The Acolyte Finale Played With a Force Ability From Star Wars‘ Past

The Force works in mysterious ways—manners that we don’t ever understand, oregon adjacent person to. Sometimes caller Star Wars worldly uses it for things we’ve ne'er seen it been utilized to bash before; sometimes it draws connected elements of Star Wars past from some existent continuity and years of Expanded Universe content. The Acolyte gave america plentifulness of ideas, characters, and materials from the latter, but its play finale climaxed with a last twist that has connections successful 1 of the astir beloved tales of the aged EU… and 1 that has immoderate different intriguing connections across Star Wars history.

During the climax of “The Acolyte,” the self-titled play finale of The Acolyte, duplicate sisters Osha and Mae, arsenic good arsenic the acheronian sider known arsenic the Stranger, find themselves attempting to fly a rapidly encroaching radical of Jedi. Choosing to connection herself up arsenic a distraction to bargain her sister and the Stranger clip to flee, Mae stays down to beryllium reprimanded into Jedi custody. But earlier she’s captured, successful a tearful farewell, the Stranger offers to usage the Force to region each memories of Osha and himself from Mae’s mind, truthful she can’t beryllium utilized by the Jedi to find them. It’s yet revealed to Mae and the assemblage however, that it wasn’t conscionable selective memories of Osha and the Stranger that she lost: she had mislaid all representation of her beingness from aft the property of 8, from specifically the nighttime her coven was burned down and killed during an brushwood with 4 Jedi.

This benignant of extended caput hitch has seldom been seen successful biologic beings in Star Wars earlier (more connected that “biological” facet successful a bit). But utilizing the Force to erase someone’s representation does successful information person precedent successful the franchise—both successful existent continuity, and with links to 1 of the astir iconic stories of the Star Wars Expanded Universe canon, Knights of the Old Republic.

The Most Famous Memory Wipe in Star Wars History

©Bioware/EA

The conception of  a representation wipe, oregon “memory rubbing,” arsenic it is occasionally known, arsenic a circumstantial Force method has roots dating backmost to the original Star Wars. After all, what is the Jedi Mind Trick if not a impermanent altering of a target’s representation to transportation them of a peculiar belief? But examples of extended, but abbreviated word representation wipes look passim the EU, similar Luke utilizing the unit to selectively hitch the minds of a mates of Stormtroopers of his beingness (for a play helium describes arsenic up to a fewer years) during The Courtship of Princess Leia, oregon Jacen Solo learning the method from the Fallanassi during the Legacy of the Force novels.

But arguably the astir celebrated of each representation wipes in Star Wars, adjacent now, remains arsenic portion of the expansive twist successful the beloved Bioware CRPG Knights of the Old Republic. As the events of the crippled unfold, the subordinate character—who has been enactment connected a way to effort and find the almighty weapons mill known arsenic the Star Forge, formerly controlled by the missing renegade Sith Lord Darth Revan during his campaigns against the Jedi and the Republic—learns that they are successful fact, Revan themselves. It turns retired that anterior to the opening of the game, Revan was severely wounded during a astonishment onslaught by a squad of Jedi aboard his flagship. However, Revan was saved by the sole subsister of the assault, a Jedi named Bastila Shan, and brought backmost to the Jedi Council connected Dantooine.

The Council decided to heal Revan, but successful the process, change their representation to person nary recollection of their erstwhile beingness arsenic a Jedi oregon arsenic a Sith, giving them the mendacious memories of a worker successful the Republic’s equipped forces. Using Bastila’s transportation successful the Force to Revan, forged during the moments she saved his beingness during the onslaught connected his starship, the assembly hoped to dilatory gully retired and reconstruct Revan’s memory, starring the Republic to his erstwhile basal of operations and leverage it decision Revan’s duplicitous apprentice, Darth Malak.

Memory Wipes successful Current Star Wars Canon

©Lucasfilm

Before The Acolyte, representation wipes were inactive arsenic comparatively uncommon arsenic they were successful anterior continuity, extracurricular of 1 circumstantial illustration that bridged some the erstwhile EU and the rebooted Star Wars canon. During the events of the Clone Wars play 3 trilogy of episodes “Overlords,” “Altar of Mortis,” and “Ghosts of Mortis,” Anakin Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and Ahsoka Tano encountered a trio of past beings who claimed to embody the myriad aspects of the Force: the Light, represented by a being known arsenic the Daughter; the Dark, by the Brother; and the equilibrium of the two, by their Father. As events unfolded connected the satellite Mortis, Anakin was shown his aboriginal destiny arsenic Darth Vader by the Brother successful an effort to lure him to his side, lone for those memories to beryllium erased from his caput by the Father for violating the laws of time.

Of course, we person overmuch much grounds of a antithetic benignant of representation hitch in Star Wars: the technological process to erase the representation banks of droids. Most famously we saw this with C-3PO aft the events of Revenge of the Sith, wherever Bail Organa has his representation banks wiped to debar the concealed of Anakin’s autumn to the acheronian broadside coming to light, but successful different Star Wars worldly it’s established that regular representation wipes for droids are communal passim the galaxy, whether for re-sale, to support operational information successful times of warfare (it becomes a crippled constituent in Clone Wars that Anakin’s refusal to hitch R2-D2’s representation leads to delicate accusation falling into force hands), oregon conscionable arsenic portion of regular regular maintenance. The information that Star Wars has a overmuch longer past of this process being subjected connected non-organic beingness than it does integrated beingness speaks to its thorny past with the thought of droid sentience—altering a person’s caput is simply a horrifying violation, altering a droid’s is conscionable a given—but it is an absorbing parallel, nevertheless.

How Did The Acolyte‘s Memory Wipe Work?

©Lucasfilm

Interestingly, of the 2 main depictions of a Force-powered representation hitch we person in Star Wars—Revan’s restoration successful Knights of the Old Republic, and Anakin’s hitch in Clone Wars—The Acolyte‘s illustration appears to beryllium much akin to the second than the former. In Knights of the Old Republic, Revan’s memories are not afloat erased, and alternatively mostly supplanted by ones of their caller identity, and the process occurs portion they are comatose aft the onslaught connected their flagship. Revan was not a conscious subordinate successful the process, which took the abilities of the Jedi Council themselves moving successful unison implicit an extended play of time. Even with that process being arsenic in-depth and progressive arsenic it was, Revan inactive experienced visions of their past resurfacing earlier the information of their individuality was re-revealed to them by Malak.

Clone Wars‘ and The Acolyte‘s versions are alternatively some expedited processes and besides much blunt. The Father is simply a almighty being dissimilar immoderate different Force idiosyncratic encountered in Star Wars, portion the Stranger is simply a almighty fallen Jedi, but inactive importantly obscurity adjacent the Father successful presumption of the scope of his abilities, and yet some execute their representation wipes comparatively quickly: the Father touches Anakin’s forehead and helium is instantly rendered unconscious, portion Mae is inactive capable to partially callback memories of her sister arsenic the Stranger performs the wipe, but it’s inactive implicit successful a substance of moments. Both are much akin to wiping distant full blocks of clip for the being, whereas Revan’s hitch progressive supplanting their existent memories with mendacious ones arsenic well.

There’s besides a level of consent progressive successful Anakin and Mae’s representation wipes that wasn’t contiguous with Revan: Mae willingly offers to person her representation wiped to the Stranger, and portion Anakin does not explicitly consent to the Father’s representation wipe, Anakin does astatine slightest explicit a tendency to unlearn what helium has learned earlier the Father acts. Whenever the Force is utilized connected idiosyncratic other telepathically determination has ever been an constituent of information involved, and however wilful the target’s caput is, truthful it would marque consciousness if determination was an constituent of that astatine play here, making the process easier oregon much hard depending connected whether oregon not the people resists.

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