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Eric Geller@ericjgeller.com |
2102 followers 157 following 838 posts
Freelance cybersecurity reporter covering all things digital security. I also co-host Hoth Takes. | Send me tips: bit.ly/contactejg
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Eric Geller
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We've got a new Hoth Takes episode all about The Acolyte's middle act! We discuss everything from Qimir's rockin' bod to Osha and Mae's baffling decisions to Sol's dark seret. hothtakes.wordpress.com/2024/07/09/h...
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Eric Geller
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"Hughes told the female prosecutor on the case that she was 'supposed to know what you're doing,' before then saying: 'It was lot simpler when you guys wore dark suits, white shirts and navy ties... We didn't let girls do it in the old days.'"
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Eric Geller
@ericjgeller.com
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Overall, thanks to Manny Jacinto's great acting and the compelling choice to flip the twins' environments, this episode did a nice job of moving the story forward and exposing Osha to temptation. I hope, though, that episode 7 focuses more on Sol and Mae — and Sol's secrets.
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Eric Geller
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❓ Qimir says he "made a mistake with Mae" because he thought she wanted the same thing as him — "the power of two." That’s obviously witch coven language. So what exactly is Qimir's connection to them?
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Eric Geller
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❓ Sol tells "Osha" that he's noticed how she cares for Pip, “even though he’s just a machine.” What’s the significance of that moment? Or is it just a throwaway affectionate observation about his former student?
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Eric Geller
@ericjgeller.com
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❓ Qimir says Sol’s strength is really Osha's strength. What exactly does that mean? Osha seemed to be referring to Sol’s Force prowess, e.g. in combat. How could that have been the result of Osha’s strength (unless Sol was feeding off of her somehow)? Maybe I'm missing something.
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Eric Geller
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The big questions in this episode were (1) who Qimir’s Jedi master was and (2) what Vernestra keeps remembering about “tipping the scales.” But I had a few smaller questions as well.
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Eric Geller
@ericjgeller.com
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Poor Pip, getting reset to factory settings. Is there any chance his memory was archived somewhere?
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Eric Geller
@ericjgeller.com
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In a short and mostly busy episode, I appreciated the decision to dwell a few times on the family of cute little rock creatures, whose wholesome innocence provided a nice contrast to the weighty, dark things happening in Qimir's cave.
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Eric Geller
@ericjgeller.com
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Qimir's cave hideout is interesting. It's a neutral, rustic abode that integrates with the watery terrain. It’s not bright and happy, exactly, but it also isn’t dark and oppressive. The planet is strikingly similar to Ahch-To, where Luke trained Rey. Surely not a coincidence.
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Eric Geller
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Incidentally, the shot of Jecki’s body in that scene is so grim. The music that accompanies the discovery of all the Jedi bodies perfectly heightens the sense of wrongness in the air. That was really well done.
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Eric Geller
@ericjgeller.com
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Speaking of Mog, upon reviewing the Khofar battle site, he clocks Qimir as someone with “extraordinary” skill but “erratic” skills, someone who only wanted to eliminate survivors. Impressive that a Jedi can get all of that from bodies & dirt. Qimir reveals more than he realizes.
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Eric Geller
@ericjgeller.com
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I was surprised but excited to hear Mog’s comment about Vernestra getting nauseous in hyperspace. It’s a reference to Vernestra’s hyperspace visions from the High Republic books. We don’t see any in this episode, but I wonder if we will…
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Eric Geller
@ericjgeller.com
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I said early on that I loved the implication of political tensions but didn't expect to see it elaborated on. I was wrong, because we got another scene of it. But either that's the extent of it, or this seeming D-plot is going to suddenly become very relevant to the A-plot.
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Eric Geller
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We don't learn a ton about what's going on here. But Vernestra worries about Rayencourt’s sway, to which Chuwant replies that the Jedi have always been “transparent with the Senate” — an ironic comment, given what Vernestra is hiding from both the Senate and the Council.
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Eric Geller
@ericjgeller.com
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Speaking of Vernestra, it won't surprise anyone that I LOVE the brief scene with her talking to Senator Chuwant about his colleague Rayencourt’s plan for an audit of the Jedi Order. This is the political tension that I really wanted to see from this show! More, please.
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Eric Geller
@ericjgeller.com
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...I really hope Vernestra doesn’t do that. I can barely stomach her being jaded and secretive, a vast departure from her earlier self that doesn't seem very justified. I would hate it if the writers also made her outright corrupt.
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Eric Geller
@ericjgeller.com
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I’ve seen some people suggest that, after Vernestra let Mog’s suggestion of Sol turning to the dark side hang in the air without a direct rebuke, she might let Sol (and Osha?) take the fall for the Jedi massacre, thus indirectly helping to preserve the secrecy of the Sith. But…
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Eric Geller
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Time for some miscellaneous thoughts…
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Eric Geller
@ericjgeller.com
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While pretending to be Osha, Mae tells Sol, "I had to lose a lot of myself in order to become a Jedi." I wonder if this is Mae guessing at how Osha feels or editorializing about how Osha *ought* to feel. Either way, Sol seems surprised. If Osha felt this way, she buried it deep.
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Eric Geller
@ericjgeller.com
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As for Mae herself, I don't have a ton of thoughts about her in this episode. I will note that as she enters the ship’s lounge, we hear an echo of the day the Jedi tested her. I imagine we’ll soon see a flashback to that moment.
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Eric Geller
@ericjgeller.com
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Sol doesn't just want to force Mae to help him find Qimir and Osha. He also wants to make her listen to him as he unspools what he’s been stewing over for the past 16 years. We see a very controlling side of Sol here, no doubt foreshadowing unpleasant revelations to come.
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Eric Geller
@ericjgeller.com
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Sol leaving the Khofar system with Mae rather than rendezvousing with the arriving Jedi is an erratic move, one that shows how consumed he has become by his need to save Osha. He's failed everyone else, he thinks, and there's only one success left that can redeem him.
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Eric Geller
@ericjgeller.com
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After seeing Sol carefully rein in his emotions earlier, we're not prepared for his impulsive reaction to discovering Mae. When Bazil finally warns Sol about Mae, he stuns her as she begins to send a distress signal (to whom?), and then we see him formulate a rash plan.
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Eric Geller
@ericjgeller.com
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Later, Sol questions how he could have missed Qimir’s true nature when they first met. Mae says wanting something badly can cloud one’s judgment. This is the closest the episode gets to justifying Sol not detecting Mae. He's emotionally unsettled. Still, not sure I buy it.
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Eric Geller
@ericjgeller.com
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Sol is visibly distraught about his team's deaths. It’s not just sadness; it’s also guilt. His grief briefly turns to anger as he fixes the transceiver. He grapples w/ his loss & failure, then steels himself to carry on — not denying his grief, but not surrendering to it either.
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Eric Geller
@ericjgeller.com
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I like the tension created by Sol’s transmitter partially working. You know he won’t be able to alert the Order to the Sith threat, but you wonder how much he will be able to share, and how close he’ll get to mentioning the fearsome being he encountered.
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Eric Geller
@ericjgeller.com
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Compared to the Osha/Qimir storyline, the Sol/Mae storyline is much weaker, but there are still interesting moments on the Jedi ship, as Sol goes from grief-stricken urgency to warn the Order to obsessive resolve to save the only person he has left.
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Eric Geller
@ericjgeller.com
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Vernestra being Qimir's former master would explain her seemingly gratuitous use of her light-whip on Khofar — moments after Qimir shows Osha his scar — as subtle foreshadowing. Another new mystery that I can’t wait to see this show unravel.
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Eric Geller
@ericjgeller.com
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I think Vernestra was Qimir's Jedi master, and I think he said that phrase when she tried to kill him, presumably after sensing his darkness. Vernestra could be flashing back to that moment and realizing that Qimir is alive and plotting something big.
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Eric Geller
@ericjgeller.com
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Later, when Vernestra is considering who could have killed the Jedi, she murmurs the exact same phrase she said in a previous episode: “something to tip the scales.” It's almost like she’s repeating a phrase she heard someone else say...
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Eric Geller
@ericjgeller.com
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This episode gives us some seemingly clear hints about Qimir's backstory. First, Qimir reveals that he was a Jedi "a really long time ago." Then he shows Osha a curious scar on his back from "someone who threw me away," pointedly refusing to tell Osha who it was.
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Eric Geller
@ericjgeller.com
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While it's been years since Osha's Jedi training, I have a hard time believing that she buys Qimir's distortions about the Jedi view of emotions. I hope she's simply curious about Qimir's intensions, not genuinely interested in the dark side or in unleashing her emotions.
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Eric Geller
@ericjgeller.com
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In the end, Osha can’t help her curiosity. She wants to know what it would be like to be alone with her thoughts inside Qimir’s helmet. So she puts it on. And her first barrier of resistance crumbles... 😬
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Eric Geller
@ericjgeller.com
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Qimir uses the phrase "what you bring with you" to describe what Osha will feel inside the helmet. A clear reference to Yoda’s comment re: the Dagobah cave. Being alone with your thoughts — with no distracting physical sensations — exposes you to those thoughts in a raw way.
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Eric Geller
@ericjgeller.com
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Anyway, back to the story. I really like the way Qimir's first test revolves around the alluring, disturbing serenity of the silence found inside his helmet. It seems like a small step to Osha, with low stakes. But any step on a path laid out by Qimir is a dangerous one.
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Eric Geller
@ericjgeller.com
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Because the thing is, losing connections also means losing obligations and responsibilities. For Qimir, that means suffering entails liberation. But it’s not *good* to be liberated from some of those obligations, like the norms of decency that bind societies together.
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Eric Geller
@ericjgeller.com
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Speaking of Qimir's warped mind, note how disturbing it is that he says people are only free when they lose everything. This is a seductive but truly nihilistic concept. The show doesn't dwell on it, but this worldview helps show how Qimir became such a sociopath.
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Eric Geller
@ericjgeller.com
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At the end of the day, Qimir is a dime-store Palpatine with the same rancid “It’s not a power the Jedi would teach you” sales pitch. His moral argument is no more valid than Palpatine’s. Basically: You do not, in fact, have to hand it to Qimir, the lying, selfish mass-murderer.
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Eric Geller
@ericjgeller.com
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The show was marketed as an exploration of provocative, contrarian ideas about the Jedi and the Force, so it's plausible to me that the writers want us to see Qimir's perspective as valid. That's troubling, because he's just wrong.
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Eric Geller
@ericjgeller.com
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Given this context — that hating on the Jedi for their policy on emotions, often by distorting the severity of that policy, is a popular trope — I genuinely wonder whether the show is trying to legitimize Qimir’s arguments.
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Eric Geller
@ericjgeller.com
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There's this idea that we're supposed to feel bad for Osha for failing as a Jedi and blame the Jedi for unfair standards. But actually, expecting powerful people to rein in their emotions to avoid hurting others is good. Osha couldn't do that, and that was a serious failure.
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Eric Geller
@ericjgeller.com
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But Qimir's whole pitch to Osha is based on a lie about the Jedi's policy on emotions. The Jedi expect people to control their emotions, not to completely suppress them. Qimir wants Osha to believe that just having emotions is a sin to the Jedi, which is obviously false.
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Eric Geller
@ericjgeller.com
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Qimir tries to sound reasonable, in contrast to Jedi dogma. He urges Osha not to trust him, but to trust herself — to stop fearing her emotions and let them in. He wants to alienate her from the Jedi philosophy of keeping emotions at bay. It's quite well done.
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Eric Geller
@ericjgeller.com
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It begins when Osha says Force sensitivity has to be maintained or it’ll fade away. Qimir says strong emotions can revive Force powers, and then he pivots to bashing the Jedi. Like the witches, Qimir falsely says that the Jedi claim a monopoly on Force knowledge and practices.
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Eric Geller
@ericjgeller.com
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Qimir’s whole project in this episode is to get Osha to rethink the role of emotion in a Force user's life. I want to discuss this in depth, because Qimir says a bunch of things that aren't true but that I think the show wants us to take seriously, which is unfortunate.
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Eric Geller
@ericjgeller.com
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Qimir goads Osha into attacking him by saying the Jedi didn’t want her, which prompts her to angrily admit her failure. She does prove her point: She was so bad at controlling her emotions that she was easily goaded into violence by someone who preyed on her insecurities.
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Eric Geller
@ericjgeller.com
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Osha instinctively rejects Qimir’s suggestion, saying she won’t embrace dark emotions and become like Mae. "I’m not that easily corrupted." But as we see later, she's quite vulnerable to emotional manipulation — which is part of why she wasn't cut out to be a Jedi.
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Eric Geller
@ericjgeller.com
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“Why do you love people who can only go so far — who can’t go as deep as you can?” is a brilliantly seductive line. It reminds Osha that she can tap into a wellspring of emotion that the Jedi wall off — and it invites her to see this as a good thing, rather than a liability.
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Eric Geller
@ericjgeller.com
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Qimir says Jecki would never have returned Osha’s affections. Interesting that he picked up on Osha’s feelings for Jecki. Very perceptive man. And it’s no surprise that he uses this to wound Osha, to remind her of how being a Jedi entails sacrificing certain experiences.
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