Star Wars chaos, a result of fans and filmmakers.
- Star Wars (male) fans are toxic and hate anything new especially with girls.
- Rian Johnson is a dick who ruined Star Wars and worse yet is not sorry about it.
If you get Google alerts with “Star Wars” as a searched item you are likely to be drawn to a site or YouTube video which usually expresses one of the two thoughts above. The fact is that these sentiments have both true and false aspects. It is okay to love Star Wars and hate The Last Jedi and visa versa. I love Star Wars but I don’t love Star Wars fans. This has always been my dilemma with Star Wars. Long before Rian Johnson or The Last Jedi became fodder for angry fans I have always had a love-hate relationship with my fellow Star Wars nerds. Even with that said I must admit that Rian Johnson and Kathleen Kennedy have done more to hurt not grow the Star Wars brand. Can we at least call a spade a spade?
Lets face it we SW fans are vindictive and a cruel bunch sometimes but with good reason and if you intend to argue otherwise I present to you years of wiseass remarks about the prequels. The fact is Star Wars fans feel ownership over the mythos and films. It was of course because of us that the merchandise was sold. It was because of us that these films became something more than just another hokey B rated 70’s flick. Star Wars was made by the fans as much as it was made for us. No doubt George Lucas deserves the credit for the world building but we all fell in love with the characters and the saga was a result of us wanting more. For many of us we were the orignal fans. Long before Star Wars was cool for hipsters and long before Kohl’s had little girls SW shirts on sale. We were the ones who took to the orignal films and made it a brand. So this kind of ownership is good and bad thing. For instance, it makes for success in the box office and like I said in the merch department but it also leads to division over opinions on what is and what is not Star Wars.
Long before Rian Johnson was pissing off fans I myself endured ridicule for espousing an opinion that showed any merit of the prequels. I still watch the prequels and while I think they missed the mark (especially Episode II) I watched for what I loved and let the rest go. This is for some not enough and I understand why. Look I did not want my Star Wars movie made but I wanted it to feel connected and sadly Rian Johnson failed at that no matter what he did get right. While I did enjoy watching the film at inital release there is something about the new trilogy that does not seem to fit not only within itself but also to overall lore. I think part of this has to do with the fact that Kathleen Kennedy who is the master of the brand has no direction and overall story to move. She unlike George Lucas has no real desire to expand the mythos only the brand and there is a difference in that. Kennedy has brought in individuals to make their films and that is what happened with The Force Awakens and theThe Last Jedi. Here is the problem there are not one story as we are use to being told and this says also little to the fact that for Kennedy she has been more consumed with making the brand more universal and open to more audiences and there is nothing wrong about that but doing it to spite the fans or at the cost of the lore is a deadly mistake that Lucasfilm is paying for right now. Yes I am not a big fan of the new SW brand especially the parts that have been infused with third wave feminism. I think things like Star Wars work better when it is apolitical and allows you to add that for its meaning. None of this of course changes the fact that SW fans are some of the most fickle and tiredsome people out there. Does this mean they are toxic? No
First off I hate that word. It is a post modern invention of SJW’s and liberals.( I am not here to be political maininly pointed out facts). Toxic like Nazi are words used to discredit people as being somehow bigots in order to not hear what they are saying. While I agree Rian Johnson has been unfairly taken to task he has not helped himself. His recent twitter conversation with director Christopher McQuarrie is evidence of that. Johnson has a right to be a bit mad after all he did what he was brought into do, make his kind of SW film. Like J.J. Abrams he did that but the problem is that he went to such great lengths to change it that he went to far. A little invention is good but not for it’s own sake or at the cost of the established lore. Johnson seems not willing to hear people out and while he has the right that puts him literally as the last person to put down the fans.
So yeah when I watched Rian Johnson’s take on Luke Skywalker in The Last Jedi I was a bit mad and confused by it. At first I was on board with the changes and unlike many I felt the “death” of Luke was acceptable and I still do. It was not until I started thinking about the new Luke that I realize he was so out of character not only from the last time we seem him in Return of The Jedi but even by the actions before the events of The Force Awakens. Why would someone hide a map to be found if they did not want to be found? Look Star Wars has never know to be a realistic story but it was always consistent within it’s lore. Even the prequels which missed the bar in so many ways stilled retained the consistency of the lore. The problem is that despite the many things I loved about the Last Jedi it just did not fit the universe and the lore. It was so sorely out of place that while it had “STAR WARS” moments it felt like it’s own thing and here is the problem it is. Rian Johnson took complete ownership of the thing and took the series away from it’s roots.
So why the anger? Look, SW fans have always had severe ties and ownership to the series because we loved it so much Johnson just made his SW film and while we might not like it he has the same feeling about it. Trust me if we were in his place to make a SW film we would get shit for it too. Johnson is a talented director and he had a tall order. He sure did go out of his way to make the film not fit and it’s painfully obvious to the fans. The truth is even George Lucas made movies people hate. SW fans hate anything that is not in a narrow definition of what is “Star Wars”. We all have had our ideas about how we would make a movie and in that regard Johnson did that. He made his Star Wars movie just like J.J. Abrams. Johnson adding to the flames does not help and he needs to move on from it. No wonder Abrams does not want to take the reins we are not the best bunch to make movies for. Even with that said it’s time we all stop saying things that are not true. Stop calling every angry fan toxic or anti women when really that was not the issue. Stop trolling Johnson because he is unwilling to see any wrong he did. I get it, it is hard and painful but you have to let go of the ownership and that is secret to the whole thing. Hold on to what you love and let go of what you hate. If Star Wars is ruined for you then move on. If you don’t get why fans are angry then move on. When I finally decided to watch Solo I had no illusions about the movie. It was not going to be my Star Wars and when I did that I found out that I still could enjoy it.
