Editor's Note: The following contains spoilers for episode 5 of The Acolyte.
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the acolyte
Episode 5 introduces cortosis, a rare metal that can disable lightsabers, turning off their plasma. - Cortosis makes his live-action debut after appearing in Star Wars books, comics and games.
- The stranger's cortosis helmet blocks Force abilities, making him a strong opponent for the Jedi.
Everyone is still reeling from this week's episode the acolyte. The dark and frantic “Night” gave us many of the answers we were looking for, but also raised many other questions, as the Master is revealed to have been Qimir (Manny Jacinto) all the time. The fight itself is beautifully choreographed, showing how different the Jedi and Sith really are when it comes to combat. The Master, now called “The Stranger” in official Star Wars media, even he sometimes manages to turn off the lightsabers of the Jedi, which has never happened on Canon screens until now. It does, however, in the books and comics, and it all depends on having a very rare component in the armor.
'Acolyte Stranger uses cortosis to disable Jedi lightsabers
Flashing lightsabers isn't a common fighting strategy when fighting a Jedi, but that's what the weirdo does. the acolyte. In the first dueling segment, he does this several times, including when he disables the weapons of the two nameless Jedi he kills. Later, when he fights Padawan Jecki Lon (Daphne Keen) for the first time in the episode, also disables one of the lightsabers in his hand. In this scene, she is fighting with a dual stance, holding her own saber and Master Kelnacca's (Joonas Suotamo). The saber short-circuits for a few moments and then it works again.
So far, we have already seen a metal called beskar The Mandalorian, which is resistant to lightsabers. With a well-timed headbutt and enough force, the Stranger could shut down an opponent's lightsaber, but not short-circuit it. This means an entirely new element is making its live-action debut: cortosis. It has already been introduced and mentioned elsewhere in the canon, maintaining the same properties the acolyte and even adding new ones. As Grand Admiral Thrawn (Lars Mikkelsen) once described, cortosis has “unusually high energy absorption and transmission coefficients”, meaning it can easily deflect lasers and plasma, the two most common elements used in weapons in the galaxy. The blade of a lightsaber, for example, is made of plasma.
Another unique property of kurtosis is that, when in contact with the plasma of a lightsaber, the energy exchange shuts it down. This is what happens when the stranger uses his helmet and arms to block the Jedi's lightsaber blows. This effect doesn't last long, but it's more than enough for a Sith to find an opening to kill a Jedi, for example, or, as the Stranger does, disable some of the Jedi's weapons so he doesn't have to fight. all at once He does it to Master Sol (Lee Jung-jae), turning off the Jedi's lightsaber to focus solely on the duel with Jecki, having all the space he needs to kill her.
Cortosis has a larger story in the Star Wars Legends Continuity
By now, this is no secret the acolyte series creator Leslie Headland She is a huge Star Wars geek and is quite familiar with the story. One of the inspirations he mentioned for creating the new series is the iconic games of The Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic series, where kurtosis plays an important role. Right when the first game starts, for example the player receives a blade of cortosis to fight your way through an army of invaders inside a ship.
Although the cortosis is making its debut in live action and is relatively new to the officer War of the galaxies canon, appears most often in the now unofficial Legends continuity, where it is established as a resistant and reflective metal, but soft and malleable, not ideal for making armor, for example. He first appeared in the 1998 novel I, Jedi, and appeared in many other stories. Among the most prominent are the Knights of the Old Republic games and the Darth Bane trilogy of novels, as well as the 2005 one Star Wars: The Purge comics
In the new canon, cortosis was reintroduced in the 2014 novel A new dawnbut it wasn't until Timothy Zahn's Thrawn: Alliancesthe second installment of his second Thrown away trilogy, that this metal impressed. In it, Grand Admiral Thrawn and Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen) team up to dismantle a Separatist operation to make blaster-resistant gear by weaving cortosis into armor and other gear. Another big story with cortosis is 2020 Doctor Aphra comics, in which rogue archaeologist Chelli Lona Aphra finally finds the Null Blade, an ancient cortosis weapon, and uses it to briefly disable Darth Vader's (James Earl Jones) laser saber. If forcing a Jedi's lightsaber to shut down is dangerous enough, imagine doing it to Darth Vader.
'Acolyte' introduces a new cortosis property
If cortosis is such a great item, why don't more beings use it against lightsabers in Star Wars? What both Canon and Legends share about this metal is thisit is extremely rare. In canon, for example, there are only two known places where it can be found. For storytelling, cortosis can be a fun surprise, as in a the acolyte, but it can't be widely available, otherwise anyone could take on and kill a Jedi, an order of knights known to be nearly unbeatable. But the new series goes further when cortosis is used, introducing a new property to the metal.
In “Night”, Master Sol asks the stranger why he doesn't reveal his identity, to which the villain replies that it would allow the Jedi to read his thoughts. so the stranger's helmet is able to prevent Force abilities from penetrating the user's mind. This is a completely new cortosis trait exclusive to the new canon. In this way, the stranger's helmet becomes similar to Magneto's (Ian McKellen) in X Men tradition, for example, and constitutes one of the few lines of defense the stranger has against the Jedi.
the acolyte he hasn't revealed how many Sith are in the galaxy at the time it's set, but there can't be many. In fact, the way the stranger talks about how he wants an acolyte of his own, it sounds like he might be the only Sith around, meaning he needs all the tools and gear he can get, since the Jedi keep a strict control over who uses the Force. Having a cortosis helmet that also prevents Jedi from probing his mind is a huge plus to achieve its goals, whatever they may be. It also helps to create an aura of mystery and danger, as if he were someone beyond the Jedi's abilities and control. The way he continues to use his cortosis equipment should lead to more interesting developments in the coming episodes.
New episodes of the acolyte airs weekly on Wednesdays on Disney+ in the US
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