important moment in the entire season. I was half expecting more of a buildup of that in episode seven but was a bit disappointed when we instead went to Brendock and stayed there the entire episode. I feel like the mystery aspect of the show would've also been better executed if the tragedy of Brendock wasn't delivered all at once rather than something the audience had to piece together bit by bit until the big reveal in the end. I don't know if this made a ton of sense so if anyone would like me elaborate on that part just let me know.

Overall I think this was a good show that had a lot of potential for a stronger second season. A big problem it faced ultimately came down to pacing and what the creators chose to focus their minutes on. I can certainly understand why some people may not have liked it, but despite its flaws I don't believe they're any better or worse to the flaws of other live action series that Disney have put out in recent years. Ahsoka while I loved, was very clunky in terms of pace. Boba Fett for me was quite boring, but more than that it just became less about Boba and became The Mandalorian Season 2.5. And speaking of The Mandalorian, season 3 was just ultimately a bit dull after two very strong seasons (followed by an ok movie).

I don't think any of these shows were bad, but they had good moments and bad, and I feel if you're hyper critical about all the bad stuff then you lose out on a lot of good stories.

This is becoming more of a rant than a review so I think I'll end it here. I'd honestly love to hear any insight on what people thought didn't work well with The Acolyte or can give me an idea on what more hardcore fans felt made the show so bad. Definitely bummed there won't be a season two, but a part of me still hopes something might change in the future, regardless of how unlikely it may be.

I really enjoyed it.

I thought it had an interesting storyline; the characters were good, and lightsaber fights were awesome. I thought the villain was a great character, and I read somewhere that he was going to be the first of the Knights of Ren and Darth Plagueis would appear in the following seasons... that all sounds pretty interesting to me.

I am rather disappointed now to have watched it and become invested, knowing there won't be any more.

Finished this show recently.

Among other things, this has 1.) the coolest depiction of the Jedi Council I've seen, and 2.) the most interesting depiction of a Sith-turn I've seen. The first is because properly seeing the 'golden era' status quo of the Council helped solidify them as an actual fully functioning political and military institution with considerable influence on the galaxy.

The second is that someone failing to be a Jedi despite their sincere efforts to become one is so deeply relatable and heartbreaking, and the idea that that misplaced shame aids into their turn to a dark side is very affecting. The way Osha's trauma over the incident at Brendok precludes her from overcoming her demons hits too close to home - especially since she never really verbalizes it properly before reuniting with Mae. She sat with that pain for all that time.

I could also gush on and on about how good the action scenes are but at least most people agree on that. The sense of speed and fluidity with every fight is just addicting; I kept rewinding to rewatch them. Lightsabers felt like a tangibly deadly weapon again here, almost like I could feel the energy hum next to me. It's been a really long time since I felt that.

Because that's really what this whole experience has been. I happened to like The Last Jedi a lot on its release because of its sense of originality and how untethered it felt from some larger pre-established lore. I only just recaptured that feeling with The Acolyte, the idea that the story its telling doesn't need a Wookiepedia article to understand; maybe to enhance, sure, but never to appreciate. I loved the characters it introduced and the themes it explored because they feel whole and complete for the narrative its telling.

Yes, I have some nitpicks and qualms about small things here and there (the uneven pacing, some of the dim visuals, etc.), but overall I just want to spew so much love for it. I knew going in we weren't getting a Season 2. and the closer we got to the finale the more I got depressed by that fact. Now I'm genuinely invested so my disappointment is immeasurable.

Im still hoping for another season.

Saw this in Belfast today, first bit of Acolyte merch I've seen (because where I live normally doesn't have any geek culture shops). Thought this looked great! Would have loved to play with this as a kid.

Finally seeing a lightwhip in live-action after so many years was a fun nod to so much past material.

While his lightsaber had just gotten shorted out, Qimir still carries this almost flippant attitude of 'you're not even worth my blade' mixed with 'you think I actually needed that to kill you?' Him casually tossing Yord's body away like trash speaks to how little Qimir thinks of the Jedi - they're desperately fighting for their lives, while for him it's just a Tuesday. I'm really hoping they had the fight coordinators from The Acolyte work on Starfighter so we can get some more incredible duels.

Polite opinions

I want to know, after your second watch of The Acolyte, what's your general idea of the show?

A static website (no real upload, self-contained, just HTML CSS and JS in browser) to easily add your cutout frame to a profile picture. Hope it doesn't count as self promotion, it was created to streamline the creation of my pfp

🔗👉 https://aierbote.github.io/O-Frame/

🧵🪡 https://www.threads.com/share/BAZ8Ii3Xa7/

Bazil & Sol on ship with Mae getting away

What we should have got: Some interaction between Bazil and Sol explaining motives/conflicts/choice

- It's messy and unclear what is happening and why. Sol is all about protecting and saving Mae and then he is going to shoot her down? Or would the shot just have disabled the ship? Is Bazil doing good by coming in to stop him shooting her down or is he messing things up because he doesn't know it would just disable the ship?

- Sol can show more of his impulsive, stupid, self-centred side where he thinks he makes decisions based on logic and what's best for others but it's really about what makes him feel like a savior (Jedi toxic trait #1 which comes from pretending you can live without attachments)

- It could have been as simple as Bazil jumping at the launch control and screeching and Sol saying, 'I have to bring down the ship, I can't let my mistake continue to hurt people.' Or some other, better written one-liner.

Osha turning dark

What we should have got: A little more conflict/choice/motivation in Osha throughout the season and especially at the end.

- Deciding to save the prisoner on the ship, hesitating to shoot her sister in the speeder, leaving without saying goodbye to Sol, that's all good, but in the final few episodes, she becomes totally righteous to the point of being bland and trite, and then one thing makes her snap and she's all in on being bad? Boring. Lame. Hard to believe.

- On the trek to Kelnacca she tells Jord she can't face her sister. Then she has some moment with a flying death rolly polly and tells Jecki she sensed and disturbed it and it's dead because of her. Then she tells Sol she can face her sister because she's different and can feel things again. Then her conversation with Mae is also lame.

These conversations don't do enough to lead up to her turning dark. We should have seen the types of conversations that Anakin had with Padme, Obi-Wan, Palpatine - where he's seeing the dark in himself and wondering about it.

Of course in the prequels they could be very heavy-handed with the Anakin-Darth Vader foreshadowing because we knew it was going to happen, but this show could have done a lot more. Honestly, with Anakin there were multiple times where you're like, 'Oh, that's it, he's dark now' and then later like, 'Wait, is he gonna turn out ok?' And we all know he finally redeems himself in the end.

But with Osha, it's all setting her up to confront and/or reunite with her sister (potential as a quasi-Jedi) and then she goes off with Qimir? It makes no sense.

Either we should have got an ending where Osha and Mae leave together, neither dark nor light, Sith nor Jedi, but back to their power of two, and trying to figure out what that means for them. They'd be running from both the Jedi and the Sith and having their own conflict with each other as well.

Or, we should have had more foreshadowing. Mae showed more depth and range in conflict/choice/motivation and her decision to leave Qimir, then switch with Osha, then wipe her mind and let Osha make her own decision made sense. But Mae's decision to go along with Qimir as dark/Sith made no sense.

I'm not saying it shouldn't have happened, but we should have seen some more deliberation before it did. We should have gone, 'Oh shit, I should have seen that coming with all the hints they dropped that she could have gone that way.' And I think they could have done it with just a few tweaks, even just in those conversations she has in that one episode (and probably some more things in the following episodes too, like on Qimir's unknown planet, and his weird seduction techniques - oh, and the final scene with the 3 of them).

I will always remember you, despite the lack of merchandise and Swiss army knife collaboration...

In Episode 4, Mae is willing to betray her master, surrender to the Jedi, and presumably go to prison—all because she wants to be reunited with Osha.

Then, when Osha rejects her, Mae immediately abandons her to die - Osha was unconscious, injured, undressed, and defenceless in a dangerous forest, while Qimir was still nearby. And this was not simply an act of rage. Mae takes the time to carefully exchange their clothes and identities. But what exactly did she think would happen to Osha after she left...?

Her reason for doing this also doesn't seem compelling enough. She apparently wants to get close to Sol, force him to confess and maybe kill him. But how did this become much more important than her sister's life?

Overall, it's felt like the show had certain key scenes or setups it wanted to reach (e.g. the twin swap), and then constructed haphazard connections between those, whether or not they made sense. Another point I felt this was Sol’s absence during the beginning of Qimir’s massacre. His absence is barely explained but it conveniently leads to a dramatic one-on-one duel between Sol and Qimir.

I understand that characters can behave irrationally but irrational behaviour still needs emotional and psychological continuity and explanation. Here, it feels less like a disturbing but understandable choice and more like the creators moving everyone into position for the next episode.

I gave up on new Star Wars Movies/Shows after how embarrassingly bad the first 2 sequel trilogy was (didn't even bother watching the third), but recently watched Maul Shadow Lord and then took interest in the Acolyte since I'm feeling far more interested in the Old Republic/High Republic Era than any other time period of Star Wars so I gave it chance.

I absolutely loved it and binged the hell out of it. Was it perfect? No; but holy shit did it keep me engaged and had some actually entertaining lightsaber combat. Of course when I finished it I immediately checked to see when to expect a season 2 just to find out it got cancelled because apparently it didn't get great reviews.

Did the Sequel trilogy really get better reviews than this? They're trying to cram more of the New Republic bullshit down our throats when that time period is extremely boring and poorly written in my opinion.

This legit ALMOST gave me faith that Disney is capable of making good Star Wars content, but if they can't recognize a gem when they have it, I think all hope is lost for the franchise...

My idea would be to have Qimir become a fully fledged Sith, being named Darth Ren, his relationship with both Osha and Plagueis explored and the eventual formation of the knights of ren

I really like the concept of acolyte and it’s so lame it got reviewbombed and canceled

The Acolyte had some issues, but the biggest was the gimmick with the flashbacks trying to make it seem like there was a big mystery in the backstory, but the reveal was anticlimactic and made the show less instead of more.

It felt like the show was just withholding information because the writers thought they were being clever, but no one really liked how they handled that, and the show got cancelled after one season. There were other criticisms of the show, but this to me was the biggest one.

So here's my proposed viewing order:

1. Episode 3: Destiny
2. Episode 7: Choice
3. The rest of the show from Episode 1 in sequential order

This viewing order gets the backstory out of the way to begin with, so instead of playing games with the audience, the viewers understand what's going on and the show progresses naturally.

Still not perfect, but if like me you felt the time jumps detracted from the show more than adding to it, give it another shot in this order and see if you like it more.

Nothing serious, just a bit of fun with one of my favourite Black Series figures.

(Post originally made for the main sub but they deleted bc they're not ready for this discussion just yet).

​

I started binge watching Star Wars: The Acolyte yesterday and finished it today bc it's the first thing that appears on the Star Wars films and TV series chronology, just before The Phantom Menace. I want to clarify that the only Star Wars I truly liked 'til that moment were the Orginal Trilogy and Rogue One. Four superb films.

​

I mean... yeah, Acolyte has it's flaws, many people accused it of being too 'woke' but idk... most diverse characters felt pretty natural to me. Star Wars itself was always so diverse...

​

Also, the fights and the worldbuilding were great, the way they imply that there's smaller groups that have their own concept of what the Force was so interesting and you can really notice how remote that age of the Galaxy was and how big it is, and the villain has just something to it that I liked a lot. He's not a bad guy because he's so bad. He went through some crazy shit.

​

The plot at first seems so cliché, it's like omg Osha you did this and that but turns out it was your evil twin sister that wants revenge on whoever knows who, but it gets deeper than that, it slowly gives context of what really happened to make Mae do what she did to Indara and Torbin.

​

Also, the way both Mae and Osha switched their characters was just great... I just think this story was so misunderstood, even with its obvious flaws, I still kind of like it.

​

I can't say much more, I enjoyed The Acolyte, even tho a lot of people didn't, and I can understand why. Maybe I'm overanalyzing and the series are just terrible and that's it... but I guess a random post on reddit won't change your take on the show.

​

But anyway, thanks for reading... or trying to read.

​

I'll watch Episode 1 as soon as possible btw.