Thursday 6th June 2024

One Line in 'The Acolyte' Completely Rewrites Lightsaber Canon in Star Wars

When Obi-Wan Kenobi told Luke that lightsabers aren’t as clumsy or random as blasters, he forgot to mention one other thing: If you bust out a lightsaber in most contexts, you have to be ready to turn that thing into a murder stick. This apparently doesn’t apply to instances of practice or using your lightsaber as a flashlight, but in The Acolyte, we’ve got a new layer of Star Wars lore that makes fighting with this elegant weapon not exactly as civilized as we were led to believe.

In the very first scene of The Acolyte, as Jedi Master Indara (Carrie-Anne Moss) battles Mae (Amandla Stenberg), we hear a lightsaber rule that gives Indara pause. It might give longtime Star Wars aficionados pause too. Is this really the way Jedi are supposed to think about their famous weapons? Spoilers ahead.

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Suni Williams Just Became the First Woman To Test Fly An Orbital Spacecraft

Boeing Starliner's Wednesday launch aimed to be only the sixth time the U.S. has debuted a new spacecraft.

It was finally smooth sailing on Wednesday for the Boeing Starliner spacecraft named Calypso. NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams are the latest astronauts to debut a new spacecraft. Williams has also made history as the first woman to perform such a feat.

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'The Acolyte's Sneaky Sith Easter Egg Teases the Answer to a Star Wars Mystery

The word "Sith" hasn’t yet been said aloud in The Acolyte. That's despite the fact that the series has long been rumored to explore how the Sith survived even during the High Republic era — a period in which the Jedi Order was at its most powerful, widespread, and dominant. The show's creator, Leslye Headland, has even said on record that The Acolyte was inspired by her desire to explore the Sith, which is something that no live-action Star Wars TV show or movie has extensively done up to this point.

Just because The Acolyte's first two episodes make no explicit mention of the Sith doesn't mean that the series hasn't already laid the groundwork for its religious order's reintroduction and presence, though. On the contrary, The Acolyte's second episode makes one huge reference to the Sith. It may go over most casual viewers' heads, but it should leave die-hard Star Wars fans even more excited to see what's to come.

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'Avengers 5' Will Be the Biggest — and Riskiest — Team-Up in MCU History

For the past five years, Marvel’s been working overtime to solve one dilemma. How do you top Avengers: Endgame? So far, no tactic has managed to stick. Going back to square one and introducing new Avengers left its cinematic universe unfocused and crowded. Marvel’s attempt to give those new characters their own Thanos also backfired on every level. It took way too long to establish an Avengers-level threat in Jonathan Majors’ Kang, and by the time the character gained a foothold, Majors was convicted of reckless assault and harassment. Marvel swiftly cut ties with the actor, and its multiverse era has been in limbo ever since.

The studio has yet to share its recovery plans, but insiders have hinted at a massive retooling behind the scenes, and Marvel’s scaled-back release slate reflects that. It will take much more for Marvel to recover its place in the pop culture pantheon, but the studio may have an ace up its sleeve.

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These Wheeled Humanoid Robots Use AI to Team Up and Clean Your Messy House

The future looks like a symphony of voice-controlled humanoid robots cleaning up after you.

1X revealed the latest update to its Eve robot showing a small crew understanding a request to tidy up an office, linking together tasks like cleaning up a coffee spill, picking up a hoodie off the floor, and delivering drinks. This is the closest we’ve seen to a robot butler, and on top of that, it’s a whole gang of them. See for yourself in 1X’s demo.

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The Wildest Crime Thriller of the Year is an Unexpected Triumph

Emilia Pérez shouldn’t work. First, there’s its billing as a “musical crime comedy,” a collection of genres that are rarely grouped together, let alone uttered in the same sentence. Then, there’s its premise: a Mexican cartel leader (Karla Sofía Gascón) hires a small-time lawyer (Zoe Saldaña) to assist him in getting a sex reassignment surgery in order to leave his life of crime behind and start anew as the woman he was always destined to be.

It sounds like a recipe for the most ill-advised crime thriller ever (and indeed, is just a few details off from the Michelle Rodriguez thriller that was buried for its tasteless premise a few years ago), but surprisingly, Emilia Pérez is an emotionally fulfilling triumph.

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When Does 'The Acolyte' Take Place? Star Wars' "High Republic" Time Period, Explained

The Acolyte is introducing Star Wars fans to a Jedi Order at the height of its power, but because the new Disney+ show is set much further back in the timeline than anything else we’ve ever seen in live-action, the specifics can get blurry. Here’s everything you need to know about where The Acolyte sits on the Star Wars timeline, and what it means for the story.

The Star Wars timeline is centered around the Battle of Yavin, the climactic fight in A New Hope. For example, The Mandalorian is set in 9 ABY, nine years after the Battle of Yavin, while the first season of Andor is set in 5 BBY, five years before the Rebels win their first major victory.

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This Hot, Inflated Alien World Is A Preview of Earth’s Final Days

If anyone lives on Earth in 5 billion years, they may get to live just a little bit longer.

About 1800 light years away, a planet the size of Neptune is orbiting perilously close to its baleful, bloated red star — and it could be carrying some clues about Earth’s eventual fate.

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'Mortal Kombat 1' Leak Might Reveal a New Fighter Straight Out of Horror Movie History

An unsuspecting Mortal Kombat creator may have inadvertently discovered the next guest character in the series. And if it’s true, it would be an inspired choice to join the morbid cast of colorful rogues, mages, and martial artists.

Ghostface, the central slasher in the Scream series and probably the most recognizable horror icon of the 90s, is likely the next featured guest character for 2023’s Mortal Kombat 1. YouTube creator Interloko was the first to uncover evidence of the character’s inclusion on Wednesday.

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'The Acolyte' Got Fire In Space Ridiculously Wrong — In Real Life, It's So Much Weirder

We need to talk about that scene in the new Star Wars show, The Acolyte. Yes, the one with the flickering, crackling fire in space.

Star Wars has never been noted for its scrupulous accuracy; that’s not really the point of the series. It’s space opera, not science fiction. But one scene in an episode of the new show Acolyte — which follows Jedi padawan Osha and her adventures on the titular spaceship — has stirred up quite a disturbance in the Force.

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