Cliff.Booth said:
I'm baffled WTF this was going for until I read commentary from someone on the exact wavelength as KK and people like Leslye and Amandla. This is it.
The discourse in this screenshot is extremely frustrating. Most of the old Star Wars EU grappled with the morality of the Jedi. Starting with Dark Empire and the Thrawn trilogy.
If Acolyte had come anywhere close to actually showing these ideas instead of merely hinting at them, then this show would have been a huge hit.
The show could have been fixed. First, episode one should have been just Brendok. The opening sequence is Venestra reminding the four Jedi that they are there to study the Vergence in the Force and gather information of the rumored force cultists on the planet, but not to engage.
I would have dropped the mystery of the twins to the audience and spent more time showing how similar the twins are, even though they are accomplishing different things. Intermixing Mae getting ready to fight and Mae and Indara's fight with Osha getting ready to and saving the ship. Less good twin/evil twin and more action twin/reflective twin. Then over the series the twins would be learning the skills of the others.
Make Torbin Jedi ambitious and him viewing being assigned to Brendock as a punishment or hampering his Jedi career. Make that he wants to be on the council. I might have even added a fifth Jedi to the mission that Torbin got killed by pushing for action, maybe a padawan for Kelnacca? Make it clearer what he was seeking forgiveness.
Also, I would strongly consider making it clear that the Witches were planning to fuse Mae/Osha into one person and that is what the ceremony was about and they understood that Mae/Osha couldn't thrive separately. Then it can be clearer that one of the mother's could be having second thoughts and sending a daughter with the Jedi makes more sense, i.e. they can both live. This could be the moral dilemma, should the two half's of one soul be reunited, even if it means extinguishing one of them? Should it be done by the cultists/should it have been done by Jedi? Should both continue to live? The best way to show the flaws in the Jedi Order is giving them moral problems that don't have nice and neat solutions or even problems without solutions.
Thus it makes it more tragic that the Jedi intervened, because if they had done nothing perhaps, the joint being would have gone on to be a great Jedi. This could be what Torbin realized, that by acting, he created suffering for Mae/Osha and the others when observation and patience would have lead to a different result.
Add a scene with Darth Plagious and Qimir to give some context to what the Sith are playing at here. For all the talk that this show was to expand the Sith, we really didn't see it. Personally, I would love if the explanation was Plagious was grooming Qimir to assassinate Darth Tenberous, but lots of ways to go about it.
If you show Yoda, he has to say/do something.
Then tighten up everything else.