The new Disney+ series The Acolyte is bringing to light one of the biggest criticisms fans have of modern Star Wars stories in an interesting, meta way. Starting in 2014 with the animated series Star Wars: Rebels, new Star Wars stories have been releasing on screen every single year – whether in animation or live-action. Many Disney Star Wars movies and TV shows have been heavily criticized, however, for overusing nostalgia.

Nostalgia has always been a powerful tool within Star Wars storytelling, as is the case in a lot of businesses that are based around iconic media. People are familiar with what they love, or what they loved when they were younger, and will pay to see more of that. Many criticize the sequel trilogy, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, and The Mandalorian for cashing in too much on nostalgia. But the newest Star Wars series, The Acolyte, uses nostalgia in a very different way.

Jecki Explicitly Calls Out The Danger Of Nostalgia

The Classic Star Wars Threat Of Attachments

In The Acolyte episode 1, Dafne Keen’s Padawan Jecki Lon stumbles upon her master, Sol, looking at a hologram of his old padawan, Osha. Jecki questions her master about it; “This pastime encourages sentimentality and nostalgia,” she observes. There’s a subtle warning or reprimand here about the dangers of nostalgia and attachment – something the Jedi of the prequel trilogy are very focused on. This critique is legitimate and rather universal, though, in how it applies to both the character of Sol and Star Wars in our universe.

Jecki’s concern about attachment isn’t an insult, as it’s genuinely well-meaning from her character’s point-of-view. When it comes to embracing being a Jedi, one is called to forget the things of the past, and accept the will of the Force whatever it may be. This is something many are calling for Star Wars to do as a franchise too, and in a way, The Acolyte, as the first series set outside the Skywalker saga, is blazing this trail against nostalgia itself.

Master Sol’s Advice Shows The Way Forward… But It’s So Hard To Do

It’s Tough To Embrace The Past While Not Living In It

Master Sol responds to this subtle critique, though, in an even more interesting way. He brings up the classic “if we do not reflect on the past“, and Jecki completes the phrase with “we are doomed to repeat it“. Sol states that memories are lessons, and things we can learn from in very important ways. This has a double meaning when you realize that it’s coming from a master, reflecting on his past apprentice – a Jedi who left the Order – while talking to his current apprentice.

But this can also be applied to Star Wars, and The Acolyte in a specific way, too. Future Star Wars stories, whether they be in animation or live-action, should not forget the past. However, the most important qualifier to follow that up with, is that they should not live in the past. Just as Sol can choose to learn from his nostalgic memories and use them as lessons, Star Wars should stop living in nostalgia, and do something new, while learning from the past, like with this series itself. In this way, The Acolyte brings this nostalgia issue into question while also addressing the problem.

The Acolyte episodes 1 and 2 are now available to stream. New episodes release Tuesdays on Disney+.