Is the acolyte’s master a Sith? Not if he’s a Knight of Ren.
Ever since George Lucas claimed that the ‘echoes’ between his original and prequel Star Wars trilogies existed “poetry,” The mega-franchise has drawn criticism for trapping characters in an everything-is-connected universe. When Kid Anakin built C-3PO and Boba Fett’s father provided the basic DNA for the Stormtroopers, the poetry of Star Wars suddenly looked more like Mad Libs than William Blake.
As it should be, Lucasfilm’s newest series, The acolyteforms similar ultrasounds (hey, a show about twins!) and Easter eggs (turns out people a lot of strong feelings about Ki-Adi-Mundi). But the hundred-year distance from the well-known Skywalker Saga stories feels like expansion, as history should. George RR Martin understands the approach – check it out House of the Dragon – And The Acolyte creator Leslye Headland, who mines the High Republic era, comes closer than most of her Star Wars contemporaries.
In episode 5, ‘Night’, Landtong and The acolyte‘s writing team makes a direct connection to a Big Star Wars thing, with the potential for an even loftier end goal: an embrace of the sequel trilogy. At least I hope so, because I’m here for the Knights of Ren.
(Ed. remark: This post contains major spoilers for The acolyte episode 5.)
Image: Lucasfilm
Picking up where episode 4, “Day,” left off, “Night” is a string of lightsaber action as the Master blasts his way through Jedi opponents, and Mae and Osha handle their shit. A confrontation with Jecki Lon (Dafne Keen) finally takes the metal face off the Master… before the show’s big reveal: it was Qimir, a would-be smuggler who turns out to be a wannabe Sith Master who hoped to make Mae his ticket to the big time.
When Sol asks him what he wants, his answer is simple, if vague: “Freedom.” The freedom to wield my power as I please, without having to answer to Jedi like you. I want a disciple, an acolyte. But this came back to our deal.”
Star Wars fandom collapsed after “Day,” when the aforementioned Ki-Adi-Mundi showed up at the Jedi morning meeting to discuss what to do about the Master and Mae. A faction of vocal fans came to the conclusion that the Master must be Sithand that The acolyte invalidated Ki-Adi-Mundi’s claim The phantom menace that “the Sith have been extinct for a millennium.” In theory, if Ki-Adi-Mundi and the Jedi of the High Republic (including Yoda) have encountered a Sith in the past, then Ki-Adi-Mundi is either a big liar, or a liar, or a liar. The phantom menace or The acolyte cannon broken. Or maybe the Master isn’t Sith?
“Night” does little to quell the fears of Ki-Adi-Mundi stans. When Sol gets the chance to question the Master (who exudes indie sleaze energy through actor Manny Jacinto), he comes up short. “I have no name,” the Master tells Sol, “but a Jedi like you might call me Sith.”
That’s an open and shut case for people who think the remaining three episodes of The acolyte offers no dramatic twists or bigger revelations. But the Master’s use of ‘power’ bothers me, as does his desperate attempt to find an acolyte. I’m surprised more of the upset Star Wars fans aren’t picking up on what Jacinto portrays in the scene: coming across as an extremely disgruntled fanboy.
Image: Lucasfilm
In the final scene of ‘Night’, the Master utters some poetic parting words for the downcast Osha. Behind him, composer Michael Abels creates a new connection to Star Wars history by quoting John Williams’ Kylo Ren theme The power awakens. This feels extremely telling – as a student of the genetically engineered Force user Snoke (the sequels were a wild time!) who eventually led the Knights of Ren, Kylo was never a true Sith, just an enthusiast with Darth Vader memorabilia in his bedroom . Abels, nodding to Kylo through the music, overshadows the Master with a similar gray; he may want Sol to call him a Sith, but would a man of integrity be like Ki-Adi-Mundi make worthy him as such? Or is it rather an avid Force user manifesting his dream role?
The blur has brought me to my most fan-theorizing moment of my life The acolyteand a bit of my own wishful thinking: The Master could be a founder of the Knights of Ren, previously seen in the sequel trilogy.
Besides the overt nod to Kylo, the Master’s design is in The acolyte leans far more on the Knights of Ren than anything else in the Sith wardrobe. Although the films offered little explanation about the Knights of Ren, other than a passing mention by Snoke in The power awakens and their bits of action in it The Rise of Skywalkeradditional Star Wars materials have hewn a lot of foundational canon in true Star Wars fashion. As shown in the Rise of Kylo Ren comics (written by Charles Soule, who also happens to be a High Republic-era engineer), the Knights were exterminated marauders who wielded the Force with abandon as they plundered locations across the galaxy. Their vibe screams “would own a Cybertruck.”
Image: Charles Soule, Will Sliney/Marvel Comics
The acolyte costume designer Jennifer Bryan told Polygon Donnie Darko was a major inspiration for the creepy, serrated smile of the Master’s helmet, but when I saw him whip out his lightsaber moves in “Night,” muscular arms peeking out from beneath a flowing robe, I immediately saw the leader of the New Republic-era Knights of Ren. I could definitely see the Master running with (checks notes) “Vicrul, the Reaper of the Fallen” and other Knights of Ren with totally chill nicknames.
In 2022 Star Wars: Crimson ReignCharles Soule once again expands the mythology of the Knights of Ren. The comic series focuses on Qi’ra, out Solo (who has unexpectedly become crucial to the lore of Star Wars?), and the attempt to destabilize the growing empire. Part of Qi’ra’s plan? Hiring the Knights of Ren to raid Vader’s castle on Mustafar. The relevant but almost objectionable line in the action-oriented book is that the Knights of Ren have been around for centuries – and at some point fell from grace.
Image: Charles Soule, Steven Cummings/Marvel Comics
The Master could very well be the first step forward for a new era of Sith, and the Star Wars timeline is making less and less sense. But even then someone turned around The Rise of Skywalker‘s overly neat Palpatine connections and the sequel trilogy’s Exquisite Corpse exercise, I’d love to see Headland place the Knights of Ren in a broader Star Wars context.
The intrigue of the original Star Wars films was that everything we see, even in a flash, has a history behind it. There’s danger in drawing out the backstory of characters like the Knights of Ren, essentially window dressing with legs, but as Soule proved in the comics, they play an essential role in Kylo’s (underbaked) journey to the Dark Side and the Spectrum of Force use in the Galaxy. High Republic readers know that there are already established marauders in this era – see: Marchion Ro and the cruel Nihil – but if Headland wants to make the Star Wars universe more cohesive and lived-in, and the obvious reveal of a new Sith for something more complicated would be a delightful twist The acolyte. The “acolyte” of the title could be Mae or Osha, but as it stands after Episode 5, the Master himself could fit the description, a devotee of the Dark Side who… the Knights of Ren just haven’t yet has invented.