SPOILER: The Acolyte -- Disney+ Star Wars -- begins June 5, 2024

[MisterPenguin]

Hmmm... a possibility...

Qimir is the acolyte of a true Sith Lord and he's looking for his own acolyte so that the two of them can kill the true Sith Lord.

Such things have happened in canon several times already. Like George says, "it rhymes."

 

[MerlinTheGoat]

Incidentally, Qimir's dueling style reminds me a lot of Sidious. Specifically Sidious when he's portrayed by a stuntman or CGI double and not Ian McDiarmid. Episode 3 test footage with stunt doubles, and the Clone Wars series. It's insanely fast and ninja-like, but is also feral and unpredictable. Very aggressive.




In Legends, there were seven traditional lightsaber forms. The one that Sidious and Maul used was form 7. It was pretty unanimously considered a Sith form and was banned by the jedi order from being taught (though Yoda and a couple of other lightsaber instructors were allowed to learn the form in order to defend against it and prevent students from using it). They only taught students the prior 6 forms. Form 7 was very dangerous to both the opponent and also wielder. It's unpredictable and aggressive by nature and fueled by the dark side. Employing moves that the jedi consider incompatible with their beliefs. Mace Windu was able to invent a variation adaptable for jedi use, but he was its sole practitioner as it corrupted all others who tried.

At least four of the Legends lightsaber forms now exist in canon thanks to Rebels. Grand Inquisitor stated that Kanan Jarus and his master use form 3 (which was a purely defensive style that Obi Wan switched to after the death of Qui Gon). Grand Inquisitor himself fights similarly to Count Dooku, which was form 2 and takes a lot of elements from classical fencing. A hologram of Anakin mentions that Ahsoka uses form 4, which emphasizes acrobatics such as flips and spins/rotations (Yoda and Qui Gon also use form 4).

If form 7 still exists in canon, then I would definitely guess it's what Qimir uses. It fits very well with how he fights, especially with what Yord said about there being no rules or method to any of his moves. He even casually and arrogantly switches his lightsaber off during a lull in the fight like Sidious does in Clone Wars. It could also lend credence to Qimir being a real Sith, or at least trained by one. It would be very unlikely that he would learn such a form from the Jedi.

 

[Wendy Pleakley]

Yes, it's honestly the first thing I thought. But as they panned out, you could see right away it wasn't. But I'm guessing it has significance like it though. A place that channels the force in some way. It seemed to me that there has to be a reason Qimir stripped down buck naked and went into the water. Is it a tangled magic flower type thing? He seems pretty young to have been a Jedi a long time ago. Maybe he's older than we think and the force powers in the water somehow help him stay young?

The show creator confirmed it's a different planet but similar. I find it odd they would choose such a similar location that you think it it Ahch-To at first. What purpose did that serve?

Why not make it similar but visually a bit more different? But this is the franchise that gave us Jakuu instead of Tatooine so it's par for the course.

A bunch more on what the mystery planet could be and what it could represent:

No, That Wasn't Ahch-To In The Acolyte, Showrunner Confirms

Is Ahch-To in The Acolyte?

screenrant.com

HEADLAND: It's not Ahch-To. I know it's similar, and it was intentionally supposed to be similar in terms of terrain and feeling isolated and surrounded by water and less lush green and more rocky. But the idea is that cortosis is mined on this planet, so I don't think that's the case with Ahch-To. Part of the reason this is his home base is that cortosis is a very rare metal. I don't think we say it explicitly in the show, but that's a reason it's not Ahch-To.

 

[BrianLo]

There's an extremely relevant planet with a pretty much identical biome to Ahch-To in Legends. It's also one of only about five locations in the entire galaxy that was a rich source of cortosis. Perhaps the ONLY one that still had significant amounts during the waning days of the Republic. Bal'demnic-

Bal'demnic

Bal'demnic was an ocean planet adorned with rocky tropical islands in the Bak'rofsen system of the Auril sector, located within the Outer Rim Territories. The hostility of its native Kon'me species, together with its extremely harsh climate, discouraged most people from ever visiting the planet...

starwars.fandom.com

It was also majorly important in the Tenebrous and Plagueis stories. They both sought to control the cortosis resources of the planet. But it's also the planet where Plagueis killed Tenebrous and assumed the title of sith master.

It's the impossibly deep cut stuff like this (way above my meagre fandom), that suggests to me this series had oversight. I think a lot of the presumptions to the contrary were mostly in bad faith.

The Internet is looking for the "gotcha" on this series, but it feels too much like Filoni got a script pass. For better and worse.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

It's the impossibly deep cut stuff like this (way above my meagre fandom), that suggests to me this series had oversight. I think a lot of the presumptions to the contrary were mostly in bad faith.

The Internet is looking for the "gotcha" on this series, but it feels too much like Filoni got a script pass. For better and worse.

Not a lot of time to do something here

 

[MarvelCharacterNerd]

I enjoyed this (too short again) episode more than the previous one thanks to Manny Jacinto and for confirmation that Sol indeed knew it was Mae not Osha he'd taken with him.

Didn't love how Parent Trap the episode was - Let's learn about how YOU were raised while we were apart! Hey, your parents are cooler than mine!

Also don't think that reversing the old "male watches the female strip naked to swim/sunbathe/take a bath" was any less creepy or gross when Osha watched Manny's character get naked and then full on stared at him while he got dressed. Even though - as expected - he was aware of her. Still a really unnecessary trope. And not even original in Star Wars after the Rey Force-sees bare chested Kylo nonsense, too.

 

[Disney Irish]

It's the impossibly deep cut stuff like this (way above my meagre fandom), that suggests to me this series had oversight. I think a lot of the presumptions to the contrary were mostly in bad faith.

The Internet is looking for the "gotcha" on this series, but it feels too much like Filoni got a script pass. For better and worse.

Headland is a fan of Legends, she took a lot of elements from the books.

 

[sedati]

I really like the design of Vanestra's ship. Very Flash Gordon meets Star Wars. As that was Lucas's original inspiration, makes sense the the longer- long time ago would evoke it.

 

[Phroobar]

How come there are no toy ships for this show?

 

[MoonRakerSCM]

One post is in regards to the show, the other is in regards to a poster... one of them is not allowed by the moderators just sayin'...

 

[Screamface]

How come there are no toy ships for this show?

New Star Wars doesn't sell many toys unless it's a Baby Yoda. Which is now dropping off.

 

[Phroobar]

New Star Wars doesn't sell many toys unless it's a Baby Yoda. Which is now dropping off.

Not true. Most of it is online. See hasbro pulse.

 

[doctornick]

Like any Disney+ shows, this suffers a good bit from too much runtime being wasted - we don't need 5 minutes of establishing shots without action. It doesn't help that episodes aren't exactly that long (if they were truly 60 minutes of runtime that might allow for spending a few minutes on scenery without hurting things). So far there's probably been about 2 episodes worth of actual activity.

Whoever is running Disney+ needs to take a course in actually making TV shows.

 

[sedati]

Like any Disney+ shows, this suffers a good bit from too much runtime being wasted - we don't need 5 minutes of establishing shots without action. It doesn't help that episodes aren't exactly that long (if they were truly 60 minutes of runtime that might allow for spending a few minutes on scenery without hurting things). So far there's probably been about 2 episodes worth of actual activity.

Whoever is running Disney+ needs to take a course in actually making TV shows.

Hard- hard disagree. The time and care to set a scene, to show little creatures or flora, to take the time to have a craft land- this is what sets these shows apart and often above. The concept of what a streaming show is or can be is still in the formative phase but I don’t want a T.V. Show. Yes, there are things that can be learned, but I’m much happier with the mini/limited series concept.

 

[Trauma]

The Variety Streaming Originals Charts

See the most-watched streaming originals every week based on Luminate data. Find out what people are watching on Netflix, Hulu, Apple TV+ and more.

variety.com

Whoops!

 

[Wendy Pleakley]

Hard- hard disagree. The time and care to set a scene, to show little creatures or flora, to take the time to have a craft land- this is what sets these shows apart and often above. The concept of what a streaming show is or can be is still in the formative phase but I don’t want a T.V. Show. Yes, there are things that can be learned, but I’m much happier with the mini/limited series concept.

George Lucas himself said it's a mistake when a show spends time showing off what was built, just because they spent so much money on it.

I believe he was talking about the sail barge scene, and I can see the point. Other than an establishing shot the set exists to host action and story, and they don't linger on it just because it was a major effort to build.

Which is not to say they shouldn't show off creatures or settings, after all they are what make Star Wars what it is. Just needs to be a balance where extra time isn't being taken to show things off just for the sake of it.

That can be one of the issues with streaming shows. There's no format rules. I'm sure it feels restrictive having to write for a broadcast show where everything has to fit into 40 minutes of show and be broken into four acts or what not, but it also forces them to really trim the fat and make every moment count, I imagine.

With streaming, a show can wander aimlessly and there may be a lack of editing because there's no need to make it fit into a set format.

 

[sedati]

George Lucas himself said it's a mistake when a show spends time showing off what was built, just because they spent so much money on it.

You’re confusing two separate points. Star Wars has always had wonderful establishing shots. The characters treat these amazing worlds, technology, creatures, etc as mundane. The shows have kept to this consistently.

 

[Wendy Pleakley]

You’re confusing two separate points. Star Wars has always had wonderful establishing shots. The characters treat these amazing worlds, technology, creatures, etc as mundane. The shows have kept to this consistently.

I agree with making use of establishing shots, but where I was going is the unrestricted runtimes could lead to showing things off just for the sake of it. I don't think it's happening here but food for thought.

Star Trek The Motion Picture famously devoted five plus minutes to just show off their new ship model. I love that scene but from a general audience engagement metric, it was probably too much self indulgence.

 

[erasure fan1]

You’re confusing two separate points. Star Wars has always had wonderful establishing shots. The characters treat these amazing worlds, technology, creatures, etc as mundane. The shows have kept to this consistently.

The problem is with the runtime of the show. Therefore anything that isn't pushing the show forward feels like a waste of time. For me anyway, I feel like there has been a lot of filler for 26/27min episodes. Is it a big issue? I think that's still TBD. If they sprint through the ending and leave a bunch of hanging threads that are relevant to this season. Then it's a big problem because there was plenty of room to cut for the more important stuff.

 

[Phroobar]

Star Wars always told things fast. Look at the speeder bike chase in ROTJ or the pod race sequence in TPM. It was Lucas's reaction to 2001 with twenty minutes of watching a ship dock or it's acid trip ending.

The thing I didn't like about Andor was there wasn't anything fast. It poked along.