Anthology of Interest - A Star Wars Tale(s)

This is the Way… to watch new Star Wars shows - or, learning to let go of your fear and hate...

Since Disney took over the Star Wars IP it’s been a series of peaks and troughs for the die-hards, and in some cases even the casual fan-base. But there might be a solution to working through your disdain for one thing and love for another, and it might be right under your nose.

Follow us on this first step into a larger world…

When Star Wars: The Acolyte released, this writer was late to the party by roughly a week. The thing is, in the world of die-hard Star Wars fans, the Internet and anyone even mildly geek-aligned, a week is akin to several parsecs, and then some.

So, naturally, being a person who works on the Internet, I was exposed to sentiment and spoiler alike. The number one thing that jumped out at me, however, was this idea that The Acolyte was somehow ‘woke’ -- a spurious term that many might want to actually research before adopting its modern, appropriated take (for the record, we here are not ‘woke’, we just enjoy common sense thought and, you know, a society of progression and inclusion -- much like sci-fi).  

LGBTQI+ representation, diversity in skin colour and cultures (let’s all never forget that the Jedi Council and the Sith -- plus the rest of the place, sans clones -- are made up of many, many backgrounds), positive political messaging, a bit more of that common sense from above when we contextualise everything -- I mean, if this is a “Galaxy Far, Far Away….” then, you know, surely a “galaxy” denotes a certain grandeur. And surely within that, myriad ideologies, relationships and interests among its many, many, many residents. To have piled on the series as “woke feminism” (plus the rest) belies the concept of sci-fi in the first place and does a disservice to the fictionalised diversity of the Star Wars universe that has existed since 1977.

Go on and count the many ‘alien’ races in the very first Mos Eisley Cantina scene in Episode IV and tell us Star Wars isn’t about representation or diversity. We’re not joking, either.

So maybe, just maybe, those elements so many are up in arms about, speak to and for others… maybe they have roots in ancient storytelling, and maybe they just, you know, work when you “galaxy” a thing, it’s also 2024, gang.

And yet here we are, finding ourselves on the tail-end of news that the show has been overlooked for a Season 2. The (minor) masses have (out)spoken and enough Force disruption has now cancelled another creator’s vision that, in reality, hurt no one and actually made many pretty happy. That “creator’s vision” line, by the way, is why we’re here today and we implore Star Wars die-hards to keep reading. Because there is a point to this and no, we’re not attempting to ruffle feathers, if you genuinely don’t like something, maybe just don’t watch it.

Date: August 26, 2024

Magic Piiiigs in Spaaaace

For what it's worth, I enjoyed The Acolyte and am personally sad at its demise and the now genuine lack of closure to the intriguing stories it was building. Yes it was flawed in some aspects, and at times both the writing and acting was a bit wooden, but Mando didn’t start much better. I was thoroughly into Jason from The Good Place (Manny Jacinto) and his character, Qimir, who was a perfect mash-up of transient rogue-ish Ronin-type, and wannabe Sith. And the Sith, as we know, is an order which always seems to be in order. So, that he just kind of knew he had control over the Force and that that was now a tool for him to use as he pleased was an exhilarating element in the grand scheme, despite an overall lack of training or discipline, proper, barring his own.

"What they did represent is the IP going back to its space wizards and space knights origins - something that I think gets overlooked..."

We’re used to the order of things in Star Wars, but the Force doesn’t necessarily discriminate. So that he’s aligned in a kind of ‘out of school’ way, really worked.

As did the Coven for mine, and witches in Star Wars aren’t new here, but what they did represent is the IP going back to its space wizards and space knights origins -- something that I think gets overlooked, or forgotten, all too often.

Personally, I’d rather have mystique and magic and *hidden* things than a scientific count for someone’s now not-so-magic blood, but we can also have both, if we’re willing. Too many, however, seem reluctant to remember just what this series started as in the first place.

Would you like to know more?
Aussie writer, Christian Read, actually had some fun with the Star Wars license in an official capacity, making Ewoks a lot more menacing than what Return of the Jedi presented in a comic book one off called Apocalypse Endor. He told a story from the perspective of a veteran Stormtrooper whose squad mistook an act of kindness from the Ewoks as aggression, opening fire on them. Later, the Ewoks would terrorise the squad in ways akin to Predator, capturing them and torturing them. It certainly wasn't canon, but is a great example of the types of storytelling available to creators in A Galaxy Far, Far Away....

The Hero’s Journey

Lucas’ version of Star Wars has always been built around the “Hero’s Journey”, and this isn’t new information to any ardent fan. But what seems to get lost among the new tilt of storytelling is that the prequel trilogy and the final trilogy missed a lot of what that looked like, whereas the new stories are kind of coming back to it. I mentioned above “wizards in space” because that’s what Star Wars always was. Jedi are literally called “knights”, remember. This is a series with ancient storytelling masked by a science-fiction sheen that allows it to be more than the sum of those parts; a whole galaxy to explore and populate and pull fantasy from.

"Characters with murky allegiances. Different social classes and varying politics..."

It’s why Star Wars exists across so much media and has for aeons and will continue to do so long into the future.

If we tap farther into the also aforementioned “ancient storytelling” we get a lot of disparate tales that often feature similar beats -- good versus evil. Characters with murky allegiances. Different social classes and varying politics and alliances from the downtrodden through to puppeteers. Machinations from key actors with intended and unintended consequences that shape the broader narrative. Wise teachers and nefarious villains… and all of it, throughout history and storytelling, has featured different bents and different archetypes and personalities. Vanilla, our oral and written fictional history ain’t, so nor should Star Wars be, because it borrows so much from that.

Simplify, Man

Derailment, derision, displeasure, deplorable sentiments… all oft, then, tend to sum up a lot of post-airing conversations around the now many shows that exist on the Disney platform within the Star Wars universe. Is it canonical? Is it retro-future enough? Is it in keeping with the spirit of the original trilogy? Is it dark enough? Is it too bubblegum? Did they cast correctly? Where does this arc fit in the ever-complicated timeline? Why did they gloss over that character? When the heck is Grogu gonna do something of worth?

All very good questions.

"Maybe B2EMO made you cry, and droids aren’t meant to do that, or maybe you just sat in absolute cringe at the droidpunk rapscallions who loitered outside establishments with their space vespas on Tatooine..."

OK, maybe you love The Mandalorian -- Wolf & Cub-derivative as it is, but you hate Andor -- too political and real for the aforementioned space wizardry. Maybe you thoroughly enjoyed Obi-Wan Kenobi -- seeing ‘old Ben’ out and about again, but Ahsoka went too far with intergalactic-travelling space whales (I’ve always wanted to write that sentence, mind). Maybe you love Pip, but hate Grogu. Maybe B2EMO made you cry, and droids aren’t meant to do that, or maybe you just sat in absolute cringe at the droidpunk rapscallions who loitered outside establishments with their space vespas on Tatooine in The Book of Boba Fett… maybe you loved it all or maybe you hated it all, but there’s something in all of the above worth considering.

We get it. 

So perhaps you need to ask one simple question: who actually owns Star Wars?

You Must Unlearn What You Have Learned

The vanilla answer to the above question is, of course, Disney. And at the end of the day Disney will steer the ship the way it wants, but it wants each new entry to be different, that’s plainly clear. Whether that's thematically, within the canonical timeline, as side-stories or from the perspective of a character we all love, or haven't even met yet -- tales from a different point of view is the very obvious directive from the House the Mouse Built. Which, in short, suggests these new takes are actually from a vision from the many creators now working on Star Wars stories -- so, really, they are in fact anthological.

We’re also acutely aware we’ve laboured the point, but the answer is so simple we kind of needed the padding.

Anyway…

Star Wars Visions is your North Star here and whether you care for animation or not, we implore you to watch both seasons if you haven't because each entry is merely a truncated expression of everything explored above; animated shorts with different styles, approaches, influences and tales. All set within that Galaxy Far, Far Away. Sure, there are linking moments, and even aspects that find themselves within the broader transmedia canon, as we’ve seen with the more recent spate of Star Wars videogames, but most of those elements are minimal.

"Maybe, just maybe, you can watch an Acolyte without feeling the need to cancel it..."

This is just a creator’s playground, and boy, do they play.

So we ask you this:would you rather just watch the original trilogy on repeat, or whatever tickles you within the universe on repeat or, very specifically, would you like to see how creative people with the same love of the IP, franchise and universe, collectively, view it and want to contribute to it? 

Maybe give Visions a proper go and acknowledge it for what it is -- the best micro-expression of Star Wars and all of the possibilities that exist within its galactic expanse… then maybe, just maybe, you can watch an Acolyte without feeling the need to cancel it.

About the author

Written By Stephen Farrelly
Stephen Farrelly is a veteran journalist and editor with more than two decades experience in the worlds of gaming, entertainment and sports under his belt. He is a proud pug owner, loves art in all forms, but particularly street and tattoo culture, and is the director of Swear Jar Editorial...

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