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.

 

[Krokodil Overdose]

Set aside for a moment the political messaging bullshit, as well as a lack of competence on set and in writing, and ask yourself the real shit that matters... does fucking anyone like anything that's done as an obviously cynical cash-grab/nostalgia-trap? I think the movies being labeled "Star Wars" hurt them more than it helped them.

Remember that they had to take "Star Wars" off the Solo marketing in China because the brand is a net negative there.

 

[William Murderface]

Set aside for a moment the political messaging bullshit, as well as a lack of competence on set and in writing, and ask yourself the real shit that matters... does fucking anyone like anything that's done as an obviously cynical cash-grab/nostalgia-trap? I think the movies being labeled "Star Wars" hurt them more than it helped them.

Even beyond that, did anyone really want more Star Wars? The magic I felt at 9 when I went to go see Return of the Jedi certainly changed when I went to go see Revenge of the Sith because I was 32. I saw the end and the beginning of the story of the rise, fall, and redemption of Anakin Skywalker. Good won, evil was chucked down an elevator shaft, and they all lived happily ever after. I watched Ep7 out of curiosity and left the theater shaking my head that Disney spent 4 billion dollars and all they got out of it was a series of pretty copies of scenes from ANH (and I will be honest, the production values were top notch because you expect them to be in a Star Wars film. I will give the sound and VFX and costume and music people kudos for those). But 4 billion dollars for that? I checked out of SW then. Disney managed to kill whatever spark I had in me for the excitement of Star Wars, something I never thought possible, but again, I was older and that love had changed over the years anyway. I was no longer a child.

Along the same lines, after seeing Crystal Skull, why would anyone be excited for a new Indy movie, especially one with an octogenarian Dr. Jones and a wisecracking younger female sidekick who would constantly be yelling CURRENT YEAR politics at him even when they would be out of date? I certainly had no desire to watch it, even out of morbid curiosity. Crystal Skull was bad enough and it still had Lucas and Spielberg running it.

Willow was more of the same. I loved Willow as a kid, rewatched it not long ago and it wasn't bad (mostly because of Val Kilmer) but the Willow show was terrible. But it also was something few people asked for.

Going through Lucasfilm's list of productions, thankfully I don't see many more properties Disney can screw up, at least not as franchises. Maybe Labyrinth or Howard the Duck or the Land Before Time, but I don't see them doing much with something like Radioland Murders or Red Tails (not that they would have to do much to turn that one into a piece of crap).

 

[Individualism Incarnate]

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

View attachment 6076625
Head like a can of Heinz baked beans

She's dangerously close to that Down Syndrome phenotype.

 

[Wendell X]

View attachment 6076322 View attachment 6076321

I hadn't actually seen senpaku eyes on a black chick before, it's even more terrifying than usual.

These are people who swear up and down that you need to give people representation of themselves in their media for it to connect with them...and then go out of their way to say they are representing a small minority of the population. How can you be shocked if it doesn't connect with the majority?

And don't forget the necessary corollary - if you constantly claim the only reason a minority isn't cast is hate and then go out of their way to not cast straight white people, then I have to conclude that you hate straight white people don't I?

 

[Morethanabitfoolish]

This where I saw it:

Thank you.

 

[The Taco Santo!]

Star Wars used to be shitty products aimed at boys, became shitty products aimed at minorities and women, and has ended up as shitty products aimed at loser nerds and liked by no one.

 

[Jetpack Himmler]

Abrams and KK didn't understand Campbell and didn't understand why Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers worked.

Did Abrams and KK even read Joseph Campbell's works? I read The Hero With A Thousand Faces and I couldn't see either making it past the first five pages.

Star Wars used to be shitty products aimed at boys, became shitty products aimed at minorities and women, and has ended up as shitty products aimed at loser nerds and liked by no one.

Something to consider is that merchandising was a large part of Star Wars' success. Remember the Kenner figures and toy sets from 1977-83, then again with the prequel trilogy? Disney Wars is flopping so hard that it's bringing Hasbro down as well.

 

[The Taco Santo!]

Along the same lines, after seeing Crystal Skull, why would anyone be excited for a new Indy movie, especially one with an octogenarian Dr. Jones and a wisecracking younger female sidekick who would constantly be yelling CURRENT YEAR politics at him even when they would be out of date? I certainly had no desire to watch it, even out of morbid curiosity. Crystal Skull was bad enough and it still had Lucas and Spielberg running it.

Agreed.

 

[Not A Bunny]

Labyrinth

Let's face it, you're not going to re-create the magic of a Bowie trouser snake. Closest you might get is Willem DaFoe, and let's be real, girls don't thirst after him in their creepy grown-man-lusts-after-teenage-girl fantasies.

But really, we're at the point where Hollywood thinks Star Wars is still bankable, but apparently bankable to a small subset of fans that are clearly more consumerist than the fans that built it in the first place. I mean, that's where the real money is made, right, from the people who didn't have decades of interest invested in it, and by alienating the people that do?

Whoever does business for Lucasfilm needs to be beaten with a rubber hose for this particular business strategy. Isn't it a prime tenet of business schools all over that you don't fuck with the cash flow?

And just one more point before I abandon this post...why do all the activist creatives out there never look like they smile? They always have this smug, locked-jaw expression about them? Seriously, do we have a really good picture of Leslye Hedland smiling at all?

 

[More AWS-8Q Than You]

The only good Star Wars were the first three movies, some of the animated stuff, Tie Fighter, and any book with Timothy Zahn on it. The Prequels could have been good if someone had given them a few passes by a good editor, but they could bit fun. The old school fans deserved better, even the retards who love even the slop.

 

[FrancineCansMcGee]

Question: If I am responsible for Star Wars, why aren't I being paid?

If Disney workers aren't responsible for Star Wars, why are they being paid?

 

[Mac Monster]

Going through Lucasfilm's list of productions, thankfully I don't see many more properties Disney can screw up, at least not as franchises. Maybe Labyrinth or Howard the Duck or the Land Before Time, but I don't see them doing much with something like Radioland Murders or Red Tails (not that they would have to do much to turn that one into a piece of crap).

Land Before Time is owned by Universal Studios, so thankfully the rat doesn't have access to it.

 

[Honka Honka Burning Love]

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

View attachment 6076625
Head like a can of Heinz baked beans

Even the Reboot Version of Hillary Clinton is somehow more lame.

 

[DoomsdayElite]

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

View attachment 6076625
Head like a can of Heinz baked beans

Jesus H. More like Leslye Foreheadland.

 

[gamerweeb1]

yap yap yap, if it's got nothing to do with the Yuuzhan Vong it's not canon

Reminder that George Lucas saw the EU as non-canon.

 

[6 Years Ago]

I just heard of The Acolyte from this article.

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

If not for it being shilled on a piracy site I wouldn't know about it either.

 

[Sithis]

Feels like every single new piece of star wars media has taken exactly this approach of "if you don't like X in your favorite franchise, that's a you problem, chud!" and every new piece of star wars media seems to do worse and worse in viewer counts and profitability. Commies will throw endless money at changing social think however because they're never spending their money in the first place.

 

[Ibanez RG 350EX]

One of the most iconic characters from the prequel trilogy

lmao

The attempt to rewrite history and pretend the prequels weren't complete garbage is really the biggest tragedy of Disney-fied Star Wars.

 

[marvlouslie]

"You're ruining Star Wars", says the author writing a puff piece of a series that wants to push gay shit onto kids.

OH-TAY.

Also, say what you want about the prequels, but they're far better than whatever shit we're being fed now.

 

[Ibanez RG 350EX]

Also, say what you want about the prequels, but they're far better

God, Zoomers are just the worst.

You know, there's a ton of terrible media I liked when I was a stupid impressionable child. That doesn't mean I have to cope and seethe and pretend "no, it was actually good!" as an adult.