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S01E12: Housekeeping at Halftime of The Acolyte!
46 Plays1 year ago
The Learning Geeks (Jake Gittleson and Dana Koch) join Bob to reflect on the first half of The Acolyte. Do they like it? What's gonna happen next? Grab your droids and brooms and find out! Plus: New Logo! Star Wars Oreos! All this and More!
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Transcript
Mid-Season Analysis of The Acolyte
00:00:00
Speaker
We are halfway through Season 1 of the Acolyte, find out what the learning geeks have to say about it. Grab your droids and brooms, it's a Star Wars cleaning crew!
00:00:11
Speaker
Welcome back to the Star Wars cleaning crew. We're going to bring on my learning geeks, compadres, state of cock and Jake Gittleson in just a minute. But before I did that, I just want to call out, you might have noticed that I have a new logo for the Star Wars cleaning crew. Fun story with this. I had gotten a lot of nice compliments on the logo. It really was beautiful, but I didn't tell people it really was just kind of the initial draft because the artist was working on the final version that you see today. So.
New Logo Story and Marketing Shoutout
00:00:41
Speaker
Now we've got our Gonk Droid holding a mop on the logo and that is all courtesy of my son Harrison Gerard who is an amazing artist and graphic designer. Of course he is part of the team that brought you the game Open Roads. If you are a video game player you should jump on that and check it out.
00:01:02
Speaker
And he is now in Chicago as the art director at an advertising agency. I'll give them a plug to all 30 or 35 of you who are subscribers to this podcast. If you need marketing in B2B and you're in Chicago, call Ivor Andrew, ping me, I'll get you hooked up. Okay. Let's go ahead and bring in my conversation with Jake and Dana. As we've been saying, it is the halfway point of the acolyte. So we are considering this the halftime show and we just wanted to reflect on some of our thoughts so far. So here is Jake and Dana.
Dana's Return and The Acolyte Discussion
00:01:39
Speaker
Guys, welcome back. I was glad to have you. Hello. Part of the original cleaning crew. Dana is just back from vacation and brought a cold with him, which is why he sounds so husky. like Husky's a dog.
00:01:59
Speaker
There you go. it's boys Yeah, exactly. Segue of nothing. You know, I know Jake and I had been watching the acolyte from day one because we were texting privately back and forth behind your back only because we knew you were on vacation and weren't able to watch it. So I know that that Jake and I are both enjoying the show. Dana, you're you got back. You got caught up in about a week's time. what What's your opinion? How do you I did? Yeah, I sat down and binge watched. Actually, I watched the first one. and I thought, oh, boy, I've got a lot of questions. Yeah. And of course, that led me into the next and with every episode, there's more and more questions. So, yeah, and it was enjoyable to binge. And I'm looking forward to next week's episode to see if some of those questions are answered.
00:02:43
Speaker
We should, you know, I should put a spoiler tag on this. Well, we're going to probably get into spoilers from here on out. So if you're not caught up, you know, come back next week. and I agree completely that every episode brings in probably new questions. It answers some, but it probably brings up more, which is a lot of what I'm liking about this show. It is. You know, like an onion that needs to keep getting pulled back. Yeah, it's ah it's a really good. It's just a good mystery show. Right. That's I've been joining it where every end of the episode, you have a new question. And I think that that's what a good mystery series does. It's a murder mystery show. Yeah, it is. Who's murdering these Jedi?
00:03:24
Speaker
And who's behind the murderer? Right. Who's behind that mask? Yeah. Exactly.
Surprising Character Death and Implications
00:03:29
Speaker
So Dana, were you surprised at all when, when Carrie Anne Moss's Jedi character was killed in the first three minutes of the show? I was. I was thinking, okay, great. It's going to be Jedi. And next thing you know, she's dead. And I think, okay, is this going to be an Order 66 type thing? It was it was a little weird. You know, I thought at that point, I'm sure we're going to see more of her and we're not going to see her as a force ghost. You don't you don't pay. You don't pay that type of actress and not bring her back for more. You just don't. Yeah. Right. That was my thought when I saw it at the end.
00:04:01
Speaker
Yeah. So you think they'll do a flashback? Yeah. Well, they already have. They've done one. and Yeah, they've done one. And I'm sure there's going to be more. I'm sure there's going to be more too, right? And I kind of wanted to avoid it, but we just have to touch on it. Like a fan reaction to the show has been really bizarre.
Fan Reactions and Critiques of The Acolyte
00:04:16
Speaker
It's getting review bombed for political reasons, but also I'm seeing people who are making judgments on the show episode by episode and saying things like, Oh, Kel Naka died. We heart, you know, we wanted a Wookiee Jedi and we hardly got to see a Wookiee Jedi. He's dead already. Well, we also know there's a scene in the trailer of him getting in a lightsaber fight. Like there's more to come. This is a show that's hopping through different timelines. So if your enjoyment of the show is based on the screen minutes of a lightsaber wielding Wookiee Jedi, you just got to sit back and be patient. Yeah, I agree. I mean, I'm sure, Bob, you've seen the Rotten Tomatoes score of critics versus the audience score. It's a massive difference between the two. It's like 86% versus 15%. Yeah. You know there's something wrong. It's embarrassing. Exactly. And I also think that Star Wars in general, anything is heavily critiqued. It always has been. I mean, I'll bring back even the prequels during that time, heavily critiqued, and now people look at them with enjoyment.
00:05:22
Speaker
yeah now. So, I don't know. I think it's because the episode by episode nature now of the show, it's just going to be heavily critiqued. And it's different. It doesn't involve the empire at all. That's one of the reasons I like this show. It's different. Yeah. Well, you know, kind of my my decision is I will probably enjoy it through the rest of the show, but I'm not going to make any final judgments or conclusions about the story until it's all done. I agree. Because I know we've only, you know, we've only scratched the surface even though we're halfway through. Yeah. Okay.
Master Theories and Speculations
00:05:53
Speaker
So with that said, let's speculate wildly, shall we? Yeah.
00:05:56
Speaker
Who do you guys think is the master? Fandom is now calling Darth teeth. i I have two thoughts. One, and I don't know the names as well as you know the names, but my first thought was it's the, it's maze goofy sidekick. Yeah. Kaimir. So that was one thought, uh, cause he's just too goofy to be not knowing more than he's, he's letting on. And then the other one would be that somehow, the um the witch who birthed the twins. Mother quarrel. cool Yeah, yeah, you somehow survived the fire. So and I'm also a little leery about the fire, because it seems to me that the little fire that was started by one little twin would hardly be enough to bring down the entire um kingdom. So I don't know. So there might be a third person involved. Anyway, those are my preliminary thoughts.
00:06:49
Speaker
I have my bets on Mother Coral for something. I can't get this other idea out of my head that I heard, and I wish I didn't hear it, but um before that, what I heard, I won't share that one yet, but with Mother Coral, I feel i I went back, watched episode three again after episode four, and I just realized how much she despised the Jedi. She was very, very protective of the the daughters. she hinted the fact that they use dark matter use the dark side of the forest to have the two. And again, she was also the child bear of the two. So I don't know, a mother coral and the fact that she is the same species as Darth Maul. I mean, I just can't let that one go. ja We have to talk about your anti-Zabrak bias, I think.
00:07:36
Speaker
Well, I mean, it's I don't know if it's anti. It's just there's a lot of evidence that shows that they cut the dark side. I mean, it just it's just there for you. But anyway, I think Mother Coral for me, I'm looking at my notes because I kind of wrote some notes down before. But yeah, Mother Coral for me, I do think the same with ah with Kaimir. So Kaimir. Kaimir. Kaimir, yeah. yeah um It's spelled very weird. Q-I-M-I-R. Yeah, every time I see it. So Kaimir. I think it's almost too obvious that he is, but at the same time, he probably is. I mean, the guy brought like 50 things of luggage on this trip on episode four. And then I have ah i have a question on a Jedi.
00:08:17
Speaker
Okay. It probably is nothing, but it's Yord. What's the deal with Yord? I think he's too nerdy to be a Jedi Knight. Like there's something about him that I have a question about. It may turn out to be nothing. He may just be like a bad actor. He may he may he may be a bad actor. He may be the Jar Jar Jinx of Jedi, but i there's something about him that I have a question about. So one other theory that I had, Bob, and I have no idea if this plays in into reality or not, but they kept talking about how there's more power when you've got, you know, when you're combined. Right. And yeah so I'm wondering one power of two power of yeah power many. yeah Right.
00:08:56
Speaker
So I'm wondering if maybe somehow the master is some type of a reincarnate of all of the witches that were killed in the fire.
Unresolved Plot Elements
00:09:06
Speaker
That's interesting. That is an interesting theory. And that kind of ties into at the end of Rise of Skywalker when, you know, Rey finally makes touch with the Jedi of the past and they say, we are all you now. Yeah, or yeah however that was phrased. it's an interesting It's an interesting thought. I think in general, there's just so much that we don't know. there's There's little things that aren't adding up. I don't feel like the relationship between May and OSHA is as simple as these are two twins that were separated at birth. I think there's some deeper connection or yeah possibly a dyad in the forest thing. yeah right There's a bunch of things. There's something else going on.
00:09:49
Speaker
And it's very weird that they have the same hairstylist after all these years of separation. Isn't it? It's true, but I think there's something there. i It's like I don't think that there's anything that's being done by accident on this show and things that I hear people calling out. It's like, Oh, that's an error. You know, I i don't think so. Let's see. Let's see what happens. I think that's great. I walked away from the first two episodes thinking I was being very insightful for sussing out that the master was chimer. That was my first theory. And now kind of like you just said, I feel like that's almost too obvious or it would almost be disappointing if it turns out to be him because so many signs are pointing to it being him. But on the other hand, I keep thinking, yeah, but Star Wars is made for kids.
00:10:35
Speaker
you know And it's going predictable. Right? And so I don't know. I'm not going to be disappointed. I'm going to be happy with what I received. I mean, regardless, I think the the look yeah ah is incredible. that That mask is one of my favorites. And just the costume design, I think, on the show, they they did it again. I feel the costume design at Star Wars is fantastic. They're actually on location in certain spots. Some spots you could tell they're a set, but others you could definitely tell where they're at. They're on location, but yeah, the master's mask is incredible. I'm going to say it's the scariest thing I've seen in Star Wars.
Visual Appeal of The Acolyte: Costumes and Ships
00:11:12
Speaker
Yeah. It just creeps me out. Especially the way he flew down or it flew down, because again, we don't know if it's he or she, but it flew down.
00:11:21
Speaker
Uh, behind, it was a very, it was a horror shot. That's a classic horror trope, you know, behind, you know, at true confessions, there is nothing that scares me more in a movie than seeing somebody flying, but flying in an upright position, not flying like Superman flying like Superman. I'm okay with when people are flying like this and kind of floating over the air. Oh my goodness. I was just going to say, youre you're talking about the costume design. I also love how Star Wars, when they come up with a new episode or a new series, they come up with new ship designs. Yeah, that's amazing. Ship designs that I hadn't seen before in this episode. It's been a lot of fun. So thanks to Jake and Dana. Always great to have them on and we'll bring them back for a full series wrap up in four weeks or so.
00:12:10
Speaker
Before we go, I realized that we've got a couple of minutes left and you still might not be done cleaning your kitchen. I had the pleasure of discovering the new Star Wars branded Oreos. So I picked up a packet and I recorded kind of a audio unboxing of that first pack for you.
Star Wars Merchandise Experience: Oreos and More
00:12:30
Speaker
So here's my experience with those. Okay it is a very exciting day here in the Star Wars cleaning crew. Let me describe this to you. Of course it's a space black package. ah The words Oreo and Star Wars are in gold foil. Pretty fancy. Underneath Star Wars it says dark side or light side open to discover your destiny.
00:12:55
Speaker
So the gimmick with these is they either have red cream or or blue cream. all of the pack All of the cookies in the package have the same color cream. And you don't know what it is until you open it. You know, the fine print underneath that says, these are Oreos with red or blue cream with an in quotes Kyber inspired sugar crystals. So we're going to see what we get in just a second. You know, there's so many different flavors of Oreos right now. I figure that these are just going to be like regular Oreos, except the filling is going to be a little crunchy as it goes. Here's the thing that's really interesting about this for me is on the cover, I noticed when I was picking this up, the artwork looked interesting. It was
00:13:36
Speaker
It was familiar and yet a little bit different, kind of not your typical Disney Star Wars art. I then saw the signature. The art was actually done by Greg Hildebrandt for these. And he, you may know, is one of the creators of the original Star Wars movie poster that back in the 70s, ah we all That was what we had. We all had that up on our wall. It was it was amazing. The Hildebrandt brothers, I believe Greg's brother was Tim and he has since passed away, but they got their fame from doing Lord of the Rings art and Lord of the Rings calendars. That's how I first fell upon them. But then they did that first Star Wars poster. I think that propelled them into fame. Let me just turn these over. Anything interesting here? Oh, there's a QR code. Scan to fulfill your destiny. We'll have to try that. but
00:14:26
Speaker
Let's start, let's open these up. What do you think folks, am I gonna be light side or dark side? You can predict right now. I'm opening these up. ah I can tell right from the first pull of the little resealable pack. It's red. I'm a Sith guys. I am a Sith and I'm going to do this. Like they say, I'm going to twist it open. Oh, it's the cream is actually red, but it's got a little white core. I don't know what the symbolism is of that, but here I'll give it a bite.
00:14:58
Speaker
It tastes like an Oreo. I'm sure that came as a surprise to absolutely no one. Yeah, the Star Wars Oreos, they taste like Oreos. They have a little more filling than we've been seeing in Oreos lately. So if you like your double stuffs, you might enjoy them. But I don't know. I feel like I got them so you don't have to. I take a hard pass. That's it for this episode of the Star Wars Cleaning Crew. We'll see you next week with more good Star Wars-ness. In the meantime, keep your kitchen clean and may the force be with you. Bye bye. Star Wars cleaning crew they'll make it shine with toys and grooves they conquer crime in just 15 minutes your kitchen's clean