YouTuber Grace Randolph, who has lavished The Acolyte with praise, admits that Lucasfilm and The Walt Disney Company “poked the bear” with the show.
Grace Randolph via Beyond The Trailer YouTube
In a thread posted to X, Randolph wrote, “I understand why some of you are frustrated with Star Wars right now & I’m by no means trying to tell you your feelings are wrong. I DO feel the loudest voices against The Acolyte are taking on hate speech qualities and that does NOT help your cause.”
She continued, “As for me, I genuinely like the show. I’m excited for you to see Ep 4 on Tuesday – the best of the 4 episodes I saw in advance. My The Acolyte videos are meant to be a space for people who DO like the show, and those who might not like it but are open to discussing it.
Grace Randolph on X
She concluded, “Does Lucasfilm poke the bear? Absolutely. Should there be a broader range of Star Wars content? Absolutely.”
“But I feel The Acolyte is genuinely a good show with awful timing, and is sitting down at a table where the odds are stacked against it. Which is unfortunate,” she finished.
Grace Randolph on X
Randolph previously claimed that Disney and Lucasfilm would struggle to cast actors for the shows and films moving forward because of the “level of hate” The Acolyte was receiving. She then implied that actor Lee Jung-Jae was receiving such hate albeit she never provided any evidence of this.
She wrote, “I will say that I think it’s going to be very hard for Disney to cast upcoming Star Wars projects, because this level of hate just isn’t worth it – even for up & coming actors. Like poor Lee Jung-Jae – coming off of Squid Game, doing a great job on The Acolyte, and for what?”
Grace Randolph on X
Interestingly, Randolph polled her followers and a majority of people who responded to it indicated they were “done” with Star Wars.
Grace Randolph on X
Despite Randolph trying to imply the critics of the show are engaging in hate speech or directing hate at actors, the truth is that people who saw this show do not like it. The show’s audience score on Rotten Tomatoes currently sits at 17% with the average rating being 1.4 out of 5.
Star Wars: The Acolyte Rotten Tomatoes scores
In fact, even in the comment section of Randolph’s own review and breakdown of the show’s third episode her own viewers were critical of the show.
“NGL THIS EP WAS SO CRINGE,” reads one of the top comments.
Another states, “This isn’t Star Wars , this is Disney fan fiction . Star Wars ended with Lucas in Ep 3.”
“Look when you defend a show where even rocks catch on fire, then you know your the problem. An excuse to retcon as the thread, that’s disrespecting the source material that came before it,” another posted.
Still another wrote, “The episode was horrible. The writing was so bad. First Mae was like ‘I love you Osha’ then few minutes later ‘I’m going to kill you’. The cringe Frozen-like chanting, ‘What have you done??’ 3x in a row, creating force babies. Anakin’s force conception (because he is the chosen one) isn’t special anymore. Another way to slowly destroy the heroes all Star Wars fans know and love.”
Comments on Grace Randolph’s review and breakdown of The Acolyte Episode 3
One person paraphrased The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King by J.R.R. Tolkien, “‘Evil is not able to create anything new, it can only distort and destroy what has been invented or made by forces of good’ – J.R.R. Tolkien.”
Another wrote, “Grace tries incredibly hard to defend this show.”
One questioned how the show has such a big budget and compared it to Dune: Part Two, “Dune 2 budget – 190 million. Acolyte budget – 180 million. How is this possible?”
Another added, “More sophisticated?! Huge plot holes. A candle wiped out the uber powerful witches! ‘Come on man.'”
Comments on Grace Randolph’s review and breakdown of The Acolyte Episode 3
Another simply wrote, “I’ll save you 20 minutes… it’s trash.”
One person noted, “Apparently you saw a different show/episode than we did.”
Still another stated, “First rule of storytelling is know your audience. Disney for some reason can’t accomplish this.”
“19 minutes of excuses for bad writing,” wrote another.
Comments on Grace Randolph’s review and breakdown of The Acolyte Episode 3
What do you make of Randolph saying that Lucasfilm “poked the bear,” but also attacking critics by accusing them of engaging in “hate speech?”
Yes, I’ll value the opinion of the “you’re racist if you don’t watch or like the little mermaid 2023” girl.
Hate speech if you don’t like it? Isn’t that a critic? If a critic agrees with the producer, then she’s obviously a sycophant. At least Disney’s greatest achievement is corrupting movie criticism. Woke is the miracle worker. Alienating customers at a rapid pace.