Star Wars: The Acolyte: Episode Seven: Accept / Honesty

[Dave]

16 years earlier, the four Jedi discover the coven while investigating a potential "vergence" in the Force on Brendok, which could create life. The Jedi Council decides that the twins are too old and should be left with the coven, despite Osha's wish to become a Jedi; Koril stokes Mae's anger over Osha's decision, leading to Mae accidentally starting the fire. The results for the twins' "M-count", which shows their Force sensitivity, indicates that they were artificially created with a single consciousness split into two bodies. Torbin, eager to return to Coruscant, sees this as proof of the vergence and rushes to retrieve the girls. Sol follows and the pair confront the coven before Kelnacca and Indara arrive. Sol kills Aniseya when she attempts to use her power. The witches possess Kelnacca and use him to attack Torbin and Sol until Indara overpowers them. Sol is unable to save both Mae and Osha from the burning fortress and chooses to save Osha. As they return to Coruscant, Indara decides to blame the incident on Mae's fire.

So, we finally get the rest of the jigsaw; the rest of the backstory that was missing from the third episode. It does all make some kind of sense now. These aren't great examples of Jedi. Torbin and Kelnacca are weak and can be possessed. They all lie and allow their emotions to overcome them.

We also see that while Mae did accidentally start a fire, she was neither responsible for locking everyone inside, nor for building a castle out of inflammable walls and floor tiles.

The Jedi Council got this right. They should have left the witches alone, and Osha and Mae were too old to become Padawans. Sol is worst of all four Jedi because he disobeyed the Jedi Council on everything, lied to cover it up, and continues to lie without remorse.

 

[Parson]

I agree with @Dave right down the line. But this just picks at one of my pet peeves about these kinds of shows. You start somewhere and then slowly the back story emerges in the form of flashbacks. Why couldn't we start at the beginning? I'd find that much more interesting. If you know what's in the background it is easier to see character development. For me that gives me a fuller appreciation of the story. This way feels manipulative. The story tellers want to get you invested in a character or a conflict and then show you how wrong you are to be feeling the way that you do. I don't like being manipulated!

 

[Dave]

The story tellers want to get you invested in a character or a conflict and then show you how wrong you are to be feeling the way that you do.

This is the Way!

 

[HareBrain]

I agree with @Dave right down the line. But this just picks at one of my pet peeves about these kinds of shows. You start somewhere and then slowly the back story emerges in the form of flashbacks. Why couldn't we start at the beginning? I'd find that much more interesting. If you know what's in the background it is easier to see character development. For me that gives me a fuller appreciation of the story. This way feels manipulative. The story tellers want to get you invested in a character or a conflict and then show you how wrong you are to be feeling the way that you do. I don't like being manipulated!

From what I understand, this particular show was conceived (and to some extent marketed) as a mystery, and these elements of filling in backstory and not knowing how you're meant to feel about the characters (because you're not sure about guilt or innocence) are classic parts of that. Whether it suited Star Wars or was well-executed is another matter.

Even in non-mystery stories you often (increasingly?) get these delayed reveals of important information, and I agree that often this is a bad idea. You sacrifice a lot of character immersion for a payoff, and if that payoff isn't strong enough, the overall story is badly hurt. It might make sense if you think the rest of it is good enough that the audience will go back for a rewatch and enjoy seeing the story afresh with the new knowledge, but that's a big gamble.

 

[Parson]

This is the Way!

This is the Way!


(Where I attend church, when I'm not preaching, we had a series of sermons where its title was "This is the way." I so wanted to say something, but there was not even a mention of the Mandalorian. --- Much to my chagrin.)