#fandom menace

[jdtrashman]

"What is the worst fando-" Star Wars. The answer has always been the Star Wars fandom, and it will always be the Star Wars fandom.

I have never seen a fandom so consistently be the direct cause of every bad thing that has ever happened to them.

Hate episode IX? Well, that's what happens when you let the bigots and assholes seize control of the conversation surrounding episode VIII. Hell, we are only here at all because ya'll harassed, threatened, and mocked George Lucas for 30 fucking years, until he sold his magnum opus to the first soulless corporation that asked for it. And now we're here, and now you complain further? You're still not fucking happy?

This fandom is the worst thing about Star Wars by some considerable distance.

[grifonecoronato]

The Olega Padawan

I love this guy and I wanna talk about him.

In The Acolyte, in Episode 2 "Revenge/Justice", we briefly meet this Jedi Padawan (played by Ed Kear).

He’s a big guy, and he seems eager to prove himself useful; he manhandles a kid, and explains how there was a break-in at the local Jedi Temple where he’s stationed.

He has one or two lines of dialogue, and the story quickly moves on from him. He mainly exists for two (2) reasons in the story:

To give a lived-in feel to the setting: that during the High Republic, Jedi are plentiful and ubiquitous, in direct contrast to every other Star Wars time period we’ve seen in film and TV (and yes, I’m including the Prequels era, which explicitly stated that while there were lots of Jedi, they were stretched very thin, which carries a different tone than the era of The Acolyte)

To contrast against Osha, who flunked out of the Jedi Order (more on that below).

I mean he doesn’t even have a name; he's just credited as the "Olega Padawan", his role is so small!

And the fandom menace H A T E S him. They lament that the Jedi are supposed to be physically and mentally disciplined, and being fat is antithetical to that.

I call horseshit. The Olega Padawan makes complete sense, and his inclusion is a perfect addition to Star Wars.

Visual Storytelling of The Acolyte

For now, let's leave aside the undisputed fact that there are many, many biological factors that contribute to a person's weight beyond how much food they eat. And let's be clear that a person's fitness or fatness is not an indication of their moral character or their value to the world.

So let's just say, for the sake of argument, that the Olega Padawan really is just out-of-shape.

In an era where the Jedi are plentiful, have the confidence of the people, recruit new members easily, and have known peace for generations, is it really so inconceivable that a Jedi who’s not at peak physical condition could exist?

In The Acolyte, we see that Jedi take on a peacekeeping / police roles, sure…

...but we also see them doing scientific research…

…and other non-combat, non-adventurous duties.

The temple on Olega is so tiny, so peaceful, so sleepy that its master -- Master Torbin -- took a vow of solitude, penitence, and disengagement, and the Temple was able to continue on, business as usual.

These are the conditions that the Olega Padawan finds himself in. And we're surprised that he would have other things motivating him besides commitment to physical perfection?

Headcanon: the Daily Life of the Olega Padawan

As of September 2024, nothing has been written about the Olega Padawan's story, but I can see his whole life through the context clues that were presented on screen.

The Olega Padawan was probably not a great physical student at the Jedi Temple on Coruscant. Unlike Jecki, his lightsaber forms are sloppy and half-hearted, but he was good enough to eek by a passing grade for his trials.

He then was sent to learn under the tutelage of the Olega Knight, where his master taught him to manage the affairs of the local temple.

He probably spent his days worrying about building repairs, negotiating with mechanics when the droids malfunctioned, arguing with incense and candle wholesalers to keep the temple well-stocked, and taking point on charity or community outreach programs. Occasionally, his master would show him how to make requisitions for additional funds from the Coruscant Temple, or how to phrase their weekly reports in such a way that they go largely ignored.

If his master asked him to do anything physical, like move something into storage, the Olega Padawan would have a choice to make: physically lift it, or just move it with the Force... and I'm pretty sure he'd just opt to do it with the Force once his master left the room.

Occasionally the neighbourhood kids would hassle him, because there's nothing funnier than watching a Jedi lose his temper, so the Olega Padawan probably developed a sharp tongue. He'd likely have zero tolerance for bullies.

If he ever finished his work early, he'd find a way to entertain himself rather than go seek more work. After all, what's really so important that it can't wait when you live in a quiet temple in a sleepy town? Adventure. Excitement. A Jedi craves not these things!

What This Means for Osha

There's one more role in the story that the Olega Padawan plays, and that's as a contrast to Osha.

Osha flunked out of the Jedi Order. Get it?

She flunked out.

She flunked out.

And we saw risk her life to selflessly save the life of a prisoner aboard a ship that was about to crash!

She flunked out of the Jedi Order!

The Olega Padawan, who lives a sleepy life in a quiet temple, did not.

So at this stage in the story, the presence of the Olega Padawan conjures questions like "if he could make it as a Jedi... what the hell did Osha do to fail?"

How much "worse" of a student must she have been?

By the end of the series this is made clear, but by episode 2, the Olega Padawan's mere presence invites us to ask these questions.

[roseredsnow]

To every white man complaining about the lack of white men in Acolyte

HOW DOES IT FEEL

I have sobbed in joy multiple times over Vernestra Rwoh being in it.

We're equal one white man in the cast to one aroace character and had completely different reactions

[recursive360]

[kilowogcore]

Look, Kilomin is autistic an' Star Wars is one a' his comfort fandoms. He's edited Wookieepedia for Grodd's sake! Just accept that I've probably seen more Star Wars than any toxic anti-fan. So when I say that the toxic Star Wars anti-fans have no idea what they're talkin' about, it's the truth.

I suppose it ain't entirely their fault. They're just easily led pullstring dolls spouting whatever they're told to spout who ain't never actually thought about the media they consume.

Bonus points if ya' can name all the sources shown without lookin' at my attributions, an' if ya' can name what toxic anti-fans pretended they hated about it! Ya' might need ta' zoom in an' squint fer those on the end.

(Art sampled from "Nightwing" Vol. 4 #115 by Tom Taylor, Bruno Redondo, Adriano Lucas, Wes Abbott, Jessica Berbey, and Rob Levin, and "The Last Jedi", "The Phantom Menace", "The Acolyte", "The Clone Wars", "Andor", "The Mandalorian", "The Force Awakens", "The Bad Batch", "Ahsoka", and "The Rise of Skywalker". Edits: Altered Dialogue, Additional Balloons.)

[grayrazor]

Man, Homeworld 3 isn’t perfect, but half the people complaining about it are some of the most entitled gamers I’ve ever seen. “Campaign was bad, just remake the whole thing from scratch and give it to us for free.”

There’s some “Filoni-Kennedy civil war” or "Kurtzman fired soon?" level conspiracy theories going on too, about a “lost secret TRUE story” hidden in the game’s files.

[frozenoj]

Me starting my alt-right podcast: the story of Ben Solo is about the power of detransitioning and going back to your good Christian name instead of something dumb like Kylo or Sock

[rebelsabers]

Sometimes i forget that sometimes Star Wars attracts the dumbest fucking people in the world that are honestly just straight up fucking fascists. Just… it’s not even a lack of critical thinking at this point it’s literally just straight up pro-fascism and they don’t even try to hide it even after watching all of Andor. It’s fucking nuts to me no matter how many times I see this shit repeated

[roseredsnow]

Acolyte Spoiler

What I would fucking love right now is if the Darth Plaguis novel gets a significant increase in sales just to show, yeah there are acolyte fans, and we're invested enough to do our research for season 2.

[creek-ink]

which one??

ref^

[vypridae]

he doesn't like the height difference btw

[bikananjarrus]

reminder i will neveeeerrrrrrr forgive y'all for bullying john boyega like that. i was there gandalf, i remember the absolutely vile racism the second he appeared in the tfa teaser. but i also remember how excited he was during the tfa era, how ecstatic he was to be a part of a franchise he loved, despite the initial backlash. but people just had to keep going, nothing but constant racist bullying until he wanted nothing to do with star wars ever again. 'it's been 10 years get over it!' no <3 thanks to you i'll never get to see finn again, so i won't be getting over it ever, actually.

[ndekvart]

quick padaobi sketch request ✨

[pip3dr3am]

neil in tfc: “what am i doing?!” “i need to run” “i can’t get involved in this” “i want nothing to do with the mafia at all”

neil in tsc: “hey so i’m actually going to snipe you off the planet using my mafia affiliated uncle”

[casually-eat-my-soul]

I like high school sterek Aus as much as the next person but no one is writing Derek as whipped as he would be.

Yall remember him with Paige?? Remember when she politely sassed him and he immediately like her??? Yeah

Now imagine that with stiles “I shove a wolfsbane wrapped bat up your—”. Derek would have been a goner. Stiles would have given him the most Heinous tongue lashing and Derek would have had proposed on the spot.

Peter: are you drawing yours and stiles wedding invitations??

Derek: No, that’s our joint tombstone

Peter: my mistake

Also supernatural highschools aus, you will forever be special to me. I need more. I need the hale pack solving a murder mystery in their high school like the scooby doo gang