I will try my best to explain my opinion without being mean or toxic.
So Leslye Headland is the director, so she is free to do what she wants with her characters, but I just feel like the transition of Qimir from being a greasy haired clumsy guy to a frightening evil Sith Lord called "The Stranger" to a romancable character just doesn't strike with me imo. Too many transition changes to the vibe of the character. Now, that is not a bad thing, that is actually a pretty cool thing to give many different vibes on one character, seeing many different sides, but I feel like in this case with Qimir/the Stranger, it was too fast paced. I will get to that in a moment.
Now, don't get me wrong, I absolutely LOVE that Qimir is a Sith Lord, basically he is hiding in plain sight, and I absolutely love how they transition his character in the twist reveal in episode 5 to someone frightening, cool, and scary.
But I just feel like making him have an attraction towards one of the other characters in the show just makes it...feel funny and weird to me honestly. It is hard to reconcile an evil scary Sith Lord who is disguising himself as this drunk smuggler guy with a guy who is basically a 2.0 Kylo Ren.
Plus, I want to see more unsympathetic evil and brutal Dark siders on screen, almost every bad guy, (except for Palps and a few others) , such as Vader, Dooku, Ventress, and Kylo Ren, have sympathy from the audience in some way, shape, or form.
I liked how Acolyte episode 5 showed the Stranger's evil side but with episodes 6 and 8, it kind of made me dissapointed.
Even though I wanted Qimir to be like a real bad guy...
doesn't mean I want him to be a generic, one dimensional villain.
There are many "pure evil" villains in other media who have understandable/enjoyable characterization and motives.
I had hoped that with the release of episode 5 of the Acolyte, we get to see another really evil villain on screen who doesn't need sympathy from the audience and is just plain brutal like Palpatine, but no, in my opinion, they just sort of make him like another Kylo Ren and sort of make fanservice out of him.
Now, does that mean I would have NEVER liked the "Oshamir" romance no matter how it is written? The answer is no. Though I would have liked what I prefered above, I still would have been okay with the romance....if it had been set up better.
You see, the pacing and execution that lead to the Stranger getting attracted to Osha and vice-versa is too fast and rushed, and not that well set up. Let me explain.
When we first see glimpses of the Stranger, he seems like a stereotypical Sith Lord who wants a worthy acolyte. So he recruits, trains, and send Mae, (Osha's sister), to go out and hunt Jedi and kill them. In his double idendity as Qimir, he observes her secretly to make sure she does her mission and is a worthy acolyte. When Mae learns that her sister is still alive, after processing it, she betrays Qimir because now that she feels like she doesn't need to go on a life of revenge anymore.
Qimir, clearly mad and being the Sith he is, tries to kill Mae for her betrayal. He then reveals his real identity to Sol and the Jedi team, tries to kill Mae, and seems all brutal, sinister, and even smiles like an evil Sith Lord when holding Mae and threatening to kill her by his lightsaber, which pretty much implies to the audience he is a psychopath and sadist. He even tries to kill Osha while fighting the Jedi in episode 5 on one occasion.
After killing almost all of the Jedi, the Stranger sets his sights on Osha and takes her as his captive when she is injured, it seems to the audience he is trying to get another acolyte because Mae was sort of a "failed experiment" for him.
Yet, in the next episode, it goes an entirely different direction, with the Stranger seeming to be more gentle, kind, and even seductive to Osha. You can say he is trying to manipulate her, but clearly as the episode and the future ones go on, he seems to have some genuine care for her and maybe even genuine romantic attraction torwards her, as he holds he touches her hand when telling her that he relates to her on how she lost everything, and his concern over Osha when she goes out of control with his helmet and her power goes uncontrolled.
It is also further proven that he cares for Osha when he asks her to stay with him on the rock ocean planet, and is willing to let her go if she decides not to stay. He was willing to let Osha have a final touching moment with Mae before wiping Mae's mind.
So yeah, this is what we observed. Now, what is the problem? It all happens too fast, and is inconsistent with earlier depictions of the Stranger/Qimir.
If he truly cared for Osha, then why would he try to kill her one episode earlier? Also, why would he try to kill Mae out of spite for her betrayal if he knew Mae was not only Osha's sister, but other half of her being? He doesn't care for Mae at all, so why would he care for Osha?
Now, how it would have been better is if Qimir/The Stranger initially viewed Osha as another potential tool he could use as a new acolyte to replace Mae, and he is initially kind to her in a fake facade way, but as time went on, with further writing of much more episodes than we have, we get to explore the Stranger's personality and pysche much more, and him starting to learn from Osha and vice-versa in a much more better paced and executed way that is not too fast, not too rushed, and set up perfectly. THEN we could go to the "Oshamir" romance.
But no, it happens all too fast, we don't get to explore the Stranger's character much, and because of the fast pacing and total lack of setup it feels funny and off personally to me.
Just my opinion, I am open to hearing other opinions and insights, but in the writing, set up, and execution, but this is where I stand for now. Regardless, I really loved Manny Jacinto's acting and performance of Qimir and the Stranger, and I hope to see more of him.
