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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.
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