The Acolyte has many Star Wars viewers scratching their heads with its new Force cult of witches, but I think I know who they are – courtesy of Star Wars Legends. The Acolyte episode 3 stepped back 16 years to reveal mysterious events that took place on Brendok, a remote Outer Rim world visited by four Jedi. There, the Jedi discovered an as-yet-unnamed coven of witches.
The Acolyte broke an old Star Wars tradition that primarily explores the Force through the lens of Jedi and Sith. It was told from the witches’ point-of-view, introducing the Force as a “Thread” that they drew upon, using it collectively to amplify their power. This concept feels very similar to one specific group of Force-wielders from the old Star Wars Legends timeline, created before Disney purchased Lucasfilm.
The Acolyte’s Force Cult Remind Me So Much Of The Fallanassi From Legends
A Reclusive Cult Of Force Powerful Women
The 1996 novel Before the Storm by Michael P. Kube-McDowell introduced Star Wars readers to a Force-using group called the Fallanassi. The Fallanassi were persecuted by the Empire on top of already being reclusive, leading to them being viewed as a cult by many. But Before the Storm was just the first book in the Black Fleet Crisis trilogy, giving Kube-McDowell lots of time to establish this all-female group of Force-users as incredibly powerful in ways very different from the Jedi and Sith.
Just like the witches on Brendok, the Fallanassi are a reclusive all-female group of powerful Force-users, but the similarities don’t end there. The Fallanassi also refer to the Force by a different name, calling it the “White Current” and the dark side the “Dark Tide;” they are themselves sometimes called “Adepts of the White Current”. As the name implies, the White Current was viewed by the Fallanassi as a powerful current of water they could fully immerse themselves in, allowing for Force powers more oriented towards illusions, manipulations, and trickery.
Star Wars Canon Has Recently Brought The Fallanassi Back
The Last Jedi & The High Republic Reference The Fallanassi
The Fallanassi aren’t just in Legends, though, as they were first fully brought into canon through the Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Visual Dictionary. This book confirmed that Luke Skywalker was in fact using a Fallanassi technique when he projected himself to the planet Crait in Star Wars: The Last Jedi, saving the Resistance. This means the Fallanassi are already a working part of the Star Wars galaxy, and have been for eons as Luke learned of this projection technique through the sacred ancient Jedi texts.
The Fallanassi have since made explicit appearances in canon, with Luke Skywalker meeting some non-practicing Fallanassi during his training as Jedi. They’ve also been seen in the High Republic Era, active on the sacred moon of Jedha, where Force-believers from across the galaxy made pilgrimages to. The Fallanassi there are fully able to use their projection and illusion-based powers, and even more – this is the same era of Star Wars that The Acolyte takes place in.
The Fallanassi Would Fit Perfectly With The Acolyte’s Themes
The Force Is Growing Out Of Balance
The Acolyte showrunner Leslye Headlan is a devotee of Legends, which means she could well have borrowed an idea from there. According to Legends, the century before Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace saw several Force-cults like the Fallanassi emerging from the shadows. These groups were empowered and changed by the dark side of the Force, but were not Sith, though their emergence did concern the Sith in hiding during this period. This seems to be a perfect way the Fallanassi-like ideas could be integrated into the story of The Acolyte, and how they could be connected to the series’ witches of Brendok.
During this tumultuous time, the witches of Brendok were persecuted, as the series has already established that they were pushed out of whatever previous location they were based in. This could have been because of the witches’ tapping into the dark side – perhaps in attempting to create life – which caught the attention of the Sith. This could very well explain why the young Mae has been seemingly recruited by a Sith apprentice, and that The Acolyte’s witches could really be inspired the Fallanassi of Legends.