Did ‘The Acolyte’ Just Drop a Major Connection to a Legends Sith World?

Editor’s note: The below contains spoilers for The Acolyte Episode 6.

After an exhilarating episode last week, The Acolyte finally allows us a breather before going on. “Teach / Corrupt” shows twins Mae and Osha Aniseya (both Amandla Stenberg) in the aftermath of the Jedi bloodbath at the hands of the Stranger (Manny Jacinto). While Mae is with Master Sol (Lee Jung-jae) aboard his Jedi starship, Osha is taken unconscious by the Stranger to a location the show describes only as “Unknown Planet.” Not much is shown of it, only that it’s an ocean world with some sparse islands, but it may have major connections to Sith lore in Star Wars.

The Stranger’s Planet Is Not Ahch-To, Although It’s Certainly Similar

When Osha comes out of the cave and sees she is on an island in the middle of a giant ocean, most fans had the same thought: she must be on Ahch-To, the planet where Jedi Master Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) is hiding in exile in Star Wars: Episode VIII – The Last Jedi. It’s the same environment, and even the cute little alien animals seem like a mix of porgs and the sea cows from Ahch-To, right? Well, it’s not. Speaking to Collider, The Acolyte creator Leslye Headland confirmed that the Unknown Planet is not Ahch-To.

Headland did give some interesting details about this new location, though. In “Teach / Corrupt,” Osha spends a large part of the episode alone in the cave where the Stranger has settled. She analyzes his helmet, paying special attention to its golden-brown color, and notices the same mineral on the cave walls. The Stranger confirms that the helmet is indeed covered in a metal called cortosis, which blocks lightsaber blows and even makes the Jedi weapon short-circuit for a few seconds. He also reveals that it also works as a sensory block, preventing Jedi and other Force users from reading the mind of someone who wears it. “So it’s just you and the Force. And what you bring with you,” says the Stranger.

“It was intentionally supposed to be similar in terms of terrain and feeling isolated and surrounded by water and less lush green and more rocky,” said Headland, about why this Unknown Planet looks so much like Ahch-To. What is more important about it, however, is the cortosis itself: “The idea is that cortosis is mined on this planet, so I don’t think that’s the case with Ahch-To.” Headland is known to have a great grasp on Star Wars lore, and it seems she has done it again. There is another planet with an almost identical environment to Ahch-To — one that is more intimately connected to the Sith, not the Jedi.

Bal’demnic Is a Cortosis-Rich Planet in Legends With Deep Ties to the Sith

One of the best things about The Acolyte is how it has brought back things from the now non-canon Legends continuity of Star Wars, known as the Expanded Universe, before Disney acquired Lucasfilm in 2012. Leslye Headland herself has confirmed the influence of iconic Legends stories such as the game Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic in the series, and, now, she may have dug into another great story to come up with the Unknown Planet in “Teach / Corrupt”: the classic novel Darth Plagueis.

The novel starts with two Sith Lords, Darth Tenebrous and Darth Plagueis, inspecting a cortosis mine on a planet called Bal’demnic. Eventually, they find themselves trapped by a rock slide, and Plagueis takes this chance to kill Tenebrous, his master. By then, he was already experimenting with midichlorian manipulation in attempts to prolong life, using Tenebrous as an experiment in his last seconds of life. Himself an entrepreneur from the planet Muunilinst, Plagueis then acquires mining rights for Bal’demnic, securing permanent and exclusive access to cortosis and pretty much barring the Republic from ever accessing it. Some time later, the Sith Lord also acquires a plasma mine on Naboo, where he meets a Force-sensitive young man who is filled with rage at his family, Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid). The rest is history.

Bal’demnic was kept secret from the galaxy until the Clone Wars, when the Separatists, led by Count Dooku (Christopher Lee) — also known as the Sith Lord Darth Tyranus — invaded the planet looking to mine cortosis to use in its droid army. This also attracted the Republic’s attention, and a fight for control ensued. Just as the Republic was about to defeat the Separatists and claim the planet, the local population, known as the Kon’me, rose up against both sides and chased them away. The Kon’me are known to be extremely hostile to foreigners, barely tolerating whoever arrives in Bal’demnic and is not one of them.

How Could Bal’demnic Fit into ‘The Acolyte’s Story?

The Acolyte has been telling many stories that the Jedi wouldn’t otherwise divulge. Although there are countless Jedi as characters, the series itself is a tale about the Dark Side, one that makes it more relatable, going so far as making the Sith more sympathetic. The Stranger admits to Osha in “Teach / Corrupt” that he kills whoever threatens his existence, and, to that end, it’s important to keep a few secrets, too. The name and location of his base, for example. The Stranger keeping the location of his base unknown is key to his security and survival, and he has taken a great risk in bringing Osha with him.

The fact that cortosis is mined on the Stranger’s planet is a major connection to Darth Plagueis, but it doesn’t necessarily confirm The Acolyte villain as the famed Sith Lord from Legends, and it also doesn’t necessarily mean that this unknown planet is indeed Bal’demnic (although it certainly feels like it is). While the series has been pulling from the old stories, it has also been making an effort to bring a fresh perspective to Star Wars concerning its main villains. For example, we now know that the Stranger used to be a Jedi a long time ago and found refuge on this unknown planet after his master “threw him away.” Right now, what this planet means is safety and resources for the Stranger.

However, according to the current canon Star Wars timeline, The Acolyte is set a hundred years before the events of Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace, meaning that it shouldn’t be long until some of the players in the movie start showing up. Darth Plagueis is set roughly around that same time in Legends, and it’s certainly possible that the Stranger’s story somehow connects to the Sith Lords who come after him, especially Darth Sidious. He has already healed Osha’s wound with the Force, implied to have been around for a long time, and now mines cortosis on a planet that looks just like Bal’demnic. It shouldn’t be long until the question of who he really is stops plaguing curious fans.

New episodes of The Acolyte air weekly every Tuesday on Disney+ in the U.S.

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