SW Acolyte in a tail spin

[TheSweatshop]

I'm a fan of the series but one aspect that I thought they were leaning towards but ended up not was the meaning of the challenge to kill a Jedi without a lightsaber. I thought that killing without a lightsaber was a red herring, I thought they were leading to the conclusion of the challenge being that to kill a Jedi without a lightsaber meant turning them to the dark side "kills" the jedi, "kills" the dream. Killing individual Jedi is a drop in the bucket compared to the damage turning a Jedi to the dark does to the order.

 

[janglesworthy]

I think LH would have us understand that Anakin wasn't touching his crystal at the time.

I don't think I can accept lightsabers as mood rings in my version of reality too much chewbacca defense in it.

 

[Ron]

When I saw the lightsaber turning red, no joke it reminded me of this childhood classic...

 

[Halliwax]

I really enjoyed seeing the lightsaber bleed in color, the hiss too

 

[AnubisGuard]

I don't think I can accept lightsabers as mood rings in my version of reality too much chewbacca defense in it.

It seems too...scarlet letter?...to me.

The old canon was just that the Sith were lazy, but otherwise the red was basically meaningless. If they'd just put some effort in, they could have had any blade color. Now physics itself agrees the Dark Side is evil-coded.

It's an oddly morally absolute addition to the canon, given the more morally relativistic take the Disney shows have had.

 

[Captain Dunsel]

A very even-handed review that even touches on this guy…

…and “Star Wars Man”….

 

[Astyanax]

View attachment 1842946

I didn't watch the show...is this an acolyte doing a tail spin?

 

[janglesworthy]

That thing is what happens when you try and come up with the next "cute" Disney toy and fail.

 

[janglesworthy]

It seems too...scarlet letter?...to me.

The old canon was just that the Sith were lazy, but otherwise the red was basically meaningless. If they'd just put some effort in, they could have had any blade color. Now physics itself agrees the Dark Side is evil-coded.

It's an oddly morally absolute addition to the canon, given the more morally relativistic take the Disney shows have had.

My emotions are so emotional right now this blue crystal can't handle the emotional weight of it all.

Now if she had said "TA DA!" after it turned red then I would have accepted it.

 

[Captain Dunsel]

My emotions are so emotional right now this blue crystal can't handle the emotional weight of it all.

Now if she had said "TA DA!" after it turned red then I would have accepted it.

“Ta-Da!!”

 

[VanPersie]

I got to thinking about the aspiration of historical figures (heroes) to fictional ones and the more I think about it, the less the correlation holds up. By its very nature we know about real people who lived long ago based on accounts of other people who witnessed their actions, where a fictional hero is being witnessed firsthand by the audience. So the difference becomes a second hand account vs a first hand account. When you watch The Empire Strikes Back, you're watching Luke Skywalker live out the adventure he's on which allows you to make judgments based on what you're watching unfold in front of your eyes.

When you read about Abraham Lincoln, you're reading about a person who lived over 150 years ago and who we only know about because of the writings of his contemporaries, Lincoln's own words in journals and speeches he wrote, and the perspective of historians on his legacy. None of us were alive to witness Lincoln with our own eyes. The criteria for admiration is very different between the fiction and the reality of history.

It's also worth considering that the purpose of movies is to entertain a paying audience. It's far easier to admire or judge someone who never lived because they could be intentionally written to be aspirational. Historical figures are just people. Even the notable ones, like Lincoln, weren't created for us to be admired. Luke Skywalker was created to be a hero. That's the difference.

True, though i’d counter with a few points.

Yes we are watching Luke’s story unfold on the screen, however at the very beginning of Star Wars we are told this already happened a long time ago. Of course nobody really thinks it happened in real life, but it does give some leeway in the aspect that whilst we are seeing new things, it is just a load “historical” we are witnessing much later.

I don’t think the criteria has to be different, just that in general we usually treat it so. As we see daily, what you find entertaining or not, will not automatically be what others find entertaining. Plenty of historical figures have been adapted or had stories made about them that was for the sole intention of entertaining modern audiences.

I think LH would have us understand that Anakin wasn't touching his crystal at the time.

I’ve seen this exact thing given as an explanation, but don’t buy it. At this point all they need to say is “we thought it’d be cool to do that”, and it’d be more honest though likely to be criticised, but those that would criticise it would have to then be honest and say “I didn’t like that, but I have liked something because it looked cool”. I mean, how many genuinely saw Luke’s green blade and went “that’s not right it should be blue” instead of “what?! That’s so cool!”

 

[batguy]

I mean, how many genuinely saw Luke’s green blade and went “that’s not right it should be blue” instead of “what?! That’s so cool!

I did. I always liked the blue blade better.

But George Lucas was making a movie. His reasons for switching to a green blade were valid from a filmmaking POV. It let him cut an unnecessary scene. It made Luke's new sabre into a "reveal" when he whipped it out. And it dealt with a practical filmmaking issue (blue blade against the desert sky).



Bleeding crystals, huh?

It's an interesting idea. Very visual/cinematic. I think we would like it if George had done it in the OT. It seems easy to over-use it or handle it badly though. It seems like the kind of thing that should be rare and pack a lot of meaning.

I still have no broader take on this 'Acolyte' series. Haven't watched it, don't plan to.
(If that is unfairly pre-judging it . . . Okay. Whatever. I also pre-judged the Dwayne Johnson 'Baywatch' remake.)

 

[AnubisGuard]

I did. I always liked the blue blade better.

The green looks incredibly cool, but it also rubs my intuition the wrong way. Blackbody emission* simply can't produce pure green light like that. The saber blade colors should probably be blue, yellow, and red.

*that is, light produced by heating matter until it glows.

 

[VanPersie]

I did. I always liked the blue blade better.

But George Lucas was making a movie. His reasons for switching to a green blade were valid from a filmmaking POV. It let him cut an unnecessary scene. It made Luke's new sabre into a "reveal" when he whipped it out. And it dealt with a practical filmmaking issue (blue blade against the desert sky).

Well there’s always one .

Yes but we didn’t know that at the time, for all we knew, it was something special to Luke. My point being though, is that “hey look at this cool moment, but don’t worry about the detail”, works well if in moderation, or it is deliberately done like say the John Wick films.

Bleeding crystals, huh?

It's an interesting idea. Very visual/cinematic. I think we would like it if George had done it in the OT. It seems easy to over-use it or handle it badly though. It seems like the kind of thing that should be rare and pack a lot of meaning.

I still have no broader take on this 'Acolyte' series. Haven't watched it, don't plan to.
(If that is unfairly pre-judging it . . . Okay. Whatever. I also pre-judged the Dwayne Johnson 'Baywatch' remake.)

I agree that it is an idea ripe for being abused which lessens its impact or meaning. I think The Acolyte slipped slightly into that zone unfortunately.

 

[batguy]

The green looks incredibly cool, but it also rubs my intuition the wrong way. Blackbody emission* simply can't produce pure green light like that. The saber blade colors should probably be blue, yellow, and red.

*that is, light produced by heating matter until it glows.

Lightsabers couldn't be a heat-based thing in the first place though. The user's bare hand is pretty close to the flame.

Lightsabers are too full of practical problems to withstand much thinking about. I mean, just the varying light levels alone . . . how does the same blade look like a welding torch against the Tatooine sky, but it's also dim enough for a duel in the Emperor's throne room or the Bespin carbon freeze room?

Well there’s always one .

Yes but we didn’t know that at the time, for all we knew, it was something special to Luke. My point being though, is that “hey look at this cool moment, but don’t worry about the detail”, works well if in moderation, or it is deliberately done like say the John Wick films.

I agree that it is an idea ripe for being abused which lessens its impact or meaning. I think The Acolyte slipped slightly into that zone unfortunately.

Yeah, that's predictable.

 

[Joek3rr]

I hate to just crap on a show that I've not watched.... But this thought occurred to me this morning.

How can she touch the crystal that's been ignited? Surely that would burn her hands. Additionally the crystal looks like it's sticking out. But everything in the lore, new continuity and old EU states that the lightsaber crystals have to be perfectly aligned or the saber doesn't work, or worse it can explode.

 

[Captain Dunsel]

The green looks incredibly cool, but it also rubs my intuition the wrong way. Blackbody emission* simply can't produce pure green light like that. The saber blade colors should probably be blue, yellow, and red.

*that is, light produced by heating matter until it glows.

I hate to just crap on a show that I've not watched.... But this thought occurred to me this morning.

How can she touch the crystal that's been ignited? Surely that would burn her hands. Additionally the crystal looks like it's sticking out. But everything in the lore, new continuity and old EU states that the lightsaber crystals have to be perfectly aligned or the saber doesn't work, or worse it can explode.

I agree on all of these points… I have the same reaction regarding blue lightning erupting from the fingertips of Harold Q Palpatine.

How does that happen? What’s the science?

What are these, fantasy films??

 

[Solo4114]

So, I waited to watch this series until after it all had dropped. This is a technique I've developed with pretty much all of the Disney+ shows for both Star Wars and Marvel. And I have to say that it works SO much better than watching week-to-week.

I'm up to Episode 6, usually watching 1-2 episodes a night, and overall the show has been perfectly enjoyable. HOWEVER, I totally get why people had issues with the pacing. As has been the case with most of the D+ shows in these two big franchises, the structure of episodes is NOT truly "episodic." By which I mean that each "chapter" is truly a chapter in an overall story, rather than its own, self-contained story. The inconsistent length of each episode, the inconsistent plot and character development from one episode to another, the lingering questions, etc., all of that stuff is entirely forgivable if you just watch and then it's "Ok, shall we watch the next one?" Going week-to-week, though, this would drive me insane.

I suspect that this is all the result of some bean-counter in Disney crunching numbers and data-mining to figure out whether it makes sense to drag a show out over multiple episodes released weekly, or just drop stuff as a film or whatever. Overall, it seems like their model is to go for subscription retention, and the way to do that is to drip-feed content week-to-week. The concern being that, once someone gets their fix, they'll just dump the service as a whole, which means that to retain people, either they need a TON more content, or they need to release weekly. And it's just cheaper to release weekly, even if you're dropping $150M on a series at a go.

 

[batguy]

Whatever their strategy is, I can't see it paying off when they have episodes being compared to the SW holiday special.

 

[CopperRevan]

I hate to just crap on a show that I've not watched.... But this thought occurred to me this morning.

How can she touch the crystal that's been ignited? Surely that would burn her hands. Additionally the crystal looks like it's sticking out. But everything in the lore, new continuity and old EU states that the lightsaber crystals have to be perfectly aligned or the saber doesn't work, or worse it can explode.

(being facetious)

Have you not yet understood that they make things up as they go and can care less about anything that makes sense to anything previous?

Force abilities that will be talked about in the future:

"Force prevent death by knife"-just in case someone brings a knife to a lightsaber fight.
"Force Jedi lightspeed"-just in case you need a single jedi to blow up a starship in self sacrifice.
"Force Project a Projection"-just in case a Jedi wants to create an illusion that they've actually shown up for a fight and appear to sacrifice themselves but aren't ever really gone...ever"
"Force Kyber contain"-just in case you need to bleed out a kyber crystal by physically touching it while it's ignited.
"Force Create a Mudhorn toy"-a special technique that allows kids to actually play with a character they saw in the 1st season of Mandalorian in which was important enough to have it's symbol infused on the protagonist, yet somehow cannot be made by Hasbro( Probably will be a Haslab project someday...along with Admiral Holdo's Starship...pfffftt)
"Force Time reverse"-just in case you want to retcon all your mistakes.
and last of all.....

"Force Shut the Hell Up!" -Just in case your audience gets old and asks for a warm glass of milk while watching the OT