The Acolyte Episode 3 Drops A Pivotal Easter Egg Connection to Major High Republic Villains

Star Wars: The Acolyte Episode 3 revealed the key history between Mae and Osha (Amandla Stenberg) and the fall of their witch coven family. However, Star Wars fans have been dissecting the “Destiny” episode, and noticing all kinds of telling Easter eggs – including one that could draw some direct ties between Mother Aniseya’s (Jodie Turner-Smith) coven and a pivotal High Republic group. 

(SPOILERS) When Osha makes her life-changing decision to leave the coven and join the Jedi, she goes back to her room to pack a bag. As she’s doing so, there’s a shot of a small shelf space where Osha stores her possessions, including a set of stuffed animal dolls that look like alien horses. Eagle-eyed Star Wars fans instantly connected the design of those dolls to a pair of alien horse creatures that appeared in some Star Wars: The High Republic lore – specifically the 2022 comic miniseries, Star Wars: The High Republic – Eye of the Storm. 

That miniseries looked at the backstory of The High Republic’s main villain, Marchion Ro, leader (or “Eye”) of the galactic marauder group, The Nihil. In the second volume, Ro leads the Nihil fleet (or “storm”) to a living planet to procure a race of Force-eating animals called Levelers (or “The Nameless”). The artwork of this unique sentient world and its lifeforms included a pair of horse-like creatures that are perfect matches for the dolls Osha and Mae have. 

The second phase of High Republic stories went back to the earliest days of that era, where Marchion Ro’s great-grandmother Marda Ro and her cousin Yana Ro were part of the Force cult Path of the Open Hand, which opposed the Jedi’s manipulation of the Force. After a decisive battle known as the Night of Sorrow, Marda Ro formed the militant splinter group Path of the Closed Fist, which first discovered the Levelers and weaponized them against the Jedi. Eventually, Marada split with the Path and made the Nihil a full-fledged criminal empire of pirates and raiders. The secret of the Levelers and their world was kept within the Ro family, and passed on through generations. 

The fact that Mother’s Aniseya’s coven has perfect replicas of animals from the Levelers’ planet is a pretty clear connective tie, indicating that Mother Aniseya’s Coven is some kind offshoot and/or successor to The Path of the Open Hand. In fact, it would be interesting if Aniseya’s group and their “Thread” were what the Path portion of the cult eventually became, after splitting from the Nihil. 

Star Wars: The Acolyte is now streaming on Disney+.