The Acolyte Connects to Knights of the Old Republic in a Surprising Way

Spoiler Warning: This article contains spoilers for the first two episodes of The Acolyte and the video game Knights of the Old Republic.

The Acolyte just debuted on Disney+ with a two-episode premiere that dropped audiences into a murder mystery set during the High Republic era. The first two episodes set up the central mystery of Mae (Amandla Stenberg) targeting Jedi for a mysterious crime, all while under the teaching of a dark lord of the Sith whose identity remains a mystery. It drops viewers into an era of Star Wars in an exciting way, introducing a whole host of new characters. It does so much that it is able to hide what seems like an obvious reveal in plain sight.

The first episode reveals that Stenberg plays two distinct characters, the dark side user Mae at the beginning and Osha, someone who left the Jedi Order and is now a mechanic. Osha is arrested as they believe she is the killer, as the assassin is seen without their face covered. The episode initially acts as if Osha is hiding something as she had played coy with her co-worker where she was the night before, yet halfway through the episode, it reveals that Mae and Osha are, in fact, long-lost twins.

Osha was taken in by the Jedi Order after Mae caused a fire burning down their village, but Mae did not die, and in fact, there seems to be more to the story. The idea of the same actor playing two characters that represent a light side and dark side path is a concept very familiar to Star Wars fans, and it appears that The Acolyte is paying homage to the popular 2003 video game Knights of the Old Republic.

The Acolyte

Seasons: 1
Studio: Disney+, Lucasfilm
Franchise: Star Wars

Knights of the Old Republic and Darth Revan

Knights of the Old Republic was an RPG video game released in 2003 by BioWare. The game was set 4,000 years before the events of the original Star Wars trilogy and picked up following the immediate aftermath of two former Jedi turned Sith, Darth Revan, and Darth Malak, declaring war on the Republic. Malak becomes the new Sith Lord after Revan is ambushed and killed by the Jedi. The game has the player character (whose background, gender, name, and personality are determined by the player before the start of the game) go on a quest to uncover a secret of Darth Malak’s infinite power source for ships and, alongside a crew of companions gathered from the game, goes looking for it.

Midway through the game, it drops a massive Empire Strikes Back twist. The player character and his crew are captured by Darth Malak, who reveals the player character is, in fact, an amnesiac Darth Revan. It was Malak who turned on his former master and left him to die before the Jedi found him. The Jedi Council wiped Revan’s memories and let the galaxy, particularly Malak, presume them to be dead in the hopes that the Jedi named Bastila, who has been a major ally in the game, could lead them to the Star Forge through her bond with Revan.

Amandla Stenberg as Mae in The Acolyte with a family staying in the Star Wars hotel

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Throughout the game, the player has the option to do good or bad deeds that count towards light side or dark side points, which can culminate in one of two endings. The light side ending has Revan redeem themself by defeating Malak and his forces while bringing peace and justice to the Old Republic. In the dark side ending, some of Revan’s companions will join, where some will die at the player’s hands for defying them, and Revan will kill Malak, become the new Sith Lord, and begin a massive-scale war with the Republic.

Knights of the Old Republic is one of the most praised Star Wars video games of all time, setting a new standard for the franchise that many still hold up to this day, and fans have been hoping for a remake of the game for some time. The ability to make good or bad choices was such an important part of the game that Bioware brought it over and perfected it into their next big franchise, Mass Effect. The two distinct endings and characterizations for Revan, a light side and dark side, always made the game take place in Star Wars canon before Lucasfilm declared everything before 2014 Star Wars Legends difficult to quantify.

This led to a popular fan theory in the Star Wars community that also made its way into fan forums in hopes of adapting Knights of the Old Republic as a TV series or movie: have Revan split into two halves following their memory wipe, with one character representing the dark side choices and another the light side. The Acolyte seems to have put their own spin on the concept.

Mae and Osha Fill Similar Roles to Revan’s Knights of the Old Republic Story

Mae and Osha being sisters, one who went the path of the Jedi and the other down the path of the Sith, feels not only like a homage to the Knights of the Old Republic video game series’ choice-based gameplay system but also the specific fandom’s desire at the time to have two characters representing the same character on different paths. While it is slightly different as Mae and Osha are not the same people but siblings, allowing star Amandla Stenberg to play both roles does have the subtle intent of allowing the viewer to see how different choices in life influence a person, with the audience allowed to see the same face go down different conflicting paths.

While it seems like a bit of a stretch, there are a few subtle callbacks to Revan’s story in Knights of the Old Republic. In The Acoylte, audiences are first introduced to Osha waking up in her bunk on a starship. In Knights of the Old Republic, the amnesia version of Revan is first introduced by waking up aboard a Republic starcruiser. Both Osha and Revan, early in their story, crash land ships on planets, and both seem to have vivid visions and dreams of the Force of their dark side connection, with Revan remembering parts of his past life while Osha can connect with Mae through the Force in dreams.

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The series seems to be setting up a dual parallel narrative. In one half, the audience will be following Osha and her fellow Jedi Sol (Lee Jung-Jae), Jecki Lon (Dafne Keen), and Yord Fandar (Charlie Barnett) as they try to uncover the mystery behind who trained Mae and who is orchestrating these attacks. Meanwhile, Mae continues to hunt down the Jedi stationed on her home planet and might have done something wrong, which now includes Jedi Master Sol and the Wookie Jedi Kelnacca (Joonas Suotamo). She is also trying to impress her dark master, a mysterious figure who appears to be the secret Sith mastermind behind all this. Just like with Knights of the Old Republic, fans get to see a heroic storyline play out in The Acolyte where a character follows the light side of the Force while another shows the dark side perspective.

The Acolyte Is Already Pulling From Knights of the Old Republic Mythology

If you think this might be a stretch, this would not be the only Knights of the Old Republic homage The Acolyte is pulling from. Series creator Leslye Headland is a pronounced Star Wars fan and has shown her knowledge and love of the franchise numerous times. In an interview with Collider, Headland told Perri Nemiroff that she was inspired by the character of Kreia/Darth Traya from Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords. She said

Kreia/Darth Traya was introduced in the game Knights of the Old Republic II, which was released in 2004, just one year after the first game. She is a mysterious force user and the first companion the main character in the sequel game, known as the Exile, encounters. She is familiar with the Force but appears more willing to use the dark side than user mentors in the franchise.

Later, it is revealed that she was Revan’s former master before he turned to the Sith. The Jedi council exiled her, and she soon took up the mantle of Darth Traya before being betrayed by her own Sith apprentices. She soon began to hate the binary nature of both the Jedi and the Sith and looked to dismantle both, including her deep hatred for the concept of the Force itself. She believed the Force was a sentient controlling others and wanted to dismantle it, seeing it as a poison to the galaxy.

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Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords explored the Star Wars galaxy from a darker, more nuanced angle, giving a voice and perspective to characters the franchise often paints as villains. This focus on dark side characters already appears to be a significant influence on The Acolyte. The series might be pulling from various corners of the Expanded Universe material, like Knights of the Old Republic and Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords, and bringing them into the proper Star Wars canon.

They might not adapt specific characters, but ideas and even some plot points that fit within the High Republic timeline and lay the groundwork for the Skywalker Saga are included. Over the next few weeks, fans will see the dual narratives of Mae and Osha unfold, determining whether the two sisters can be reunited and, if they do, what side of the conflict they will land on or whether these two will be destined to be in opposition. Star Wars: The Acolyte is streaming on Disney+.