Star Wars The Acolyte DELETED SCENE is Brutal!

Best F Channel

Link donate for United Nations Environment Programme: http://bit.ly/4lwDtbI

Transcript

00:00So did you know that the most brutal scene in The Acolyte never made the final cut?

00:04I'm just as surprised as you are, but at Denver Fan Expo, Manny Jacinto shocked everyone in the

00:09room when he revealed that the original version of The Acolyte Episode 5 was almost so much darker.

00:14And I've been talking about this kind of thing since the show came to an end,

00:18you know, in my breakdown of the visual guide, in comments made by the showrunner,

00:21I'm starting to think there is a massive discrepancy between the original script

00:25and the final version of the High Republic show that we saw.

00:28And when I say original script, I'm talking about before major rewrites,

00:32Disney overreach, and even input from Dave Filoni.

00:35Some of the early rumours talked about more plans for Darth Plagueis,

00:38which were originally going to be in the second season.

00:40But now we know that the original version of Episode 5 was so much more brutal and unforgiving,

00:46and they nearly took things a bit too far.

00:48That was the episode where Chimia the Stranger slaughtered seven Jedi.

00:53If you thought twisting Yord Vandar's neck was bad and using Jekyllong as a hole punch,

00:57there's a deleted moment that Disney looked at and said,

01:00yeah, we're not going to do that, guys.

01:02That is way too graphic.

01:04So let me set the scene.

01:06Kofar's sun dips below the horizon,

01:08plunging the already shadowy forests into deeper darkness.

01:12Master Sol's Jedi team surrounds the entrance to Kalnarka's residence,

01:16where the Wookiee Jedi has already been slaughtered by Mei.

01:18Suddenly, Mei's blood runs cold with the realisation that Chimia is there,

01:23her master,

01:24and he's fully aware of her failures,

01:26and her disloyalty.

01:28But there is only one thing on the Stranger's mind.

01:30Everyone must fall to his blade.

01:33That's how the fourth episode feeds into the fifth,

01:35the actual massacre.

01:37And as we saw from the episode, guys,

01:39there are only a handful of survivors.

01:40Chimia may not be a full Sith,

01:42which the visual guide kind of alludes to,

01:44but he sure acts like a Sith.

01:46He's extremely powerful in the dark side of the Force,

01:49and uses all kinds of dirty tricks.

01:51For example, Trakata,

01:52turning his lightsaber on and off in combat,

01:55to trick the opponent.

01:56And he famously also used Cortosis,

01:58to disable the Jedi's lightsabers.

02:01But, in a now deleted scene,

02:03he took things a bit further.

02:04Manny Hacinta reveals this.

02:06Star Wars has always been PG,

02:08but you want to find some brutal aspects of these fights.

02:11There was one moment in particular we had to cut.

02:13Chimia grabs one of the Jedi,

02:15and keeps slamming his head against a rock,

02:17over and over again.

02:19We wanted to show just how brutal this guy could be,

02:22with no remorse.

02:23So, not only was Chimia extremely cruel,

02:26and punctured numerous holes into a Jedi Padawan,

02:28and then called her an It,

02:29he nearly took a Jedi by the head,

02:31no lightsaber,

02:32and just slammed his head into a rock,

02:35over and over again,

02:36using his brute strength.

02:37And whether you love the show or you hate it,

02:39The Acolyte Episode 5 held some of the show's better moments.

02:42Some of the lightsaber fight's choreography was pretty awesome,

02:46but even without this scene,

02:47we still get a very good sense of how intense,

02:50and brutal the stranger is.

02:51And Lucasfilm scrapping this scene,

02:53which was certainly more than PG,

02:55reminds me of George Lucas cutting many of the Jedi Temple scenes,

02:58during Order 66.

02:59Off screen,

03:00Anakin did so much damage,

03:02during Project Nightfall in Revenge of the Sith.

03:04And if you ever played the video game,

03:06you know exactly what I'm talking about.

03:07The Council is no longer in control.

03:13But George Lucas watched some of his scenes back and said,

03:15these are too traumatic,

03:17and not family friendly enough.

03:18And I'm not talking about Shark T's 17 deaths,

03:21there's also the alternate version of Ki-Adi Mundi's death,

03:24the now overwritten death of Barriss Offee,

03:26and Quinlan Vos.

03:27But I think one of the most brutal deaths has to be that of Sindralik.

03:30We saw it in the hologram,

03:32when Obi-Wan finds out Anakin has become Darth Vader,

03:35the hologram which Master Kenobi has to turn off.

03:38Now did you know, my friends,

03:39it wasn't originally meant to be just a hologram.

03:42The scene, which is described as extra-violent,

03:44was going to be part of the heartbreaking Order 66 montage.

03:48The prequel stunt coordinator, Nick Gillard,

03:50who played Sindralik, revealed this.

03:52In the original version, quote,

03:54it went horribly violent.

03:55You can't see it,

03:57but Anakin slices through Sindralik's Padawan's throat.

03:59It was so violent,

04:01they ended up shrinking it into a hologram,

04:03and George saw it and said,

04:05oh no, oh dear.

04:07I find it ironic that George Lucas was so against

04:09showing brutal scenes of Order 66,

04:11but was more than happy to show us

04:13Barbecue, Dant Beru, and Uncle Owen,

04:15or the droid torture scene in Jabba's Palace.

04:17How about Anakin burning alive like bacon,

04:20Jango Fett's decapitation at the hands of Mace Windu,

04:22Anakin Skywalker's massacre of the Tusken Raiders,

04:25Dooku's decapitation,

04:27Anakin's rampage on Mustafar,

04:28and the list goes on and on.

04:30So I guess brutality with purpose is what counts,

04:33but there was a limit

04:34when it came to Anakin's thwarting Jedi Padawans on screen.

04:37Same deal with the Acolyte,

04:39Chimere was about to do so much worse.

04:41As a former Padawan himself,

04:43Chimere was well prepared for the moment.

04:45He had long studied the Jedi Order he once served,

04:48and he knew the night stood no chance.

04:50According to the visual guide,

04:51many of his moves were well rehearsed.

04:54Now I understand that with Disney Plus TV shows,

04:57there are limitations to what you can show.

04:59In the United States,

05:00the Acolyte was rated TV-14.

05:02In the UK, that's 12+.

05:04In other regions, it ranged from 12 to 16+.

05:07And even though I wasn't the biggest fan of this show,

05:10I think with the Sith brutality,

05:11they hid the right balance.

05:13But unlike Vader,

05:14whose motivations were humanized in Revenge of the Sith,

05:16we didn't learn enough about Chimere.

05:18Was he just mad because Venestra abandoned him?

05:21What kind of loss did he go through?

05:24And I suppose linked to this

05:25was another major criticism I had about the Acolyte.

05:28The lack of exploration of Sith philosophy.

05:30They tried to do that with the passion thing,

05:32the romantic interest between Osher and Chimere,

05:35which I understand a lot of fans found cringe.

05:37But if Chimere, like the visual guide says,

05:39is a Sith imposter,

05:40what was it that drew him to the philosophy in the first place?

05:43Was it the freedom of Sith philosophy?

05:45But a cherry on top

05:47would have been flashbacks to Sith of the past.

05:49The ones who he's trying to emulate,

05:51as the book says.

05:52And that was originally a rumor for the show,

05:54that there were going to be flashbacks to ancient Sith

05:56to help us understand the Sith of today.

05:59But what about Darth Bane?

06:00What about Tenebrous?

06:01What about Nihilus?

06:03One of the most evil and terrifying Sith

06:05in all of Star Wars lore.

06:06He was a great example of evil transcending,

06:09just mustache twirling stereotypes.

06:11He became a literal wound in the Force.

06:13After surviving the destruction of Malachor 5,

06:17Nihilus was transformed by the massive release of energy

06:19into something less than a man,

06:21and more like a dark void.

06:23He didn't just use the dark side,

06:24he became an insatiable hunger in the Force.

06:27He was able to literally consume life.

06:29And I'm not just saying this without relevance,

06:32I want to see the Sith that inspired Chimere,

06:34someone who studied both the ancient Jedi and the Sith.

06:38Little did he know,

06:39they're still around.

06:40He didn't know Darth Plagueis,

06:41even if that's what the show implies.

06:43Plagueis only took an interest to him

06:45because he learned that someone

06:46was impersonating the Sith.

06:48We did hear Chimere recite the Sith code,

06:51but it would have been great to learn

06:52his own personal ambitions.

06:54To what end is he mimicking the Sith?

06:56What kind of power does he want?

06:58Because even in the expanded universe,

07:00the Sith take the philosophy of self-interest

07:02to the most extreme end.

07:04And those ends are pretty radical,

07:06so if you want to talk about brutality

07:07and brutal Sith,

07:09brutal actions,

07:09there is often a wider-ranging,

07:11far more sinister motive behind it.

07:14In Star Wars history,

07:15this has ranged from enslavement of entire species,

07:17starting massive wars,

07:19genociding entire planets as an act of power,

07:22and in the case of Palpatine,

07:23wanting to rule the galaxy,

07:25and to rule it with immortality.

07:27Just like his master, Darth Plagueis,

07:29he was obsessed with cloning

07:30and manipulating midichlorians

07:32to create life.

07:35But their power and connection

07:36to the dark side is fuelled by passion,

07:38with negative emotions like hatred

07:40and anger being their strongest assets.

07:42On a surface visceral level,

07:44seeing cool action scenes

07:45in a Star Wars project

07:46are all well and good,

07:47but in a Sith-oriented show,

07:49I would have loved to have seen them

07:51take it a bit further,

07:52but I guess that's one reason

07:53it was meant to be a three-season show.

07:55But what do you guys think?

07:57Do you think they should have kept

07:58in the scene for the Acolyte?

07:59Let me know in the comments down below.

Category

Transcript

Be the first to comment

Recommended