Star Wars: The Acolyte
After watching Star Wars: The Acolyte and seeing all the backlash and chaos that came with it. I was left thinking that there was a major disconnect. Not only in the Star Wars “community” but in fandom in general. Not because people "harshly" criticize this series. But more so I’m speaking to how we criticize movies and series. The amount of hate Star Wars: The Acolyte received felt like an overreaction. Then the response to suddenly cancel the series felt like an overcorrection. So much so it begged the question. Do y'all really like Star Wars like you say you do?
Now the goal of this review isn’t to defend Star Wars: The Acolyte to the edges of the Outer Rim or anything like that. Cause let’s be honest. This show is not that good but it's not terrible. But what I do want to do is offer perspective on it or what could have been. But you know what they say "What’s done is done". All we can do now is try to focus on the positives that can come from it. Even though the series might have been canceled the characters live on as part of the Star Wars universe. Who knows where we will see them next?
But enough stalling let’s rip the band-aid off and dive into Star Wars: The Acolyte. This series starts slow but is chalked full of lore and set in the High Republic era. A quote, unquote “time of peace” before the rise of the empire and even before the prequels. A period of time that had only been described in context to contrast the current state of affairs. Or in specific comic book runs that you can get in your local comic book shops. So to me Star Wars: The Acolyte was a big deal already because of when this story took place. This was our first “true” look into the world during the Infomas era of the High Republic.
I gotta say first impressions were not great. But at the same time not as bad as people might say. From a production standpoint Star Wars: The Acolyte was A-1 as usual. But the world itself didn’t feel as different as I was expecting from the aesthetics to the technology. Sure there were little nuance things that they sneaked in here and there. But nothing too crazy to make it feel like a completely different era. If I would describe it using one word it would be crude. Cause you can see the begins of a lot of things that we know to be a lot more polished or grand such as places like Coruscant. I just wish we had more time to explore places like that, especially the Jedi temple.
Conceptually I like the direction of Star Wars: The Acolyte. The whole twin angle combined with the consistent conversation of what it means to be a Jedi. There is an element of mystery or investigation that feels rudimentary and rushed. The leaps some of these characters would take felt forced. I just wish they had the proper time and space to develop in a meaningful way.
Granted their ability to use symbolism in something as simple as clothing to represent tonal shifts between characters was fire. Star Wars: The Acolyte has some incredible moments that will go down in the history books. Some might call it corny or insignificant. Maybe because it might retcon one of their favorite storylines or detract from the status quo. But I'd say it’s bold and I appreciate the sentiment because it’s additive to the Star Wars mythos. It’s the reason that shows like this are so important. They fill in the gaps. Gaps where our imaginations had room to thrive. Now we get the opportunity to add a little bit more context to the full picture.
To me, Star Wars’ biggest flex is that it is a true universe. Sure some storylines are better than others. And all shows/movies are not made equal. But if you ask me, you can drop us on almost any planet from Coruscant to the Outer Rim. You’ll find a Star Wars story somewhere. That’s worldbuilding at its finest. I’m not saying that we should accept mediocrity. I am saying that we should want these series to have space to land that ship. Not straight up cancel it because we don’t like the location of our connecting flight. Especially when we don’t know what we could learn from each pit stop.
The moral of the story is I think Star War: The Acolyte is a series that has all the makings of a good show. But failed to execute major plot points that would have been super cool to explore in a second season. The fights were entertaining and we saw some amazing feats amid a chaotic script. Seeing Jedi in a different light was interesting. It's probably one of the main reasons people couldn’t appreciate Star Wars: The Acolyte. But I’ll save that rabbit hole for another time. Character development had its highs and lows but at times was super telegraphed. Overall Star Wars: The Acolyte is okay. But in comparison with other Star Wars projects, pound for pound, bar for bar. This series is on the lower end of the totem pole. This is why I’m giving Star Wars: The Acolyte a 7/10 G-Files Score.
This review was difficult to put into words because of everything surrounding the series. But in preparation for writing this review. I had to come to grips with the fact that like with everything there are levels to fandom. And Star Wars is no different. As much as I wanted to go in on what it means to “Really like Star Wars”. I tried my best to put the sentiment into context without coming off too argumentative. While adding enough sauce that you can understand my perspective on the series and Star Wars as a whole. So hopefully that shined through and you can get where I’m coming from.
But I wanna know what kind of Star Wars fan are you all. Are you here just for the lightsaber duels? You know Jedi vs Sith. Or are you deeper into the lore, storylines, and worldbuilding? Or a combination of all of them?
