Yearning for Classic Storytelling in New Star Wars

What happens when a Star Wars show disrupts the Force instead of balancing it? Join us in this eye-opening episode of Blood Drops as we take apart "The Acolyte," dissecting its plot issues and character inconsistencies that have left fans divided. We scrutinize Mae's erratic transition from revenge to justice to redemption and highlight the problematic portrayal of Sith and Jedi dynamics through characters like Torben and Osha. Relying heavily on plot conveniences and offering no coherent character arcs, "The Acolyte" falls short in maintaining audience interest, despite a few commendable moments.

In our candid discussion, we also touch on the broader impact of modern media's focus on political, social, and sexual ideologies on traditional storytelling. By contrasting shows like "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse" and "Echo" with movies like "Twisters," we emphasize the importance of solid narratives and richly developed characters. We express our yearning for stories that prioritize engaging plots and memorable character arcs, reflecting on what went wrong with "The Acolyte" and what we hope for in future Star Wars storytelling. 

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:01

Welcome back to Blood Drops, where we talk about story and today we're going to follow a really, really bloody show the Acolyte. Now that the Acolyte is over, I kind of wanted to put in my two cents about it. It has divided a fandom, destroyed canon if you follow a lot of the youtube videos talking about the acolyte. Mostly the problem is is that it was poorly written and it has a really bad story. This is the thing that absolutely destroyed the acolyte was the writing, because they had no story development and no real character development In episode. We need to talk about May's character as an example here.

Speaker 1: 0:55

In episode one we're told that May is on a revenge arc. She's going to kill the Jedi who killed her mothers. So in episode one she kills a Jedi and then in episode two she presents a choice to Torben, who's in a repentance meditation. She goes, drink the poison or tell the Jedi. Now we went from revenge in episode 1 to justice in episode 2. What happened between episode 1 and episode 2 with May's character to make her go? I want justice, I don't want revenge, because in episode 1, we're told a lone assassin is seeking revenge, but in episode 2, she wants justice and I might add, by episode 8, may is like I want them to confess to the Jedi Council as an act of justice. It turns out the pivotal event that this all kicks around the Jedi killing the lesbian space witch cult or coven or whatever the hell you want to call them, because they weren't represented very well. They believe in this weird thing about the thread which we'll talk about in a minute. They killed these witches after the witches were openly hostile to them. But, more importantly, torben was mind-raped by Mother Anisea. Torben was mind-raped by Mother Anisea. If anything, torben would have a reason to put his lightsaber through Mother Anisea in front of everybody, because you just don't deeply invade somebody's mind force ghost thing that Mother Anisea was turning into. What was that about?

Speaker 1: 3:49

The thing that most annoys me about the Acolyte is we don't get any real background information when it pertains to Force ideologies and rules of how this universe works. It assumes that you know what you're walking into and the writers go in and they rewrite the rules, so everything you know kind of goes out the window. This was a major problem with the show anyways, because they just stated crap at you. Episode four was by far the episode four was a slog to get through. All they did was half that episode, which, episode 4, was the shortest episode out of all 8 episodes. Episode 4, half of that episode was just them stating shit at you. It's like I get it, may is dangerous. I get it, may has been trained. We figured that all out in episode two. Why does it have to be stated at us? And this is what this show did through the entire season. It just stated stuff at you.

Speaker 1: 5:03

Not to mention the poor character development, like in episode six. Right, we get Osha with the Sith. Osha, for the entire series, is nothing but a shadow. There is no real character development with this character. In the entire season she follows the jedi around and at one point she wants to leave. Right, we get. No, I want revenge. I want to know what happened back on Brendock with my lesbian mother's cult or how my lesbian cult died. There's none of that in this episode and there's none of that in this season, this season. So it was such a weird thing to have osha buddy up with the sith in a semi-romantic sort of way after the sith in episode five kills like eight jedi, two of whom were her friends, unless jackie and yord weren't her friends and she was just an evil, evil person.

Speaker 1: 6:28

To start out with Making the Sith look like good guys or like they've been wronged Is not Sith, they, it just isn't. How are you supposed to Present the acolyte If you don't have A good foundational idea Of the Sith? And this was the problem ultimately With May. Like what were they doing with May's character After episode 2. We get Episodes 4 and 5. Like what were they doing with Mei's character? After episode two, we get episodes four and five. Oh, I don't even know what was happening with Mei in episodes four and five. She went from I want revenge in episode one to I need justice in episode two, or some weird vigilante-ism anyways, to I want to turn myself into the Jedi and be with my sister in episode 4. And then we go to episode 5 where she actively fights the Jedi to resist arrest, switches with Osha for some reason, who knows. And then she runs away from saul in episode eight to go back to brendak for some reason, who knows? And I mean why? Why was this such a badly written show? Why Convenience. Everything happens with convenience. It happens because it needed to happen, because it's lazy writing and convenience is lazy writing. Let me prove it to you the Sith Quamir In episode two.

Speaker 1: 8:27

He kills the apothecary, assumes his identity and the Jedi figure out that he's connected to May, who killed a Jedi in the first episode, and instead of say I don't know, capturing him or taking him to an interrogation room, they let him go. Why did they let him go? It makes no sense. It's plot armor, it's convenience, because if they didn't let Quimere the Sith go which is the first time we see the plot armor but we don't recognize the plot armor because it's the first time we've met the character it isn't until episode 5 that we see he has plot armor. Saul has him gonna cut his head off and Osha stops Quimere. Why? Because he needed to survive, because we needed episode 6 for Osha to connect with him, which Osha puts his own lightsaber to the Sith's neck. So he escapes death twice and capture once. Because convenience. And then, in episode eight, osha again stops Saul from killing the Sith, or I guess it would be Mae stops Saul from killing the Sith.

Speaker 1: 9:59

With that being said, what would have happened if they captured the Sith in episode 2? How would that have changed the entire story? It would have brought conflict, it would have brought intrigue, probably. But instead we get plot armor and they let him go. I don't know about you, but I wouldn't let somebody go who killed somebody and assume their identity, because the Jedi were very clear that's not the apothecary and they proved he had a connection to May. So why wouldn't we want to interrogate him or bring him in? So why wouldn't we want to interrogate him or bring him in? Because we find out that Venestra, the Master Jedi above Master Saul we learn that that was his master before he went to the dark side for Komiro, for quamir, if they would have captured him and detained him in episode two, we would have seen a conflict between vanestra and quamir possibly. Or let's say, in episode five, saul kills the sith. They have dark plagues sittingis sitting in the wings. How is that connected? How is he connected, right? And then the plot armor there is pretty insane.

Speaker 1: 11:37

And then we need to talk about what the Sith did, right? We don't know. It was just kind of like an afterthought. It's not really the Acolyte, but it is the Acolyte, because I'm a Dark Side user. It doesn't make sense. It doesn't make sense for there to be a Sith in this series. Just saying this series could have been about atonement for what the jedi did 16 years earlier on bendock, but that's not what we get. We get this weird pivotal point that sets off the entire season because may's on revenge because she saw her mother get killed by Saul. We find that out in Episode 7. And I don't like how the writers decided to make May look like a sociopath or a psycho, torturing animals trying to kill her sister. Oh, it was just an accident. She was just being a dark side user. The stones burst into flames. She didn't mean to try and burn down the compound and kill her sister. It, episode 7, was absolutely horrible because it didn't establish anything, because it was fake conflict.

Speaker 1: 13:03

To start out with, you have the Jedi who, in all of its thought process for the Acolyte, completely and utterly contrary to the Jedi that we know of in Star Wars. They lie, they cover things up, they intentionally do things that are un-Jedi-like. I don't know why Leslie Hedlund decided to write the Jedi like that, or why the writing team decided to make the Jedi look like bad guys and make the Sith look good, because one of the things that I never understood was why is Kremir the Sith in this series? Because his character doesn't do anything. You know May doesn't do anything. We don't get any character development. We get things stated at us. It's kind of obnoxious to be truthful. And then we need to talk about Torben. Torben didn't do anything wrong 16 years earlier. Yeah, he was a whiny little bitch, but he didn't do anything wrong. And Saul didn't do anything wrong and the Jedi didn't do anything wrong 16 years before the show started.

Speaker 1: 14:30

Set this whole thing in motion was all fake sort of urgency and fake conflict because the Jedi lied but, more importantly, the Jedi didn't do anything wrong. You have Mother Anisea who invaded the mind of Torben, and then you had Kel'Naka who had his mind invaded and started attacking everybody. I don't understand how the events on Bendok affected the story Because there was no character development for Osha or Mei. Like I don't understand Osha's reaction at the end of episode eight. I understand the anger behind her mother dying and being lied to, but I don't understand the character because when you think about she bleeds a kyber crystal, all of the emotion of bleeding a kyber crystal would have been more impactful if they actually did some character development. We didn't have to ask why or how this is happening. Or how this is happening.

Speaker 1: 15:58

Convenience takes away conflict, convenience takes away from the story, and that's ultimately what this show suffers from it's lack of writer discipline in the writing room. It's all convenient. Osha having a romantic interest in the Sith ultimately is convenient. I can see what they're trying to do with Osha and Mei, but they don't develop those characters well enough for us to get it. They're the same person. They want to play off a light and dark side, and really the dark side was really a good person and the the light side was really a bad person. But where was the character development? Convenience takes away from the character development.

Speaker 1: 16:53

This show has divided the fandom. I think part of the reason why this has divided the fandom. I think part of the reason why this has divided the fandom. There's a lot of talk about this show breaking canon, and that's the least of its problems. Quite honestly, the writing is atrocious, but it also the diversity and equity, because that, again, is least of its problems. Another thing is, this show is probably not going to get renewed for season two.

Speaker 1: 17:30

The viewership numbers were atrocious. I find it funny, though, that they want to push this idea of review bombing. I find it funny, though, that they want to push this idea of review bombing. Review bombing was a valid case up until episode 5, after the first four were shown to critics and the audience. Once we get to episode 5, the review bombing case ceases to be a case. The review bombing case ceases to be a case. The reason for that is that you get four new episodes that weren't pre-screened or we didn't get any thoughts about from critics. There was no outrage there, that was drummed up. So the viewership numbers Disney released for the first four because they couldn't use review sites because they were being review bombed. Well, the viewership numbers dropped after episode three and four, which means the writers weren't doing their job, because viewership numbers gauge interest, not popularity. You get popularity on the review sites. The show was unpopular because it didn't hold viewership numbers. After episodes 3 and 4, we lost viewership. Viewership dropped off Acolyte in the last four episodes. Some of those episodes failed to chart in the top 10 viewership for third-party sites.

Speaker 1: 19:09

Another thing is that in all of this you can love the Acolyte. There are things in the Acolyte that I actually liked and there are things in the Acolyte that I actually liked and there are things in the Acolyte that I saw little nuggets of gold right. So let's talk about the thread for a moment. So I hate how it was explained in the Acolyte because it felt like they're trying to rewrite the Force. The thing is is that they should have thought a little bit deeper about the thread, because we're missing out on a really sinister thing here. Like if I was writing this show, I would have kept the force as canon says it is. It is an energy field that connects all life throughout the galaxy Perfect. And within that energy field we have threads of destiny or paths of people's lives, and through great energy and effort we can change those paths.

Speaker 1: 20:17

I got a feeling they were trying to explain that in the Acolyte but failed because they didn't understand how to explain that. It's very simple the fates from Greek mythology One spins, one cuts, one weaves. Very simple, and you can do it based off power One grabs the thread, a group weaves the thread and a group cuts the thread. Very simple. Do you understand that if they use that in the acolyte, changing people's destinies and courses through the force, that we could have gotten a very evil sort of group of characters? This is the thing. They didn't think about it and they didn't care to and they didn't know how to explain it. So we got this weird explanation from mother anisea in episode three. Well, who cares? Because it doesn't come into play ever. Maybe episode six, when? Or eight I guess it would be Episode 8, when Osha takes off the mask and sees the superhero. She went from level 0 to 9000 in a matter of seconds by putting on a mask.

Speaker 1: 21:56

Another problem that this show has is that it shows you little cool stuff. Another problem that this show has is that it shows you a little cool stuff, but all the connecting story and development isn't there. Oh, look, really cool red lightsaber. Hey, episode five lightsaber fight Best ever. Not really, but best ever. Oh, look Yoda. Oh, best ever. Oh, look Yoda. Oh, look other cool stuff. Don't worry, the story will come better.

Speaker 1: 22:25

I kept getting told that the story was going to get better and that the writing was going to get better and I needed to give it a chance. The problem is the show never got better and, quite honestly, I checked out at episode 5 five. I had to make myself watch the last four episodes just so I could understand what was happening when people talked about certain things. When you break down the acolyte, you miss a lot of what makes Star Wars Star Wars. It felt like I was getting something that wanted to reimagine what Star Wars was, but it couldn't do it because the writing wasn't there. I'm okay with mediocre writing if you make an effort to have an interesting story and character development.

Speaker 1: 23:30

They spent $180 million on this show and I wonder where the money went, because the writers didn't put forth a story, a character development or even a set. That looked like 180 episodes and the lightsaber fights didn't really look that good. Episode 8, I really liked the fight between Saul and the Sith, but but who cares? At the end of the day, this show had a lot of look at this shiny thing over here, but until you look at the story and the character development, none of that mattered. They could have put Yoda in there and had a Yoda lightsaber fight with a Sith and we wouldn't care, because we didn't care about the characters. We didn't care about Venestra, saul or Tel Naka. We didn't care about Yord. This is why Episode 5 was supposed to be shocking for one, but it wasn't. It wasn't shocking to see Y die or Jackie die Because we didn't care about those characters. Fundamentally, they weren't written.

Speaker 1: 24:50

Well, if this is the new Star Wars, I don't know if I want to watch any more Star Wars. I don't think I'll watch Andor Season 2. I just don't think I will. I don't think I'll watch any more Star Wars projects for a while. I'm kind of tired of lightsabers anyways Not because of the acolyte, but because of Disney right. Lightsabers and superheroes. So tired of lightsabers and superheroes, especially with what's happening with Marvel and what Disney is doing with these properties and IPs.

Speaker 1: 25:36

This is the diversity and equity thing that's happening. This is the first time that I ever saw Disney actively go after their fan base. This is the first time that I ever saw Disney actively go after their fan base, and this is the first time that we forced Disney to have to use viewership numbers to indicate popularity, which viewership numbers doesn't indicate popularity, it indicates interest Of all things. We forced Disney to use Metrixes outside of what they're used for. Now Leslie Henlin wants us to advocate for a second season. I don't want a second season. I don't even want any more Star Wars for a while. Quite honestly, this is kind of the nail in the coffin, so to speak. There's so much blood around this right now that it really needs to take a break. They need to step back and reassess what they're doing, but Disney isn't going to do that because they're leaking money left and right with this stuff.

Speaker 1: 27:07

Maybe diversity, equity and inclusion isn't a money-making machine, like the folks who use ESG to gauge whether a company is viable or not. Maybe it isn't making money and maybe all that we want, as fans, is story and character development. Go figure, right. We just want story and character development. We don't want social ideology. We don't want sexual ideology development. We don't want social ideology. We don't want sexual ideology and we don't want political ideology shoved down our throats. It's really simple, actually, when you think about it, but they can't help themselves, especially right now in a divided America where everybody wants to shove something down your throat.

Speaker 1: 27:49

The interesting thing is that we've been seeing this for a very long time Doctor Strange in the multiverse, it was there. Echo, it was there. It's always been there. We've been seeing it pop up in our media and being pushed a political, social and sexual ideology through our media. This is why, when we watch movies like Twister, we're so happy because we actually get a story and character development. That's all we ask for story and character development, and that's ultimately what we want. Anyhow, thanks for listening to Blood Drops, a podcast about stories and characters. What did you think about the Acolyte?

Speaker 2: 28:51

Thank you.