We Need To Talk About The Unnecessary Hate Certain ‘Star Wars’ Actors Receive
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I think it's finally time to discuss the elephant in the room when it comes to Star Wars, and that is the unfair hate certain actors get in this fandom. Don’t get me wrong, you’re allowed to criticize content all you want, but once you start using hateful comments towards someone, all of your concerns are automatically invalid. This gross “trend” has been happening for far too long, and it’s time we talk about it.
It’s okay not to like things, there are a lot of things I don’t like, what is not okay is harassing the actors about the things you don’t like. Certain Star Wars fans have a bad habit of doing this. It goes as far back as the prequels. Ahmed Best, Hayden Christensen, Ewan McGregor, and Jake Lloyd, yes a literal child, all got hate for their role in the prequel trilogy. Some of them took a step back from the franchise for a while, but for Jake Lloyd, it wasn’t so easy. He struggled with mental health issues all of his life because of what happened to him. Luckily, the generation that grew up with the prequels is older now and has been showing more appreciation for them. We have been privileged enough to see a return of Hayden Christensen as Anakin Skywalker, and he is finally getting the praise he deserves. Ahmed Best even came back and was the Jedi who rescued Grogu from the Jedi Temple. Talk about coming back better than ever.
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This extremely unnecessary hate did not stop with the prequels. It started up again with some of the recent Disney+ shows, and the sequel movies. Again, certain “fans” have harassed Moses Ingram for her role as Reva in Kenobi, Daisy Ridley for her role as Rey, and Kelly Marie Tran as Rose Tico. John Boyega was also harassed for his role as Finn. Were the sequels perfect? Absolutely not, no piece of Star Wars content is, but that doesn’t mean the actors deserve hate for their parts. All of these actors, in my opinion, were great in their roles, and what they had to work with. When the hate got too much, some of them even left social media.
Most recently, the cast of The Acolyte has been the unfortunate recipient of this hate. The recent hate tends to have a pattern. It primarily targets women, and people of color. It also tends to be from the same group of Star Wars “fans”. Listen, it’s okay if you don’t like new Star Wars content. You don’t have to be a fan and like everything, that is totally valid. What is not okay however is leaving hate messages to the actors who play these roles. Even if it's the worst show you’ve ever seen, actors do not deserve the hate. Go outside and touch grass.
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Unfortunately, Lucasfilm has not done anything to help combat this hate. When Kenobi came out, Moses Ingram got a ton of hate for her role as Reva. Ewan McGregor took it upon himself to call out these racists, and so-called “fans’ who were leaving her hate. Amandla Stenberg recently revealed that Lucasfilm told her that she should expect some hate. This is not acceptable, and they need to do more to protect their actors.
In this day and age, when social media is such a presence in the world, the hate and vitriol you see online is even worse. It’s not always easy to avoid either. There are some “fans” who use their platform to spread this hate, and some make a living off of making YouTube videos against these actors. Again, they are allowed to not like stuff, but to just rag on the actors, primarily women and people of color is disgusting, and against everything Star Wars stands for. Congratulations, you're literally the Empire, and that's not a good thing!
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At the end of the day, Star Wars is for everyone. Inclusivity is a good thing. Not every story has to relate or be for, you personally, and that is okay. It's a beautiful thing to see different stories than what we're used to. The universe is vast, which means there's a huge diversity of people. This hate unfortunately does not just happen to the actors and has bled into the fandom as well, but that’s a whole other article. So next time you go and complain about a Star Wars actor or project, ask yourself if that's really the hill you want to die on. If you don't like it, don't watch it, it's that simple.
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The Parallels Between 'The Acolyte' And The Prequels
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It’s like poetry, it rhymes, which is something that has remained true when it comes to Star Wars. Recently, this quote can be used when it comes to The Acolyte and The Phantom Menace. Both are very different pieces of Star Wars media, but The Acolyte has a few parallels to the prequel film, that causes it to come full circle.
One of the Jedi rules pertains to training older children. The majority of the time, the child is taken as a baby or a very young child, and they are raised and trained within the Jedi temple. There however have been cases where this hasn’t happened, and the Jedi Council has not been happy about it. The first case of this was with Anakin Skywalker.
Everyone knows the story of how Qui Gon Jinn stumbled across the child, who was a slave at the time, on the planet of Tatooine. Anakin was able to win his freedom, after winning a podrace. We find out he has a very high midichlorian count. When Qui Gon takes him back to Coruscant, the Council is not a fan of having him trained, due to his age. This wasn’t the last time this happened though, as we most recently saw this same thing happen in The Acolyte. Jedi Master Sol stumbled across two girls in the forest in their home of Brendok. The Jedi eventually confront the sister's coven, and chaos ensues. Osha, one of the girls, wants to train and be a Jedi. Master Indarra confronts the council about it, and they of, course, say no. Sol is not happy with this outcome but decides to do it anyway. Sol and Qui Gon were very alike in this way. They did not listen to the order, but sometimes they let their emotions take over.
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Osha trained for as long as she could, but she couldn’t control her emotions like she was supposed to, eventually leaving the Jedi order. She’s like Anakin in a lot of ways, and this is one of them. Both of them struggled to suppress their emotions, and eventually, their emotions got the better of them, and they were lured to the Dark Side. Anakin’s love and obsession with protecting Padme drove him mad, that he was convinced to join the side opposite of the Jedi. Osha’s love for her sister caused her to never fully suppress her emotions, and when she found out what Master Sol did, that was the end of it for her, and where she fully gave herself over to the Dark Side.
Another similarity between both Star Wars content is the creation of children from the force. Anakin doesn’t know who his father is. Fans have speculated for years, but nothing has ever been confirmed. In The Phantom Menace, Shmi, Anakin’s mother, explains to Qui Gon that it “just happened”. She woke up one day, and was pregnant with him, and doesn’t have an explanation as to why. This is a bit different from The Acolyte, but the same concept at the core. The twins, Osha and Mae, were created by their mother using Force. Mother Anasieya was able to manipulate the force and use it to her advantage to create her daughters. The twin's creation was different from Anakin’s, but the use of the Force remains the core of both of them.
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Parallels have always existed in Star Wars. We also saw this in the original trilogy and the sequel trilogy. Luke and Rey’s stories are very similar and mirror each other. So it makes sense that other content would mirror each other as well. Hopefully, we get a season 2 of The Acolyte and see even more parallels between the show and previous content.
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The Best Moments From 'The Acolyte'
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The Acolyte recently ended its first season. While a second season hasn’t officially been announced, many fans are campaigning for the show to continue. The show takes place during the High Republic era and follows twins Osha and Mae. Both are force-sensitive but on different sides. It also follows the Jedi, who are a bit different from the ones we’ve seen before. The show kept getting better with every episode and had some pretty cool moments. Let's take a look at some of the coolest moments from the season.
5. Sol Fighting Qimir/Osha& Mae Fights
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Since it was the finale, there was a lot to wrap up, and fights were to be expected. One of the coolest fights seen in the show was during the finale when Sol was fighting Qimir and when Mae was fighting Osha, at the same time. It gave us cool and seamless transitions between the two fights and was a great way to feature both fights. Sol and Qimir’s fight was the cooler of the two and had some martial arts vibes too.
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4. Lightsaber Fight (Episode 5)
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This was one of the first lightsaber fights we got in the show. This was also the first time the Jedi encountered Qimir. He is a powerful Sith, or Sith-adjacent, and had the Jedi struggling against him. Yorde and Jecki, who were fan favorites, unfortunately, met their end at the hands of Qimir. Before she was killed, Jecki was able to show off what she learned, and held her own against Qimir, until she couldn't.
3. Jedi Fight (Episode 7)
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Episode 7 was another flashback and showed us a different perspective of what happened on Brendok. Unfortunately, this showed that the Jedi were not innocent of what happened to the compound, especially Master Sol and Padawan Torbin. The four Jedi confront the witches in the compound, and it does not go well. Mother Anaiseya uses her powers and possesses Kelnacca, which causes him to fight against his fellow Jedi. It gave us one of the coolest fight moments though, because at one point, Kelnacca swings his lightsaber to hit Master Sol, and Sol jumps above it. It’s such a cool moment and one of my favorites from the show.
2. Lightsaber Bleeding
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The Acolyte showed us lightsaber bleeding for the first time. We have seen red lightsabers before, but we’ve never seen them turn red. Bleeding a lightsaber was primarily used by the Dark Side, where they would bend a kyber crystal to their will, using their anger and hatred, and turn it red. During the finale, we saw Osha take Master Sol’s lightsaber, and turn it red. The scene showed us just how it was done, and in my opinion, it's one of the coolest scenes in all of Star Wars.
1. Darth Plagueis Cameo
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This cameo was one many fans were waiting for. The finale of course delivered, and we got a glimpse of the wrinkly old Dark Sith Lord. Even though season 2 has not been announced, hopefully, we get one, so we can explore more of Darth Plagueis in live action. There has been some debate around the cameo, as his age would put him at about 15 years old, according to his Legends book. However, that is not canon, so the creators are allowed to change it up a bit. His cameo worked great in the finale and was an exciting moment. I was definitely excited when I saw him appear out of the cave.
The Acolyte was a fresh and exciting Star Wars show. It gave us new characters and the first live-action show in the High Republic era. Various threads were wrapped up, but many more were introduced as well. Let’s hope the show gets a season 2 because it deserves it
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A Look At Sol's Choices Seen In 'The Acolyte' Episode 7
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This week's episode of The Acolyte gave us a different perspective on what happened to Brendok. Fans saw what happened that night from the Jedi’s point of view. Unfortunately the Jedi, namely Padawan Torbin and Master Sol were the biggest perpetrators of what went down. No one came out unscathed after a series of bad decisions and misunderstandings. Master Sol is a great character and Jedi, but he did have some very questionable decisions in this episode. Let’s take a look at those choices, and see how they played out.
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The first one is what set everything in motion for the episode. Torbin wasn’t himself after getting his mind infiltrated by Mother Aniseya. At one point, he realizes that the girls are the vergence they were looking for, and goes off to the compound. Instead of stopping Torbin, he helps him to get into the compound and get the girls. Of course, the Coven does not take this lightly and perceives them as a threat. A fight breaks out between the Jedi after Kelnacca is possessed. This whole event leads to the downfall of the Coven and leads Sol to make an impossible choice of which girl to save.
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Next, is killing the twin's mother. In his defense, however, she was turning into smoke and had no idea what her motive was. He was under the impression that she wasn't going to let Osha leave. This was not the case, but by then it was too late because Sol had already stabbed Mother Aniseya with his lightsaber. Even worse was that it happened in front of Mae, who already didn’t trust the Jedi. Communication would've been key here, and even though the Jedi weren't welcome, a lot less blood would've been spilled if they just talked it out.
When it comes to choosing Mae or Osha, he is always going to choose Osha. We all know Jedi can't form attachments, but it seems that Sol never got that memo. He has formed one with Osha, but it could be argued that he may have formed one with the wrong girl, as he has mistaken them, and called Mae by her sister’s name a few times. When the compound is burning, the girls are facing each other on a collapsing bridge, and Sol does his best to suspend both of them in the air. However, his force isn’t as strong, and has to make the impossible choice as to which girl to save. He chooses Osha and lets Mae fall to what he thinks, is her death.
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We always knew there was more to Sol than he was letting on, we just didn't think it was going to be this bad. He made the choices he had to, and I don't hate him because of it. The Jedi have never been perfect, and have made their fair share of mistakes. We have seen this in the prequels as well. At the end of the day, they're human, and bad things are going to happen. This doesn’t mean they all deserved to be wiped out, and that they're worse than the Empire because they're not. The Empire is still leagues worse than the Jedi ever could be.
Lee Jung-Jae has done an amazing job as Master Sol. The character is amazing and reminds me a lot of Qui Gon Jinn. There's only one episode left, and I am terrified as to what is going to happen to him. I hope he somehow survives, but it's more realistic that he won't., and if you’re familiar with the High Republic novels, you should never get too invested in a character, because most of them don’t make it out. Whatever happens, we as Star Wars fans were lucky enough to have him on our screens for one season.
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The Coolest Things Seen In 'The Acolyte' So Far
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We are halfway done with The Acolyte. The show has been a nice change of pace from the other Star Wars shows, as it takes place during the High Republic era, which is about 100 years before the prequel trilogy. This is the first time we have seen the High Republic era in live-action as well. Fans will recognize many familiar elements in the show. The Acolyte however has some of the coolest things we’ve ever seen in Star Wars, like the elegant robes, and yellow lightsabers. So let's look at some of the coolest things we’ve seen so far.
5. Wookiee Jedi
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The Acolyte is not the first time we’ve seen Wookiee Jedi in Star Wars. It is, however, a rare sight. We first saw Gungi, a Wookiee youngling in The Clone Wars and later The Bad Batch. Burryaga was a Wookiee Jedi in the High Republic books. And now we can add Kelnacca to that list. Jedi could be anyone in the universe, as long as they are force-sensitive, so it makes sense that there could be Wookiee Jedi. Since we don’t see them as often, it’s always exciting when we do.
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4. The Elegant Robes
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The Jedi are known for their robes. The robes Jedi wear, tend to be pretty plain. They utilize many muted colors, so they don’t stand out. The Jedi robes during the High Republic era are very similar to the robes we’ve seen but have an elegance to them. They still utilize muted colors but also have an elegance to them. The main part of the outfit tends to be more of a white, cream, or yellow color, with some gold accenting to them. The cloaks can be their usual brown, or even white. Each of these seems to be more personalized for the Jedi wearing them, and they all look different, unlike the Jedi robes we’ve seen in the films.
3. Yellow Lightsabers
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This is not the first time we’ve seen yellow lightsabers. At the end of The Rise Of Skywalker, Rey ignites her lightsaber on screen, and it’s one of the first yellow ones we’ve seen. The Acolyte changed that, however, and we now get to see them in action. Instead of the classic blue and green, or purple if you’re Mace Windu, yellow can also be seen, and it seems to be a popular color among the High Republic Jedi.
2. The Pip Droid
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Droids are also a popular part of the Star Wars universe. Osha’s Pip droid is a new, and adorable, edition to the universe. Even though the Pip droid is small enough to fit in your pocket, don’t underestimate its size, as it’s still extremely useful and has helped Osha plenty of times. It is one of the most convenient droids we have seen thus far as well as in the Star Wars universe, and would be easy to take it with you anywhere.
1. The Sith Helmet
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Let’s all admit that even though the Sith are evil, they do have some pretty cool helmets. The Sith (or Sith-like being) in The Acolyte is no exception. It’s a plane black helmet, with an extremely small slit across the eyes, and a creepy metal smile. This helmet is one of the creepiest ones we’ve seen, and it will be interesting to see who is under the helmet.
The Acolyte has been great so far. It has all the familiar elements of Star Wars, but also introduces new ones as well, thanks to the High Republic era. Hopefully, we get to see more of the High Republic on our screens again, because one show in this era is not enough.
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