The Acolyte - Disney Plus Star Wars Series

[jvmacross]

7 hours ago, Mog said:

The problem is they’re slow as hell in getting any toys out.  

Don’t know if it’s a Hasbro thing or a Disney thing.  But it doesn’t do them any favors.

You're hoping for a full set of Force Witch Coven figures? 

But seriously...this is why the quality of the shows don't really matter....people will still collect the ships and figures from the shows....

It reminds me of the Macross franchise....I personally have not cared much for most of it past M+...but I really like Kawamori's continuos evolution of the original VF-1...so I still buy the PT versions of VF's that are released for each new show regardless of how unwatchable they are to me....lol

[Big s]

10 hours ago, Mog said:

The problem is they’re slow as hell in getting any toys out.  

Don’t know if it’s a Hasbro thing or a Disney thing.  But it doesn’t do them any favors.

I think the problem is putting out to many toys. They mostly go into the clearance bins and have been harming Hasbro due to poor sales.

[Mog]

Too many Black Series, retro, and the oddball line of stuff.

Not enough new stuff for the 3.75” TVC line.

[Seto Kaiba]

1 hour ago, Big s said:

I think the problem is putting out to many toys. They mostly go into the clearance bins and have been harming Hasbro due to poor sales.

Looking at Hasbro's published earnings reports, I'm not sure that's necessarily accurate.

In absolute terms, it does appear to be the case that Disney-era Star Wars merchandise does not sell in the same volumes that pre-Disney merchandise did.  Hasbro has credited their Star Wars lines with buoying the company in otherwise lean sales periods at least twice to date.  Diamond Select Toys has publicly commented that demand for merch from the sequel trilogy is noticeably lower than that of the prequel and original trilogies but that sales are otherwise satisfyingly strong.

Independent and chain retailers who've weighed in on the issue have pointed to a few different causes.  The main one being simple oversaturation of the market.  The release of a new Star Wars title used to be an occasion.  It was an infrequent but major event that would drive a huge spike in demand for Star Wars merch of all kinds before tapering off to a respectable but low level of demand between releases.  Several retailers made the point that Disney is not giving Star Wars audiences that break between releases to create that sense of occasion for a new release.  IMO, they have a point there... Disney had a new movie every year from 2015 to 2019, and a new TV series every year from 2019 to present.  They've also credited overzealous ordering with a lot of merch ending up clearanced.  Ordering like those demand spikes they were accustomed to are still happening has led to substantial overstock situations from around the time of The Last Jedi onwards.

(There was also one strange account from a Kalamazoo toy store owner who asserted that there was diminished interest in Grogu merch around the time of The Mandalorian S2 when it became harder to overlook that the cute baby was actually 50+ years old.)

[Big s]

13 minutes ago, Seto Kaiba said:

Looking at Hasbro's published earnings reports, I'm not sure that's necessarily accurate.

I’m not sure how trustworthy those are after the massive layoffs they had to do. 

[Seto Kaiba]

30 minutes ago, Big s said:

I’m not sure how trustworthy those are after the massive layoffs they had to do. 

Earnings reports are required by law to be accurate because those are statements of financial condition provided to shareholders.

Layoffs, unfortunately, are often unconnected to a company's profitability.  It's become a very popular practice for companies to lay off staff as a way of reducing short-term costs in order to pump up the share price of the company's stock after a stock buyback or just a particularly good year.  (Since many executives are paid in stock and stock options, well... you can guess why.)

[pengbuzz]

9 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:

Looking at Hasbro's published earnings reports, I'm not sure that's necessarily accurate.

In absolute terms, it does appear to be the case that Disney-era Star Wars merchandise does not sell in the same volumes that pre-Disney merchandise did.  Hasbro has credited their Star Wars lines with buoying the company in otherwise lean sales periods at least twice to date.  Diamond Select Toys has publicly commented that demand for merch from the sequel trilogy is noticeably lower than that of the prequel and original trilogies but that sales are otherwise satisfyingly strong.

Independent and chain retailers who've weighed in on the issue have pointed to a few different causes.  The main one being simple oversaturation of the market.  The release of a new Star Wars title used to be an occasion.  It was an infrequent but major event that would drive a huge spike in demand for Star Wars merch of all kinds before tapering off to a respectable but low level of demand between releases.  Several retailers made the point that Disney is not giving Star Wars audiences that break between releases to create that sense of occasion for a new release.  IMO, they have a point there... Disney had a new movie every year from 2015 to 2019, and a new TV series every year from 2019 to present.  They've also credited overzealous ordering with a lot of merch ending up clearanced.  Ordering like those demand spikes they were accustomed to are still happening has led to substantial overstock situations from around the time of The Last Jedi onwards.

(There was also one strange account from a Kalamazoo toy store owner who asserted that there was diminished interest in Grogu merch around the time of The Mandalorian S2 when it became harder to overlook that the cute baby was actually 50+ years old.)

Strangling the golden goose by demanding it lay eggs nearly 24/7...

[Seto Kaiba]

All right, it is 9pm on Tuesday and I am ready to be underwhelmed by a whole new episode of The Acolyte.

They really think they're clever doing this opposites thing... Lost/Found, Revenge/Justice, Day, and now Night.

Spoiler

We start with a death fakeout for Osha... who despite the dark lord yeeting her into oblivion is worried about her freaking self-aware multitool and not the dozen Jedi or her sister who got tossed around like leaves.  Priorities!

For a minute, it almost looks like the fight happened offscreen while Osha was unconscious since she immediately trips and falls next to a dead Jedi.  Then we see they're having a nice little glowstick rave on the other side of a stand of trees.  Smilo Ren seemingly has lightsaber-proof armor that causes lightsabers to fail when they hit it... an astonishingly useful thing that doesn't seem to have been mentioned before.  He makes an absolute mockery of the Jedi, and a wounded Yord is the last man alive.  Oh, so he's stunproof too.  Where was this body armor... literally everywhere else in Star Wars?  This has to be the first Star Wars character with actually-effective body armor that provides actual protection from weapons!

Mae's still in Kelnacca's hut, and is panicking and spots his lightsaber.  Osha, meanwhile, has done the smart thing and legged it.  She conveniently runs into Sol, and Yord catches up a moment later.  Sol has Yord drag Osha away... and all this before the opening credits.

Oh... yay... just what we weren't missing, the damn ferret guy they hired as a guide.  Osha wants to go back, and Yord has to tell her she's coming whether she likes it or not.

I'm sure that was meant to be dramatic, telling Smilo Ren that they carry a Jedi weapon but that they aren't a Jedi... as though he's forgotten the Sith are a thing.

... and the Padawan coming out of nowhere to blindside Mae with a flying kick.  Honestly, with that level of ham I was expecting a steel chair.  Yeah, that's a great idea... the very green padawan decides to throw hands with the assassin who's killed, as far as she knows, 2-3 Jedi masters.  Even more surprising... she actually wins, and Smilo Ren has to come racing to his student's aid.  He just disappearing when the camera's not on him too... like Batman in the old Bruce Timm animated series.  

Smilo Ren is taking Mae's attempted desertion very very personally... by why bother to free her from her handcuffs if you're just going to stab her with your lightsaber anyway?  It turns into a slow speed chase through the forest as Mae runs, Smilo Ren chases Mae, and Sol and Jecki chase Smilo Ren.  Osha decides to... try to use the bugs against Smilo Ren?  Jecki manages to break Smilo Ren's helmet and discovers his lightsaber is TWO lightsabers and get stabbed three times for her trouble.

... and it's Qimir.  Mae's master is Qimir.  It was telegraphed hard enough I figured that was where they were going.  

Qimir actually makes a really good point when Sol gets upset that he killed Jecki.  She may have been a child, but Sol was the one who put her life at risk by bringing her to the planet and getting her involved.  (Not to mention she WAS attacking him with lethal intent, so it's not exactly the complete monster move Sol wants it to be.)

... aaaaaaaand there it is.  He said the thing.  

Spoiler

Qimir has confirmed, out loud, that he is a Sith. 

So... we may have reached the point where we have to concede that the fans who said this series was going to open a big plot hole in The Phantom Menace were right.  The only way out is if Sol, Mae, Osha, and Yord all die here.  Qimir expresses his intent to do exactly that, so at least our villain understands the stakes.  That's kind of the entire cast, though, so the series is going to have some issues with the next three episodes if he actually succeeds.

*impressed whistle*  OK, our new Sith Lord is no slouch.  Yord tried to jump him mere moments after he said he'd have to kill everyone, and Qimir dispatches him in seconds by snapping his neck and tossing his body.  Sol then proceeds to beat seven shades out of him and almost executes him while he's down using his lightsaber until Osha calls out to him.

Another sensible aphorism from Qimir... if you don't make yourself subject to the rules, you're technically never breaking any.  

Osha sticks her droid's head to Qimir's back with its lamp on... siccing a horde of giant killer bugs on him who carry him off.  Given that this is Star Wars and Disney... being Disney Star Wars... Qimir is definitely not dead because we didn't see him die onscreen.  Out of nowhere, Mae stuns Sol.  Mae seems to think she's going to have a moment with her sister, and Osha is having none of that.  Osha points out today has a body count because of her, and Mae doesn't take it well.

They fight, and Mae knocks Osha out.  

Qimir's alive, and seemingly annoyed but unhurt.  He drops down out of the trees like nothing happened.

Oh boy... are we pulling an identical sibling swap with Mae pretending to be Osha?  Yup.  So Mae knocked Osha out and stole her clothes, so she could impersonate her and go back to the ship with Sol, and Qimir finds the unconscious Osha.

 

All in all, significantly better than the previous episodes... low bar to clear that that is.  Most of the improvement is that most of the episode is spent on something other than Mae's quest and the Jedi.  The lightsaber fight feels oddly jumbled and doesn't feel like it has a consistent style, but it's still a huge improvement over the actual story.

I hope the health plan is good, because Manny Jacinto's going to put his back out carrying the episode and likely the rest of the series.

Edited June 26 by Seto Kaiba

[Mog]

Spoiler

So yeah, “not” a Sith.  🤦🏻‍♂️

And double-turn? 🤦🏻‍♂️

Characters should drive plot, not plot driving character traits.

And

Spoiler

is there anything wrong with Jedi cutting off limbs? Dude diced up some red-shirts and two mains. Would make sense to disable the bastard a bit.

 

[Seto Kaiba]

30 minutes ago, Mog said:

  Hide contents

is there anything wrong with Jedi cutting off limbs? Dude diced up some red-shirts and two mains. Would make sense to disable the bastard a bit.

 

Spoiler

Several of them try... he's got some kind of armor that causes their lightsabers to short out when they hit it and is also seemingly impervious to blaster fire.

More than one of them attempts to take his head off and fails because his helmet causes the same effect.

 

[kajnrig]

Well, we can see where the budget and time and storytelling resources were unsurprisingly spent. Some bits of quite inventive sword and martial play. A Buddhist monk beating someone with his bare hands is always satisfying. I've never quite gelled with Nu-lightsaber tech. Unpopular opinion: Something about them using literal glow sticks makes it look like they're using literal glow sticks, and it's super distracting. There's something super funky about a blade made of light that doesn't emit light, and I greatly prefer it to the more "realistic" effect they use nowadays. If I ever get the chance to do Star Wars, I'm definitely going old-school with that aspect of it.

The Jedi as protectors and followers of rules-based order strikes me as mildly odd, given some of the... is it Legends? The old Expanded Universe? Legacy? L-something... anyway, given some of the old material (and even RotJ IIRC) framed strict order and rules as an aspect of the Sith. But then this is Star Wars, where such things were "good" or "bad" almost on anyone's whim on any given day. So... meh.

Anything else...? I dunno. I'll have to pay closer attention next time I see this episode, if I do see it again. Otherwise, back to mild indifference for me.

[jvmacross]

So if any of the wiser Jedi would have taken Yord's advice to read the so-called Sithlord's mind a few episodes back...not only would his own life have been spared...but that of every other Jedi in the fight....again...why did they decide not to do so?

And it's getting annoying that each time Sol wants to explain what happened on flammable rock fortress....he doesn't or can't...are they really going to wait for the last episode to finally explain what he and his Jedi crew did to the dark witches?....

Not sure what tidbits can be stretched out for 3 more  episodes that will make a compelling argument for why floating hippie Jedi decided to drink the cosmic kool-aid....to me...that had to be some pretty heinous acts perpetrated by the 4 Jedi on highly combustible witch mountain.....

And to make Ki Adi Mundi's "no sith has been seen in a millenium" line from being retconned....Sol...evil twin...and the hamster character would need to die before the ship leaves the planet....because it would make no sense for the lone survivor of the posse dispatched by off-brand Nebula to not make it his first order of business to report his findings and predicament to his handlers....right?   Or will the communication system on the ship and the entire planet mysteriously be inoperable?  Also....is there any significance to the Hamster holding onto the robot head?  Will it be handed over to cosplay Nebula who will destroy it and all evidence of the Sith?

...since the Sith reveal is now behind us...it clearly implies that the acts committed by the 4 Jedi is what this show was really all about....I hope Disney doesn't think that explanation needs to occur on a second season because this is already a one and done show...

[pengbuzz]

Perhaps not die, but vanish before departing the planet.

[azrael]

Spoiler

I'm still seeing baseball bat swinging. 🙄 Except for Daphene Keen's Jecki. Seems like no one else got the memo on how to swing the lightsaber except her. 🙄 😒 She's dead now so oh well.

And Mr. Sith...🙄 Saw that coming last episode...If they've been extinct for a millennium, it makes Ki-Adi Mundi's line essentially a joke. 🤦‍♂️ Seeing that he's now been alive since before he said that...

And the twin switchero...Well that's a cliche you could see a mile away...

BTW, anyone notice how girthy these lightsabers look? Did they bring everyone to a Galaxy's Edge lightsaber build station and let them make their own lightsabers or something? My thumb is slowly turning 👎 to this.

[pengbuzz]

19 minutes ago, azrael said:

  Hide contents

I'm still seeing baseball bat swinging. 🙄 Except for Daphene Keen's Jecki. Seems like no one else got the memo on how to swing the lightsaber except her. 🙄 😒 She's dead now so oh well.

And Mr. Sith...🙄 Saw that coming last episode...If they've been extinct for a millennium, it makes Ki-Adi Mundi's line essentially a joke. 🤦‍♂️ Seeing that he's now been alive since before he said that...

And the twin switchero...Well that's a cliche you could see a mile away...

BTW, anyone notice how girthy these lightsabers look? Did they bring everyone to a Galaxy's Edge lightsaber build station and let them make their own lightsabers or something? My thumb is slowly turning 👎 to this.

What if:

Spoiler

Ki Adi Mundi was a sith plant?

 

[Seto Kaiba]

21 minutes ago, azrael said:

  Reveal hidden contents

I'm still seeing baseball bat swinging. 🙄 Except for Daphene Keen's Jecki. Seems like no one else got the memo on how to swing the lightsaber except her. 🙄 😒 She's dead now so oh well.

And Mr. Sith...🙄 Saw that coming last episode...If they've been extinct for a millennium, it makes Ki-Adi Mundi's line essentially a joke. 🤦‍♂️ Seeing that he's now been alive since before he said that...

And the twin switchero...Well that's a cliche you could see a mile away...

BTW, anyone notice how girthy these lightsabers look? Did they bring everyone to a Galaxy's Edge lightsaber build station and let them make their own lightsabers or something? My thumb is slowly turning 👎 to this.

Are they not supposed to be that way?

Nothing about it seemed particularly off to me, I was more concerned by how plain most of them look... but I am surely no connoisseur.

[Roy Focker]

I think we're going to have at least one or two more episodes set in the past. 3/4 of all characters featured in the original trailer are dead. With 3 episodes to go that's not enough time introduce new supporting characters that's worth caring about. 

[Mog]

There’s still lightsaber whip lady’s fight scenes.

But the story is slipping from mid to annoying to me.

[Big s]

Spoiler

4 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:

Where was this body armor... literally everywhere else in Star Wars?

Probably beskar. Mandalorian armor basically blocks most of the energy stuff including being resistant to lightsaber hits.

Overall I didn’t think it was too bad of an episode, just the usual why complaints due to the bad writing.

Spoiler

The reveal of Smilo Ren was expected, but I really wish they’d gone the more interesting route and had it turn out to be bad mom.

Why capture Smilo and not at least knock him unconscious. Or just increase the pressure of his hold to give him a KO. It’s so stupid to let someone that dangerous be completely able to continue fighting. These dumb Jedi deserved to die. 

I did think it was hilarious that Smilo Ren knew female Jedi don’t die from single lightsaber stabs, so he triple tapped her, but if the lightsaber is already in the chest it would be far easier to swoop it to the side slicing her in two rather than repeatedly stabbing. No drinking date for her and Osha either way. 

 

[Mog]

Beskar seems to block lightsaber hits, but I’ve never seen it turn off a saber before.

Did these idiots just bulk make their lightsabers?  And where the hell is Huyang to teach these idiots how to make a proper saber?

[azrael]

1 hour ago, Seto Kaiba said:

Are they not supposed to be that way?

Nothing about it seemed particularly off to me, I was more concerned by how plain most of them look... but I am surely no connoisseur.

Compared to everything from and between Episode 1 thru 6 and even from The Old Republic-game series, the saber hilts definitely look girthier. I wouldn't consider myself a true connoisseur of lightsabers and thank god I don't collect those things...

20 minutes ago, Big s said:

Spoiler

Probably beskar. Mandalorian armor basically blocks most of the energy stuff including being resistant to lightsaber hits.

Spoiler

It's Cortosis armor. It's lightsaber resistant like Beskar but also causes a feedback loop when struck, temporarily shorting out lightsabers. It's significantly rarer than Beskar and is more likely found in ancient and antique armor weaves by this time (diluting the feedback effect significantly). The ore was rare even in the Old Republic-days.

 

[Seto Kaiba]

9 hours ago, kajnrig said:

The Jedi as protectors and followers of rules-based order strikes me as mildly odd, given some of the... is it Legends? The old Expanded Universe? Legacy? L-something... anyway, given some of the old material (and even RotJ IIRC) framed strict order and rules as an aspect of the Sith. But then this is Star Wars, where such things were "good" or "bad" almost on anyone's whim on any given day. So... meh.

That part definitely feels like a callback (or call forward?) to stories like The Clone Wars, which I'm still watching in parallel.  

The Acolyte seems to be an outgrowth of the worldview of The Clone Wars, where the Jedi were depicted as a stodgy and dogmatic group who you could call Lawful Good but who were often more preoccupied with being Lawful than Good.  We never get to hear much about their many rules and traditions, but it's implied there are a LOT of them and that Jedi who rebel against those rules without crossing too many lines tend to be sidelined and passed over for promotion like Qui-Gon Jinn.  Dark side users like the Witches and the few Sith apprentices were very much in Chaotic Evil territory with heavy emphasis on Chaotic and a villainous "Rules for thee but nor for me" mindset.  

(I just got to an episode last night that seems to indicate the Sith were so bad at rules that they basically wiped themselves out and saved the Jedi the trouble, except for one guy who instituted the "one teacher one student" policy.)

 

9 hours ago, jvmacross said:

And it's getting annoying that each time Sol wants to explain what happened on flammable rock fortress....he doesn't or can't...are they really going to wait for the last episode to finally explain what he and his Jedi crew did to the dark witches?....

Seems that way.

It's apparently the central mystery to the story... what drove Mae so absolutely mad that she decided to devote her life to revenge-by-murder.

 

 

6 hours ago, azrael said:

Compared to everything from and between Episode 1 thru 6 and even from The Old Republic-game series, the saber hilts definitely look girthier. I wouldn't consider myself a true connoisseur of lightsabers and thank god I don't collect those things...

  Hide contents

It's Cortosis armor. It's lightsaber resistant like Beskar but also causes a feedback loop when struck, temporarily shorting out lightsabers. It's significantly rarer than Beskar and is more likely found in ancient and antique armor weaves by this time (diluting the feedback effect significantly). The ore was rare even in the Old Republic-days.

 

Would've been nice if they'd explained that in the series... just having Smilo Ren randomly no-selling lightsabers and blasters like that came out of nowhere for the characters and audience alike.

I'm definitely a bit curious why such an obviously useful thing isn't more prevalent.

[Big s]

55 minutes ago, Seto Kaiba said:

Would've been nice if they'd explained that in the series... just having Smilo Ren randomly no-selling lightsabers and blasters like that came out of nowhere for the characters and audience alike.

Yeah, I knew about beskar from the Mandalorian, but this is the first I’ve heard of cortosis. I’ve played very few of the games and really only watch the live action stuff, so it might’ve been nice to have some kind of info dump by one of the characters to fill us in on what was going on. I thought that everyone was just stupidly turning off their sabers when things weren’t working out

[azrael]

55 minutes ago, Seto Kaiba said:

I'm definitely a bit curious why such an obviously useful thing isn't more prevalent.

It's rare. The ore is difficult to mine and refine. On its own, Cortosis is brittle so it's commonly weaved in with other armor materials just to strengthen it. If you threw a piece of pure Beskar and Cortosis against a concrete wall, the Beskar would shrug it off and show little to no signs of wear (maybe just a scratch). Cortosis would definitely crack, show immediate signs of wear, or even have pieces crack off. Cortosis is only useful against energy weapons. It's useless against physical attacks (hence it is weaved in with other materials).

[jvmacross]

I knew nothing about this....once again it seems you need to buy into all the Star Wars media to know what's going on....

[Seto Kaiba]

41 minutes ago, azrael said:

It's rare. The ore is difficult to mine and refine. On its own, Cortosis is brittle so it's commonly weaved in with other armor materials just to strengthen it. If you threw a piece of pure Beskar and Cortosis against a concrete wall, the Beskar would shrug it off and show little to no signs of wear (maybe just a scratch). Cortosis would definitely crack, show immediate signs of wear, or even have pieces crack off. Cortosis is only useful against energy weapons. It's useless against physical attacks (hence it is weaved in with other materials).

Hm... so it's basically anti-beam asbestos.

I guess that explains why Smilo Ren's helmet broke so easily too, if the material itself is inherently prone to brittle fracture.

[azrael]

24 minutes ago, jvmacross said:

I knew nothing about this....once again it seems you need to buy into all the Star Wars media to know what's going on....

Cortosis has been around for a while in expanded canon (I recall it in Jedi Outcast but it was in it's diluted form so my lightsaber eventually cut up those ShadowTroopers ). It also showed up in KotOR.

[Duke Togo]

18 minutes ago, azrael said:

Cortosis has been around for a while in expanded canon (I recall it in Jedi Outcast but it was in it's diluted form so my lightsaber eventually cut up those ShadowTroopers ). It also showed up in KotOR.

Leslye Headland Is a big Star Wars EU and RPG nerd. I like that she brings stuff like that in.

[Big s]

4 hours ago, azrael said:

It also showed up in KotOR.

One of the few games for Star Wars that I’ve actually played. It’s been a long time and I don’t remember cartosis, but the thing I do remember was how bad the game was if you chose the dark side. It was like constantly getting talked down to by every character as if they were your parents were disappointed in bad grades.

[Hikuro]

17 hours ago, azrael said:

  Reveal hidden contents

I'm still seeing baseball bat swinging. 🙄 Except for Daphene Keen's Jecki. Seems like no one else got the memo on how to swing the lightsaber except her. 🙄 😒 She's dead now so oh well.

And Mr. Sith...🙄 Saw that coming last episode...If they've been extinct for a millennium, it makes Ki-Adi Mundi's line essentially a joke. 🤦‍♂️ Seeing that he's now been alive since before he said that...

And the twin switchero...Well that's a cliche you could see a mile away...

BTW, anyone notice how girthy these lightsabers look? Did they bring everyone to a Galaxy's Edge lightsaber build station and let them make their own lightsabers or something? My thumb is slowly turning 👎 to this.

I guess fans were in an uproar on how chunky the sabers looked since the first episode. Someone supposedly from the developement team tweeted back saying they had to do it for the LED's. I don't exactly buy that statement considering many of us have replica light sabers in our possession and they're not anywhere near chunky like that.The only thing I can think of is cause technology I guess changes over time and components get smaller like cell phones, I dunno. 

[pengbuzz]

58 minutes ago, Big s said:

One of the few games for Star Wars that I’ve actually played. It’s been a long time and I don’t remember cartosis, but the thing I do remember was how bad the game was if you chose the dark side. It was like constantly getting talked down to by every character as if they were your parents were disappointed in bad grades.

The Acolyte has a bad case of cortosis, if you ask me...

[Thom]

Better episode than most, mostly because...

Spoiler

....they knocked out a few of the main cast in rather flashy fashion. I shrugged when Yord had his neck twisted, but was sad to see Jecki go, esp as she was becoming pretty bad ass. Loved her fight scene with Smiley, especially when she started double-blading. But as Smiley said, she wouldn't be dead if Sol hadn't brought her along.

Interesting having a Sith make that point. Really liked his reason for doing what he was doing. He just wants to do what he wants and be who he is, and that's pretty pure and simple.

One thing I really didn't like, was Mei just deciding to turn herself in. I could see it if they had showed a thought progression, from finding out that her sister was alive, but otherwise it just came out of nowhere. Totally against established character up to that point.

And I too was thinking it was one of their mothers, at least until I saw the bare arms, which would have had to have been Mother Aniseya. But doing all this didn't fit the mind-set she'd shown before. Having it be Qimir was a nice twist. Although, if Sol had just arrested him the first time...

 

 

[jvmacross]

Another smh moment was when Sol told the 'Sith' guy to reveal himself....and I have not rewatched it...and don't plan to...but I think his answer was something to the effect of if he did, he would expose himself to have his mind read.....so the helmet was somekind of Magneto helmet?

But more importantly, it essentially proved that had they listened to Yord, the Sith plot would have been discovered a century earlier...lol

The Jedi in this series basically behave in a manner that is required by the weak plot...nothing about them seems to be consistent, other than being idiots...

[Seto Kaiba]

9 hours ago, Duke Togo said:

Leslye Headland Is a big Star Wars EU and RPG nerd. I like that she brings stuff like that in.

It would be nice if she remembered that a good portion of her audience isn't, and took the time to explain these things within the context of the story when they become important. 

Not that I mind looking things up, but some folks don't want to go to the trouble and I can't blame them.

 

1 hour ago, jvmacross said:

The Jedi in this series basically behave in a manner that is required by the weak plot...nothing about them seems to be consistent, other than being idiots...

Having just finished The Clone Wars and recently rewatched the prequels, this seems to be a relatively common problem with the writing in Star Wars. The Jedi seem to hold the idiot ball rather a lot, and frequently forget that they have various powers in order to preserve the drama in the story.

[kajnrig]

asdf

13 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:

That part definitely feels like a callback (or call forward?) to stories like The Clone Wars, which I'm still watching in parallel.  

The Acolyte seems to be an outgrowth of the worldview of The Clone Wars, where the Jedi were depicted as a stodgy and dogmatic group who you could call Lawful Good but who were often more preoccupied with being Lawful than Good.  We never get to hear much about their many rules and traditions, but it's implied there are a LOT of them and that Jedi who rebel against those rules without crossing too many lines tend to be sidelined and passed over for promotion like Qui-Gon Jinn.

I don't necessarily have a problem with that worldview, because it's an honest and accurate assessment of the Jedi as they are in the Prequels, but it's at such odds with the almost mythic status they've gained by the time of the original films. But that's beating a dead horse... grumblegrumblegrumble

 

 

With regards to the helmet, I wasn't particularly thrown by it. There have been plenty of examples of physical materials withstanding lightsaber blades, so this just seemed like another instance of it; and even its extra effect I would have been fine if it were nothing more than a little flourish to make this depiction stand out. I did find it neat that they played with the mechanics of lightsabers, though. It reminded me of... god I forget where/when this was, but there are separate moments where Luke deflects a TIE's laser blast and strikes some lava dragon's scaly hide and his lightsaber similarly shorts out for a moment.

5 hours ago, Hikuro said:

I guess fans were in an uproar on how chunky the sabers looked since the first episode. Someone supposedly from the developement team tweeted back saying they had to do it for the LED's. I don't exactly buy that statement considering many of us have replica light sabers in our possession and they're not anywhere near chunky like that.The only thing I can think of is cause technology I guess changes over time and components get smaller like cell phones, I dunno. 

Are modern play sabers able to both light up and hold up to fairly strenuous, high-impact use? Or maybe there are other logistical/practical reasons why they had to use larger saber handles.

Otherwise if the size of the hilts is meant to be a depiction of older technology as you say, that's kind of neat. A bit incongruous given the rest of the world's tech doesn't similarly see such regression, but neat nonetheless.