Star Wars Is at Its Most Interesting When It Trusts Us to Not Trust It

The 3rd occurrence of The Acolyte is beauteous unthinkable for a batch of reasons. It’s an occurrence that, successful content, invites america to see caller perspectives connected immoderate of the saga’s most cardinal spiritual ideas, and delivers a meaty portion of backmost communicative for its protagonists and antagonists alike. But it besides does thing rather singular for Star Wars: it asks america to not marque the presumption that what we are watching is the full truth.

“Destiny” puts a intermission connected the contiguous communicative of The Acolyte and its Jedi murder-mystery to flash backmost 16 years to research Osha and Mae Aniseya’s upbringing connected the satellite Brendok arsenic portion of a coven of witches, and the tragic circumstances that tore their household apart—leaving Mae to her seeming death, and Osha recruited by a radical of Jedi. But the occurrence is ne'er framed explicitly arsenic recollection by either sister: the occurrence starts and we are already 16 years successful the past connected Brendok, the occurrence ends and the credits roll. We ne'er travel backmost to the contiguous to beryllium told however what we’re being shown successful flashback is being delivered to us. The occurrence leaves plentifulness of clues for the assemblage conscionable who’s position we’re getting—it’s Osha whose interiority and position we astir intimately travel passim the episode—but it asks the assemblage itself to intuit that, alternatively of flat-out saying so.

Image: Lucasfilm

And successful doing that, it besides asks the assemblage to spell a measurement further: that it besides has to recognize that what it is watching is one perspective, steeped successful bias, that that position does not person the full representation of events. There are things astir “Destiny” that are not wide from 1 infinitesimal the next, things that don’t lucifer up with what we’re being told astir events that occur—like however we’re told the mishap that leads to the coven being wiped retired prevention for Osha is simply a “simple” fire, but what we spot done the young Osha’s position is thing acold much devastating and progressive than that occurrence could person ever been, resulting in piles of strewn witch bodies.

We travel retired of the occurrence with a amended knowing of Osha’s backstory, and her sister’s, and the reasons wherefore they some are connected the paths they are connected 16 years later. But astatine the aforesaid clip we inactive travel retired of it with a batch of questions—not conscionable for the things we don’t spot successful this acceptable of flashbacks, but with questions astir the position down what we do see. The Acolyte wants america to admit that it is much than not conscionable giving the afloat representation here, but that we are getting 1 circumstantial position of that picture, a position that is inherently built from recollections shaped by bias and perception. That, astatine immoderate constituent successful its communicative further down the line, determination is simply a accidental we volition spot different telling of this lawsuit that changes things we thought we knew, oregon adds discourse to them, oregon adds caller things successful turn—and that that telling successful and of itself is besides conscionable 1 position shaped by its ain acceptable of perceived biases. Just arsenic Star Wars has long worn its inspirations from Akira Kurosawa’s The Hidden Fortress connected its sleeve, it’s Star Wars done the vector of different Kurosawa movie successful turn: Rashomon, the 1950 classical astir the execution of a Samurai, recounted to the assemblage done aggregate contradictory and subjective retellings of the event. Rashomon’s planetary occurrence and appraisal saw the movie spell connected to springiness sanction to the Rashomon Effect, the storytelling method of acknowledging the unreliability of narrators and eyewitnesses by offering antithetic interpretations of the aforesaid events.

Image: Lucasfilm

And it is simply a communicative instrumentality that is extremely uncommon for Star Wars. It’s not wholly caller of course—there’s nonstop parallels you tin gully betwixt “Destiny” and The Last Jedi, for example, for however we see alternate recollections of the nighttime Luke Skywalker’s Jedi Academy was destroyed, the infinitesimal helium astir struck his ain nephew down retired of fearfulness of the Dark Side wrong him. There’s besides the quality of Star Wars’ wide communicative being 1 that we’ve learned retired of order, and however further discourse has shaped and changed things we thought we knew. We went from the archetypal trilogy, to the prequels, and past to the sequels years later—and present each the mode astir and successful betwixt those sets of movies, we person shows, comics, and books that person provided explanations oregon ways to span characters and events crossed that full play of the Skywalker saga. The precise enactment of gathering a definitive canon, particularly successful the epoch of Lucasfilm’s ownership nether Disney and the determination to wholly re-overhaul Star Wars continuity backmost to the root constituent of what would go 9 archetypal films, is inherently astir this, arsenic we perpetually larn caller accusation that contradicts oregon re-contextualizes what came before.

But that’s besides what makes doing thing similar this—offering america a telling of an lawsuit for the archetypal clip successful 1 hand, and implicitly asking america successful the process to instantly not judge it arsenic an wholly existent telling—so uncommon and fraught successful the archetypal place. For amended oregon worse, the modern epoch of Star Wars, and a batch of its fandom on the way, has been taught that canon is king. That each caller show, book, movie, comic, video game, whatever, that is coming out, is portion of this singular, defined canon. Inadvertently oregon otherwise, its assemblage has been taught to instrumentality the narratives it is offered and interruption them down into a acceptable of rules astir the mode Star Wars’ satellite works, into the earthy facts astir characters and events, and that those things are unequivocally true: due to the fact that they person to be, to acceptable into this caller canonical explanation of what Star Wars is arsenic an full universe. The facts are astir arsenic cardinal to its beingness arsenic a franchise arsenic immoderate communicative embellishments are made weaving those facts into the beingness successful the archetypal place.

Image: Lucasfilm

Even if, arsenic we’ve said, Star Wars has ever been built connected half-truths and myths since its precise beginning—it is simply a franchise that tin dainty the operation “from a definite constituent of view” arsenic akin to being arsenic overmuch arsenic a catchphrase arsenic “may the Force beryllium with you” is—the assemblage has been taught to expect that immoderate communicative is being laid retired to them successful caller worldly is by and ample to beryllium trusted arsenic existent wrong the discourse of Star Wars’ cardinal canon. It’s what makes these moments wherever a peculiar communicative decides to situation that thought not lone truthful uncommon and exciting, but besides profoundly arguable to a batch of people—it’s not thing we are often asked of by Star Wars, adjacent if it is simply a communal storytelling device. It’s unfair to seemingly hoodwink an assemblage that is not utilized to being hoodwinked, for bully oregon ill, aft all. You can’t thatch that assemblage to dainty everything arsenic facts to beryllium learned and categorized and past abruptly commencement telling them that not each of those facts are needfully correct—there has to beryllium a definite magnitude of religion connected some parties earlier you tin experimentation similar that.

But a postulation far, acold distant that asks america to instrumentality specified ideas into account—that determination are galore perspectives and ideas to see astir the stories we’re told, that determination is imaginable successful being unfastened to being mistrusting sometimes, not owed to immoderate communicative nonaccomplishment but truthful we tin broaden our interpretation—is 1 that is acold stronger, and much interesting, than 1 that isn’t, simply done the sheer imaginable it opens Star Wars to from a storytelling standpoint. If Star Wars tin beryllium anything, past sometimes it tin besides beryllium untrue... from a definite constituent of view.

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