Mini Series The Acolyte 1.05 - Discussion Thread (Spoilers Allowed)

Mae wanted to turn herself in until she is attacked by Jecki and basically forced to fight.

The Sith's power is consistent in the episodes -- it's just that he catches the Jedi by surprise at first, which allows him to Force push them all as a group.

He chooses to engage in hand to hand combat afterward because he clearly revels in it.

 

I did roll my eyes a bit with the Groot homage

 

I guess Mae didn't know Qimir is the master. She fears the master not Qimir. So she apparently changed her mind when she saw master is there on Khofar. I can somewhat accept that explanation to her sudden change of heart regarding to surrendering to the jedi. But why she decides so in the first place in the last episode seems unnatural to me. Doesn't she think jedi killed her mothers too. It seems weird that "Osha being alive changes everything" yet here she again abandons Osha to her fate. She doesn't seem consistent regarding to jedi, sith and Osha at all. She constantly changes her mind and it feels unnatural to me.

Where do Sol and Jecki go from this group force push? This was blatant inconsistency to start with. Why does the same force push send some jedi far away and others nowhere far...

 

Oh no argument from me, Mae is a terribly written and acted character

 

Here's the thing - we don't actually know yet whether he realizes it or not! I'm just saying we should wait and see what happens. I don't even disagree with you that it could end up being pretty dumb. As a general point (not calling you out personally) a lot of people seem to just be assuming the worst without letting the show play out.

I'm not even some big fan of the show, I liked episode 5, but the first 4 were pretty weak.... and so far I'm overall fairly meh on the whole thing (the last few eps are going to make or break it).


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I agree with most of @3sm1r 's comments. I don't think the writing is all that great, but I also don't see much difference between this show and the other non-Andor shows (I actually remember being more annoyed at the bad dialogue in Ahsoka and Mando S3 tbh)

 

Osha has always rejected her. Why in the episode 4 she suddenly believes otherwise is beyond me.

I don't think you can act well character that is so poorly written. I don't hold it against Amandla. She has not much to work with when your character lacks common sense and clear motivation.

She clearly has personality disorders of all kinds...

But okay I am to understand that Mae planned to give in herself to the jedi until she realized her master is on Khofar and then she decided to return back to original plan of killing the jedi and expecting mercy from her master when Kelnacca was dead and now plans to kill Sol without a weapon by guilt-tripping him from the death of her mothers. I can accept that but her decision to suddenly give in to the jedi still feels unnatural and off-character to her. She has love-hate relationship with Osha obviously but her original plan to kill her not to let her become jedi shows signs of extremely twisted mindset she has.

It would be more interesting to follow character who has understandable motivation like revenge against jedi and all that they represent. Her sudden decision to join the jedi last episode is now even worse writing choice. Having her to kill Kelnacca and face the jedi together with Qimir would've been better way to continue the story. She didn't become any more relatable character thanks to that odd "I like jedi now" moment. She needed to kill one jedi without the weapon. It was not necessary that one jedi is the wookiee.

 

What did Mae know? She saw her master carried away by bugs.

 

I agree that not enough is done to sell her frustrations that she is forced to take back her heel turn. And yeah, the force push chucked Sol to other side of the forest evidently which is nonsense.

 

Ergo they saved her

 

Guy killed 8 jedi so bugs are obviously more dangerous right?

 

I'm 3 years younger than Rob. Grew up loving Star Trek, then Star Wars changed our lives. What is it about him that you do not like? His YT shows are very informative and educational, I learn something from him every time I watch his show.
I love when he reads articles and dissects and analyze's them, its like back in my college days. Not only is he well read in terms of literature but also respects the comic book medium, and he is a filmmaker of the highest caliber.

I truly respect your take on him, but he is IMHOP a fair, and honest Ytuber.

The only complaint that I see valid, is that some of the Ytubers he follows are considered bigots, but I truly believe after following him for so many years, he is not a bigot, but a good man. I know allot of people hate him for the company he keeps.

 

At least we agree on something. Damn I am a bit angry since I expected better from this show. Most criticism so far have been about little insignificant things like who really cares so much about Ki-Adi-Mundi's birth date being changed or what ethnicity actors in show from galaxy far far away are from.
But this episode just was too dumb on so many levels and I hate it how Mae is not written as more relatable character. She has good reason to hate the jedi since her entire family and kin were apparently killed by the jedi. Yet they have written her as lunatic mad woman who changes her mind constantly about whether she loves or hates her sister. Apparently both but now she has given herself to the dark completely? I dunno. That character is a mess. And Osha is simply too dumb. Why not to stun the sith when he has no longer mask? She had stun gun right there. Instead she kills the droid she loves and innocent bugs and ensure sith gets away

 

Mae seems guided by fear.
She thinks by turning herself over to the Jedi she can escape her master (who she is frightened of).
Then, her master kills almost all the Jedi and reveals his identity. She then pulls another heel turn. Why? Because now she's not just afraid of her master, she's terrified of the power she has now witnessed.

She's also bitter. When Osha again rejects her and tries to arrest her (which, wasn't she expecting by turning herself over to the Jedi?), she takes out her twin and gets close to Sol to likely exact her revenge. I do think she's convinced herself that Sol is the source of all her suffering. He took Osha from her.

So, we have anger and fear. The makings of most sith. Whether she hopes to use Sol's death to redeem herself to her master is the only unclear piece. Otherwise, it makes more sense that she just wants to get the heck away from everyone and break free of everyone who has tried to control her destiny.

 

He has fallen into the stat Wars hate and even got into streams with Fandom Menace group.

 

Sol and Jecki were leading the charger, and hence, hit hardest since they were at the center of the blast and in the lead.

Why assume that the blast would hit everyone equally? I imagine it's like a wave of energy with the center being the strongest intensity.

 

ok yes, I see your point! His Star Trek hate is valid, but his Star Wars hate is for the most part outrageous.

Cheers,
Rogues1138

 

That was better. Acting was better, action was better, writing was better, cinematography was better - thanks to the fog making the forest look a lot better. I also really liked those closeups of Smilo Ren's face when he was "getting into Osha's head" or whatever). Manny Jacinto steals the show, too. It was a great performance and he's immediately a better villain than his cousin Kylo.

But my favorite thing about this episode is how masterfully it presented the attachment theme. I really liked Mae saying "Don't choose them. Choose me." It's a simple line, but it packs a lot of thematic weight while also feeling emotionally authentic. She was essentially saying "Don't choose non-attachment, choose attachment. Cling to me." With a worse writer, she would have spelled that theme out. But Headland and team are, as I knew, good writers. So I'm glad to see the script shine in this one.

Mae's decision from last week is still a little mysterious (namely because turning herself into Kelnacca seems to make no sense), but this episode made it clear, through better writing and a better performance from Amandla, that it's not because she in any way trusts the Jedi, but because she's simply trying to get to Osha through them. Which is why the Kelnacca thing doesn't make sense at this point. Did she expect him to be more tolerant than the other Jedi, perhaps? Or did she still intend to kill him, but Smilo Ren fell for her trick, and killed him first, thus revealing himself? No clue. But Kelnacca having all those witch symbols in his house is still unexplained. So Mae's odd decision might be related to something there we don't know about yet...

Also, these last two episodes absolutely should have been one. This insistence on 30-minute episodes is silly and has contributed to an unearned bad reputation for the show. Lucasfilm needs to step away from that ledge. Episode 4 and 5 together are great, and as one, there would've been a ton of positive buzz about the show for a whole week, instead of negativity across many quarters.

I have to say that I can't wait to see what happens next. Especially to find out what in the hell Sol did.

9/10

 

I can somehow accept that explanation for Mae's motivation. She fears both jedi and sith.

She fears alright but both she and Osha just seem unnaturally stupid and overtly emotional as human beings. This bothers me. Maybe they explain it by their birth method. Osha is light side and Mae dark by nature. But still there seems to be very little common sense in those twins from childhood to adulthood both act childishly still.

It still seems weird they would fly that much further!... It was just ridiculous really. Where they are in the beginning? Like kilometers from the site.

 

Yeah, I am absolutely certain, as others have said, that this series was originally six episodes -- but it was stretched out into an 8 episode season.

And we have the writers telling us that one episode was split in two for "reasons," so this messing around with structure isn't up for debate.

 

This would have worked better as movie

 

Perhaps. It certainly would have been better as fewer episodes.

 

Disappearance of Sol and Jecki would have been more bothering though. That force push was long lol...

 

I've been lurking here for years, I'm a mod in another Star Wars forum. I applaud you guys for staying on topic and engaged with the story and characters very refreshing.

 

By far the best episode so far of the Acolyte. "Qimir" def stole the show...excellent job on his part.