When The Acolyte’s spot in the Star Wars timeline was made clear, fans got worried that the new Star Wars show might mess up the canon and change the prequel trilogy big time. But now that The Acolyte is done, the canon is still okay. The Acolyte takes place in the High Republic Era about 100 years before the prequel trilogy. People think of this time as the Jedi and the Republic’s best days. Since it happened before Star Wars’ movies and TV shows, a lot of folks thought there’d be huge changes to the story.
Now that The Acolyte has wrapped up its finale, it’s clear nothing major changed. Sure, the show faced some heat and pushback during its 8-episode run. But when all’s said and done, The Acolyte didn’t mess with Star Wars canon or wreck the prequels in any big way. , how The Acolyte ended set things up for Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace by tackling a few key questions that were still up in the air.
A lot of fans worried The Acolyte would “mess up the story”
The Acolyte got hate and bad reviews even before it started. But when the episodes came out more people said it was changing the Star Wars story in a bad way. People were mad about two main things in The Acolyte that seemed to change what we knew before. First, they didn’t like that the show had Force-sensitive twins, Osha and Mae. Fans thought this made Anakin Skywalker less special in Star Wars because, like Anakin, these twins didn’t have a dad.
Just because Mother Aniseya made the twins with the Force doesn’t mean Anakin isn’t still the Chosen One.
But Osha and Mae aren’t the Chosen One, Anakin is, and the twins’ creation with the Force by Mother Aniseya doesn’t change Anakin’s role as the Chosen One. People also complained that Qimir/the Stranger being a Sith meant that The Phantom Menace had been changed, as the Jedi in that movie said the Sith were gone for a thousand years. But this isn’t true for a bunch of reasons.
First off, lots of hints showed Qimir isn’t a real Sith Lord, and The Acolyte‘s last episode didn’t say for sure he was a true Sith. The quick appearance of someone who looks like the Sith Lord Darth Plagueis kinda points to Qimir being a fake after all. But here’s the thing – The Phantom Menace had already shown the Jedi got it wrong about this stuff. It’s clear Palpatine was doing his thing in secret way before anyone caught him so the Jedi had already messed up about the Sith.
The Acolyte’s Creators Stuck to Star Wars Canon
The finale of The Acolyte shocked viewers with the first on-screen look at Darth Plagueis one of Star Wars’ strongest Sith. This shows The Acolyte is sticking to—not changing—the canon. Many people thought Qimir wasn’t the Sith master, if he was even a Sith. They hoped the real Sith master would turn out to be Darth Plagueis, who trained Palpatine. The Acolyte didn’t say his name, but the scary figure that shows up for a bit on the Unknown Planet seems to be Darth Plagueis himself.
The creepy guy who shows up for a bit on the Mystery Planet looks like he might be Darth Plagueis himself.
Darth Plagueis is already part of Star Wars canon. In Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith, Palpatine told Anakin about Plagueis’ story. But Plagueis hasn’t shown up on-screen yet. Many people think the character in The Acolyte is Darth Plagueis. If that’s true, it shows The Acolyte wants to use Star Wars canon and set things up for the story we already know. With 100 years left before The Phantom Menace, Darth Plagueis will soon start working in secret and take on Palpatine as his apprentice.
By showing Plagueis at the end, The Acolyte has made it clear (even if it doesn’t get a second season) that Qimir and Osha aren’t changing the Sith line that ends up with Palpatine and Darth Vader. Also, if they make more episodes, we might see how the stuff in The Acolyte fits even better with what we already know. After all this, we’ve learned a lot about what made Darth Plagueis want to make life and stop people from dying—, the fact that Mother Aniseya made Osha and Mae could be a big part of that.
The Acolyte Almost Broke Canon with Ki-Adi-Mundi’s Age
, The Acolyte sparked a big fuss over a prequel trilogy Jedi’s appearance. Ki-Adi-Mundi’s cameo got some viewers all worked up. They thought it messed with the timeline based on how old he was. While this came pretty close to breaking canon for real even Ki-Adi-Mundi showing up didn’t mess things up or change what happened in the prequels.
Ki-Adi-Mundi’s brief appearance didn’t screw up the story or change the prequels.
, Star Wars canon never confirmed Ki-Adi-Mundi’s age. Although it showed up in other places, like a CD-ROM from 1999 and a trading card from 2013, neither of these sources became official canon. This means that Ki-Adi-Mundi didn’t have an official age before The Acolyte. While this might not change the minds of people who got mad seeing him in the show, it does mean that , The Acolyte didn’t mess with Ki-Adi-Mundi’s age, so it never broke canon.
The Acolyte Finale Fixed Any Problems With The Jedi Perfectly
The Acolyte dodged a big problem with retconning the Jedi’s knowledge of the Sith by making Jedi Master Vernestra Rwoh take the fall. In a surprise twist at the end of the show, Vernestra goes from being a Jedi who seems dedicated to justice and following the Jedi way to someone ready to lie and trick others to protect the Jedi’s future and their Order. To be specific, Vernestra finds out the real story of what went down throughout The Acolyte, including Sol’s guilt in the events on Brendok and the danger her old Padawan Qimir, brings to the table.
To keep the Senate from poking around and stop the Jedi from finding out about the dark forces in their group, Vernestra comes up with an idea. She wants to pin the blame on Sol for killing the Jedi. She also seems to tell Master Yoda in secret that darkness is growing. This hints that Vernestra and Master Yoda team up to hide the truth, which sheds light on why the Jedi in The Phantom Menace were so sure the Sith couldn’t be back. They had been told, as part of this cover-up, that the Sith were long gone.
This might tick off some viewers because it doesn’t paint Vernestra and Yoda in a good light, but it was a clever way to dodge a retcon. What’s more, it shows The Acolyte never messed with the existing story. In fact even with all the fuss and pushback, The Acolyte stuck to the Star Wars timeline while bringing in new faces, Jedi wrongdoings, and maybe even Darth Plagueis himself.
You can now watch all episodes of The Acolyte on Disney+.
