Haven’t had a good Star Wars rant in a while. About time, huh? So the Acolyte just finished its first season on Disney+. Pretty much every new Star Wars thing lately gets panned, no exception here, and as usual they’re wrong. Acolyte is intense and fun. Screw the haters—here’s why.

(spoiler alert)

1. Non-Skywalker Stories

Acolyte takes place during the High Republic era, about 100 years before the events of the Phantom Menace. A multi-series book juggernaut launched a few years ago to tell stories in this era, and one of those characters makes an appearance here (Vernestra Rwoh).

That means Star Wars can tell stories that aren’t connected to the Skywalker saga and aren’t hemmed in by literally thousands of existing plot lines. It’s admirable how Star Wars has managed to tell stories like the Obi-Wan, Andor, and to a lesser extent Ahsoka that are snuck in between the gaps in the movies. But those gaps are becoming played out. There’s surely more to mine, both in the original and sequel trilogies, but Disney seems loathe to touch the original series era (presumably due to recasting—they learned the wrong lesson from Solo about recasting) or the sequel trilogies (presumably due to fan backlash over the shoddy storytelling).

That means we finally have some freedom to tell something new. That’s what we get in Acolyte, and it’s exciting.

But that doesn’t stop annoying fans from trying to cripple the series over a single line from The Phantom Menace they assume is unquestionable fact—Jedi Master Ki-Adi-Mundi’s throwaway line, “The Sith have been extinct for a millennium.” So how are we seeing Sith in Acolyte?

Star Wars has been building mythology on half-truths, misdirection, and outright lies from the very beginning. Remember Obi-Wan’s lame rationalization when Luke whines about not being told the truth about his father? “What I told you was true, from a certain point of view.”

It’s ironic that purported “fans” forget this reality. Forget Acolyte or any other explanation for the evil characters (maybe they’re not Sith, but something else?). Ki-Adi-Mundi’s assertion was clearly proven false by the existence of Darth Sidious and the multiple Sith apprentices he mentored. The Jedi didn’t know about them until it was too late. Who’s to say there weren’t plenty of other Sith enclaves the Jedi weren’t aware of? The Jedi’s greatest weakness was their arrogance, assuming they knew everything. Isn’t that the great irony of Ki-Adi-Mundi’s claim, that the Sith were rising in their very midst and they were clueless?

So why is it so hard to imagine their were Sith acolytes a hundred years before? Lots of things could explain that fact not reaching the Jedi in The Phantom Menace era, from all the Jedi who encountered the Sith being killed (after Season 1, that’s nearly true), to details about the Sith encounter being swept under the rug (also true), to the Jedi Council simply lying about what happened (entirely plausible).

That’s my long-winded ranting response to annoying fan complaints. It’s a new story. Just enjoy it.

2. Embrace the Darkness

This story is dark. That’s a good thing. Some of the most compelling characters in Star Wars are dark (Anakin/Darth Vader, Asajj Ventress [see Dark Disciple], Count Dooku [as he appears in ancillary materials—he’s stiff and wooden in the movies; see Tales of the Jedi and Dooku: Jedi Lost], Kylo Ren, Boba Fett, Cassian Andor, Saw Gerrera, Iskat Akaris/Thirteenth Sister (from Inquisitor: Rise of the Red Blade, one of the best Star Wars books I’ve read)—even Han Solo is a scoundrel who shot first).

One of the weak points of the High Republic novels that I read was the lack of a truly dark opponent. They created a gang of pirates, but it never matched the evil of the Dark Side.

With Qimir/The Stranger, we finally get some real darkness to rival Darth Vader.

Speaking of darkness, one of the best ways to clinch your audience is to let them know how high the stakes are. The best way to do that? Kill characters. Suddenly all bets are off, there is no plot armor, and anything can happen. The Firefly movie Serenity is the best example of this I’ve ever seen. Like some kind of apostle of Serenity, Acolyte does this with abandon. Acolyte killed off some engaging characters with real potential (Padawan Jecki Lon hurt the most).

3. Take It Slow

One of the things the Star Wars TV shows have mostly been good at is building up the story over time. Andor does this to perfection with several admittedly slow episodes that lay the groundwork for incredible episodes. I think Obi-Wan does this as well. Acolyte follows this path, taking entire episodes to share backstory. Sometimes that can get a little dull, and I think Acolyte teeters on the precipice with this, but then they come back with episode five, “Night,” which was just a thrill ride from beginning to end. That’s not possible without setting everything up. I wish the storytelling could be a little more even, but sometimes you have to take the time to set everything in order. So worth it.

4. Mistakes

I’m not saying Acolyte is perfect:

• There’s already speculation that the seeming Sith Lord shown in the season finale is the long awaited Darth Plagueis that’s been hinted at like a Star Wars bogeyman. I hope this character isn’t Darth Plagueis, because that’s just too neat and tidy. Tell a different story!
• Ahch-to is the rocky island planet Luke escapes to in the sequel trilogy. We see a very similar planet in Acolyte and the immediate assumption and speculation is that it’s the same planet. That would be awesome. Unfortunately, the series doesn’t give any confirmation (not even hints) and rumor is it’s supposed to be a different planet. Both are lame. Why show us something so tantalizingly close but then not confirm it? It’s like the opposite of fan service. And to make it purposely similar but not the same—that’s even worse.
• The nonlinear narrative is an interesting literary device and TV and movies have done it to death in the past decade or two. It can be done really well, but it can also be a lazy way to tell a story. I think Acolyte uses it as a crutch.

But it’s Star Wars. Nothing is perfect (remember the prequels?!).

Verdict

Acolyte isn’t everything—notice I didn’t mention the show’s stars, Mae and Osha, which isn’t great—but it’s really fun to see new Star Wars lore unspool. It reminds me of the heady days of the sequel trilogy. That didn’t turn out great either, but one can hope.