his five strangest controversies

With four chapters released, The Acolyte It has become one of the most controversial series in the franchise’s wide universe. Curiously, not because of its story – the mystery surrounding a murder – but because of all the reactions that some points of the plot aroused in the fandom of Star Wars. Which caused from endless discussions on social networks about how much the production does or does not violate the Canon G of the saga to a direct and malicious review bombing. The latter, so disproportionate as to even affect other productions with the same name as the Disney series.

Although it is not an unusual phenomenon around the most recent productions of Star Wars, the truth is that the attack on production has become more virulent as the weeks go by. Which ranges from racist comments towards its protagonists, disparagement of the plot, to an online attack on a classic website that compiles information about the saga. Everything, in the middle of the debate about how legal is that production located in the High Republic can make the limits of the Canon more flexible.

A bitter debate that also confronts fans with the fact that Star Wars It has a rich, expanding universe, but it was fragmented when it passed into the hands of Disney. Therefore, much of the data on the screen is added that benefits the action and is not always linear. To prove it, we leave you the five strangest controversies around The Acolyte. A complicated point not only with respect to the future of the series, but also of the productions of Star Wars to future.

fire in space

One of the strangest controversies surrounding the series began from its first episode. In this one, you can see Osha (Amandla Stenberg), the former Padawan at the center of the story, working inside a spaceship. One of her tasks included repairing a damage to the hull. Which showed her fighting a bunch of orange flames, which obviously defies all the laws of physics. The reason? For a fire of that color, combustion should include oxygen. Something that, without a doubt, does not exist in deep space.

Now, although the criticism is based on the fact that the show must be at least credible, it seems to ignore the long tradition of Star Wars, of not just ignoring any scientist. Also, rearrange it at your convenience. Reasons are not lacking: the franchise is a Space Opera — not a hard science fiction plot — that does not pay much — or any — attention to the verisimilitude it shows on screen. In fact, more than once, George Lucas made it clear who considers his work closer to fantasy and science than another genre.

A way of seeing a generational story

But even if the productions of Star Wars should take physics or chemistry seriously, there are multiple examples that show that, until now, they have not done so. From having sounds in space, to characters traversing deep space without attention to the oxygen that would allow them to survive. The truth is that there are a good number of situations, designed to be exciting rather than exact.

Something that ranges from TIE fighters crossing space with a very specific — and recognizable — noise, as well as situations like each planet actually having a breathable atmosphere. The same idea that the universal language is suspiciously similar to English or that most of the characters have very human feelings. Star Wars and specifically George Lucas, has always put the spectacularity — and emotion — of the saga, above concrete scientific data.

Anakin Skywalker’s Messiah Quality

The second major controversy came in episode three, which explores the origin story of Osha and her twin Mae (Amandla Stenberg in a dual role). The sequence, a long flashback that adds information to the central mystery, shows that the girls were the result of manipulating the Force in an unnatural way. That’s thanks to the energy-controlling abilities of the Coven of Force-sensitive witches hidden on the planet Brendok.

For history, the argument of The Acolyte, makes some decisions that expand Canon G on what is known about the Force. Namely: that for witches, the mysterious energy imagined by George Lucas is a thread — and that’s what they call it — that extends between them and reality. So the use they give it is to modify some addresses of that thread to their convenience. Something diametrically different from the way the Jedi manipulate the Force.

The different uses of The Force is not a new point in Star Wars and in fact, it has been delved into the literary Canon more than once. But it is the first to arrive live action. What is even more complicated, when the series tells how the twins were conceived through of the Force and between two members of the Coven, whose members are female.

From the prequel canon onwards

All of the above led to a bitter debate, because the mysterious conception of the girls seems to contradict Anakin Skywalker’s place as messiah and balance of the Force. As you will remember, in Star Wars: Episode I — The Phantom Menace (1999), it was explained that Anakin was conceived by the Force and without the intervention of a father. Which Mother Koril (Margarita Levieva) and Mother Aniseya (Jodie Turner-Smith) also seem to have done.

Now, the information added by The Acolyte, does not detract or belittle, much less change, Anakin’s place in Star Wars. The witches of the Coven created the twins using their will over the Force in an unnatural way, as, in fact, the Sith and other sentients use it. A point that Palpatine even explicitly mentions when he explains to Anakin that Darth Plagueis did it through the midichlorians.

Anakin, however, was created by the will of the Force, as is evident from his status as the chosen one. In other words, there was no experiment, nor was there anything related to the intervention of a sensitive, but rather the unknowable expression of the enigmatic power. Which leaves the twins as a life form achieved through the Force, while Anakin was created to achieve its universal balance. Two totally divergent points in the saga.

The moral authority of the Jedi

Other complaints from a certain part of the Star Wars fandom are related to the fact that the Jedis are shown in The Acolyte very far from their idea of ​​impeccable gentlemen. Which includes the argument questioning his incontestable moral authority and the competence of the Order at the political level. But the truth is that this has been a debate that, It was even explored in the story that George Lucas told in the prequel trilogy.

Which goes back to the very fact of how young children are recruited for training, as in Anakin’s case. Or even some very direct ones, regarding how much — or little — Jedis get involved in politics. For much of Star Wars history, Jedis were idealized figures in absence. So now, explore your lives and capabilities at their highest point, seems to contradict that point of view. Although he doesn’t.

The age of Jedi Master Ki-Adi-Mundi

Of course, another controversy could not be missing regarding canonical characters or not. In this case it is Jedi Master Ki-Adi-Mundi. This Force-sensitive, he first appeared in Star Wars: Episode I — The Phantom Menace. In addition, he is remembered for having claimed that the Sith had been extinct for millennia. Which makes his appearance in chapter 4 of The Acolyteapparently breaks the canon of the saga. The reason? That as is known so far in stories prior to the series, Ki-Adi-Mundi He was born in the year 93 BBY, around 40 years after the story the show tells.

At first glance, it seems a direct transgression to the historical lines of Star Wars. Until you remember that the character’s age — and date of birth — were included in Legends. That is, any material outside the current cinematographic Canon. As you may remember, when Disney bought LucasFilmit was decided to disregard any event that had not been narrated in the original films – now prequels and new trilogy – when narrating the world of George Lucas.

Therefore, the age of Jedi Master Ki-Adi-Mundi would be among those lost data that are not taken into account for the new Star Wars productions. An unfortunate consequence of the controversy? The attack on the page Wookieepediafor him fandom most violent Star Wars. The reason? The change in the information about the age of the Master, in response to what was stated in The Acolyte.

Does ‘The Acolyte’ Break the Star Wars Canon?

Although it has not been the case, if it happened it should not surprise fans, because it is what the franchise has done with moderate frequency since its premiere. At least, modulate most of the facts to suit the information that is added in different productions. From the very fact that Anakin invented C-3PO and that Boba Fett has survived a gruesome death without much being known about how he did it. That, beyond the imprecise visions of the series that bears his name.

Even sequences like the kiss between Luke and Leia (very unbrotherly), and the latter talking about her real mother. That, despite the fact that she could never have known because she died at birth. Star Wars has never been very scrupulous with details in favor of emotion.A formula that kept the saga growing and full of new details for years, until now.