‘The Acolyte’ Just Pulled Off One of the Best Character Turns in Star Wars — or Anywhere Else
Editor’s Note: This post contains spoilers for “The Acolyte,” including the finale.
One thing about Star Wars: someone‘s always on the Dark Side.
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From Count Dooku and General Grievous to Darths Sidious, Maul, and Vader (not in that order, I just wanted to say “Darths”) and Kylo Ren, Force-sensitive individuals in that distant galaxy always have the option to switch sides (and colors), and quite a few have seized that opportunity.
In Leslye Headland’s “The Acolyte,” the eponymous Sith follower initially appears to be Mae (Amandla Stenberg), who turned to the Dark Side after the Jedi killed her family and “saved” her sister Osha (Stenberg again). But after years of living without the full truth, failing to become a Jedi, and finally meeting The Stranger (Manny Jacinto), the season finale sees Osha find a new direction for her powers and a new master from whom to learn.
Despite all the big bads listed above, one thing the Star Wars universe doesn’t often depict is when and how characters actually turn to the Dark Side. The obvious exception is Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen) in 2005’s “Revenge of the Sith,” a movie that I defend for this exact reason. George Lucas set himself the daunting task of turning a character from the galaxy’s savior into its worst nightmare over the course of just one film, and the film succeeds at depicting this grave emotional impact. Anakin starts the film as a laughing padawan and ends up alone, maimed, and trapped in a path that he stormed down because of the influence of a powerful man (Ian McDiarmid as Palpatine/Sidious).
But that was almost 20 years ago. When J.J. Abrams introduced Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) in 2015’s “The Force Awakens,” his expository arc was Vader-coded; a former Jedi padawan who found new ideology and slew innocents before rising to power among the Sith. Anakin’s descent into darkness was also tempered slightly by the knowledge that in his last moments as Vader, he expressed remorse and compassion for son Luke (Mark Hamill) and joins the Force ghosts of Luke’s other beloved masters. Kylo Ren similarly dies while fighting alongside Rey (Daisy Ridley) on the side of the light.
Osha is a unique position at the beginning of “The Acolyte.” Unlike Anakin, who had never heard of or met the Jedi, viewers meet Osha after she’s already attempted and abandoned her training, working as a mechanic far away from the Jedi temple on Coruscant. While she still respects her masters and their institution, she’s free of the childish reverence that indoctrinates most trainees. She’s effectively a third party in Sol’s (Lee Jung-jae) quest to find Mae, siding only with the Jedi because she doesn’t support murder (fair!).
Unlike other padawans, Osha is acquainted with the Force before she meets the Jedi, even if the coven that raised her doesn’t call it that. She’s also a true pupil — there’s a reason the Stranger keeps using that term — intent on learning as much as she can about her power, first from the Jedi instead of the witches, and subsequently from the Stranger instead of the Jedi. Watching the color of Sol’s saber switch in Osha’s hands is one of the standout moments in Episode 8, revealing Osha’s change of heart to her explicitly.
And not for nothing, Osha makes the active decision to join to the Dark Side. Anakin and Kylo weren’t lacking for anger, resentment, or fear, but they have little to no agency when they eventually turn. Anakin accepts the mantle of Vader because Palpatine will kill him if he doesn’t, not to mention blame Anakin for the plot against the Jedi and Mace Windu’s death (Samuel L. Jackson). Osha, meanwhile, shares a near-equal (possibly romantic) bond with her teacher, and the option to shift allegiance again in the future as it serves her. She’s also motivated more than any of the others by love, ultimately making the choice because it protects Mae and not because it serves Osha’s own ambitions. Even though love is a positive emotion, the Jedi classify it right alongside the others as attachment and weakness, when it can be a source of massive strength.
Thanks to the writing and directing on “The Acolyte” and Stenberg’s killer performance, the audience watches Osha switch sides in real time, from rebuffing the Stranger on the unknown planet where he took her to eventually killing Sol without a saber (patent that, girl!). While neither she nor the Stranger self-identify as Sith currently, their main focus is exploring the potential of the Force in ways that Jedi cannot (and ways in which their neighbor Darth Plagueis definitely does). Hand-in-hand and holding that red saber, they look toward the future and the eventual doom of the galaxy — all because the Jedi were too proud to predict their own downfall.
“The Acolyte” is now streaming on Disney+.
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