‘The Acolyte’ Creator Reveals Why You Should Sympathize With The Sith Lord: “That is something that you can’t argue with”

Even before its release, ‘Star Wars: The Acolyte’ was a highly controversial show, mostly due to the statements made by the creator and cast members. Which fans, more often than not perceive as insulting.

Headland made it clear that her story is about to showcase Jedi in a light that we’ve never seen before, as they have the institutional power during the High Republic, they can, under specific circumstances, be portrayed as the villains.

Headland also claimed that she is highly attracted to immoral characters and their journey to moral discovery, so it’s not surprising that her villain The Master / The Stranger is not two-dimensional. In her recent interview with Entertainment Weekly, Headland revealed her villain’s motivations, and the reasons why you should agree with him when it comes to some things:

Well, how is it going to happen? What are we going to see?” There are definitely moments in episodes 2 and 4 where you’re like, “There’s something going on with this guy when he says ‘You look just like her.’” There’s something that you’re like, “Whoa, what’s this about?” But you need a villain that you kind of agree with in some ways. Not his actions, obviously, but when Sol says “What do you want?” and he says “Freedom” — that is something that you can’t argue with.

He wants freedom to be able to be who he is and wield his power the way he wants to. But he also wants freedom on a second level that I think we’ll get more into if we get a season 2. But once we knew he was going to kill Jecki and Yord, then it became about: How are you going to execute this in a way that feels satisfying and believable once it does happen? […]

They see my face, they all have to die.” He’s not like, “I murdered them, that was fun!” He’s like, “I murdered them for preservation. They threaten my existence and therefore I have to kill them.” So, in a way, not that you agree with him necessarily, but you also understand. It’s one of the reasons we had him cheat and resort to trickery, because when you’re fighting for survival, there’s no such thing as a fair fight. You have to survive. And the Jedi cannot know he exists. They must die as far as he’s concerned. So it felt like it had to happen. The people that have seen it are like, “How could you do that?” And I was like, “There was no other way around it.”

‘The Acolyte’ so far showcased several moments in which Jedi can be perceived as the bad guys who have the monopoly on the force. The first instance was when we first met the Witches of Brendok. They are clearly a different type of force users unaligned with either the Sith or the Jedi, and they clearly want to be free to practice their “magic” without the watchful eye of the Jedi.

You can in theory agree with them, but also, they were kind of villains and used the Force for what appear to be highly ethically questionable experiments which resulted in the creation of the twins. They also attempted to brainwash and merge two children into their cult, so you need to understand why Jedi are highly skeptical of their Force utilization.

The same goes for Qimir, he wants freedom, but it’s obvious that freedom for him means oppression for others, the opportunity to steamroll pretty much everyone in sight. He was also perfectly welcome to practice his Force powers in peace, he brought attention to himself when he had Mae kill Jedi, openly drawing attention to himself and his “apprentice.” Then….he was “forced” to kill all these Jedi to keep his identity a secret, which he revealed during a fight that he started.

It makes no sense, and it honestly sounds like a bargain bin quality of motivation and philosophy for what Qimir has done.

But, I digress. In any case Headland also said that we can expect to learn more about Qimiri in the upcoming episodes 6 & 8.

Because it’s Osha’s story, you don’t know much about the Stranger’s background and you’re not really going to learn much about it. But there are a bunch of things in episode 6 and episode 8 that are really big clues as to why he is the way he is and why his philosophy is the way that it is.

What do you think about Headland’s logic? Let us know in the comments below!