Culture The Acolyte Isn't Ruining Star Wars - You Are - Lucasfilm's latest series is the franchise's most promising, but fans are too blinded by their hate to see it.

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No one hates Star Wars more than those who claim to be Star Wars fans. Sure, the past few years have given the fandom plenty to critique. The sequels splintered the fanbase beyond recognition, and Lucasfilm’s efforts to expand the galaxy on the small screen have been mixed, at best. And in some cases, criticism is inevitable: not everyone will find something to like in the franchise’s recent output. At a certain point, though, the discourse reaches a fever pitch, and even Lucasfilm’s most promising projects get swept up in the drama.

The Acolyte is not the first Star Wars project to face the brunt of fan backlash, and it likely won’t be the last. But the new live-action series is also one of the best additions to that galaxy far away in a long time, embracing decades of nostalgia while also thinking critically on the franchise’s legacy. It also might be the most diverse Star Wars story yet — and while that’s definitely a boon for marginalized fans, it’s made The Acolyte the target of a vocal splinter of the fandom.
Whether you know them as the Fandom Menace or a cluster of blue checkmark users on Twitter, it’s impossible to escape their orbit. The same folks that review-bombed diverse swings like Marvel’s Eternals and the Lord of the Rings prequel The Rings of Power have now set their sights on The Acolyte. To hear them tell it, the series is the worst thing that’s ever happened to Star Wars, and its showrunner, Leslye Headland, is just as fiendish as Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy. To them, The Acolyte’s “woke” agenda is something to be feared. It’s ruining Star Wars; it’s poisoning pop culture itself. It needs to be stopped by any means necessary.

We realize how ridiculous that all sounds, right? God, I hope so. But if not, let’s try this: The Acolyte is not actually “ruining” Star Wars, but the bigoted backlash is definitely ruining the fun for everyone else.
It’s not outright shocking to see something like The Acolyte marred by racist, misogynistic, and even anti-LGBTQ backlash. That Star Wars devotees would share multiple bad-faith treatises about the series on YouTube, or tank its audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, is just par the course at this point. This is, after all, the same fandom that launched consistent attacks against actors like John Boyega, Kelly Marie Tran, and Daisy Ridley; the same fandom that were publicly admonished by Ewan McGregor himself when Obi-Wan Kenobi faced similar pushback.

The problem is that nothing has changed. In the 10 years since this vocal minority suddenly cried out against diverse casting and more nuanced storytelling, they’ve yet to actually learn their lesson. Their arguments are bleeding into even the casual discourse surrounding The Acolyte. Comments on set design and screenwriting have turned into misogynistic microaggressions against Headland; even critiques on the series have been weaponized by its haters. There’s no room for nuance when it comes to The Acolyte: you either stand with the series, flaws and all, or you’re irrevocably against it.
The origins of this toxicity aren’t difficult to figure out. At the end of the day, it boils down to entitlement: many male fans feel like they own the franchise, and are determined to safeguard it from anyone that could challenge that ownership. That makes it hard for disparate groups to coexist, and it’s even harder for any non-white, non-male creatives hoping to tell stories within the franchise.

What began as a relatively niche issue has become Lucasfilm’s biggest hurdle moving forward. The Acolyte can weather the storm (after all, it’s been well-received by critics) but what about the fandom, and its relationship to those guiding the franchise now? As the discourse spirals out of control, it’s getting harder to ignore it outright. There’s no easy way out, but something has to change, otherwise, this vocal minority will end up ruining Star Wars for the rest of us.

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Article includes some pictures, presumably from the series, but I'm not certain about local protocol of posting those.

 

[Haramburger]

I really enjoy all the lego-person jokes /tv/ makes about this showrunner:


Head like a can of Heinz baked beans

 

[X Prime]

The most batshit insane fans of nuDisney Star Wars were (and maybe still are?) the "Reylos." Adam Driver's wife legitimately got death threats I think when it came out she was pregnant, or maybe just for existing, as if this would somehow prevent their head canon from happening. Weird how all of that was quietly swept under the rug. Or maybe not so weird, given that it didn't fit the narrative.

Great, some of the straights are doing the same shit as fujoshis now. What a world.

 

[Dysnomia]

The problem is that nothing has changed. In the 10 years since this vocal minority suddenly cried out against diverse casting and more nuanced storytelling, they’ve yet to actually learn their lesson. Their arguments are bleeding into even the casual discourse surrounding The Acolyte. Comments on set design and screenwriting have turned into misogynistic microaggressions against Headland; even critiques on the series have been weaponized by its haters. There’s no room for nuance when it comes to The Acolyte: you either stand with the series, flaws and all, or you’re irrevocably against it.
The origins of this toxicity aren’t difficult to figure out. At the end of the day, it boils down to entitlement: many male fans feel like they own the franchise, and are determined to safeguard it from anyone that could challenge that ownership. That makes it hard for disparate groups to coexist, and it’s even harder for any non-white, non-male creatives hoping to tell stories within the franchise.

There it is. Entitlement. It's just a cop out shut down tactic that doesn't work and makes you sound retarded. It's an almost 50 year old franchise. You're gonna have some old school sci fi fans in there that have been there since the beginning and just aren't into what the franchise has become . If you can't deal with that then maybe you should find a fandom centered around a newer franchise that wasn't initially made with the "entitled" males you can't stop moaning about. Because you sound a bit entitled there to me.

How about this? You like what you like and you let the nerds of old like what they like. You know, the guys in the 70s that got made fun of for collecting action figures, dressing up in costumes and going to the theater to see Star Wars again and again instead of getting laid.

Like it or not these dorks and their wallets are the only reason that the franchise still exists today. Deal with it.

 

[Echo_Ender]

I saw the image for the show in an advertisement and immediately was turned off.

A bunch of women front and center, with a brave PoC Female protagonist in the background. And advertising it as "Most Diverse" instead of "Most exciting" or "Best-written"?

I've seen what "Diversity" has done to Star Wars. No thanks.

 

[TETRABAX]

I saw the image for the show in an advertisement and immediately was turned off.

A bunch of women front and center, with a brave PoC Female protagonist in the background. And advertising it as "Most Diverse" instead of "Most exciting" or "Best-written"?

I've seen what "Diversity" has done to Star Wars. No thanks.

When did diversity become a selling point? What actual value does that bring to the story, besides the opportunity for performative celebration in a vain attempt to make the watcher look less like a fat creep and more like a niceguy™

 

[Starved Artist]

So, how many Jedi survived Order 66 again?
How many padawans did Anakin kill with the Youngling Slayer 9000?

The holocaust jokes write themselves.

 

[Meat Target]

When did diversity become a selling point? What actual value does that bring to the story, besides the opportunity for performative celebration in a vain attempt to make the watcher look less like a fat creep and more like a niceguy™

Selling point?
Story?

They don't care if it's sucks ass. Critical and commercial success are distant seconds to its function as a propaganda vehicle.

 

[Idiotron]

The show is just poorly written.
The Jedi are supposed to be these space cops but they literally catch a dude who made poison in order to kill a Jedi.... and they just let him go because he wasn't the one who wanted to use the poison.
Motherfucker, what?
Arrest that fuck and read his mind.

That's the kind of writing in Star Wars right now, every character is retarded.
Not to mention, they all speak in the same cheap imitation of Joss Whedon and James Gunn characters because the writers are hacks who can't do any better.

 

[TheDarknessGrows]

I just heard of The Acolyte from this article.

Am I really insulated and secure? Or do their marketers really suck?

 

[Curzon Dax-sama]

Stargate SG-1, Babylon 5, Farscape, Star Trek DS9, and Battlestar Galactica 2004 series.

SG Atlantis is also solid; not nearly as great a peak SG-1, but superior to virtually everything that counts as sci-fi these days. Also, pre-Amazon The Expanse. I enjoyed the more realistic take on space combat.

 

[From The Uncanny Valley]

When did diversity become a selling point? What actual value does that bring to the story, besides the opportunity for performative celebration in a vain attempt to make the watcher look less like a fat creep and more like a niceguy™

It's a polite way of saying you want a human zoo

 

[ZazietheBeast]

You would think they would learn after all those times they did this tactic. Tell the customers they're wrong, the product they're pushing is fine and good as well as the fact they don't need the old customer base because the new customer base will support them no matter what.

And it failed every single time.

Granted, this is a long-term plan to create that mythical customer base by shitting everything up (See BRIDGE as well as DIE), but all its doing is making people hate the product, hate the people who is trying to pass off the shit they crapped out of their bodies as the product and of course, the old fans showcasing how good things used to be before these reprobates decided that their feces is the product you must consume.

 

[BubbleButt]

Star Wars was never good, but at least it used to be fun.

 

[ToroidalBoat]

plus there were also a lot of really good star wars video games coming out during that time

Like that Shadows of the Empire N64 vidya?

And the prequels are OK. They expanded the setting without messing with the basic continuity... unlike a certain sequel trilogy.

 

[GunCar Gary]

I just heard of The Acolyte from this article.

Am I really insulated and secure? Or do their marketers really suck?

it's a combination of Disney running out of money to pump into marketing budgets and that Disney has been taken over by true believers that assume that because they're making a subversive TV show on the right side of history to own the chuds that it will automatically be popular and get all the awards

 

[God of Nothing]

is there a single entertainment industry not run by complete retards?

 

[Alexander Thaut]

man I'm not even much of a Star Wars fan but we've gone from the era of "entertainment is meant to entertain. if the creator/director is good enough, it can be elevated into an artform" to "retards whining about how the shitty propaganda isn't working so let's blame the fans".

 

[Curzon Dax-sama]

The show is just poorly written.
The Jedi are supposed to be these space cops but they literally catch a dude who made poison in order to kill a Jedi.... and they just let him go because he wasn't the one who wanted to use the poison.
Motherfucker, what?
Arrest that fuck and read his mind.

That's the kind of writing in Star Wars right now, every character is retarded.
Not to mention, they all speak in the same cheap imitation of Joss Whedon and James Gunn characters because the writers are hacks who can't do any better.

I am just curious. How would this conversation go down with hack writers? How would they fuck it up?

 

[frozen_runner]

Listening to Gen X's complaints about the prequels is why the sequels are the way they are even without the gay and lame chicks in it. Acolyte just has more lame and gay women in it, but the rot starts all the way back to TFA.

To quote some internet rando:

The prequels are bad movies that love Star Wars. The sequels are bad movies that hate Star Wars.

 

[6 Years Ago]

They will just never admit that no one likes their shit but themselves

They will when the money printer stops going brrrrrrrrrr and they need to turn a profit.