- Created by Leslye Headland
- Based on Star Wars created by George Lucas
- June 4, 2024 to Present
- Disney+
Cast
- Osha, Mae Aniseya-Amandla Stenberg
- Young Mae and Osha-Leah and Lauren Brady respectively
- Garethan Sol-Lee Jung-jae
- Yord Fandar-Charlie Barnett
- Jecki Lon-Dafne Keen
- Vernestra Rwoh-Rebecca Henderson
- Mother Aniseya-Jodie Turner-Smith
- Indara-Carrie-Anne Moss
- Qimir-Manny Jacinto
- Torbin-Dean-Charles Chapman
- Kelnacca-Joonas Suotamo
Guest Cast
- Tasi Lowa-Thara Schöön
- Mother Koril-Margarita Levieva
- Eurus-Abigail Thorn
A group of Jedi investigate a series of crimes by a mysterious assassin.
This is rough like sandpaper on a chapped butthole. Maybe worse.
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Destiny
- Directed by video essayist Kogonada
- Written by Jasmyne Flournoy and Eileen Shim
- June 11, 2024
The gripping origin of Mae and Osha as well as a detailed explanation of the fire they have been talking about.
After the first two disappointing episodes I’m kind of not interested in why Osha and Mae (Amandla Stenberg) are the way they are. We learned all we needed to know from the dialogue of the two premiere episodes. All this episode does is add questions. Not to the plot but to the thought processes of those making the show.
There is a great deal of superficial philosophy in this episode meant to appear deep. But first let’s discuss who is spouting the philosophy. It involves a coven of witches on the planet Brendok that live in a stone fortress built into a mountain. That is important so keep it in mind for later.
I’m not against having a message. But the story should always come first as I have said multiple times here. And there’s clearly a message in this particular episode. This coven of witches have isolated themselves because the galaxy does not tolerate women like them. Clearly, it’s a metaphor for something. It just seems a little odd to choose to air an episode with such an overt metaphor during Pride Month.
These witches use the thread which feels like a poor version of The Force but it isn’t a weapon but that is exactly how they use it. First to Force push, err, just ‘push’ and in another to highjack the mind of Padawan Torbin (Dean-Charles Chapman). And threaten the Jedi with him too. Because that is peaceful. They come off more as straight up Sith than anything.
The Jedi come in acting as if they owned the place. They are on a planet that’s not a part of the Republic yet keep walking around like it is. It reminds me of the logic Steven Seagal uses in his movies. A foreign government can go into another country and do as they please with no concern over repercussions. I know it’s Star Wars and it has space wizards and things like that, but I have a hard time being cool with this. It makes no sense but it does get them to the next leg of the plot.
The Jedi have come to test Mae and Osha because they can just do that at will outside of the Republic. However these witches used their powers to create Mae and Osha to become witches after participating in an ascension ceremony. Not exactly sure how that helps and I am pretty sure neither do the writers.
The creation of the twins by the witches was maybe the big revelation of the show. Previously the only known wielder of such power was Darth Plagueis the Wise. And there was the implication that it was difficult to do. Here this coven of witches do it with little difficulty. Not that much harder than placing your Amazon order. Is this a show about how much more powerful they are? Or did the people behind this episode not know much about Star Wars.
And the chant of the coven made me laugh. “The power of one. The power of two. The power of many.” It sounded like something from an empowerment seminar. It’s just the epitome of bad writing. Shallow meant to appear deep. Silly taken seriously.
This episode hinges on the child actors playing the young Mae and Osha. Leah and Lauren Brady like most child actors are okay at a good point but okay is not enough when you are the center of something. These twin girls got the parts because they’re twins and because of their passing resemblance to the actress who plays their adult counterpart. But they’re not good. They’re more speaking their lines than they are acting. In the brief moments we saw of them in the first two episodes it was acceptable but now as it goes on you see just how not good they are.
Characters felt inconsistent rather than following through or adhering to things they only said moments before. And as a flashback episode, it did nothing. It showed nothing that justified the Jedi from the previous episode committing suicide. It made his actions confusing.
The people that came up with the idea for this episode and then wrote the script and allowed it to air assumed explanation made things better. But you don’t always need to see what actually happened. And in this case when they showed us what actually happened, it did nothing to illuminate the story. It created issues. Like showing the fire Mae set.
And this is where they really went wrong with doing a full one episode of something they only needed to discuss. This coven of witches lived in a mountain fortress made predominantly of stone. Mae steals Osha’s journal. After locking Osha in in her room Mae decided to set the journal on fire. This fortress built in a mountain and predominantly made of stone goes up like tissue paper soaked in gasoline. Think about that. How does that work?
With bad acting Destiny was certainly a downturn for the series. And it did nothing to help with the story.
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Day
- Directed by Alex Garcia Lopez
- Written by Claire Kiechel and Kor Adana
- June 18, 2024
The Jedi finally meet Mae’s master.
As the episode progressed I found myself asking what does the character of Mae (Amandla Stenberg) get out of all this? One would presume revenge, but this episode seemed to imply that wasn’t her goal necessarily. She didn’t come off as too interested in it. She was more fearful of getting killed by her master. The character’s level of indifference to killing was palpable. Or could be just the writing.
I have no idea why the BDSM Sith sent Mae to go kill the Jedi and then killed the Jedi himself. It just makes absolutely no sense. You are testing (maybe) your apprentice and you’re there to do the job instead? What was the point of ANY of it from a plot perspective or even logically? That makes two of the three hyped Jedi plot devices and not actual characters. Master Indara (Carrie-Anne Moss) and Master Kelnacca (Joonas Suotamo) were both pushed heavily in marketing and what we get of them amounts to ten minutes total maybe in this series.
The episode is set on the planet Khofar which doesn’t seem to have any kind of organized government. At least not one that is worth much of anything. I bring this up because our Jedi land at a settlement (though I’m not sure if it really is one) and then proceed on foot on a long physically exhausting trek to where Kelnacca is. I’m not sure why they couldn’t have landed a little closer rather than tire themselves.
Which brings up the tracker Basil. The Jedi have always had a level of extrasensory perception. They might not be able to pinpoint the exact location, but they can get close. So not only why do they need a tracker but why land very, very far away? They exposed themselves to attack from an enemy they know is heading to the EXACT SAME SPOT!
In a prime example of this shows fantastic writing and amazing acting Osha (Amandla Stenberg) tells Master Sol (Lee Jung-jae) she doesn’t want to go on the capture of Mae and then Sol essentially says “Pretty please? We could really use your help” to which she responds “Sure.” I guess it was meant to create some tension or drama, but it was one more example of the poorly done efforts here. There is no surprise or uncertainty about anything that happens. Things are so obvious or blatantly telegraphed that Helen Keller would see where it was heading!
There appears to be a budding relationship between Osha and Jecki Lon (Dafne Keen). Considering they barely interacted so far and Jecki demonstrated indifference when they did it seems, well, forced. The two have no chemistry. Somebody just decided they needed to go together so it’s going to happen whether or not the two actors or characters work well together.
The big moment of the episode is when the Sith finally shows themselves. And you really will not care. It looked cool but had no impact. You need to care in some way about the character and we got really not much. No indication of their level of evil. A small paragraph of dialogue portrays nothing. We got an idea of Palpatine but nothing for the leather guy.
Day doesn’t give us too much. It inches the story forward. And that’s being generous.
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This is bad and working hard to change Star Wars for no discernable good reason.
Disney has been going really hard to make the Jedi the bad guys. Why? At its heart Star Wars is a good versus evil story. This is quite possibly the worst written and just generally boring bit of Star Wars you will ever encounter. The first four episodes have been lackluster with questionable logic. The writing is abysmal. I’m going to see this at the end, but I don’t think you should.
Warren Watched A Movie 