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Online Series: Star Wars: The Acolyte on Disney+

One of the best representations of the Empire at work (before Andor) is in the old PC game Tie Fighter where you play an actual pilot of the Empire.

While there are certainly encounters with the Rebels, there are also mission arcs where you are setting up an outpost in a system to deter pirates and raiders and protect the passage of trading craft, end a Civil War between two competing planets, as well as eliminating Imperial traitors who sell their loyalty to the Rebellion for money.

Some of those story arcs are a little more sympathetic than others.
 
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Osprey said:
My premise was the entire sentence, which was a reference to their rallying cry of "no taxation without representation."

I agree with all of that. That's a large part of what I loved about the show. I just don't feel that it makes them grey. They're still the bad guys, IMO, and we want them to fail in their efforts to capture the rebels. We just find out more about their daily routines.

I suppose that we have different perspectives. You're judging the sides based on how the individual characters are represented and I'm judging them based on how the overall conflict is represented. We may have to just agree to disagree.
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Isn't it possible to judge each thing on its own? Andor doesn't paint the conflict as grey, but it paints the characters as grey. I don't disagree that Andor doesn't try to make the Empire anything other than tyranny, but that's just one part of what makes up the show.

Anyway, the American Revolution didn't really start off as a tax complaint. The colonists problem with the Stamp Act was really a dispute over who had the authority to do it. Parliament and the Crown clearly believed they did, but the colonists believed only their local assembly had that power. As oppression goes, that's fairly mild. There was also the section of the Stamp Act that denied violators trial by jury. Honestly, that's a much more oppressive part of the legislation, but less widely known today. The first thing to happen in the colonies after it passed was the VA House of Burgesses passing resolutions stating only colonies could tax colonists. The "taxation without representation" issue wouldn't get solved by granting the colonies representation in Parliament. Americans didn't want Parliament taxing them, representation there or not.

In a lot of ways, British attempts at assertion of their authority over the colonies was destined to result in a revolution at some point. The other alternative, letting the colonies go their own way, wasn't ever going to happen. If it wasn't the Stamp Act that started up resistance, it would've been something else. If it wasn't taxes specifically, it would have been something else. Once the Stamp Act was repealed, Parliament issued the Declaratory Act which basically said "we can pass whatever laws we want to govern the colonies." As soon as the British sent in troops to quell the resistance to the Townshend Acts a couple of years later, the game was up. It was only a matter of time. And at that point it WAS tyranny and oppression.
 
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I'm not a big fan of star wars really, but man Carrie Anne Moss is such a badass, those short fight scenes we saw in the trailer were pretty awesome. I'll check it out, but it'll take a bit more than some good fight scenes to be a solid series.
 
Rodgerwilco said:
I'm not a big fan of star wars really, but man Carrie Anne Moss is such a badass, those short fight scenes we saw in the trailer were pretty awesome. I'll check it out, but it'll take a bit more than some good fight scenes to be a solid series.
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She may have only a small part, so I wouldn't get expectations up if she's the main reason that you're going to watch.
 
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Jovavic said:
I'm going to go out on a limb and say Yoda shows up at some point
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screenrant.com

The Acolyte Showrunner Reveals Whether Yoda Will Cameo In Star Wars' Phantom Menace Prequel

Will The Acolyte have Star Wars cameos?
screenrant.com screenrant.com
It does make me wonder where the oldest Jedi Grand Master and leader on the Jedi High Council is while someone is going around killing Jedi, but I guess that acknowledging that he's around might contradict the apparent narrative that the Jedi are the bad guys at this point in time.
 
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Yeah I'm just struggling to get hyped even with positive early reviews. And not for any reason a certain crowd would typically get worked up about (and I'll leave it at that).

It's just for whatever reason when this was first announced, I was under the impression that the concept was this would be a deeper exploration of the sith mythos, culture, and operation in the high republic era long long before the events of the Skywalker saga. Like a story more focused on the villains than one about a mysterious new villain that you get piecemeal information about through the eyes of a cast of new jedi.

I think the concept as is could work if done well, but it's not as intriguing as I initially thought. After Andor I was all about seeing darker and more mature stories in this universe and maybe they'll deliver but the bits and pieces I've seen don't have me too hopeful. I'll watch with an open mind but I feel let down and it's probably my own fault for not reading the early preview materials more closely two years ago lol.
 
It's interesting, this is the first series where I'm pretty much completely in the dark going in because I didn't read any of the High Republic books. I've been meaning to for a while but I think the way the last few series in the old EU and the first trilogy in the "new" canon went kind of soured me on the whole series/event type things. Hell, its kind of killed my interest in Star Wars books in general, outside of things like the From A Certain Point Of View short stories collections and some of the Art Of books.

I'm glad it's getting good reviews but I have zero expectations going in. Which might actually be a good thing. I had very little interest in Andor going in and it was probably the best thing they've dome in the Disney era.
 
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I have a feeling this is going to be considered the second best Star Wars show after Andor. Maybe I'm just too optimistic but this one feels different from the others.

Osprey said:
screenrant.com

The Acolyte Showrunner Reveals Whether Yoda Will Cameo In Star Wars' Phantom Menace Prequel

Will The Acolyte have Star Wars cameos?
screenrant.com screenrant.com
It does make me wonder where the oldest Jedi Grand Master and leader on the Jedi High Council is while someone is going around killing Jedi, but I guess that acknowledging that he's around might contradict the apparent narrative that the Jedi are the bad guys at this point in time.
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I think this will also be a "who can we trust?" type of show. Having a character we know we can trust kinda goes against that
 
Watched the first episode. Haven't really had time to fully process it. There were a small handful of awkward acting moments but past that it was fairly enjoyable. Nothing that blew me away but nothing serious to complain about yet.

I've liked Lee Jung-Jae as a jedi so far. Dug the Nar Shaada reference. Not sure if that's the first canon mention or not.
 
HanSolo said:
Watched the first episode. Haven't really had time to fully process it. There were a small handful of awkward acting moments but past that it was fairly enjoyable. Nothing that blew me away but nothing serious to complain about yet.

I've liked Lee Jung-Jae as a jedi so far. Dug the Nar Shaada reference. Not sure if that's the first canon mention or not.
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Yor is so annoying though :laugh:

Fun first episode. Good set up. Let's see where they go.
 
I enjoyed the first two episodes. It kept my interest. Wouldn't call it great but definitely not bad either. My only real complaint so far

Maybe it was done to show the Jedi's arrogance but Yor sending a prisoner they suspect just killed a Jedi master on
a ship with one droid body guard has got to be one of the dumbest decisions I've ever seen. I guess I can forgive it if it's to show how inept the Jedi are but man it felt so convenient for the plot.

Episode 2 more of the same. Let's steal the only store in town where this poison can supposedly be crafted then wait there so we're easily found. Just silly plot convenience. I was expecting a little more thought into the writing but maybe I had too high of expectations. Then the main girl misses both shots somehow. I'm guessing that was intentional so she can get revenge though.

The story, besides the plot conveniences, is pretty interesting though. I like that these Jedi kindve know they f***ed up. We'll have to see how. The characters are solid to me. Not great but they don't distract from the show like they did in Ahsoka to me.

I'd give it a 6 or 7 out of 10 so far. Hopefully the writing is a little better thought in upcoming episodes. I like that the plot is moving quickly as well.
 
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Wrapped the second episode before dinner. I think it's good but not great so far. About on the level with Ashoka which overall was good but not great. I think the last episode of Ashoka S1 was a bit rough so this show still has room to be better but I can't see it getting to Andor levels the way some early enthusiastic reviews were propping it up.

I think overall the show is benefitting from tonal consistency, relatively good pacing, and a quality of production/direction that I can really only describe as more confident than earlier star wars shows. The set design work post Andor across the board feels a lot better, the acting is mostly tight and believable (Stenberg is probably the weakest link so far but nothing egregious, just some awkward facial expressions and choice of tone on some lines). My only real issues are a few dialogue lines here and there that could've been better and led to awkward deliveries and then a few writing choices were a little questionable but nothing offensively plot holey.

The central plot hook is mildly intriguing but it hasn't fully grabbed me yet.
 
I'm intrigued by it. Wasn't blown away by any means, but I enjoyed it. Curious to see where it leads us.
 
The Good:
I basically enjoyed the story.

While Disney Plus shows like Obi-Wan and Boba Fett felt cobbled together by too many cooks in the kitchen, The Acolyte feels like cohesive planned out vision.

I thought the tone was pretty good too. I like the score. It was very "Star Warsy". Most of the characters were likable enough.


The Mid:
The choice to use more Eastern inspired combat style is interesting. No sure how I feel about it yet, but it's a change up from typical light saber duels.


The Bad:
I think Amandla Stenberg is miscast as the lead. I don't find her believable. She feels like someone from our time and place.

I really hate further degrading the Jedi (if that's where we're headed).

Conceptually, I'm not impressed by this vision of the High Republic. It still kind of looks like generic Star Wars.
 
I enjoyed the first couple episodes. Solid in most aspects, definitely a little clumsy as far as the writing goes. Some of the attention to detail stuff in the dialogue, acting, and blocking could be better but not nearly as bad as Obi Wan was. Set design was quality, generally looked really really good. Would echo the thoughts above that the tone was strong and consistent.

Kind of feels like a live action Star Wars comic so far more than a limited series but that's not necessarily a bad thing. Glad there's more range to the characters than these are jedi doing jedi stuff, I think that would get boring quick. The main story seems intriguing enough but still I hope they can find a way to get some B plot in there somewhere. Can tell already it's not going to be as sharp as Andor was but I wasn't expecting it to be. I'm all for a self contained Star Wars story working out so I hope the show is successful.
 
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Agreed with the "good but not great" description of the first two episodes. Interested to see where it goes the rest of the way.

Master Sol is by far my favorite character so far. He's got very Qui-Gon like vibes.
 
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