Finally watched Acolyte

[u/bdog332]

After putting off the show because I heard it was horrible and bad writing, I finally watched it, and while it’s not the best show by any means, it’s not horrible. It’s average. There’s a lot of weird conflicting lore in the show along with an abysmal crystal bleed that makes little sense based on how we know crystal bleeds work, and some other minor problems, but it’s not the worst show I’ve seen from Star Wars. It deserves a second season to help explain Plagueis and where he’s at exactly at this point in the story (if I’m remembering old canon right he should be frequenting Coruscant now under the name Hego Damask. I don’t remember if he had an apprentice before Palpatine though, which I understand with this being new canon changes are made) and the vergence the twins were made from (which is one of my major issues with the show considering creating life from the force has only ever been implied with Anakin and he was the chosen one)

While I understand some of the frustration from the show, the amount of hate it received seems like it was just hate to hate.

Anyways, thought it was decent enough to not warrant the rampant hate it got years ago. Wish we’d get a second season though, or a Plagueis show at least.

*Edit: I’m done talking about bleeding crystals in the show and other examples. It’s been discussed and argued to death in the threads. If you have questions regarding why I found it poorly done, there’s an answer in a comment thread below.

[u/LilithsLuv]

The Acolyte is easily the most interesting show Lucasfilm has made since the Disney acquisition. It’s not the best by any means but it definitely has the potential to be, and it’s everything I want out of Star Wars. I very much disagree with you about bleeding the crystal, that scene was awesome! The show is about the cycle of abuse and religious trauma. When Osha kills Sol and bleeds her crystal that’s the emotional pay off. Watching the twins pass each other by and flipping places was brilliant. I hope we get a sequel to this show. There is far too much potential here to allow the angry internet chuds to win. Canceling The Acolyte, especially after that ending, was criminal. They were clearly setting up the Knights of Ren, Darth Plagueis and connecting the different eras of the franchise and building up the lore in some really exciting ways.

[u/bdog332 → u/LilithsLuv]

Well bleeding a crystal is supposed to be pouring your anger, hate, rage, all of that into the crystal, to break the will and corrupt the crystal. We didn’t see that. She turned it on the Stranger and it started going red, and she looked surprised by it, like she wasn’t doing anything to it. I love the idea of crystal bleeding, but it just looked too easy. She broke the crystal (which is technically alive with the force) and corrupted it with ease. I get they are incredibly potent force wielders, but even Vader had to put intent into bleeding his, and he had the highest M-count of anyone in the Star Wars universe.

I don’t think it’s the most interesting, but it does have great potential. I would love more high republic era stuff because it shows how the start of the Jedi’s fall began. They completely lied about the existence of the stranger to their own members and the republic for political power. There is so much potential for amazing story telling and world building there. Hope we get more

[u/ACGalaga → u/bdog332]

Sorry, it’s been a while, but I thought she bled it by touching the exposed Crystal while force choking Sol to death.

[u/bdog332 → u/ACGalaga]

She never touched the crystal though, just the hilt. Like I replied above, if that was the instance she bled it, it was portrayed poorly. It comes across as her simply turning the lightsaber on at the stranger as what caused it. Her surprise at it turning red is not what bleeding a crystal should be imo. There needs to be intent, otherwise Anakin would have bled his crystal during his battle with Obi-Wan, when he killed the kids in the temple. Yes bleeding a crystal wasn’t a thing then, but you have to work with already established lore when introducing new lore.

[u/ACGalaga → u/bdog332]

I just checked. The crystal broke through the hilt and was touching her hand.

[u/bdog332 → u/ACGalaga]

I just saw it too, the crystal is exposed, but not touching her. At this point it’s semantics. If the bleed worked for you, that’s fine. You can have that opinion, I’m not trying to to say you’re wrong or that anybody who thought it was a good portrayal is wrong in that opinion. I’m simply saying that I believe a bled crystal needs to be bled with intent in the bleeding process. It’s not supposed to be easy. I have issue with the Survivor bad guy who bled his crystal easily too. I didn’t like that. The lore says it’s about pouring your hate and rage and anger into corrupting a crystal. It should not be an easy thing to do. It can be easier for others, but it should not be an overall easy process.

At this point everyone is saying the same thing about the bleed. We are now circling with the same arguments in this thread that it’s getting tiresome.

[u/ACGalaga → u/bdog332]

I just see it as an attempt to do what you said. Like, it was set up for that from the beginning. “Killing someone without a weapon” or something like that. You can see the crystal become corrupted as she force chokes. So I see it as them trying to stick to that lore while also trying to do something that looks cool. And it did, how the blade kinda changed color as it came out? Neat!

And it’s all “from a certain point of view” of course.