The Acolyte is a surreal experience from every angle. From the things going on within it to those outside of it, which is summed up by the staggeringly low ratings.
TBOBF and OWK weren't great, but they at least had some semblance of fitting into the universe.
The Acolyte, on the other hand, is a freakish diversion beyond the point where I find it possible to accept any canonical connection.
I started watching the latest Midnight's Edge podcast, "Equality Achieved, The Acolyte Universally Rejected by All". (For context it was hosted by four women and two men).
It wasn't long before they raised the point that the coven in
The Acolyte aren't "...the bubble, bubble, toil and trouble Hollywood type witches...", but are drawn from "real witchcraft".
Is it safe to post this here? I linked the video in the other thread but it's not political as such, just
dark. It may go some way to putting
The Acolyte's coven into perspective, and why it seems out of place in the Star Wars universe.
Echo Base Network ran through the satanic inspirations Headland drew on for the coven and it's rites. Under normal circumstances I'd consider that clickbait, but the evidence appears to stack up.
Echo Base Network: "What is Star Wars doing? Why is Kathleen Kennedy letting George Lucas' creation go this deep into some seriously nonsensical evil?"
Leslye Headland:
"Dave Filoni very quickly became kind of a mentor of mine in terms of navigating what this part of the timeline would be like for both the Jedi and then other Force users
“It was kind of this 'A-ha!' moment for me when he told me, 'You know, not all witches are Nightsisters.'"
https://geektyrant.com/news/the-aco...eals-how-dave-filoni-helper-her-on-the-series
This is Filoni's wife, E. Anne Convery, in a photo from her Instagram:
There was a video that said one of her social media account bios described herself as "that witch".
I can't remember what channel that video was from, nor which account of hers, though I think it was also Instagram.
Below her name on her Instagram it currently reads:
Anne “Meet You at the Cemetery Gates” Convery she/her/they/them
Writer
https://www.instagram.com/e_anne_convery/?hl=en
So, when Filoni told Headland, "You know, not all witches are Nightsisters", he may have opened the door for to delve into the darker realm...
EDIT:
I scrolled through Convery's Instagram to locate the original photo. It's still there:
Witches and the occult were a recurring theme. This one stood out with reference to the naming of Mae-ho Aniseya possibly being derived from Mahomet / Baphomet.
It's a weird rabbit hole, and seems so distant from George Lucas' initial idea for
Star Wars as an homage to 1930s and '40s cliffhanger serials, which filled his childhood imagination when they were repeated on television.