#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.

[thejakeformerlyknownasprince]

Au idea: animorphs but star wars

I know other folks will have better ideas than I do. Any Animorphs and Star Wars fans out there willing to weigh in with thoughts?

[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]

[cosmicmordecai]

In the Defense of Saw Gerrera......

Ever since I've rejoined the fandom few years ago, my blog gets notice for a lot of pro-Jedi arguments and sentiments but I don't always get the time to talk about another character in the franchise who gets grossly mishandled by fans: Saw Gerrera.

A lot of fans like to prop up his character as a showcase of "extremism" that makes the Rebels not the quissitessinal good guys and vindicate the Empire, giving them a legitamate reason why they do what they do.

Today, I'm going to call out some things I believe are important to remember about the character.

"Saw's methods hurts the Rebellion more than it helps"

I've seen this sentiment come up a lot, especially after his appearance in The Bad Batch. In canon, there are certainly people who think that, chiefly Mon Mothma (The Rebel Files, Rebels) but the consensus within the Alliance until it's official formation is that they cannot be picky and that he and his PARTISANS are KNOWN for getting jobs done.

And say what you want about his methods, but the Alliance themselves have more than one time asked for his help and even when they didn't like him whatsoever. And when they didn't, it hurt THEM badly.

In Leia: Princess of Alderaan, Bail is big mad because he killed Moff Panaka, believing he was more sympathetic and didn't like how it almost costed his wife/daughter's life (despite the fact the Partisans had no clue they were meeting). Despite all the hubup and Bail getting bigmad, it actually saved Leia, as he was about to reveal to the Emperor that based on the resemblance, she had to be Padme Amidala's daughter.

In Rebel Rising novel, Saw explicitly talks about how he doesn't like how they prioritize things but remain critical about his methods. One of his former Partisans, Idryssa, went to form her own group in the Rebel Intelligence but found when she wanted to help liberate Tamsye Prime of slavery, the Alliance High Command didn't believe it was worth their time to fight, prioritizing other unnamed dilemmas. She ended up going to Saw in hopes he could do a recon mission that'll give her valuable intellgience. He lambasts her for it, telling her it's ironic she had all the ideas to help the galaxy but could only hope people like him do the dirty work. For context, that part of the story is where Saw gets invited to the Alliance (despite doing the worse thing he's done in canon), which he accepts the mssion for FREE, and it is that mission that created the reason why Jyn was abandoned (ill get to that later).

In the episode "In the Name of the Rebellion" for Star Wars Rebels, the Jaliandi Station the Empire established essentially made it possible for the Empire to quickly respond to any distubances, including a mission Hera was on that was botched unexpetedly. The episode, while grooming over Gerrera's methods, also mentioned that he already warned them about it and they ignored it, paying the price for it. This stems from the fact all their tactics are going to, ultimately, come to a "peaceful resoultion". They also try salvaging this by wanting to plant a tracker so they can also listen into communications and adjust their strategy. Both Ezra and even Hera herself believe it's a damn useless tactic and destroying it was the best option. Plot tiwst: it was. Empire took a L.

Rogue One had a big point that the Rebel leaders were unwilling to act decisively and Rebels had shown that for YEARS, Saw warned them that the Empire were building a superweapon. The reason he wasn't listen to? According to The Rebel Files, Mon Mothma dismissed him entirely on grounds that it was too extreme even for Palpatine and that she doesn't like his line cynicism. It took confirming the Death Star to convince her and High Command to talk to Gerrera and/or take him seriously, who has since cut contact with them altogether.

The Bad Batch is the most recent of these examples as his attempt to kill Tarkin and higher up leaders of the Empire led to a series of events that cumilated to Tech's death and TBB's eventual capture. A lot fans wanna blame Saw despite the fact that they interrupted HIS operation and he was planning to assassinate both Krennic and Tarkin included. Tech has a "counterpoint" but as the audience, we know thsoe two are instrumental to the Death Star and given Rogue One's context, the Empire wouldn't have been able to have a Death Star BECAUSE the research on kyber crystals came from Galen, who was a FRIEND of Krennic (to an extent; Galen wasn't favoring him that had especially later), and after Order 66, a lot of experts on that field were killed or they hid because they knew anybody involved with Jedi was gonna get hunted too. Saw would of killed two importantfigures in the Empire in one fell swoop and lets not forget it was TBB that alerted the Empire in the first place and he was doing it in YEAR 2, when the Empire was still up and coming and had a leadership deficit.

Both the Rebels and TBB show gave counter points with comparing his tactics to instead using it to gather intel. I wanted to address the fact that despite what Tech and one of the guys in High Alliance state that ultimately, they were WRONG: the Jailandi relay being destroyed was a all out positive and Tarkin and Krennic's respecitve connections is what brought to fruition two big parts of the Empire and you couldn't replace the leadership capability Tarkin had. It is literally no surprise in canon, the Empire fell apart in 4 years even if they were close to winning but even in that timeframe, both Sidious and Vader had to be more direct in their approach and the galaxy was quickly against them.

One of the real reasons the Alliance had problems was because of their leadership; it was a known fact that in general and especially after Bail's death, High Command would only act dependent on Mothma or otherwise be indecisive and stall. Her core belief was on searching for a peaceful resolution and she stood on that hill to the point she ERASED Saw contributions while being okay with it if it were her friends that did it, as according to Bloodlines, there have been at LEAST 2 instances prior to the destruction of the Death Star the Rebellion under her leadership engaged in "terrorist tactics", one that involved slaughter.

In fairness, Mothma had a problem with her camp (Rebel Intelligence) using those tactics but at the end of the day, guess what? She endorced Draven, even when he got on his mysoginistic bullshit with Jyn. The Alliance's own propaganda department had to start lying/exageratting because they found out ignorant people will not listen to the truth (shocker). [Star Wars Propaganda: A History of Persuasive Art in the Galaxy] And guess what? She signed off the destruction of the Death Star, which totalled to about 1.5 million deaths, the majority being civilians and low-ranking officers dedicated to maintaining it. (Bloodlines) Mothma spent YEARS ignoring, underplaying, and erasing Saw's influence, contributions, and her problem with him was personal, as essentially, she didn't like how Saw both underline the very methods she will have to endorce/support/perform one way or another and that his actions didn't benefit HER, as he was on that "IDGAF about her methods" team. All that and she ended up having to support doing the more morally repugnant things he said she would have to do.

In short? It's complex but Saw doesn't inheretly actually hurt the Rebellion in any special way, despite what the Empire propaganda in universe claims and some opinions of characters (typically Mothma).

"He is a short-sighted fool who just blows stuff up"

Another big claim I see fans put out here is that Saw lacks forsight and doesn't think things through. It's a hilarious thing because the "short sighted fool" was the only one who saw the the Death Star coming YEARS before anybody suspected otherwise. Characters spent so much time writing him off, trying their hardest to contend with it, and wanted so badly for him to just do things their way even when he told them they were fighting an enemy who plays dirty and didn't care about people.

Funny enough, Leia in canon (by the time she led the Resistance) doesn't actually hold too must amnimosity for Saw because at that point, the New Republic paid the price for playing with Mothma's mindset, the First Order took advantage of her compassionm, the Rebellion/New Republic's still possessed indecisiveness without a clear leader telling them what to do, and the Rebellion/New Republic did not learn their lessons when it comes with dealing with the Empire when they were the leading government. Leia had to create her own militia to fight the First Order and they didn't have no allies for a while. She actually thinks they owe him a lot (The Rebel Files)

Saw said it in Rebel Rising: it'll take a tragedy, the galaxy can't ignore it to get people actually united. And guess what? It happened...3 times over: the 2 Death Stars got people working together after the destruction of Alderaan (Jedha too except in universe, a lot people still bought Jedha being destroyed in a "mining accident") and Palpatine publically announcing himself alive was the only thing that got people to come together against the Empire/First Order/Final Order. The latter happened 35 YEARS AFTER HIS OWN DEATH.

I don't personally agree with his actual methods typically but lack of foresight my ass. Dude had foresight on a level comparable to a Jedi and he has no Force sensitivity. He called out the Death Star and knew what it'll take for the Alliance to get their shit together.

"He's a hot-head, self centered, paranoid leader who hurts his own allies"

I've seen a combination of things, especially regarding his character youthful appearances in Clone Wars/TBB, that suggest he is a hot-head, that he is paranoid (usually spoken in retrospect to his later appearances), and that he doesn't care for his allies. I've seen people in fanfiction try to say he burns people when they outlive their usefulness or claim he on'y is worried about his own skin.

That's especially not true. There's a reason why he parallels as a non-Force senstiive version of Anakin Skywalker; they are both hot headed, they are both competent leaders, they hate slavery and indentured servitude with a passion, their best trait is the care and compassion they have for others in which they subvert with logic and reasoning and it isn't always easy for them, and they are respectively feared in similar ways. With that said, there are some difference

Saw does possess compassion even with his darkness; he is willing to protect his Partisans and not risk their lives. Even though he loves them, he also KNOWS some of them are on that "Fuck them kids" team (which he is not all okay with) and typically tries doing good things for them, he "abandonded" Jyn (she knows why but she refused the explaination) because his own group were wanting to use her as a extortion tool for Galen, which didn't sit right with Saw. He genuinely likes Ezra and Sabine too. He likes Megyn. He was willing to help refugees displaced by the Empire way back since TBB. There's a reason for his own databank saying "Saw loses much in his decades of combat, but occasional flashes of the charismatic and caring man he once was shine through his calloused exterior". Even in his more morally bankrupt decisions like adopting Jyn as a child soldier, he explains he does it because he recognize that child innocence will not protect her from Stormtroopers and evil who don't care and rather teach her how to survive and fight for herself. And he genuinely teaches her everything he knows. She is a good foil for Leia for a myraidof reasons.

That man had inhailed Genosisian insecticide from a mission and chemical burns from saving Jyn's life and that man still fought. He apprently lost his leg the same year he died in and he was almost willing to keep fighting even when he was going off his rockers towards the end.

In all, it's again complicated when you get all things but he is not this cold man who abandons his allies at the first sign of trouble. He is one of the first original rebels, the Empire's most wanted person that isn't a Jedi or in the Alliance (tbf, he was dead then), and one of the most deadliest rebels the Alliance had without factoring in Jedi.

The real reason fans don't like him

Let be for real; a lot of people don't like Saw is because he parallels a lot with Mon Mothma, who is a white privilege woman who emobdies the traits associated with heroes (restraint with enemy, peaceful resolutions, "rising above to be better") though unlike Jedi, she is going to be judged differently because she won't have to worry about the responsibility of the Force and it's relation to a character's mindset. She is on the side of the protagonist whe emobody these similar traits so Saw is always going to be seen as "wrong", even when the good guys run headfirst into his methods like gundarks seeing headlights. That's not to say she doesn't have her own points, reasons, stife, and whatnot but fans in this fandom wanna side with "Mommy Mothma" for a reason.

Another reason is that he is a black character and unlike Mace Windu, he HAS crossed lines and does things morally repugnant and distasteful. That I will never argue. However, people love having black characters like that to vindicate and excuse their racist behavior; there were people on tumblr making actual comments about having a mob and lynching him after bein blamed for Tech's death and tried to pass it off as a joke. I have never seen peole wanna lynch mob Anakin Skywalker for killing younglings but they'll go talk about it for their residental, white-washed favorite boi (he's my favorite too btw) onto Saw and thought they were slick all the while pretend Tarkin isn't there or "Well he's a villain so it's expected". Got people out here making headcanons about how all the Clones hate Saw for what happened to Tech or xyz knows when most likely, they don't know or don't care like the way they think their faves would.

What personally frustrates me about this and why I'm invested in even calling this out is because, in all, this fandom will have people ask for nuance and looking at things beyond the surface but the moment the concept is rooted in ideas outside Western ideals or the character in question is a person of color or at least is "coded" as such, they lose their mind and spread the most surface level of misinformation and Saw is no exception.

Saw doesn't represent the favored protagonist; he does not follow their logic and mindset, isn't conventinally attractive to people in ANY iteration, and he is a BLACK MAN in a story about fighting oppression and tyranny using some of the Empire's curelty against them. It aint no surprise and yall not slick.

[dougielombax]

What’s that?

You’re angry about a sequel/reboot/remake/other of some established IP all because some middle aged mediocrity with a podcast who never even saw the original told you to get mad?!

Oh NO!

Well.

Here’s a thought.

How about you just ignore it and move on.

You know.

No?

Never even occurred to you?

Oh dear.

Why is this so?

Are you stupid?

[abstractdiagram]

Yes, I care deeply about my ships and OTPs. I post constantly about my fandoms. I will try to draw you in and get you excited about things like the fabulousness that is OFMD, the ride that is IWTV, and the insanity that is Kylux. I guess you can say I’m a

Fandom Menace.

[nobleclover]

You know, I'll probably get shit for this, but I honestly don't mind it if people headcanon the Cup Trio as either kids or adults. Back in 2017-18, writer Evan Skolnick (in a now deleted tweet) described Cuphead and Mugman as adolescents, while Studio MDHR described them as "kidults" or childish adults.

I personally see them as kids, but I have friends who see them as adults, and that's completely fine. I think canonically, in terms of the game, it is left up to the player's interpretation as to how old they are. 🤔 Even some of the people working on Cuphead didn't know what their ages were.

https://twitter.com/JakeClarkDude/status/933526955248324608?s=20

Hell, even the head writer for The Cuphead Show, Deeki Deke, stated that he doesn't mind if people see them as kids or adults, and mentioned that he sees it as a "Spongebob/Mickey Mouse" kind of thing.

So... maybe people on Twitter shouldn't get so bent out of shape as to how people view the Cup Trio in terms of age? 🙄 Like, not every person who views them as adults is a scumbag or anything. Hell, some people often make future AUs (Casino Cups as an example) of them, and it's perfectly fine! What really irritates me is when you bring up these last two screenshots in a debate around their ages, some people will go, "Leave DD out of this!" as if they think using a tweet as a citation means dragging someone into fandom bullshit (friendly reminder, it doesn't).

Just don't be picking on people for these kinds of harmless headcanons. If you're not a fan of someone's headcanons for something, don't engage. Just do your own thing. 🤷🏻‍♀️

Sorry for the rambling, lads. Just wanted to get it off my chest. Remember to be chill online and sensible. Peace. ✌️

[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.)

[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

[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.

[ariainstars]

The Last Jedi, or The Last Fairy Tale

Why were the Star Wars sequels such a jumbled mess, many fans are still wondering.

My guess is: the Disney studios a) knew that there were too many expectations after classics and prequels, b) they had bought the rights from George Lucas and had to finish what he had planned, and c) they wanted to make new Star Wars content later, contrarily to Lucas who had had nine movies in mind. So, they opted for making one film for the fans, one for George Lucas, and one for themselves.

But they had not foreseen the huge backlash The Last Jedi caused among self-proclaimed “hardcore fans”. Some channels and blogs can rant and rave about it to this day, finding faults in almost every photogram. Not to mention that the fan reactions even led to death threats towards Rian Johnson and the heads of the Disney studios.

The only thing these fans don’t seem to be capable of is: reading.

The first sentence we read before any movie of the Skywalker saga is “A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away”, announcing that we are dealing with a fairy tale, in a world and set-up that is not meant to be perfectly logical. A fairy tale is a story with a realistic core but told in a fantastic way, through symbolism and pictorial language, with twists and wonders that would never happen in real life.

Fans who do not realize that the Skywalker saga is a fairy tale not only hate The Last Jedi, they usually also have other problems with the narrative choices. They wonder e.g. why Luke is so “whiny” in the first two movies, or why in the third one he waits so long until he fights Jabba the Hut for his friend’s lives and freedom, and most of all why he decides to throw away his weapon in front of the Emperor. They do not care much about character development. Or about friendships and love and the miracles these can do. They like to pretend that The Last Jedi “subverted everything” and “destroyed the Star Wars lore”. Which it didn’t - being magical and tying in with both prequels and classics it sticks very closely to the themes Star Wars has most at heart. But “hardcore fans” wanted to see their heroes and villains of old come back in all their glory and hated that they were, instead, so human and fallible.

Although the prequels do a good job of portraying the Jedi as unsympathetic and stuck-up, fans still see them as the heroes and place the fault for Anakin’s fall on his doorstep alone. Why? Shiny light sabers. Wise sounding words. It doesn’t seem to matter that Anakin was not allowed to be a normal adolescent and that he never learned to process his feelings properly.

Despite the action sequences, George Lucas is a romantic at heart. The prequels are set up like an antique tragedy, even the costumes and settings recall it. The sequels bowed to this, in particular The Last Jedi with its emotional, personal, multifaceted approach.

Surveys have shown that most Star Wars fans are male, first watched these movies before they were in their teens, and were fascinated by the space ships, the chases, the duels, the light sabers. The characters or even the plot came last. And some people can’t or won’t grow up. All they want to see is the usual action movie thing - hero saves the day, kills the bad guys, sleeps with the girl and then rides away alone into the sunset. There are thousands of variations to this theme. Star Wars is a refreshing alternative. Well, not refreshing to everybody. Most male fans seem to want heroes they can “look up to” (even if they’re psychopaths), not human beings whom they can identify with. Fans who understood the sequel’s characters based on their humanness loved them. Not everyone did. Action movie fans do not want to look into a mirror and see their own failures and insecurities, even if in the end, these are overcome.

Now “hardcore fans” shake their heads wisely, saying things like “The Last Jedi was just an embarrassing, one-time slip-up”, and “it is time for Star Wars to move on from the Skywalker saga”.

Beloved as the classic movies are, it seems the interest in the actual heroes of the stories always went overboard for the sake of The Coolest Villain of All Times (insert wheeze here). Darth Vader is not an enviable person - broken and sad under his mask, his health ruined, his former life destroyed, led on by rage; add to this that he never succeeds with anything he does. But he never bats an eye - since we don’t see said eyes - , so many action fans seem to watch the whole rest of the movies waiting for that spooky black specter to show up again (wheeze). Which is probably why they do not see the fairy-tale elements and only wait impatiently for their “hero” to reappear so they can cheer at his cool demeanor.

The “embarrassing” thing about the Skywalker saga is that the men it’s about are not cool by nature. Anakin, Luke, Ben are hotheads. They can be in control, but their temper will always catch up with them. And they’re not lonesome heroes, they're family men. What matters most to them is belonging. Luke, the best of them, is a person who spontaneously will offer his friendship to anyone who is alone and in need of a friend. He even does so with his worst enemy, in the end.

When a male protagonist is hot-headed, confused, emotional, immature, stumbling - it hits too closely home. Action fans want to escape reality when they watch a movie, not to be confronted with their own inner and often painful realities. They dislike young Anakin, elderly Luke and Kylo Ren because they're not the kind of heroes (or villains) you could put on a pedestal. They’re so much like them that it frightens them to death.

I laughed when I heard someone pretend how “Vader’s behavior is always rational and logical”, contrarily to Kylo Ren who is just an entitled, embarrassing brat. Again, coming from fans (most of them male) who hate emotionality in a guy. In A New Hope, the first thing we see Vader do is strangle a man just to prove a point. He tries the same move on a man on the Death Star before Tarkin stops him. Instead of hunting down the rebels who are trying to free Leia, he confronts and kills Obi-Wan. It’s his idea to let the rebels escape so they can track them down. The Empire Strikes Back is, from Vader’s perspective, a desperate chase for his lost son, and it ends with him telling said son the truth in the worst way and at the worst possible moment. Killing Palpatine in Return of the Jedi is a deeply emotional choice. All of this shows a risk-loving, hot-tempered and impulsive personality, Anakin Skywalker to a T. Fans just overlook these facts because mask, armor, sarcasm and breathing device make Vader look cool and aloof. (Wheeze.)

The way Luke Skywalker was portrayed in The Last Jedi is still hated. The “hardcore fans” wanted to see Luke finally as a Jedi master - wise, unbeatable, cool and collected. Instead, they were confronted with a disillusioned old guy who openly criticizes the Jedi, lives on a remote place and in an ignoble way hoping to keep everyone away from him, and has cut himself from the Force out of fear of doing more harm. The disappointment is understandable. But when you listen more closely, you realize that all of the rage boils down to the fans’ incapacity to deal with their feelings of embarrassment. The first and foremost characteristic a male protagonist must show is coolness. His morals are not questioned as long as his demeanor is shown as free of doubts and fears.

Just to name a few so called-heroes from action movies:

James Bond is a ruthless killer and misogynist. Indiana Jones is a tomb raider and a thief. Harmonica from Once Upon a Time in the West is a psychopath. (And no, this is not a fairy tale, the movie title is meant sarcastically.) Most roles that Clint Eastwood made iconic in the seventies, before Star Wars came out, were psychopaths as well. (And rapists.) Pete Mitchell from Top Gun is a cold, arrogant bastard.

These men are coded as “heroes” because they have the one quality that is apparently needed in guy: imperturbability. So no one questions their motives or methods. (I already wrote a longer entry about this phenomenon, who is interested can find it here.)

The men I just mentioned all did not learn to process their feelings in a healthy way. So didn’t Anakin. Processing their feelings is something that boys are often not taught how to do, and when they don’t, they often react to their frustration with rage and violence. And yet, being emotionally stunted is often seen as the epitome of manliness and heroism. Boys would need to learn better, to see better role models. But they don’t want to. And after the furious reactions to The Last Jedi, I daresay the studios won’t dare to show them.

(Wheeze.)

I am explicitly not saying that a cool attitude is wrong per se. Guys like Han Solo, the Mandalorian or Cobb Vanth are hiding a soft heart under their rough shell, not surprisingly since they live dangerous lives and if anyone would find out that they’re vulnerable this could be used against them. And there is nothing wrong with being confident in one’s abilities. My point is that “hard-core” action fans do not question whether a guy has a heart or not. A “real man” must be or seem untouchable, even if he commits the most horrendous crimes. Attitude seems to rectify or justify anything, no matter whether the guy actually has a good character or not.

I will be eternally be grateful to the Disney studios and Rian Johnson for having blessed us with another Star Wars fairy tale after a lapse of 34 years, since Return of the Jedi. But honestly, after all the backlash and considering the new shows they are airing, I am also afraid it is the last time they will ever dare to tell a fairy tale set in this universe. And even if they did: it will no longer be part of the Skywalker saga.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

On a side note, I have watched a few episodes of Andor and heard that self-proclaimed “hardcore fans” are in raptures about “this is what Star Wars can actually be like”, as usual blind and deaf to the coldness and overall depressing atmosphere of the show. I’m not saying Andor is bad, merely that I don’t like, and I also didn’t like Rogue One. These stories are too realistic for my taste. When I see a Star Wars movie or show I want to follow a fairy tale set in space, not watch people suffering and dying for a sunrise they will never live to see. The first Star Wars movie A New Hope, for all the tragic things that happened, ended in pure, unabashed joy. The last, Return of the Jedi, offered a happy ending. If this is “the future of Star Wars”, I can live without it.

The Mandalorian is a genius show because until now it combined classic action elements with the fairy-tale-like aspects which are typical for Star Wars. Of course action movie fans were “disappointed” again, I daresay because the protagonist is a father figure and his relationship to his adopted child has, shocking, some feeling in it. I was excited for the third season. But after having seen the trailer and its cold aesthetic which recalls Andor in a fatal way, honestly… I have a bad feeling about this.

[thecleverqueer]

The best Star Wars take I’ve seen today comes from Twitter where someone actually suggested that Obi-Wan should have let ten year old Leia die.

So….

How TF would that have worked out? Because, you know, Leia is one of the MOST IMPORTANT CHARACTERS IN THE ORIGINAL TRILOGY!

Toxic male het “Fans” make this franchise utterly insufferable…. And if I were in charge, I would make sure that every damned major character that was created was an ultra-powerful lesbian until these “fans” were purged.

[dougielombax]

What’s that?

*Charlie Brown-like indecipherable trumpeting noises*

Star Wars is dead AGAIN?!

Okay.

But you’ve been saying it’s “dead” since 1999!

And you were wrong even then.

So.

[nervouswreck-96]

It's a comforting feeling to know that the fandom you're in isn't the only one that's constantly at each other's throats on social media.