The Acolyte Official “The Acolyte” Series Discussion Thread (Spoilers Allowed)

Technically speaking the Rule of Two doesn't make a whole lot of sense (at least over long span of time such as a thousand years). The chances of it lasting that long with only two people at a time practicing it would be extremely (and I mean extremely) minute.

I hope we find out in the Acolyte that it wasn't just as simple as a master takes an apprentice and there were only two of them until one of them died.

 

The Sith aren’t breeding so numbers don’t really mean anything.

As long as there’s one to rise up to be Master, and another to be the apprentice the line lives on.

The rule makes sense because the Sith are selfish power craven individuals who will constantly get rid of anyone in their way too being most powerful. They seek not to share their power but to controls others with it.

The rule isn’t just something made up to adhere towards for no reason. It’s more of a law of their nature…and made to make sure they’re not just eating each other all the time.

 

We've already seen the Sith work with what I assume are considered acolytes (Ventress, Opress, Dooku before the death of Maul). There's always a replacement if one Sith Lord dies.

 

And that would be fine over a shorter period of time. But the Rule of Two has supposedly been going on for a thousand years. The chances of it lasting that long without both people dying off before someone else could take their place would be very slim. A way they could possibly get around this is for them to have a 'cult' that follows them and keeps the religion alive when both people do die off before an apprentice can be taken.

 

Jodie mentions a couple of things related to her character, so obviously potential spoilers…

 

This project is the one I have the least faith in...

 

That would be Skeleton Crew for me. Headland is a great showrunner with strong cinematic and storytelling instincts, so I suspect good things from this one. As well as something new for the franchise. Andor levels of new.

 

I hope you are right! I forgot about skeleton crew...

Insufferable kids are the easiest way to make me turn off a show. Stranger things didn't succumb to this - Cobra Kai did.

 

Yeah, the concept sounds nice in theory, but it comes wih a ton of issues.
What if the apprentice challanges the master, one gets killed and the other mortally wounded? Now the Order is over.
What if the apprentice dies and the master can't find a new (and decent) apprentice before he dies? The Order is over.
What if the master dies way before the apprentice is ready? The Order survives, but a ton of knowledge get lost, and the apprentice may not be good enough to train an apprentice himseld just yet.

The odds of something like that happening may not be huge when it comes to one or two generations, but over time it is bound to happen.

 

I've always hated the narrow-mindedness regarding the interpretation of the rule of 2. Why couldn't it have just meant that the Sith always work in pairs? Oh well, too late now because Yoda says "no more, no less", but surely it could have meant that if you discover 1 Sith you are guaranteed to find another, but no more as they only work in pairs. That's not to say there aren't any other Sith elsewhere in the GFFA. I think they shot themselves in the foot with the rule of 2 being so rigid and I'd welcome a retcon.

Really looking forward to The Acolyte.

 

While I agree there are problems with the Rule of Two lasting for so long I think this is just one of those situations where you have to remember this is a fanatsy so the plausibility of certain aspects of it can be stretched out. You just have to try and not think about it too hard

 

So did the idea of the Rule of Two come about due to that line in TPM between Yoda and Mace or did it pre-date that?

 

Exactly.

There’s the rule of two. And the rules and randomness of reality.

The rule of two by itself makes perfect sense given Sith nature. What people might be critiquing is the fact that reality could have gotten in the way. An asteroid might have crashed into Sith planet and killed both Master and apprentice off. Master and apprentice might have eaten bad sushi and got food poisoning and died.

And remember this is precisely why Mace and other Jedi don’t believe they’re still around. They arrogantly think it’s impossible.

But within the fantasy history that did not happen. The Sith managed to survive. And they did so because they kept to just two members because anytime there’s more than that there’s just all out fighting among themselves.

 

I understand given the fact it is a space fantasy afterall. Still don't think though that it would hurt to have a cult working behind the scenes to assure the Sith religion lives on.

 

A single Cult priest(ess) who is there to guarentee that the line doesn't fall? Sure. That could be. A planet of 10,000 Sith cult members building 10,000 star destroyers just for Palpatine? Not so much.

But again, including that Sith Cult Priest isn't necessary in the PT story. The Sith line is few. There are just 2 of them. Because any more than that and they fight themselves. They hide very well. They are finally able to strike.

 

We’ve seen canonical Sith operating in larger numbers than two before. Dooku had Assad Ventress as an apprentice long before Sidious bit the dust. Ventress never gained a ‘Darth’ title of her own, but was a Sith in pretty much every respect.
I imagine we’ll see a similar set up in The Acolyte.

 

The Sith always trying to outdo each other. That Dooku had Ventress up in line to help him take on Palpatine fits right in line with why the Rule of Two works. Ventress and Robo-Maul aren't really part of the Sith. (Either not yet, or not anymore) We know there are other dark siders out there, but there has to be something special about the power dynamics involved with the Master and Apprentice.

 

Yeah saw a bit of footage someone recorded at Celebration. Obviously we can't post it here since the trailer wasn't officially released but looked really good. I imagine we will get an official teaser soon.

 

I liked the perspective brought by the Plagueis novel about the whole thing, from what I can remember: there were more than one Sith master/apprentice tandem, and all claimed to be the official one, tracing their origins to Darth Bane. Plagueis was the one truly coming from that lineage, and would naturally seek to destroy the pretenders.

 

The leaked trailer looks awesome. at least we have 1 year to see everything of HR books and comics...

 

Exactly. As well as the Sith Apprentice seeking out potential "acolytes" like Dooku attempted with Obi-wan, Vader with Luke; an ally to help overthrow the Master

 

I'll have to search YouTube for the leak later.