Review of The Acolyte series from the Star Wars universe

Another Disney series from the Star Wars universe is not directly related to the plot of other shows about a galaxy far, far away, or to the feature films. There are completely new characters, and the authors are determined (at their own peril) not to exploit the old ones. In addition, in terms of genre, The Acolyte is not so much an adventure sci-fi action film (not a space opera or a space western) as a dark (not black, not noir, but dark) detective story and even a political thriller with allusions to darkly romantic Dopelgangers. It is no coincidence that the word “acolyte” rhymes with kryptonite, because acolyte is the same deadly weapon and Achilles’ heel for a Jedi as kryptonite is for Superman.

The story takes place long before the establishment of the tyrannical Empire, at the end of the Republic’s heyday, about a hundred years before the first episode of The Hidden Threat, which featured the gifted young Anakin Skywalker, who eventually chose the dark side and became Darth Vader. The Sith are not yet here, or at least not visible on the horizon. The Jedi Order has not yet become a handful of outlaw monks. The Jedi are thriving, as is the Republic itself. They are the elite and almost gods.

They wear elegant white outfits with luxurious gold and yellow elements, live in a palace, and teach Jedi skills to small, equally elegantly dressed students. It seems to be an idyll. But the more perfect the illusion seems, the more obvious it is that a dark force will soon intervene.

Actually, the intervention happens in the prologue. And since, in addition to the detective, we have a revenge drama, a young avenger appears in the arena, boldly breaking into a bar and challenging a respected Jedi master to a fight…

The author of The Acolyte Leslie Gedland speaks of the Republican period as analogous to the Renaissance or the Enlightenment. However, it is probably more accurate to compare this flourishing state of a galaxy far, far away with Antiquity, when gods and goddesses ruled, when art and thought were free, when heroes, though they had an Achilles’ heel, fought and defeated any monsters. And when prosperity was eventually replaced by the dark barbaric church dictatorship of the Middle Ages (the Empire). However, if we draw an analogy with the Renaissance (and the Renaissance is primarily Italian culture), then the advent of the Empire can be called a rhyme to the establishment of fascism.

Interestingly, the protagonist played by Amandla Stenberg (Ruth from The Hunger Games, who has grown up considerably and become a young woman) is divided into two twin sisters, one of whom believes in the power and light of the Jedi (although many years ago, as a talented Padawan, she dropped out of her studies and left the order), and the other, on the contrary, mercilessly takes revenge on the Jedi masters and accepts the mentorship of a Sith. In other words, just as the protagonist and the dark doppelganger from the literature of black romanticism (the same Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde) are two sides of the same coin, that is, two sides of the same self. Like the Jedi and the Sith, the light and dark sides of the Force are two sides of the same balance of the universe; twins who are eternally and inseparably linked.

The detective element can decorate, or rather complicate and make any genre (format, style, even brand) more interesting. Even the canonical Star Wars. And the detective element is that the teacher Saul and his Padawans, including the prodigal twin Padawan, are looking for the dark sister who, on the road to revenge, kills one master after another, and it is not known for what reasons, and it is not known under the mentorship of a virtuoso warrior. In addition, the author Leslie Gedland promised to reveal the secret of how the chief Sith Palpatine got into the Galactic Senate without anyone noticing a single trick. So Acolytes really breathes a fresh and intriguing breath. And if it also stirs up and overturns the somewhat boring and amorphous background of the Jedi Order, then… fans will boil over, and this is definitely a success.