Why Did ‘The Acolyte’ Backtrack on Its Big Reylo Moment?
Season 1 of The Acolyte has come and gone, and with it, introduced a new ship to the galaxy far, far away: Oshamir, a.k.a. the fictional romance between Osha and Qimir. Well, maybe not quite as fictional as we might’ve thought, because according to creator Leslye Headland, a smooch was, at one point, in the cards.
Warning! Spoilers ahead for all episodes of The Acolyte.
Will The Acolyte go down in history as being a perfect TV show? No. But what it did offer us was a mostly fun mystery romp through the High Republic era, a relatively unexplored point on the Star Wars timeline—at least, where the Disney+ spinoffs are concerned. Furthermore, The Acolyte managed to subvert expectations in nearly every sense, making our good guys (in this case, the Jedi) out to be, well, not so good, and our big bad … really kind of hot, actually.
You see, The Acolyte may have suffered from any number of problems, but one thing it did manage to knock out of the park was its villain, Qimir (Manny Jacinto), who gets a memorable introduction in episode 4. He’s one of the few intriguing characters left by the end of the season after the whole fiasco on Brendok (this isn’t about you, Sol—RIP). Oh, but his lightsaber skills and cortosis armor were hardly the only things that caught viewers’ attention. It’s 2024, you should know better! No, rather, it was his arms—I mean, pseudo-romance with Osha (Amandla Stenberg) that broke the internet. *Sighs and opens AO3.*
Is Oshamir canon? Leslye Headland and Manny Jacinto say … yes?
It was the ever-so-gentle, Austenian brushing of hands that sent waves through Star Wars Twitter: Osha and Qimir’s brief touch in the closing moments of The Acolyte episode 8. While the notorious dark sider hideout on what we presume to be Bal’demnic isn’t exactly known for being the Sandals Resort of the galaxy, the planet brought these star-crossed lovers together after Qimir, well, killed a bunch of Osha’s friends, ditched her twin sis Mae, and kidnapped her. Enemies to lovers, who?!
We’ve borne witness to Osha and Qimir’s is it right, is it wrong kind of flirting since episode 4, where the not-quite-a-Sith launched phase 1 of his scheme to seduce Osha to the dark side. His plan? Strip naked in front of his captive, invite her to join him in taking a long, sexy dip in the ocean, feed her soup, and help talk her through her Jedi problems (i.e. “when you lose everything, that’s when you’re finally free”).
The Acolyte obviously had bigger fish to fry in its first season, but the show did seem to dance around the question of whether or not Osha and Qimir were really a thing. After all, we’ve seen Sith Lords cleverly maneuver even the most heroic of Jedi to the dark side with promises of power or eternal life—which seldom ends well. However, even if it didn’t make the final cut, it seems like Jacinto and showrunner Leslye Headland are full-steam ahead on the #Oshamir train, as they recently revealed that a kiss scene was being considered in early drafts of the script.
Speaking with Entertainment Weekly, Headland spoke of the “romantic overtones” to Osha and Qimir’s relationship, telling the publication, “A kiss was definitely on the table.” We were robbed! But no, actually, Headland had a pretty good reason for why the two never locked lips, saying, “I felt like it wasn’t earned yet. For one, I felt like they earned each other’s respect, they earned each other’s allegiance, but physical intimacy beyond a Jane Austen brush, it just felt wrong, and the cast agreed.”
Alas, The Touch. It seems like the decision to omit an Oshamir kiss was a team effort, as Jacinto explained how the final shot “alludes to something more romantic,” rather than flat-out canonizing a relationship that’s only had a handful of episodes to develop. He then namedropped one of the most contentious ships from the Disney sequel trilogy, adding, “It also alludes to something I think a lot of Star Wars fans are yearning for. In this IP, you have the ships like Reylo, and you have all those relationships that people just innately want to see—these romantic relationships that people want to see in Star Wars.” He’s right to draw parallels between Oshamir and Reylo, of course, but at what cost?
It’s probably a good thing The Acolyte didn’t repeat Reylo—for now
Look, I’m all about Star Wars going full romance. After all, that is what George Lucas set out to do with his extremely soapy original trilogy. But I’m also skeptical of adding these kinds of arcs purely for the sake of A.) appeasing fans, or B.) making two characters kiss just ‘cuz. It kind of seems like this is exactly why J.J. Abrams made Rey (Daisy Ridley) and Kylo Ren’s (Adam Driver) relationship canon in The Rise of Skywalker—fanservice. Not that I’m vehemently opposed to the ship, per se. I just didn’t subscribe to their chemistry. Plus, it never actually felt like Rey was tempted to fall to the dark side. In the end, it just felt like a half-baked attempt to pull a romantic angle between the “good” and “bad” characters in some test of our morality, which we’ve all seen before, and done better.
The Acolyte has the potential to right Reylo’s wrongs with Oshamir, but perhaps, a little further down the line. In the same interview, Headland wisely noted that “The Sith code begins with ‘Peace is a lie, there is only passion,’” explaining, “It seems really obvious to me that this would be an element of their relationship, and to see the beginnings of something like that—whether it’s romantic or not, I don’t know, but you don’t want to be like, ‘Here’s the whole package, kids!’ You definitely want to show that this is a simmering thing as opposed to a full boil.”
In a way, Oshamir acts as a narrative foil to other doomed love affairs we’ve seen in Star Wars: Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen) and Padmé (Natalie Portman), Rey and Ben Solo. After all, the Jedi are encouraged to love, but not to become attached. If Osha and Qimir become romantically linked in a prospective second season, only for someone (cough cough, Darth Plagueis) to tear them apart, well … this might be the perfect thing to fully lure Osha to the dark side—for good. Plus, Headland is 100% right in her assertion that you’ve got to give these sorts of things time to “simmer.” Sooooo … The Acolyte season 2 confirmation, when?!
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