Opinion The Acolyte’s 15% Audience Score Is Embarrassing, For The Audience Scorers

https://www.forbes.com/sites/paultassi/2024/06/16/the-acolytes-15-audience-score-is-embarrassing-for-the-audience-scorers/

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While Star Wars has had many controversies in the Disney era, viewers have now mobilized a fleet of TIE bombers to obliterate user scores of The Acolyte wherever possible, namely on Rotten Tomatoes and IMDB.

I previously reported that this started up right at release, as The Acolyte quickly became the lowest audience-rated Star Wars project besides the infamous Holiday Special. Now, its former 33% score has dipped below the Special’s 20% score, and is all the way down to 15%.

At a certain point, this is just absurd, and it says a lot more about the viewers than it does the quality of the show itself, which has barely even gotten started, now just three episodes in.

No, I am not going to entertain a debate that this is not review bombing. A 15% score is barely more than a third of the last most controversial Disney Star Wars project, The Last Jedi. Nothing is even close except that Holiday Special. On IMDB, it’s even easier to see. A full 54% of all reviews are 1 star, giving it a 3.6/10.



There’s also how fast this happened. For instance, Ahsoka only has 5,000 reviews in on Rotten Tomatoes after being out for months while The Acolyte has aired three episodes in two weeks and has 10,000 reviews in. The last season of The Mandalorian only has 2,500 reviews in. The beloved Andor, 5,000 reviews total, years later.

Rotten Tomatoes has previously tried to curb review bombing in the wake of what happened with Captain Marvel’s release, “verifying” people had watched the movie before reviewing. But there has been no way to enforce such a system with TV, so here we are.

Why is this happening? There are a bunch of dimensions to this, and none of them good. There is absolutely a racial and gender component to this. A clip from star Amandla Stenberg about “making white people cry” was shared tens of thousands of times online, taken out of context from an interview years earlier about her film The Hate U Give. Showrunner Leslye Headland has starred in many YouTube thumbnails lambasting the “woke” nature of the series, but also it allegedly “breaking canon.”

This is the main reason for the surge since episode 3 aired, where fans (“fans”) believe the show has broken canon or destroyed the lore of Anakin Skywalker by implying that like Anakin, the twins are a “virgin force birth.” Anakin was conceived purely through the force alone, part of his “chosen one” mythology. And now they say that’s happened again, ruining everything.

The problem is…we simply have no idea if that’s true, even if that’s what everyone is assuming after last week. Specifically, while they say the girls “have no father” it is implied that their mother did something unnatural to create them, which would not be a “spontaneous force baby” situation. Dark side meddling? Witch magic? Cloning? We simply don’t know yet, but that has not stopped fans from leaping to conclusions and saying that in three half hour episodes the series has destroyed 50 years of canon.

There is also pushback about the portrayal of the Jedi as…not great, acting as space cops rounding up force-sensitive kids to test and train, not by abducting them per se, but you know, luring them away from their families for “their own good,” which is what happened to Osha, and sparked the events that led to the death of her family and community. Of course, the concept of the Jedi as rulers has dealt with this topic many times over the years, most famously in the prequels where the arrogant, clueless Jedi council’s actions, or lack thereof, directly led to the Imperial takeover of the galaxy.

The 15% score is embarrassing. Not for the show, but for those review bombing it to a frankly laughable degree. I’m not even The Acolyte’s biggest fan, as the first two episodes I didn’t love, though I thought episode 3 was more interesting. But the worst Star Wars project by an order of magnitude in the history of the series? And it just so happens to be one mostly starring black women? This whole situation is a parody of the modern toxic fanbase of the series, and if you want to disguise it as being upset about “canon” than it shows a distinct lack of understand of both the material of the show and the wider universe. You can critique a show, sure, but overwhelmingly, that is just not what’s happening here, and it goes well beyond that. While we have seen many things like this happen with Star Wars fandom over the years, I can’t help but feel like it’s absolutely getting worse.

 

[Curzon Dax-sama]

There will be a time when openly/publicly disliking corporate entertainment is a criminal offence. Can't wait to go away for a while because I didn't like lesbian commie space witches enough or not at all, lmao.

 

[BULLY HUNTER_78]

Every time I hear a new Star Wars project that IS NOT a miniseries or TV serial about podracing I wonder how much money these niggas have, that they can leave so much on the table.

Bro, even if they made a miniseries about podracing, it’d be extremely homosexual and 99% of the content would just be black lesbians huffing their own farts. The 1% of actual podracing content would be the most generic shit you could imagine made by people who barely know what a podracer is.

The only way you’re gonna see what you want is if you animate a fan project in Blender yourself.

 

[Wendell X]

Bro, even if they made a miniseries about podracing, it’d be extremely homosexual and 99% of the content would just be black lesbians huffing their own farts. The 1% of actual podracing content would be the most generic shit you could imagine made by people who barely know what a podracer is.

The only way you’re gonna see what you want is if you animate a fan project in Blender yourself.

The climax of the first episode would be the triumphant moment the black tranny lesbian protagonist decides - against the express orders of her white male captain/owner - to turn at the corner instead of flying straight into a wall. She'll miss, and hit the wall anyway, but the people will be So Impressed that they crown her champion regardless. The only other time the show will feature any pod racing is in the stinger after the season finale, the protagonist sits in the cockpit of a pod racer, turns to the camera with a look of conviction and says "let's pod race this mother!" Fade to black.

 

[FierceBrosnan]

Star Wars started out as samurai wizards in a space western and now I wish it stayed there. I'm all for going buck wild with what the force can do since it's literally magic, but that's not the problem here. The problem is you have to be a special kind of retard to fuck that premise up and somehow Disney only employs this specific type of retard.

 

[Not Really Here]

Everything Disney craps out are worse versions of this shlock.

 

[Snekposter]

which some argue they basically did with The Force Awakens (although I haven't actually seen it, so I could be wrong)

No no, you're right. And it sucked total ass.

But that's not because the concept is bad but because J. J. Abrams and the screenwriters did not understand it because of how simple it is, so you wind up with the movie equivalent of Sauron trying his hand at making elves.

 

[WonderWino]

It's so bad that it borders on parody at this point. I'm waiting for them to start having Trans force-users "Channeling the force" to transition.

Don't say that too loudly or they'll do it. Probably like the bounty hunter in critters 2:

 

[DoomsdayElite]

Embarrassing? It's funny. Keep malding, homo. It's more reheated, terribly written girlboss garbage.

 

[BulkForceFive]

Bro, even if they made a miniseries about podracing, it’d be extremely homosexual and 99% of the content would just be black lesbians huffing their own farts. The 1% of actual podracing content would be the most generic shit you could imagine made by people who barely know what a podracer is.

The only way you’re gonna see what you want is if you animate a fan project in Blender yourself.

I'll take 99 percent of screentime being obnoxious black lesbians IF they spend that time podracing and getting into sick crashes like Mars Guo (just replace "RAAWURRRR" with "SHEEEEIT")

 

[William Murderface]

No no, you're right. And it sucked total ass.

But that's not because the concept is bad but because J. J. Abrams and the screenwriters did not understand it because of how simple it is, so you wind up with the movie equivalent of Sauron trying his hand at making elves.

JJA and friends copied the scenes from ANH without understanding what made them work in the first place. Not just the stakes at risk, but where they were in the movie, the character archetypes involved, and the results. The Ep 7 scenes just feel soulless because they are. Poe giving BB-8 the plans versus Leia giving R2 the plans, or Finn getting behind the Falcon's guns versus Luke and Han behind the Falcon's guns or the death of Han versus the death of Ben. It was filmmaking by committee where they just picked a lot of scenes that tested well with viewers, aped them, and stuck them in the movie.

 

[The Dude]

Growing up, both Star Wars and Disney were big parts of my childhood. The Original Trilogy were still fairly new when I was a kid. No prequels or even Special Editions. And I always believed that Disney was an important piece of Americana, helping to secure America's position and dominance on the world stage during the 20th Century. Walt was a brilliant man, a visionary, and a patriot who loved his country and fellow Americans.

That's why seeing what Disney has become, and what they have turned important American icons like Star Wars and Marvel into, has been so bitterly disgusting to me. Make no mistake, the people currently writing and producing these IPs HATE what they originally were, because these IPs originally were geared towards those who valued traditional Western/American culture. They were intended to be like a new mythology for normal, decent people in the modern day Western/American cultures, but were also supported by timeless, traditional mythological story telling. They were the Hero's Journey with traditional archetypes that made them timeless.

The people creating these stories now HATE tradition. They want to tear down everything traditional, because tradition is the "patriarchy" and "CIS-heteronormative". But they can't create their own stories, because they're talentless and blinded by their political views, so they have to usurp the stories that were created by their betters, and twist them to suit their own views. And by "reworking these stories for a modern audience", they take what was once timeless and could be enjoyed by anyone, and make the story timely (dated) and only a small audience of people just like them can enjoy it.

It hurts to see these leeches destroy what great men like Walt Disney and George Lucas created. It hurts to see these ghouls try to tear down the greatest culture the world has ever known. If Disney and Star Wars has to fall to get these cultural vandals to stop, then so be it. Hopefully when someone comes along to pick up the pieces, it will be someone who will respect and honor their legacy.

And that's not to say that everything George Lucas made was golden. I wasn't a huge fan of the prequels. I didn't think they matched up well with what was established in the Original Trilogy. For example, listen to what Obi-Wan says in A New Hope when he's telling Luke about the Jedi, Luke's Father, and the period before the Empire rose. He says that Luke's father was already an accomplished pilot by the time Obi-Wan met him. That suggests someone who is already grown, at least an older teen or young man who flies space ships. Not a 9 year old kid who pod races. And I always got the feeling in the Original Trilogy that ANYONE could learn to feel and use the Force. That anyone dedicated to learning the ways of the Force could become a Jedi Knight. I never got the impression that it was only a select few who could be Force sensitive due to microscopic critters in their blood. I also got the impression that the clones in the Clone Wars were either the bad guys, or the troops of the bad guys, or that the wars (multiple, not just one war) were being fought over the villains creating clones, possibly clones of Jedi. What we got just does not line up with what was discussed in the Original Trilogy IMHO.

 

[verissimus]

The implication often is that those reviewing the product are not genuine consumers, and are merely forming a mob.

In other words, what "journaslists" do just like IGN and Black Myth game which hasn't even come out yet.

 

[Ibanez RG 350EX]

I'm all for going buck wild with what the force can do since it's literally magic

Magic still has to have rules, limits, and logical consistency of some kind (whether implicit or explicit) or it removes any sense of tension from a plot.

 

[pwnest injun]

EVERY MORNING I WAKE UP AND OPEN PALM SLAM A VHS INTO THE SLOT. ITS DISNEY'S THE ACOLYTE AND RIGHT THEN AND THERE I START DOING THE MOVES ALONGSIDE WITH THE MAIN CHARACTER, THE ACOLYE. I DO EVERY MOVE AND I DO EVERY MOVE HARD. MAKIN WHOOSHING SOUNDS WHEN I SLAM DOWN SOME JEDI BASTARDS OR EVEN WHEN I MESS UP TECHNIQUE. NOT MANY CAN SAY THEY GAVE BIRTH TO A LESBIAN FORCE BABY. I CAN. I SAY IT AND I SAY IT OUTLOUD EVERYDAY TO PEOPLE ON ROTTEN TOMATOES DOT COM AND ALL THEY DO IS PROVE PEOPLE ON ROTTEN TOMATOES CAN STILL BE IMMATURE JEKRS. AND IVE LEARNED ALL THE LINES AND IVE LEARNED HOW TO MAKE MYSELF AND MY SIX CATS LESS LONELY BY SHOUTING EM ALL. 2 HOURS INCLUDING WIND DOWN EVERY MORNIng

 

[AnotherPleb]

I've only seen the first half hour or so before I fell asleep from boredom but the parts I seen were pretty much the original star wars movie except with a nigger and a woman instead of Luke.

TFA would have been better if they had allowed Finn to become the Jedi. There were the roots for something cool there.

There will be a time when openly/publicly disliking corporate entertainment is a criminal offence. Can't wait to go away for a while because I didn't like lesbian commie space witches enough or not at all, lmao.

That time is coming sooner than you think because Hollywood is too important for Globohomo to fail.

 

[The Lawgiver]

"Have you ever heard the tragedy of Darth Plagueis the wise? No? I thought not. It's not a Story the Jedi would tell you."

One of the main big things in star wars before disney took it over that got introduced in the prequels was that there was forbidden knowledge fucking nobody but Darth Plagueis knew through years of dedicated morally dubious research, which was to influence force sensitive micro bacteria to basically make life from nothing. t's implied via the explanation of Darth Plagueis' existence that Anikin was the result of one of these experiments, and that the apprentice that may have been responsible in part for Anikins creation that murdered Plagueis before he could complete his research on unlocking the secret to immortality was the guy that told Anikin the tragic story.

The acolyte renders that completely useless by calling back to it but it's some secluded coven of lesbian witches doing all the shit Plagueis spent years figuring out how to do in the shadows making him look like a fucking idiot that just didn't go to the remote dark side witch group the jedi apperently got some recruits from.

And that's not to say that everything George Lucas made was golden. I wasn't a huge fan of the prequels. I didn't think they matched up well with what was established in the Original Trilogy. For example, listen to what Obi-Wan says in A New Hope when he's telling Luke about the Jedi, Luke's Father, and the period before the Empire rose. He says that Luke's father was already an accomplished pilot by the time Obi-Wan met him. That suggests someone who is already grown, at least an older teen or young man who flies space ships. Not a 9 year old kid who pod races. And I always got the feeling in the Original Trilogy that ANYONE could learn to feel and use the Force. That anyone dedicated to learning the ways of the Force could become a Jedi Knight. I never got the impression that it was only a select few who could be Force sensitive due to microscopic critters in their blood.

The thing with Anikin being a child prodigy piloting a pod racer is blatantly a "subversion of expectations" type of deal, but a lot more genuine of one of those than anything disney has sharted out. Also they said the bacteria were in basically everyone from what I remember? Not just specifically anyone. The memes and parodies were what implied that.

Yeah as I was typing I checked and I was right.

I just realized well over several decades after seeing this movie countless times that the abnormally high count thing with Anikin is another vector towards his Midichlorian Homonculus nature that gets hinted at in episode 3.

The actually did a reboot of Muppet Babies a few years ago. I've heard mixed opinions.

Sadly the rights to the original are an absolute quagmire, so we'll probably never have the episodes re-released.

Jigsaw weeps during this dark age of no muppet babies content. He's gonna probably kidnap another webcomic artist sooner or later.

 

[The Dude]

@The Lawgiver yes, they did say that Midiclorians are in everyone and that the amount that's in one's blood determines how strong with the Force they are, but it still amounts to the same thing: only a select few will be able to use the Force and become a Jedi because they have more little critters in their blood. Before Episode One it was assumed that anyone could learn to use the Force and become a Jedi if they worked to achieve it. That was a positive and encouraging notion as a kid: anyone can be a Jedi if they apply themselves and work for it. I hate to use the term "inclusive" because of what it has come to mean in the modern day, but that's what it was. "Sorry kid, you can't use the Force or become a Jedi Knight because you don't have enough critters in your blood" is stupid and exclusive. It's discouraging.

Speaking of "modern inclusivity", one of the biggest Star Wars nerds I ever knew was a chick. She owned all the EU books and had read them all several times. And this was before Episode One had released. Yeah, Star Wars was always aimed at a male audience, but that doesn't mean it only ever appealed to guys. Or only appealed to white people. The Star Wars fandom has always been a diverse group who all came together to share the same passion. And the more "inclusive" they've tried to make it in recent years, the more exclusive and divisive it has become.

 

[Battlefield42]

LoGH will prevail. Sieg Kaiser!

 

[Ibanez RG 350EX]

The thing with Anikin being a child prodigy piloting a pod racer is blatantly a "subversion of expectations" type of deal

I'm not convinced George was anywhere near that cynical or meta. I believe the guy was genuinely trying to make a good crowd-pleasing film trilogy - it's just that he was really bad at it and no longer had the structures in place to tard-wrangle his worst impulses.

 

[The Lawgiver]

I'm not convinced George was anywhere near that cynical or meta. I believe the guy was genuinely trying to make a good crowd-pleasing film trilogy - it's just that he was really bad at it and no longer had the structures in place to tard-wrangle his worst impulses.

I'm not saying it was a cynical or meta "subversion" but a narrative surprise kind where it's still true from a certain point of view. "vader killed anikin" was a similar one from the OT where it's revealed that Vader stopped calling himself Anikin and refused to associate with the name after what he did. He still "killed" Anikin much like Anikin was "already a skilled pilot" in the prequels.