A thread to discuss The Acolyte.
Mod note: Media threads are intended for fans of the works they're discussing. Not everyone will like everything, of course.
It's fine to say that something about the series doesn't work for you. It's fine to comment on why it doesn't work for you. But if you simply don't like the series, this is not a place for you to complain.
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The series was created by Leslye Headland (Russian Doll) and will be set during the High Republic.
Edited by Mrph1 on Jun 28th 2024 at 8:46:10 PM
I'm not sure if she really did. There's something suspicious about even that scene of Mae setting the fire. I'm totally convinced it was really her.
One Strip! One Strip!She at least threatened it and locked Osha in.
Also, do we think this show now qualifies for Witch Works?
Edited by BigBadShadow25 on Jun 11th 2024 at 10:31:59 AM
You’re Gonna Carry That Weight.
So, it wasn't entirely clear to me if that was actually Mae acting of her own free will. Also...wow was watching two groups of adults competing to see who can convince literal children to sign up for their cult pretty uncomfortable. Felt deeply manipulative on both sides.
My not-very-serious guess, just because it'ss the most stupid thing it could be is that Mae's mother mind controlled her into doing some bad shit to try to, I dunno, fake Osha's death so the Jedi will leave, they investigate, it turns into a battle, Mae's mind control breaks, but she still goes through with setting the fire out of, I dunno, psychic backlash. Jedi feel guilty because if they'd never come here, everyone would still be alive, but it's not really their fault.
Edited by ECD on Jun 11th 2024 at 7:40:12 AM
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That was my read. Just like Indara he had to choose one to save and did, he saw Mae fall as he saved Osha. Presumably Mae use her powers to survive, which the Jedi never saw and so using Osha as baseline, assumed she would die in the fall...how that works with the Force? Eh, maybe her master or the covens presumably protections clouded their vision?
@ Arthur Eld: If you're right, we might be seeing a precursor to Darth Plagueis' ability to create...life. I definitely got Plagueis vibes from their discussion
I wonder if the Sith have a tie to these maybe Nightsider-derived branch. It could be a Call-Forward to Sidious' interest in Mother Talzin and the Nightsisters
I suspect that while certainly a call-forward to Anakin, the fact that the girls had no father meant that the witches used more unsavory methods to conceive them, which doesn’t negate the fact that the Jedi suspected them of being of their prophecy.
You’re Gonna Carry That Weight.Not to mention the Skywalker line also has a tendency towards twins
A female Zebrak is very interesting to me, I thought the night sisters removed female Zebraks (somehow).
The Jedi offering Jedi training to force sensitives of other force faiths feels very weird. I like that it's an offer rather than child snatching, but I feel that the Jedi should have more faith in other culture.
I think is pretty much point. Heck dialugue when Jedi meets coven implies that there is some law about other force religions training children, so other cases may not be as simply as “Jedi find a child, parents say sure to them being trained”. We have to remember that children like Mae and Anakin who are old enough to plausibly make decision are exception rather then norm for Jedi.
While I see Nightsister paralels, I don’t think it was exactly them. Robes are different and none of them look Dathomiri. I also didn’t get impression that they were evil per say, or even at all. True they are creepy and yeah it seems they don’t give much respect to Osha to not wanting to be one of them, but at same time they seem happy and her mother is eventually willing to respect her decision. At same time I find interesting parralels they are driving with coven and Jedi, with how latter wanted to test Mae even though she makes clear that she is happy with being a witch. Sol also gives pretty simple and idealised description of being a Jedi, so it’s clear both groups have “choice is theirs, buuuut choosing us is right choice” attitude.
Edited by EmperorGeode on Jun 12th 2024 at 6:48:38 AM
Finished episode 3 now.
1-I don't like the vibe of depicting the Jedi as a group of religiously overzealous people who are here to bully a coven of peaceful women living in peace with nature, harming no one, and all but forcing them to hand their children for testing, even though they are not part of the Republic. (While Osha wanted to be tested, it is clear the Jedi were going to press the issue regardless of her or her family's wishes)
This sort of thing is going to encourage the "Jedi are fanatics who kidnap babies from their families and brainwash them" narrative that has plagued the fandom since the prequel movies.
2-I am not even sure that portraying the Witches of Dathomir (or this local version) as just peaceful and persecuted women was a good move.
3- Clearly, there is more to the deaths of the coven members than we saw; otherwise, Master Torbin in the previous episode would not have killed himself, in regret because "Mae started a fire and killed everyone," and Sol seems quite shifty about all that.
Edited by jawal on Jun 12th 2024 at 3:30:49 PM
Every Hero has his own way of eating yogurt![]()
That feels like a really weird law to exist? non jedi aren't allowed to train children in the ways of the force within the republic? I don't like the flavour of that. I can understand why the republic would push for that, but I don't see why the Jedi would enforce it.
Also, I'm certain there are other force users within the Republic. What's happening with the cultists on Jhedda?
So, I don't think this is 100% clear. They very carefully don't say what the law actually is and the only thing the Jedi insist on is testing. The law could be anything from 'only Jedi can train force users' (though as you note, there are a few other force traditions around in the PT era, which seems to cut against that) to 'you personally, large group with conspicuously only two children' aren't supposed to be teaching children, for the same reason you don't have any other kids' to 'if you want to homeschool your force sensitive kids, you know you have to do your annual dark side screening and syllabus review, man!' But we'll see...
So, they don't get into this, but a lot depends on how it's written. you absolutely can have laws if alleged universal jurisdiction and applicability. You can also have laws which track citizenship/birth. So, one could certainly imagine, 'doesn't matter Republic citizens are obliged to allow testing of their children regardless of where they are' and then a fight over renunciation of citizenship and whether that can be done for children...but it's not that sort of show and so there's some law, but 'the Jedi don't steal children' and the whole thing is likely to be left pretty ambiguous as this isn't exactly Law and Order: Force Crimes.
Edited by ECD on Jun 12th 2024 at 8:27:21 AM
However, "My law applies to you even if you are not a citizen of my government, and you are living an isolated and peaceful existence, harming no one" sounds like tyranny and Might Makes Right.
"Universal laws" or "universal values" will be like if they come around the witches holding Human Sacrifice or enslaving innocents or something, then the Jedi would be justified in intervening and "forcing" their "universal views".
But as it stands in the episode, the Jedi come out like they are bullying a peaceful community just because they don't like their way of life, which is a bad portrayal.
Granted, we still don't know the whole story, like why were they on the planet to begin with, so in theory maybe they had valid reasons to investigate.
Every Hero has his own way of eating yogurtWonder if the law Indara was citing was made in response to the Elders of the Path and is the magic space wizard equivalent of a law regulating homeschooling by fundamentalist religious groups. Because the general public doesn't give a shit about this stuff, but you know who does- Zeen and Lula. They spend their time after the Nihil are defeated lobbying for it to be a law. But they obviously don't see the Jedi Order as the end all be all for force sensitivity- Lula left the Order to be with Zeen. So what Indara was prevented from saying was something more along the lines of "traditions that train force sensitive children need to be approved by the Conclave on Jedha that they're not space gay conversion therapy/ABA therapy". There's a very good argument that not giving a force sensitive child training in any tradition is the equivalent of not allowing your nuerodivergent child to be diagnosed and accommodated. (Which is why until it was confirmed to not be the case in the new eu I thought it made the most sense for the Jedi to be allowed to take children without parental consent, and that they just didn't do so when there was another Force tradition in the picture. The alternative would be the equivalent of parental religious exemption for medical care and education.
Cupcakes are coming, Darling!!@The Republic law:
Even at the time of the Clone Wars, Bardotta exists, so there presumably isn’t a law preventing non-Jedi force users from training kids. I think the law mentioned has more to do with the implication that the Republic considers the witches a dark side organization.
Edited by KnownUnknown on Jun 12th 2024 at 8:56:43 AM
It does seem clear that this coven WERE republic citizens, but fled to settle on a non republic world. There's obviously a history here that's not been fully elaborated yet. They might have actually left the republic to circumvent this law that was made targeting them and only them. The mothers definitely know there's something not above board about how the twins were made.
I don't think the Jedi forced the Coven to do anything. Indara very clearly said that the girls would only be tested with their mother's permission. As for the fire, yeah, I really don't think that the fire was the only thing that happened that night. It started on a door in a stone hallway, there's no way unless something else happened that something could have killed the rest of the Coven. Plus with what Torbin said, something went wrong there.
On another note, Mae's reaction to Osha wanting to leave and be a Jedi is a great illustration of why Jedi frown on strong attachments. "I don't want you to leave so much I'm fully willing to murder you." Seems to me also that Mae's master played on her feelings of abandonment and grudge against the Jedi in order to make her into a weapon.
Although at the same time, I'm thinking that Coral might also be her Master. We didn't see her body, and she was the most aggressive against the Jedi when they came. Who's to say she didn't start delving into far more destructive practices in a misguided attempt at revenge? Considering her deep possessiveness of them and her disagreements with Aniseya, plus the hints that they did something very dark and twisted to get the girls to begin with...
Edited by theLibrarian on Jun 12th 2024 at 12:21:52 PM

Mae does not strike me as a person who is… well. She seems to have been better indoctrinated by the coven and is a bit of a yandere towards her sister if her reaction to Osha leaving is to jump straight into murder.
You’re Gonna Carry That Weight.