[Ed. note: This post discusses events through episode 4 of The Acolyte.]
Men only want to hear one thing, and it’s disgusting: Wookie Jedi. According to my research, women and nonbinary people want it too. In fact, “Wookie Jedi” is one of the most exciting Star Wars-related phrases you can utter, a character idea so cool it doesn’t seem legal. Well, in the High Republic era of Star Wars, it was Is: Burryaga, a young Wookie Jedi, plays an important role in the many High Republic novels you can read, and The Acolyte finally gave him a counterpart on the screen. Yes, I’m talking about Kelnacca, the Wookie with the evil topknot that the series has made dirty. It cannot stay this way.
To summarize: The narrative backbone of The Acolyte So far, it has been Mae (Amandla Stenberg) and her mission to kill the Jedi who were present at the death of the Circle that raised her and her lost twin Osha (also Stenberg). One of those Jedi was Kelnacca, who was next on Mae’s hit list in The Acolyte‘s fourth episode. HoweverInstead of a gritty fight between Kelnacca and Mae that showcases the sheer strength of a Force-sensitive Wookiee, we get an anticlimax. There is no showdown with Kelnacca because Mae’s masked master beat her to it. He’s dead.
Hey Lucasfilm: How are you going to make Kelnacca like that? Wookiees have been playing second fiddle to their relatively hairless co-stars for decades. Does Kelnacca even have a scene with another Wookiee that doesn’t involve a non-Wookie? I don’t think so. You failed the Wookiee Bechdel test, The Acolyte.
In 2016, when Netflix Stranger Things When The 40th Anniversary debuted, fans were up in arms about the death of minor character Barb, played by Shannon Purser. “Justice for Barb,” fans chanted, mobilizing online. I didn’t really understand it then and I don’t understand it now, but I guess it’s nice to feel part of something and to know that a lot of other people seem to care about marginal characters on TV that you like.
Such is the case with Kelnacca. I can’t be the only one here who wants my badass Wookie boy to have his field day and destroy…whoever the villains are at this point in Star Wars history. Tax evaders?
Anyway, justice for Kelnacca! If The Acolyte gives us no flashback episode with him in the lead role, I will quite Cross. Don’t make me write another blog. I’ll do it.
