@@agzane268 it’s totally okay to kill people though if you weren’t going to get to hook up and scissor with them according to the superior moral standards of former long time personal assistant to Harvey Weinstein, Leslie Headland. Glad I saw this series or I’d still have the outdated notion that life was a precious thing to respect: that every human values their own life and it should be valued by others, you know that whole good and bad thing. Didn’t realize that the mean fascist Jedi were just oppressing the nice Sith that just want to be themselves and just, like, y’know kill who they want, when they want
He also did that like YESTERDAY in the story, and now because she saw him naked, she's in love and they watch the sunset together. Harvey Weinstein's secretary made a show that says, "He's not evil, he just wants FREEDOM. The freedom to do whatever tf he wants, including murder. And he gets the girl in the end!" Sickening in context. Hell, I tried defending things for a while, kind of... and being like, "Idk if she knew anything man. She only worked for him for a year? And I'm not convinced the show deserves all the hate it's getting PRE-release just because of that. Was the trailer GOOD?" But nah. The show came out and it deserves worse hate than it got lol. I mean, not any death threats... attack the show's quality and maybe question the sanity of the SHOWRUNNER and Kathleen Kennedy for approving it and everybody who let it come out like this... but no death threats.
@emanymtin713 I still believe there was badly laced cocaine in the writer's room for the Acolyte. How could anyone with a sane mind say about that script and the power of many scene that this would be seen as good?
According to Leslie, Sol deserves death for being presumptive/paternalistic with Osha, but Anissa gets a pass for pushing witchery on her over protests, Horn-Mom never has it acknowledged she physically abused Mae & started a fight with the Jedi unilaterally, and Mae herself never has to admit or get called out on being creepy/possessive towards her own sister, to the point of wanting to murder her before letting her have a life and identity beyond just being “Mae’s pushover twin”.
I think the whole “I will kill you” bit from Mae is so stupid and I can’t be convinced that it makes sense. I have a brother and we fought all the time growing up, never once have I had any inclination that I should kill him because he doesn’t think like me. Like seriously only a sociopath would write this shit and think it’s logical 😂
Heh. “Benign Patriarchy”. Oh how deep of a hole she keeps digging herself into. She makes up words and misuse them for the betterment of not even herself, but of delusions and repression. What she needs is a mental health care professional, but I’m afraid she might cause the professional to un!alive him or herself from the massive boulder of delusion Little Miss Headcase is packing.
@@epiczk0n141 Its sad how Leslie was going for a "Zuko and Azula" or "Vi and Jinx" vibe, except she literally starts Mae off with Force-choking a *butterfly* and threatening to murder Osha for leaving her. How juvenile is your writing that Princess "I'll burn a doll I don't like" Azula feels more subtly written than you?
Right there. You hit the nail on the head right there: the series never once even pretends like Mae’s extremely selfish and possessive behavior is anything but wanting to keep their “family” together, the witches are described as a literal *cult* and yet it’s the JEDI who are shown to be these creepy, evil monsters, and Osha immediately kills her mentor and father figure just because a “hot” guy told her to (all without ever cracking an expression, but let’s go by how the script presents this and assume the acting is a separate, isolated complaint). And, as you said, to really hammer home that the witches are pure evil (encouraging Mae to keep her twin sister isolated, gaslighting her into becoming a witch without her consent or input, Mae blaming Osha for murdering their family for the crime of wanting to have independence or individuality of any kind and immediately assuming the Jedi are evil without proof or cause and deserve death and abuse without a second of hesitation), Horn Mom [I’m not gonna bother looking up her name, I don’t care] forces Mae to tap into the Dark Side to try and kill everyone. Even if, even IF this story was better written and going off the idea of “the Jedi did a terrible thing by killing off a group of peaceful space witches”, they managed to make the Jedi look more sensible and cannibalize their own retconned lore within itself. This series has such a toxic view on morality that I’m actually floored they were even able to make it to 8 episodes, and literally no amount of gaslighting or shaming or temper tantrums is going to get this project a season 2. Even if they did: a) who’s gonna bother watching when they scared off or insulted the fans, and b) Leslie Headland and Amandla Stenberg have been pretty thoroughly branded box office poison and toxic to the point of corrosive, so nobody would touch anything with them with a yard stick and a fullbody radiation suit.
You just made me remember the Batwoman show. That was atleast just hilarious to watch how bad it was. Well, the early season. After that it lost the unintentional hilarity.
I dunno, if someone said "everyone is sacrificed to fulfill their destiny" when there's a giant ominous pit involved, yeah I would assume they mean some kind of blood sacrifice. In general, the witches give off CONSTANT red flags, and somehow we're supposed to sympathize with them.
That was always my biggest issue it seems like I’m supposed to sympathize with them. But I know so little about them and what I’m shown seems to indicate they are dark and controlling. I know the Jedi so I’m going to side with them
@horvathsogranfume658 it's not even entirely misandrist. because the lead Jedi of that group was a woman. I know all the others are men, so maybe the misandry is just towards Sol and that other kid for rushing in to "save" the kids? can't even get their own twisted message right because part of it contradicts what they're trying to say anyway. I guess it's just white people, so it's racist instead? but then the light whip lady is green so... I cba with all the politics, I just focus on the story being shite.
Couple more observations to add to your excellent analysis: 1) How does a lightsaber whip leave whip marks and not just hack a person into bits? 2) How could any of these Jedi with such emotional instability and attachment to things go on to become Jedi Masters? Like what happened from Torbin being so homesick he rushes off and becomes easily manipulated by the witches, to where he is in such shame and guilt over it all he is in a powerful, force meditation done only by masters and waiting to die. In the sixteen years between, how did he possibly become a Jedi Master? Its like the time never passed. No one thought out where any of these characters went or what they did in that sixteen years. 3) When Mae is captured by Sol, the droid only opens one side of her bindings and then immediately she gets free without unlocking the other one. Her hand is locked down in one seen and then just free in the next. There is many moments in the show like this, with poor shot by shot errors and inconsistencies that show no one was paying attention to details.
Because the writers are lazy. They don't take Star Wars seriously. Also as you mentioned Torbin: i find this to be so incredibly irresponsible. This is a scene about manipulating someone into suicide. A topic very sensible. And how do they go about it? Well if you fell guilty, just kill yourself it is ok. No one says anything about first seeking help. And in the end they even try to justify the deed of Mae, and that includes using someones guilt to push him over the edge. Lucky the characters and the deliverance is so bad, it is more comical than tragic and so maybe nobody will get any ideas, but if something like this would happen I think Disney should be held accountable for this really irresponsible handling of such a serious topic.
Regarding the first point, I don't think it's unreasonable to assume he barely evaded the whip with the tip scarring his back. For the rest, however, I have nothing
And I was reminded of this show by the following passage from Mark Twain's essay "Fenimore Cooper's Further Literary Offenses": "For instance [Cooper] allowed that astute and cautious person, Deerslayer-Hawkeye, to throw his rifle heedlessly down and leave it lying on the ground where some hostile lndians would presently be sure to find it-a rifle prized by that person above all things else in the earth-and the reader gets no word of explanation of that strange act. There was a reason, but it wouldn’t bear exposure. Cooper meant to get a fine dramatic effect out of the finding of the rifle by the Indians, and he accomplished this at the happy time; but all the same, Hawkeye could have hidden the rifle in a quarter of a minute where the Indians could not have found it. "Cooper couldn’t think of any way to explain why Hawkeye didn’t do that, so he just shirked the difficulty and did not explain at all."
Even the opening fight scene breaks the writing. Mae's largest issue with the Jedi is that she believes they harm and kill innocents. She kills a Jedi by attacking an innocent. This hypocrisy is never acknowledged by the characters in the story, the story itself, or even any of the interviews. Imagine if Mae instead only attacked Indara, and when someone is in danger, both of them leave themselves vulnerable to save them, then both look over at the other in surprise. Imagine if they took the base ideas of the story and were competent.
@@hoos3014 Eh, seemed she disliked the Jedi in general for the specific actions of those 4 Jedi that she blamed for killing her "innocent" cult. Her hit list was definitely those 4, but her dialogue indicated that she believed them to be representative of the Jedi overall. That she was fighting someone she claims/believes actively kills innocents and her response is to take any amount of attention off of her to attack an innocent is character breaking. That Indara dies from such a simple misdirection is stupid, but more importantly should shake Mae's belief and conviction but instead does nothing. That the supposed murderer Indara died to save a rando should raise questions.
@@hoos3014Well even if she thought specific Jedi were bad that was who she was fighting. Yet she never acts surprised that Jedi Master Matrix is diverted by an attack on a bystander.
@@fd502 I don't get what you're saying. Mae uses diversion and trickery to defeat Indara because she knows she cannot beat her in a straight one on one fight.
@@hoos3014 It's not complex. Mae accuses a Jedi of killing the unarmed and innocent, yet she throws a weapon at an innocent as a means to distract and kill that Jedi. Her accusation seemed heartfelt. Why did she then partially disarm herself on a bet like that? If she had been right about the Jedi, all she'd have accomplished would have been a dead bystander and giving her opponent an advantage. Additionally, she always believed that "The Jedi are bad!" to quote her, word by word. Well before she ever encountered them, no less. She was raised with that belief.
@@zemufinman1639 If this is a political statement, just be a little more clear about it, since it could come from both sides the same (if correct or not). I know the path to the dark side in real life -- do you?
The only star wars that did well with moral ambiguity was Andor. But that's because it wasn't dark side and light side it was just people and their upbringing
Andor was also still capable of having villains, but the villains more so took the form of an institution. The Empire itself is presented as cruel and Fascist, breaking morally ambiguous characters that you can sometimes even root for. Grinding people up for it's own purposes. It's possible to do moral complexity while having good guys and bad guys, something more people need to learn.
@@pancakes8670 the way they masterfully get us to root for dedra Meero before revealing how evil she actually is was such a great display of character writing. And I think the writing of Syril is greatly underappreciated. We have a guy who yeah works for the empire but when you consider his upbringing it's totally understandable that he would see the empire as a good thing. From his perspective it's justice and safety and the rebellion is not. He doesn't follow the empire because he's evil he follows it because as far as he's aware the empire are the good guys.
I'd say that Disney and most of Hollywood in general is on the dark side but radiating canned light as a ruse. It may have fooled people before, but we now see the shoddily taped on LEDs beginning to peel away at an embarrassing pace.
I mean...one thing is the fictional story of star wars, but having REAL LIFE PEOPLE not understand good and evil and actually saying that evil is "cooler" is real concerning 😐😐😐
@@jaieregilmore971 I would understand if they said something like "the DESIGN of evil characters is cool" (because lets face it: Siths usually look way cooler than the Jedis), but for them to say that they like evil and they feel represented by it is really bad 😂 its like saying someone like Hitler or Fidel Castro represents you. I feel wokeism doesnt understand good or bad, they just understand that they can do whatever they want without consecuences and without laws.
@@rafaelcastro2591 I would argue Luke in return of the Jedi proves that Jedi can wear cool clothing but yeah I agree too bad they don’t realize that the Sith are just a bunch of edgy teenagers who will never be satisfied once they have what they want and while the Jedi are the responsible adults.
@@rafaelcastro2591 And I'm using the character of Wilhuff Tarkin in a comparison on the deceptiveness of appearances. The little-known early-Sixties fantasy character Brak the Barbarian (whom I only know about from a collection of vintage sci-fi and fantasy magazines) looks the part of a barbarian warrior, but is a gentleman through and through, and has an actual moral compass and is very much a civilized warrior. Tarkin, meanwhile, looks the part of a civilized warrior, but fits Chesterton's definition of "the true savage" as someone who "laughs when he hurts you, and howls when you hurt him", irrespective of race, ethnicity, or relative technological or cultural sophistication.
@@polishscribe674 I don’t know, Germany despises Nazis, and will never let anyone deny the Holocaust. They willingly atone. Also, they invented Bratwurst, one of the few things I could eat growing up, so I can’t stay too mad.
@@JacksonVoet but Germany tends to rewrite history to deny their responsibility. "No, it wasn't the Germans who committed all these atrocities. It were nazis, a small fanatic group." Or better, blame coutries THEY OCCUPIED for doing all these things. They unironically say things like "polish death camps" and do other things to make it seem like this genocide wasn't a systematic operation carried out by the German state.
And than they have the nerve to say that witch chants in general are cringe when Heilung exists... I kinda hate when Americans do witches. It's like they have this caricature of a witch and don't go even searching for good inspirational material... Tf even were those abominations in the series. Black witches don't really work anyways. I'm sorry it's European folklore, I don't see witches i see shamans because that's what witches were to european people. Just the female druids aka healers and leaders. It's like doing a white shaman without the DEI implication but it just feels as weird
The “pitch meeting“ nailed it. “Couldn’t they have cleared up the misunderstanding with one sentence?“ “Yes, but… Without misunderstandings, there wouldn’t even be a show.”
It's not even that... Misunderstanding is there to make them easily redeemable. Imagine if osha actually kills their mom and mei mei actually kills innocents
To add insult to injury, Vernestra Rwoh is a character from the High Republic novels. They've kind of pulled a Jake Skywalker with her, as her personality and motives don't really match what we know about her. They got all the superficial details right: The species and gender, the purple lightwhip, the discomfort with hyperspace (due to visions), and she was a prodigy, so her being a Master makes a lot of sense. She even kept secrets for no adequately explained reasons! (Listen, she's not a great character. I don't care for her in any iteration. But a lot of High Republic fans do like her, so changing her to fit this script is still disrespectful.) But she was also empathetic and didn't process politics very well. She's very hands-on. And it would take a **lot** to make her slash someone in the back. Can't think of a reason right now. Plus her story in the High Republic novels is still being written, so jumping ahead about a century is a wild choice. As an aside, the Stranger's cover name was Qimir, which sounds like an off-brand Organization XII (Kingdom Hearts) scramble of Imri, the name of Vernestra's padawan in the novels. There are many reasons why it probably isn't Imri (Imri is a bit oafish looking, blonde, and a very sweet person, and a human who would be over a hundred at this point), but this show is pretty nonsensically written. I wouldn't be surprised if that was meant as a season two reveal.
Honestly this show is bad introduction to high republic Jedi I’m not the fan of the era but I get the concept of it but the point is people was marketing this era as the Jedi at their best but in this show they don’t act like Jedi at all they feel like children playing with lightsabers. Also unpopular opinion I prefer the prequel Jedi over the high republic Jedi.
@@jaieregilmore971 the Jedi in this show are nothing like the High Republic Jedi in the books. They are a little more relaxed about certain things, like turning a blind eye to padawans exploring brief romances, but they are highly moral, hard working, and professional.
@@dancingdragon3 I take your word for it no matter the flaws they have I’m still on team Jedi there ideals isn’t wrong. This show made the Jedi fools it just so baffling that they get easily killed off like that by qimir people use the explanation that they haven’t fought anybody with lightsaber before but it just seems like a bad excuse. Not really a fan of the hight republic era but there is one character I like/interested in is Porter Engle at least his younger self in the Blade comic down to his design and his lightsaber is slick looking.
Using the same logic, just imagine how it frustrates fans when they try to destroy everyone from Luke to Yoda. And they try to destroy George Lucas and accuse him of being a woman hater etc. It's shameful and they want everyone to accept it blindly.
The biggest mystery of this show is how Torbin went from a crappy apprentice to a Master in 6 years. The flashback is 16 years and he's in the Barash Vow meditation for 10 of those. No way he went from apprentice to Master in 6 years.
It's ironic that they made one of the like two named white male characters in the show and inadvertently made him *the* most overpowered Jedi in all of existence
In their world victimhood is power. He was mindravaged and from that pain they let him have that power knowing he will off himself via white guilt... Toxic little bunch aren't they?
as a complete outsider to star wars and this series, the cheapening of vader via the "vergence" (or w/e) is what stands out to me. the disrespect and lack of creative effort has really become a western thing in my mind.
What’s crazy about this response, which to be clear I LOVE your comment, is that there are “fans” out there who probably consume even less Star Wars than you do, who will confidently assert that you’re a bigot with a passionate hatred for the franchise for this position. The discourse around Star Wars is so broken thanks to this show
Well it just triples down on shitting on Star Wars. Not only does the skywalker family’s struggles and successes mean nothing since “Rey ahcktually defeated the emperor.” this shit makes them not even special to begin with. Disney managed to make everything pointless
@@epiczk0n141 *thanks to Kathleen Kennedy. I was never the staunchest fan of the Star wars franchise, but all of this discourse started with the disney trilogy. Op hits the nail on the head with the vader thing tho. I dont understand why the helmet for every sith is becoming a thing when it was just for vader, a man who was figuratively and literally transformed by his pride and anger. There's symbolism there but the idea of sith never felt like it was just becoming an Evil "version" of yourself. Yet here we are with people whom barely understand the IP
In the grander scope of Star Wars, I view The Acolyte as an _exercise_ in sympathy for the Sith, rather than a total retcon of everything that came before. Protagonists need not always be heroes. It is possible to _empathize_ with someone (see and relate to their perspective) without having to _sympathize_ with their cause. The series paints a clear picture of how the Jedi Order necessarily divorced itself from its ideals (that is, if its ideals were even healthy or sustainable to begin with) in having to function as an institution; leaving in their wake a moral vacuum that the Sith are clearly unable to fill. Leslye Headland has made clear she views the dark side more in terms of Jung’s shadow than as the consummate evil it is elsewhere unambiguously depicted as - the character of The Stranger embodied this when he said “I’ve embraced my darkness - what have you done with yours?” This series does not condemn the Jedi as worse than the Sith, but rather makes the case that the Jedi are constitutionally unable to _refute_ the Sith. I reject the framing of the light side as temperance and the dark side as indulgence, and it seems Headland may as well. In positioning themselves as a reaction to and negation of the Jedi Order and Jedi code, the Sith fail to _transcend_ the Jedi, to grow beyond the Jedi, to think outside the box that the Jedi created for themselves. The Stranger himself unwittingly implied this in saying “I don’t make the rules; the Jedi do.” Whatever could better replace the Jedi Order (and thus obsolesce the Sith) has yet to appear in canon, though in my mind its representation/depiction is a loose thread that Star Wars would be immeasurably better off if it were to mend. To quote Luke Skywalker, “to say that if the Jedi die, the light dies, is vanity.”
@@robynsun_loveStating that the Dark Side isn't indulgence is actively ignorant of the lore. The Dark Side always begins as selfishness, which necessitates self indulgence. Even the Acolyte drunkenly stumbled into that truth.
@@robynsun_love Leslie making up her own definition of The Dark Side of the Force after 40 years of dozens of writers expanding on it doesn't make her viewpoint valid. This isn't real life. This is a fictional world and the Dark Side IS, by definition, the Will of the Force overwhelming a person's ability to function in normal human society, by preying on their emotions and motivations. You can't just circle jerk a new definition. Besides that, the Jedi are the designated heroes of this story because their job is to keep order and peace in the Republic. That cannot be taken away from them and ANY story that would look to demonize them for doing their JOB is inherently against the whole functional purpose of the story. We are not illiterate. We appreciate a good story with a morally grey protagonist. One who doesn't even like Jedi or the Republic. Heir to the Empire, Thrawn. The Mandalorian. Andor. Boba Fett. We aren't stupid. We know what villain protagonists and heroic antagonists are. This show wasn't trying to write a heroic antagonist. It was trying to demonize the Jedi. By making a story about Force witches we are supposed to sympathize with, by insisting they are oppressed, and then immediately saying the Jedi Order and Trinity's character were perfectly willing to let them raise their daughters and it was "one lone wolf" who was so scared of them that he pushed to take them away. That is not systematic oppression. That is literally the narrative of the people who don't WANT to do the hard work of addressing racism or oppression in institutions. "We weren't the problem, that was one bad apple and we dealt with him, so stop protesting." Not all cops, indeed. And you can't circle jerk that away with quotes from Jung or talk of transcending.
@ajourneythroughcinema1271 there's just something special about 1970s variety shows I've always enjoyed. It's fun to see which character actors will show up
@@ajourneythroughcinema1271 One thing I love about this series is the PROMOTION of black women and Asian men together. I live in South Africa and we are very much Kpop and KDrama stans. We have had a surge in Asian men moving here and it's a delight that we can find common ground to start dates with.
The Star Wars Holiday Special was a campy, self-aware, 1970s parody variety show filled with B-list celebrity cameos and musical numbers. In retrospect, it's a hilarious good time, never taking itself too seriously. It's _leagues_ more enjoyable than this show. Not even a contest.
I think you got it down well. Holiday Special was an almost playful late 70s thing, almost tongue in cheek, weird and cheap but funny for precisely those reasons, and almost cute in how it played with existing characters. It was almost like a psychedelic comedy skit for the occasion of a holiday season, and it sure as all hell didn't try to pretend it was the next entry in Star Wars, it was a funny side episode that existed to cash in on holidays. Acolyte, on the other hand, takes itself dead seriously and sincerely thinks it's redefining Star Wars in a better way. In a way, both Holiday Special and Acolyte are products of their times... it's just that times didn't change for the better in media, the simple fun is gone and pretense is in.
I watched it a few weeks ago and I'm certain many cast members were super high during taping. Definitely Carrie Fisher and Mark Hammill looks like he's tripping balls too.
I myself would like to know what he means by “Ewok movie-level bad”. Does he mean ROTJ, and if so, why? I know it’s generally considered the weakest of the Original Trilogy films, but it’s still better than this, right? And what’s with all the hatred for Ewoks anyway? I thought that was already on its way out once people decided that they hated Jar-Jar Binks more.
It does strain credulity that the council , having already ruled that Osha is too old to train, would change their minds, give that now she has massive emotional trauma, centered on the very attachments that concerned them in the first place.
Zoom out to what's supposed to be the criticism of the Jedi in this story, its weaksauce criticism to say that the Jedi are actually a condescending and oppressive arm of the Republic that stamps out any use of the Force that isn't authorized by their dogma... and then clearly show the Jedi Council perfectly willing to allow Mae and Osha to be trained by Force Witches, to then only adopt them after their mothers have died, and then to let Osha GO when she chooses to quit. LOL... So oppressive.
Headland confirmed in an interview that evil smoke mom was doing a double kill on herself and mae with the evil smoke monster thing-"turning herself and mae into the force 'without dying'", when 'become one with the force' was literally used in this series as a euphemism for death, with Jecki being strangely pleased about it (talking about that bug that was cut in half). So not only was Sol understandable in his snap second decision to strike the smoke demon, he was objectively right in doing so...though given both twins are evil, maybe he should have let them die. one final knife twist about Mae in the final episode-not only is the memory wipe thing extremely stupid (and others have pointed out that it's lazy plot convenience that would still leave her with her memory of trying to kill her sister and the thing on brendok), Venestra decides to unilaterally have Mae's crimes forgiven and ignored because Mae claims she doesn't remember doing them...after Venestra decided to pin the blame on everything for Sol, no matter how stupid that is given how many different iron alibis he has for most of the killings, and the stupid beaver thing having been there the entire time and having seen everything
The smoke demon thug was utterly baffling to me. I couldn’t figure out what the freaking heck she was trying to do-she was trying to make them one with the force? Why? Can you tell me what interview his was? I should probably stop thinking about this dumb show.
@@nickdriscoll6131 from the nerdist 'THE ACOLYTE’s Leslye Headland on Episode 7, Witches, Vergences, Qui-Gon, and Anakin' article. Along with the nonsense about the smoke demon crap, there's a bunch of other mind bogglingly dumb stuff she has to say about the episode and other things in the series
I watched this entire video and I have to say that I agree with you on all counts. Your CW analogy was spot on. I don't know how many times I've watched Arrow or The Flash and just begged the characters to have a conversation. I also enjoyed the first 2 episodes. I actually enjoyed the 3rd episode as well. It was episode 4 that broke me. That moment that Mae just pulls a 180 OUT OF NOWHERE was the moment I realized there was no redeeming it. Also, I couldn't believe that an 8 episode show had the audacity to have a filler episode. Now I will admit that episode 5 had me locked in until we start getting back to the story and then it was back downhill from there. If someone enjoyed the show I have no issues with that. That's their right but as for me I just can't accept the terrible writing of the show. Great work on this video!
Nooo.... It's good writing... Why can't you see that? Don't you want "show, don't tell"? /jk XD Every time someone defends Ep.4, they use this half-hearted attempt of saying Mae pulling a 180 makes sense because she just thought about it in her head and came to a conclusion that made sense based on information from the last episode (technically, ep 2). And I always point out to them that a story is about *cause and effect*. Why didn't she reach this conclusion to turn herself in DURING the episode where she learned her sister was alive? What functional purpose does it make to run away from someone you want to be near, then decide later to be near them, them resist them again, then swap clothing and leave them again to chase Sol, then threaten to kill Sol, then decide not to, then listen to a history story you were present for, and THEN tell Osha that Sol killed Mama? A story is cause and effect. What cause led to any of these effects? You can't insist a character can just think to themselves and do differently than ANY OTHER ACTION they'd performed thus far. It is a FUNDEMENTAL aspect of suspension of disbelief that characters don't DO that. Bad writers and people who support them think they are being witty or clever by having characters "act like people." Oh, Mae is just being indecisive, but that's how people act, so its okay. No. Noooo. Its not a real thriller if people can suddenly have killing intent towards each other and then just as suddenly NOT in the next freakin' scene!
I noped out of both The Flash and Arrow. Both when the 'love interest' (aka insufferable bint) complained 'wHY diDN'T yoU tElL mE' to create relationship melodrama. Arrow even had a stupid love-triangle IIRC. And love-triangles need to be included in the Geneva code of war crimes.
The lightsaber fights are honestly the worst in the franchise. Most of the fight is obscured to hide how bad it is. Actors swinging at nothing to make it look like something is happening. Lightsabers are swung at each other rather than trying to hit their opponent. Kicking instead of using a lightsaber to attack openings. It's no better than the first time two kids pretend to be Jedi by swinging sticks at each other.
The sand scene is NOT bad dialogue. I hate people keep claiming that it is. It was very clever, that annakin could see sand and not have it remind him of his traumatizing childhood. Padme brought up loving her planet's beaches, and annakin was like , "yeah, i actually like them too. Crazy, i never thought I'd be able to put aside my past pain of living as s slave on an awful planet". As flirting, it was a bit awkward, but he was raised to be a celebate monk. The dialogue and even the acting for that scene was not bad.
At least, there was thought behind it. It could have been better with another rewrite or delivery, but there's at least consistent character reasoning behind it.
A cult with questionable motives toward children is invaded by the authorities, and a mysterious fire breaks out killing everyone.... I wonder if the creators of this show even realize they made a Star Wars show about Waco?
Preaching to the choir, brother. Plot contrivances that depended on miscommunication and melodrama is the exact definition of this show. I actually think there are some good things about The Acolyte, but they wasted all those good things on being lazy and not writing or executing logically connected ideas. I think it is the worse show I have seen in the last 24 years, not because of my expectation but because of the quality of the story. Nothing made sense within the world of the show or outside. There was no high but a lot of lows and confusion. Great video!
28:55 I have a terrible feeling that the reason Mae doesn't go with them, but gets mindwiped is a cheap "setup" for a Revan type of arc, where Revan was a Jedi, got corrupted to a Sith, lost his memory and was used by the Jedi to become one again and then got his memories back and fell to the semi-dark side. Leslie Headland has mentioned being a fan and doing a series on KOTOR. So obviously, Mae is going to be used by the oh so mean Jedis to become a jedi and fight against Osha and then get her memory back or something, Idk. Hey, she might even be the one to kill Qimir so that Plagueis doesn't have to and the rule of two is respected.....
So she *is* a KOTOR fan! I was wondering if she was one considering the storyline she attempted.Cause I faintly remember there was a similar story in that era of Jedi taking children en masse and I wondered if she attempted to take inspiration from that but failing to execute it properly.
Same I've never even watched the Acolyte I saw that hot-mess coming a mile off like a year before it was gonna come out; but I'd rather have sticks put in my eyelids to keep them open and made to watch the holiday special on repeat for a whole week, then watch the Acolyte pos
I could never explain why CW stuff felt like for younger folks, but it always did. ‘Emotionally Immature’ is the PERFECT phrase to explain it. Fantastic analysis bro
I just found this channel and I gotta say, it's refreshing to find someone who actually understands the nuts and bolts of storytelling take this show to task. So much of the commentary around this show is either shallow and vapid or toxic and hateful, with both approaches involving little to no analysis of why the story and characters fail on a fundamental level. Anyways, thank you for the great breakdown - looking forward to more from this channel!
The CW shows may have had miscommunication and cheap drama, but at least they had likable characters in their shows that made the audience come back despite the otherwise questionable quality of the shows. I don't see that in the Acolyte...
I think they are definitely worse than Ewok movie bad. Those movies were for very little kids and worked for that demographic. I remember wearing out the VHS for the first Ewok movie because my brother and I loved that movie as kids. It at least had heart, even if it felt more like an Action movie version of the Muppets.
Hilarious when you said "Oh my God, I'm using the prequels as good examples," because I thought the same thing when I did it whilst discussing Acolyte with a friend. Like, when you're making the Prequels looks masterfully crafted...that really speaks volumes. "Emotional immaturity" is actually, surprisingly, very astute. When you break it down here, the entire witch massacre was brought on by two groups being utterly idiotic children. The witches are prejudice against Jedi, this causes them to instantly jump to conclusions and be immediate aggressors...but we're supposed to sympathize and identify with them? The Jedi stalk the group and behave...erratic. When the Mother should be deescalating the situation, instead she decides to suddenly just become a spooky ghost monster for seemingly no apparent reason because...why not? And we're supposed to be appalled that Sol skewered her? To any rational person, why WOULDN'T he? She looks like she's on the attack, why the hell would she randomly decide that it's a fantastic time to turn into the smoke monster from Lost? She caused the massacre...a complete idiot. My greatest walk away from this was...What was the intent? What am I INTENDED to feel here? ...because hell if I know. Am I SUPPOSED to think the Jedi are bad? Because with everything as portrayed, I don't. In fact, I COMPLETELY understand why Sol stabbed the Mother. Am I supposed to feel bad for the Witches? Because I don't. They were completely the aggressors, psychopathically violent for seemingly no apparent reason when the Mother herself said she was willing to even give one of the children. COOL...then what's the problem? Seemingly how I'm intended to feel is the literal opposite of how everything was portrayed, somewhat ousting Headland as a potential sociopath incapable of recognizing unethical behavior and taking accountability for it. And that's the thing here: if the intent was to walk away thinking Jedi are institutionally "bad," the witches were sincerely "innocent," you're failed, because many of us felt the exact opposite.
Imagine when you were young, somebody telling you that someday in the future Star Wars movies will be made by people who say they would choose a red light saber because the dark side is "cooler".
You know I thought that way Because the writer seems to be immature. I understand because I am immature and it has taken me a long time to learn stuff and I am 55 and I still am learning but, when it comes to Star Wars they need mature writers but ones that understand the universe fun and humor. I think she was projecting her political and sexual stance on the characters rather than letting the characters be characters for the story.
This is some really solid analysis. I especially appreciate you calling The Acolyte what it was: soap opera targeted to a young female audience. When you look at the show like that, you realize that the show isn't actually all that terrible on delivering a soapy, strung-out storyline where heartthrobs are more valuable than storytelling. But if we look at The Acolyte as a soap opera, it sadly still fails in two important ways. 1) It didn't advertise itself as a soap opera. All the articles and press junkets attempted to paint The Acolyte as an elevation or continuation of the pre-existing Star Wars universe - not as a fun, stupid soap. It was supposed to be dealing with the dark side; seduction; the failure of the jedi theology - all themes that were pitched as mature and grown-up to a SW fanbase that is ~85% comprised of 20's-40's males. And in the end, the show is the exact opposite, which pissed off that largely male fanbase who was interested in a darker, Sith-oriented storyline. But I 100% believe that if Lucasfilm and the Leslye Headland had actually been honest in what their show was and who it was for, then so much of the online rancor would never have occurred. Heck, this cottage industry of YT video essays would never have picked up on it. It would have just been a mediocre show with a small, but devoted fanbase. Well, if it weren't for one other flaw. 2) There is no consistent morality to this world. The Jedi attempt to act as peacekeepers, but are punished within the narrative for their 'insolence' - even though the Jedi did not try to fight the coven, nor do they start the fire. Sol is faulted for not being open and intimate with Osha, yet his closeness to her is also condemned as being creepy or overbearing. Smilo Ren is evil for massacring Osha's friends, but Osha immediately sees him as worth pitying/loving just because he was hurt by his master once. For some reason, the Jedi see their interactions with the witch coven as wrong and worthy of shame/obfuscation, even though they did nothing wrong. Characters' moralities seem to flip-flop on a dime, and yet are only ever punished for their noble intentions - not for their objectively evil actions. In the end, The Acolyte seems concerned about labelling the _characters themselves_ as "evil" or "good," regardless of the morality of each character's _actions._ It makes every single character seem like a complete hypocritical idiot, and leaves the viewer utterly bewildered on who they should be rooting for.
Hey, I would DEFINITELY rewatch the Ewok movies before Acolyte! You take back that heresy right now, sir! 😝 Well... definitely Battle for Endor (which is solidly mid). Caravan of Courage... is a tougher sit I'll grant. (But it did have the kick ass lumberjack Ewok who makes up for a lot with his sheer badassery.)
thats when you call your IP a grand space opera for 40 years and someone thought "put some soap between the space and the opera". believed to be dead evil twin is such a soap opera trope that I think its only used in comedys as a quick joke about bad/campy storytelling. (mark instead of eyepatch though)
Ironically, I see what they were trying to do with TLJ: Show that the heroes of the past can (And did) make mistakes. The problem is they wound up undermining Luke’s character.
@@TF2Fan101 I don't believe for a moment that Rian Johnson cared... And it's not just inner working politics either... Rian Johnson is the "Big dick on campus" energy... It's that simple... And he was paid millions from the biggest franchise on Earth... Everything Cathy was giving Rian, Rian was ALSO adding his own spin because he wanted to surpass J.J. in name recognition... I know somewhere Rian flat out admitted he simply didn't care...
@@Videogeek95That’s just how I see it. And honestly, it frustrates me that Abrams gets saddled with all the blame. Does he bear some responsibility? Sure, but I seriously doubt he was the main problem.
Your review opened me for the idea that ADHD teens may love the show. So much action, constant flipping sides, passionate venture without a second of thought
Sadly for Disney - that's bad for business as such audiences is limited - not much profit and additionally, those teens are to distracted to last for all 8 episodes scattered across two months show time.
The Acolyte literally only had one good scene that I liked and it’s when the dude head butted the lightsaber with his Beskar or whatever turns off light sabers. That shit was dope
no matter how bad the plots get at least the brothers and the other chars are always nice to see and follow, same cant be said about any star wars show or new movies.
Tjis is the best essay I've seen on this series here on UA-cam. You nailed the problems in the head. People who can't human very well don't write great stories, as it turns out.
I would still place Holiday Special higher. It had a relatively proper cause and effect compared. A lot of what happening is terrible and poorly acted but still ahead of acolyte
Jason = Qimar Blink and you'll miss it name. Great video - especially the Light vs Dark theme critique and the emotional immaturity is a great way to describe the character writing.
Disney: easily makes one of the best TV seasons of the year with X-Men '97, and one of the worst with the Acolyte. Thanos: Perfectly balanced as all things should be. I've genuinely seen better writing in some of the worst seasons of Power Rangers, than in this show. Also, for all the people who say "tHE jEDi kIdNAp cHIlDrEN sO tHEy'rE bAD" I think those people completely miss the point, and that you the Jedi ask the parents for permission to take the children (referring to what is clearly shown in the Phantom Menace), and you can leave the order any time you like, as Ashoka did. 0:46 A Journey Through Cinema: Trashes the CW including the Arrowverse, and says their plots rely heavily on contrivances. Madvocate: You've made me so proud... I'm not crying you're crying. 3:34 Yay that's what they call them now. 4:25 Don't ask questions just consume the product and get excited for the next product. 15:26 Poe Damron would be proud. 16:39 This is basically a Scooby-Doo mystery where "pLoT tWISts iT'S tHE oNLy cHARaCTeR iT cOUlD Be" expect Scooby-Doo is made for children, this genuinely thinks it'll be a surprise for adults. 22:07 I love how the showrunner Leslie Handland kept going on about how awful Sol is even though the fight and the reason why the mother died was purely on her not Sol BECAUSE SHE ATTACKED HIM FOR NO REASON AT ALL AND SOL WAS JUST ACTING IN SELF-DEFENSE. 29:11 Yeah, well the force is magic so they don't need to explain it... I actually wouldn't be surprised if the writers thought that. 29:27 Speaking of Scooby-Doo I genuinely think most Scooby-doo mysteries are better than this one. To quote Steve Harvey yes sirre thought about killing myself.
A large part of the fanbase don't really understand the Jedi. They claim that George was saying in the prequels the Jedi were a horrible institution, but George actually called them the "most moral of anyone in the galaxy" who were put in a hard situation. And in the Star Wars universe, the Jedi before Palpatine were so respected that parents wanted their children to become Jedi, so the kidnapping thing has really gotten out of hand.
@@matthewk4912 Also, you really can't call the Jedi dangerous or a cult, because say it with me YOU CAN LEAVE THEM ANYTHING YOU WANT EVEN WHEN YOU'RE A PADAWAN. Also, people like to point to the KOTOR games as reasons why the Jedi are evil, and while those are my two favorite games of all time (restored content mod version of the latter), and I've spent hundreds of hours playing each of them, just because Jolee had some legitimate criticisms of the Jedi didn't make them evil, and he is right in saying that Jedi can't be perfect because no living being is perfect, and I've never understood the criticisms of the Jedi not being able to fall in love when most religious institutions in real life don't allow their clergy to marry (including some branches of Buddism which is what the Jedi are partially based on), so what exactly is the problem. Also, KOTOR II Kreia does make good points about the Jedi but she's not perfect, and while she does make good points about a lot of things a lot of her arguments fall flat when you don't go into them with the mentality that you're going to treat them all as gospel. Kreia isn't an interesting character because she's always right, she's an interesting character because she has a distinct and interesting philosophy that is a lot more interesting if you actually think about it and don't mindless go "eVErytHONg sHE's sAYs iS rIGhT." even though yes she can make some great points and some debatable points.
@@GOODYGOODGOOD789 Yep, also KOTOR isn't even part of the new continuity, so it can't dictate our view on the Jedi in a universe where KOTOR didn't happen. Star Wars fans seem to not be able to distinguish between different depictions in different continuities. George has some very Buddhist beliefs, and actually supports a lot of the Jedi ideology, but I think this is a case of many fans not sharing George's spiritual beliefs or worldview, so they demonize the Jedi more than they were portrayed as flawed, which wasn't George's intention. People don't seem to understand the idea of living a life of service and self-sacrifice. Because the Jedi wield the Force, something far more powerful than them, they have the no attachment rule not because they want to oppress their members, but because mixing individual desires with the greater good while being super powerful can lead to disaster. If that's not the life you want to live, the Jedi allow you to live the life you want outside of the Order.
People don’t consider how dangerous an untrained force sensitive child could potentially be to their non-force sensitive family. Imagine a normal five year old having a temper tantrum, and then imagine that child being able to use telekinesis on things and people bigger and stronger than they are.
21:14 i love that an ad for a game on pc started right after "and his greatest wish is..." like it took me a sec before i realized it wasn't intentional
Speaking of childhood haircuts - I live how they gave Trinity and Squidgame little girl and boy haircuts in the flashback sequences. That was really cute and wholesome
At least with most CW shows, they often revolves around teenagers and young adult characters, so there was at least some justification for the use of miscommunication for drama since young ppl can be silly and ilogical but the Jedi in the Acolyte are not only full grown adults (for the most part) but monks trained from young to have excellent emotional regulation. I don't think its unfair to assume that even young Jedi would be a cut above their non-Jedi peers in regulating their emotions so literally no one's behavior makes sense.
Dude 11:36 this entire scene was my biggest catch for how bad the writing was. You’re the first person to point this out and I just laughed out loud because of it. Their “mom” lies to the Jedi and says there’s no children here. But it’s not like they’re hiding them away in some place or another part of the planet…they’re literally standing right fucking behind them. How did they write/film this scene and at some point not say maybe this group of adults with eyes ball might see them standing 10 feet away probably no need to lie. I can’t even wraps my head around it.
I could not have put everything more succinct myself. Also I believe half the budget was spent on rendering the ice belt that Sol was chasing Mae through and why did the little rat suddenly decide to save Mae? "Well as Screen Rant would say "I need you to get all the way off my back about that" because like everything else there is no evidence of motivation
Having them keep the same hair style when it's WELL established that wigs are a HUGE popular fashion statement in the Star Wars universe. It'd make more sense that the Evil Twin framed her sister to get her searching for her.
That wasn't Osha's Lightsaber. It was Sol's Lightsaber. And that's NOT how a Kyber Crystal works. Osha didn't even Remove the Crystal and Bleed it. The Crystal didn't Resist or Show Osha Visions of the Past or Future unlike the Kyber Crystal that DARTH VADER had Bled in a Comic where he had to basically make his Own New Lightsaber. This Bullshit of the Lightsaber Slowly Turning Red because Osha was giving Into the Dark Side is just Stupid and Lame and Doesn't make Sense at all.
Did he just call the politics of the prequels boring?! That was one of the best things about the prequels, the politics and secret plans of the sith were fascinating. It was so well done. And they've only expanded on all the game of thrones type poltics since then in the books, tv shows, and games.
If it was written better, the story of this show could’ve been decent, however this show suffers from poor writing, poorly written characters, bad pacing, bad acting at times, bad editing, many gaps in logic, and many cringe and ridiculous moments
It feels like they were trying to apply Star Trek’s complex grey morality to Star Wars which has always had very clear cut “Good” and “Bad” sides. It works for Star Trek which is more about philosophy and exploration of different worlds and cultures, but not for Star Wars which is supposed to be a simple fun epic tale set in space. They’re both valuable in different ways.
In the flashback episode we see that the first time the Jedi see the girls in the coven it is when one of the moms is violently pushing the girls onto the stone stairs. The girls could have had their heads cracked open. Even if they weren't force sensative, the jedi would have a right to be concerned for the girls' safety.
Fantastic analysis, breakdown, and summary of the MANY issues with this series. I agree with every single point and observation you made. Even with all of the plot holes, inconsistencies, poor character writing, etc…. I’ll probably be the most perplexed about where on God’s green earth did the 180 MILLION dollar budget go?!? It’s not even like the show had an A-list actor leading the charge who commanded a high salary.
I'd still say that The Last Jedi was worse than The Acolyte. The only good thing about The Last Jedi, is that it means The Holiday Special is no longer the worst thing to bear the Star Wars name.
I do agree and it's really TLJ that started all this subversion, deconstruction moral ambiguity crap in starwars off; Leslie Headland even said how she loved what Ruin Johnson did in his TLJ, and wanted to do her own "reylo" thing but complete it, which she did in her Acolyte.
@@MylesKillis Tbh sadly we had already lost Carrie Fisher in real life by that point, and Luke had been killed off in TLJ. I find it so funny though that all the new fans loved the idea of "Rey Nobody" and then JJ just comes in and makes her a "Palpatine" out of nowhere. In truth all 3 of the Sequels movies are kind of as bad as eachother, because TFA caused alot of lasting damage by killing off Han Solo, completely scuppering any chance of a actual *Reunion* for the Legacy characters.
the guy murdered several of her friends and she's like drooling on herself trying to figure out what is good and what is evil
more like she's drooling over the guy who literally just murdered her friends and stepfather
Not to mention Osha completely forgave her sister after trying to murder her and the other Jedi because...reasons...?
@@agzane268 it’s totally okay to kill people though if you weren’t going to get to hook up and scissor with them according to the superior moral standards of former long time personal assistant to Harvey Weinstein, Leslie Headland. Glad I saw this series or I’d still have the outdated notion that life was a precious thing to respect: that every human values their own life and it should be valued by others, you know that whole good and bad thing. Didn’t realize that the mean fascist Jedi were just oppressing the nice Sith that just want to be themselves and just, like, y’know kill who they want, when they want
"seduced by the dark side" taken literal gone wrong
He also did that like YESTERDAY in the story, and now because she saw him naked, she's in love and they watch the sunset together.
Harvey Weinstein's secretary made a show that says, "He's not evil, he just wants FREEDOM. The freedom to do whatever tf he wants, including murder. And he gets the girl in the end!" Sickening in context.
Hell, I tried defending things for a while, kind of... and being like, "Idk if she knew anything man. She only worked for him for a year? And I'm not convinced the show deserves all the hate it's getting PRE-release just because of that. Was the trailer GOOD?" But nah. The show came out and it deserves worse hate than it got lol.
I mean, not any death threats... attack the show's quality and maybe question the sanity of the SHOWRUNNER and Kathleen Kennedy for approving it and everybody who let it come out like this... but no death threats.
"Emotionally immature" might be the most succinct way of pinning down just what was wrong with The Acolyte.
It’s so accurate, but it triggers us to become emotional with how starwars is being abused. And our emotions don’t count unfortunately
there's also "shallow and pedantic"
💯💯💯
Don’t forget morally perverse
A whole generation grew up emotionally stunted cuz of all the constant validations, consolation prizes, and overprotection.
In the defense of the holiday special… it was only about $1 million (equivalent) dollars vs … 180 million for the Acolyte
And at least the holiday special is funny bad. The Acolyte is just depressing in how bad it is.
It was also the seventies and lots of drugs were involved in the writing room. 😂
@emanymtin713 I still believe there was badly laced cocaine in the writer's room for the Acolyte. How could anyone with a sane mind say about that script and the power of many scene that this would be seen as good?
@@fionarras4736 not a bad theory. Though delusion is also a powerful drug. Maybe both? Who knows.
Converted to today's value, the holiday special costs around 4-5 million. About 4,800,000 specifically.
According to Leslie, Sol deserves death for being presumptive/paternalistic with Osha, but Anissa gets a pass for pushing witchery on her over protests, Horn-Mom never has it acknowledged she physically abused Mae & started a fight with the Jedi unilaterally, and Mae herself never has to admit or get called out on being creepy/possessive towards her own sister, to the point of wanting to murder her before letting her have a life and identity beyond just being “Mae’s pushover twin”.
I think the whole “I will kill you” bit from Mae is so stupid and I can’t be convinced that it makes sense. I have a brother and we fought all the time growing up, never once have I had any inclination that I should kill him because he doesn’t think like me. Like seriously only a sociopath would write this shit and think it’s logical 😂
Heh. “Benign Patriarchy”. Oh how deep of a hole she keeps digging herself into.
She makes up words and misuse them for the betterment of not even herself, but of delusions and repression.
What she needs is a mental health care professional, but I’m afraid she might cause the professional to un!alive him or herself from the massive boulder of delusion Little Miss Headcase is packing.
@@epiczk0n141 Its sad how Leslie was going for a "Zuko and Azula" or "Vi and Jinx" vibe, except she literally starts Mae off with Force-choking a *butterfly* and threatening to murder Osha for leaving her. How juvenile is your writing that Princess "I'll burn a doll I don't like" Azula feels more subtly written than you?
Right there. You hit the nail on the head right there: the series never once even pretends like Mae’s extremely selfish and possessive behavior is anything but wanting to keep their “family” together, the witches are described as a literal *cult* and yet it’s the JEDI who are shown to be these creepy, evil monsters, and Osha immediately kills her mentor and father figure just because a “hot” guy told her to (all without ever cracking an expression, but let’s go by how the script presents this and assume the acting is a separate, isolated complaint). And, as you said, to really hammer home that the witches are pure evil (encouraging Mae to keep her twin sister isolated, gaslighting her into becoming a witch without her consent or input, Mae blaming Osha for murdering their family for the crime of wanting to have independence or individuality of any kind and immediately assuming the Jedi are evil without proof or cause and deserve death and abuse without a second of hesitation), Horn Mom [I’m not gonna bother looking up her name, I don’t care] forces Mae to tap into the Dark Side to try and kill everyone. Even if, even IF this story was better written and going off the idea of “the Jedi did a terrible thing by killing off a group of peaceful space witches”, they managed to make the Jedi look more sensible and cannibalize their own retconned lore within itself. This series has such a toxic view on morality that I’m actually floored they were even able to make it to 8 episodes, and literally no amount of gaslighting or shaming or temper tantrums is going to get this project a season 2. Even if they did: a) who’s gonna bother watching when they scared off or insulted the fans, and b) Leslie Headland and Amandla Stenberg have been pretty thoroughly branded box office poison and toxic to the point of corrosive, so nobody would touch anything with them with a yard stick and a fullbody radiation suit.
@@epiczk0n141when she said I will kill you I immediately thought that was sociopathic
At least the CW people I'd imagine knew what they were making & didn't think they were making anything other than what it was.
@@oisinm332 which was fun. But it also wasn't star wars. It's not unreasonable for people to expect consistency in their folk stories.
@@DJSockmonkeyMusic Exactly 💯
Fun fact: The CW never turned a profit. They literally spent $2 for every $1 they made.
You just made me remember the Batwoman show. That was atleast just hilarious to watch how bad it was. Well, the early season. After that it lost the unintentional hilarity.
@kregy7509 I apologise. Nobody should remember that train wreck.
I dunno, if someone said "everyone is sacrificed to fulfill their destiny" when there's a giant ominous pit involved, yeah I would assume they mean some kind of blood sacrifice. In general, the witches give off CONSTANT red flags, and somehow we're supposed to sympathize with them.
if you are an abusive, misandrist, maybe it would make sense?
That was always my biggest issue it seems like I’m supposed to sympathize with them. But I know so little about them and what I’m shown seems to indicate they are dark and controlling. I know the Jedi so I’m going to side with them
@horvathsogranfume658
it's not even entirely misandrist. because the lead Jedi of that group was a woman.
I know all the others are men, so maybe the misandry is just towards Sol and that other kid for rushing in to "save" the kids?
can't even get their own twisted message right because part of it contradicts what they're trying to say anyway. I guess it's just white people, so it's racist instead? but then the light whip lady is green so...
I cba with all the politics, I just focus on the story being shite.
Yeah that scene when the lesbian witch-mother turns into a smoke dragon-thing made me laugh. How else was Sol supposed to react?
Couple more observations to add to your excellent analysis: 1) How does a lightsaber whip leave whip marks and not just hack a person into bits? 2) How could any of these Jedi with such emotional instability and attachment to things go on to become Jedi Masters? Like what happened from Torbin being so homesick he rushes off and becomes easily manipulated by the witches, to where he is in such shame and guilt over it all he is in a powerful, force meditation done only by masters and waiting to die. In the sixteen years between, how did he possibly become a Jedi Master? Its like the time never passed. No one thought out where any of these characters went or what they did in that sixteen years. 3) When Mae is captured by Sol, the droid only opens one side of her bindings and then immediately she gets free without unlocking the other one. Her hand is locked down in one seen and then just free in the next. There is many moments in the show like this, with poor shot by shot errors and inconsistencies that show no one was paying attention to details.
Because the writers are lazy. They don't take Star Wars seriously. Also as you mentioned Torbin: i find this to be so incredibly irresponsible. This is a scene about manipulating someone into suicide. A topic very sensible. And how do they go about it? Well if you fell guilty, just kill yourself it is ok. No one says anything about first seeking help. And in the end they even try to justify the deed of Mae, and that includes using someones guilt to push him over the edge. Lucky the characters and the deliverance is so bad, it is more comical than tragic and so maybe nobody will get any ideas, but if something like this would happen I think Disney should be held accountable for this really irresponsible handling of such a serious topic.
Regarding the first point, I don't think it's unreasonable to assume he barely evaded the whip with the tip scarring his back. For the rest, however, I have nothing
And I was reminded of this show by the following passage from Mark Twain's essay "Fenimore Cooper's Further Literary Offenses":
"For instance [Cooper] allowed that astute and cautious person, Deerslayer-Hawkeye, to throw his rifle heedlessly down and leave it lying on the ground where some hostile lndians would presently be sure to find it-a rifle prized by that person above all things else in the earth-and the reader gets no word of explanation of that strange act. There was a reason, but it wouldn’t bear exposure. Cooper meant to get a fine dramatic effect out of the finding of the rifle by the Indians, and he accomplished this at the happy time; but all the same, Hawkeye could have hidden the rifle in a quarter of a minute where the Indians could not have found it.
"Cooper couldn’t think of any way to explain why Hawkeye didn’t do that, so he just shirked the difficulty and did not explain at all."
Well, to your first question, she is so dedicated to the whip that she keeps an actual whip handy just in case
This wasn't a star wars script at first, but was shoehorned into one.
Even the opening fight scene breaks the writing. Mae's largest issue with the Jedi is that she believes they harm and kill innocents. She kills a Jedi by attacking an innocent. This hypocrisy is never acknowledged by the characters in the story, the story itself, or even any of the interviews.
Imagine if Mae instead only attacked Indara, and when someone is in danger, both of them leave themselves vulnerable to save them, then both look over at the other in surprise. Imagine if they took the base ideas of the story and were competent.
Mae's issue is with these specific four Jedi whom she believes killed her family.
@@hoos3014 Eh, seemed she disliked the Jedi in general for the specific actions of those 4 Jedi that she blamed for killing her "innocent" cult. Her hit list was definitely those 4, but her dialogue indicated that she believed them to be representative of the Jedi overall.
That she was fighting someone she claims/believes actively kills innocents and her response is to take any amount of attention off of her to attack an innocent is character breaking. That Indara dies from such a simple misdirection is stupid, but more importantly should shake Mae's belief and conviction but instead does nothing. That the supposed murderer Indara died to save a rando should raise questions.
@@hoos3014Well even if she thought specific Jedi were bad that was who she was fighting. Yet she never acts surprised that Jedi Master Matrix is diverted by an attack on a bystander.
@@fd502 I don't get what you're saying. Mae uses diversion and trickery to defeat Indara because she knows she cannot beat her in a straight one on one fight.
@@hoos3014 It's not complex.
Mae accuses a Jedi of killing the unarmed and innocent, yet she throws a weapon at an innocent as a means to distract and kill that Jedi.
Her accusation seemed heartfelt. Why did she then partially disarm herself on a bet like that? If she had been right about the Jedi, all she'd have accomplished would have been a dead bystander and giving her opponent an advantage.
Additionally, she always believed that "The Jedi are bad!" to quote her, word by word. Well before she ever encountered them, no less. She was raised with that belief.
This show just mirrors the maturity of its creators.
Cluster-Bs gonna Cluster-B.
As does the Disney trilogy. What a catastrophic monstrosity of feminism.
@@beestingza Whatever they are has long perverted feminism the way they pervert the Star Wars franchise
31:33
Reminds me of some people that all have certain beliefs
@@zemufinman1639 If this is a political statement, just be a little more clear about it, since it could come from both sides the same (if correct or not). I know the path to the dark side in real life -- do you?
The only star wars that did well with moral ambiguity was Andor. But that's because it wasn't dark side and light side it was just people and their upbringing
Andor was also still capable of having villains, but the villains more so took the form of an institution. The Empire itself is presented as cruel and Fascist, breaking morally ambiguous characters that you can sometimes even root for. Grinding people up for it's own purposes. It's possible to do moral complexity while having good guys and bad guys, something more people need to learn.
@@pancakes8670 the way they masterfully get us to root for dedra Meero before revealing how evil she actually is was such a great display of character writing. And I think the writing of Syril is greatly underappreciated. We have a guy who yeah works for the empire but when you consider his upbringing it's totally understandable that he would see the empire as a good thing. From his perspective it's justice and safety and the rebellion is not. He doesn't follow the empire because he's evil he follows it because as far as he's aware the empire are the good guys.
what did you expect from the assistant of THAT man? blurring the lines between light and dark is on brand, as is being terrible
I'd say that Disney and most of Hollywood in general is on the dark side but radiating canned light as a ruse. It may have fooled people before, but we now see the shoddily taped on LEDs beginning to peel away at an embarrassing pace.
OK but she isn't him. Just an awful show person
@@ADragon-gi9mrBirds of a feather flock together 😂
@@epiczk0n141 so you have all the worst things in common with everyone you're near? 😂
@@ADragon-gi9mr Probably lol
I mean...one thing is the fictional story of star wars, but having REAL LIFE PEOPLE not understand good and evil and actually saying that evil is "cooler" is real concerning 😐😐😐
Yeah it feels like they looking at things as surface level and ignoring the consequences of evil.
They are not real life people. They are zombies from Hollywood lala land.
@@jaieregilmore971 I would understand if they said something like "the DESIGN of evil characters is cool" (because lets face it: Siths usually look way cooler than the Jedis), but for them to say that they like evil and they feel represented by it is really bad 😂 its like saying someone like Hitler or Fidel Castro represents you.
I feel wokeism doesnt understand good or bad, they just understand that they can do whatever they want without consecuences and without laws.
@@rafaelcastro2591 I would argue Luke in return of the Jedi proves that Jedi can wear cool clothing but yeah I agree too bad they don’t realize that the Sith are just a bunch of edgy teenagers who will never be satisfied once they have what they want and while the Jedi are the responsible adults.
@@rafaelcastro2591
And I'm using the character of Wilhuff Tarkin in a comparison on the deceptiveness of appearances. The little-known early-Sixties fantasy character Brak the Barbarian (whom I only know about from a collection of vintage sci-fi and fantasy magazines) looks the part of a barbarian warrior, but is a gentleman through and through, and has an actual moral compass and is very much a civilized warrior. Tarkin, meanwhile, looks the part of a civilized warrior, but fits Chesterton's definition of "the true savage" as someone who "laughs when he hurts you, and howls when you hurt him", irrespective of race, ethnicity, or relative technological or cultural sophistication.
So by this shows logic is Hitler was just a misunderstood vegetarian.
With Germany playing the leading role in the progressive world, that is not totally out of the question.
yes, but hitler would have to be a woman #girlboss
Fun fact, he actually was a vegetarian, a absolutely disgusting and horrible person but still a vegetarian
@@polishscribe674 I don’t know, Germany despises Nazis, and will never let anyone deny the Holocaust. They willingly atone. Also, they invented Bratwurst, one of the few things I could eat growing up, so I can’t stay too mad.
@@JacksonVoet but Germany tends to rewrite history to deny their responsibility.
"No, it wasn't the Germans who committed all these atrocities. It were nazis, a small fanatic group."
Or better, blame coutries THEY OCCUPIED for doing all these things. They unironically say things like "polish death camps" and do other things to make it seem like this genocide wasn't a systematic operation carried out by the German state.
It was terrible fan fiction told badly. And it deserves every ounce of derision it gets.
they paid her 180 mil for the fan fiction 😂
@@horvathsogranfume658 my fanfiction is unironically better
(especially emotionally)
Correction: It was "the power of one, the power of two, the power of LENNY" - it clearly meant Lenny Leonard from The Simpsons, of course.
And than they have the nerve to say that witch chants in general are cringe when Heilung exists... I kinda hate when Americans do witches. It's like they have this caricature of a witch and don't go even searching for good inspirational material...
Tf even were those abominations in the series. Black witches don't really work anyways. I'm sorry it's European folklore, I don't see witches i see shamans because that's what witches were to european people. Just the female druids aka healers and leaders. It's like doing a white shaman without the DEI implication but it just feels as weird
I thought it was the "power of Penny" from The Big Bang Theory.
Our russian friends can fix this shit:
The power of blyat,
The power of pisdez,
The power of cykaaaaa
"Lenny" from "Laverne and Shirley" is more powerful.
Correction of correction: it was drunk Arthur Morgan wanting to find Lenny
0:15 At least Carrie Fisher was drunk when she did this; what excuse does "The Acolyte" have...?
Horrible series, great analysis.
The “pitch meeting“ nailed it. “Couldn’t they have cleared up the misunderstanding with one sentence?“
“Yes, but… Without misunderstandings, there wouldn’t even be a show.”
It's not even that... Misunderstanding is there to make them easily redeemable.
Imagine if osha actually kills their mom and mei mei actually kills innocents
It just SCREAMS how twisted the writer's/director's moral standards are.
That's Hollywood for ya'
thats actually scary to think about
straight from the mind of Harvey Weinstein´s personal assistant...
@@nf5011which seems like a massive red flag
@@kreigguardsman3355 That's an understatement, my friend.
To add insult to injury, Vernestra Rwoh is a character from the High Republic novels. They've kind of pulled a Jake Skywalker with her, as her personality and motives don't really match what we know about her. They got all the superficial details right: The species and gender, the purple lightwhip, the discomfort with hyperspace (due to visions), and she was a prodigy, so her being a Master makes a lot of sense. She even kept secrets for no adequately explained reasons!
(Listen, she's not a great character. I don't care for her in any iteration. But a lot of High Republic fans do like her, so changing her to fit this script is still disrespectful.)
But she was also empathetic and didn't process politics very well. She's very hands-on. And it would take a **lot** to make her slash someone in the back. Can't think of a reason right now. Plus her story in the High Republic novels is still being written, so jumping ahead about a century is a wild choice.
As an aside, the Stranger's cover name was Qimir, which sounds like an off-brand Organization XII (Kingdom Hearts) scramble of Imri, the name of Vernestra's padawan in the novels. There are many reasons why it probably isn't Imri (Imri is a bit oafish looking, blonde, and a very sweet person, and a human who would be over a hundred at this point), but this show is pretty nonsensically written. I wouldn't be surprised if that was meant as a season two reveal.
I love Vern in the books. It feels almost mean spirited to use her like this and basically ruin/spoil her whole plot line for us book readers.
Honestly this show is bad introduction to high republic Jedi I’m not the fan of the era but I get the concept of it but the point is people was marketing this era as the Jedi at their best but in this show they don’t act like Jedi at all they feel like children playing with lightsabers.
Also unpopular opinion I prefer the prequel Jedi over the high republic Jedi.
@@jaieregilmore971 the Jedi in this show are nothing like the High Republic Jedi in the books. They are a little more relaxed about certain things, like turning a blind eye to padawans exploring brief romances, but they are highly moral, hard working, and professional.
@@dancingdragon3 I take your word for it no matter the flaws they have I’m still on team Jedi there ideals isn’t wrong. This show made the Jedi fools it just so baffling that they get easily killed off like that by qimir people use the explanation that they haven’t fought anybody with lightsaber before but it just seems like a bad excuse. Not really a fan of the hight republic era but there is one character I like/interested in is Porter Engle at least his younger self in the Blade comic down to his design and his lightsaber is slick looking.
Using the same logic, just imagine how it frustrates fans when they try to destroy everyone from Luke to Yoda. And they try to destroy George Lucas and accuse him of being a woman hater etc. It's shameful and they want everyone to accept it blindly.
This show is a glimpse into the thought processes of a sociopath.
The biggest mystery of this show is how Torbin went from a crappy apprentice to a Master in 6 years. The flashback is 16 years and he's in the Barash Vow meditation for 10 of those. No way he went from apprentice to Master in 6 years.
It's ironic that they made one of the like two named white male characters in the show and inadvertently made him *the* most overpowered Jedi in all of existence
In their world victimhood is power. He was mindravaged and from that pain they let him have that power knowing he will off himself via white guilt...
Toxic little bunch aren't they?
@@jasonalen7459his only rival is Rey in that regard, she went from nothing to super master even quicker
The thumbnail captured the 0.001% of the actress wasn't using a blank stare
Yeah lol
Bro probably had to spent an entire day looking for a non-blank expression for the thumbnail
The Ewok movies were Shakespeare compared to The Acolyte
So was the kriffing _Glove of Darth Vader_ arc.
Genuinely. They are actively better written than this show as well as more enjoyable.
@@KororaPenguinomg you just unlocked a core memory. I remember reading those books in middle school and being like, uh, ok 😅
@@streetman23
And comparing anything favorably to _The Acolyte_ is damning with faint praise.
as a complete outsider to star wars and this series, the cheapening of vader via the "vergence" (or w/e) is what stands out to me. the disrespect and lack of creative effort has really become a western thing in my mind.
What’s crazy about this response, which to be clear I LOVE your comment, is that there are “fans” out there who probably consume even less Star Wars than you do, who will confidently assert that you’re a bigot with a passionate hatred for the franchise for this position. The discourse around Star Wars is so broken thanks to this show
Well it just triples down on shitting on Star Wars.
Not only does the skywalker family’s struggles and successes mean nothing since “Rey ahcktually defeated the emperor.” this shit makes them not even special to begin with.
Disney managed to make everything pointless
@@epiczk0n141 *thanks to Kathleen Kennedy. I was never the staunchest fan of the Star wars franchise, but all of this discourse started with the disney trilogy. Op hits the nail on the head with the vader thing tho. I dont understand why the helmet for every sith is becoming a thing when it was just for vader, a man who was figuratively and literally transformed by his pride and anger.
There's symbolism there but the idea of sith never felt like it was just becoming an Evil "version" of yourself. Yet here we are with people whom barely understand the IP
@@epiczk0n141not really
I don’t think so
Any Star Wars project that demonizes the Jedi and makes the Sith look sympathetic is not Star Wars at all.
In the grander scope of Star Wars, I view The Acolyte as an _exercise_ in sympathy for the Sith, rather than a total retcon of everything that came before.
Protagonists need not always be heroes. It is possible to _empathize_ with someone (see and relate to their perspective) without having to _sympathize_ with their cause.
The series paints a clear picture of how the Jedi Order necessarily divorced itself from its ideals (that is, if its ideals were even healthy or sustainable to begin with) in having to function as an institution; leaving in their wake a moral vacuum that the Sith are clearly unable to fill. Leslye Headland has made clear she views the dark side more in terms of Jung’s shadow than as the consummate evil it is elsewhere unambiguously depicted as - the character of The Stranger embodied this when he said “I’ve embraced my darkness - what have you done with yours?”
This series does not condemn the Jedi as worse than the Sith, but rather makes the case that the Jedi are constitutionally unable to _refute_ the Sith.
I reject the framing of the light side as temperance and the dark side as indulgence, and it seems Headland may as well. In positioning themselves as a reaction to and negation of the Jedi Order and Jedi code, the Sith fail to _transcend_ the Jedi, to grow beyond the Jedi, to think outside the box that the Jedi created for themselves. The Stranger himself unwittingly implied this in saying “I don’t make the rules; the Jedi do.”
Whatever could better replace the Jedi Order (and thus obsolesce the Sith) has yet to appear in canon, though in my mind its representation/depiction is a loose thread that Star Wars would be immeasurably better off if it were to mend.
To quote Luke Skywalker, “to say that if the Jedi die, the light dies, is vanity.”
I cannot stress how much I agree with you
@@robynsun_loveStating that the Dark Side isn't indulgence is actively ignorant of the lore. The Dark Side always begins as selfishness, which necessitates self indulgence. Even the Acolyte drunkenly stumbled into that truth.
@@robynsun_love I disagree and you sound like one of those Grey Jedi proponents.
@@robynsun_love Leslie making up her own definition of The Dark Side of the Force after 40 years of dozens of writers expanding on it doesn't make her viewpoint valid. This isn't real life. This is a fictional world and the Dark Side IS, by definition, the Will of the Force overwhelming a person's ability to function in normal human society, by preying on their emotions and motivations.
You can't just circle jerk a new definition.
Besides that, the Jedi are the designated heroes of this story because their job is to keep order and peace in the Republic. That cannot be taken away from them and ANY story that would look to demonize them for doing their JOB is inherently against the whole functional purpose of the story.
We are not illiterate.
We appreciate a good story with a morally grey protagonist. One who doesn't even like Jedi or the Republic.
Heir to the Empire, Thrawn.
The Mandalorian.
Andor.
Boba Fett.
We aren't stupid.
We know what villain protagonists and heroic antagonists are. This show wasn't trying to write a heroic antagonist. It was trying to demonize the Jedi. By making a story about Force witches we are supposed to sympathize with, by insisting they are oppressed, and then immediately saying the Jedi Order and Trinity's character were perfectly willing to let them raise their daughters and it was "one lone wolf" who was so scared of them that he pushed to take them away. That is not systematic oppression. That is literally the narrative of the people who don't WANT to do the hard work of addressing racism or oppression in institutions. "We weren't the problem, that was one bad apple and we dealt with him, so stop protesting." Not all cops, indeed.
And you can't circle jerk that away with quotes from Jung or talk of transcending.
This show was an admitted self insert fanfiction for the author. Food for thought
“JOHN, YOU ARE THE ACOLYTE!”
And then John was the Acolyte.
If man say him a ting then him a ting innit
Where's a cyberdemon to fire the rocket missiles when you need him?
At least the Holiday Special has some camp value to it. It makes a good double feature with the Paul Lynde Halloween Special
It is a great bonus movie for a bad movie night
Not to mention the animated portion with Boba Fett, which has long been considered the jewel in that show.
@ajourneythroughcinema1271 there's just something special about 1970s variety shows I've always enjoyed. It's fun to see which character actors will show up
@@ajourneythroughcinema1271 One thing I love about this series is the PROMOTION of black women and Asian men together. I live in South Africa and we are very much Kpop and KDrama stans. We have had a surge in Asian men moving here and it's a delight that we can find common ground to start dates with.
Throw the Kiss movie in there for s triple
The Star Wars Holiday Special was a campy, self-aware, 1970s parody variety show filled with B-list celebrity cameos and musical numbers. In retrospect, it's a hilarious good time, never taking itself too seriously.
It's _leagues_ more enjoyable than this show. Not even a contest.
I think you got it down well. Holiday Special was an almost playful late 70s thing, almost tongue in cheek, weird and cheap but funny for precisely those reasons, and almost cute in how it played with existing characters. It was almost like a psychedelic comedy skit for the occasion of a holiday season, and it sure as all hell didn't try to pretend it was the next entry in Star Wars, it was a funny side episode that existed to cash in on holidays. Acolyte, on the other hand, takes itself dead seriously and sincerely thinks it's redefining Star Wars in a better way. In a way, both Holiday Special and Acolyte are products of their times... it's just that times didn't change for the better in media, the simple fun is gone and pretense is in.
It was also a rushed project, this was years in development.
I watched it a few weeks ago and I'm certain many cast members were super high during taping. Definitely Carrie Fisher and Mark Hammill looks like he's tripping balls too.
I myself would like to know what he means by “Ewok movie-level bad”. Does he mean ROTJ, and if so, why? I know it’s generally considered the weakest of the Original Trilogy films, but it’s still better than this, right? And what’s with all the hatred for Ewoks anyway? I thought that was already on its way out once people decided that they hated Jar-Jar Binks more.
@@eeyorehaferbock7870 there were some made for TV ewok movies back I the 80's. They were low quality.
It does strain credulity that the council , having already ruled that Osha is too old to train, would change their minds, give that now she has massive emotional trauma, centered on the very attachments that concerned them in the first place.
Zoom out to what's supposed to be the criticism of the Jedi in this story, its weaksauce criticism to say that the Jedi are actually a condescending and oppressive arm of the Republic that stamps out any use of the Force that isn't authorized by their dogma... and then clearly show the Jedi Council perfectly willing to allow Mae and Osha to be trained by Force Witches, to then only adopt them after their mothers have died, and then to let Osha GO when she chooses to quit. LOL... So oppressive.
That $180 million would've better been spent on therapy sessions for Leslie
I am genuinely curious if they is a cost break down out there somewhere.
The perfect review. This show should not have been bad. Plain and simple.
Headland confirmed in an interview that evil smoke mom was doing a double kill on herself and mae with the evil smoke monster thing-"turning herself and mae into the force 'without dying'", when 'become one with the force' was literally used in this series as a euphemism for death, with Jecki being strangely pleased about it (talking about that bug that was cut in half). So not only was Sol understandable in his snap second decision to strike the smoke demon, he was objectively right in doing so...though given both twins are evil, maybe he should have let them die.
one final knife twist about Mae in the final episode-not only is the memory wipe thing extremely stupid (and others have pointed out that it's lazy plot convenience that would still leave her with her memory of trying to kill her sister and the thing on brendok), Venestra decides to unilaterally have Mae's crimes forgiven and ignored because Mae claims she doesn't remember doing them...after Venestra decided to pin the blame on everything for Sol, no matter how stupid that is given how many different iron alibis he has for most of the killings, and the stupid beaver thing having been there the entire time and having seen everything
The smoke demon thug was utterly baffling to me. I couldn’t figure out what the freaking heck she was trying to do-she was trying to make them one with the force? Why? Can you tell me what interview his was?
I should probably stop thinking about this dumb show.
@@nickdriscoll6131 from the nerdist 'THE ACOLYTE’s Leslye Headland on Episode 7, Witches, Vergences, Qui-Gon, and Anakin' article. Along with the nonsense about the smoke demon crap, there's a bunch of other mind bogglingly dumb stuff she has to say about the episode and other things in the series
I swear it feels like they’re purposely destroying Star Wars and mocking while doing so
disney is a culture vulture
The best way to tell him I'm letting her go with him is to suddenly turn myself into a scary smoke creature.
Disney has tried very hard to make the Prequel Trilogy look as good as humanly possible
Your spluttering over "thirst-trap" was so relatable 😂😂
I watched this entire video and I have to say that I agree with you on all counts. Your CW analogy was spot on. I don't know how many times I've watched Arrow or The Flash and just begged the characters to have a conversation. I also enjoyed the first 2 episodes. I actually enjoyed the 3rd episode as well. It was episode 4 that broke me. That moment that Mae just pulls a 180 OUT OF NOWHERE was the moment I realized there was no redeeming it. Also, I couldn't believe that an 8 episode show had the audacity to have a filler episode. Now I will admit that episode 5 had me locked in until we start getting back to the story and then it was back downhill from there. If someone enjoyed the show I have no issues with that. That's their right but as for me I just can't accept the terrible writing of the show. Great work on this video!
Nooo.... It's good writing... Why can't you see that? Don't you want "show, don't tell"? /jk XD
Every time someone defends Ep.4, they use this half-hearted attempt of saying Mae pulling a 180 makes sense because she just thought about it in her head and came to a conclusion that made sense based on information from the last episode (technically, ep 2). And I always point out to them that a story is about *cause and effect*. Why didn't she reach this conclusion to turn herself in DURING the episode where she learned her sister was alive? What functional purpose does it make to run away from someone you want to be near, then decide later to be near them, them resist them again, then swap clothing and leave them again to chase Sol, then threaten to kill Sol, then decide not to, then listen to a history story you were present for, and THEN tell Osha that Sol killed Mama?
A story is cause and effect. What cause led to any of these effects? You can't insist a character can just think to themselves and do differently than ANY OTHER ACTION they'd performed thus far. It is a FUNDEMENTAL aspect of suspension of disbelief that characters don't DO that. Bad writers and people who support them think they are being witty or clever by having characters "act like people." Oh, Mae is just being indecisive, but that's how people act, so its okay. No. Noooo. Its not a real thriller if people can suddenly have killing intent towards each other and then just as suddenly NOT in the next freakin' scene!
Ngl, enjoying even the first three episodes sounds baffling
I noped out of both The Flash and Arrow. Both when the 'love interest' (aka insufferable bint) complained 'wHY diDN'T yoU tElL mE' to create relationship melodrama. Arrow even had a stupid love-triangle IIRC. And love-triangles need to be included in the Geneva code of war crimes.
The lightsaber fights are honestly the worst in the franchise. Most of the fight is obscured to hide how bad it is. Actors swinging at nothing to make it look like something is happening. Lightsabers are swung at each other rather than trying to hit their opponent. Kicking instead of using a lightsaber to attack openings. It's no better than the first time two kids pretend to be Jedi by swinging sticks at each other.
I've seen children that duel better than the "jedi" in the acolyte
Degredation of standards. The disney trilogy at least tried
Stop the 🧢
That’s all fights except Hayden’s fights
The sand scene is NOT bad dialogue. I hate people keep claiming that it is. It was very clever, that annakin could see sand and not have it remind him of his traumatizing childhood. Padme brought up loving her planet's beaches, and annakin was like , "yeah, i actually like them too. Crazy, i never thought I'd be able to put aside my past pain of living as s slave on an awful planet". As flirting, it was a bit awkward, but he was raised to be a celebate monk. The dialogue and even the acting for that scene was not bad.
It was horrific, "worst case scenario" dialogue. Even George Lucas himself admits he's not good at writing it.
@@hoos3014 it's highly memeable but not that bad in context
No, its pretty fucking bad.
At least, there was thought behind it. It could have been better with another rewrite or delivery, but there's at least consistent character reasoning behind it.
If the subtext can't travel to the viewer because the viewer projectile-vomits out of pure cringe, the dialogue is pretty fucking bad.
0:05 I may go so far to say this is the worst piece of media ever created
Worse than two girls one cup.
@@EventualWarlordand rise of skywalker?
@@fbiagent..Rise of Palpatine is great ragebait, Acolyte is just boring crap.
Borderlands (2024).
Doctor in distress? I love it because it's so bad, but acolyte is just... Bad. Ya know? Can't like it.
100% agree with this premise. Immature with a smatteing of arrogance without self reflection.
A cult with questionable motives toward children is invaded by the authorities, and a mysterious fire breaks out killing everyone....
I wonder if the creators of this show even realize they made a Star Wars show about Waco?
Preaching to the choir, brother. Plot contrivances that depended on miscommunication and melodrama is the exact definition of this show. I actually think there are some good things about The Acolyte, but they wasted all those good things on being lazy and not writing or executing logically connected ideas. I think it is the worse show I have seen in the last 24 years, not because of my expectation but because of the quality of the story. Nothing made sense within the world of the show or outside. There was no high but a lot of lows and confusion. Great video!
28:55 I have a terrible feeling that the reason Mae doesn't go with them, but gets mindwiped is a cheap "setup" for a Revan type of arc, where Revan was a Jedi, got corrupted to a Sith, lost his memory and was used by the Jedi to become one again and then got his memories back and fell to the semi-dark side. Leslie Headland has mentioned being a fan and doing a series on KOTOR. So obviously, Mae is going to be used by the oh so mean Jedis to become a jedi and fight against Osha and then get her memory back or something, Idk. Hey, she might even be the one to kill Qimir so that Plagueis doesn't have to and the rule of two is respected.....
So youre saying she wanted to copy both Anakin’s and Revan’s stories? 😂
@@RegularFlyGuy Sure feels like it LMAO
So she *is* a KOTOR fan! I was wondering if she was one considering the storyline she attempted.Cause I faintly remember there was a similar story in that era of Jedi taking children en masse and I wondered if she attempted to take inspiration from that but failing to execute it properly.
Wait, that was the highest image quality holiday special I have seen. I must find that.
Emotional Immaturity, I see it, much like Nu-Trek or modern Star Trek.
I would rather watch the Star Wars holiday special on repeat for a week straight, then watch 1 episode of the Acolyte.
Same I've never even watched the Acolyte I saw that hot-mess coming a mile off like a year before it was gonna come out; but I'd rather have sticks put in my eyelids to keep them open and made to watch the holiday special on repeat for a whole week, then watch the Acolyte pos
At least with the holiday special, you can...PRETEND like you're having fun, worst case scenario
I could never explain why CW stuff felt like for younger folks, but it always did. ‘Emotionally Immature’ is the PERFECT phrase to explain it. Fantastic analysis bro
This isn't the adaptation you are looking for...
I just found this channel and I gotta say, it's refreshing to find someone who actually understands the nuts and bolts of storytelling take this show to task. So much of the commentary around this show is either shallow and vapid or toxic and hateful, with both approaches involving little to no analysis of why the story and characters fail on a fundamental level. Anyways, thank you for the great breakdown - looking forward to more from this channel!
wow someone who gives real reasons why it's bad and not just says "woke"
thx for the video
we got high bar Star Wars reviews before gta6
The CW shows may have had miscommunication and cheap drama, but at least they had likable characters in their shows that made the audience come back despite the otherwise questionable quality of the shows. I don't see that in the Acolyte...
I’d agree with that.
Definitely going to name my kid Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
“Emotionally immature” is just a reflection of the writers/director behind it
I think they are definitely worse than Ewok movie bad. Those movies were for very little kids and worked for that demographic. I remember wearing out the VHS for the first Ewok movie because my brother and I loved that movie as kids. It at least had heart, even if it felt more like an Action movie version of the Muppets.
Hilarious when you said "Oh my God, I'm using the prequels as good examples," because I thought the same thing when I did it whilst discussing Acolyte with a friend. Like, when you're making the Prequels looks masterfully crafted...that really speaks volumes. "Emotional immaturity" is actually, surprisingly, very astute. When you break it down here, the entire witch massacre was brought on by two groups being utterly idiotic children. The witches are prejudice against Jedi, this causes them to instantly jump to conclusions and be immediate aggressors...but we're supposed to sympathize and identify with them? The Jedi stalk the group and behave...erratic. When the Mother should be deescalating the situation, instead she decides to suddenly just become a spooky ghost monster for seemingly no apparent reason because...why not? And we're supposed to be appalled that Sol skewered her? To any rational person, why WOULDN'T he? She looks like she's on the attack, why the hell would she randomly decide that it's a fantastic time to turn into the smoke monster from Lost? She caused the massacre...a complete idiot. My greatest walk away from this was...What was the intent? What am I INTENDED to feel here? ...because hell if I know. Am I SUPPOSED to think the Jedi are bad? Because with everything as portrayed, I don't. In fact, I COMPLETELY understand why Sol stabbed the Mother. Am I supposed to feel bad for the Witches? Because I don't. They were completely the aggressors, psychopathically violent for seemingly no apparent reason when the Mother herself said she was willing to even give one of the children. COOL...then what's the problem? Seemingly how I'm intended to feel is the literal opposite of how everything was portrayed, somewhat ousting Headland as a potential sociopath incapable of recognizing unethical behavior and taking accountability for it. And that's the thing here: if the intent was to walk away thinking Jedi are institutionally "bad," the witches were sincerely "innocent," you're failed, because many of us felt the exact opposite.
Imagine when you were young, somebody telling you that someday in the future Star Wars movies will be made by people who say they would choose a red light saber because the dark side is "cooler".
You know I thought that way Because the writer seems to be immature. I understand because I am immature and it has taken me a long time to learn stuff and I am 55 and I still am learning but, when it comes to Star Wars they need mature writers but ones that understand the universe fun and humor. I think she was projecting her political and sexual stance on the characters rather than letting the characters be characters for the story.
This is some really solid analysis. I especially appreciate you calling The Acolyte what it was: soap opera targeted to a young female audience. When you look at the show like that, you realize that the show isn't actually all that terrible on delivering a soapy, strung-out storyline where heartthrobs are more valuable than storytelling. But if we look at The Acolyte as a soap opera, it sadly still fails in two important ways.
1) It didn't advertise itself as a soap opera. All the articles and press junkets attempted to paint The Acolyte as an elevation or continuation of the pre-existing Star Wars universe - not as a fun, stupid soap. It was supposed to be dealing with the dark side; seduction; the failure of the jedi theology - all themes that were pitched as mature and grown-up to a SW fanbase that is ~85% comprised of 20's-40's males. And in the end, the show is the exact opposite, which pissed off that largely male fanbase who was interested in a darker, Sith-oriented storyline. But I 100% believe that if Lucasfilm and the Leslye Headland had actually been honest in what their show was and who it was for, then so much of the online rancor would never have occurred. Heck, this cottage industry of YT video essays would never have picked up on it. It would have just been a mediocre show with a small, but devoted fanbase. Well, if it weren't for one other flaw.
2) There is no consistent morality to this world. The Jedi attempt to act as peacekeepers, but are punished within the narrative for their 'insolence' - even though the Jedi did not try to fight the coven, nor do they start the fire. Sol is faulted for not being open and intimate with Osha, yet his closeness to her is also condemned as being creepy or overbearing. Smilo Ren is evil for massacring Osha's friends, but Osha immediately sees him as worth pitying/loving just because he was hurt by his master once. For some reason, the Jedi see their interactions with the witch coven as wrong and worthy of shame/obfuscation, even though they did nothing wrong. Characters' moralities seem to flip-flop on a dime, and yet are only ever punished for their noble intentions - not for their objectively evil actions. In the end, The Acolyte seems concerned about labelling the _characters themselves_ as "evil" or "good," regardless of the morality of each character's _actions._ It makes every single character seem like a complete hypocritical idiot, and leaves the viewer utterly bewildered on who they should be rooting for.
Very much agreed.
Hey, I would DEFINITELY rewatch the Ewok movies before Acolyte! You take back that heresy right now, sir! 😝
Well... definitely Battle for Endor (which is solidly mid). Caravan of Courage... is a tougher sit I'll grant. (But it did have the kick ass lumberjack Ewok who makes up for a lot with his sheer badassery.)
thats when you call your IP a grand space opera for 40 years and someone thought "put some soap between the space and the opera". believed to be dead evil twin is such a soap opera trope that I think its only used in comedys as a quick joke about bad/campy storytelling. (mark instead of eyepatch though)
You nailed it. Way worse than vampire diaries and other cw shows because it is STAR WARS! It's a universe!!!
It can't be worse than TLJ which subverted expectations so hard it derailed the Disney Star Wars canon.
It's worse by technical virtue of being the ultimate result that spawned from TLJ...
Ironically, I see what they were trying to do with TLJ: Show that the heroes of the past can (And did) make mistakes. The problem is they wound up undermining Luke’s character.
@@TF2Fan101 I don't believe for a moment that Rian Johnson cared... And it's not just inner working politics either...
Rian Johnson is the "Big dick on campus" energy... It's that simple... And he was paid millions from the biggest franchise on Earth...
Everything Cathy was giving Rian, Rian was ALSO adding his own spin because he wanted to surpass J.J. in name recognition...
I know somewhere Rian flat out admitted he simply didn't care...
@@Videogeek95That’s just how I see it.
And honestly, it frustrates me that Abrams gets saddled with all the blame. Does he bear some responsibility? Sure, but I seriously doubt he was the main problem.
@@TF2Fan101 I was... Attacking Rian Johnson...?
Your review opened me for the idea that ADHD teens may love the show. So much action, constant flipping sides, passionate venture without a second of thought
Sadly for Disney - that's bad for business as such audiences is limited - not much profit and additionally, those teens are to distracted to last for all 8 episodes scattered across two months show time.
If it was 90min. cinema show it could earn some profit
ADHD does not magically make you enjoy shite
I have ADHD. We have more intelligence than that lol
@wannabehistorian371 Yeah, I may have ADHD but I'm not a moron
Thank you for giving a comprehensive overview of why it’s horrible. Too many people are focused on demographics
The Acolyte literally only had one good scene that I liked and it’s when the dude head butted the lightsaber with his Beskar or whatever turns off light sabers. That shit was dope
Yeah 😂
Tbh all the fights between Sol & Qimir are more interesting than the story.
literally feels like a Supernatural Episode...but that would be saying something worse about Supernatural, which I think did things a LOT BETTER
no matter how bad the plots get at least the brothers and the other chars are always nice to see and follow, same cant be said about any star wars show or new movies.
Tjis is the best essay I've seen on this series here on UA-cam. You nailed the problems in the head. People who can't human very well don't write great stories, as it turns out.
Sora and Riku did the opposite character arcs first
OMG...CW, teen angst, immature. This is exactly what this show was, thank you for verbalizing that!
I would still place Holiday Special higher. It had a relatively proper cause and effect compared. A lot of what happening is terrible and poorly acted but still ahead of acolyte
I keep finding smaller channels that make high quality content like this guy. Keep it up!!!
Headlump's real thinking: "I don't like SW. Let's turn it into something else." A year later... "I can't imagine why SW fans don't love this."
I do not know how Disney with reviews like this can still blame sexism and racism for the bad reviews.
Jason = Qimar
Blink and you'll miss it name.
Great video - especially the Light vs Dark theme critique and the emotional immaturity is a great way to describe the character writing.
EXCELLENT summary. Your commentary is hilarious and sensible.
Disney: easily makes one of the best TV seasons of the year with X-Men '97, and one of the worst with the Acolyte.
Thanos: Perfectly balanced as all things should be.
I've genuinely seen better writing in some of the worst seasons of Power Rangers, than in this show. Also, for all the people who say "tHE jEDi kIdNAp cHIlDrEN sO tHEy'rE bAD" I think those people completely miss the point, and that you the Jedi ask the parents for permission to take the children (referring to what is clearly shown in the Phantom Menace), and you can leave the order any time you like, as Ashoka did.
0:46 A Journey Through Cinema: Trashes the CW including the Arrowverse, and says their plots rely heavily on contrivances.
Madvocate: You've made me so proud... I'm not crying you're crying.
3:34 Yay that's what they call them now.
4:25 Don't ask questions just consume the product and get excited for the next product.
15:26 Poe Damron would be proud.
16:39 This is basically a Scooby-Doo mystery where "pLoT tWISts iT'S tHE oNLy cHARaCTeR iT cOUlD Be" expect Scooby-Doo is made for children, this genuinely thinks it'll be a surprise for adults.
22:07 I love how the showrunner Leslie Handland kept going on about how awful Sol is even though the fight and the reason why the mother died was purely on her not Sol BECAUSE SHE ATTACKED HIM FOR NO REASON AT ALL AND SOL WAS JUST ACTING IN SELF-DEFENSE.
29:11 Yeah, well the force is magic so they don't need to explain it... I actually wouldn't be surprised if the writers thought that.
29:27 Speaking of Scooby-Doo I genuinely think most Scooby-doo mysteries are better than this one.
To quote Steve Harvey yes sirre thought about killing myself.
A large part of the fanbase don't really understand the Jedi. They claim that George was saying in the prequels the Jedi were a horrible institution, but George actually called them the "most moral of anyone in the galaxy" who were put in a hard situation. And in the Star Wars universe, the Jedi before Palpatine were so respected that parents wanted their children to become Jedi, so the kidnapping thing has really gotten out of hand.
@@matthewk4912 Also, you really can't call the Jedi dangerous or a cult, because say it with me YOU CAN LEAVE THEM ANYTHING YOU WANT EVEN WHEN YOU'RE A PADAWAN. Also, people like to point to the KOTOR games as reasons why the Jedi are evil, and while those are my two favorite games of all time (restored content mod version of the latter), and I've spent hundreds of hours playing each of them, just because Jolee had some legitimate criticisms of the Jedi didn't make them evil, and he is right in saying that Jedi can't be perfect because no living being is perfect, and I've never understood the criticisms of the Jedi not being able to fall in love when most religious institutions in real life don't allow their clergy to marry (including some branches of Buddism which is what the Jedi are partially based on), so what exactly is the problem. Also, KOTOR II Kreia does make good points about the Jedi but she's not perfect, and while she does make good points about a lot of things a lot of her arguments fall flat when you don't go into them with the mentality that you're going to treat them all as gospel. Kreia isn't an interesting character because she's always right, she's an interesting character because she has a distinct and interesting philosophy that is a lot more interesting if you actually think about it and don't mindless go "eVErytHONg sHE's sAYs iS rIGhT." even though yes she can make some great points and some debatable points.
@@GOODYGOODGOOD789 Yep, also KOTOR isn't even part of the new continuity, so it can't dictate our view on the Jedi in a universe where KOTOR didn't happen. Star Wars fans seem to not be able to distinguish between different depictions in different continuities.
George has some very Buddhist beliefs, and actually supports a lot of the Jedi ideology, but I think this is a case of many fans not sharing George's spiritual beliefs or worldview, so they demonize the Jedi more than they were portrayed as flawed, which wasn't George's intention. People don't seem to understand the idea of living a life of service and self-sacrifice. Because the Jedi wield the Force, something far more powerful than them, they have the no attachment rule not because they want to oppress their members, but because mixing individual desires with the greater good while being super powerful can lead to disaster. If that's not the life you want to live, the Jedi allow you to live the life you want outside of the Order.
Pro-Jedi comments?? On UA-cam??? May wonders never cease...
People don’t consider how dangerous an untrained force sensitive child could potentially be to their non-force sensitive family. Imagine a normal five year old having a temper tantrum, and then imagine that child being able to use telekinesis on things and people bigger and stronger than they are.
21:14 i love that an ad for a game on pc started right after "and his greatest wish is..."
like it took me a sec before i realized it wasn't intentional
Speaking of childhood haircuts - I live how they gave Trinity and Squidgame little girl and boy haircuts in the flashback sequences. That was really cute and wholesome
At least it's SOMETHING to like.
The power of losing moneeeeey
At least with most CW shows, they often revolves around teenagers and young adult characters, so there was at least some justification for the use of miscommunication for drama since young ppl can be silly and ilogical but the Jedi in the Acolyte are not only full grown adults (for the most part) but monks trained from young to have excellent emotional regulation. I don't think its unfair to assume that even young Jedi would be a cut above their non-Jedi peers in regulating their emotions so literally no one's behavior makes sense.
you articulated well what i was feeling watching this show.
Does any one else find themselves going "the power of one, the power of two, the power of Minnie..." "...Mouse."
Dude 11:36 this entire scene was my biggest catch for how bad the writing was. You’re the first person to point this out and I just laughed out loud because of it. Their “mom” lies to the Jedi and says there’s no children here. But it’s not like they’re hiding them away in some place or another part of the planet…they’re literally standing right fucking behind them. How did they write/film this scene and at some point not say maybe this group of adults with eyes ball might see them standing 10 feet away probably no need to lie. I can’t even wraps my head around it.
I could not have put everything more succinct myself. Also I believe half the budget was spent on rendering the ice belt that Sol was chasing Mae through and why did the little rat suddenly decide to save Mae? "Well as Screen Rant would say "I need you to get all the way off my back about that" because like everything else there is no evidence of motivation
Having them keep the same hair style when it's WELL established that wigs are a HUGE popular fashion statement in the Star Wars universe. It'd make more sense that the Evil Twin framed her sister to get her searching for her.
That wasn't Osha's Lightsaber. It was Sol's Lightsaber. And that's NOT how a Kyber Crystal works. Osha didn't even Remove the Crystal and Bleed it. The Crystal didn't Resist or Show Osha Visions of the Past or Future unlike the Kyber Crystal that DARTH VADER had Bled in a Comic where he had to basically make his Own New Lightsaber.
This Bullshit of the Lightsaber Slowly Turning Red because Osha was giving Into the Dark Side is just Stupid and Lame and Doesn't make Sense at all.
The best and most insightful video ive seen out of dozens of others.
The former weinstein aide finds evil interesting, there's a joke to be made here
Did he just call the politics of the prequels boring?! That was one of the best things about the prequels, the politics and secret plans of the sith were fascinating. It was so well done. And they've only expanded on all the game of thrones type poltics since then in the books, tv shows, and games.
If it was written better, the story of this show could’ve been decent, however this show suffers from poor writing, poorly written characters, bad pacing, bad acting at times, bad editing, many gaps in logic, and many cringe and ridiculous moments
It feels like they were trying to apply Star Trek’s complex grey morality to Star Wars which has always had very clear cut “Good” and “Bad” sides. It works for Star Trek which is more about philosophy and exploration of different worlds and cultures, but not for Star Wars which is supposed to be a simple fun epic tale set in space. They’re both valuable in different ways.
Star Wars shouldn't be limited to only "good" vs. "bad" stories. There's a whole galaxy to explore; let's give the Space Nazis a break.
Andor is the only good Star Wars since the OT in my opinion.
In the flashback episode we see that the first time the Jedi see the girls in the coven it is when one of the moms is violently pushing the girls onto the stone stairs. The girls could have had their heads cracked open. Even if they weren't force sensative, the jedi would have a right to be concerned for the girls' safety.
Fantastic analysis, breakdown, and summary of the MANY issues with this series. I agree with every single point and observation you made.
Even with all of the plot holes, inconsistencies, poor character writing, etc…. I’ll probably be the most perplexed about where on God’s green earth did the 180 MILLION dollar budget go?!? It’s not even like the show had an A-list actor leading the charge who commanded a high salary.
Thanks man. Yeah the budget really didn’t show on screen. Maybe it all went to the most expensive fight choreographer of all time lol.
This show did the “my moral compass leaving my body when the villain is sexy” meme but completely seriously
I'd still say that The Last Jedi was worse than The Acolyte.
The only good thing about The Last Jedi, is that it means The Holiday Special is no longer the worst thing to bear the Star Wars name.
I do agree and it's really TLJ that started all this subversion, deconstruction moral ambiguity crap in starwars off; Leslie Headland even said how she loved what Ruin Johnson did in his TLJ, and wanted to do her own "reylo" thing but complete it, which she did in her Acolyte.
The Rise of Skywalker was worse. It killed off the last two Skywalkers and had a Palpatine take their name. Nothing beats that.
@@MylesKillis Tbh sadly we had already lost Carrie Fisher in real life by that point, and Luke had been killed off in TLJ. I find it so funny though that all the new fans loved the idea of "Rey Nobody" and then JJ just comes in and makes her a "Palpatine" out of nowhere. In truth all 3 of the Sequels movies are kind of as bad as eachother, because TFA caused alot of lasting damage by killing off Han Solo, completely scuppering any chance of a actual *Reunion* for the Legacy characters.
It's like at every point the characters would make a choice they decided to flip the table.