Star Wars: The Acolyte Is Doing A Different Kind Of Fan-Service, And It Rocks

The Acolyte, much like its main characters, resists definition and placement in Star Wars’ decades-long legacy, and that is its biggest strength. The Disney+ series ticks many boxes that the more traditional, masculine fans of the franchise have been begging for for years (High Republic lore, rare aliens, wild lightsaber fights) while also aggressively and unapologetically catering to the femme side of fandom with a hot bad guy and heaps of sexual tension. We’ve never seen anything like this in Star Wars media before, and it’s breaking some brains. Despite its mere existence sending bad actors into a frenzy, The Acolyte is actually the Star Wars series we’ve all been waiting for.

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Showrunner Leslye Headland and company have clearly taken great pains to weave extensive, deep, and thoughtful lore through the entire series. Until The Acolyte, we’ve never seen the High Republic (a period of time in which both the Galactic Republic and the Jedi Order were at their peak) depicted in Star Wars TV or films. As such, the series offers fascinating tidbits of information, nods to old lore, and more for the real Star Wars sickos to enjoy—whether it’s showing a new planet that might be connected to Darth Plagueis or giving us a live-action version of an alien we’ve only ever seen before in a 2003 video game (a Selkath from Knights of the Old Republic).

The show offers us so many great moments and details that are new and fresh but still firmly rooted in the universe as we’ve come to know and love it, from a scene in which we see a Jedi take the Barash Vow (an oath in which they refrain from all acts and enter a meditative state as penance) to season-long thematic arcs that illuminate how the fall of the High Republic can be traced directly to the tragedy of Anakin Skywalker. Aside from Andor, much of what Star Wars has given us since Disney subsumed Lucasfilm back in 2012 has felt paint-by-numbers, with the slightest of deviations (The Last Jedi) causing violent course-corrections that result in shlock like The Rise of Skywalker. But The Acolyte doesn’t feel like empty fan-service—except for the horny shit, for once.

The latest episode, titled “Teach / Corrupt,” leans heavily into the raucous and raunchy shipping side of Star Wars, in which the internet daydreams about its ideal space couplings—a culture perfectly encapsulated by the Reylos, who yearn for more Kylo Ren/Rey content. Ever since 2019’s The Rise of Skywalker sealed the romance with a kiss just to kill Kylo almost immediately after, the Reylos have felt both vindicated and robbed.

The Acolyte dips back into that well and scoops up a generous helping of sweet, sweet, shipping nectar to serve us, as Qimir (Manny Jacinto) and Osha (Amandla Stenberg) argue up close and in hushed tones and take long, lingering looks at each other. There’s even an entire scene in which Qimir disrobes in front of Osha before stepping into a tide pool and inviting her in. When she threatens to kill him, he asks if he can put his clothes back on first, and when he emerges from the water she takes her sweet time averting her eyes. This is, I believe, the first time someone has been naked in Star Wars media.

Naturally, the internet has gone wild over how unapologetically sexy Qimir is, and is praising the powers-that-be for finally giving them some good fucking food. But what’s most notable is that the series’ marketing push is leaning into the horniness—the official Star Wars X (formerly Twitter) account posted a god damn fancam of Manny Jacinto’s lightsaber training. They know what they’re doing, and they’re not ashamed nor afraid of it.

For years I’ve seen Star Wars take big steps forward just to be forced backwards when Disney caves to right-wing reactionaries complaining about every Mary Sue, Black character, or queer person that comes within a parsec of their beloved franchise. I’ve seen de-aged Luke Skywalkers pop up where they shouldn’t, Boba Fett get an entire boring-ass series, and every new piece of media circle back on old Star Wars stories like a tedious ouroboros. The Acolyte is something entirely different—it’s taking a chance with a brand-new setting, unfamiliar characters, and an unapologetic (and unapologetically horny) perspective, and while it isn’t perfect, it’s at least exciting.

And it’s doing all of this while still giving us one of the best lightsaber fights in live-action Star Wars. What more could you want?

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