How Is 'The Acolyte's Stranger Able to Turn Off Lightsabers?


Editor's note: The below contains spoilers for The Acolyte Episode 5.





The Big Picture





  • The Acolyte
    Episode 5 introduces cortosis, a rare metal that can disable lightsabers, turning off their plasma.

  • Cortosis makes its debut in live action after appearing in Star Wars books, comics, and games.

  • The Stranger's cortosis helmet blocks Force abilities, making him a strong opponent for Jedi.










Everyone is still recovering from this week's episode of The Acolyte. The dark and frenetic "Night" gave us many answers we sought, but it also raised plenty of other questions as the Master reveals himself to have been Qimir (Manny Jacinto) all along. The fight itself is beautifully choreographed, fully displaying how different Jedi and Sith really are when it comes to combat. The Master — now called "The Stranger" in official Star Wars media — even manages to turn off the Jedi's lightsabers sometimes, something that has never happened on screens in canon so far. It has, however, in books and comics, and it all depends on having a very rare component in the armor.









'The Acolyte's Stranger Uses Cortosis To Disable Jedi Lightsabers


Headbutting lightsabers isn't a common fighting strategy when fighting a Jedi, but that's what the Stranger does in The Acolyte. In the first duel segment, he does it multiple times, including when he disables the weapons of the two nameless Jedi that he kills. Later, when he fights Padawan Jecki Lon (Dafne Keen) for the first time in the episode, he also disables one of the lightsabers she has in 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 resumes functioning.



So far, we have already seen a metal called beskar in The Mandalorian, which is resistant to lightsabers. With a well-timed headbutt and enough strength, the Stranger could turn off an opponent's lightsaber, but not really make it short-circuit. What this means is that a whole new element is making its debut in live-action: cortosis. It has already been featured and mentioned in other media in canon, keeping the same properties in The Acolyte and even adding some 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. A lightsaber's blade, for example, is made of plasma.




Another unique property of cortosis is that, when it is in contact with the plasma from a lightsaber, the energy exchange shuts it down. This is what happens when the Stranger uses his helmet and vambraces to block lightsaber hits from the Jedi. This effect doesn't last long, but it's more than enough for a Sith to find the opening to kill a Jedi, for example — or, as the Stranger does, to deactivate some of the Jedi's weapons so he doesn't have to fight all of them at once. He does this to Master Sol (Lee Jung-jae), shutting down the Jedi's lightsaber in order to focus solely on dueling Jecki, having all the space he needs to kill her.





Cortosis Has a Larger History in Star Wars Legends Continuity







By now, it's no secret that The Acolyte series creator Leslye Headland is a huge Star Wars geek herself and is quite familiar with the lore. One of the inspirations she's mentioned for creating the new series is the iconic games of the Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic series, where cortosis plays a big role. Right as the first game begins, for example, the player is given a cortosis blade to make their way through an army of invaders inside a ship.



Although cortosis is only now making its debut in live-action and is relatively new to the official Star Wars canon, it does show up more often in the now extra-official Legends continuity, where it is established as a metal that's resistant and reflective, but soft and malleable, not ideal for making armor, for example. It first appeared in the 1998 novel I, Jedi, and showed up in many other stories. Among the most notable ones are the Knights of the Old Republic games and the Darth Bane trilogy of novels, as well as the 2005 Star Wars: Purge comics.






In new canon, cortosis was reintroduced in the 2014 novel A New Dawn, but it wasn't until Timothy Zahn's Thrawn: Alliances, the second installment in his second Thrawn trilogy, that this metal made an impression. 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 equipment. Another great story featuring cortosis is in the 2020 Doctor Aphra comics, in which scoundrel archaeologist Chelli Lona Aphra eventually comes across the Null Blade, an ancient cortosis weapon, and uses it to briefly deactivate Darth Vader's (James Earl Jones) lightsaber. If forcing a Jedi's lightsaber to shut down is already dangerous, imagine doing it to Darth Vader.





‘The Acolyte’ Introduces a New Cortosis Property







If cortosis is such a great element, why don't more beings use it against lightsabers in Star Wars? What both canon and Legends share about this metal is thatit is extremely rare. In canon, for example, there are only two known locations where it can be found. For storytelling purposes, cortosis may pose a fun surprise, as it does in The Acolyte, but it can't be largely available, otherwise anyone could face and kill a Jedi, an order of knights who are known to be nearly unbeatable. But the new series goes above and beyond when using cortosis, 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 answers by saying that this would allow the Jedi to read his thoughts. So the Stranger's helmet is able to block Force abilities from penetrating the user's mind. This is an entirely new cortosis trait and exclusive to the new canon. This way, the Stranger's helmet becomes similar to that of Magneto (Ian McKellen) in X-Men lore, for example, and makes for one of the few lines of defense the Stranger has against the Jedi.




The Acolyte hasn't revealed how many Sith there 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 seems like he may be the sole Sith around, meaning he needs all the tools and gears he can get since the Jedi keep tight control around who uses the Force. Having a cortosis helmet that also prevents Jedi from probing his mind is a great advantage for him to achieve his goals, whatever they may be. It also contributes to building an aura of mystery and danger, like he is someone beyond the Jedi's abilities and control. How he continues to use his cortosis gear should make for more interesting developments over the next episodes.



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



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