#StarWars #theacolyte #acolyteshow #breakdown #acolytebreakdown #episode1 #episode2 #lost #revenge/justice #lost/found #acolytetheory

Oh boy, the acolyte has finally been released and we have a lot to break down, so let’s get straight into it! We begin the episode with an intro text and it basically gives a run down on the overall context and gives a hint as to what is to come. We begin on the planet Ueda, and we see Mae walk up to a random alien asking where the Jedi is. And this guy kinda reminded me of the imperial spy Garindan in a new hope. Mae enters a cantina which we’ve seen a few times in the trailers and she immediately challenges Master Indara. She tries to bait Indara into fighting but it's only after she beats up some other guys that the jedi finally steps in. And I have to say that the choreography is pretty spot on. The camera tends to take a wide angle which really helps in showing us what’s happening which is quite akin to Hong Kong and Chinese cinema which likes to take a wide angle to show off the choreography and action. The choreo also easily depicts how much more powerful Indara is compared to Mae as well as the differences in their personality. The way Mae fights reveals a much angry, desperate character while Indara takes a much more composed manner. Pretty early on the fight gives a hint as to how all this ends as Mae throws an innocent bystander off the platform and Indara is forced to save her momentarily distracting her, losing sight of where Mae went. So a nice bit of foreshadowing there. We get a few nice moments of mixing the force with hand to hand combat, and there is a small moment where the fight pauses and Indara realizes who she is fighting. And just on Mae’s forehead we can see some sort of marking, possibly a branding which really hints at a deeper backstory that we have yet to learn. This comes to an end as Mae uses another innocent bystander to distract Indara before killing her with a hidden blade, although interestingly enough Mae doesn’t take the Jedi's lightsaber. The way Mae kills Indara is kind of a classic way to kill jedi and it's something Vader also uses in the comics to get his first lightsaber. Mae almost kills the bartender before seeing his child and ultimately decides against it. And she decides not to because she is reminded of her own situation as a child, witnessing her entire family die.

Osha wakes up from a nightmare likely caused by Mae’s actions and we are introduced to pip a tool droid. Mae leaves her room and in the background we see what looks to be the precursor of a gonk droid and we are then introduced to Fillik who tells her that she missed out on some fun on Nar Shaddaa. Located in the outer rim, Nar Shaddaa is the moon orbiting the hutt homeworld of Nal Hutta and is known for being a hub of criminal activity. It's quite an iconic place in the KOTOR games, so it's pretty cool it's being mentioned here. We then see some Neimoidians walk by. And the Neimoidians are a species typically related to the trade federation. A nice little reminder of what will happen a hundred years later in the phantom menace. We are told that there is a shield repair emergency, which requires Osha and Fillik to step outside to fix it. And this is really a nice little call back to the shielding situation when Padme and the rest tried to break out of the trade federation blockade which saw R2 units including R2D2 make the repairs outside the spaceship. Back inside the trade federation ship we hear the neimoidians talk about the disposability of the Mekneks which is really typical trade federation behavior. Osha gets a brief PTSD moment as she makes the repairs, again hinting at her and Mae’s backstory. We then see a jedi vector fly past, and vectors are the model of starfighters used by the jedi during the high republic, the precursor to Eta-2 Actis-class light interceptor that we later see in the prequels. The Neimoidians are unhappy to see jedi, glad to see 100 years isn’t going to change anything (scene), and we are introduced to Yord Fandar and his padawan Tasi Lowa who happens to be a Zygerrian. Although typically Zygerrians don’t have horns, so not sure what’s going on there. We also learn that Osha’s last name is Aneseya which links her to mother Aneseya the head of cult of witches we see repeatedly throughout the trailer. Wealso learn that using humans for outership repairs has been outlawed by the republic, so nice to see that the trade federation still doesn’t mind breaking the rules for an extra bit of profit 100 years before the phantom menace.

Yord meets Osha, and he remarks that Corpsec is a bit far from Coruscant. And CorpSec or the corporate Sector is a region located in the outer rim that was governed by the independent corporate sector authority, think of it as a region governed by corporations. And its interestingly close to Zygerria, homeworld of Tasi Lowa...