As Good As The Acolyte Is… For Me, It’s Missing The Heart Of Star Wars


Warning! This article contains SPOILERS for Star Wars: The Acolyte episode 8.


Summary

  • The Acolyte finale lacks hope, missing the defining message of Star Wars.
  • The Jedi deaths felt meaningless and lacked impactful sacrifices, contrary to other Star Wars stories.
  • The show’s intentional hopeless tone didn’t work for some, leaving viewers wanting more hope.


Now that Star Wars: The Acolyte season 1 has come to an end, I’ve found myself wrestling with this Star Wars TV show for one important reason. Like any recent Star Wars project, The Acolyte has certainly had its ups and downs, but what makes it stand out in its own unique way is the evident love for Star Wars that sits at its core. Perhaps more than any other property produced under Disney’s ownership to date, The Acolyte has brought in beloved pieces of the former Star Wars Expanded Universe, now known as Legends, and has mirrored newer stories.

From the long-awaited live-action debut of Darth Plagueis to the playing of Kylo Ren’s iconic theme in multiple places, The Acolyte doesn’t struggle to pay tribute to Star Wars, but it has missed something essential about this beloved franchise. It’s something that I clung to throughout the series and grasped onto week after week, even when the worst would happen to characters we didn’t even get to have or know for very long. The finale, however, shattered every remnant of it, leaving it fractured in my hands and my heart. This thing was Star Warsdefining message: hope.


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The Acolyte’s Finale Has No Sense Of Hope

We Know the Tragic Fate of the Jedi Happens Because of All This

I didn’t realize at first why I was filled with such helpless frustration and anger after The Acolyte finale’s credits started to roll, but the more I began to process it, the more it dawned on me. Even in the darkest Star Wars stories, there’s still a glimmer of hope at the end that promises brighter days ahead. For example, Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith showcases the tragic downfall of the Jedi and the rise of the Galactic Empire, but it still ends with Luke and Leia’s birth, promising that they will one day save the galaxy.


The Acolyte, however, doesn’t end on this kind of note, not even for the Sith. While Qimir (Manny Jacinto) may have finally gotten the pupil he’s been wanting in Osha (Amandla Stenberg), Darth Plagueis’ appearance on their secret world as well as what’s already known about the Sith’s story in canon proves that things won’t end well for the two of them. As for the Jedi, they are caught in a complicated string of lies, and everyone knows that it’s these lies and cover-ups that will ultimately pave the way for their future downfall. Everything feels hopeless.

The Jedi’s Deaths Have No Meaning

None of These Sacrifices Have a Meaningful Purpose in the Long-Run


What was worse for me was watching Master Sol (Lee Jung-jae), who was easily my favorite character in The Acolyte, meet his demise in this finale and instantly become the Jedi’s scapegoat. His death, however, was only the last of many others in this TV show. Yord Fandar (Charlie Barnett) and Jecki Lon (Dafne Keen) were two other hard-hitting fates in episode 5, and now, they also won’t get their proper justice. I know that this was the point of it all, to highlight the Jedi’s hubris and flaws, but that knowledge still doesn’t help my withered, aching heart.

This was the point of it all, to highlight the Jedi’s hubris and flaws, but that knowledge still doesn’t help my withered, aching heart.


At least in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, another Star Wars project where the main heroes die, those sacrifices all end up meaning something. What the members of Rogue One died for ended up being the first, crucial step in saving the galaxy from the tyranny of the Galactic Empire, and that made it much easier to digest and process what had happened to them. This is also the case with several other Star Wars deaths, including Tech (Star Wars: The Bad Batch), Kanan Jarrus (Star Wars Rebels), and even Obi-Wan Kenobi (A New Hope).

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This Was Intentional, But It Didn’t Work For Me

I Still Wish There Was More Hope

Master Vernestra (Rebecca Henderson) very serious before the Galactic Senate in The Acolyte season 1 episode 8
Image via Disney+


As I said before, I understand that all of these story choices were intentional. The audience was meant to feel frustrated by the Jedi’s actions and angered by the fact that these Jedi have all died because of that first, initial lie told about Brendok all those years ago. It was also made quite clear leading into The Acolyte that this was going to be a story told from the perspective of the Sith, which made it even more clear that the show would end this way. Unfortunately for me, however, it still doesn’t work.

My favorite part about Star Wars is the fact that even at the characters’ lowest points, there’s still hope to hold on to. The Empire Strikes Back set the precedent for this with its ending, and that has since carried on into the many other stories Star Wars has told ever since. At no point did The Acolyte really have this kind of hope beaming through its storytelling, yet I still held out hope for Sol to tell Osha and the Jedi the truth and for them to work things out, but his swift death crushed that hope.


How Could The Acolyte Have Been More Hopeful?

Is There Really Another Way This Story Could Have Been Told?

Osha (Amandla Stenberg) and Qimir (Manny Jacinto) looking determined in The Acolyte season 1 episode 8
Image via Disney+

The problem is, of course, that it’s hard to imagine how else The Acolyte could have told this story and maintained a sense of hope. If I had to think of a way this could have been accomplished, I would have focused on the Jedi in this sense and not the Sith. The Sith are meant to be hopeless; it’s the shattering of hope that gives them their victories. I would have liked to see the Jedi be honest a little more in that they still weren’t sure of what or who was killing the Jedi, but that they would find them.

The Sith are meant to be hopeless; it’s the shattering of hope that gives them their victories.


This would have avoided the crushing hopelessness and despair of them blaming everything on Sol, who, in death, had no chance of defending himself. On the contrary, I can see how this could have had the potential to raise more questions and concerns about potential Sith in a way that could have risked contradicting canon. It would have had to strike a very delicate balance, but if The Acolyte had pulled it off, I think this story could have achieved the hopeful heart of Star Wars while also remaining faithful to its own central message.

All episodes of The Acolyte are now streaming on Disney+.

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