Star Wars: The Disney+ Empire Strikes Again and Again and...

this show's villain is scarier than Kenobi's. poor Jecki with the good horns

Damn this show stepped up! V good last 2...

I actually appreciate that Sol's annoying, pathos-soaked sanctimony is not given the usual Star Wars treatment of 'he meant well, he cared too much and made a mistake' and leaning more towards 'this dude is delusional and did fucked up things and still can't take accountability outside of the performative kind'. I'll be aggravated if it turns out he was either a) right all along or b) a victim of someone else's manipulation, which...might happen because Carrie Ann-Moss character

yeah this episode was great, v exciting

also really love the look with the vivid green forest & bright jedi swords, feels v 80’s a la Jedi or caravan of courage etc

xp Sol = "speed of light" = grimes ~= crimes. So I think we can safely say that guy's bad.

Darth NAKED

is this Porg Island

I enjoyed this ep but simultaneously aggravated that it seems they've padded things a bit as they're really dragging out some of the reveals. second straight episode of hinting at things without really giving you even a morsel to chew on.

did find the Osha/Bortles scenes the best. the Sol/Mae scenes felt like wheel-spinning.

the idea behind the helmet is intriguing, like it adds some more layers

i agree that Sol/Mae felt overplayed. but Osha/Bortles was great

was v weirded out by the nudity! like i felt v puritan suddenly
SIR this is Star Wars

but holy fuck he is a perfect dirtbag cult leader. like mmm yes i would for sure join your 2 person cult you hot weirdo

we were sadly deprived of Sith-butt

puritan-me is relieved but actual me is LIVID

Hahah. You can’t have EVERYTHING.

My hunch after last week’s episode was that we were going to see a role reversal situation between Osha and Mae and it’s starting to go there…but now I’m thinking all the more that Osha’s not actually been ‘good’ this whole time, and that flashback episode is even more incomplete than we knew. But we’ll see…

after sixteen years, here's what I have to say to you...

I'm still getting letters from collections due to that Columbia House order you placed using my card without permission.

lmao

I know it’s been said but….goddamn Manny Jacinto *heavy breathing behind cortosis helmet*

I have a similar theory Ned - i think it was probably Osha who started the fire and Sol’s secret is that he made her forget it happened.

I like it!

Meantime:

On this week’s episode of The Acolyte, we’re treated to a brief moment of Jedi Master Vernestra Rwoh speaking to a senator from the planet Abednedo. The senator is not named in the episode, but the subtitles and official Star Wars website identify them as Senator Isedwa Chuwant.

As in...

loooool ok that rules

and there it is! Sol is a creepy groomer mixed with a Tim Ballard/Operation Underground Railroad type piece of shit. i was afraid the show would chicken out and validate the Jedi's actions by showing the children were really in danger after all but for the most part it was evil colonizer Jedi basically committed genocide and covered it up.

yikes that is dark. but I thought it made a good bookend to episode 3. man if The Last Jedi pissed off fragile SW fans can only imagine how this one will go over.

not surprisingly, the Star Wars reddit sub is reading Sol as a flawed man who is good but makes mistakes and not just a creepy son of a bitch who fucking ruined an entire coven's lives

shit got real dark this week, guys.

sith butt just a dim memory now…

ngl there are some corny, do-you-see??? moments in this (“oh Sol just wanted an acolyte too!”) but it’s genuinely baffling to see the amount of hate this show is getting online. like ok, it’s not the best SW show out there but it’s miles more enjoyable than Boba Fett or Ahsoka imo

stumbled on Amandla Stenberg’s IG the other day and her comments section is a mess, really feels like TLJ all over again :(

it's TLJ in that people don't want to see Jedi being shown as impure beings.

that doesn't mean there aren't valid criticisms but people get mega defensive about holding to their "Jedi = good" worldview

Finally caught up. That was a hell of a watch!

So, since Sol was confessing everything to Mae, what exactly did he tell her that she didn’t already know? She was present for all of the worst parts of the flashback. One presumes this why she was motivated to kill the four Jedi in the first place.

I think he told her new information about why they were there and how all of the awful stuff came from the best intentions. More of a defense than a confession.

Yawn

To be clear, I don't think it's a good defense. He beefed it.

And we have yet to see her reaction to all this.

I’m yawning at how drawn out and shrug-worthy this whole show has been, with only one episode to go.

Agree with Ros this is generally a bit better than Boba Fett and Ahsoka (and probably also Mandalorian s3 for that matter) which had their moments but relied more heavily on fan service box ticking for established beloved characters whereas this is more free to explore.

Aside from Andor and the first season of Mandalorian, all of the live action SW shows have been mediocre at best. Obi-Wan and Boba Fett were the worst because they ruined characters or plot points from other superior properties.

I didn’t hate Ahsoka as much as others seem to although I won’t defend it either. I think this show is probably on par with that one—not the very worst but also lacking much to recommend.

The Acolyte seems to get better every episode. Enjoying it almost as much as Andor

Finale tomorrow. And I liked this piece:

https://gizmodo.com/the-acolyte-star-wars-colonialism-jedi-2000473519

great article, finally hitting the angle I was hoping someone would take

yeah that’s a good piece

The colonialist angle was the best part of the last episode. I wish this were the very first episode and we could watch how this behavior played out over the ensuing 16 years.

Strong finale. I will happily take a season two.

same. nice sendoff. Jedi corruption continuing into season 2!

shit that stranger in the cave was Darth Plagueis?

Was it?

internet is suggesting so but....I'm not a big enough nerd to recall what he looked like

yeah that was pretty good!!

is it just me or is that stupid chipmunk-dog completely pointless & annoying

Slightly inscrutable motivations at points, that one.

it smells backpacks...backpacks and corruption

Nice interview with the production designer & the cinematographer

https://arstechnica.com/culture/2024/06/star-wars-behind-the-scenes-creating-the-unique-aesthetic-of-the-acolyte/

Very good finale

Only thing I didn’t understand is why they wouldn’t take Mae along on the escape. Sure rule of two and all that, but just drop her off on another planet or something.

Kyber crystal bleeding was very cool

Any time Bazil the tracker was not on screen I was asking, "Where's Bazil?"

lol

i was confused by the ending too. i dont see how Mae would be any use to the jedi