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The Acolyte (live action series set in The High Republic era) - a general discussion thread — Page 11

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Good review, Acbagel. The consistently bad writing is most frustrating when there are good ideas and good visuals. I’m withholding judgment on whether the various mysteries hold up. Yet I’m 99% convinced “kill a Jedi without a weapon” means kill an unarmed Jedi and Mae knows that so the ‘clever’ part is the audience is misled by clunky dialogue. Whether killing an unarmed Jedi strikes at the heart of Jedi (because they don’t do that) in a way that unprovoked killings by a [bad Force user] doesn’t is in the eye of the beholder. We’ll see how that goes.

The blue elephant in the room.

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(Hi, everybody! Remember me?)

philraid said:
We haven’t had a movie or show go this far back in the timeline before, so that’s intriguing.

Actually, we have: Young Jedi Adventures.

Interestingly, if you’re watching in chronological order, “Destiny” makes for a great segue from YJA. Jedi show up to test Force-sensitive children, as they had presumably done with Kai, Lys and Nubs, but the parents are unwelcoming and highly critical of the Jedi practice of separating children from their families. It’s a deconstruction of everything you’ve seen so far.

 

Time is running out for the Rebels. Antilles upcourt to Skywalker. He’s being paced by Darth Va— the bone-jarring pick by Solo! He came out of nowhere! Skywalker’s open from way outside, he launches at the buzzer... Good! It’s good! The Rebels win on a sensational buzzer beater by Luke Skywalker! Let’s take another look at that last shot. He just does get it off in time. Wow, what a shot. That’s why they call him Luke Legend.

 

That may be the most exciting battle I have ever been privileged to broadcast. Certainly the most dramatic finish. We’ll get you an update on the Artoo Detoo injury situation in just a moment. Right now let’s go courtside where SuperShadow is waiting with Chewbacca.

 

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cap said:

(Hi, everybody! Remember me?)

philraid said:
We haven’t had a movie or show go this far back in the timeline before, so that’s intriguing.

Actually, we have: Young Jedi Adventures.

Forgot about that one. Then again I haven’t seen it. I just knew that the High Republic was a bunch of books and comics. Does that show take place before this one?

All his life has he looked away… to the future, to the horizon. Never his mind on where he was. Hmm? What he was doing. Hmph!

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philraid said:

cap said:

(Hi, everybody! Remember me?)

philraid said:
We haven’t had a movie or show go this far back in the timeline before, so that’s intriguing.

Actually, we have: Young Jedi Adventures.

Forgot about that one. Then again I haven’t seen it. I just knew that the High Republic was a bunch of books and comics. Does that show take place before this one?

Yes. 84 years before “Destiny,” and 100 years before the rest of The Acolyte so far.

 

Time is running out for the Rebels. Antilles upcourt to Skywalker. He’s being paced by Darth Va— the bone-jarring pick by Solo! He came out of nowhere! Skywalker’s open from way outside, he launches at the buzzer... Good! It’s good! The Rebels win on a sensational buzzer beater by Luke Skywalker! Let’s take another look at that last shot. He just does get it off in time. Wow, what a shot. That’s why they call him Luke Legend.

 

That may be the most exciting battle I have ever been privileged to broadcast. Certainly the most dramatic finish. We’ll get you an update on the Artoo Detoo injury situation in just a moment. Right now let’s go courtside where SuperShadow is waiting with Chewbacca.

 

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 (Edited)

this episode kinda fells like a waste of time it could be trimmed, i know that i have said this in another post, but this shows that this show didn’t need 8 episodes it needed more of the mystery that the first episode had
and like why did master sol leave if the other jedi was arriving and why did took so long to realize something so obvious
this series is ending and fells so weak and mediocre, and something that does not help is we now that the jedi are hiding something from that night, im just waiting to the moment that is showed to us
one of quality’s is the ending and the scenes with osha and smilo ren

idk

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This was a much quieter episode than last weeks as it’s mostly ruminating on the previous episode’s events. I quite liked the episode, and I think it has some really strong writing moments, but I could understand other viewers being more frustrated with the episode. There’s not much in the way of forward plot progression here, but it delves deeper into Osha and Qimir’s characters and is mostly successful. We get some really interesting hints as to who Qimir really is, and I feel more connected to Osha than I have previously. It looks like next episode is going to be the second flashback episode as both final scenes seem designed to segway immediately into a flahsback, it even has the same director as that episode. I don’t really have much else to say about this episode though as like I mentioned it’s a way slower episode, but I did enjoy it although it’s making me a bit nervous about if this season is going to have a satisfying conclusion.

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After the high-tempo combat last week, this week’s episode is definitely the breathing room that was needed. The early episodes felt very jumpy, whereas this one seemed to to linger a little longer where needed. Sol “discovering”/playing along with Mae perhaps dragged out a little much, but I really enjoyed all of the interactions between Qimir and Osha. The Vernestra lightwhip moment felt entirely unneeded, regardless of how one feels about their re-introduction to canon. All in all a stronger episode than some that came before, with some excellent material to be kept if trimming the series into a film.

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 (Edited)

Just watched Acolyte episode 6. The Qimir/Osha stuff is cool but the rest is just okay. I’m starting to wonder if Qimir is way older than he seems… Either way, I no longer think he’s a Ren. I think the Kylo theme in the last episode was just to highlight how he and Osha have a similar dynamic to Kylo and Rey. I’m still putting my money on him being Plagueis. I like the theory of Vern being his former master. If he really is much older than he seems, then it would make sense, since she’s also like 100+, and according to the books, she also dabbled with the dark side a bit when she was young.

https://henrynsilva.blogspot.com/

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There were some more “watch minutes and engagement” streaming numbers for the Acolyte that came out this week from ReelGood, but that is a different company than the last drop of data, and one set says this is the second most watched Star Wars show behind Kenobi, and the other says it has far less viewers than Ahsoka… Third-party streaming data collection is not very reliable right now, so I’ll wait until the Nielson ratings come out before commenting further on the “performance”. Instead, I want to preface the review with a comment on Leslye Headland’s recent interview on The Mary Sue podcast.

In the interview, Leslye discusses how she wanted The Acolyte to explain why the Jedi are hesitant to train Anakin as an older child to give new context to the Prequels, “Is that why when Anakin shows up they’re like, ‘he’s too old to train,’ like, ‘we’ve learned that this doesn’t work.’ Those were the things that I was interested in.” She also briefly discusses the Ki-Adi Mundi “drama” and how she got approval from Pablo Hidalgo to change his previous Legends age to give new context to his line in The Phantom Menace. They’ve also done the same thing with Vernestra in this show, making her somehow still alive from the other High Republic books, extending her lifespan hundreds of years… All that to say, in recent years, Disney’s approach to expanding the Star Wars universe has frequently involved recontextualizing and providing new explanations for key aspects of the original Skywalker saga and other parts of their new Canon. The Ahsoka novel getting retconned for the Tales of the Jedi episode comes to mind. As does the Kenobi show rehashing the moment in Rebels with Ahsoka and Vader. Repeating plotlines and constantly trying to reference other moments has certainly become a prominent trend. While this tactic might seem like a way to add “depth” to other beloved narratives, it often results in unnecessary and shallow revisions that stifle the creative potential of these new stories. By revisiting and altering the context of pivotal moments from the original films and other works, Disney is at constant risk of diminishing their impact and alienating long-time fans who hold these moments on a near-reverent platform.

This type of “retconning” (sometimes only retconning Legends, but I’m also referring to the explaining of some new context for current canon), while intended to offer clarity, often feels forced and detracts from the originality of the current show/movie’s storytelling. From a big-picture view of Disney’s direction of Lucasfilm, this trend suggests a lack of confidence in creating fresh, compelling content that can captivate audiences without relying on the crutch of the Skywalker saga’s canon lore. As they’ve decided to bring in a ton of different directors and writers who seem to have a personal story they want to tell but need a way to cram it into the Star Wars universe, you lose the passion of wanting to purely tell a Star Wars story for Star Wars sake. It seems as though every new director wants to put their stamp on the universe by “adding” something, rather than personally taking a backseat and letting a story develop on its own.

Moreover, this trend of recontextualization can inadvertently undermine the narrative weight of what George first intended. Key moments and lines that once carried significant emotional and thematic heft that were very intentionally framed by Lucas are somewhat diluted by these added layers of explanation. How do you find a writer who is so passionate about Star Wars itself that they have a 3-6 movie/season vision for a story? Is that even possible in a post-Lucas era? This feeling of a one-off “demo” where a 6-8 episode season is released and then “We’ll wait and see if people want a Season 2” is a terrible storytelling model for the epic saga that is Star Wars, especially when there are such tight production timelines. We either need visionaries or we need adaptations of previous visionaries (Zahn’s novels, for example. Or Veitch’s Tales of the Jedi comics. Traviss’ Republic Commando series even, and as controversial as her vision of Mandalorians/Jedi may be, she had a long-term vision for her story). Is that Favreau and Filoni planning everything? A new leader? I don’t know, but it still feels like the problem with the Sequel Trilogy is occurring. Too many cooks in the kitchen each trying to interject their own take on the dish rather than a head chef bringing together a complimentary menu.

The Acolyte - Episode 6

Pacing and Structure

Not considering the intro and credits, we are up to 31 minutes and 9 seconds on the runtime this week. Still feels very short. While some parts, particularly the interactions between Qimir and Osha, are well-crafted and engaging as they slowly develop, the overall pacing often feels inconsistent. There are moments where the narrative drags, interspersed with rushed segments that fail to provide sufficient depth or context. The episode seems to oscillate between compelling character-driven scenes and seemingly superfluous content. The back-and-forth pacing of various plots detracts from the main storyline, which really needed to move forward this episode. The attempt to balance multiple plotlines, including Sol’s mysterious guilt, Qimir’s manipulative tactics, and the Jedi investigation, all left me feeling disoriented, especially about the timeline of the sequence of events that were going on. I am craving more cohesive primary storytelling rather than the quick bouncing around to slow or overly expository scenes. I will say it again, I LOVE slow, lengthy stories. But this show doesn’t have the length. It only has the slow…

Moreover, the pacing issues are exacerbated by the episode’s tendency to introduce new elements (Osha’s untapped “powers”. “The power of two” possibly hinting at a Dyad? Qimir’s scar. His reasoning for being a Sith) and characters (Vernestra’s apprentice), without adequate setup or follow-through. This all results in a sense of narrative clutter, where significant moments and character developments are lost in the noise of extraneous details. By streamlining the plot and honing in on the core storylines, the show could achieve a more engaging pace. Streamlining does not mean shortening the runtime. It can actually be done with more time on each episode because you can write larger stories, but take your time in getting from plot point to plot point.

The structure is hindered by an overreliance on mystery without delivering timely resolutions or adequate clues to keep me invested. This has been a recurring problem throughout the entirety of the series, and this issue is exemplified in Sol’s character arc. His guilt and past actions have been repeatedly hinted at for 6 episodes now, but they still aren’t addressed. We have had at least 4 conversations that I can remember where Sol tells Osha/Mae that he will tell them the full story and explain everything, but is either immediately interrupted or says he will explain when “the time is right”. Over and over and over he has promised that this story will clear everything up, but when 75% of the story has gone by and we still don’t have a clue what he is talking about, the constant teasing is not enjoyable. I suspect next week is another Flashback episode where we will actually get an answer, but the approach of saying a lot without saying anything continues to create frustrating problems with the structure of the season. It feels like the narrative is artificially prolonged to fill the episode count rather than naturally progressing toward a satisfying conclusion. Additionally, the balance of the A/B/C plots in this episode was once again a mess of transitions, often cutting away as soon as a moment started to become interesting. I think to the directing of something like Breaking Bad where you can watch a very slow scene play out for 15+ minutes straight with no cutaways at all, and it’s entirely engrossing and hypnotizing… You can do slow scenes in incredible ways, but the constant cutting around to different characters with no measure of time has not been an enjoyable experience. Again, since Week 1 it has felt like a ~3-hour movie plot that needed trimmed down to 2.5 hours but instead has been stretched to death for a subscription model. Akin to Mandalorian Season 3, we have two episodes left to wrap up a major storyline in a satisfying manner, and the task looks almost impossible.

Dialogue and Writing Quality

The dialogue in this episode was split between some big highs and lows. On the positive side, the exchanges between Qimir and Osha actually exhibited a nuanced understanding of Dark Side seduction tactics, drawing parallels to Palpatine’s manipulation of Anakin and other falls throughout Jedi history. These scenes were well-written, showcasing a methodical approach to turning someone to the Dark Side by exploiting their doubts and internal conflicts. However, these moments are contrasted by other lines where the dialogue falters. The dialogue has always felt like it’s saying something “deep” but it never communicates concrete or coherent points. The lines still feel like when you would set the spacing just a little extra on your papers in college while using as flowery of language as possible to meet a length requirement. Saying a whole lot, but it’s all actually a whole lot of nothing. It suffers from a lack of clarity, with characters acting in ways that seem driven more by “mysteries” in the plot rather than genuine motivations. It seemed like Sol didn’t realize that Mae was tricking him because that’s what the plot “needed” to happen rather than a natural outpouring of Sol into this scene. The same can be said about what he tried to say over comms. It feels like he should be screaming, “SITH! SITH! We were just attacked by a force user wielding the dark side and a red lightsaber and everyone is dead,” but for plot’s sake… he sends a moronic and unclear message and then leaves the system.

In terms of writing quality, this felt like Episode 4 where there really wasn’t a lot that happened. The episode spent a ton of time without any dialogue at all with scenic shots of the island and environments, Bazil walking around investigating, Sol trying to repair the ship a few times, and Osha sitting in quiet. The delve into philosophical discussions about the dark side and the Jedi was the highlight, and while some moments were intellectually stimulating, they often came at the expense of advancing the plot. Sol’s confession about his past sins to the Jedi Council is abruptly mentioned as we all continue to wonder how he can’t sense Mae posing as Osha, but then out of nowhere apparently Bazil tells him offscreen and he stuns her. This sequence of events lacked the necessary emotional weight and context to resonate fully as a satisfying conclusion to this mini imposter plot. Vernestra’s side story moving alongside Sol and Qimir’s was extremely confusing in terms of how it was progressing over time and felt like that entire segment could have been moved to a later point in the series rather than forcing it in so suddenly and having them just miss each other in the same system. The episode also suffers from its inconsistent tone. While the scenes between Qimir and Osha are at times tense and psychologically rich, other segments like Bazil doing “air karate” before nibbling on Mae and a droid squirting oil on her face in a gag moment feel out of place, disrupting the overall mood. This tonal dissonance makes it difficult for the episode to maintain a steady rhythm, as it swings between serious drama and seemingly unnecessary “filler” content that doesn’t lead anywhere. Did we really need to spend ~20% of the episode watching Bazil wander around the ship and plug the droid into a charger? Only to never even show a scene of him revealing his discoveries to Sol?

If the show had focused on exploring the Sith, showing how a Sith master/apprentice tries to turn and train a person who once had good intentions or corrupt a Jedi Padawan, it could have been really good. Qimir seems like a great evil protagonist. We could see how his Acolyte’s original beliefs get twisted as they fall further into the dark side, eventually plotting to kill their master and take their place, continuing the cycle of the Rule of Two. This is how the show was originally marketed before it morphed into this quasi-mystery about two “force prodigy” twins. Qimir, who was once a Jedi, seems to have been involved in the events 16 years ago, but it’s unclear if he was actually a Jedi or if he’s lying. He wants revenge on the Jedi, but the show is again vague about his true motivations. I suspect the scar on his back is from the lightwhip, hinting that Vernestra was his former master? Historically, Disney’s lack of overall vision and plan for a Star Wars narrative is evidenced in this show. I suspect it will continue the same MO of hinting at certain events or Legends connections (Plagueis, Tenebrous, Bal’demnic) and siphon small references but never actually commit to anything big because they genuinely do not have a bigger plan. Like “Project Necromancer” being hinted at and somewhat described in what, 3 or 4 different shows/movies now, but we still have absolutely no clue about the specifics, because Disney doesn’t know them.

Production Quality and Creative Direction

If the runtimes continue as they have, we are going to be looking at close to $1 million/minute in production costs. That is an astonishingly high number, and I am continually left wondering where that has gone. I think there may be some overinflated staff salaries occurring here, because I do not see anything in the show that justifies that cost. It still wavers between some sets, like the interior of Sol’s ship, looking very good, and other sets, like the interior of Qimir’s cave, looking absolutely terrible. I have to specifically mention this shot:

cave

These rock steps look so unnatural and are easily seen as the typical styrofoam-ish/plastic that these synthetic set props are made of. This doesn’t look like a real-life cave, it looks like steps up onto a ride at a themed amusement park ride. And while I liked the design of Sol’s ship having that disconnected shuttle, the resolution and CGI on the ship in orbit were extremely low, looking more like PS2 cutscenes than a $180 million 2024 super-budget production. Bazil’s animations still look very good, and the new mini-elephant creatures had decent effects.

There really wasn’t much introduced in terms of creative art direction. The “Unknown Planet” (which I suspect is Bal’demnic due to the cortosis mine) visually resembled Ach-To to a confusing degree. It was quite empty, looked more like Earth than a galaxy far far away, and one tiny family of an alien species doesn’t feel very sci-fi. The creature looked great as a design, but to cut to that same group three different times just made the environment feel small and cheap. I wish we would see things on a larger scale. I’m not sure they properly utilized the environment and CGI as well because at one point Qimir told Osha she needed to start swimming if she wanted to make it to the ship by sundown, but the ship was CGI’d in only like… 100 yards away? It looked like she could get there in 3 minutes if she wanted. There was even a little bridge of rocks that appeared to go almost all the way to the ship. There was really nothing new or inspiring in this episode, lots of repeated sets that looked similar to the comments I had already made about them in previous episodes.

Performances and Characters

The performances in this episode are generally stronger than they have been prior, with some actors effectively portraying their characters’ complex emotions. Qimir again stands out as the highlight, showcasing a dynamic range of pain, desire, and psychological manipulation. Sol’s deliveries are on par with his excellent performance thus far, and Osha/Mae continues to lack depth. I have to say, Vernestra is the flattest, most wooden, and dullest character I’ve seen in any form of media for a very long time. Her scenes bog down the rest of the plot in this episode and her line delivery is extremely stilted and awkward. I believe she’s supposed to have played a large part in Qimir’s backstory, but it’s hard to care because she’s acted so poorly. And I can’t get over constantly seeing her human skin underneath the fading green face paint. She doesn’t really look like a Mirialan. Mog’s introduction and performance was some sort of gag-like character and I did not enjoy him whatsoever. Appeared unfit for the role and extremely foolish, intentionally.

Character motivations and development suffer due to the writing. I have massive whiplash trying to follow what characters want and why they are behaving the way they are.

Qimir - He has solidified himself as the most interesting character in the show. We need some concrete motivations and character drive soon though or else the mystery and intrigue will become tiresome rather than… titillating. They leaned into his physical appearance and visceral “draw” to the dark side, the opportunity to “live free”. Good characterization, but it needs development/conclusion or it will become as frustrating as the other constant overhanging mysteries.

Sol - Unfortunately, due to repeated foolish character decisions, my opinion of his character has greatly lessened. He was duped far too easily by Mae, he failed to reveal proper information over the comms, I have no clue what he actually wants anymore… Starting to lose me a bit with his character arc. Next week will be crucial to see how his revelation affects him.

Mae/Osha - Really nothing new to add here. Both characters are still incredibly indecisive and indistinguishable from one another. Bland performances and confusing character motivations lead me to dislike the characters thus far.

Vernestra/Mog - I would say this pairing is verging on being insufferable and a pain to watch. The stiffness and shallow performance of Vernestra (who was not at all like this in the books, from the little I’ve read) is terribly complimented by the intentional ineptitude and foolishness of her apprentice, Mog. It seems like both characters are here to do nothing more than make the Jefi appear incompetent. And they do it in the most boring ways possible.

Conclusion

This felt almost exactly like Episode 4 in terms of having a ton of time where nothing really happens in a way too short episode, except 6 lacked that “Wow!” moment that 4 had.

Rating: 3.8/10 (I’d call it “weak”, but not “very weak” or “decent”)

Pros:

Qimir’s psychological manipulation and application of the draw of the Dark Side
The discussions of cortosis and Qimir’s demeanor
Sol restraining Mae, at least he made the right decision finally

Cons:

Continued indecipherable character motivations
Tons of wasted time with Bazil and the slow development of overhanging unsatisfying mysteries
Vernestra

Best scene (I really can’t think of 3 unique scenes that I enjoyed, they’re all just Qimir and Osha in the cave):

Qimir manipulates Osha in the cave

Worst Scenes:

  1. Vernestra investigates with Mog
  2. Bazil wanders around but we don’t get to see the conclusion of his revelation
  3. Mae fails to do anything at all in Sol’s ship

(The Force Awakens) Heirs of the Force | A Star Wars Legends Re-edit

(The Last Jedi) Fate of the Jedi | A Star Wars Legends Re-edit

(The Rise of Skywalker) Legacy of the Force | A Star Wars Legends Re-edit

(The Bad Batch) Cinematic Version | A More Mature Edit

(The Mandalorian+Boba) The Way of Mandalore | A Compilation Edit

(Kenobi) | A Star Wars Legends Re-edit

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Daiyus said:

After the high-tempo combat last week, this week’s episode is definitely the breathing room that was needed. The early episodes felt very jumpy, whereas this one seemed to to linger a little longer where needed. Sol “discovering”/playing along with Mae perhaps dragged out a little much, but I really enjoyed all of the interactions between Qimir and Osha. The Vernestra lightwhip moment felt entirely unneeded, regardless of how one feels about their re-introduction to canon. All in all a stronger episode than some that came before, with some excellent material to be kept if trimming the series into a film.

Completely agree with this. It feels like the show has hit its stride in the last 2-3 episodes and it finally feels like the promise of the show- to present the Sith perspective- is starting to deliver.

Manny Jacinto is killing it and is one of the most interesting characters in Star Wars in a very long time. Curious that unlike Kylo Ren on Anakin, he in control of his emotions. Makes him more powerful and seductive (not a reference to his arms).

I’m also glad the Mae deception didn’t drag on for multiple episodes. Seeing Sol unraveling is fascinating and a great contrast to the Jedi we’ve seen before.

It doesn’t make the writing/dialogue in the first few episodes better, but I am now invested in this show and ready to be burned again.

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For me the biggest stumbling block of the ST was that I just couldn’t invest in Kylo Ren as a villain.
As the post above this says, Manny is just owning the role of Qimir and for me this is the best developed dark side user we’ve had since Darth Vader and Palpy. I was rather meh about the show at first and I am fully onboard with it.

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 (Edited)

Yeah, Qimir is turning out to be a great villain. He’s the most interesting character on the show.

Lee Jung-jae as Sol is also great. There’s a brief scene in this episode where he almost cries, and the acting is just top notch.

The main problem with this show is that the main character(s), Osha/Mae, are really the least interesting characters. The problem with Mae in particular is her motivation seems very incoherent. It changes all the time, forcing the audience to come up with explanations on the fly. At one point she wants to turn herself in to the Jedi all of a sudden, but then in the next episode she just starts fighting the Jedi, and then in this episode she deceives Sol by pretending to be Osha and contemplates murdering Sol when his back is turned. I mean, it’s fine for a character to have mixed or inconsistent motivations, or to be hesitant or unsure of what they want. But Mae’s actions came off to me as confusing, as if different writers were not communicating with each other when they wrote for Mae.

I wouldn’t be surprised if Qimir somehow connects with the Knights of Ren. The Kylo music in the previous episode is one hint. But also the imagery of training on a small, remote island, is obviously meant to invoke the Sequel Trilogy. If Qimir turns out to be “Ren” or whatever, it would also sidestep the issue with the Sith being discovered prematurely in the timeline. Qimir did say the word “Sith”, but he was kind of vague about. He said something like “you’d probably call me a Sith” or whatever, as if he didn’t have the words to explain exactly what he was. Although, Qimir quoting the Sith mantra, “peace is a lie”, is an obvious counter-point.

I have no idea what sort of lore exists around the Knights of Ren in comics/novels, but maybe they’re some offshoot order of Dark Side users that began with a former Sith or whatever.

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I think this is probably one of the strongest episodes of the season. I loved that it was more complicated than I thought it was going to be and that it was really Sol and Torbin who were to blame for everything going wrong, while Indara and Kelnacca were forced into the conflict because of them. It also made me really like Indara because she was the most reasonable one of the Jedi. The tension throughout the episode was also incredibly strong. There were some fun nods to the High Republic books like the eater egg that this was one of the planets that was destroyed by the hyperplane incident detailed in Light of the Jedi. It also leads credence to the theory that Sol will either be blamed for the incident on Khofar, or might turn to the dark side himself. I do have some issues though, which could potentially be solved if there’s more information we receive in the next episode. What exactly the coven planned for Mae and Osha is still unexplained, as is how they were able to create them. Also the death of the Coven still feels really inconclusive. I guess we’re supposed to think that Indara severing the coven’s connection to Kelnacca either killed them or knocked them unconscious which led to them burning to death in the fire. It’s also very unclear if Mother Korril died or not. Like she turned into smoke and possessed Kelnacca, but we didn’t see her body afterwards. I hope they reveal she survived as they need some way to address these open questions and I think that’s the best way to do so.

Also while I did like the episode this did nothing to reassure me that the series will end up feeling completely satisfying by the end because it feels like we still have so much more that needs to be resolved. I really think releasing this after Ahsoka doesn’t do it any favors because that series completely dropped the ball in concluding its season by being more interested in setting itself up for season 2 than actually concluding the story. I mean not only do Ahsoka and Sabine get trapped on the planet, but Shin Hatti just leaves without her character getting a real resolution and despite spending the entire show building up Baylon’s plan we not only don’t get any explanation but it’s just shunted into season 2. I really think that’s one of the reasons fans had negative reactions to episode 3 and episode 6, because of Ahsoka, and also Book of Boba Fett and Mandalorina Season 3 I guess, there isn’t any confidence from a lot of the fanbase that this show will conclude in a satisfactory manner. Now if the final episode ends up being great and resolving the plot I think the show will end up being really strong for me as a whole, but everything’s really hinging on episode 8.

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It’s starting to feel like this show endured heavy reshoots or at the very least was entirely reworked in post. I’m willing to bet episode 7 originally acted as the opening episode. Also would explain the massively inflated budget.

Peace is a lie
There is only passion…

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idir_hh said:

I’m willing to bet episode 7 originally acted as the opening episode.

me too and this episode i didn’t build up the finale of this show, and that had me thinking, are they gonna leave in a cliffhanger?

idk

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Not a fan of these flashback episodes. Ep3 and ep7 probably shoulda just been one episode, just like how ep4 and ep5 shoulda just been one episode. Even the titles seem to suggest that this was originally the plan anyways.

Also, the way the Jedi apprentice kid just rushes back to the castle after analyzing the dna was stupid. The dna alone was enough proof that their mission was complete. They coulda just sent that info back to Jedi HQ and headed home.

https://henrynsilva.blogspot.com/

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 (Edited)

With the insane variety of articles releasing where some say The Acolyte is one of the most successful launches of a show ever for Star Wars, and others saying it’s at the bottom of the barrel, I wanted to wait for the Nielsen Data to come out before analyzing the show’s public performance. Well, the premiere numbers are out, and they’re not great… According to Nielsen’s analytics for the debut week, The Acolyte garnered approximately 488 million viewing minutes across its two-episode debut, averaging ~244 million minutes/episode (in reality, the first episode always has higher numbers than the second, so probably more like 280 million episode 1, 208 million episode 2).

The Mandalorian Season 1: Data Not Available
The Mandalorian Season 2: One episode, 1.032 billion
The Book of Boba Fett: One episode, 389 million
Obi-Wan Kenobi: Two episodes, 1.026 billion total, 513 million average
Andor: Three episodes, 624 million total, 208 million average
The Mandalorian Season 3: One episode, 823 million
Ahsoka: Two episodes, 829 million total, 414.5 million average
The Acolyte: Two episodes, 488 million total, 244 million average

The series launch is most comparable to Andor, which ended up actually improving its watch time as the season advanced due to very positive critical reviews and generally good word of mouth/social media commentary (even in light of the claims of it being “slow/boring”). So it will be interesting to watch week by week as the Nielson numbers reveal if this show had a similar pattern to Andor, or if the generally negative word-of-mouth/social media commentary and mediocre critical reviews will cause viewership to dwindle.

Either way, it’s difficult to see a world in which Disney Executives see the show as a financial success. Unless the viewing numbers skyrocket toward the end (and I don’t find that very probable), the show failed to produce high viewing numbers, good reviews, or positive public perception of the brand. Whether you personally like it or not is irrelevant to the point I’m making here, I am simply trying to view it from an investor standpoint, and from the premiere alone, it’s immediately looking like the high marketing budget did not payoff as desired and a Season 2 wouldn’t be worth the money.

The Acolyte - Episode 7

Pacing and Structure

Without the intro and credits, we received 36 minutes and 10 seconds of content this week. I also have to note, that about 10% of this episode was actually identical or nearly identical scenes from Episode 3. I tried counting up the non-unique minutes of content. It depends on how nitpicky you want to get with what counts as a repeated scene (does an angle of Sol watching Mae and Osha sing their song for 30 seconds count as new content when we’ve already seen the entire song up close?). Still, there are about 3-4 minutes of scenes that are not providing any new context whatsoever, even showing the exact same camera angles and going word for word through the same events. So with only ~33 minutes of genuinely new scenes, as with previous episodes, I ended up feeling like the overall plot was moving way too fast, the character decision-making process was far too rushed, but many scenes still ended up feeling way too slow. This was no doubt an extremely difficult episode to pace well, how do you show the same 40 minutes of events from a different perspective in an engaging way? I can say that what we ended up receiving as the attempt didn’t do it for me and the show continued its battle with itself on how to pace the plot flow in the timeline.

When analyzing the structure of this episode, I want to focus on its placement in the series as a whole as well as an individual piece. This was finally the big reveal episode. This was the one that contained information intentionally withheld from us for 6 weeks now, it was to serve as the story for finally letting us know what happened that fateful night 16 years ago, or at least, let us know what happened from Sol’s perspective or point of view. During the last 6 episodes, Sol has constantly alluded to something bad that happened. He has insinuated that it was kind of his fault, or at least needed a bit of explaining and revealing of the truth. However, this episode wasn’t structured to present the story from Sol’s perspective as he told Mae of his recollection; this was mainly a story of the Jedi perspective on the whole, especially from Tobrin’s perspective.

So rather than as a story from Sol to Mae, this episode served as a story of Leslye to us as the audience. This was written to explain the “opposite” point of view from the third episode, which gave us the perspective or point of view of the twins and the witches. And so now together we have the whole picture. We know the full story of that night, and without a doubt, I think these two episodes should have been combined into one episode that started out the season. Because these “big” revelations felt not terribly interesting, and certainly not worth the 6-week wait with all the teasing. This storyline was potentially a good start to a story but it was not a good culmination to a mystery that is revealed in the penultimate episode of a season. I simply don’t feel happy about sitting through six episodes to get this one. I would have been much happier starting the season off with some combined 60-minute intro of these scenes spliced together. That could have served as the basis for a story to come about how one girl becomes or tries to become, a Jedi after a horrible and confusing event. The other twin, thought to be dead by the Jedi, is of course found and saved by a dark sider, by a Sith, and she becomes his acolyte or apprentice. And eventually, there is this confrontation between the sisters where they both try to save each other from the opposite point of view. One tries to save her sister from the Sith, the other tries to save her sister from the Jedi. That sounds quite interesting; still not as interesting as the marketed story of a pre-TPM story about a Sith Acolyte, but I digress!

Basically, I think a better structure for this entire storyline would be to ditch the whole mystery idea. The whole Rashoman approach did not do anything beneficial for the plot and that whole attempted aspect completely fell flat. I don’t feel like the previous episodes built up to this in a way where I wanted or even needed to spend 36 more minutes here so I could know what happened that night. I don’t think there was anything shocking about how any of the events played out. I watched it and simply thought, well yeah, that is pretty much how I thought it would have gone down. It was all a big misunderstanding more or less, there was no major twist or reveal of a mystery of any kind. I MUCH would have rather had another 40 minutes of present-day plot development to have a shot at a satisfying conclusion, maybe just show Sol simply explaining in a few minutes what he did wrong from his perspective. We still haven’t seen the space dogfight/chase through the asteroid field, Leslye has said there is another lightsaber duel, so it seems like Episode 8 is going to be light on the plot and I struggle to see a satisfying potential ending.

Dialogue and Writing Quality

The dialogue was back on par with episode 3, still being a weak point in the show. This show has a routine and constant issue with characters disagreeing with an idea or solution to a situation, and then with one additional exchange of dialogue, they immediately change their minds, sometimes after one single sentence without any additional consideration or counterpoints. When I say the episodes feel “rushed”, this reason is a primary offender. The characters do not deliver lines that seem to come from genuine thoughts, they deliver lines that are intended to move the plot to the next scene. Ie from this episode: Indara says she needs to go into the coven alone because of the danger, Sol says “There are 50 of them”, Indara says “50 women and 2 children,” Sol says, “We should go as a group,” then Indara instantly says “Fine,” and they all immediately walk in together. Why even write this disagreement? What is the purpose of this exchange? The ENTIRE disagreement lasted a whopping 14 seconds, never to be referenced again. This is what I mean when I say it doesn’t feel like the characters are voicing actual real-life thoughts, they are just saying words from a page to move from room to room. And I have to mention the stand-out line, “Go, girl. Get mad.” Ahh, it’s just not good dialogue in any sense. Some of it is still serviceable and it’s not always actively bad, but I’d be consistently giving this section a 4/10 each week.

This episode had to carry a LOT of narrative weight. One of the biggest questions I’ve had in the show is why Torbin would feel so much guilt to take a Barash vow for 10 years only to ultimately kill himself. Why did his conscience so burden Sol that he felt such a moral responsibility for what happened? Why did Kelnacca essentially leave the Jedi Order to become a hermit? So let’s tackle the answers here. For Torbin, I still don’t know what precisely he feels guilt for. Sol’s is a bit more apparent with how he chose to drop Mae instead of Osha, but Torbin…? Was it because he feels like he is responsible for all the witches being killed even though the Mother actively used the Dark Side/magik to mind control and torment him? She got inside his mind and started to egg on his thoughts about… wanting to go “home” to Coruscant? Somehow this additional mental seeding of his boredom/worries caused him to act beyond irrationally. In an effort to get the Jedi Order to allow the four of them to complete the mission of investigating plants on Brendock, Torbin decides to go and abduct the twins because this proof of a vergence in the Force “is our ticket home”, but he already had blood sample proof of their unique connection to the force. Why was that report not proof enough? What would kidnapping the girls and bringing them to Coruscant accomplish? How did he think that would go down when reporting to the Council who just told him not to intervene at all…? I just cannot possibly understand what was happening here. I want to be gracious and go with the theory that his judgment is still very clouded by lingering effects of the mind control, but in the very next scene, he is shown to have “fortified” his mind and can no longer be attacked in this manner. So he rushes back to the coven, and Sol chases him, but upon arriving, Sol doesn’t convince him to leave, they just walk in together to get the kids. Witches and Mae end up dying in the ensuing combat, Torbin gets wounded, and Osha is saved. So what exactly is burdening Torbin so much that for the next 16 years? I can understand being traumatized and needing some counseling or something, but the timeline the show presented was that for the next 5 years following the event, Torbin graduates as a Padawan, becomes a Knight, BECOMES A MASTER, then takes the Barash Vow and remains in a meditative state for “over ten years”. Folks, Torbin had this big smudge on his record, recovered enough from the trauma to become a Knight and then a Master at what, 24-ish years old? That is extremely rare and would indicate that he is some sort of force prodigy, and you just don’t get that vibe AT ALL from the show. I’m sorry, but this sequence of events is kind of beyond explanation. It is very, very low-quality writing. Just to finalize this and break it down easily, please examine the story of Torbin’s character and tell me if this is acceptable:

Torbin was extremely “bored” after 7 weeks of collecting plants and wanted to go home badly. Torbin’s master confronts some witches and he is mind-controlled in a sense and the witch plays on his desire to leave. At this point, he is likely scared and bored and just wants to leave the planet. He finds out the Twins are special, ignores his master’s commands, and flies off alone to fight the entire coven himself and kidnap two kids. Sol arrives, goes in together, battles witches, fights Kelnacca, and is injured and traumatized. He goes back to Coruscant, heals (what happened to bacta tanks…? Luke did not remain so scarred and mutilated from the Wampa), continues training for a few more years, becomes a Knight, very quickly becomes a Master in his mid-twenties, then still so burdened by the night, he takes that Barash Vow and enters a complete trance for over ten years, awakes and sees Mae, instantly kills himself with poison. It’s just… No. Not possible.

I could write equally in-depth about Sol’s guilt, but it’s more of the same. At least he has the added pain of choosing to save Osha instead of Mae, but I don’t think he was in the wrong whatsoever to stab the Mother. She starts using magik to transform into a demon and “Osha” starts dissolving into thin air as he has a ton of guns pointed at his head. What the hell was he supposed to think? The Mother says she was just going to let Osha leave, but… Osha wasn’t even there? Why would she not just calmly agree to tell Sol this instead of turning into a demon-like figure? And when Sol goes to save Osha/Mae, he chooses to try to lift enormous collapsing metal bridges instead of just lifting two 40 lb girls off the bridges…? Just a lot of events that make little sense. Kelnacca’s only guilt was getting mind controlled and injuring Torbin I guess, and I’m not sure how that leads to 15+ years of solitude and depression.

Aside from the nonsensical character motivations, I was really expecting some sabotage on the reactor for the fire burning down a massive complex in mere minutes. Showing the book fire touching some wires and sparking is truly horrendous justification for an entire mountain complex collapsing to the ground. I thought we’d see some Sith involvement here, much greater Jedi guiltiness, reason for the fire, explanations of the conception, etc. I will reserve some judgment for next week in case Qimir reveals anything new, but I didn’t get the sense that we weren’t told everything.

Production Quality and Creative Direction

Not a lot of new sets here. We see a nighttime Jedi camp, a little on the exterior of the facility, and more of the courtyard. So there really isn’t much new to analyze here. All the same characters, costumes, and sets for the most part. The CGI looked absolutely terrible on the speeder scenes which were each only about 5 seconds a piece of an actor wiggling awkwardly in front of a poorly meshed green screen. There was no sense of scale whatsoever between the camp, the travel, the surrounding forest, or the facility itself. The practical effects and VFX continue to look great whenever actual battles are occurring, but the surrounding scale and depth of production look very shallow. Case in point, when the complex starts exploding for some reason, we see one single exterior shot of an explosion, then we cut back to the courtyard and there is debris everywhere. The whole setting changed, but they didn’t bother to show it collapsing indoors. I can’t blame the lack of budget here. A lot of sets felt extremely small and cheap in this episode. Also, we have some extremely obvious Automated Dialogue Replacement occurring on the opening camp scene that points to heavy reshoots/recontextualization. There really wasn’t an A/B plotline to balance this time around, so the transitions between scenes felt much improved from previous weeks. I wouldn’t say they were great, but definitely not nearly as distracting as they have been.

Not a lot of new creative direction here either. There were no new creatures or worldbuilding, no new ships aside from the speeders. I did like the designs of those quite a bit, but their CGI looks so blurry and out of place… It looks like the ship in orbit of the planet a couple of weeks ago, the one that looked like a PS2 render. The combat still is above average for the Disney productions and I was pleased watching the Kelnacca battle. He looked a bit stiff in the costume, but the acrobatics surrounding it helped a lot. I don’t think they fully portrayed Wookiee’s strength very well here though, he seemed to be physically subdued a bit too easily. Especially with Torbin’s backhand blocking and holding a full power kill swing… but it wasn’t a bad fight. No clue what they were going for with having all the other witches die when Indara “disconnected” Kelnacca. That just came off as a “Wtf, why did they all die” moment rather than a satisfying payoff. All in all, it was a rather “safe” and small-scale episode that didn’t introduce many new elements of creativity.

I do need to at least make a small mention of the end credits music… That was… a first for Star Wars. Modern pop music doesn’t really bring me into feeling like this is the Star Wars that I know and love. I like telling new stories in universe, but you have to make it feel in universe. Making people think directly of earth and 2024 culture is very strange directing. I am not at all a fan of that trend and hope it quickly dies right here.

Performances and Characters

As expected, Sol was the standout performance once more. Even through some somewhat confusing motivations like an inexplicable draw to Osha, he delivers his desires in a very believable manner. His performance as he held up the bridges was great as well, showing his depth of ability in portraying feelings like stress, worry, and love. I thought Dean-Charles Chapman gave off a pretty solid performance of a padawan as well. He is 26 in real life, but in the show appeared more to be 18-20 and I thought he gave a good effort at this role. “Trinity” just doesn’t have a character she can work with, there was really no personality to display and it feels like a bit of a waste and that almost anyone could’ve played Indara. Aniseya does a solid job at delivering her voodoo-inspired character, but Korril comes off as very forced and the anger her character has isn’t being adequately communicated in her emotional range.

Torbin - A complete failure of a character in my opinion. I cannot begin to understand his decision-making as a padawan, how he excelled so quickly as a Jedi after the events of the flashback to become a master, and why he decided to take the vow and kill himself. Truly a mess of writing here.

Sol - I don’t entirely buy the weight of his guilt after seeing this. I can understand some pain toward Mae because he dropped her, but his main flaw was his attachment to Osha, and I thought he’d been talking to Osha like he earned her scorn for something he had done. I guess that was in reference to not saving Mae? Just not too sure where he is coming from with all of this, and while he started out as a great character in Episode 1/2, I can’t say he has stayed as one due to the confusing motivations. Still above average, but it seemed like he had a lot more potential for a huge character arc than what we got. Next week could elevate him quite a bit though depending on how things conclude.

Kelnacca - This really isn’t a character beyond someone in the background. Like, try to explain his personality to me. He had no development as a person whatsoever. Disappointing as the concept of a Wookiee Jedi is awesome, wish he would’ve been in the spotlight more.

Indara - Extremely boring Jedi portrayal, no-nonsense but also no personality. Not much to say in terms of character arc or growth. She goes by the books and dies in under 20 minutes of screen time throughout the whole season.

Conclusion

I held back a handful of criticism of Episode 3 because I expected satisfying payoffs to all of the mysteries, but the payoffs were overwhelmingly disappointing. This would be my least favorite episode of the season, and while individually maybe not as poor as Episode 3, its placement as the penultimate episode of the series is disastrous for the overall pacing of the show and the potential to conclude well.

Rating: 1.9/10 (I’d call it “terrible”, but not “unwatchable” or “pretty weak”)

Pros:

Continued good choreography in combat
Some actors do well in displaying believable emotional performances
Lightsaber stabs continuing to kill people 😃

Cons:

Extremely disappointing and unsatisfying payoffs to mysteries
Character motivations and arcs that are inexplicable
Repeated scenes and poor placement of episode deflate the conclusion

Best scenes:

  1. Kelnacca v Sol/Torbin battle
  2. Both sequences in the courtyard did well with tension-building
  3. Aside from the “metal detectors” I liked seeing the Jedi in the opening on a “boring” mission during the High Republic as without a Galactic threat, that’s the kind of tasks they had at times

Worst Scenes:

  1. Torbin gets bored and rushes away
  2. Mae’s fire burns down the complex by touching wires in a stone wall
  3. Every repeated scene from Episode 3 that did not add new content

(The Force Awakens) Heirs of the Force | A Star Wars Legends Re-edit

(The Last Jedi) Fate of the Jedi | A Star Wars Legends Re-edit

(The Rise of Skywalker) Legacy of the Force | A Star Wars Legends Re-edit

(The Bad Batch) Cinematic Version | A More Mature Edit

(The Mandalorian+Boba) The Way of Mandalore | A Compilation Edit

(Kenobi) | A Star Wars Legends Re-edit

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If the mother was gonna give Osha to the Jedi, then why did she start to turn herself into black smoke? Had she not done that, Sol probably wouldn’t have killed her…

One of many things in this episode that just felt so random and weird…

https://henrynsilva.blogspot.com/

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for me it feel to much out of place, license music does not fit sw imo, to the point of being like a parody, i prefers the alien msc from the movies/shows it feels more si-fi

idk

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I laughed when I heard it because there’s no way it would happen 10 or 15 years ago, but it does fit imo and I welcome it.

reylo?

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 (Edited)

After waiting a few days and rewatching episode 7 I’d have to agree that splitting up episodes 3 and 7, was a huge mistake. I stand by what I said earlier in that I liked the episode a lot, but it wasn’t anywhere near good enough to justify making us wait so long for it. Revealing that it was mostly Sol and Torbin’s fault wasn’t a good enough reveal to justify making us wait so long to get it, and it didn’t answer enough of the questions that the series had been setting up. I think if episodes 3 and 7 had been combined and put early in the show’ run I think the series would be a lot stronger. Episode 8 needs to be amazing for the series to wrap up well

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When I write my review for tonight’s episode, I’ll want to preface it with a larger commentary about the show itself rather than dealing with the performance numbers, so I will make a separate post about that now. Why do I care to do this? Well, first of all, I’m a numbers nerd… I work in TV/streaming advertising for a career, so looking at channel/show performance and viewership numbers and strategizing plans based on that is what I do anyway. I think very interesting trends can be discovered, and the media industry has always fascinated me. Second, I’m a Star Wars nerd. I want good shows and I want them to do very well in capturing the public eye, so looking at how current storylines are doing helps me understand the direction Star Wars is going/could go in the future. Nielsen dropped their numbers earlier than usual this week, so let’s take a look!

Analyzing Viewership Numbers for “The Acolyte” on Disney+

Following the underwhelming ratings for the two-episode premiere, Episode 3 numbers reveal that the ratings are still tracking lower than Ahsoka but higher than Andor. The two-episode premiere garnered 488 million minutes of total viewing time. However, in the week that Episode 3 was released, this number had dropped to 370 million minutes. It is important to note that Nielsen’s data does not break down viewership numbers for individual episodes, and there may be some carryover from the first two episodes into the third week.

Comparative Analysis with Ahsoka

For a fair comparison, let’s keep a close eye on Ahsoka, which also released its first two episodes simultaneously, followed by a single third episode. I know many people think that Ahsoka is more “watchable” for people since it featured a known character, but Disney investors don’t care. They look at numbers. I’m not trying to make an argument about if Acolyte was “good” for it not featuring a known character, I’m simply trying to play the role of the Stuffy Suit looking at my pocketbook. Ahsoka achieved a Nielsen rating of 829 million minutes for its first two episodes. With the release of the third episode, Ahsoka’s viewership dropped to 487 million minutes, a figure that aligns with the average of the first two episodes. In week four, Ahsoka recorded 459 million minutes. In week five, Ahsoka saw a significant increase to 577 million minutes with the inclusion of Anakin setting social media abuzz. Keep these numbers in mind through the rest of this post and the coming weeks as we analyze trends. The structure of the two shows is very similar with Episode 5 being considered the “best” and one that generates lots of positive talk.

Nielsen Ratings for Star Wars Series on Disney+

Here are the Nielsen viewership numbers for the first three episodes of each Star Wars series on Disney+:

  • The Mandalorian S2:

    • First episode: 1,032 million minutes
    • With 2 episodes released: 955 million minutes
    • With 3 episodes released: 873 million minutes
  • The Book of Boba Fett:

    • First episode: 389 million minutes
    • With 2 episodes released: 563 million minutes
    • With 3 episodes released: 467 million minutes
  • The Mandalorian S3:

    • First episode: 823 million minutes
    • With 2 episodes released: 889 million minutes
    • With 3 episodes released: 1,115 million minutes
  • Obi-Wan Kenobi:

    • First two episodes: 1,026 million minutes
    • With 3 episodes released: 958 million minutes
  • Ahsoka:

    • First two episodes: 829 million minutes
    • With 3 episodes released: 487 million minutes
  • Andor:

    • First three episodes: 624 million minutes
  • The Acolyte:

    • First two episodes: 488 million minutes
    • With 3 episodes released: 370 million minutes

Luminate Streaming Charts Comparison

I waited for Nielsen numbers to be released since they are the industry standard. However, Luminate’s streaming charts came out much earlier, and now that I can analyze multiple weeks of comparable data for The Acolyte, both Nielsen and Luminate report very similar minutes viewed (only deviating ~3-5% from each other in Weeks 1 & 2), indicating consistency in their viewership metrics. I am still going to wait for Nielsen numbers since they are primarily used in the professional realm, so I will withhold comment from the future trend that Luminate shows is coming. But with Episode 3 being one of the longest at 42 minutes, The Acolyte only managed 370 million minutes. This does not bode well for the coming trend, as many people tuned into this episode to see the “controversy” for themselves, but as many did not enjoy this episode, we will soon definitively see that they do not stick around from week to week.

Average Viewership Analysis

It’s important to understand how to properly analyze Nielsen data. “Minutes watched” can seem like a dumb data set to begin with, and when surface-level “journalists” try to paint a story without taking the time to calculate the numbers they can often come to inaccurate conclusions and lose the ability to see trends. The best way to track performance is to look at whole-season averages going week to week. We assume that each person watches an episode from start to finish (yes, I know that is not realistically the case, but we are using this as a baseline to extrapolate the number of viewers. The number of people who watched at least part of an episode is higher than the number I am about to provide as a “view”. I am working with a consistent baseline that a whole episode runtime acts as a single view. For this task, we need to focus less on the precise specifics of individual watchers and more on the overall trends of mass numbers). So to calculate a “view”, you simply have to take the total viewing minutes provided by Nielsen and divide it by the total runtime of the show.

(Mando S1 did not get Nielsen ratings, and we all know S2 was a major phenomenon success, so I’m trying to mainly compare Acolyte to recent releases post-Grogu hype. I also just couldn’t find accurate Mando S2 budget #'s for the next part of my analysis…)

  • The Book of Boba Fett: 952 million minutes total, 89 minutes runtime, average views: 10.7 million
  • Obi-Wan Kenobi: 1,984 million minutes total, 135 minutes runtime, average views: 14.7 million
  • Andor: 1,109 million minutes total, 161 minutes runtime, average views: 6.89 million
  • Ahsoka: 1,316 million minutes total, 132 minutes runtime, average views: 9.97 million
  • The Mandalorian S3: 1,712 million minutes total, 77 minutes runtime, average views: 22.23 million
  • The Acolyte: 865 million minutes total, 119 minutes runtime, average views: 7.27 million

From Disney’s Perspective, Cost/View

Let’s go one more step here and look at the investment aspect from a financial standpoint. Maybe we don’t necessarily care as viewers, but the money movers absolutely consider this. We are going to take the show’s budget, divide it properly into the number of episodes, and then see how much a view costs Disney.

  • The Book of Boba Fett: $4.21/view
  • Obi-Wan Kenobi: $3.06/view
  • Andor: $8.71/view
  • Ahsoka: $3.81/view
  • The Mandalorian S3: $2.02/view
  • The Acolyte: $9.28/view

Future Prospects
Given the significant budget and high expectations to introduce new viewers to the era of the High Republic which Disney has heavily invested in, The Acolyte’s current performance is disappointing on paper. Its viewership numbers are lagging behind other Star Wars series, and if this trend continues, it could spell trouble for the show’s future. I know Leslye has ideas in her mind for season 2, and it looks like the writing team made some preliminary drafts, but it was very obvious that it was not going to receive the green light until the Season 1 performance was evaluated. This is quite interesting compared to something like Andor which was comparable in budget/episode, also received relatively lower viewing numbers, but was immediately green-lit for a Season 2. I have looked at the Luminate Acolyte data for future weeks, and if Nielsen continues to track similarly, this is definitely headed for an indisputably terrible reception from the general public. These numbers are going to look much, much worse in 2 weeks.

Conclusion
The Acolyte’s viewership numbers indicate a concerning trend for Disney+ and Lucasfilm. Despite a significant budget, the show has failed to capture the audience’s interest at the same level as its predecessors, which were also falling below expectations. D+ has been hemorrhaging money as a platform, and we are likely to see a huge reevaluation of Star Wars production in the very near future. Skeleton Crew is going to be released later this year, but it’s been picture-locked for nearly a year already, they’ve just been sitting on it. Andor S2 and Ahsoka S2 are the only other projects currently in production. These are both still remnants of the “old way”. The future of Star Wars shows beyond 2026 is wide open and I would expect to see a very different approach.

Please recognize that at the end of the day, Disney and ONLY Disney possess the real numbers to do a proper cost/benefit analysis. I am simply working with publicly available data that I can compare between all streaming/cable shows and I try to see trends between them. Thanks to any numbers/Star Wars nerds who made it this far with me!

(The Force Awakens) Heirs of the Force | A Star Wars Legends Re-edit

(The Last Jedi) Fate of the Jedi | A Star Wars Legends Re-edit

(The Rise of Skywalker) Legacy of the Force | A Star Wars Legends Re-edit

(The Bad Batch) Cinematic Version | A More Mature Edit

(The Mandalorian+Boba) The Way of Mandalore | A Compilation Edit

(Kenobi) | A Star Wars Legends Re-edit

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I look forward to your comprehensive review Acbagel. I laughed at too many moments that were supposed to be momentous, like the lightsaber change and the last shot. An underwhelming finale.

The blue elephant in the room.