Who’re the Nightsisters in The Acolyte episode 7?

It’s a good time to be a fan of Star Wars, witches, and witches who’re in Star Wars. The writing has been on the wall for some time in The Acolyte, with the present’s mysterious coven of all-female Power customers having fairly a number of acquainted hallmarks of one other all-female Power-using group from the Clone Wars period and on.

[Ed. Note: This piece contains spoilers for Ahsoka and episode 7 of The Acolyte, “Choice.”]

Picture: Lucasfilm

This week’s episode put the nail on the proverbial coffin, with Jedi characters referring to Mae and Osha’s coven as a “power cult,” and, pointedly, “Nightsisters.” Or, as they’re identified in Star Wars media set a whole bunch of years after the occasions of The Acolyte: the Witches of Dathomir.

This isn’t the primary time a live-action Disney Plus Star Wars collection has talked about the Witches — they obtained an especially fleeting shoutout in The E-book of Boba Fett, and an antagonist position in Ahsoka, the place the group made a pact with Grand Admiral Thrawn to transport their fallen sisters again to the primary Star Wars galaxy.

The distinction between trendy Star Wars and basic Star Wars is that mentioned witches have been explored fairly extensively in different ancillary Star Wars media, particularly The Clone Wars, but in addition in a number of novels, comedian books, and a bit in Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order. In Ahsoka, Baylan Skoll notes that tales of the Witches are “thought-about folktales. An historic previous, lengthy forgotten.” The Acolyte, set a whole bunch of years earlier than the Clone Wars, appears to be peeling again the curtain on that lengthy forgotten previous.

Which means it’s doable to sate your curiosity must you hear about “the Nightsisters” and suppose they sound metallic as hell and price studying extra about. We’re blissful to let you know that they are metallic as hell, and also you can study extra about them.

Who’re the Nightsisters, or the Witches of Dathomir?

Picture: Lucasfilm

There’s a easy reply to this query, after which a extra difficult one. Let’s begin easy: Typically talking, the Witches of Dathomir are the feminine denizens of the planet Dathomir that belong to the Nightsister clan.

Dathomir? The place have I heard that earlier than?

Good ear! It’s the planet the place Darth Maul is from, in addition to Mom Koril in The Acolyte. If all you realize about Darth Maul is his look in The Phantom Menace, properly, there’s much more to him than that. His residence planet has a bonkers backstory! A few of which we’re about to get into.

In Ahsoka, Baylan mentions that they’re particularly from a distinct galaxy, although in earlier Star Wars tales, that wasn’t the case. And so they don’t seem to be from a distinct galaxy in The Acolyte, however there’s one episode of the collection left, we suppose.

OK, however why are they witches?

Most likely sexism. But additionally as a result of they’re Power customers with a novel connection to the Power that ends in powers fairly totally different from what the Jedi and Sith do. Stuff like necromancy and phantasm. Actual spooky shit, with plenty of spooky smoke. They name it “magick,” and those that wield magick are witches.

However what in regards to the fellas? Can they use magick too?

Sort of. All Zabraks (the Dathomiri folks) may be force-sensitive, however magick is solely for the women. That is why Darth Maul is usually a highly effective Power consumer however not all that totally different from different Sith Lords you’ve seen earlier than.

Picture: Lucasfilm

They maintain a really inflexible social construction on Dathomir, the place everybody belongs to one among many clans, every with their very own inflexible code. Two of essentially the most well-defined are the Nightsisters (the Witches) and Nightbrothers — the complementary male clan of Dathomiri, who stay other than the Nightsisters and exist as their warrior-servants. The Acolyte could also be implying that the Nightsister clan of the Clone Struggle period is one way or the other descended from Mae and Osha’s coven on Brendock.

None of this must be taken as immutable, both. Star Wars canon is sort of free in relation to Dathomir and its folks, so whereas it usually is characterised a method (a spot the place usually dangerous folks do creepy magick), there’s all the time the suggestion that we’re solely seeing a small sliver of the planet and its tradition, because it in the end is one among many razed by the Empire for refusing to play ball.

This sounds cool. The place do I study extra?

Picture: Lucasfilm

Your first cease ought to most likely be the Nightsisters arc of The Clone Wars, since these episodes additionally overlap with a number of what the Disney Plus exhibits, like The Mandalorian and Ahsoka and The Acolyte, are doing, and provides the clearest image of what they’re like in present continuity. The arc kicks off in season 3, episode 12, “Nightsisters,” and runs via the following two episodes, “Monster” and “Witches of the Mist.”

They inform a self-contained story about Asajj Ventress, the villainous Dathomiri Sith apprentice to Depend Dooku. When Dooku betrays her, Ventress returns residence to the Nightsisters for revenge. The Nightsisters trilogy lays the groundwork for a lot of tales, an important being the destiny of Darth Maul (the ultimate arc of season 4) and, ultimately, the conclusion of the Mandalore story in animated kind (till it’s revisited in The Mandalorian).

Outdoors of The Clone Wars, issues get just a little messy, as Dathomir and the Nightsisters are one of many points of Star Wars lore that obtained a number of consideration in each the Legends timeline and the present canon. The varied comics and books weave out and in of canonical standing, so The Clone Wars is greatest for these in search of some grounding going ahead; the whole lot else is gravy. Spooky gravy.