Movies News Talk
One of the main complaints of recent Star Wars storylines in an interesting, meta sense is being highlighted by the upcoming Disney+ series The Acolyte. Beginning with the animated series Star Wars: Rebels in 2014, fresh Star Wars storylines have begun airing on film annually, live-action or animated. Many Disney Star Wars films and TV episodes have drawn strong criticism, but for overstretching nostalgia.
Like with many companies founded on legendary media, Nostalgia has always been a great tool in Star Wars narrative. People will pay to see more of what they love—that which they adored in their younger years. Many object to The Mandalorian, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, and the sequel trilogy for overly depending on nostalgia. But the most recent Star Wars series, The Acolyte, employs nostalgia in a much different way.
Dafne Keen's Padawan Jecki Lon finds her master Sol staring at a hologram of his former padawan, Osha, in The Acolyte's first episode. Jecki probes her master about it; "this pastime encourages sentimentality and Nostalgia," she notes. Here, there's a subdued caution or admonition regarding the perils of nostalgia and attachment—something the prequel trilogy's Jedi are particularly preoccupied with. Though in how it relates to the nature of Sol and Star Wars in our reality, this objection is legitimate and pretty general.
Given her character's point of view, Jecki's worries about attachment are quite sincere, hence they are not an insult. Regarding accepting the will of the Force whatever it may be, one is called to forget the past and embrace being a Jedi. Many are asking Star Wars to follow as a franchise as well, and in a sense, The Acolyte, the first series set apart from the Skywalker narrative, is paving this path against Nostalgia itself.
Master Sol answers to this subdued criticism in an even more fascinating manner, though. He raises the timeless "if we do not reflect on the past" and Jecki finishes the line with "we are doomed to repeat it". Sol says that memories are lessons from which we may learn quite vital things. When you discover that it's coming from a master, reflecting on his prior apprentice—a Jedi who left the Order—this has two connotations: it speaks to his present apprentice as well.
But this also holds true for Star Wars and specifically for The Acolyte. Whether they are live-action or animated, future Star Wars tales should never ignore the past. Still, the most crucial qualifying criterion to keep in mind is that they shouldn't live in the past. Star Wars should quit living in nostalgia and do something fresh, while learning from the past, like with this series itself; Sol might decide to learn from his nostalgic recollections and utilize them as lessons. In this sense, The Acolyte questions this nostalgia issue and solves the problem simultaneously.
Set in the Star Wars universe during the latter phases of the High Republic Era, the Acolyte shows the Galactic Empire as well as the most potent state of the Jedi. Examining several crimes, this sci-fi thriller sees a former Padawan meet her former Jedi Master as they investigate occurrences all pointing to darkness emerging from beneath the surface poised to bring about the annihilation of the High Republic.
The program boasts an outstanding cast, and its plot points to lots of action and several twists. The Acolyte is a great program for people who wish more information on the beginnings of the Star Wars universe and the background of the Jedi and the Galactic Empire.
Featuring a large variety of fantastic Easter eggs and references in the first two episodes, the Acolyte has at last shown on Disney+.
Pulling up an amazing 4.8 million views on the first day, the new Star Wars drama The Acolyte formally becomes the greatest Disney+ debut of 2024.