Spoilers Star Wars: The Acolyte [Spoilers]

[Micah Sweet]

I do feel there is a big overlap between “Star Wars fans” and “people who like simplistic stories with black and while morality”.

If the show had been done as a samurai story, exactly the same plot and characters, it might have found a more appreciative audience.

Maybe, but speaking for myself I don't have that overlap. I'm not afraid of nuance and grey morality, even as I also enjoy black and white. I see Star Wars (and most everything else) as a setting much more than a tone.

 

[Vael]

I have mixed feelings. By the end, I wasn't that into the Acolyte, thought that the most interesting characters were dead, so this does make a S2 a hard sell for me. OTOH, I thought the show had some possibility and great fight scenes, so I'd have at least given a second season a try. If nothing else, more Manny Jacinto on my screen would have had me in the Good Place.

 

[MarkB]

I do feel there is a big overlap between “Star Wars fans” and “people who like simplistic stories with black and while morality”.

Or it's possible that people grasped its subtleties and shades of grey just fine, and still didn't like it.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

Subtleties and shades of grey work better if not everything is based on people failing to communicate properly on a very basic level, and people trained for discipline taking rash and irrational actions. That's something that is more for comedies.

If nothing else, more Manny Jacinto on my screen would have had me in the Good Place.

We're probably in the medium place - we get to see Jacinto in some cool action scenes (and for those viewers that enjoy this sort of thing, in a nice "bathing" outfit) - but only for a few moments packaged between less interesting or sillier stuff, and then it cancelled so no hope of getting more or better.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Subtleties and shades of grey work better if not everything is based on people failing to communicate properly on a very basic level, and people trained for discipline taking rash and irrational actions. That's something that is more for comedies

Miscommunication is the number one cause of real world foul ups, and these guys were trained as monks, not soldiers or cops.

There is a whole thing in the High Republic novels were a Jedi-fan chancellor has greatly expanded the remit of the Jedi leading up to this period.

 

[ART!]

Did you watch rebels?

I consulted several best-of lists of Rebels episodes, and a list of the Ahsoka eps of Rebels, and wound up watching probably...a 3rd of Rebels? I did this and rewatched several later Clone Wars eps I hadn't seen. That was my Ahsoka prep!

Rebels just didn't grab me.

 

[Zardnaar]

I consulted several best-of lists of Rebels episodes, and a list of the Ahsoka eps of Rebels, and wound up watching probably...a 3rd of Rebels? I did this and rewatched several later Clone Wars eps I hadn't seen. That was my Ahsoka prep!

Rebels just didn't grab me.

Fair enough. Probably explains why I like Ahsoka as I loved Rebels.

 

[MGibster]

Are positive and heroic things necessary, or even part of the show's mandate or intent? Just because it's set in the Star Wars universe doesn't mean it has to have the tone of the OT.

The original Star Wars triology was a love letter to old time movie serials from the 1930s and 40s like Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers. For those who might be unfamiliar with a serial, these were short films shown before the main feature and each episode would start with a recap of the last episode and most often ended on a cliffhanger. These serials had uncomplicated plots, good guys & bad guys, and were something kids could enjoy.

I think positive and heroic things are built into the DNA of Star Wars. There's certainly room for tragedy, The Empire Strikes Back is a great movie, but with The Acolyte, a story where I can't easily point to the good guy, I think they've lost the thread. I may be the odd man out here, but I'm not looking for a lot of nuance in my stories about space wizards, smugglers, and and princesses. Maybe that's why The Acolyte failed to resonate with audiences.

 

[billd91]

The original Star Wars triology was a love letter to old time movie serials from the 1930s and 40s like Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers. For those who might be unfamiliar with a serial, these were short films shown before the main feature and each episode would start with a recap of the last episode and most often ended on a cliffhanger. These serials had uncomplicated plots, good guys & bad guys, and were something kids could enjoy.

I think positive and heroic things are built into the DNA of Star Wars. There's certainly room for tragedy, The Empire Strikes Back is a great movie, but with The Acolyte, a story where I can't easily point to the good guy, I think they've lost the thread. I may be the odd man out here, but I'm not looking for a lot of nuance in my stories about space wizards, smugglers, and and princesses. Maybe that's why The Acolyte failed to resonate with audiences.

I think you’ve got a point here. The OT was fairly unsubtle and iconic… and not that deep. That becomes pretty evident when you push even remotely hard at the moral implications of the Jedi Order and its methods. It doesn’t have much of a foundation and that tends to limit what you can credibly do with it and have an audience fully embrace it. But it’s still a good foundation for the Flash Gordon serial homage it started out to be.

 

[Zardnaar]

The original Star Wars triology was a love letter to old time movie serials from the 1930s and 40s like Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers. For those who might be unfamiliar with a serial, these were short films shown before the main feature and each episode would start with a recap of the last episode and most often ended on a cliffhanger. These serials had uncomplicated plots, good guys & bad guys, and were something kids could enjoy.

I think positive and heroic things are built into the DNA of Star Wars. There's certainly room for tragedy, The Empire Strikes Back is a great movie, but with The Acolyte, a story where I can't easily point to the good guy, I think they've lost the thread. I may be the odd man out here, but I'm not looking for a lot of nuance in my stories about space wizards, smugglers, and and princesses. Maybe that's why The Acolyte failed to resonate with audiences.

I think you can do more for good star wars content. Acolyte was poorly executed.

Served up a teen drama with acooby do levels of writing. So didn't serve as well as a mystery full of idiotic and unlikeable Jedi (pretty much all of them).

Mae falls to the dark side, zosha flips a switch to the light (cheer for a murderer?).

Disney has been doing some poor light/dark switches as well from Reva to Tales of the Empire to Acolyte. Along with poor treatment of Legacy characters (Luke, Fett, Thrawn, Obi Wan, Leia, etc).