Why Star Wars' New Sith Acolyte Is Killing Jedi (2024)

Warning! This article contains spoilers for The Acolyte episodes 1 and 2.

The Acolyte centers around the titular Sith disciple killing Jedi, with secret motives and wider Star Wars connections explaining why. Despite Star Wars' High Republic Era being a time of light and peace, The Acolyte brings it to life with a suitably dark story. Led by Amandla Stenberg, The Acolyte's cast of characters explores the time period 100 years before Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace, and tells a dark story of revenge and trauma.

By The Acolyte episode 2's ending, the antagonists of the show begin to come to light. Although the secret identity of The Acolyte's Sith villain remains a mystery, Amandla Stenberg's Mae is depicted as the warrior killing Jedi. Already, Mae is showing competence in her quest, killing Master Indara in The Acolyte episode 1, while The Acolyte episode 2 saw Master Torbin fall victim to her dark ways. These brutal murders raise the question of why Mae is killing Jedi, why she is targeting specific members of the Order, and how this links to pre-established canon and The Acolyte's overarching narrative.

A Sith Acolyte Proves Their Worth By Killing A Jedi

Sith Apprentices Have Various Ways Of Proving They Can Walk The Dark Path

Concerning why Mae is killing the Jedi, the answer is fairly simple. In the Star Wars galaxy, it has been established across various stories in canon that killing a Jedi is one of the ways a Sith apprentice can prove their power. This was also mentioned in the Star Wars: Darth Vader (2017) comics, with Palpatine sending Vader to kill Jedi in order to retrieve their lightsaber and prove himself as a worthy apprentice to Sidious. In The Acolyte, Mae's motivation for killing the Jedi is similar.

She is clearly killing Jedi for her own reasons, but constantly reiterates that it will please "him." The "him" Mae refers to is the Sith Lord spotted in the finale of The Acolyte episode 1, the same hidden warrior from the show's various trailers. During talks with Manny Jacinto's Qimir, it is clear that Mae thinks killing these Jedi will help her rise in her master's estimation, potentially becoming powerful enough to become his apprentice. This tracks with what is known of other Sith disciples in Star Wars, with other added wrinkles to make The Acolyte's story even more compelling.

The Acolyte Adds A New Twist To This Lore

One Element Of The Acolyte Deepens Mae's Attempted Murder Of Jedi

One of the more interesting elements of The Acolyte can be found in Mae's confrontations with Master Indara and Master Torbin. In both instances, she tells the Jedi to face her without drawing a weapon. Indara cannot fathom why her opponent is not using a weapon, with Lee Jung-jae's Sol echoing this confusion when he briefly fights Mae in The Acolyte episode 2. Through a conversation with Qimir, it becomes clear why Mae is not using a weapon when she is attempting to kill the Jedi.

In the conversation with Qimir, Mae states that killing the Jedi without a weapon would please her master even more. She is attempting to kill at least one of the Jedi on her hit list without a weapon, something she failed to do with Indara and Torbin as she resorted to using knives and poison respectively to kill them. If she can kill any of the Jedi on her list without a weapon, it will prove to her master just how powerful she is.

This added aspect of a Sith Acolyte not using a weapon to kill Jedi links to other pre-established areas of canon. Various Star Wars stories have made it clear that, when a Sith kills a Jedi, they take their lightsaber and bleed the Kyber Crystals to make red lightsabers. In the fights Mae has with Indara and Sol in The Acolyte episodes 1 and 2, Mae desperately lunges for both their lightsabers. This proves that she is attempting to steal the weapon and kill the Jedi using it, before taking it for her own as a true Sith apprentice.

Mae Is Deliberately Targeting A Very Specific Group Of Jedi

Mae's Personal Reasons For Killing The Jedi Are Explained, That Ties To The Sith's Rise To Power

Finally, The Acolyte episodes 1 and 2 reveal exactly why Mae is targeting specific Jedi. The four Jedi Mae is targeting are Master Indara, Master Torbin, Master Kelnacca, and Master Sol. The reason for this is that all four were stationed on her home planet when she and her twin sister Osha were younger. It is revealed in The Acolyte episode 1 that Mae started a fire on her home planet when she and Osha were children. This fire eventually spiraled out of control and resulted in the death of Mae and Osha's family, with the former also being believed dead by the Jedi.

Despite this being revealed, there is more to the story as Mae is targeting the four Jedi stationed at her childhood home for revenge. Something likely took place that caused Mae to blame the Jedi for the fire or the death of her parents. Now, Mae is targeting the four Jedi to seek retribution for her life being ruined. Not only does this make Mae a more compelling character by giving her solid reasoning for disliking the Jedi, but it also ties to The Acolyte's Sith master in a way that potentially avoids the breaking of Star Wars chronological canon.

By pinning Mae's murder of the Jedi on her revenge, the Sith Lord has deniability. A large point of debate about The Acolyte is the inclusion of Sith Lords whom the Jedi thought were extinct for millennia before the events of Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace. However, through Mae's revenge killings, the Jedi might not look further into the situation. The hubris of the Jedi could see them disregard Mae's murders as simple revenge, meaning they do not investigate them as a potential rise in Sith power.

Through this, The Acolyte's Sith Lord can remain a secret. While the trailers for the show prove that Sol will at least come into contact with the Sith Lord, it could be written in a way that sees Sol believe him to be dead, or that Sol himself is killed to not spread the truth. This way, the deaths of Indara and Torbin could be pinned on Mae as revenge, rather than a concerted effort to weaken the Jedi in the era of The Acolyte for a Sith uprising a century later.

The Acolyte

The Acolyte is a television series set in the Star Wars universe at the end of the High Republic Era, where both the Jedi and the Galactic Empire were at the height of their influence. This sci-fi thriller sees a former Padawan reunite with her former Jedi Master as they investigate several crimes - all leading to darkness erupting from beneath the surface and preparing to bring about the end of the High Republic.

Cast

Dafne Keen , Lee Jung-jae , Amandla Stenberg , Jodie Turner-Smith , Joonas Suotamo , Carrie-Anne Moss , Margarita Levieva , Charlie Barnett , Dean-Charles Chapman

Seasons

1

Writers

Leslye Headland , Charmaine De Grate , Kor Adana

Directors

Leslye Headland , Alex Garcia Lopez

Showrunner

Leslye Headland