I was okay with The Last Jedi… at first
When I watched TLJ (The Last Jedi) in the theater I can’t say I was awed. It was fun and funny for the most part and I can’t say I hated it either. It had amazing sights and some other things (walrus boobs) that made me want to burn my eyes out, and that moment that jarred me right out of the movie when I thought Leia/Carrie was going to have such a beautiful send off only to go across the screen in a terrible cgi/greenscreen scene and then be in a coma for the rest of the movie save the very end. (Why?)
I have to say, out of the entire film though, the most infuriating part for me was the moment that Rose Tico ‘saved’ Finn. It was the first time I remember feeling something real in the movie and it was jack-hammered straight from my heart and into my gut. I didn’t want Finn to die, but what a great ending for the character. However, even with all that, my feelings towards the movie were more somewhere between ‘liked’ and ‘indifferent’.
I remember when I got out of the theater with my wife I saw I had a missed call from my parents. I called them back and they wanted to know what I thought of the movie. I told them it was fine, but I said they’d probably enjoy Jumanji more. I admit though, I’m not the biggest Star Wars fan in the world. I didn’t grow up with Luke as my hero as many people my age did and I wasn’t as invested as many life-long fans are.
When I first heard about the backlash for TLJ I wrote it off as fans that were mad their theories didn’t pan out or something similar and I left it at that. It never even crossed my mind that fans were angry about gender or race, it was just fans who were disappointed and their ridiculous expectations were way over-hyped and they were acting out. Unfortunately, the backlash of the prequels made it easy to write off the angry fans of the sequels, it was easy to think they were spoiled brats who just wanted things their way. But my perspective shifted when I went to watch Solo in theater opening day.
SOLO Flopped — I realized there was a problem
In Solo, on opening day, the theater was no busier than it had been any other day and there were rows upon rows of empty seats in the movie. In fact, the audience who attended could be counted on one hand, and this was including my wife and I. Immediately I knew something was off and it became even more strange and empty feeling as the movie started and no one else showed to the viewing.
The media played it off as if it was too soon after TLJ, or there was too much Star Wars saturation in the market and people lost interest. However, I’m not even a hardcore fan of Star Wars and I was there to watch the movie, how could a huge Star Wars fan have been tired of Star Wars if I wasn’t? The media was either outright lying or they, like me, had been out of touch with what was going on.
The Media Lied — Journalism is no longer about the truth
I started to dig into what was going on and what I found disturbed me to the core. LucasFilm was being, or in the least allowing their employees to be, toxic towards the fans. They called them names, they insinuated that the fans were simply sexist and racist, the called the manbabies and neck-beards. The media wrote articles saying the fans chased Daisy and Kelly off social media and ignored Daisy when she said it was something else.
Ridley has been vocal about quitting social media, and left Instagram last year after a backlash for sharing a post about victims of gun violence.. -TheGuardian
Now, that’s not to say some of Star Wars backlash didn’t have anything to do with Daisy getting off social media, but the media was pushing that Star Wars fans alone were the cause of her shutting down her account. Unfortunately, it does appear that Kelly’s disappearance from social media was strongly decided because she was being personally attacked for her role in the movie. I didn’t like Rose Tico either… but that is not Kelly’s fault, she did a great job in a terrible role.
It wasn’t their words, it’s that I started to believe them. — Kelly Tran
I feel that I speak perhaps not for, but with, the majority of fans who love Star Wars but disliked The Last Jedi. The character Rose was not bad because of gender or race, she was bad because she was written bad and any discontent that anyone has towards the character should be directed at the ones who created her (and in a way that isn’t devaluing), not Kelly. However, the media latched on to the easy traffic that translated to easy money and went for a ride at the cost of everyone involved.
I’m not going to claim that everyone who hates Kelly Marie Tran’s delightful character is racist or sexist, although I know for a fact that some of them are. I’m going to go a step further and say that they’re also heartless. — John DiLillo NYULocal
The media created a massive wave that attacked fans for not liking the movie and Lucasfilm’s employees decided to lash out as well.
LucasFilm Employees — Aggressive stances towards fans
The thing I found the most disturbing in all of this was the apparent aggression given by the directors themselves towards the fans.
“Star Wars is a big galaxy, and you can sort of find almost anything you want to in Star Wars. If you are someone who feels threatened by women and needs to lash out against them, you can probably find an enemy in Star Wars.You can probably look at the first movie that George [Lucas] did [Star Wars: A New Hope] and say that Leia was too outspoken, or she was too tough. — JJ Abrams to IndieWire
IndieWire — Baits a war between fans for clicks and money
To be fair, the above quote from JJ Abrams could be seen as only directed to those who have openly made a case against the women characters for no other reason aside from the fact they are women and IndieWire wrote the title and article in such a way as to cause a stir. More clicks mean more money after all.
Look at that beautifully written bait of a title. When we look a the title in comparison to what was said, well… IndieWire appears to be fishing and fans who were already emotional swallowed that hook whole.
IndieWire gives the quote below by JJ Abrams but never really tells us in what context he said it. I have a feeling JJ Abrams might have become a victim of a media outlet that wanted to cash in on such a hot and controversial topic.
“Their problem isn’t ‘Star Wars,’ their problem is being threatened.”
Media and Lucasfilm — Pretending to care while silencing minorities
I think the worst thing that LucasFilm and the media have done though is to silence the minority, those who are not straight white males while pretending to defend them and their voice. Below is a playlist of ‘manbabies’ who did not like TLJ, it is named ironically as all the videos feature women and their distaste for what LucasFilm has done to Star Wars.
Conclusion — LucasFilm is out of touch with Star Wars fans
I could honestly go on and on about this issue with Star Wars, I could go on and on about how when I started listening to the complaints that the fans had I started to realize they were the ones in the right and they were, unfortunately, being silenced through aggressive tactics to make them seem like racists and sexists. The narrative that was being pushed is the people who hated it were toxic, and to even speak out against the movie was to label yourself a bigot. It became clear to me that the movie was not good, and that the defense of the movie almost always came down to attacks on character.
LucasFilm has successfully alienated a significant portion of the fans by trying to ‘make Star Wars for everyone’ when anyone who isn’t a child would have already told you, it is for everyone.
Okay, I’m done, I went off on a rant and took it out because this has said what I wanted to say and the rest would just muddle the message.
Credit for images used:
Photo by Tom Pumford on Unsplash — Crying Man
Photo by Karen Zhao on Unsplash — Woman in theater
Photo by rawpixel on Unsplash — Daily Fake news
