Though Disney Plus\u2019 older Star Wars <\/em>series have sometimes been fantastic, recent seasons of shows like The Mandalorian <\/em>and Ahsoka <\/em>have felt like the products of a franchise unsure of how it wants to move forward. As another show set in Star Wars<\/em>\u2019 past, Leslye Headland\u2019s The Acolyte<\/em><\/a> <\/em>seemed like it might similarly wind up being hamstrung by the tedium of lore<\/a> and distracting nostalgia plays<\/a>. But by embracing its identity as a story free from the burdens of having to connect with anything but itself, The Acolyte<\/em>\u2019s first season became one of the more promising signs of Star Wars<\/em>\u2019 future.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Even with its new time period and focus on the Dark side of the Force, The Acolyte<\/em>\u2019s twisting mystery about unusual twins torn about by an epic power struggle larger than themselves made it a quintessentially Star Wars <\/em>narrative. In former Padawan Osha and Jedi-killing assassin Mae (Amandla Stenberg), you could plainly see The Acolyte <\/em>interpolating aspects of the Skywalker saga\u2019s biggest heroes and villains. But for all of the ways that The Acolyte <\/em>echoed Star Wars <\/em>stories that came before it, the series understood the importance of using those parallels as thematic texture to strengthen its own ideas, rather than points of fascination solely meant to keep viewers watching.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n That became abundantly clear as The Acolyte <\/em>introduced Jedi Masters Sol (Lee Jung-jae), Yord (Charlie Barnett), and Vernestra (Rebecca Henderson) as avatars of the High Republic era \u2014 a point in Star Wars<\/em> history when the Order was much more part of the dominant power structure. As the first Star Wars <\/em>series to really delve into life during the High Republic, The Acolyte <\/em>was in a unique position to shine a light on how the Jedi\u2019s institutional power allowed them to insert themselves into others\u2019 affairs under the auspices of keeping balance in the Force. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n Sol genuinely believes he\u2019s doing the right thing as he leads the charge to pull young Osha and Mae (Lauren and Leah Brady) away from Mother Aniseya (Jodie Turner-Smith) and her coven of Force-using witches in flashbacks scattered through the season. But the cavalierness with which he tries to assert his authority over the girls\u2019 lives is precisely what leads to their home being destroyed \u2014 something Sol hides from Osha after Mae is presumed dead.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The Acolyte<\/em>\u2019s exploration of how a lack of oversight gave rise to deceit within the Jedi Order made its story feel like a nuanced (if unevenly paced) deepening of the Star Wars <\/em>franchise\u2019s larger ideas about how absolute power can corrupt those with the best intentions. What made the show a compelling watch early on, though, was the way it used characters like Mother Aniseya to present the Force as something almost too multifaceted to be defined by the traditional Light \/ Dark binary.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n That kind of perspective is what gave The Acolyte<\/em> a distinct air of freshness after years of Star Wars <\/em>projects that have often felt unable to break free of simple, color-coded storytelling about good versus evil.\u00a0Star Wars<\/em> has always framed feelings like anger as vectors for darkness within its Force-wielding characters, and that very much seemed to be the case with Mae as she hunted down Jedi at the behest of her Sith master Qimir (Manny Jacinto). Similarly, The Acolyte <\/em>repeatedly emphasized how Sol\u2019s fear of the witches was part of what pushed him to try taking both twins away from their mothers despite other Jedi like Master Indara (Carrie-Anne Moss) urging him to wait for guidance.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n But as often as The Acolyte<\/em>\u2019s characters murdered and manipulated one another, what was fascinating about the show\u2019s depiction of the Force wasn\u2019t the idea that the Dark side was rising as its Light counterpart dimmed, but rather that neither the Jedi nor the Sith could comprehend the magnitude of what Mother Aniseya accomplished in creating her daughters. It\u2019s never really clear whether the witches themselves fully understood what Osha and Mae are or what the coven\u2019s plans for the pair were before Sol\u2019s intervention. But the loss of what might have been \u2014 perhaps a different school of Force-sensitive thought well suited to balance out the Jedi \u2014 is one of the bigger tragedies The Acolyte <\/em>leaves you to sit with as its story begins airing the truth out in its second half.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The Acolyte<\/em>\u2019s approach to world-building and remixing established canon were strengths that made it feel much more akin to Star Wars: Visions<\/em>\u2019 shorts than the franchise\u2019s other live-action shows. Sometimes, this meant that the first season unfolded with a sense of breathless urgency that left promising characters like Padawan Jecki (Dafne Keen) killed off just as their plotlines seemed to be gaining steam. But it also made the show feel focused on actually moving forward through this chapter of history instead of fleshing out the High Republic era in exhausting detail.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The Acolyte<\/em>\u2019s eponymous season 1 finale led with action and devastating catharsis as it brought its players together in a confrontation that laid bare how much pain and suffering the twins endured as a consequence of the Jedi\u2019s actions.\u00a0And yet as genuinely powerful as it was to see Sol own up to his (and arguably the entire Order\u2019s) responsibility in hurting Osha and Mae, the finale could not resist the temptation to close out on a pair of cameos from characters whose presences portend an uncertain future for The Acolyte<\/em>. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n It\u2019s obvious that Disney\u2019s very interested in keeping The Acolyte <\/em>around for more seasons that seem poised to introduce the twins to Yoda and Darth Plagueis as the show continues to close the gap between the High Republic Era and the events of The Phantom Menace <\/em>(which is set just 100 years later). Bringing this group of characters together could lead to The Acolyte <\/em>feeling too tidy and overly interested in making itself work as yet another avenue back to the Skywalker saga.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n