Mini Series The Acolyte 1.08 (SEASON FINALE!!!) - Discussion Thread (Spoilers Allowed)

Mae didn't escape to go back to Brendok, they went back to Brendok, then she escaped. There's nowhere else she can go. They've already taken the hyperspace jump to that uninhabited system and it would be bizarre if the cruiser needs an enormous hyperspace attachment to jump to another system but the little craft inside the big ship has it's own hyperspace ability.

 

Crystal bleeding used to require an overt act of intentionally focusing dark side energy into the crystal, which would explain why Anakin’s didn’t turn red when he just, ya know, slaughtered all those children. Now it can just happen by accident? They've taken the intentionality out of it.

 

But May is there with the Jedi mind wiped. So unless Venestra "disappear" Mae it's odd to say the least.

 

Unpopular opinion, but I found the bleeding of the lightsaber hackneyed and unnecessary. We get she’s going bad. It’s clear as day. No need for a big red exclamation point. And the way it happened was a bit contrived. Mae tosses away the lightsaber, which is suddenly hyper fragile, and breaks open on a small rock. Just so Osha can immediately pick it up and bleed on it, so that she can have red saber for her Anakin moment. Too much story contrivance for limited story benefit. And undercuts Headland’s focus on complicated morality, as the red saber screams evil, full stop. That was the point, I’m sure, but it’s a tonal clash with the rest of the series.

 

Oh well it was a wild ride but it managed to contain itself without hurting too much of larger canon. I am not familiar with character of Vernestra but this show absolutely painted her in the worst light possible by making her the guilty party of here. In this episode she condemns the entire future of the jedi order by lying to cover her own ass basically... Making Sol scapegoat despite knowing that her ex-padawan is behind all this she is protecting sith knowing it or not. This really needs another season with hopefully better script since this one was unnecessarily complicated to tell story basically much simpler. It was all about jedi Sol making one mistake and getting (weirdly fast) obsessed about Osha and Mae and killing their mother in honestly pretty stupid misunderstanding that just didn't make much sense.

Entire conftrontation between jedi and the witch cult was just so badly written... There was absolutely no need for violence and it happened only since it was established that it had to happen. For the sake of the story. It felt very unnatural in episode 7 which is perhaps the weakest episode of them all. If Aniseya and jedi were as peaceful as they supposedly were what happens in the last episode just didn't logically follow from Torbin being homesick and Sol being worries about the children. It felt forced and unnatural for Sol to so quickly began obsessed over Osha especially. It was creepy and weird. And Torbin being so homesick was ridiculous. Way how poorly supposedly veteran jedi master Indara handled the situation was also unnatural. She shouldn't have so quickly agreed to break in the compound carrying weapons if she didn't want to give aggressive first impression. Korril hated the jedi but the way how poorly she interacted with Aniseya was also unnatural. She took control of the witch cult and Aniseya, supposedly their leader proved to be very weak in her attempt to peacefully resolve the conflict.

It just makes all characters appear inept in diplomacy and overly confrontational for no reason. I understand Korril was one confrontational for reason since she was aggressive and hated the jedi to begin with. While we didn't actually learn more of her anti-jedism (which would be important and interesting in establishing her reaction) it was so odd that Aniseya poorly controlled her own tribe and was unable or unwilling to subdue Korril. She appears as very bad leader and her decision not to tell Sol that she agrees to give Osha to jedi she caused her own death and destruction of her own cult. It was weird she didn't tell that to jedi first after making the decision to ease the tension. Just saying "Wait I am willing to compromise" or subduing Korril in anyway possible "Stand down, we can avoid violence!" was vital. Yet she didn't act as leader and freaked out Sol with magic and ended up dead... It was soooo weird.

Sith plan made absolutely no sense. Qimir risks revelation of himself and all the sith by telling his acolyte openly murdering the jedi. Ever heard of assassinations? I'm sorry but it just doesn't make sense how Mae acted as killer. Public attack on jedi is stupid and risks revelation of the sith. She was not even wearing the mask. Qimir killing an small army of jedi was also just ridiculous. They made sith OP to compensate their lack of tactical insight. It's not good IMO. Sith in Lucas movies were cool since they were clever and impish. Now they are dumb brutes with dark side superpowers. Dark side was never supposed to be stronger than the light but for some reason Sol, Jecki and Vernestra are only jedi with actual power in this show. Others are just generally bad fighters. Redshirts or stormtroopers with lightsabers.

Plagueis at the end begs the question what exactly is his relationship with Qimir? Master? Former master? Competitor? Nothing was established and that cameo in the last episode was just weird. He just is there with no role in the story. Just "look do you recognize the thing!" sort of easter egg with no role in the story. Surprising yet disappointing. He looked cool though.

And they lied about Yoda not being in this show at all. Sure he is just easter egg but still he is in this show... point of having Ki-Adi-Mundi seems now weird. Why he was in this show in the first place? He was not necessary. Canon change didn't bother me much but was unnecessary really.

Main story if the show was not bad. Idea of jedi making a mistake and causing revenge on them. Murder mystery by secret acolyte of the sith. It was a cool idea actually. But the execution was just bad. Despite the huge budget. Script was awful, dialogue had too much exposition and people acted unnaturally to make up for senselessness of the plot. Episodes 3 and 7 had too much same and not enough "mystery" to justify telling the story this way.

One more senseless thing in this last episode was sudden idea to wipe out Mae's memory and leave her to the jedi. It came out weirdly as if Qimir and Mae would have suddenly got the same idea and it was just odd and confusing. I could understand Mae wanting to sacrifice herself for Osha unless we wouldn't have previously portrayed her as selfish and uncaring. Osha becoming dark so fast and trusting Qimir so much now is unnatural as well. I can understand her anger for the jedi but not her trust to Qimir who murdered all her friends except Sol. Sure she is mad to Sol for killing her mother but it made absolutely no sense for Mae to withhold this information for the last episode (It as for the audience) You would expect it's the first thing she says when she sees Sol and especially Osha and Sol together. "This man murdered our mother sister, don't trust him". Characters act according to script not naturally how real characters would act. This is the greatest failing in this show. It's like a badly written fanfic. One which the writer themself would be embarrassed later on since characters act so unnaturally.

When you think about characters and their motivations they don't make sense from their own point of view at all. This is the sign of bad writing. Sol didn't have reason to tell Mae what she already knew, that story was for the audience. Qimir didn't have any reason to train Mae to kill jedi so publicly yet he did because story demanded it. It would've been much better to kill them when they are on mission and leave no witnesses or since infiltrating in the temple is so easy just kill everyone like Torbin except by a surprise attack. Torbin who didn't really have reason to suicide since Sol and his master was ultimately responsible. Sure he did the wrong thing joing him and bad things happened but his character seems rather absurd as whole.

Amandla received a lot of criticism but it's unfortunately true that her talents are not good enough for the leading role in show where she has not one but two roles. She is not simply expressive enough to portray different feelings with her face and a lot of time was still spent filimg her. It's not her fault really, some people are not expressive by nature, but it makes her unsuitable in her role where this would've greatly benefitted the story and her feelings were in very focus. Now they were left quite indescribable. Actor for Sol was excellent in portraying emotion, but his english was so thick it did bother me a bit... Casting people with severe communication and acting problems like this just because we want a diverse cast is just not wise. There must have been better options who were both ethnically diverse and had talent the role needed. Of course better script would have made Osha/Mae more understandable and more suitable for Amandla. Now both characters were kind of a mess. We didn't really know their motivation and they often didn't know it themselves it seems. Now I think they had wrong actor in the lead role and the lead role was poorly written.

There is so many things that just don't make any sense in the context they are placed in this show. Makes me wonder if script was doctored by A.I. or affected by the writers strike somehow. Like it makes sense only if you expect characters to act unnaturally or have no clear motivation in life. Indara, Aniseya, Korril, Qimir, Vernestra, Kelnacca all lacked clear motivation IMO. And so did Osha. Mae's motivation to avenge her mother was weirdly on/off since she wanted to avenge Osha forst and foremost in episode 4 but suddenly it changed in episode 5 and came back in episode 8 so that she ends up surrendering. Also why does the sith lord who killed like ten jedi without breaking the sweat in episode 5 escape then jedi so quickly in the last episode? Sure he must be tired a bit and Sol destroyed his lightsaber but he has two powerful allies there and Sol's saber I think still works. Then he suddenly decides to give Mae to them. Okay I think he fears Vernestra that partially explains it but still. It was plot that demanded this to happen not something Qimir would've actually needed to do. So it felt to me.

Enough of the rant. Didn't hate this show more BOBF. It's still the worst live-action show. This and Kenobi share the place as the second worst. Even though Ahsoka was also disappointing so hard to say was it any better than this. Andor is the only really seriously good live-action show so far followed by pretty nice Mandalorian seasons 1 and 2. Season 3 was together with Ahsoka in disappointing meh territory that is about as bad as Kenobi and this.

What I hate the most is that this show had a lot of potential, but it didn't live up to it's potential. I think with same actors and same basic story but with better script this could've been at least Mandalorian level entertainment. I don't know what happened and how it came out so bad... There was more than enough money and there should've been more talent too. What happened to it? Why is script so bad? I dunno...

 

I didn’t really care too much about the fate of the twins and as I've said before I've found the way the Jedi have been portrayed to be very shady is against what I think they should be like. Equally how they've made turning to the dark side or being a dark side user look so normal is quite jarring too. Maybe thats the point of the show - to turn expectations on their head? Obviously it leaves it open for another season (that may never even happen) but I'm not sure the Venestra/Qimir master/padawn backstory is enough to keep my interest, but having said that I do wonder why she wants to keep it secret. Obviously the inclusion of Plaguies is slightly intriguing, if not very weird in that hes in the same cave as they were. Does Qimir know hes on the island? The duel with Sol was good, as was his death, not sure what to make of the blue to red lightsaber - it looked great, but does it break any established canon? The space pursuit looked fantastic and was something different.The weird little hamster thing is a character I really like too, I love the fact hes trying to communicate but not many people understand him. Overall it wasn't a bad episode, but its not enough to save whats been my least favourite SW series so far.

 

How durable are lightsabers? We saw the lightsaber hilt hit something hard. I buy it.

The lightsaber turning red was good visual storytelling. Osha poured all her rage, hate, fear and pain into the crystal as she was killing Sol. When the lightsaber turns read she realizes what she has become, which she clearly looks conflicted about, so I don't think it undercuts the show's focus on morality.

One might as well criticize Anakin's eyes turning red in Revenge of the Sith as unnecessary.

 

Am I reading it right - Sol was going to kill Mae in that space chase?

 

It’s unnecessarily over the top visual storytelling, IMO. Handholdy. And I do criticize Anakin’s eyes turning red in Revenge of the Sith as unnecessary. It was also over the top and just…silly to me. Luke’s eyes didn’t need to flash red when he lunged at Vader or the Emperor in the throne room scene to show us he was letting dark side impulses get the better of him. Lucas trusted we’d get it, and most of us did.

That said, this is a nitpick of mine for what I consider to easily be the best episode of the series. And it made me want a season 2.

 

It would have been far better seeing her wield a blue lightsaber to kill Sol.

Also reflecting that she is not a Sith yet. They could leave the whole bleeding crystal for season 2.

I have noticed that ever since Disney has introduced the whole "bleeding crystals" concept for why Sith have red blades, they have given red blades to dark jedi whom arn't Inquisitors/Kylo nor allies of the Sith.

Taron Malicos from Fallen Order

Dagan Gera in Jedi Survivor, whom soon after awakening decided to bleed his crystal, even though he has no loyalty to the Sith.

 

With his style and backstory Qimir is closer to a typical EU Dark Jedi than others.

 

So how do we know Qimir isn't Plagueis current master rather than apprentice

In some leaks apparently they were going to reveal Qimir's Sith title to be Tenebrous at the end of the season

 

Darth Tenebrous should be a Bith though in canon? Right? Not a human

 

Because Qimir's stated desire for all of this, what he tells the Jedi, and even Osha, is that he wants a pupil of his own. That's what he feels he deserves because the Jedi control everything.

That would be a weird thing to state, if he's actually had student for years.

Given the scene, I would think that DP is the Master. He's the one in power in that scene due to the way they frame it. He's spying on the younger 'couple', from deep in the shadows. He's aware of them, but they are not aware of him. That means he's alrady more knowing. The ominous powerful music rises, indicating that Qimir and Osha are in trouble. That's not something you'd do, in that way, if DP was Qimir's actual student.

I think the the simplist and easiest explanation is that Qimir has been DP's student for a long long time, and now wishes to have a student of his own. He wants to be his own Master and that means he needs Osha's help to kill his.

 

A force challenged apprentice because he is tired to teach the gifted one!

 

I didn't think we had gotten any solid information about tenebrous in Canon yet.

 

Only refferenced in the TROS novel.

 

All good points but weird in the leaks they said he was going to reveal himself as Tenerbrous

Personally I think either Qimir is Plagueis current apprentice or possibly is unknown to him and Plagueis has just found them both while randomly looking for cortosis on the planet

 

Thing is it can only get more convoluted now with more and more cover-ups because we know the jedi council in TPM say that the Sith have been extinct* for a millennia.

(and I still think that was an odd word choice.)

 

Except that there were eye witnesses that saw that Indara was killed by Mae, the same Mae that was arrested by the Jedi and brought to Vernestra. So Mae was arrested for killing Indara but then Vernestra pinned the deaths on Sol despite evidence to the contrary. Sol was training younglings when Indara was killed by Mae.

Why was Mae in handcuffs if according to Vernestra Sol was responsible for killing Indara and all the other Brendok Jedi? This is the worlds sloppiest coverup.

Also, throwing Sol under the bus doesn't tie everything up in a bow because the Senator is still going to conduct a review of the Jedi. A review that will be happening at the same time that Vernestra will be using Mae to find Qimir. Eventually the Senator is going to discover this slapped together coverup and learn that Vernestra is looking for Qimir, making the whole thing pointless, making Vernestra look like an idiot.

Vernestra's coverup hinges in part on the Jedi who arrested Mae, not talking about how they arrested Mae for the murder of Indara an Torbin and it hinges on the bar tender eye witness not telling anybody, "hey that lady that tried to kill me is working with the Jedi", and it hinges on Qimir and Osha not making their presence known. Plus, Mae, via Pip is going to learn more about what really happened in the last couple episodes. Ugh..Vernestra's coverup should fall apart VERY easily.

 

One witness say the killing, and the Jedi could easily paint Sol as the teacher of Mae.

In Episode 4 Vernestra mentions that a Jedi must have trained Mae... and Sol knows her. He claims she must have died, and Ki-Adi Mundi gives him a dirty look when he says that.

She can just mind control the bartender.

 

Even if Sol trained Mae, that doesn't change the fact that Mae killed Indara and basically killed Torbin which goes against Vernestra's coverup story that Sol and Sol alone killed all these Jedi.

 

Details, details, details.