The Acolyte: High Republic SW Disney+ Show, June 4th

[Porthos]

1 hour ago, poweranimals said:

Is that the only review?

 

No, there are a fair amount of social media reactions out. Most of them are very positive, but there some with complaints/critiques about pace (which to be fair, also was leveled at Andor).

 

If I want to stay away from SW bloggers, then we have this as a fairly representative

example of what the Nerd friendly press is saying:

 

This one is pretty representative of the pacing critiques:

 

 

There's a lot of reactions listed in this thread over at SW Leaks:

https://old.reddit.com/r/StarWarsLeaks/comments/1czbgg0/the_acolyte_social_media_reactions_discussion/

 

Near as I can tell, no spoilers in it, even in redditors reactions to the links.

 

[Porthos]

 

(found out about the local one way too late [sadbenface] — might not have been able to make it, but would have been nice to have the option)

[Porthos]

 

Looks to be a snippet of a longer documentary that we'll hopefully see some time down the road.

 

(also, holy hell is LFL pumping out promos for this.  I've been sparing the thread them, but no one can say they ain't trying to promote this)

 

NB:

 

For the extreme spoilerphobes out there Leslye Headland has explicitly confirmed in a GMA interview the not exactly hidden plot point that 

Spoiler

Amandla Stenberg is playing TWO characters in this series; a pair of twins.  One light-side aligned (-ish) and one... not so much.

 

Apparently, this is reveled in, like, the second scene of the first episode, so it isn't exactly a surprise.

 

Not it is indeed Not Exactly Hidden (two faces on one of the posters, character acting extremely differently in different trailers, etc; but the promotion didn't directly  start to address this until yesterday.

 

 

Edited May 30 by Porthos

[Porthos]

The only social media reaction that matters. /s

not entirely  sarcasm though given her viewership base on YT

 

Edited June 2 by Porthos

[poweranimals]

So it probably sucks then. 🙃

[thajdikt]

Debuted with 57% after 7 reviews…. HOWEVER ITS UP TO 87% after 37 reviews WE MOVE

[Avatree]

Oh damn, I thought this was releasing in August! Looking forward to bingeing it in a month when its finished

[ChipDerby]

Already being review bombed by incels

[Daxtreme]

The 21st century was a mistake

[thajdikt]

2 hours ago, ChipDerby said:

Already being review bombed by incels

Why and where?

[Porthos]

1 minute ago, thajdikt said:

Why and where?

 

It was on RT, but Rotten Tomatoes turned off the Audience Score within the last couple of hours.  Presumably because it isn't officially out yet.

 

FWIW, it was at the lowest rung of "less than 50 reviews" which is a pittance at this stage.  Not that it won't end up being bombed, as there's no "verified viewer" roadblock in place like there is on the movie side of the equation.

 

As for why? The 'Fandom Menace' folks have had it out for this project ever since they discovered the showrunner was a lesbian very soon after it was announced and have decided to use this as their next target in their never ending grift machine howling into the wind about what they find objectionable in Modern Hollywood Storytelling.

 

(have a lot else I could say, but I think I'll leave the above as is)

 

Do also think there is something of a residual "prequel hate" machination at play as this series is very overt about wanting to examine and highlight if not outright celebrate some of the more hated divisive aspects of the prequels.   Mostly on the Jedi as a declining institution with flaws creeping in, but also the very real background politics that were upfront and center in the prequels.

 

Make no mistake, the prequels by and large have become more popular over the years.  That being said there is a large element of the fandom that still has axes to grind over it and any series that decided to examine that more closely was going to run into some turbulence.  The fake War on Woke is just exasperating/refocusing some of the ire.

[Porthos]

10 minutes ago, Porthos said:

Make no mistake, the prequels by and large have become more popular over the years.  That being said there is a large element of the fandom that still has axes to grind over it and any series that decided to examine that more closely was going to run into some turbulence.  The fake War on Woke is just exasperating/refocusing some of the ire.

 

As a point of emphasis, it took a *VERY* long time for The Clone Wars to reach the status it has today in SW fandom, even if one adjusts for early teething problems at the beginning of series.   Looking back, probably wasn't until after it finished its initial run on Cartoon Network (though it certainly was getting more and more accepted as time went by during its run).

 

And even with that said, it's still something of a minority position given that I think it's fair to say that a majority of SW fandom has probably watched very little, if any, TCW over the years, due to it being animation (and heavily stylized animation at that).  

 

Of course, it's at this point where debates about just what is "fandom" start rising up, so if one wants to contest the point about a majority of fans never even watching much TCW/successor shows, that's fine.  Still think it's fair to say that a large chunk of SW fandom is either only vaguely aware of it or only hazily knows about it, as has been seen by various comments over the years in various SW movie and TV series threads.

 

[ChipDerby]

45 minutes ago, thajdikt said:

Why and where?

 

Pretty much anywhere that allows audience reviews. I personally just saw the awful RT Audience score, and the Google Audience Reviews (which are still up and insane)

[Daxtreme]

If this series builds up on the prequel lore and worldbuilding I'm all for it

 

The prequels have many flaws but I love the setting.

[poweranimals]

Wait, so is this out or not?

[thajdikt]

42 minutes ago, poweranimals said:

Wait, so is this out or not?

First two episodes dropping in a couple of hours

[Porthos]

54 minutes ago, poweranimals said:

Wait, so is this out or not?

 

11 minutes ago, thajdikt said:

First two episodes dropping in a couple of hours

 

15 14 minutes from now, to be precise.

 

(they're dropping at 6pm PT, like Ahsoka and IIRC Loki S2 did)

Edited June 5 by Porthos

[Menor the Destroyer]

It was ok. Master Sol is definitely the standout so far and the action has been enjoyable. The storytelling and dialogue feel a little choppy and the mystery is lacking a certain suspense. So far am enjoying this more than I did BOBF and Kenobi, less than the other shows. 

[Porthos]

So that was interesting.

 

I suspect I already know what is likely going to be the most controversial thing right out of the gate (as perhaps confirmed by a message that landed in my Inbox about 30 minutes ago).

 

Namely how easily

Spoiler

Master Indara (Carrie Anne Moss) died in the first scene of the first episode.

 

And I have to admit feeling that was a little... cheap?

 

But after the second episode I'm now wondering if 

Spoiler

Indara "threw" the fight, subconsciously or not.  Probably gonna have to rewatch it to make sure, but she sure as hell acted much differently after she figured out just who she was fighting (she almost certainly recognized her as Mae when she saw the tattoo/marking on her head).

 

Guilt on some level?

 

I say that because the next Jedi Master pretty much guzzled down a vial a poison with only a little bit of pushing.  Which... Which raises all sorts of questions.

 

As an aside, for those curious:  The Barash Vow.

 

While some might use it for contemplation, that was not a Jedi who felt like navel-gazing and connecting to the universe, that's for sure.

 

Anyway on the whole I'm intrigued to see where this is going.  Yes I am sad that 

Spoiler

Carrie Anne Moss ain't gonna be around (probably), aside from any possible flashbacks

 

but then again I mentally came to grips with that weeks ago thanks to paying too much attention to trailers and commentary about said trailers.  So, if not knew it was coming, strongly suspected.

 

====

 

The other major surprise, for me at least, was that 

Spoiler

Mae (evil twin) thought her sister (good twin) was dead and was presumably on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge.

 

Which raises the question: Why did she think she was dead.

 

For that matter, did Osha miss Mae on purpose with that stun bolt?  If so, why.

 

Going along these lines, if 

Spoiler

Master Torbin was so wracked with guilt, and the Wookiee Jedi also seems to be exile/retreat/away from people of some sort then why isn't Sol in a similar headstate?

 

this is something I suspect we should be thinking about, but it's not something I'm going to over think.  At least not yet.

 

===============

 

One other non-spoily observation.

 

Can already see the "rot" setting in the Jedi with concerns about politics and how things would look to their political enemies being discussed as a reason to do things as well as being concerned about following protocol by-the-book.  Mind, it was parried by further events, but that it was even brought up at all I think is a subtle bit of foreshadowing (or rather call forward) about what the institution will become in a hundred years.

 

For now, as I said, consider me intrigued and curious as to where this is all going.  A very solid start with lots to chew over.  Wouldn't call it perfect (do think Master Sol flipped on a dime a bit too easily when it came to the Major Reveal at the end of the first episode for instance), but I think solid 8.5/10 on the first and a 9/10 on the second.  Certainly better than the two initial Fett episodes and I'd say on balance better than the start of Kenobi as well.

Edited June 5 by Porthos

[Porthos]

7 hours ago, Porthos said:

One other non-spoily observation.

 

Can already see the "rot" setting in the Jedi with concerns about politics and how things would look to their political enemies being discussed as a reason to do things as well as being concerned about following protocol by-the-book.  Mind, it was parried by further events, but that it was even brought up at all I think is a subtle bit of foreshadowing (or rather call forward) about what the institution will become in a hundred years.

 

Low quality meme in spoiler box:

 

Spoiler

 

I really really really could not help myself. 

 

(okay not entirely fair)

((but not entirely unfair as well ))