Warning: this text comprises full spoilers for The Acolyte’s fourth episode! If you haven’t already, you’ll want to take a look at IGN’s overview of The Acolyte: Episode 4.
The Acolyte is a Star Wars sequence that raises some main questions concerning the franchise, lots of them surrounding the present’s mysterious villain, a personality identified solely as “The Master.” Who is that this masked determine fueling Mae’s (Amandla Stenberg) quest to homicide 4 Jedi Masters? Are they a Sith Lord, or one thing else completely? And with the latest reveal that the Witches of Brendok have unlocked the key of making life by the Force, will this sequence lastly be the one which introduces Emperor Palpatine’s highly effective grasp, Darth Plagueis?
With The Master returning in Episode 4, now looks as if the proper time to interrupt down the most important burning questions surrounding the character and their function in The Acolyte. Read on to be taught what we all know and don’t find out about this darkish menace to the Jedi Order.
Is The Acolyte’s Villain a Sith Lord?
Is Mae serving a Sith Lord? That’s been one of many sequence’ largest questions for the reason that closing scene of Episode 1, the place we first encountered this armored character. This villain appears to hold all of the hallmarks of a Sith. They put on black armor and an imposing helmet. Their voice is disguised by a modulator. They wield a crimson lightsaber. If it appears like a Sith, walks like a Sith and quacks like a Sith, it’s in all probability a Sith, proper?
On the opposite hand, not everybody who wields the Dark Side of the Force is routinely a Sith Lord. We’ve seen as a lot in different Star Wars TV exhibits by characters like Asajj Ventress and the Nightsisters in Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Baylan Skoll and Shin Hati in Star Wars: Ahsoka. The Acolyte has already reiterated the concept there are options to the Jedi path with the introduction of the Witches of Brendok, so maybe The Master is supposed to characterize an alternative choice to the standard Sith.
This will surely clarify why The Master is so intent on coaching Mae to kill with out conventional weapons. She’s not your typical Sith apprentice. She hasn’t taken on a Darth title, and he or she doesn’t wield a lightsaber in any respect. Throwing daggers and poisons are her calling card.
The downside with introducing a Sith Lord character at this level within the Star Wars timeline is that the Jedi aren’t alleged to bear in mind they nonetheless exist. The Acolyte takes place roughly 100 years earlier than the beginning of the Skywalker Saga. During this era, the Sith are nonetheless in hiding and biding their time till they search their vengeance in opposition to the Jedi. The Jedi Order hasn’t encountered a Sith Lord for the reason that rise and fall of Darth Bane centuries earlier than. As far as they’re involved, the Sith are extinct. That perception received’t be challenged till Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan Kenobi battle Darth Maul many years down the highway.
According to the Star Wars timeline, Darth Tenebrous is the reigning Sith Lord throughout this period. Little is thought about Tenebrous within the official Disney canon, however in Expanded Universe lore, he was a superb ship designer and the grasp of Darth Plagueis (extra on him in a bit). Physically, The Master doesn’t match the outline given of Tenebrous within the EU. That mentioned, there’s no telling how a lot Disney would possibly alter the character when and if he seems in live-action.
Is The Master truly Darth Tenebrous? Could they be linked to the character, maybe one in all his pupils? Or does this villain fall outdoors of the standard Jedi/Sith dichotomy? Given that they don’t appear to care a lot about hiding their presence from Lee Jung-jae’s Master Sol and the others, we’re leaning in the direction of the final choice.
Is Darth Plagueis Connected to the Witches of Brendok?
Given the time interval wherein The Acolyte is ready, many Star Wars followers have speculated that the sequence will introduce Palpatine’s grasp, Darth Plagueis. Like with Tenebrous, little is thought about Plagueis’ life within the present Disney canon. However, there was a complete novel written concerning the character shortly earlier than the Expanded Universe was shuttered. That ebook particulars Plagueis’ rise, his relationship with a younger Sheev Palpatine and the plan they developed to overthrow the Jedi Order.
Plagueis is famously referenced in Revenge of the Sith, the place Ian McDiarmid’s Palpatine reminisces to Hayden Christensen’s Anakin Skywalker about Plagueis’ singular connection to the Force. Plagueis unlocked the power to create life by the Force, one thing Palpatine himself covets above all else. Some followers even speculate that Plagueis was the key hand behind Anakin’s immaculate conception.
This Plagueis backstory takes on new significance in gentle of The Acolyte: Episode 3. There we be taught that Osha and Mae have been each conceived by the Force. Jodie Turner-Smith’s Mother Aniseya created them, they usually have been carried by her accomplice, Margarita Levieva’s Koril. The Witches of Brendok will not be Jedi, however they’ve a robust connection to the Force and perceive it in methods even the Jedi don’t.
Is it simply coincidence that the franchise is returning to the concept of the Force permitting for immaculate conception even because it ventures into this earlier period? Being set 100 years earlier than the occasions of The Phantom Menace, The Acolyte might be happening just a little too early for Plagueis himself to be the key villain of the sequence. But does Plagueis have a connection to the Witches of Brendok? Is their magic the supply of his personal experiments on creating life? Is that the true motive the Witches have been killed off in Episode 3’s flashback, in order that nobody however the Sith would have entry to that energy?
It’s inconceivable to say proper now whether or not Plagueis will make his live-action debut in The Acolyte. But on the very least, there have to be some connection between this sequence and the being that may ultimately give rise to the best and most horrible Sith Lord the galaxy has ever seen.
Is The Master Hiding In Plain Sight?
Episode 4 brings the heroes and villains of The Acolyte collectively, as everybody converges on the distant planet Khofar seeking the Wookiee Jedi Master Kelnacca (Joonas Suotamo). Even The Master exhibits up for the enjoyable, culminating in a showdown between this Dark Side adept and Master Sol’s group.
Given how the hunt for Kelnacca performs out and the way in which the characters recurrently grow to be separated from each other, the sequence appears to be telegraphing the reveal that one in all these characters is The Master. There’s a excessive probability that The Master is somebody we’ve already met, somebody who strategically switches between their common identification and this masked persona.
The probably candidate proper now’s Manny Jacinto’s Qimir. This seemingly carefree smuggler and dealer might simply be hiding a a lot darker facet. We already know he’s working for The Master. Is it that a lot of a stretch to consider he truly is The Master, and that he’s been utilizing his civilian identification to maintain a better watch on his pupil? With the way in which Qimir drops out and in of the image in Episode 4, we might simply consider he’s working off into the jungle to alter costumes and screw with the heads of each Mae and the Jedi.
We additionally would not write off the likelihood that The Master is among the Jedi Mae has been despatched to kill. What if that is Carrie-Anne Moss’ Indara beneath the helmet? What if Indara grew to become so disillusioned by the Jedi’s failure on Brendok that she orchestrated this complete plot to punish her comrades, even staging her personal demise within the course of?
Another choice is that The Master is like Osha and Mae, a member of the witch coven who survived the bloodbath on Brendok. That may very well be the supply of their hatred of the Jedi, in addition to their insistence on having Mae kill their enemies with out the help of conventional Jedi/Sith weapons. Are they one of many Witches of Brendok? Is there an opportunity they may even be Mother Aniseya herself? Anything is feasible for a girl who has seemingly unlocked the key of life itself.
What are your theories about The Master’s true identification? Cast your vote in our ballot and tell us what you assume within the feedback under.
For extra on The Acolyte, be taught how the sequence continues a very powerful theme of The Last Jedi and see the solid break down the primary episode’s main twist.
Jesse is a mild-mannered workers author for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your mental thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter.
