Finished first eps of #TheAcolyte. As a non Star Wars fan I know I'm not the audience for this but Jung-jae is my focus.
I'm a fan of this perspective ... that the Jedi justify their dominance in the name of peace. They appear to be stoics but they still put tons of energy into ideas like faith and the lie of hope which have heavy emotional foundations, it is the opposite of having no emotional basis for motivation. It always seemed pretty nonsensical how they are portrayed in this way.
1/
The plot of these two episodes is also nonsensical ... the fact that there is a hole in the ceiling of the temple that anyone can come in an out of but they have tight security on the place ... that was a little silly. Yord is highly paranoid, suspicious, and sketchy ... I'm amazed he reached any kind of level of "peace of mind and tranquility" or whatever being so completely dysregulated emotionally. The Jedi have never been that interesting to me. Appropriated by a fanboi mainly.
2/
The writing is a tad puerile. It pushes a lot of predictable emotional buttons but not in a way that makes for powerful performances which is weird because Amandla and Jung-jae can absolutely act the pants off of all these people. The acting is stilted and that's unfortunate. Ahsoka was something I deeply enjoyed and it didn't feel Star Wars-ish at all. The story was powerful and the performances made me speechless and I didn't even know anything about the character or the backstory.
3/
Leslye Headland seems more interested in pushing a specific agenda over just focusing on the best way to simply tell a story. She is writing AND directing AND showrunning. That combination is awful when all you care about is your own bias and message over everything else. She controls everything and the entire thing feels so utterly controlled and not in a Jedi way. I'll keep watching because I support Lee Jung-jae's work especially his "cross over" roles. I wish he was allowed to speak Korean.
𝘎𝘦𝘰𝘳𝘨𝘦 𝘓𝘶𝘤𝘢𝘴 𝘩𝘪𝘮𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘧 𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘸𝘦𝘥 𝘩𝘰𝘸 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘑𝘦𝘥𝘪 𝘸𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘢𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘳 𝘰𝘸𝘯 𝘥𝘰𝘸𝘯𝘧𝘢𝘭𝘭, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘳 𝘭𝘢𝘤𝘬 𝘰𝘧 𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘧-𝘢𝘸𝘢𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘰𝘸𝘦𝘥 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘳𝘪𝘴𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘋𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘩 𝘝𝘢𝘥𝘦𝘳 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘗𝘢𝘭𝘱𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘦. 𝘉𝘶𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘪𝘥𝘺𝘭𝘭𝘪𝘤 𝘥𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘮 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘑𝘦𝘥𝘪 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘓𝘶𝘬𝘦 𝘚𝘬𝘺𝘸𝘢𝘭𝘬𝘦𝘳 𝘣𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘥 𝘪𝘯 𝘪𝘴 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘺. 𝘐𝘵 𝘮𝘢𝘺 𝘣𝘦 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘖𝘣𝘪-𝘞𝘢𝘯 𝘒𝘦𝘯𝘰𝘣𝘪 𝘩𝘰𝘱𝘦𝘥 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘵𝘳𝘶𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘑𝘦𝘥𝘪, 𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘺 𝘪𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘢 𝘨𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘱 𝘰𝘧 𝘱𝘦𝘰𝘱𝘭𝘦 𝘸𝘩𝘰 𝘵𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘥𝘳𝘦𝘯 𝘢𝘸𝘢𝘺 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘳 𝘧𝘢𝘮𝘪𝘭𝘪𝘦𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘦𝘭𝘭 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘮 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘤𝘢𝘯𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘦𝘮𝘰𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘪𝘵. - Rachel Leishman