Disney Brought Women From Across the World Only For a Scene That is Now Branded the Cringest Scene in Star Wars Franchise
Created by Leslye Headland, The Acolyte or Star Wars: The Acolyte, as the title reads, is a part of the Star Wars franchise, is set in the High Republic era, and follows the events occurring before the Skywalker Saga. It follows a Jedi investigation alongside a former Padawan and features Lee Jung-jae, Amanda Stenberg, Dafne Keen, Jodie Turner-Smith, and more.
The audience—some of them—had an issue with the series’ initial description of being female-centric. The audience dubbed the series ‘woke’; however, it has been reported that the creator, being the first woman to create a Star Wars series, was inspired by her life as a queer woman. The music composer Michael Abels discussed the music used during episode three of the series, especially during the Ascension ceremony, as the audience appreciated the overall music of the show.
Creator Leslye Headland explains the ascension ceremony in Episode 3 of Star Wars: The Acolyte
Episode 3 of The Acolyte features a female witchcraft scene called the Ascension Ceremony. The creator, in her interview with EW, explained why the origin story is set in female witchcraft;
I was very inspired by the Nightsisters storyline and the Ventress storyline in The Clone Wars when I was a budding writer. So when I got the chance to make a show set in the Star Wars universe, it felt like, ‘Well, of course I’m going to do my version of witches. I’m just going to shoot my shot.’ As the characters developed, it made a lot of sense that they would be at the center of the coven. The girls would be almost revealed not as children but as the legacy of what their mother started.
Explaining the coven’s mantra, ‘The power of one, the power of two, the power of many’, she said that what they were trying to explain was that the girls’ mother was one, they are two, and she wants the legacy to be the power of many. Headland added that the mantra is like paying homage to The Clone Wars but eventually becomes the story of a mom and her children.
Actress Jodie-Turner Smith, who plays Mother Aniseya, shared with the publication that she appreciates the collaborative process with the creator of the show, adding that her character and the other witches represent something they’ve talked about. She added that everyone’s putting too much emphasis on the light and dark, whereas it’s more about the power. The episode also features Lee Jung-jae, who plays Jedi Master Sol, who saved Osha.
The Acolyte composer explains the music during the Ascension ceremony
The third episode of The Acolyte goes on to reveal the origins of Osha and her twin sister, Mae. In the episode, their ascension ceremony with a coven of witches, which was performed to officially accept them into the covens, features an intriguing parallel to the origins of the Force. The ceremony sequence was dubbed ‘creepy’ and ‘intriguing’.
Talking about the music used in the episode, music composer Michael Abels shared (via Star Wars YouTube)
Because it was performed on camera, it was important to start with the ascension ceremony. The Ascension scene was actually the first music that I worked on for the series, and it was important for the director and the actors to have some music to choreograph and film scenes too. I wanted to make sure that the witch’s incarnation was a kind of multi-cultural chant.
The composer said that he, along with the vocal contractor, brought in musicians from around the world to film the chant so that the audience could hear women who are African, African-American, Persian, South Asian, and Armenian. Abels noted that these women from around the world were chanting together but, at the same time, were also doing riffs that were from their respective cultures.
Ables lastly added that he hopes that the chant music he created with musicians from across the world not only represents Star Wars magic but also the cultures that the audience sees on-screen. However, a lot of people did not appreciate the ceremony scene in the episode and dubbed the sequence as ‘cringe’, mentioning that the entire sequence seemed like a bad copy of the Nightsisters.
Episodes of The Acolyte are streaming on Disney+.
