#sign the save the acolyte petition

[lokislady17]

Yeah, it’s a lot like that. Let’s get this day started.

[nightqueens-world]

Absolutely stunning 😍

[sithbabe15]

Come post‼️‼️‼️ or direct them to your posts in Tumblr!!

[mileenaxyz]

Save the Acolyte

[lokislady17]

I thinks it’s weird that I found this picture. It kind of describes where I am right now where fandom is concerned. I know the Acolyte was being dogged by online hate, such a thing is so ubiquitous now (very sad, actually) that I decided to ignore it and watch the show anyway. I’m glad I gave it a chance because I enjoyed the show a lot for its complex characters and daring themes. I got invested and was excited for Star Wars again. I felt reborn, sort of. Then the show was cancelled. I know the high cost and low viewership is the excuse but I really do believe the on line hate is the main reason. This show was a lightning rod for the online haters like no other. Be that as it may, I feel like I am done giving Star Wars my energy. I was only somewhat interested in Skeletons Crew. I’m totally not now. I can’t say I’m looking forward to the Rey movie or anything thereafter either. Ultimately, I know my current state is not the goal of online haters. Those people do not care about shows, or movies or the continuation of a long running story. All they care about is getting a chance piss and whine about something for even the tiniest scrap of attention. Now that they are done with Star Wars, they will just move on to something else. Sadly, there will always be something else for them to move onto. Hate has no logic or reason. I really wish the higher ups at Disney would realize that.

[lokislady17]

This scenario originated in Princess Monoke. I swear, I have seen it get applied to so many other genres.

[nightqueens-world]

Everyone was fantastic this cast should've gotten their flowers instead of receiving racist backlash 😔

[lokislady17]

I couldn’t agree more. Like many, I grew up with Star Wars but I do confess, I did not identify as a full fledged Star Wars fan until the sequel movies came out. Even then, I stayed off line. I preferred to indulge in video essays and converse with fellow fans IRL. But in the wake of TROS, I became very aware of, not so much the toxicity in online fandom spaces (I was very well aware of it) but a commonality of so called Star Wars fans. That commonality being that they really did not seem to care about Star Wars at all. All they cares about was at some point in time, I guess, someone said Star Wars was for white boys and that was all they needed to know. Hence their opposition, if not hostility, towards the inclusion of women and POC’s in the Star Wars franchise. They may not care about the franchise but like a greedy, selfish child with a toy they no longer want or care about, they don’t want anyone else to have it. They see it as theirs and only they can say what happens to it. And like a parent dealing with a spoiled child, some studios will let these fake fans have their way just to silence them. Sadder still is that the negative drama tends to overshadow the joy and fun that fandoms can also be.

one big thing i think people outside fandom (like, all fandoms, fandom in general, not any particular one) tend to misunderstand is they know it's a subculture of people who are weirdly deeply invested in fictional media, and they hear about drama caused by people in those subcultures being unhinged in not-fun ways, and they think the unhingedness comes from the fact of being overinvested in works of fiction.

which is a natural assumption, but in my experience that's not really the case? like in my experience the drama llamas in fandom are usually not the ones who are just genuinely very deeply into the fiction. i've known people who are basically thinking about star trek or x-men comics or supernatural pretty much 100% of their free time and ime that type of person is usually very nice and surprisingly functional in their regular life. when someone's a constant nexus of fandom drama it's usually not that they are obsessed with the actual work of fiction the fandom is about, it's at least one of the following:

what they're obsessed with is not the source material but their unhealthy parasocial relationships with one or more of the people who created it

what they're obsessed with is not the source material but some elaborate shared-universe subset of fanfic about it that's only barely related to the original at this point, and/or an esoteric reading-against-the-text reinterpretation of the source material (often if the canon is active and ongoing this leads to becoming actively hostile toward it for its inevitably increasing failure to conform to their preferred fanon)

what they're obsessed with is not the source material but the fandom itself and gathering clout within it, so that the source material basically only exists to them as a tool for scoring points in increasingly arcane fandom disputes

and very often you get the same person doing 2 and sometimes even all 3 of these, and that's where the trouble really starts

[lokislady17]

[nightqueens-world]

Can I please get these two back on screen together 🙏🏾

[lokislady17]

I keep finding beautiful pieces of Acolyte fan art and it makes me happy and sad at the same time. Happy because once more, something Star Wars has come along to inspire a community of fans to create things for other fans to enjoy. But I’m also sad because the show was cancelled and now that same community is left with all this inspiration and creativity and passion that, thanks to the cancellation, feels quashed. It’s not like a fandom whose show came to a narrative end and then therefore, went quietly into that good night. Rather, with a cancellation, especially with one so abrupt and unceremonious as the Acolyte’s was, the fandom is condemned to die a slow death.

Illustration by #Julie Flores

[lokislady17]

Truth! Hayao Miyazaki is a boss.

fuck an "intended audience" how about we normalize engaging with new and unfamiliar art pieces on their own terms

[nightqueens-world]

Lmao 🤣🤣🤣

[lokislady17]

Truer words were never spoken. I feel these words describe the very circumstances of The Acolyte being canceled. It’s about stories and who is allowed to tell them.

[nightqueens-world]

Omg someone finally said it 👏🏾👏🏾