Honestly, I gave the first episode a shot and just thought that it was boring and not very well made. Grifters are going to do their thing, but even if none of the criticism was in bad faith, I still think people would find it a very mid Star Wars entry and a mediocre show in general.

 

I'm putting it on par with Obi-wan atm. Some good bits, some bad bits. Not amazing, but watchable, with a story that has interesting implications.

My opinion on it is definitely going to hinge largely on what stories it ties into. If they pull a Book of Boba, where the narrative doesn't lend itself to literally anything beyond "we wanted to play in the sandpit with our SW action figures", then I'll be supremely disappointed.

 

Is it me or are they trying to redeem the evil twin without giving her an arc that justifies it? One moment she is murdering the Jedi and the next she is like I'll surrender to the Jedi because 'Mah Sister'.

Which is weird because the show was set-up in a way to show that the 4 Jedi had something to do with the destruction of the witch cult and that's what the evil twin was avenging.

I have no idea where this show is going and that's not a good thing.

 

Ep 5 was peak. Stellar lightsaber fights all around. I might even put them over a few of the prequel bouts.

Spoiler

Jacinto did the transition from goof to brutal psycho very well. That he yearns for a pupil and freedom is again reinforcing to me that he is just the apprentice atp.

Cool to see cortosis is back as well. Like... Iiterally sat up and did the DiCaprio point.

 

Spoiler

Well, that was a fun episode. I think my favorite bit was the pre-title card opening sequence because of how well it built the horror vibe. Various thoughts in the order of "what comes to mind as I type":

1. I loved the various fight choreography. Nice, clean action with some cool ideas. All those blunt force strikes with what I can only assume is cortosis/cortosis-alloy on the lightsabers to temporarily disable them? Wonderful. The teamwork between Sol and Jecki in a way felt like a call back to the Duel of the Fates, where it is the teamwork between Master and Apprentice that shows success against the Sith. It is as soon as they separate that one dies. That move in the opening sequence of using the Force to pull a Jedi onto the lightsaber that already had a Jedi impaled on it? Beautiful. Seeing Dafne Keen's martial arts experience put to use was a good touch. And I hope the detachable shoto lightsaber was the "new kind of lightsaber" that I remembered being bandied about in the little bit of pre-show talk about the show that I saw (I avoid all spoilers, trailers, pre-show theories, etc. with the exception of trailers at the movie theater, and it has made all media so much better, try it people), and no Rwoh's lightsaber whip is not a new thing so it isn't that.

2. Qimir was the Sith, so well played to everyone on that wagon before me. Still wish he wasn't, but that's entirely because I want more non-Sith Sith if you know what I mean.

3. I really like Yord in this episode, and I'm sad to see him gone.

4. Not sad to see Yord's fucking haircut gone.

5. Doubt Sol and Mae are going to make it back to Coruscant, or else Ki-Adi-Mundi in The Phantom Menace makes no sense.

6. The two worst parts of the episode are how morons are going to buy into the Sith's shit, and how morons are going to buy into Mae's shit.

7. Defintely no Mae redemption arc going on, one line made me think that, in a clear call to an incredibly self-deluded and famous line any Star Wars fan should know.

8. Still think there are things about the Jedi's and Mae's past we don't know, but it certainly isn't going to make any of her actions not her fault.

EDIT:

9. Almost forgot: the yearning for "freedom" is a nice subtle easter egg to the Legends Sith Code.

The fights were definitely better than Qui-Gon/Maul I, Dooku/Anakin&Obi-Wan, Dooku/Yoda and Windu/Palpatine (with exception of the clear kendo influence). Though for the last three, it's entirely because of the ages of Sir Christopher Lee, Samuel L. Jackson and Ian McDiarmid.

 

I think if last weeks episode and this weeks had aired together, it would’ve been better. Loved this episode, and makes up for the weaker Day- but if they’d aired together, a lot of my mixed feelings on the episode would’ve been gone.

What a fight.

Spoiler

I honestly am shocked by Jenki and Yord’s deaths, to the point where I half expected Sol and Osha to die by the end of the episode too lol. All of the nameless Jedi dying lulled me into a sense of ‘well we’ve gotten the requisite deaths out of the way to establish he’s a badass, now our main characters can slip away.’ And then blam- triple stab to the heart and a snapped neck. Goddamn.

 

Spoiler

I don't think Sol is making it out of next episode. Possible series of events: Mae is gets him to confess to whatever it is, and then assassinates him or starts to assassinate him as part of her attempt to get Osha "back." I kind of hope that ends the episode, and the start of the followup involves Jedi finding the ship abandoned, containing only Sol's corpse.

The one thing I remember from the teaser that I saw at the end of Episode 1's rerun in theaters hasn't happened yet, and it looks like it happened on some forest world so we might be back to Khofar. Regarding the earlier talk about some of the pro's and con's of Disney era Star Wars, one of the things I miss the most is the strong, distinct looks each planet had. You could see any still and know immediately what planet it was. So while the teaser container

Spoiler: nested spoilers woo

Vernestra Rwoh using her lightwhip in some sort of plant filled outdoor space

I'm not sure if it was on Khofar or not.

Even though it would have robbed us of some of the amazing choreography I was complimenting earlier and would have been too repetitive of what they did with Kelnacca, I almost wish we didn't see any of the fight that killed the red shirt Jedi, just their corpses as part of a cold open.

 

The double impale double decap was so cold. Still geeking out about it kinda.

 

I haven't seen the show, but I saw the clip of the lightsaber fight and I liked the bit where the dude tanks a lightsaber hit with his helmet, that was fun.

edit: On a rewatch I noticed that the lightsabers turn off when the darksider tanks the hits with his armor, that's neat af lmao

 

Cortosis is really cool and I'm psyched that it has reappeared in canon beyond a couple of meh novel mentions. Basically anti-beskar. Super brittle but has energy properties that short out sabers and reflects blasters.

 

So if you bonked that helmet with a regular melee weapon or just punched it, it would break?

 

Basically how it worked in the old EU, at least. It was dedicated anti-jedi armor, essentially.

 

Yep. It broke In that episode. Clearly Darth Teeth keeps patching it up and that's what all the sealed cracks are.

 

Amusingly, in Legends while refined cortosis was very brittle, the ore was quite durable and a pain to mine. See Darth Bane: Path of Destruction for more info on the mining.

 

Spoiler

Some thoughts on tonight's episode, in no particular order:

• I really regret that I didn't know of Manny Jacinto before this. He's acting out this absolute manipulation and corruption super well. Case in point: how he allowed Osha to believe it was his former Jedi Master who gave him that scar, but I have the feeling it was the (still hypothetical, but probably fully extant) actual Sith Master.
• Vernestra Rwoh once again showing the decline of the Jedi Order very well, with her continued focus on the Order's image and politics over the actual work of the Jedi.
• Goddammit stop cockblocking us on Sol's dark secret already, but we'll probably see it next episode. I also don't think it is going to be as bad as some people are likely theorizing, but Jedi do have a strict moral code.
• Even though I've been fairly critical of Rwoh, I don't think she believes Sol turned as she was clearly catching echoes of the fight.
• I really want to know where that island is. At first I thought it might have been Ahch-To, but I don't think the smaller rock outcroppings match. Plus the focus on the tiny little elephant makes me think it isn't Ahch-To, but is somewhere that is supposed to be reminiscent of it. A dark sider version of it? Of course, it could still be on Ahch-To, but somewhere other than Temple Island. Especially since if Sith knew about Ahch-To and how to get there, the First Order would not have been struggling to find Luke.
• Ahhh shit, the scar might be due to Vernestra. I haven't been the biggest fan of hers, but I kind of hope not. The main reason it could be her is the shape of his scar. Might need to rewatch to see how close her debuting her lightsaber whip is to the implication above.

EDIT:

Spoiler

I'm really stuck on that goddamn island and unknown planet. I just can't figure out if it is supposed to be Ahch-To or not. I thought the little elephant birds instead of Porgs threw it out, but I supposed those could have been the baby version of the Thala Siren Luke would get his green milk from. This exact scenario is why I was annoyed by Jakku in VII, and Mustafar/Pasaana in IX. One of the great things about Ep1-V1 was how strong the visual language for each planet was. They were all very distinct, so as soon as you saw a still of any of those planets you knew exactly where you were. Now things are very unclear.

 

Finally sat down to watch the Acolyte. Imo, this is top tier Star Wars and the lore nerd side me is happy.

I put it as the best live action show behind Andor at this point. To be clear, there is a massive mile between Andor and the rest of the live action shows.

 

1) Andor
2) mandalorian season 1-2
3) acolyte
4) mandalorian season 3
5) book of boba fett
6) Obiwan.

I like the Acolyte well enough, but it doesn’t grab me like Andor and early Mando does.

it’s enjoyable but I wouldn’t re watch it.

 

Def fair on Mando seasons 1-2, I was counting it as a whole.

I do think acolyte works far better if you’re watching it all at once. The episode endings have def felt choppy.

 

My hot take: if this weeks episode (7) had been released as (3), and Day/Night had been one episode, it would be a significantly better show.

Really enjoyed the episode but I think the show played its hand wrong. The central mystery isn’t that interesting to me, whereas the exploring the Sith Ideology is. Would’ve liked the ideas this ep revealed play out over a season vs the tailend.

 

Both flashback episodes have been great when it comes to why attachment for Force users is bad, and how the dark side is also a very very very bad thing to encourage. I'm putting 60something percent of the blame for everything that happened at the Zabrak cultist's feet, and splitting the other half between a Padawan being dumb and Sol's instant attachment to Osha paired with giving into his own fear with the witches. Honestly, kinda get the fear regarding the witches from everything we saw about them (excluding Mother Aniseya's decision to let Osha go with the Jedi).

I both liked a callback in the episode, and hated it at the same time. The Hyperspace Disaster mentioned around the campfire is a callback to Star Wars The High Republic: Light of the Jedi. Nice to see the connection to the High Republic project, but it would have also been nice if they mentioned it was the Hyperspace Disaster during the time of the Nihil, or something.

Torbin swearing the Barash Vow makes a lot of sense in context, and so does Kelnacca going into retreat on Khofar (along with all the graffiti he did in his residence, which I can only assume is a remnant of that absolute bitch's possession).

Called it. There was bad communication, things started getting out of hand, then was about to be resolved, and then Mae starting the fire due to the absolute bitch's encouragement of the dark side led to terrible disaster.

Unrelated note, first episode where I sat through all the credits. Whoever made the decision that there should be a song with lyrics in the credits needs to be fired.

Below gif not relevant. Not relevant at all.



Edit: Also, fuck the internet in general. I see some people online talking about how Indara is blameless. Fuckers, she's the one who made the decision to cover everything up which has led to the mess we're in now. It's almost like hiding the truth to save someone pain causes more pain in the long run.