Movies News Talk
The Acolyte's first logo was a strong promise, a black mirror of Star Wars' Sith that suggested a tale rich in mystery and the emergence of the dark side. But the show strayed from this first road, leaving viewers wondering about the possible lost in the change.
With its early announcement—an investigation of the growing dark side forces in the galaxy—The Acolyte generated buzz. Creator of the show Leslye Headland hinted to a narrative exploring the Sith's invasion of the galaxy, so preparing the ground for the events of the prequel trilogy. The first logo for the show reflected this starting point.
With a dark look and a cruel, angular font set in a deep red that immediately reminded me of the Sith's colors, this logo was arresting. The lightsaber cut slicing the logo confirmed even more the promise of a show emphasizing the machinations of the dark side. The darker aspects of the show—the Jedi massacre of The Acolyte episode 5—seemed to fit the original promise of the logo.
But the show's direction changed, thus the original logo was replaced with a new one that represented that. The last logo felt less threatening and more in line with the actual focus of the show with its softer font and golden-bronze lettering.
The "O" in the last logo, shown as two rings one blue and one red, represented the celestial bodies circling Brendok, the planet Osha and Mae grew up on. This change in focus made it abundantly evident that the show had chosen to give their story top priority over more general Sith exploration.
Regretfully, this shifting of emphasis might have been a miscalculation. Although the main actor of the show, Amandla Stenberg gave a great performance, the story of Osha and Mae finally lacked the convincing force to ground the whole narrative. This change in emphasis eclipsed the show's ability to investigate the ascent of the Sith and the Jedi's fight against the dark side.
The way the show portrayed morally difficult characters like Sol (Lee Jung-jae) and Qimir ( Manny Jacinto) and explored the corruption of the Jedi by dark side forces was probably its strongest points. But rather than in their own right, these characters were mostly examined through their relationships to Osha and Mae's narrative.
Given the mystery about Qimir's character, a show exploring his dark side crimes and his place in the Sith hierarchy could have been far more interesting. Investigating the possible relationships between Qimir and strong Sith like Plagueis or Tenebrous, as the original logo proposed, would have provided a more rich narrative and more room for the future seasons of the show.