‘The Acolyte’ Makes Massive Retcon To Star Wars Lore, Reveals Lesbian Space Witches Created Life From The Force Long Before Darth Plagueis
And there you have it, Star Wars fans.
In sadly but unsurprisingly delivering on previous whispers, the third episode of The Acolyte has made an absolutely massive, ostensibly identity politics-motivated change to one of the franchise’s most pivotal pieces of original, pre-Disney lore.
In current Star Wars canon, the power to create life via the direct manipulation of the Force is considered a near-impossible feat, even for the most storied of its users.
So much so, in fact, that prior to The Acolyte‘s third episode, there had only ever been one individual who was reportedly able to pull it off: the infamous Sith Lord Darth Plagueis.
“Did you ever hear the Tragedy of Darth Plagueis the Wise?” recalled Sheev Palpatine to Anakin Skywalker in Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. “Darth Plagueis was a Dark Lord of the Sith, so powerful and so wise he could use the Force to influence the midichlorians to create life.”
“He had such a knowledge of the dark side that he could even keep the ones he cared about from dying,” explained the soon-to-be Galactic Emperor as he manipulated the young Jedi’s fear of losing Padmé.” The dark side of the Force is a pathway to many abilities some consider to be unnatural. He became so powerful, the only thing he was afraid of was losing his power, which eventually, of course, he did. Unfortunately, he taught his apprentice everything he knew, then his apprentice killed him in his sleep. Ironic. He could save others from death, but not himself.”
Interestingly, in the no longer canon, pre-House of Mouse Star Wars ‘Legends’ era, it was established that not only had Plagueis actually been able to create life from the Force, but that he was directly responsible for the immaculate conception of Anakin Skywalker himself.
As recalled in the 24th chapter of author James Luceno’s 2008 Darth Plagueis novel, “Drunk on newfound power, then, he had attempted an even more unthinkable act: to bring into being a creation of his own. Not merely the impregnation of some hapless, mindless creature, but the birth of a Forceful being. The ability to dominate death had been a step in the right direction, but it wasn’t equivalent to pure creation. And so he had stretched out—indeed, as if invisible, transubstantiated—to inform every being of his existence, and impact all of them: Muunoid or insectoid, secure or dispossessed, free or enslaved. A warrior waving a banner in triumph on a battlefield. A ghost infiltrating a dream. But ultimately to no end.”
However, far from being a bust, Plagueis eventually comes to learn nine years later that his actions resulted in the Force pushing back against his plan by using his energies to conceive not a Sith legend, but “a human being to restore balance to the galaxy”.
Regardless of this fun bit of EU trivia, thanks to The Acolyte showrunner Leslye Headland, Plagueis is no longer the first Force user to manipulate the universal life energy to create life.
Instead, that honor now belongs to the newly-introduced leader of an unknown band of Force sensitive witches (who for some bizarre reason aren’t Nightsisters, because sure, Disney, why not), Mother Aniseya, as portrayed by actress Jodie Turner-Smith.
As detailed in the show’s third episode, decades before Plagueis even began his study of the Force, Aniseya used it to bring to life two embryos within her fellow witch Mother Koril (Margarita Levieva), the pair of which would soon after be birthed into the world as series protagonists Mae and Osha.
So there you have it. Lesbian space witch covens being given credit for a lore-impactful act originally done by a powerful male character beloved by fans of the franchise’s pre-Disney audience.
The Force is female indeed.
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