In February, AFL revealed Disney’s perverse system of discriminatory race and sex quotas in front of and behind the camera by filing a federal civil rights complaint with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).
In the trailer STAR WARS: The Acolyte, it was stated that this was about power and who is allowed to use it. That's meta, because that's exactly what is happening behind the scenes of Lucasfilm as well, where no one loyal to George Lucas's STAR WARS is allowed any power, not even George Lucas...
So The Acolyte trailer is out and it might have been intriguing were it not for the fact that we already know what this series is namely Kathleen Kennedy's rewrite of all Star Wars In-Her-Image. That is what Leslie Headland is doing here, as it was said in the trailer, it's about power and who is allowed to wield it, and that would be Kathleen Kennedy and her acolytes that have reshaped Star Wars into a female-centric brand by and for activists. John Favreau fought hard to make Star Wars for everyone with the Mandalorian, but Kathleen Kennedy made that a shadow of itself, when she got rid of the load-bearing pillar to his plans that was Gina Carano. The whole Mando-verse kind of crumbled after that. At this point I don't even know how much interest there is in that Mando and Grogu movie. That in whole, or in part, will be replacing season 4, but after what can only be described as a very peculiar development history, we will now be getting the series the fan base has been dreading and actively rooting against, namely The Acolyte.
To go with the trailer release, The Hollywood Reporter dropped a puff piece with showrunner Leslie Headland where it was stated Star Wars: The Acolyte Creator Leslie Headland is currently putting the finishing touches on a 4-year Journey that started with Lucasfilm boss Kathleen Kennedy buying her overall series pitch in the room. At the time her hook was Frozen meets Kill Bill and now the first trailer provides a few more of the puzzle pieces set a century before Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, Amandla Stenberg's mysterious character appears to be hunting Jedi during a time of Peace near the end of the High Republic era. Jumping forward a bit the show will be taking a page out of Rashomon’s Playbook exploring different perspectives on the same events. That could have been cool were it not for the fact that we already know what this series is and how it intends to shape Star Wars into something else. To wit, the puff piece continues with praising the destroyer of Star Wars, namely The Last Jedi director Rian Johnson and pushing the link between him and Leslie Headland.
The article reads Russian Doll co-creator Headland's first job as a writer was on FX short-lived cult classic series Terriers from 2010, and her first produced TV script Manifest Destiny happened to be directed by Star Wars: The Last Jedi filmmaker Rian Johnson. Headland was not only inspired by Johnson's work [uh oh, Red Alert right there], but also his demeanor on set.
“I love Rian. He was the first director I ever watched work. So getting to see him work on that show was, oh my God, it was just a dream!” Headland recalls. He was so kind and so quiet, and yet, he was so clear about what he wanted. He never seemed stressed out, and I wish I was more like him. He's like the patron saint of calm directors.”
Calm he may be, but he was still the one who buried the past, meaning George Lucas’s Star Wars and killed it. Since he had to, so Kathleen Kennedy could replace it with her Star Wars. And up to this, Kathleen Kennedy’s Star Wars in its purest form, has been the High Republic publishing initiative, which naturally. will be referenced and canonized on screen in The Acolyte.
The Hollywood Reporter asked, or were instructed to ask, at any rate, “Fan service is always a complicated subject with Star Wars. Some people want to see as many familiar faces as possible. While others prefer Uncharted Territory by taking place a century before the Phanthom Menace. Does that inherently mean that the show won't be loaded with cameos?” To which Headland answered, “That's right, but for example you will see a little bit of Vestra Row, I guess that's how you pronounce it, from the High Republic novels. She ends up being live action for the first time. So that's definitely a cameo for that audience, I would say. That audience being the High Republic audience, amounts to what, I don't know 112 or so, but that's the audience for Kathleen Kennedy Star Wars, and Bob Iger signed off on that. And with George Lucas bending the knee to Iger, then you might be getting a lot more of that.
As we have covered extensively in past videos, there is a proxy fight going on with Nelson Peltz’s Trian group who demands two seats at Disney's board, or what presently passes for Disney's board at any rate, you see as a general thing the purpose of a board is to hold the CEO accountable to the shareholders, but Disney's board doesn't do that. As everyone on it has been handpicked from Iger’s friends and acquaintances, meaning that Disney doesn't actually have a board. As rather than holding Iger accountable to the shareholders, what passes for a board enables and signs off on everything he wants to do and protects him from the shareholders, when that goes to hell. If Peltz and the Trian group were to get those two seats at the board, Iger's reign of questionable fiduciary legality would be at an instant end. So team Iger will stop at nothing to prevent that from happening, and to this end George Lucas just sided with the likes of Black Rock and Vanguard and State Street, as he bent the knee and kissed the ring.
Our good friend Valiant Renegade speculated that one reason Lucas may have done that is because his wife sits on the board of JP Morgan Chase, and JP Morgan Chase are very much so in bed with Black Rock. In fact, it was only a few days ago that the CEO of JP Morgan Chase publicly endorsed Iger, because Iger runs Disney the way that they want Disney run, and they couldn't care less about the Disney Legacy or any of the other shareholders. None of which changes the fact that Lucas still signed off on this. The statement credited to him, which no doubt came straight from Disney marketing, reads, “Creating magic is not for amateurs.” (Which is a dig at Peltz and the Trian Group which are no Amateurs.) “When I sold Lucasfilm just over a decade ago I was delighted to become a Disney shareholder because of my longtime admiration for its iconic brand and Bob Iger’s leadership.”
Well that was grandiose, but I don't blame Lucas for feeling that way a decade ago. Though I do blame him if he still feels that way today, after both Star Wars, Indiana Jones, and Willow have all been killed on Kennedy's watch, which Bob Iger Sat by and allowed to happen. George Lucas has in the past indicated how disappointed he's been with some of the choices made and backing Nelson Peltz was his chance to actually bring about meaningful change even if that might have annoyed his wife, but instead he blew it! The statement continues, “When Bob Iger recently returned to the company during a difficult time, I was relieved no one knows Disney better. I remain a significant shareholder because I have full faith and confidence in the power of Disney and Bob's track record of driving long-term value. I have voted all of my shares for Disney's 12 directors and urge other shareholders to do the same.”
We would love to know what motivated that because again voting for Disney's current board is voting against their being a board, as the only thing this board does is give Bob Iger personal Supremacy over all things Disney, which has not worked out very well this past decade. Although we've only really seen the effects of Iger’s mismanagement, this past half a decade it's true that creating magic may not be for amateurs but the supposed professionals working under Iger have positively killed it as The Acolyte will no doubt demonstrate once again Iger’s Disney is now the place where magic goes to die and that is what George Lucas just voted for…
2:25 - 2:50 Frieren 4
Masamune and his friends then start playing pain-inducing games. They are completely unaware that they don't actually feel any pain at all. The next day, Masamune is invited by Mutsumi Sagami, a classmate he dislikes, to visit the steel mill with her. Arriving at the mill's fifth blast furnace, they both find a girl there who looked like a teenager just like them but acted like a wild child and could only speak in an infantile manner. Mutsumi, who is the one taking care of the girl by preventing her from going outside, makes Masamune clean up after her. Mutsumi orders Masamune to come three times a week from now on. A while later, one night, he was told by Akimune that fleeing the town was impossible. Akimune then works the night shift at the mill afterward, only to never return.
Masamune visits the steel mill alone and feeds the unknown girl a sandwich before naming her Itsumi. While Itsumi is playing in the courtyard, Sagami and Tokimune both show up. According to Sagami's claims, Itsumi was a woman of the gods and said that if she was presented in front of them, she would be forgiven by the sacred machine someday. Tokimune debunks his claims by recalling that Masamune's father said something different, with Masamune secretly listening. Since then, Masamune has been visiting the same blast furnace alone, bringing books for Itsumi to read. When Mutsumi was absent from school, Masamune returns from the steel mill and meets Yuko Sonobe, Mutsumi's classmate, who is delivering her school documents to her. The two visit Mutsumi's home and meet her. Mutsumi while speaking to them about her relationship with Sagami, reveals to them that he is actually her adoptive father.
Masamune, Mutsumi, Sonobe and their classmates undertake a test of courage in an abandoned railway tunnel near the town. Sonobe, who was paired with Masamune, creates a graffiti drawing to mark the destination on the tunnel wall, drawing a symbol with her and Masamune's names on it. The sight of the graffiti then surprises Masamune. Sonobe explains that she thought Masamune liked her because he let her ride in the passenger seat. When the other classmates arrived, Sonobe starts fleeing towards the tunnel's exit before Masamune and the others chase after her. They make it out, only to see many fissures open up in the sky with Sonobe starting to emit light from her body. Just as Sonobe was explaining about how the blatant reveal of her brief relationship with Masamune was the reason why she fled, the light spreads out like a crack. Immediately after that, smoke rises from the steel mill, and they completely shroud Sonobe, causing her to disappear and close up the fissures in the sky. The townspeople gather at the community center following the incident. According to Sagami's claims, the factory smoke is a "sacred wolf" that fills the fissures in the sky, and that it can also crack people's hearts. Masamune flees the scene and remorsefully sits down in a corner of the town's shopping street. Tokimune, who was looking for him, arrives. Masamune then berates Tokimune, thinking that he and Akimune were hiding the fact that they knew the truth about Itsumi's origins. Tokimune vaguely reveals that Itsumi actually doesn't belong in their world...
