Together We Can Improve the Culture of Star Wars Fandom

Just a thought: Maybe people need to start behaving like adults and realize that it's just a movie. One more time: IT'S JUST A MOVIE.
Because all of this is downright embarressing. Love Star Wars but stay on earth.

 

This sort of thing is what we must get rid of it is time to #ForceOutHate

https://makingstarwars.net/2018/06/...it-for-kelly-marie-tran-leaving-social-media/

Going to add something to this.

If you dont participate in posting vile, hateful, toxic comments on twitter, facebook, instagram, forums or anywhere else thats great. Yet if you dont #ForceOutHate from others that do because they share same opinions as you, but express them differently then shame on you.

 

I personally think that star wars fan sites should stay out of the "political" atmosphere of the hatred and goodness that the star wars fandom can create just to stay neautral...however, there is nothing that can be done to "improve" it because there will always be a form of toxicitiy (remember the "george lucas killed our childhood" song guys?) within the fandom and it is also a free country no matter how good and bad the things might get

 

I came here today after reading a lot of very one-sided media coverage about a perceived "toxic" SW fandom. And while I agree in principle with everything the OP wrote, I want to state clearly that I consider much of the post-TLJ fallout a self-fabricated crisis, and that I deeply resent how criticism of the movies seems to be dismissed as "-isms" of any kind by some.

When I say "self-fabricated", then I'm alluding to rather controversial statements made by the Disney brass surrounding the release of TLJ, when negative opinions about the movie were attributed to different sorts of ulterior motives, and the prevailing narrative in Disney-owned media became that high number of bad reviews was the result of some bizarre conspiracy. That was simply not a smart move by Disney, because most criticism of the movie (plot holes, character development, pacing, interal logic, continuity) is pretty legit. It's simply not a convincing argument to make on Disney's part, and that in turn makes them look very bad. Rian Johnson can decry "evil manbabies" all he wants - when even Mark Hamill himself has voiced concerns about the movie's narrative direction ("Jake Skywalker"), this makes Johnson look like the one who is being disingenuous.

The same goes for much of the "-isms" debate that surrounds the movies: To say that none of the female protagonists of the sequel series so far have shown much depth is not generally anti-women, the same way that, whatever, expressing displeasure about the (apocryphal) retcon of Lando as a pansexual person is not a riff against pansexual people in general. This, again, is not a smart direction for the general debate to take - because it tends to insult any thinking audience.

The only thing that opening a meta-debate with the apparent intention of discrediting fact-based criticism is that people will stop caring about the product, and indeed focus on the meta. And there, any disingenuous talking point will quickly be exposed. - Like, for example, that the general dismissal of Kelly Marie Tran's character in the movies would be based on her sex or real-world ethnicity, when the sobering truth is that the character was simply very poorly written, and featured some of the worst lines in the entire series.

I am not disputing that there aren't racists and sexists that use Star Wars' apparent decline as a franchise as an opportunity to spout their bantha poodoo. But I am also convinced that SW doesn't have a "hate" problem. In the apparent rush to bring the franchise back after the Disney takeover, SW has developed a quality problem, though, after the release of three slightly underwhelming, and one particular bizarrely bad movie. And that hurts the series way more than any internet troll ever could.

 

That "manbabies" tweet was made about a single person, trolling another account.

Have you been around the time Special Editions or the Prequels were released? Sorry, but Star Wars does have a "hate" problem. Heck, there is even a saying that "Nobody hates Star Wars more than Star Wars fans".

 

It does, but having a 'hate' problem isn't unique to Star Wars. Such a problem infects many fandoms at the moment.. be they film, TV or gaming.

Maybe, but that does not justify a campaign of hate. It only justifies people not engaging with the franchise.

 

Sorry, for the double post, I can't seem to edit the previous one, but I've seen this posted before and I think there is a lot of truth in this. What's changed over the years since the prequels, the special editions, and even the OT, is step 3.



The connected social media world makes people think their opinions are worth more than they are, it's part of the reason they feel a greater entitlement. In the days before having a "voice" I guess people just kinda had to accept they didn't like something, and move on. Now they have a voice, they think it should be listened to, shared, and liked. When they perceive that their opinion is being ignored, they side step to stage 4, and go off down that path.

 

It's not only that. In the social media people tend to read, like and support something they agree with and ignore what they don't. Which means that the "haters" are going to gather at the hater pages/groups/channels and "supporters" at their channels. That's why this "hate problem" isn't going to go way. The haters are going to stick around people, who give them mosly positive feedback for their toxicity and thus encourage to go on being toxic, instead of looking for some positives and becoming more neutral.

 

When you are going to make a post and claim Disney brass make comments about ulterior motives and claiming conspiracies and the like you really need to show proof. Link to sources. If you are going to claim certain criticisms are fact again link to sources. Not fan sources. When you are talking TLJ and professional critics overwhelming gave it praise some fans saying critics are shills and they dont know what they are talking about is not good source for your conclusion.

The whole post seems to be saying this is all Disney's fault, they exercised poor quality control, rushed a film through the process and delivered a poor quality film. Then you projected that people didnt acted horribly toward Kelly Marie Tran and critics actually that her character was poorly written and other people are just passing on that information. When in reality some people did and some people continue to be horrible human beings toward an actress and not critiquing her character.

Star Wars doesnt have a hate problem. Star Wars like other fandom's has a problem of some people being hateful awful people, at least in social media. Being critical and producing solid discussions representing ones own point of view is fine. Being toxic towards others and trying to create angry discourse shouldnt be tolerated by true fandom no matter if you hate TLJ or love TLJ. Also do not try to represent your point of view as fact. Subjective matters should not be represented as objective truth.