The Acolyte Episode 4 threw Star Wars fans for a loop – and not just because the dreaded “Master” of Mae finally appeared and jumped into battle.
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During a scene in the Jedi Temple on Coruscant, Master Sol (Lee Jung-jae) is meeting with Master Vernestra Rwoh (Rebecca Henderson) and other high-ranking Jedi, watching footage of Mae to analyze her fighting style and Force use for clues about who might’ve trained her. One Jedi in the room is Master Ki-Adi-Mundi (Derek Arnold), who immediately disregards the idea of Mae being an apprentice who does not know her master’s identity.
Ki-Adi-Mundi’s cameo stirred uproar from longtime Star Wars fans. The character was first featured in George Lucas’ Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, as a member of the Jedi Council who dismissed Qui-Gon Jin’s report that he battled a Sith Lord (Darth Maul) on the planet Tatooine while saving a young Anakin Skywalker. Mundi claimed that “The Sith have been extinct for a millennium,” a line that seems to contradict The Acolyte, since we are watching Mundi and co. investigate a series of murders that how now led to the appearance of what very much looks like a Sith Lord – or at least some kind of dark side threat. It’s an occurrence that you would think Ki-Adi-Mundi would remember in Phantom Menace.
A major timeline issue was also raised: some of the companion literature for Phantom Menace set Mundi’s birthdate as “92 BBY,” which is about 40 years (or so) after The Acolyte is set. The combination of contradictory dialogue and a questionable birthdate (from auxiliary canon) was all the kindling needed to start a major flame war about someone who is a bit character (at best).
The rabble about Ki-Adi-Mundi grew loud enough to reach the Twitter feed of Claire “CK” Kiechel, who is part of The Acolyte’s writer team and co-wrote Episode 4. CK posted some responses to the “controversy” over Ki-Adi-Mundi, arguing that when it comes to the line from Phantom Menace, “He has never known about any Sith during that time”. A separate question/criticism of the supposed “pothole” got a similar response from Kiechel: Ki-Adi-Mundi “doesn’t know anything about the Sith? Why would he?”
The Acolyte is only half over, with a lot of game left on the board. From the very beginning, a lot of the more level-headed fans have given the series a shot at depicting – if only indirectly – how the cracks of hubris in the Jedi Order – which led to the return of the Sith – first began in the allegedly “peak” era of The High Republic. The Acolyte and its creators haven’t confirmed that The Master is a true Sith and not just a dark side user (like, say, The Inquisitors); there’s also the theory that this “Master” is really just the apprentice of a true Sith Lord who has yet to be revealed. Even if there is a Sith Lord who is revealed to the audience, there’s no guarantee that the characters of the show ever discover who that true master is. If that’s the case, it would make sense that 100 years later Ki-Adi-Mundi is skeptical about dark side users being mistaken for actual Sith.
If nothing else, Ki-Adi-Mundi’s presence in The Acolyte is a through line for the ‘Hubris of the Jedi’ theme in Star Wars. Ki-Adi-Mundi never learned better about realizing the true threat of the dark side, and it cost his beloved Jedi Order everything – including Mundi’s life when he was shot down by his own Clone Troopers during Order 66.
Another Jedi Master bears similar blame for prolonged obliviousness – but CK made it clear that The Acolyte couldn’t use him: “We offered the part to Yoda but he wasn’t tech avail so a young Ki Adi Mundi stepped in for the part.”
Star Wars: The Acolyte streams on Disney+
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Image Courtesy of Lucasfilm
