Leslye Headland Defends Her Choice to Mirror Osha & Mae’s Origin with Anakin’s: “You might be missing the forest for the trees”

This week’s episode of ‘The Acolyte’ introduced new elements to the live-action Star Wars canon. We received expanded information on Force Vergence and finally uncovered the true origin of the twins, Osha and Mae.

Previously, we speculated that their origin differed from Anakin’s, believing they were created through the Coven’s manipulation of the Force. However, it turns out their origin is surprisingly similar to Anakin’s.

Ever since the infamous line “they have no father” was spoken, fans have feared that Osha and Mae would be mere copies of Anakin. While it remains unclear whether the girls are the Vergence or if the Vergence was manipulated to create them, their role as the “chosen ones” of the High Republic Era is evident—a direction I had hoped the show would avoid.

The way the twins were discovered also mirrors a scene from the movies: Qui-Gon Jinn finding a vergence centered around a child (Anakin), who later proves to be exceptionally significant as the chosen one, impacting the entire galaxy, both positively and negatively.

Fans have criticized this storyline element. In her recent interview with Nerdist, Leslye Headland responded to these critiques and offered a further explanation:

That’s a good question. I haven’t been following the coverage of the show enough to really answer that. I did hear that there was a bit of a dust up in terms of the girls stepping on Anakin’s creation storyline line, which I had mixed feelings about.

It’s probably for another deep dive to kind of talk about that. I would say that you might be missing the forest for the trees in starting an argument about that, instead of seeing that this is a power that could have existed in the world way before Anakin. And that power was being pursued by someone. So it’s not an issue of “paying attention to,” but I did hear about that, and I just think people aren’t taking into account the era that we’re in.

f there’s anything we know about the fifth in Sith in sequels or prequels, one of the things we do know about them is their quest for these abilities like we’re seeing Aniseya being able to execute with the twins.

It just seemed to me any power like that that does not belong to one faction. It is not something that Aniseya was born with either. It’s a power that belongs to the Force. And that it’s up to the practitioner to be able to understand and figure out and pull apart how do you harness that particular power.

I understand what people were complaining about, or were maybe confused by, but I think they’re sort of paying attention to the wrong aspect of it. They’re not seeing the long game of the lineage of the Sith pursuing any sort of evidence of this type of power in the galaxy and then tunnel visioning toward it. And improving upon it. Again, if the girls are a test run, being able to improve on what that power is and being able to perfect it, that would be something if I were a Sith I would be interested in.

Certainly, there’s no time left in the first season to delve deeper into the girls’ origin story and clarify its similarities or differences with Anakin’s. However, perhaps the upcoming final episode airing next week will address some of these uncertainties.

What are your thoughts? Share them in the comments below!