idk why people follow star wars at this point, or even worse get angry at how bad it's become. if it's so bad why not just stop watching it and be content with the good stuff? being angry 24/7 isn't fucking healthy.
For fans of the old media, Hasbro and Sideshow still occasionally make cool merch. There was a Kyle Katarn figure released this year in their Black Series line, and
Shadows of the Empire-themed ones last year, coupled with Sideshow Releases like the Dark Empire Luke that was released a few years back. So that's worth following unironically, I suppose, if you're a mouth-breathing loser who still collects plastic like myself.
Outside of that, it's still fascinating to check up on the moldering corpse of this franchise these days, especially when normies and media outlets the world over considered Disney's takeover of the brand to be some kind of "saving grace" back in 2012-2013, only for the majority of Star Wars' staple pillars of revenue and fan engagement to be killed off one by one thanks to the Mouse's sheer ineptitude. The Star Wars Comics? Whittled down to one currently ongoing flagship book that virtually no multi-celled organism alive is reading, as opposed to Dark Horse's multiple ongoings back in the day. The novels? Literally crashed and burned with the literal incarnation of reader apathy that was
High Republic, with Del Rey's current schedule being a ST tie-in and a few Andor tie-in books that even die-hard SW fans are probably not even aware are coming out, a far cry from the multiple years-spanning SW novel arcs of the mid to late 2000s and 2010s, and even the standalone acclaimed books like
Plagueis or
Kenobi. The games? The 2026 roll-out consists of an XCOM clone and a racing game, to the excitement of zero people. Even long-standing institutions of the brand, like
Star Wars Insider magazine, THE premier fan mag for the company that's been around since the 80s, had to shutter this year due to lack of interest...in an era where fucking White Dwarf and Heavy Metal magazine still get regularly published.
Every major tentpole aspect of Star Wars is withering and dying a slow death, or has already died. And the worst part is that it's all quiet, with zero fanfare. Some of these cancellations or reduced release schedules were things I found out by accident, because most of the SW Fanbase isn't even aware that they're even happening. Just like most of the human population doesn't know or care that Star Wars is returning to movie theaters for the first time in 7 years next month, or are aware that there's a fucking Darth Maul TV show on right now.
Following Star Wars at this point is like cataloguing the movements of a washed-up and embarrassing has-been celebrity like Shia LaBoeuf--- someone in the twilight years of their career, where they're too irrelevant to get any starring roles but occasionally pop up to humiliate themselves for the amusement and fascination of onlookers, reminding them once again that they are, in fact, still alive and breathing somehow.
