Mini Series The Acolyte 1.07 - Discussion Thread (Spoilers Allowed)

I don't buy Torbins reasoning for killing himself. It feels very over dramatic for what the reveal actually was.

You would imagine Jedi have had to deal with certain things in the past and they would be trained to deal with these things through meditation techniques and knowing when to detach emotionally. for a jedi to want to die you would assume it was overwhelming guilt that he couldn't live with himself for.

 

One interesting thing that when play the credits, they played the full credits, with the song, and after this, they put that slide with next episode or other show, for a moment, i thought that would be a post credits scene.

 

Yeah, its almost like ... say ... failing just one time and then running off for 6 years to try to end things doesn't make a lot of sense for a jedi Master, eh?

That said, I think it makes sense for Torbin to want to take a vow of silence here. He bent the knee at first notion of some vague promise to get home. He was young man. A padawan tired of the research work. And his weak mind and choice to do so broke him. He didn't feel like he could atone after that.

 

Torbin was given the option of either confessing the truth to the Jedi Council or suicide. He choose the latter to protect the Jedi Order.

 

I guess that makes sense. It just feels odd that he had been meditating or whatever it was for so long. Shielded in a force bubble as protection. then Mae turns up and gives him the choice, as if it didn't exist before, and he takes death.

So was he waiting all these years for Mae to turn up with some poison?

 

I think Torbin's mind was blown because he didn't realize that an offer to go back home could sound so hot and sexy.

 

Not disagreeing but when you watch A new Hope you do hear Obi Wan telling Luke that Imperial Stormtroopers are accurate AF. Which they were back in the day (Except for us seeing them shooting at main characters all the time which is where the jokes started).
I remember once reading some behind the scenes stuff as well in the 80/90's. It described Stormtroopers as fanatically loyal to the Emperor and being Elite.

 

Obi Wan was just senile and confusing them with the Clones haha.

Seriously though, mostly hyperbole on my part to express how annoying I find these Jedi.

They should really add Indara's force ghost to those comedy clips of Kenobi and Qui-Gon. They could do one where they all sit around and complain about their Padawans. Indara pulling the "you think you had it bad..." would be pretty funny.

 

Mae misquoted her mom (like an eight year old might) as 'Everyone must walk through fear. Everyone must be sacrificed to fulfill their destiny.'
Her mom actually said "Ascension is about walking through fear. It is about sacrificing a part of yourself.'
Just another layer to the misunderstanding that caused the wholly avoidable tragedy.

 

I just watched the scene again and you’re right Mae does show her the marking on her forehead but it’s after Indara takes her mask off and says, “It’s you.” After she sees the symbol she does look shocked. It’s subtle but it’s there.

 

Funny from a show accuracy standpoint but even "sacrificing a part of yourself" could still maintain the same inference, if not even more so with each twin theoretically being part of a whole.

 

Interesting episode. Some poor writing and dialogue and motivation and special effects.

But lots going on and I mostly enjoyed it.

I'm finding episodes are worth a second watch. Some because they'rr great. Others because I thought the writing didn't make sense. And I don't think you should really have to watch an episode again to fully appreciate what's going on with the different characters. It's a bit of a failure in the writing.

Anyway...

Are the twins going to merge in a black inky smoke way?
Who saves Mae and gets her off the planet? Koril or Qimir?
Is there more flashback to see?
There is a lot to neatly wrap up in the last episode...

 

In some ways this was my favorite episode, I liked seeing Jedi doing a laidback Star Trek-style survey mission and it was fun seeing Carrie Anne Moss playing a Jedi. However all the problems with this show were as bad as ever, the characters feel shallow and driven by a clunky plot. The Force-mysticism doesn’t feel mystical. The sorcery looks cool but also feels weightless and random. The plot doesn’t really progress even though they made a long episode that was supposed to reveal important information.

The moral complexities they’re trying to illustrate don’t feel compelling because characters bounce around doing this and that without much thought. Everyone is in a constant state of confusion and ultimately the show itself seems confused about what it’s trying to do.

I’m giving it a 4, if the lightsaber fight had been better it could have been a 6. I’ve mostly had complimentary things to say about the production design and effects but some of the speeder scenes looked pretty bad this time. Still one more episode to go but this show feels like a womp womp fumble.

 

I wish these polls had 0’s cause this one would have definitely gotten that click out of me.

I want to go home! Should have packed your pappy Helium Jedi baby.

 

I feel like episode 3 and this episode would have benefitted from actually making it clear whose perspective these episodes are being told from.

There really is no lead into episode 3 at all; episode 2 ends with showing Kelnacca who is to be Mae's next target, and episode 3 opens on Brendok, 16 years earlier.

Episode 3 is almost certainly from the perspective of Osha. However, there are still some scenes in that episode that happen without Osha being present, such as the witches discussing how the girls would need to intentionally fail the Jedi test, or how Mae started the fire, or a couple private conversations between Aniseya and Koril. I felt like that episode was supposed to sort of be from Osha's perspective, even though there is nothing explicitly saying that. The episode just kind of gets thrown randomly between episode 2 and 4.

Episode 7 had more of a direct lead in, with episode 6 kind of framing it as though this was Sol's account of events that he's telling Mae. This episode in particular could have benefitted from opening back on the ship with some sort of dialogue between Mae and Sol.

I saw "Sol's account" of events including things that he wouldn't possibly know though. For instance, it is in episode 7 that it is revealed that Mae was trying to stamp out the fire and that it was an accident. Sol would not have known that. Nor would he have known what was going on in Torbin's mind (which was pretty irrelevant), nor would he have known about Koril telling Mae to get angry.

IMO, episode 3 is kind of pointless. The events of episodes 3 and 7 could have been combined into a single episode telling the same events from Mae and Sol's differing perspectives. Mae's viewpoint is more valuable than Osha's, who you would think would recall things similarly to Sol. That episode could have been formatted like The Last Duel, with it opening with Sol's account of the witches being hostile and Mae starting the fire, and then going to Mae's account where Koril and Aniseya are actually concerned parents, and where the fire was unintentional. And that would free up an episode for fleshing out what I otherwise fear is going to be a rushed, unsatisfying conclusion.

 

The creators may have felt that the twins should be presented in more depth. Which, let's face it, totally paid off.

 

The story has its place, but I think having 1/4 of the season dedicated to two different accounts of the same events sandwiched between Mae's assassination missions was a poor decision.

IMO it should have gone.

1, 2, 4, 5, 3/7, 6

Which would necessitate Sol restraining Mae at the end of episode 5, instead of the Bazil stuff aboard the ship in episode 6.

With two more episodes after that.

 

I"m giving this one a 7. (I gave all previous eps and 8) I think its a good episode on its own, but looking at the season it makes me question whether or not the mystery was even needed, or Sol's confession this late in the game, it's making me a bit wary for how the season will wrap up.

Ep 3 is largely unneeded. I don't particularly think its vital that we see the event from the twins or Osha's eyes, since that could have been conveyed in the present with some choice dialog. I think the season probably should have gone EP 7, 1, 2, 4, 5, 6 ... where Sol and Mae hash things out and he apologizes for his mistakes and she realizes he had no ill intent ... and then Ep 8/the finale.

 

Basil's importance made sense after this episode. Osha and Mae are one soul in two bodies, which is unrecognizable even to the Jedi. We also saw here that Sol confuses the two girls because they are the same in the Force. Bazil, on the other hand, can make a difference in his simple way, which was very useful in the previous episode.

 

A solid 7 for this episode.

 

IMO, that was filler. She disguised herself like her sister to escape with Sol, and then episode 6 is really only interesting for me when it comes to the Qimir/Osha stuff, the Sol/Mae stuff felt like padding.

Mae already told Qimir that she was going to go to Kelnacca and use what she knew about her master as leverage. That was already there for her to use to convince Sol to cooperate with her. And then they could have rehashed history in the following episode.

I feel like Leslye maybe had a solid idea for a two hour movie that Disney instead asked her to stretch into 8 episodes that don't utilize their time the best, IMO. I feel like RotS covers more ground in a more satisfying way than this show does in 4 hours.

 

I liked the episode, liked the story, like the bit of depth it’s added to the characters with their decisions. However, like episode 3, there’s just some terrible delivery from the witches/young Mae and Osha. I also don’t buy Aniseya just wanting to “let Osha go” because you don’t need to turn into a smoke demon to let a child leave. So as a whole while I liked it, bits come off super sloppy, and with only one episode left… well there’s a ton of ground to cover. I’m really hoping there’s a second season, because it’s looking pretty obvious that Acolyte won’t be fully resolved in one season. Otherwise I fear that while I’ve enjoyed the ride, the show will be rather pointless if it doesn’t have a conclusion.

 

I think she turned into a Smoke Demon because she thought Sol was going to take Mae as well. That was her tipping point.

But then was all like "I was going to let Osha go" and you didn't need to do all of this. Of course, the Coven was already in attack mode too ... soooo.

 

I think Aniseya was trying to teleport herself and Mae away to safety.