Who Is the Sith in The Acolyte (And Is It Who Everyone Thinks)? (2024)

Warning: This article contains spoilers for The Acolyte.

The Acolyte is a Star Wars series that has generated much conversation. The series, set during the final days of the High Republic and about 100 years before the Empire, follows two twins: Mae and Osha (Amandla Stenberg). While Osha is a former Jedi padawan, Osha works for a mysterious dark side user to hunt and kill the four Jedi who were there the night their coven of Force witches died. While the series is still unfolding the mystery of what happened that fateful night, another mystery has appeared: the identity of the masked dark side user Mae is working for.

The series places great importance on how Mae does not know her master's identity, leading fans to speculate who they can be. The presence of a masked figure in a story tends to imply that the reveal at the end will be someone the audience is familiar with; just think of any Scooby-Doo cartoon. Yet that isn't often the case, as The Legend of Korra's first season villain Amon was not a character the audience was familiar with before his unmasking.

While many, us included, have speculated that it might be Darth Plagueis's master, Darth Tenebrous, the fact that it is a mystery means the creators might be building to reveal it is somebody audiences have already met. Following Episode 4, "Day," all fingers point to it being one character: Qimir (Manny Jacinto). Here is where all the clues point to how Leslye Headland might be paying off yet another popular fan theory with a new spin or how this might all be misdirection.

Qimir Has All the Tells of Being a Sith in The Acolyte

The Acolyte

Action

Adventure

Drama

Sci-Fi

See Also

How many planets can Starkiller Base destroy?The Star Wars Games That Revolutionized Lightsaber CombatDie Drehorte von Star Wars VII weltweit | Reisewelt11.1m - High end account | ID 212074247 | PlayerAuctions

Cast

Dafne Keen , Lee Jung-jae , Amandla Stenberg , Jodie Turner-Smith , Joonas Suotamo , Carrie-Anne Moss , Margarita Levieva , Charlie Barnett , Dean-Charles Chapman

Seasons

1

Studio

Disney+, Lucasfilm

Franchise

Star Wars

Number of Episodes

8

Streaming Service(s)

Disney+

Franchise(s)

Star Wars

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Qimir was introduced in The Acolyte Episode 2, "Revenge/Justice," as a smuggler working with Mae. He provides her with the poison to kill Jedi Master Trobin while also reminding her that she still needs to kill a Jedi without a weapon, as is her master's desire. Then, in Episode 4, "Day," Qimir drops a lot of questions on Mae about her working for her masters, nudging her towards her goal of needing to kill a Jedi without a weapon, almost like a master instructing his student without them knowing.

When he is interrogated by Master Sol, Yord, Jeckie, and Osha, he says he got his start running guns for the Hutts, and at the episode's conclusion, the pair of smugglers who find the Jedi Master Kelnacca are speaking Huttese. While we know he did track down Kelnacca for Mae, a more interesting note is that he knows the Jedi's exact location, the same one where Kelnacca would be found dead later by Mae. Consequently, Kelnacca seems to be killed when Qimir is away from Mae. While audiences last saw him "trapped" by Mae, the fact that it was the last time he was seen and the mysterious Sith user just appeared on the planet and that the only character not present in the scene is Qimir seems to be pointing to him being the Sith.

Qimir's Sith identity might have been teased back in his first scene. When he talks with Mae, he says, "The Jedi justify their galactic dominance in the name of peace. But that peace is a lie." Peace is a lie also happens to be part of the Sith code. In that scene and a good portion of Episode 4, he is nudging Mae along in her goal to complete her quest. It is very clear that Qimir is the Sith or that it is what the audience wants us to think.

Qimir Being the Sith Might Be a Spin on the Darth Jar Jar Fan Theory

We've discussed in the past how The Acolyte series creator Leslye Headland's affinity with larger Star Wars mythology has likely allowed her to bring in popular fan theories but with a unique twist, like Mae and Osha seemingly being a callback to the dual nature of Darth Revan from Knights of the Old Republic. In The Acolyte, Headland appears to be doing something similar with Qimir if he is the Sith villain. He starts as a simple, unassuming comedic character that the character does not realize is an all-powerful Force user, an evil twist on the Yoda reveal in The Empire Strikes Back.

Fans might recognize this as the basis for the popular Darth Jar Jar fan theory. In October 2015, shortly before the release of The Force Awakens, Reddit user Lumpawarroo made a post outlining a theory that Jar Jar Binks, the comedic character introduced in The Phantom Menace, was a secret Dark Lord of the Sith. The evidence provided to support the theory included Jar Jar waving his hands around being some Force persuasion, the character having strong physical coordination that not only dodges blasters before they are shot but his seeming clumsy mistakes on the Naboo battlefield being similar to the marital arts style Zui quan, often known as "drunken boxing."

Finally, it is suggested that Lucas intended for the prequel and original trilogy to mirror one another and rhyme like a poem, that Jar Jar himself is an inverse of Yoda. Where Yoda was a little comedic creature found in the swamp concealing his true identity as a great Jedi, Jar Jar Binks was a tall comedic creature found in the swamp concealing his true identity as a powerful Sith. The idea is that Jar Jar Binks and Yoda are two characters that start as comedic stars who reveal themselves to be more than they appear, which is very similar to how The Acolyte plays Qimir.

Now, the Darth Jar Jar was a fan theory. Nothing George Lucas ever said supports this theory, and there are plenty of examples within the text of the prequels that would easily dispute it. Yet it was a fun fan theory that caught on because it was riding the anticipation of The Force Awakens and also allowed fans to try to reconcile with their often overly harsh criticism over the character of Jar Jar Binks and allow them to cope with this very silly character that they thought "ruined" Star Wars. Lucasfilm is even embracing this idea in a manner, as Darth Jar Jar will appear in the upcoming Lego Star Wars: Rebuilding the Galaxy special, which will see a comedic spin on the idea of Star Wars history being broken and rewritten. So, while Darth Jar Jar is not canon, the higher-ups embrace the idea.

Qimir Might Be a Forgotten Star Wars Character

If Qimir is the secret Sith, his exact identity might be hidden in plain sight, and this is another case of The Acolyte pulling from the EU while changing part of it to fit the new, larger Star Wars canon. The masked Sith figure has remained a mystery for the series, not even being identified, but it is possible it could be Darth Venamis. Darth Venamis was introduced in the now Star Was Legends novel Darth Plagueis in 2012. Darth Venamis was a second Sith apprentice of Darth Tenebrous, who broke the Sith Rule of Two since he already had Darth Plagueis as his apprentice. Plagueis later would kill Darth Venamis and saw his use of the title "Darth" as illegitimate.

While Qimir could be Darth Venamis, it would require changing the character's species from his non-canon appearance, as the book established that he was a Bith (the species that plays in the Cantina Band) like Darth Tenebrous, whom Plagueis suspected to be Tenebrous's secret child.

Obviously, this is a lesser-known character, one that many Star Wars fans don't even know about, so one would think changing the character's species would not be a big deal, but as seen by some viewers' over-the-top reaction to harmless retcons in the show, nothing is off the table in terms of small things that makes some Star Wars fans very mad. Yet this would provide a new wrinkle to the story of The Acolyte, not only tying Qimir and Mae into being a threat to Plagueis and his future apprentice, Palpatine, but also might pay off a bigger clue that is hiding in plain sight.

If Qimir is the masked Sith figure, he might not be the "master" but instead an apprentice who looks to overthrow his master by bringing on an apprentice of his own. This would not be the first time fans see this storyline play out, as it was the story in the now Star Was Legends game The Force Unleashed, where Darth Vader had a secret apprentice named Starkiller, while Star Wars: The Clone Wars had Count Dooku train two potential apprentices, Asajj Ventress, and Savage Opress.

Qimir might be training Mae so they can kill his Sith master, and they maintain the Sith Rule of Two, with Qimir as the Master and Mae as the apprentice. This would be why Mae is not a Sith but one in training, and this is all a plan for Qimir to try and replace his master, likely Darth Tenebrous. That means whoever the Sith is at the top is scarier than the masked figure at the end of Episode 4.

The Problem With Qimir Being the Sith Apprentice and Is it a Misdirect?

The biggest issue with Qimir being the main Sith in the series would be just how obvious it is. Four episodes in, and many are already calling it, and there are four episodes to go. While a good mystery doesn't always require a sudden last-minute reveal, as plenty of stories from Columbo to Monk to even the Knives Out films are less concerned with "who" did the crime but more "how" and "why," yet it would be rather disappointing for this new powerful dark side user to be everyone's main guess since there only a handful of characters it can be.

However, there is always the chance it is a misdirection. The first misdirection would be that Qimir is not the mysterious Sith. There is one more person, which could be Mother Kroil (Margarita Levieva). Mother Kroil debuted in Episode 3 of The Acolyte and is the birth mother of both Mae and Osha. Unlike Mother Aniseya (Jodie Turner-Smith), Mother Kroil was much stricter with her kids and openly hostile to the Jedi who came to their planet. Kroil's body was also not seen among the dead bodies when young Osha escaped the fire, implying she still might be alive. This would also mean The Acolyte can sidestep the accusation of breaking canon as the Sith have not been seen in a millennium by the time of The Phantom Menace. Mother Kroil is not a Sith, so it would mean nothing has changed in terms of that line.

If Qimir is also the Sith, then it might be in service of hiding a bigger surprise. The Acolyte has introduced plenty of dangling threads in terms of mysteries regarding what exactly the Jedi did on the planet Brendok. So Qimir's reveal as a Sith Lord might be hiding a bigger reveal regarding another character. It is an obvious answer to keep viewers off the scent of a bigger mystery.

There is also the case that it is obviously Qimir, and everybody guessed it early. While that might be disappointing for some, Qimir's backstory as the Sith will likely be an interesting reveal, and the writers should stick with a consistent story rather than try to throw a curveball just because viewers guessed a twist. In 1991, DC Comics storyline Armegeddon 2001 famously revealed that the mysterious villain, Monarch, was the superhero known as Hawk, despite the original plan and comic clues setting up the reveal of being Captain Atom, because DC changed it last minute after the twist was leaked, which resulted in a critically panned storyline. This was also an issue Westworld ran into, trying to outsmart people who were guessing fan theories.

If Qimir is the Sith, hopefully, The Acolyte can provide a compelling storyline to compensate for the obvious answer. And if it isn't Qimir, then it will be hard to deny that the writers didn't fool most people. The Acolyte is streaming now on Disney+.