The Acolyte

This in my eyes is another banger. What would you prefer? Do have an evil twin or to have split personality where one part of you has a crime filled life while the other is gentle and noble. This is the story at the heart of this installment that has made me particularly intetested in the star wars. There are hints back and forth of terms and expressions that draw me in msking me want to learn more. The series makes you want to know a lot more about some of the older characters weaving an intinate tapestry which causes you to thirst for a lot more. 

We begin with a story of two young grils who are split up after an invasion of their previously hidden existance. They havwgrown up under secretive circumstances nursed and nurtured by a mystery mother who leads a cult of other practitioners of the magic arts-witches really! 

Their origin is just as mysterious which is why the Jedi feel like they must be stopped. The confrontation between Jediandthis cult results in chaos that drives a wedge between the sisters and forces one to seek revenge. We meet them at later stage in life where one is hell bent on vengence while the other just wants to be more than she is and reclaim the glory of days long gone. 

The story thus revolves around these two trying to make sense of each other’s grievances and heal while embracing the darkness and light that is before them and a future that seems to be causing them to further come into conflict. 

Amandla Sendberg does an amazing job in the show. You can tell she was destined for great things after her performance as the young Colombina a young daughter of a Colombina drug enforcer who dies but before he does manages to pass on some intek to his daughter sendibg her to the US with this info to save her life. 

Amandla also makes an appearance in The Things Hate U give. THUG which is a play on a set of words or letters that are dominant in poor neighborhoods. My most telling scene in acolyte comes from a rescue or confrontation between the powers of darkenss and those of light when the Jedi have an encounter with the witches. One of the Jedi less protected finds himself attacked by one of the witches as the others are chanting. The curse is broken and those who are fighting against the weaker Jedi also end up dying after which tragedy strikes. So much to glean from this one situation. 

Ashoka

What is it about these spin offs or about the whole of star wars that we find so attractive. Maybe it is the master servant relationship that we see between some if the main characters. 

The possibility of rising and finally making it to the top after training and serving and working diligently. Perhaps its the one liners that come from a Jedi Master as he trains the troubled and unwilling apprentice (is that what they call them in the series). 

Maybe it is the relationships between father and son that are revealed in the latter episodes of the first series and the fight between father and son for identity on the passing of a baton, accepted or rejected. Maybe it’s the unending wars, the creatures, the galaxies, the planets, the travel between each of those the spaceships and the multitudes of languages. 

I remember (if memory serves me right) in the empire strikes back hearing Kikuyu as one of the languages spoken by the aliens! Ashoka is no different. A Jedi master, a Padawan, a captive, a senate made up of rulers, a conflict, an invasion and ofcourse a variety of characters. 

There are heroes who are stuck in the past with relationships shattered by acts of sacrifice. There is a jedi master who us struggling with generational issues or mentorship issues with an apprentice she does not quite know how to rasie or nurture. You have journies back and forth from other dimensions and the struggle to deal with past failures. 

The return of an old and long gone master and the possible survival of an older one. Whats not there to like. Then there are the robots who are in charge of all sorts of tasks and the creatures whether from other planets or the result of experiments gone bad. Creatures tasked healing wounded humans, ferrying casualties of war from battlefields to places of relief. Bots designed to repair space vessels and a lot more.